Justice League of Amazons: Fire & Blood
…
Chapter 16
Zatanna, Dinah and Helena hurried down a corridor, the eerie silence, save for the crackling of the torches lining the walls breaking it, filling the passage. Zatanna's eyes darted about trying to find anything that would threaten their journey to find the Book of Fables. Suits of armour stood against the stone walls and Helena muttered under her breath, "Oh, please don't come to life when we least expect it…"
The trio then came to a stairwell leading upwards. "Any idea where this goes?" Dinah asked.
"Maybe a tower, if I had to guess," Zatanna said in answer to the blonde siren's query.
"And what are the chances we'll find a library there?" Helena wondered out loud which made her two companions glance at her questioningly. "Think about it. In old medieval castles, libraries were often situated in a tower and since we're looking for a book, there might be one," she explained.
"Fair enough and good thinking," Dinah said with a nod of her head.
"Onwards and upwards, then," Zatanna said as she took the first step on the staircase. Calmly climbing the stairs, the light began to dim a little as they went higher and higher. Then they came to door a doorway at the top of the staircase. Dinah put her hand to the latch and tried to turn it. A small rattle and creaking sound came from the latch as it refused to turn.
"Locked," Dinah muttered in annoyance.
"Here, let me," Helena offered as she knelt in front of the latch, bringing out a lockpick set and set about picking the lock open. A few seconds later, there was a small click as the lock loosened.
"Where'd you learn that?" Dinah asked Helena in surprise.
"My cousins taught me that trick," Helena said almost proudly.
"Well, let's hope the library is behind here then," Zatanna stated as she put her hand to the latch and turned it. With a tiny sound of the latch grinding against wood and stone, the door slowly swung open. The three heroines peered inside and to their disappointment, it was not the library they sought. To their consternation, what they found inside was a rookery. And in the roosts and cages were not birds, but the flying monkeys, sleeping.
"Oh, fuck!" Helena hissed in a soft voice. "Back out now! Quietly," she urged her companions.
"Good idea," Dinah said in agreement, her eyes wide with alarm at the slumbering creatures. As they closed the door, the hinges let out a loud squeal and almost immediately, the monkeys awoke. The winged simians spotted what made the noise and let out ear splitting screeches, their wings flapping as they leapt from their roosts and perches down towards the heroines.
"Close the door!" Zatanna shouted as she threw herself out the rookery. Helena slammed the door shut behind them and hastily locked the door. The door rattled and shook as what was a dozen bodies being slammed against the frame, screams and screeches muffled by the wood behind the door.
"Okay, wrong tower," Dinah panted, her heart hammering in her chest as she ran a hand through her now sweaty blonde hair.
"I'm never watching Wizard of Oz, ever again!" Helena promised.
"You and me both," Zatanna muttered. "C'mon, the noise they're making will probably alert whatever else is in this castle," she said.
"Good plan," Helena proclaimed as they hurried down the stairs and found themselves in the passage again. Huntress looked at the corridor and noted that the suits of armour that lined the walls were now gone. "Weren't there suits of armour here, before?" she voiced.
"There were, and now they're gone," Black Canary said grimly. "Keep your ears peeled for sounds of metal clanking," she advised as they hurried down the passage. Soon enough they came to a crossroads. "Which way do we go?" Dinah asked the mage of their group.
Thinking for a moment, Zatanna chose the left passage. "We'll try this way," she said as they walked down the corridor. Venturing onwards, the group soon came to a small nook where a grandfather clock stood against the wall. And around the clock was some stylised architraves with images of flowers and wild animals.
"Huh, wonder what this is doing here?" Helena asked as she looked at the old clock.
"Be careful!" Dinah hissed in warning as Helena examined the clock.
Helena ran a fingertip against the finely detailed clockface, noting that the time on it wasn't set correctly. "Huh, the time isn't set properly," she told her companions.
"So?" Dinah muttered, not impressed by that fact.
Huntress gave Black Canary a dry look and pressed a finger to the hands. The hands swivelled easily, moving in a clockwise motion. "They move," the Italian-American vigilante remarked in mild surprise.
"Duh, all clock hands on clocks move," Dinah informed her as if it were the most common fact known to man. "Any other observations you want to make?" she jibed.
"Okay, needn't be testy," Helena sniped back. "Haven't you ever a classic mystery novel?" she asked the blonde siren.
"Yeah, why?" Dinah said.
"Well, a classic trope of the old turn of the century mystery novels was that sometimes hidden passages were hidden behind old clocks, that if you moved the hands to the correct time, the door would open," Helena replied.
