The Mystical Knights: The Sword of Dreams (21 page)

              "But he's a manipulator," Nia interjected.  "He is very good with his words and he wants
power
.  The Greys must have promised him
something
in return for helping them."

              "And what's that, do you reckon?"

              Nia frowned.  Hesitantly, she outstretched her right hand over the entrance to the tunnel.  Closing her eyes, she cautiously began to circle her hand over the tunnel like a scavenging hawk...

              There was a blinding flash behind Nia's eyelids and her eyes snapped open forcefully, her expression grim.  "I don't know what they've promised him, but I do know he feels very safe where he is."

              "And where is he?" Quinn asked.  "Can you see him?"

              Nia looked down the tunnel.  "I can't see him, but I'm pretty sure you can guess where he is right now.  With Zephyrlis, Lance and whoever else."

              "He's down
there
?" Rowan peeked over Nia's shoulder, stunned with disbelief.  "How?  How is anyone down there and still alive?"

              "Ventilation system.  I saw them," Nia said, tapping her temple with two fingers.  "These tunnels were made to hide an entire civilization of people, Rowan.  They'd want to keep them alive."

              "I'm usually good with weird," Rowan shook his head and looked out towards the many hills that were settled within Hollow Hills Park, "but this is a bit much."

              "So they have Lance," Nia whispered, the cogs of her well whittled mind spinning as she thought.  "They have Lance to hold as leverage.  They have him strung up to these strange machines, like he's an experiment or something..."  she heard Kenzie gasp from beside her, but didn't look at her.  She didn't want to lose her train of thought.  "We know that they know about the Sword of Dreams.  We know that Axel wants this particular weapon...but is it for them?  Or for himself?"

              "The real question is, can
you
get the Sword without them knowing?" Fiona asked.  There was an underlying tone of urgency to her voice that made Nia nervous.  So much seemed to be resting on her shoulders; finding Lance alive, getting the Sword...

              "Yes, I believe so.  I don't think they're tracking my dreams or anything."

              "Have you attempted daydreaming in order to obtain the Sword?"

              "Yes," Nia lied.  She hated lying, but she was finding that since becoming a Mystical Knight, the ability to do so was becoming readily easier.  She was pretty sure Fiona didn't believe her either, judging by the way her eyes flashed.

              "How much time do we have?" Fiona asked, and she began to pace the stone floor.  The sounds of the carnival were echoing through the trees; children laughing and screaming with glee on the rides, the cheerful music.  That world felt so far away now, and Nia ached for it.

              "Not long," Nia admitted, exhaling sharply.  "An hour and a half at most.  But that's not the worst part.  The fire and ash I was supposed to dream about?  I saw that in my vision with Lance.  I don't know what it means, but we have to be prepared for the worst and we have to go now."

              An edgy silence fell between them.  Throats were being cleared, and Quinn gave each of them a rough clasp on the shoulder or a pat on the back as he walked towards Fiona.  They each knew that death was a possible outcome.  They had known since they had accepted their amulet as a token of their allegiance, and they had known since the first ascension to their individual guardian.  But there were some things that were impossible to prepare for; Nia knew this all too well.

              "Nia."  It was Kenzie.  Her voice was soft and her hands were clasped in front of her.  She looked very young, standing in front of Nia the way she did, with wide ocean colored eyes and her sweetheart face.  "I wanted to thank you.  Thank you so much for finding Lance-"

              "We haven't found him yet, but we will."

              "I know, I-" Kenzie paused and swallowed.  She looked down at her hands and shifted her weight where she stood, biting her lip.  "I also wanted to warn you..."

              "Warn me?" Nia asked sharply. "About what?"

              "About...about Rowan," Kenzie whispered insistently, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear as she peered at Nia over her glasses.  Nia stared at Kenzie, unsure of what to do.  What about Rowan?  He certainly wasn't dangerous.  She could see him out of the corner of her vision, chatting softly with Quinn.

