Chapter 13 – Setting Free

Robin and I walked out of the forest after lunch with my gnome family. The castle loomed beyond. My home. I hadn't seen it in so long.

We crept to the back of the castle, there were guards guarding the entrance and a moat and high walls between the inside of the castle and us. I didn't think about how we were going to get in. Robin calmly led me to a bump in the earth about 20 feet away from the moat. He tugged on something and a trapdoor opened.

"Come on." Robin pulled me down into a tunnel. It was a tight squeeze; we had to go on our hands and knees. My bow and quiver made it harder to crawl. The earth was damp and I tried not to think about what I was touching. The tunnel descended sharply for what seemed to me like forever, finally it was flat again. The ceiling of the tunnel was dripping; I prayed it wouldn't collapse on us. After the failed attempts that Vivia had to kill me, I didn't want to die here.

"We're under the moat," came Robin's voice from somewhere in the darkness ahead of me.

"How did you find this?" I asked.

"We founded together. Don't you remember?" Robin answered after a pause. I shook my head, realized he couldn't see me and said no. I thought hard, and then remembered faintly that we discovered a secret passage long ago, when Father was still alive and everything was fine.

Then the tunnel went up sharply, I almost tripped. Finally, Robin opened a trapdoor and let in fresh air. I breathed deeply. We were in the courtyard.

"This way." We crept across the courtyard to an entrance. There were guards standing beside it. I was worried for a moment, but Robin nodded to them and they nodded back.

"Rebels." Robin answered my questioning look.

We tiptoed across the castle, up some stairs to Vivia's room. Robin put his ear to the closed door and nodded, meaning that he didn't hear anything. He pushed the door opened slowly and entered, and I followed. The room was just as I remembered, dark and gloomy. The mirror stood on the other side of the large room.

At first neither of us saw her, but she was in the room near the door, with her back turned against us. She turned around as I was looking at the mirror. Her eyes, cold and full of anger and surprise, bore into mine. I tried to look away, but couldn't. Those eyes weren't hers, Robin was right; she was possessed by the queen of dark faeries.

"I'll distract her while you get the mirror." Robin whispered in my ear, snapping me out of my trance.

"Come and get me Vivia." Robin shouted across the room. He drew his sword.

"Please don't hurt her too much." I whispered, Robin made a face but nodded.

Vivia walked slowly over to my fiancée. I didn't have time to watch what happened because my feet took me towards the other end of the room, to the mirror.

"Break the mirror and you'll break the connection between Vivia and Tiana." Robin had said. So I grabbed a heavy book from the desk beside the mirror and hurled it towards the mirror as hard as I could. To my dismay, it only made a dull sound before falling to the ground. There wasn't even a mark on the mirror.

I thought hard, and drew out one of my arrows and stepped back so I could shoot it. Before I could do so though, I heard a snarling behind me. I turned around slowly, and found three vicious-looking dogs advancing on me. Robin couldn't help me; he was too busy fighting with Vivia, who had a metal staff in her hand.

I had my arrows, but I knew if I shot one of them, the other two would jump on me in an instant. Besides, I couldn't bear to kill them; it wasn't their fault Vivia sent them for me. So I let my arrow fly, not towards the dogs, but towards the other side of the room, behind Vivia. The dogs watched it fly, while they were doing that, I took out more arrows in case I needed them.

When the arrow stuck itself to the wall, the dogs brought their attention back to me. By then, I knew what I was going to do.

"Fetch!" I let another arrow fly, towards the same direction. The dogs watched with interest but did do what I was hoping for them to do. "Go on, fetch!" I tried again. This time it worked, the dogs bounded after the flying object. Using the precious time, I strung my bow again and aimed the arrow to the mirror. I let go, and the arrow hit the mirror with a ping. But the mirror still didn't break.

I tried to detach the thing from the wall hoping that it would break if it fell to the floor. But I couldn't get the mirror off the wall, it was stuck on there pretty tight.

I was frustrated. The dogs were fighting over the arrow they found, but I didn't know how long it would keep them occupied. Vivia was going to come over and get me any moment.

Think Aireia, think!

I searched the mirror for an answer. In the center of the top rim was a beautiful stone; it shone with all the colours of the rainbow and seemed to shimmer. I stared up at it, mesmerized.

A snarl and a shout from Robin snapped me awake. I whirled around and faced the dogs again. They were bored with the arrow and were looking for something else to play with: me. They snarled, showing off gleaming pointed teeth. I panicked for a moment and ran towards the other side of the room, leaving the dogs between the mirror and me. I took an arrow and shot it with trembling hands, I didn't care where I was aiming at.

The arrow glanced off the ceiling and struck the shimmering stone in the mirror. Everything seemed to be going at once. There was a blinding light and an earsplitting shattering sound, along with howling of the dogs and a terrible shriek from Vivia. The light spread until it enveloped the whole room, no, the whole castle. Then I heard a voice. I didn't hear it with my ears; I was hearing inside my head. The voice sounded like someone speaking from underwater. It said, "I'll be back." I shuddered involuntarily. Then as suddenly as it started, it stopped.

I sunk to my knees, feeling suddenly tired. I looked around me; the dogs stopped their growls and sat on the floor wagging their tails. Vivia was lying in a heap on the floor. Robin was sheathing his sword, and was panting. I stood up and walked over toward Vivia. As I got there, she stirred.

"Wha-" she mumbled. She lifted her head and pushed her onto her back. "What happened?" then she saw me, "Airadne?" I nodded. I realized that she must've not remembered anything from when the dark faeries took over.

"Aireia, are you okay?" Robin walked over and gave me a hug. Then he looked at Vivia, who was back to herself and asked, "Is everything all right?"

I pulled away from him gently and pulled the blinds apart. I looked out the window. The sun was setting beyond the distant hills, setting the sky on fire and tinted everything with a golden glow.

"Yes Robin, everything's all right."

~*~

okay, I took a vote and the second choice won by one vote. but then I thought about it one night and a story idea just popped into my head. so now I want to do a sequel to this in accordance to the first choice. I know it's kinda cliché with the children thing, but I really want to write this thing with the children. so I hope you aren't mad for not taking the suggestion of the majority.

*sniff*, it's almost over, just one more chapter to tie up the loose ends. i think this is the best story I've ever written. I have a tendency to leave other stories unfinished, so thanks to the reviews for making me update and finish. *sniff* *blows nose*, not only because I'm sad this story's almost over, but because I have a cold.

Now I need suggestions for a name for the son of Aireia and Robin.

thanks to everyone for putting up with me and my cliffs, (they are not as evil as my other story though).
I'll update after 5 reviews.

~*~MapleRose~*~