"Yeah, that's a thing," Zatanna chimed in helpfully. "Bats even had a similar secret passage to the Bat Cave behind a grandfather clock," she said in remembrance of her childhood friend.
"Okay, even if this was a secret passage, we don't know what time to set the clock to open it," Dinah pointed out.
"Yeah, it'd take too long to try and figure out without some kind of clue," Helena muttered in frustration.
"C'mon, maybe we'll find a clue to set the clock somewhere," Zatanna said, motioning her friends to follow her. Going back down the passage to the crossroads, they headed down the right hand passage and soon they entered another room which had book shelves and a desk nearby.
"A study, huh?" Dinah remarked. "Maybe we can find some notes or something," she mused as she began to peruse the bookcase for anything useful that could help them. Zatanna found a portcullis gate leading to another passage. Nestled to the side of the gate was a relief which sat empty.
"Something must go here," the magician mused thoughtfully as she examined the relief. The setting was carved in the likeness of a jewelled crown. "I think we need something to open this gate to get through.
Huntress who had been examining the desk found a small slip of paper. Written in faded ink was four numbers: 11:04.
"I think I've found something," the brunette vigilante called out to her friends who came bustling over.
"What is it? What have you found?" Black Canary asked.
"It looks like a time; 11:04," replied Huntress as she squinted her eyes to read the faded text.
"Could it be the setting to open the grandfather clock we saw?" Zatanna asked.
"Won't know until we find out," Helena stated. "C'mon. Let's go see if it works on that clock," she suggested as they hurried out of the study back to the room where the grandfather clock sat.
Standing at the clock, Helena re-read the slip of paper. With a nod, she began to turn the clock hands to the time. As soon as the time on the clock was set, there was a loud click. Helena stood back as the clock began to chime loudly and with a shuddering rattling groan, the clock slid back and then slid away to reveal a stairwell leading downwards.
"Eat your heart out, Harrison Ford!" Helena crowed out in triumph.
"What's the bet we're going to run into some ghastly monster down there?" Dinah asked dourly.
"Pretty likely," Zatanna said despairingly as they began to walk down the dusty and dimly lit stair well. Following the stairs until they came a near pitch black room.
"Zee?" Dinah looked at the magician who muttered a quick spell and a ball of light illuminated the room to reveal a kind of training hall with suits of armour standing at the pillars. Racks of sword, spears, axes, maces and shields sat against the walls. At the far end of the training hall was a barred gate.
"What's the bet these things are going to spring to life?" Helena asked as she gazed at the motionless suits of armour that stood to attention at their spots.
"Probably as soon as we unlock that door," Zatanna stated. "Let's see if we can unlock the door first," she suggested.
"You think those things can open that gate?" Dinah asked as she pointed out some hanging gongs. Each had an engraving of an animal on them; a fish, a snake, a unicorn and a bird. Walking over to the gate, Helena found three engravings: a bird, a fish and a unicorn.
"I think we have to hit each gong with the animals on this door to open it," she said aloud.
"Let's try it then," Dinah replied as she walked to the nearest gong which was the unicorn. Tugging on a small cord that hung from the gong, a loud clang rang out and a torch was lit by the sound. On the door, the unicorn engraving glowed a golden light.
"It's like a video game!" Zatanna said with a laugh as she rang the gong of the bird. Another torch lit the room and the bird engraving flared brightly. Not even bothering to tug on the bellrope, Helena loosed a quarrel from her crossbow to hit the fish gong. Another clang rang out as a lantern lit the room. With all the gongs hit, the gate lowered with a loud click and the way was open.
"So far, so good," Helena remarked in relief.
"Yeah, a little too good, if you ask me," Dinah observed.
"Yeah, you might be right there," Helena said with a wry smile. "If we haven't had trouble yet, it's gonna be soon," she added sardonically as they walked into the next room which was dimly lit and rows of armour lined the walls. And at the end of the passage in a small alcove was a plaque which had the engraving of a jewelled crown.
"That must be what we need to get past the portcullis upstairs," Zatanna said as she and her companions.
"Wait a minute!" Dinah stopped. "Too easy," she muttered as she examined the plinth the plaque sat upon. "A pressure plate, maybe?" she questioned.
"Odds are the second we take this plaque, those suits of armour are going to spring to life and we'll have to fight out way outta here," Huntress said as she glanced at the motionless suits of armour.
"Either way, we need this thing if we want to continue further," Zatanna said as she gingerly took the plaque from its resting place. As the witch did so, the suits of armours began to stir and creak ominously, red light beginning to glow in the eye slits and visors of their helms.
"Move it! Haul ass!" Helena shouted as the armours began to animate, gripping halberds or drawing out their swords and with jerky movements clattered towards the heroines.
