The Medievals 2 Page 5

When they entered the dark network of corridors only moments ago, Richard and the others were first confronted by the two saurians, who mutated into the savage beasts that Richard knew only from spoken tales and Master Cheng’s performance of the Endless War. With chomping jaws and fiery breath, the saurians attacked,but Ivanhoe and El Cid gamely struck back with their own furious assault.

  Then, as Richard, Loxley and Mulan continued down a corridor -- passing an empty cell on their way -- they were met by Waldron, with Richard spotting his demonic red eye punching through the dark.

  Using her unearthly powers, Mulan occupied Waldron, giving Richard an opening to press on in search of the Descendant.

  But now Richard feels his chance to save Wendolyn slipping away as the metal bolt refuses to surrender to his might. He has not defied his parents and survived a journey across the Beyond only to fail to free the Descendant from these chains.

  This is not where my story ends, Richard thinks.

  He raises the sword above his head, and pools all of his energy into his arms.

  “RAAAAAAAHHHH!” Richard lets out a colossal roar, emanating from the depths of his insides -- surprising himself -- and then he drives his sword downward onto the bolt.

  CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! Richard hits the metal without mercy, continuing to roar as all of his muscles reverberate with the force of the blows until…

  Clink. The eye bolt breaks open!

  “Seems there’s a lion hiding inside of you, Young Blood,” Loxley says with a whistle, and the mention of the word lion reminds Richard of his father roaring off the side of Mount Saurian.

  But there is no time to revel in the victory as Richard quickly grabs the freed chain and throws it off Wendolyn, removing it from her arms and legs.

  Then, he takes the Descendant into his own arms, carrying her along the vertiginous platform.

  And as they move toward the entrance, Wendolyn looks up at Richard, and he hears her manage to speak just two words before her voice breaks: “Thank you.”

  “Do not thank me yet,” Richard responds, trying to muster an air of courage.

  But as Richard follows Loxley out through the doorway, Mulan collides with them, pushing them backward.

  “Get back!” Mulan orders, and Richard retreats into the cavernous room, holding Wendolyn.

  As Loxley also slips back into the room, Mulan slams the two tall wooden doors shut and drops the long iron latch into place, locking it. Then, Mulan backs away from the door, turning her attention to Wendolyn in Richard’s arms, knowing exactly where the Descendant is even though she is blindfolded.

  “Wendolyn, my name is Mulan. I am a member of the Order, sworn to protect you,” she says. Then, the Blind Shen looks to Richard, “Whatever happens, stay behind me.”

  Suddenly, the doors rattle on their hinges.

  “Move back behind the stone, back to the wall,” Mulan instructs, and Richard obeys, carrying Wendolyn with him.

  “Anybody else notice that we just locked ourselves into a room with only one way out?” Loxley questions, pointing to the locked door.

  Richard searches the yawning room for another door or passageway, but there is nothing. Loxley is right: they are trapped.

  The sound of metal scraping against metal draws Richard’s eyes to the doorway, where the untouched lever is slowly sliding out of the catch -- as if of its own volition.

  “You do not truly believe you can keep me from that room,” a measured voice says through the closed doors. It is Waldron, and Richard believes that his igneous words alone could melt the doors from their hinges.

  Mulan reaches out her hand toward the door. Just as she did out in the dark fields, Mulan manages to move metal with her mind, and Richard watches as the lever stops and then moves back into the catch.

  If possible, the darklings reach a fever pitch with their squawking as Mulan and Waldron struggle to win control of the lock.

  Then, the latches on the bird cages begin to slide free and the doors fly open.

  Loxley watches as the darklings wing through the chamber: “Starting to think I should’ve haggled for more gold.”

  The darklings swoop and flap, interrupting Mulan’s concentration, and she is forced to release her hold on the door, which unlocks with a clank.

  “Grrrrrrah!” Mulan yells, frustration grabbing hold of her throat.

  Then, the walls shudder and the doors fly open, with Waldron standing there in the doorway.

  “No,” Wendolyn gasps, and Richard can feel the Descendant’s body shiver in his arms just as Waldron appears, his red eye pulsing.