              "What's it with Rowan?  What's going on between you both? We're not dating or anything, so no need to be jealous-"

              "But you like him.  More than a friend?"

              Rowan glanced up to look at Nia, and he instantly frowned.  Nia looked back at Kenzie.  "I think so-yes.  Yes, I do."

              "You can't," Kenzie said tensely. 

              "I'm sorry if you're jealous," Nia said, feeling a rush of heat hit her cheeks.

              "I'm not-I mean, I was.  At first.  But you don't
know
, Nia."  Kenzie screwed her eyes shut, agitated, and reached up to touch Nia's shoulders.  "I'm telling you as a friend, Nia.  Not as some crazy ex girlfriend.  He's not what he seems, please believe me."

              "'He's not what he seems?'" Nia whispered harshly, stepping back from Kenzie, trying to be subtle.  "What does that even mean?  He's a guy, Kenzie.  Not some monster."

              Kenzie's bottom lip trembled and she bit it again to keep it in place.  "I-I can't tell you," she said, so quietly that Nia had to strain to hear her.  She looked down at her feet, defeated.  "It's not my place.  I'm sorry I said anything.  Thank you for helping find Lance." 

              Nia made to say something else, but Kenzie zipped away, quickly stepping past where Rowan stood, still gazing in their direction.  Nia frowned at him uncertainly, and watched as Kenzie came to stand next to Fiona, and rest her head on the other girl's shoulder.  What was that about?  He's not what he seems?

              Rowan didn't move closer.  Instead, his shoulders sagged and he then turned to Thor, and began to listen to something Thor was telling Quinn.  Puzzled, Nia glanced down at her hands.  She had always felt that Rowan had something to hide.  But what?  He obviously cared for her.  That much she knew for certain.  They were connected somehow, and when she was with him, she felt safe and put together.  Her fears simply vanished and she felt at home.  But then...

              What wouldn't Kenzie tell her?

              Quinn was shuffling through his back pack.  The same back pack that went with them to every battle.  He pulled out two Mag-Lites and clicked them on, handing them to Fiona.  She flashed them down into the tunnel, squinting as she peered downwards.  She cursed under her breath, reaching her arm down into the darkness as far as it would go.  "I was hoping that we'd at least be able to see the floor."

              "We can always throw Thor down it first," Quinn humbly suggested; he had a knack for using humor in place of nervousness.

              "
What
?" Thor pouted, looking a little frightened.  "Why am I always the test subject here?"

              "No one is being thrown down the hole!" Fiona indolently grabbed a small piece of granite that had broken away from the gazebo and threw it down the hole; it bumped and clicked along until you couldn't hear or see it anymore, but no one heard it hit the bottom.  "Hmm," she pondered, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.  "I don't think that went the way I thought it would."

              "Maybe there is no end to this tunnel, and this is actually a bottomless pit?" Thor suggested with a shrug.

              "Come on, you guys...stop clowning around!"  Rowan moved forward and held his left hand over the tunnel.  "We already know we don't have much time."  As he spoke, tremendously thick and long vines sprouted from his palm.  The slithered down, just like a snake, weeding their way towards the gaping hole and slowly slinked down into the darkness.

              "Isn't that going to hurt you?" Nia asked.

              "I'm not sure, but that doesn't matter right now, does it?"  He looked over at her.  The stern, commanding look in his eyes was riveting.  It almost made Nia forget what Kenzie had said (or didn't say).  "You go first," he said.

              Uncertainly, Nia slid her bottom across the stones until her legs dangled over the abyss.  Her quick and uneven breaths were slowly stitching her chest, but she tossed her flashlight back to Quinn anyway and reached out to grab the vines.

              "You'll be okay," Rowan murmured encouragingly, crouching down to brush the tip of his nose across her temple.  His soft breath tickled her ear.  "Do you trust me?"