Dinah took in a breath and unleashed her Canary Cry. The hyper-sonic wave hit the animated suits of armour, sending them flying into the walls in scattered broken heaps.
"Nice! That'll save us a bit of trouble," Huntress commented. But as she said the words, the suits of armour began to reassemble themselves. "Ugh, you've got to be joking!" Huntress complained.
"C'mon! If we hurry, we'll make it upstairs before they pull themselves together!" Zatanna urged as they began to run out of the room and up the stairs. Reaching the training hall, the suits of armour began marching towards them. "Quickly! Just move around them!" the mage told her friends.
Taking Zatanna's advice, Huntress and Black Canary weaved and dodged around the animated suits of armour as they followed Zatanna up the stairs and out through the secret door.
Wasting no time, the trio headed for the study, panting for breath as they placed the plaque into the relief. With a clacking sound, the portcullis slid open allowing the three heroines passage.
Zatanna looked to see they were now standing on the balcony of the foyer they had been when they first entered the castle. "Huh, we're where we started," she vocalised to her friends.
"I wonder how Hawkgirl and Angel are coping with all this," Helena remarked.
"Who knows?" Dinah shrugged her shoulders as the doors to the hall opened and entering the hall was the Black Knight, his red eyes glaring balefully around the room. Pulling her teammates down behind the railing, Dinah watched as the Black Knight looked around, as if searching for something.
"Shit! Thought we'd seen the last of that guy?" Helena muttered as she too watched the armoured guardian of the castle hunt around for its quarry. The Black Knight then headed down into a side passage into the darkness below.
"Isn't that where Shayera and Angel went?" Zatanna whispered in worry.
"Yeah…" Dinah put a hand to her earpiece communicator to radio Hawkgirl. "Hawkgirl, this is Canary. Do you read me?" she hissed urgently.
A brief sound of static was heard before Shayera's voice crackled through the line. "Canary, this is Hawkgirl. What's up?"
"You've got incoming! Tall, Dark & Scary is on his way towards you!" Dinah responded.
A curse in Thanagarian came Hawkgirl's voice. "Where are you guys, right now?" came Shayera's question.
"We've back in the foyer, upper level of it on a balcony," Dinah replied. "Where are you?" she enquired.
"We're in the dungeons below. Haven't seen any sign of our teammates," replied Hawkgirl. "Have you found any sign of the Book?"
"Negative. We're gonna keep making our way through the castle," said Dinah. "Try and get out of the dungeons without running into the big guy," she advised.
"Will do. Hawkgirl out."
Looking at her team, Canary said to them, "Let's keep moving." With a nod of understanding, the three vigilantes then followed the balcony around to the other side of the foyer and entered through another door.
…
Earlier.
Using her Nth metal mace as a source of light, Shayera lit the way for herself and Angel O'Day. The steady dripping sound of water and the soft clinking of chains was heard through the darkened passages. Angel switched on her flashlight attachment of her carbine and muttered to herself, "This is the part where the big scary monster lurches out of the shadows"
"Relax," Shayera told her firmly. "I'm right here with you. I'm scarier than anything we're gonna run into down here," she boasted.
"You know how many Jock-archetype characters in slasher movies have said those words?" Angel deadpanned.
"This ain't a slasher movie," Shayera rebutted. "None of us are going to be a Final Girl or an Innocent Victim in this," she said firmly. "So, put on your big girl pants and let's do this," she added.
Making their way through the dungeon's corridors with the electric white light of Hawkgirl's mace and Angel's flashlight providing illumination, the Thanagarian warrioress and the US Air Force operator trod the stone flagged floors. Passing by some prison cells, Angel swallowed a lump in her throat as a cold shiver ran down her spine. "You think there's anything in these cells?" she whispered to Hawkgirl.
"Maybe. Could be worth checking out," Shayera replied as she shone the light of her mace into the cells. The light pierced the darkness, revealing empty prison cells. "Hmph, nothing," the Thanagarian muttered in annoyance.
"Good thing, too," Angel heaved a sigh of relief, wiping her brow with the back of her hand.
"Let's just keep moving," Shayera said tersely as they continued on and they soon came to what appeared to be a torture room of some kind.
"Oh, why did it have to be a torture room?" Angel lamented as she spotted the various torture devices such as the Iron Maiden, or tools used to inflict pain on others such as the cat of nine tails whip hanging from a rack.
Shayera's attention was focussed on a nearby iron barred door. Examining it, Shayera found it was locked. "Gonna need a key for this door," she muttered before giving a small smirk. "Or I could smash it open," she said with a dark chuckle.