  The sight of Waldron clearly sends a chill through her, and Richard feels that same chill shake his knees for a quick moment before he recaptures his nerves.

  “You will let the Descendant come with us," Mulan declares, squaring her shoulders in a way that underpins her words.

  “The Blind Shen,” Waldron says, and it sounds like a growl with a laugh wrapped inside of it. “I have heard much about you. Is it true that you once lost a Descendant you swore to protect?”

  Mulan does not flinch in her posture, leaving Richard to wonder if what Waldron claims is true.

  “In the story I have heard, the Order banished you to the deserts of Ramorah, where the blinding sun stripped you of your sight," Waldron continues.

  Richard eyes Mulan’s hands at her side, her fists tightening.

  “The story you have heard is wrong,” Mulan states. “It is I who banished myself to the desert, not the Order. And it is I who took my sight, not the sun.”

  As Richard tries to imagine what it would feel like to steal one’s own sight, echoes of the battle between Ivanhoe, El Cid and the saurians spill into the room.

  “This is not the way of the Runes,” Mulan offers, perhaps soliciting to Waldron’s better nature, if such a thing exists.

  “I am the only Rune left,” Waldron replies. “My way is the way of the Runes now. And I will avenge my people for the sins of mankind.”

  “You talk of the past,” Richard speaks, surprised by the defense that leaps from his mouth. “That was hundreds of years ago.”

  “Yes, well, the tree remembers what the axe forgets,” Waldron muses.

  An image of King Lemlee enters Richard’s mind as he realizes that this is not the first time that Richard has been reminded of the transgressions of Man against other races.

  “We have changed,” Richard asserts, wanting his words to be true.

  “No,” Waldron rebuts. “Man will destroy what he does not understand. It is your way. It is inevitable, young Prince.”

  Richard flinches at the revelation that Waldron knows who he is.

  But before Richard can respond, Loxley draws his arrow on Waldron and says, “Enough chatter. You let us leave with the girl now, or I will snuff out that fire in your eye with a single arrow.”

  “Loxley, stop,” Mulan warns. “Do not fire that arrow.”

  But her warning comes too late by the thinnest of hairs as the bowstring slips from Loxley’s finger, the arrow released into the space between Loxley and Waldron.

  Richard watches as the arrow flies over Mulan’s shoulder and hurries for Waldron’s steel mask. And for a second, Richard believes the arrow will find its mark, sinking into Waldron’s red eye.

  But in an instant, Waldron abuses the air with his finger, and the arrow spins halfway around and flies back toward Loxley. And again, Richard’s mind flashes to Master Cheng’s performance of the Endless War, the Rune returning the soldiers’ spears to their senders.

  Then, just as the deadly tip is about to hit Loxley between his emerald eyes, Mulan seizes the long dart from the air, snapping it into two pieces, and drops it into the bottomless darkness below the platform.

  As Loxley swallows any words he might have, Richard notices the rest of his arrows begin to tremble in the quiver.

  “Loxley!” Richard shouts, trying to warn the thief.

  But the bevy of arrows shoot skyward before Loxley can restrain
them.

  Waldron directs the arrows around the room, his fingers dancing with the air as he sinks one into Loxley’s leg.

  “Ahhhhh!” Loxley screams out in pain.

  Mulan counters Waldron’s sway over the arrows, deflecting them as they streak toward Richard and Wendolyn.

  As Waldron and Mulan’s minds parry around the chamber, Mulan moves closer to the pedestal with the glassy orb on it. And just as Waldron’s hold seems to be overwhelming Mulan, she kicks the pedestal over, and the orb flies off into the air.

  “The Rune Stone!” Waldron cries out in horror, and his cry is joined by the squawks of the darklings, also horrified by the fate of the orb.

  Waldron turns all of his focus on the Rune Stone, catching it in the net of his mind.

  Mulan then wills the slab of stone through the air, knocking Waldron from the platform.

  “This way! Run!” Mulan says, looking back at Richard and waving him forward.

  Blood rushes into Richard’s legs and he races across the narrow platform toward the entrance, Wendolyn still in his arms.

  “How did you--?” Wendolyn begins to ask Richard, but then a new question overtakes it: “You are the Prince?”