              "Always," she whispered, despite her prior feelings of suspicion.  Just as soon as she had spoken, she wrapped her legs around the vines.  She stared at his handsome face, drinking in his deep blue eyes, as though they would be the last earthly thing she would ever see.  He blinked and his long, dark eyelashes kissed the tops of his cheek bones.  As though she were back in gym class, Nia slipped away from the stone and began the descent into the indefinite underworld.

Chapter 15: The Three Paths

              Nia touched her feet to the solid ground and released the vine.  It made a weird
snicking
noise as it grew longer and thicker, curling against the dirt floor.  Nia squinted around the strange area; the walls had opened up, tall and vast.  They cast long shadows against the floor of the cavern, that loomed overhead and all around.  The high walls reminded Nia of eroded rocks.  They were far too smooth for someone to have merely shoveled their way through.  It took months—years—for something to erode, didn’t it?  She tried to dig her fingernails into it, but the dirt just wouldn’t budge—it was like concrete.  She vaguely thought of crop circles and the
Nazca
lines...
How did they do it? 
The smell of earth and cold enveloped her body in a pocket of frigid ice. 

Nia wrinkled her nose and brushed her hand against one of the walls. 
Three,
she heard whisper through her mind. 
Three tunnels...
She squinted against the dark, but her eyes, although now adjusted to the darkness, could only take her so far.  She had to rely on touch and her Sight.  Closing her eyes, with her hand still placed on the cavern wall, she felt the hair on the nape of her neck stand straight up.  The cavern had a strange energy to it; it made her head feel tight, as though she were wearing a tight riding helmet.  She could feel that familiar tug as her Sight urged her forward to find the tunnels-   

              “How much farther?”

Nia opened her eyes and looked up, shielding her face with her hands as the shape of Quinn’s legs dangled into view.

              “About six more feet,” Nia called up to him, carefully backing up into the wall to give Quinn plenty of room; the tip of her heel caught the continuously growing vine and with a small yelp, she toppled over.

              Quinn, at the sound of her distress, released the vine.  He yelled as he fell, slapping into Nia like a falling pinecone. 

              “Quinn!  Are you guys alright?” a muffled voice hollered from above.

              “We’re fine...” Nia called back.  She sat up and rubbed her tailbone ruefully.  “Get up—you’re squishing my legs," she said, giving Quinn a hard shove, trying to push him off. 

              “Sorry...” Quinn pulled himself to his feet and gave Nia his hand.  Nia took it thankfully, brushing her pants free of dirt.  Her backside throbbed as she stretched out her back, but she did her best to shrug it off.  Quinn’s eyes searched the cavern, peering along the walls in disbelieving awe.  He pulled the tiny flashlight from his pocket and clicked it on.  “This place is something else...”

              The light collapsed against the high walls; they were riddled with mica and quartz and other precious gems that had been flattened into the hard dirt, twinkling like stardust.  Blues, pinks and whites shined along the ground like prisms.  Her breath hitched in her throat as she stared; this was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen before.  Nia's eyes followed the twinkling gems, watching as the shadows that missed the light’s touch shifted and moved along the walls of the cavern, like ghosts lurking among the grave...

              “Wow...” Kenzie murmured from above them; she slipped down into a fraction of the light, her eyes alight with amazement.  The twinkle lights lit up her pale skin like first snow in the sunshine.  “This place...” she gave a small spin on the turn of her heel, looking very much like a small child, “it—it’s so
pretty
,” she whispered, sounding nearly breathless.

              “Don’t let it fool you.” Quinn suspiciously looked around, his eyes flitting throughout the cavern.  “Axel has many spies, remember?  We could be surrounded right now...”

              Nia's eyes darted around the vicinity, folding over the shadows suspiciously.  One of those eerie shadows could be a minion, hiding within the Earth...

              “Dude, check out that rock!” Thor yelled rather loudly as his feet landed firmly on the ground.

              Nia, Quinn and Kenzie both jumped, startled out of their wits.  Kenzie gave Thor a disapproving look while Quinn cuffed him upside the head with his hand.  “What the heck, Thor!” he hissed.