"Are you kidding?! And risk waking up whatever might be down here?!" Angel hissed at her.
"It'd be quicker than trying to find a key in this darkness," Shayera pointed out.
"I'd rather try to find the key that will open the door quietly than have you make a racket breaking it down!" Angel retorted.
"Ugh, fine! Let's try and find this key, then," Shayera said. "Spoilsport," she muttered under her breath.
"What did ya say?" Angel asked.
"Nothing."
Using their respective light sources, the two began to search for the key to the door that blocked their way.
Shayera found a corridor with wooden flooring and sitting at the end was a small table and upon sat an iron key. "Must be it," she murmured as she walked over the wooden flooring towards the key. As she tread over the wooden boards, Shayera could swear she could heard the snuffling and soft growling of something beneath her. Ignoring the sounds for the moment, Shayera picked up the key from the table. Turning around to head out of the passage, Shayera took a step forward and the boards suddenly broke under her weight. With a short yelp of alarm, Shayera tumbled down and fell on her back.
"Shayera?!" The Thanagarian peered up to see Angel peering down at her. "Are you alright?" the Air Force captain asked her worriedly.
"I'm fine!" Shayera hollered up at her. "The boards just broke under my weight is all," she explained as she glanced at the splintered wood around her.
"Can you see a way out?" Angel asked her.
"I think so," replied Hawkgirl as she looked around. "I'll see where it leads and meet up with you in a bit," she said optimistically.
"Okay, but don't dawdle down there," Angel requested.
"Just sit tight. I'll be there soon," Shayera groused as she stood to her feet and dusted herself off. After dusting herself of wooden splinters and dust, Shayera followed the passage in front of her. As she did, the soft snuffling and growling she heard grew louder as she entered a well lit room where she found a disturbing sight.
A large rotund creature with arms thick as tree trunks and an ugly pig-like face sat hunched over a bubbling stew pot. Thick lines of drool dripped from the beast's jaws as it stirred the contents of its pot diligently.
"Hrm. Rather not eat whatever that is," Shayera muttered to herself as she crouched low to avoid being seen. The creature's ears were sharp of hearing as it lifted its head up and turned around to glimpse Shayera ducking out of sight. With a growl, the creature rose to its feet, hefting a iron banded club in a meaty paw.
"Birdy-thingie," it uttered in a thick bestial voice. "Nice stew it would make," it muttered hungrily.
"You're going to starve, I'm afraid," Shayera muttered under her breath as she stayed out of the monster's sight. The ground shook as the beast lumbered around the room in search of its prey. Hawkgirl stayed out the thing's sight making for the door on the other side of the room. But to her frustration, the door seemed to have a winding mechanism to open it. Hoping the opening mechanism would be quiet to let her open the gate and slip out undetected, Shayera gripped the wheel and began to turn it. It was with a loud squeal the gate began to slowly rise. Letting go of the wheel immediately, Shayera turned to see the monster bearing down on her with a roar.
With a roar of her own, Shayera swung her mace into the beast's stomach. The anti-magical properties of the Nth metal forged mace wounded the beast, causing it to stumble back with a wounded howl, clutching its wounded midriff. Shayera swung again aiming for the creature's head. The monster's head snapped to the side as the spiked ball head of Shayera's weapon struck it in the jaw. The beast spat out some broken teeth, growling angrily, lashing out with clawed hand, giving a glancing bow to Shayera's shoulder. Moving back, Shayera then swung at the beast's left knee. With a satisfying crunch, Hawkgirl broke the monster's knee, causing it to fall out with a wounded howl of agony, clutching its broken joint.
Shayera raised her mace above her to finish off the beast, but she suddenly remembered what Zatanna had said about the flying monkeys. Realising that this beast too might be a civilian under an enchantment, Hawkgirl lowered her mace and turned back around to open the gate. As the gate opened and Shayera stepped through, she spared a pitying glance at the creature as it stared after her with angry eyes.
Whilst she would proudly proclaim that Thanagarians as a whole never prayed or bowed to any higher powers in the universe, Shayera made a small prayer that whomever was enchanted to take the form of the monster she had wounded and crippled would find it in themselves to forgive her once the enchantment was removed from them. Finding a ladder, the Thanagarian woman ascended it quickly and found a door with a bar lock across it. Lifting the bar, Shayera opened and was greeted by a startled Angel O'Day.
"Oh! It's just you!" the Air Force Captain exhaled in relief. "What happened down there?" she asked. "I heard noises," she added.
"Nothing. Just a wild animal being kept down there," Shayera answered vaguely as she walked to the locked door and inserted the key into the lock and gave it a turn. With a satisfying click, the door swung open.