  Wendolyn’s voice sounds fuller now, as if the flesh of her throat is moist again.

  Before Richard can answer, he sees Waldron climbing back onto the platform. Then, the two mystical beings trade blows of fist, foot and air, each searching for the other’s weakness, with Mulan always making sure that she is between Waldron and the others.

  “Get the Descendant to safety!” Mulan shouts back over her shoulder to Richard, her eyes never leaving her adversary.

  “What about you?” Richard asks the Blind Shen.

  “Leave me. I will find you later,” she says, although uncertainty lines the edges of her words.

  With Loxley ahead of him, Richard runs the length of the platform to the doorway, forcing himself not to look down into the black abyss. But just as they reach the doorway -- WHOOSH! -- the large doors slam shut and lock, Waldron trapping them inside the cavernous room even as he contends with the Shen.

  Loxley pulls at the latch, but it will not budge.

  Richard looks to Wendolyn: “Is there another way out of this room?”

  “No,” she says, shaking her head.

  “Piffle,” Loxley says, frustrated. “Never a giant around when you need one.”

  And like an answer -- CRASH! -- the doors splinter open as El Cid crashes through them. Richard ducks with Wendolyn, the doors narrowly missing them, and falling away into the pit.

  El Cid staggers to his feet as Loxley slaps him on the back. “Keep saving my life, Spaniard, and I may just let you tell me one of your yarns.”

  “El Cid was not saving the thief’s life. El Cid was thrown by the demon.”

  And they all turn to see that, blocking their path, is a fiery beast, leaving them caught between Waldron and a saurian.

  “I’m suddenly missing that locked door,” Loxley mutters.

  “Come and let El Cid give the ugly beast a taste of el fuego!” the Spaniard shouts as he charges the saurian in the doorway, the flaming Tizona leading the way.

  El Cid’s attack goes wide, and then the saurian whips its tail at the giant, sending him back into the corridor. The saurian pursues El Cid, leaving the doorway open once again.

  “Now is our chance,” Richard whispers to Wendolyn as he sees the chaos around them providing an opportunity for him to usher Wendolyn to safety.

  “I can move on my own, I think,” Wendolyn says, the strength in her legs seeming to have returned with her voice.

  “You are sure?” Richard asks solicitously, and Wendolyn nods her response.

  Richard sets Wendolyn on her feet, grabs Wendolyn by the hand and his knees spring him forward into the gauntlet of spitted fire and flying debris that awaits them in the dark corridor.

  With his one hand gripping the hilt of his sword and his other clasping Wendolyn’s hand, Richard moves out into the corridor.

  Tails and swords and fire and rocks find their way to Richard’s periphery, and Richard must navigate his way around the raging battle. Behind El Cid and the earless saurian, Richard sees Ivanhoe wielding his battle axe against the other saurian, this one bearing a scar down its face and neck.

  As Richard and Wendolyn manage to slip beyond the saurians, suddenly Mulan comes from behind, somehow having escaped her struggle with Waldron.

  “This way!” Mulan orders with a pointed finger down one of the corridors cloaked in darkness. Richard does not hesitate, following the finger of the Blind Shen down the rocky passage.

  “They are escaping!” Waldron roars, his voice capable of filling a sky with the fiercest storm. “Find them!”

  As his ears try to discern between the many echoing footfalls, Richard keeps his eyes on the inky black ahead, fear keeping him from turning back and seeing the red eye of Waldron, who must be close on their heels. Meanwhile, his heart pulses in his palm as he holds tightly to the warming hand of the Descendant, his mind shouting at his fingers to never let go of her.

  Suddenly, rising up over the din of the ongoing battle behind him, Richard hears an unfamiliar sound: a chorus of screams that injures his ears.

  The inhuman shrieks seem to come from everywhere at once, their echos bouncing off the walls of the corridor.

  “How many prisoners does Waldron have here?” Loxley asks, referring to the piercing cries.

  Richard realizes that the footfalls behind him have been Loxley’s.

  “Those are not prisoners. They are the forgotten souls,” Wendolyn corrects Loxley, an uneasiness in her voice.