              “Children!” Fiona idly chided, easily sliding down the vine with charismatic grace.  She landed in a soundless step, daintily wiping the sod and dirt off of her billowy skirt and raised her eyebrows at the four of them.  “Stop your foolish bantering and be on guard!”

              Thor opened his mouth to argue (he hated when Fiona referred to them as children), but Nia stepped all of her weight onto his foot.  “Just quiet,” she muttered to him under her breath, glancing over at Fiona, who was to her left, inspecting one of the high walls.

              “H-how’s Rowan going to get down?” Nia looked up through the darkness, a tiny dot of night sky twinkling down at them.  The vines seemed to be curling into the ground, quivering with life.  As Nia glanced down at them, she could have sworn that they were
breathing
. 

              “Don’t worry about Earth Boy.”  Fiona gave Nia a keen stare.  “He’ll be just dandy and fine.”

              “But—”

              The tips of the vines that lay on the cavern floor seemed to be intertwining, joining together as one until it became a green bud about the size of a large basket ball.  The bud slowly began to blossom; Nia felt as if she were watching a special about plant-life on National Geographic.  Except this wasn’t a camera set on high speed.  This was real and it was happening before her very eyes.

Sweet magenta and bright orange petals slowly peeled open, spreading wide like the sun and golden dust showered the floor, sparkling like glitter when it caught the rays of the flashlight.  Nia’s mouth fell open slightly as she stared at the elegantly large flower in wonder.

              The flower burst fully open, blasting more of the golden glitter dust throughout the cavern.  Thor sniffled a bit, but seemed too content in watching this miraculous flower bloom, to complain about allergies.  Nia gasped as Rowan, covered head to toe in the golden dust, stretched and moaned, shifting awkwardly into a standing position before carefully stepping out of the flower’s shell.  He shook his now unruly hair, glitter dust cascading to the floor where he stood.

              Rowan looked around at all of them, dusting off his clothes and grinned, amused.  “What?”

              Fiona rolled her eyes, folding her arms over her chest.  “You always have to create a grand entrance, don’t you Rowan?” 

              Rowan shrugged, and spotted Nia easily in the tiny crowd.  He moved towards her quickly and placed his hands upon her shoulders.  “You got down here alright?  I'm sorry I didn't send someone else-”

              “I’m fine Rowan,” Nia said, slightly taken aback by his abundant concern.  He was always concerned, but they had been through worse journeys.  The descent into the earth had been easy.  She reached up and brushed her hand through his hair, freeing the glittery pollen from the tresses.  “I made it down fine.  I didn't mind going first.”

              Rowan flushed a little and opened his mouth to speak.

              “Eh hem,” Fiona cleared her throat.  She tapped her watch rather impatiently.  “We are on a
tight
schedule, as I recall.”  She gestured towards the cavern behind them.  “As of right now, we have a little over an hour to find Lance, Axel and whomever else may be down here.”

              “There are three tunnels.”  Nia determinedly walked up to the far wall.  She lifted her hand searchingly, and waved it just over the wall, her eyelids fluttering.  Pursing her lips, she slowly pressed her hand to the wall, the dirt cold and damp against her flesh. 

              “Nia—no offense, but we don’t have time for
feeling
out stuff,” Thor said hurriedly, looking past Fiona and down the dark cavern.  He had always held his skepticism high, which Nia respected.  “There’s a tunnel right there—”

              “There are three tunnels,” Nia mumbled blankly, carefully tracing her fingertips down the cool ground.  “We need to figure out which one to go down.”  She stopped, and stared at a bright green stone.  She could feel heat emitting from it.  Strange, when everything else was cold and damp.  She touched it and it clicked softly.

              “Nia—”

              The ground beneath them began to rumble, shaking like an earthquake.  The others started, knees buckling, reaching out their arms to brace themselves and each other.  Kenzie screamed; her shout was the equivalent to something like an assault missile, echoing off the cavern walls.  Nia stood perfectly still, watching in satisfaction as a seemingly thin layer of wet gravel and dirt, that had seemed so solidified and concrete, crumbled like an oversized mud pie and fell to bits at her feet, revealing two long and narrow tunnels.