Then Shayera's earpiece communicator crackled with static as Black Canary's voice came through.
"Hawkgirl, this is Canary. Do you read me?"
Shayera answered almost immediately. "Canary, this is Hawkgirl. What's up?" she asked.
"You've got incoming! Tall, Dark and Scary is on his way towards you!" Canary's voice replied urgently.
Giving a curse in her native Thanagarian, Shayera then asked, "Where are you guys, right now?"
"We're back in the foyer, upper level of it on a balcony. Where are you?"
"We're in the dungeons below," said Shayera. "Haven't seen any sign of our teammates. Have you found any sign of the Book?" she then enquired.
"Negative We're gonna keep making our way through the castle," replied Canary. "Try and get out of the dungeons without running into the big guy," she suggested.
"Will do. Hawkgirl out." Shayera then cut the line and looked at Angel and said to her, "We've got incoming. Let's get outta here while we can."
"Don't need to tell me twice," Angel said with a nod of her head as they walked through the newly opened door and came to a ladder. They quickly climbed the ladder and entered what appeared to be a storeroom of some kind.
"Let's keep moving," Shayera stated as they walked through a small maze of cupboards and drawers before reaching the exit. Opening the door, the pair found an art studio of sorts. One half of the room was blocked off by an iron barred gate and just beyond the gate was a familiar sight to Hawkgirl.
"That's Aegon sword!" she exclaimed as she peered through the bars to see Aegon's Valyrian sword Blackfyre stuck in a large boulder. "What's it doing there?" she wondered.
"Who cares about that? Let's try and get it and find Aegon too!" Angel argued.
"But how do we open the gate?" Shayera pointed out.
Angel looked around and saw metal gongs hanging from the wall. Each gong had an engraving of an animal on them. Two gongs sat within easy reach in front of the gate, but the remaining to sat at a distance behind the gate. Looking at the gate, the Air Force captain/intelligence agent found a trio of animals engraved on the front of it; a bear, a trout and a lion. Looking for the gong that had the animals engraved on them, Angel found the first two situated in front of the gate. Tugging on the bell ropes of the gongs, there was satisfying clang and the engravings of the trout and lion glowed brightly on the gate. The bear gong was at a distance through the gate. Undeterred, Angel unslung her carbine from her shoulder and aimed down the aperture sight and squeezed the trigger. A sharp crack came from Angel's carbine as the bullet burst from the barrel and with another clang, the gong was struck. All the engravings on the gate glowed a golden light and the gate slid down easily. Shayera approached the sword in the stone and with a firm tug, she freed it from its prison.
"Aegon will be pleased to have his sword back," Angel remarked with a smile.
"We gotta find him first. Him, and PG and Diana," Shayera replied.
"Then let's go find them, then," Angel declared as they exited the studio through another door.
The pair then continued their mission to find their missing comrades. When they did find them, they would then rejoin Zatanna and the others and end the Queen of Fables' reign of terror once and for all.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: Chapter 16 is done and dusted! I apologise for taking so long, but real life, work and other projects and problems have gotten in the way. One of the real life things that has arisen is that my younger sister is pregnant with her first child! O_O It was a few weeks ago that I was given the news that I'm gonna be an uncle and I'm still kinda processing that news if I'm being honest. And I've gotten new managers at work as the last one has decided to not to renew her contract, so that's another big change to deal with. Things are certainly changing in my life and I don't know if it's for the better or not.
But you don't need to hear my bitching and moaning about real life. One thing I do want to bitch about is the number of messages and reviews from all these random people, all claiming to be "captivated" by my work and wanting to do cover art commissions for me. I don't fault artists for trying to make a living doing what their passion is, but I don't need the dozens of messages and reviews from such people making such offers. I've taken a chance on a few, but I fear this led to the proverbial floodgates being opened and I've heard some less than savoury rumours and stories about these "artists" using AI Art to create artwork for writers like myself at a fraction of effort to get some easy money. I don't have too much of an opinion on things like AI Art or even Chat GPT and in truth I've dabbled with a bit of Chat GPT just to get some inspiration for some of my stories, although it's far from perfect and doesn't always yield the desired results, nor does it yield the most detailed or expansive of things. Neither does AI Art from what I've seen and heard.
So, for any of these artists who are thinking about messaging me with an offer to do some art for me, I suppose I'm flattered by the number of offers you all give me, but at this stage in time, I'm tapped out financially with the artists I've decided to work with, so please refrain from making me any such offers in the near future.
And that's about all I have right now, so I'll see you all next time.
Be kind to one another,
Angry lil' elf.