  “Banshees?” Loxley asks between breaths.

  “That is another name for them, yes,” Mulan affirms without looking back.

  “What do they look like?” Richard inquires, although he is not certain that he truly wants to know.

  As they round the corner, Mulan leading the way, Richard’s curiosity is met by a terrifying blast of white that seems to eat at the darkness around it.

  “Do not look them in the eyes!” Mulan shouts in a whisper as she presses her back against the wall.

  Richard hears the warning from the Blind Shen, but his eyes do not heed her words. Instead, he is a captive of the pair of white eyes that burn through the darkness.

  “Get behind me!” Richard hears Wendolyn instruct. “They cannot bring me harm as they can you.”

  But Richard is helpless against the lure of the wraithlike being, its shriek stinging his bones and its eyes drawing him closer.

  “Do not let them in!” Wendolyn shouts, but her voice sounds more distant now, echoing in his ears as if Richard is experiencing a half-remembered dream.

  Fingers of ghostly strands, sinuous and white, reach out from the banshee’s eyes, and Richard can only watch in stillness as this impossible enemy invades his mind.

  {Wendolyn}

  Wendolyn gasps as the banshee plunges into the eyes of Richard, the diaphanous ghost instantly swallowing Richard’s luminous blue circles and leaving only an eerie, fathomless white in its place.

  Richard’s widening eyes are suddenly transformed into cold winter moons partially hidden behind a shifting milky fog.

  “Richard!” Wendolyn cries out, his name leaving her lips for the first time.

  But Richard does not respond. Instead, his face is slack, his expression spiritless except for his glassy white eyes.

  “Richard, wake up!” Wendolyn shouts urgently, shaking him by the shoulders, his body somehow able to stand erect even as his muscles are limp.

  “He cannot hear you,” the blindfolded woman says. “His soul is now a prisoner of the dead.”

  Wendolyn looks to the woman that calls herself Mulan, her black clothing making her appear as an extension of the dark.

  “How do we save him?” Wendolyn asks, her voice breaking with emotion as her lips are still much in need of water.

  “There is nothing left to save
. He is gone,” Mulan says without a hint of emotion. “Now, we must hurry before Waldron finds us.”

  “We cannot leave him,” Wendolyn urges, her eyes pleading with both Mulan and the dark-skinned man with green eyes that Richard referred to as Loxley.

  “I have come only to save you, the Descendant. This is my sole purpose,” Mulan explains, her words offering no value to the life of Richard.

  “I will not leave here without him,” Wendolyn presses, unwilling to abandon him.

  “Wendolyn, I beseech you to reconsider,” Mulan counters. “You have only just met him. In the vast stretch of the firmament, this one human means little to you and your fate.”

  But deep within her, Wendolyn knows this is not true.

  Instead, the firmament has convinced her of the opposite: Richard means everything to her fate. They are connected in a way that not even Wendolyn can explain. Since the moment she saw him in the King’s Market, he has been saving her. The memory of his face has been a candle that beats back the shadows that form within in her mind. And when she countenanced the notion of leaping into the cloudy abyss, willing to end her consciousness forever, it was the thought of him that redoubled her desire to live.

  “No, he will come with us,” Wendolyn repeats.

  And as she holds firm in her decision, a beastly cry of pain echoes down the rocky hallway. On the tail of the cry, torchlight flickers off the walls of the corridor they have just left, growing brighter with speed until the giant with long dark hair appears, his flaming sword the source of the light.

  “The saurians are coming!” the giant warns through panted breath.

  “El Cid, where’s Red?” the one called Loxley asks him.

  Beyond the huge legs of the giant named El Cid, Wendolyn sees one of the saurians charging down the corridor. And on the saurian’s back, another man, this one with an eye patch and crimson hair, clings tightly to the beast’s neck, unwilling to let go even as he is thrown against the rocky walls.

  “Move!” the red-haired man barks. “Get the Descendant from this place!”

  Just then, the saurian whips its neck, flinging the one-eyed man from its back, and the man flies into Loxley, throwing the two of them against the wall. And now, the saurian is unburdened, its eyes narrowing on all of them with savage intent.