              Quinn crossed his arms over his chest, his face stretched in shock.  “I’m not even going to ask how that is possible...”

              “Teams!”  Fiona called out.  She might not have considered herself the leader, but she hated when someone else took charge.  “We’ll go in teams of two.  We’ll be able to search the premises better.  Thor and Quinn—take that tunnel,” Fiona pointed towards the original tunnel off to the left.  “Kenzie and Rowan—you’ll get the one to the right and the Ghost Whisperer and myself will tackle the one in the middle.”

              “I don’t
see
ghosts,” Nia reminded her coolly, wishing that she could.

              “Why do Quinn and I always get paired up?” Thor wondered, trying to sound less than whiny.  “It’s
always
Quinn and I—”

              “Because,” Quinn said, hastily throwing a flashlight into Rowan’s already outstretched hands while grabbing Thor’s arm and dragging him towards their chosen tunnel, “we are brave and we are tough. 
And
because I’m secretly head over heels for you and Fiona thinks that we’d make a great pair...”  His voice began to dissipate into the dirt walls as the two boys disappeared around the corner, although his sarcastic remark was still thick in the air.

              “I thought it would help lessen the tension,” Fiona remarked quietly, glancing quickly at Kenzie before ducking into the tunnel, the sound of her heavy boots clicking against the ground. 
What tension?
Nia looked to where Kenzie and Rowan stood, only to find that Kenzie had walked away as well, trailing Rowan’s heels as he quickly paced himself down the path without looking back.

             
He didn’t even say goodbye
, Nia thought with a heavy heart.  These were the confusing parts of Rowan; how concerned and attentive he could be one second, and how thoughtless he could be the next.  He was the master of mixed signals.  Cool air brushed Nia's arms and she wrapped them tighter around her midsection, shivering before slipping into the darkness after Fiona.

              Nia could taste the smell of frost on her tongue and the cold burned her throat and nostrils as she breathed.  Fiona didn’t seem to feel the cold atmosphere; she continued onward, a small ball of blue flames cupped in the palms of her hands, shining an eerie glow down the dark path ahead of them.

* * *

Kenzie hugged the cavern wall as much as she could, careful not to peek down over her shoulder at the toes of her shoes, which hung precariously over an easy ten-foot plunge into darkness.  She had thought that maybe there was another ledge here, rather than a dead end; a way to find her brother first, and save him from where ever he was being held.  There had been a ledge, but it was a tiny and it didn't go anywhere but down. She had intended on following Rowan back the way they had came, but her feet slipped over a few loose stones and pebbles and before she could make sense of what was happening, the ledge she had been standing on broke free and dropped into the emptiness below her.  She squeezed her eyes shut, careful not to exhale too sharply and awkwardly shuffle-stepped sideways. 

             
“Kenzie—take my hand!”

              Kenzie's eyes opened to find Rowan’s hand perfectly outstretched.  He was watching her in a desperate fashion, his dark blue eyes crinkled with worry. He reached his hand down closer, wiggling his fingers.  “Take my hand,” he said again, and Kenzie found herself bizarrely pleased to hear that it was laced with an edge of panic.

              “I—I can’t,” she said, her stomach flipping with terror.  Rowan's hand was in reach, but could she hold on?  What if she slipped?  She felt all the heat leave her face as she turned a shade of green, suddenly feeling faint.  “I’ll fall!”

              “No, you won’t!” Kenzie felt the gentle brush of Rowan’s outstretched fingers graze the top of her head.  “I won’t let you!  You’ve got to trust me.”

              Kenzie’s breath trembled; her words faltered on her lips as she cautiously tilted her head back to look the boy narrowly in the eyes. 
How can I trust you
? she thought maliciously, glaring at Rowan with great distaste. 
You're a liar!
You lied to me—you’re lying to Nia.  You’re lying to yourself!