Anilyia (32 page)

He looked at Liselle. She shook her head and
shrugged. Vevin moved forward to look more closely at the lighted
panel. Tathan might be able to figure it out, but magical locks
were a great deal more difficult than regular ones and the Rojuun
used an entirely different system than human wizards.

After a moment of studying the panel and the
force field, Vevin reached down, grabbed the top right hand of the
closest unconscious guard and placed it on the panel. The trick
worked and the barrier disappeared. “It works by hand wrinkles,”
Vevin explained.

“Hand wrinkles?” Tathan asked.

“Yes, look at your hand, there’re all sorts
of wrinkles on it.” Tathan did and noticed the lines. Mystics at
fairs often made a living by interpreting what the lines meant.
Vevin held up the guard’s hand, bending it at an odd angle. Tathan
looked closely and saw that they had similar lines, just more of
them. The textures of hand and finger pads were rough in comparison
to his. Vevin explained, “Everyone’s hand wrinkles are different,
even theirs. The magic pad reads the hand wrinkles.” He grinned at
them and let the arm flop to the ground.

“That is exceptional work, how did you
know?” Sir Danth asked.

“I’m amazing,” Vevin replied with a toothy
smile, generating laughter from the companions. Princess Anilyia
stared at Vevin. Tathan noticed that her eyes seemed to get wide a
lot. He wondered if that was a habit, or just the fact that their
party was so amazing.

“Alright, let’s see what’s behind here.
There’s likely to be danger judging by the security measures they
have, so be ready for trouble,” Tathan warned. They all nodded. He
scanned each of them. When he had told them to be ready for
trouble, they just stood there acting like they normally would.

“Is something wrong, Master Tathan?” Sir
Danth asked.

“No . . . it’s just that if I told anyone
else to be ready, they’d draw weapons and get ready for a fight.
You three don’t really do anything to prepare,” Tathan
explained.

“There is no need,” Sir Danth said with a
wave of his hand. “Master Vevin is a weapon, Lady Liselle casts her
magic in the blink of an eye and my sword is always in my hand,
regardless of whether or not it is in my hand,” he said
cryptically. Then he turned to the princess. “And her majesty is a
beautiful flower not made to fight.”

Liselle snorted in contempt. “She is
not
a flower, and I’ll thank you not to suggest such a thing
again, Sir Danth.”

Anger and hurt flashed across the princess’s
face as she momentarily forgot her fear of Liselle. “I am so a
flower!” she protested.

Fire flared in Liselle’s eyes. “I know
flowers better than anyone in the world, and you are most
definitely
not
a flower.” The princess backed up, still
angry, but not enough to challenge Liselle.

“Cousin, peace,” Tathan said with a hand on
her shoulder.

The fire went out and she looked at him
repentantly. “I’m sorry, Tathan. The feeling from beyond is setting
me on edge and I’m getting tired too,” she said with a weary
gesture past where the barrier used to be.

“It’s alright. Let’s get this over with,”
Tathan said, turning up the passage. Then he heard the sobbing.
Tathan sighed and hung his head before turning back around.
Princess Anilyia was bawling while everyone else stood around
staring at her. He sighed again and walked back into the guard
chamber. “Come along, Your Highness, we’ll get you out of here
soon.”

She didn’t respond, her shoulders heaving
with each new sob. Vevin, Liselle and Sir Danth exchanged glances
and shrugged in unison. Tathan sighed again. There was only one
thing to do. He went to her and put arms around her in comfort.

The princess instantly threw her arms around
his waist and sobbed into his shoulder. He let her spend a moment
getting the worst of it out. The orange barrier came back up behind
him and he was helpless to prevent yet another sigh from escaping
his lips. Vevin grabbed the unconscious guard’s hand and pressed it
against the panel to reopen the barrier. “We should go before it
closes, Tathan,” Vevin stated.

Tathan nodded. The princess felt good
against his chest, even if she was crying. He liked holding women.
They were soft and sometimes they smelled good like the princess
did. But it was time to go. He took her by the upper arms and held
her so he could look down into her eyes. “Hey, hey. Look at me
now.” She slowly lifted her head. Her eyes were bloodshot and
filled with tears as she tried to regain control.

“I know you’re scared, but I need you to
trust that we’re going to get you out of here as soon as we can,
alright?” he asked in soothing tones. She moved her hands to his
chest, leaning on him for support as she nodded. He smiled
encouragingly. “Stay with Sir Danth. He’ll keep you safe and there
isn’t anything that can break through that armor.” The princess
nodded again and feebly smiled back, still too distraught to speak.
At least the sobs had stopped.

Tathan turned back to the new hall and
entered. The passage wasn’t long, leading to large, stone double
doors. Tathan leaned down to check the metal handles for traps,
reaching into his jacket for lock-picks. “It’s not locked, Tathan,”
Vevin said from behind him. Tathan sighed and stood up, ignoring
the giggle from Liselle.

He wondered what the best way to proceed
would be. Should he sneak in, knock or wait for someone to come
through. He quickly discarded the idea of waiting. It wouldn’t do
for the guards to wake up or for someone to come along and find
them.

“Whatever the feeling is, it’s coming from
behind those doors,” Liselle said. “Please be careful.”

“It would be polite to knock,” Sir Danth
informed him.

“I have no desire to be polite here,” Tathan
responded. “Be ready for a fight.” With that, he opened the door
and moved instantly to the right side, his sword drawn. Sir Danth
led the princess to the left, keeping her behind him while Liselle
and Vevin walked through the middle.

What they saw next, shocked them to the
bone. The companions had entered a large cavern with lights hanging
from the ceiling. Throughout the cavern were metal tables with
bodies on them,
human
bodies. The cool, motionless air
smelled of cleaning liquids mixed with blood and decay. Rojuun
healers in robes stood at many of the tables with sharp implements
in their hands, dissecting those bodies.

No one noticed the newcomers right away,
which was good because the companions were paralyzed by the scene.
Bodies had coldly been cut into pieces and opened for inspection.
Blood was on the tables and floor around many of them as well as on
the robes of the Rojuun. It was more brutal and ruthless than
anything Tathan had seen in any battlefield or back alley. He
wondered where they got the bodies, whether from Alluu or one of
the other cities. Perhaps they were prisoners of the Iynath
Empire’s war.

Princess Anilyia screamed, the shrill noise
echoing throughout the harsh cave. There was no moss or plant life
to muffle the sound as though such things had rejected this room
and its unnatural purpose. Sure enough, every Rojuun in the room
turned in their direction. A few immediately began preparing
spells.

Then Vevin roared. A macabre grin lit
Tathan’s face when the dragon dashed forward. He turned to see
Liselle standing there with silent tears streaming down her face.
Sir Danth was on the other side gesturing for Tathan to grab the
princess who was still screaming at the top of her lungs.

Tathan was there in a few steps. Anilyia
flung herself into his arms and began sobbing, hiding her face from
the gruesome sight of the dead bodies. He also put a hand on
Liselle’s shoulder in comfort, all the while thinking that he
should really be out there fighting.

As soon as Tathan had the princess, Sir
Danth shifted next to two of the Rojuun who had begun casting
spells. The knight’s blade flashed through the air cutting through
their chests as easily as if their bodies were made of butter.
Blood sprayed everywhere as the bodies fell, but it dripped off the
knight’s armor and sword.

Vevin ripped apart two with a claw and hit
another with his tail. The force of the blow sent the Rojuun flying
to smash against the nearest wall and fall to the ground, lifeless.
The rest either fainted or ran screaming toward the other two sets
of doors leading out of the cavern. Tathan thought that Rojuun
screamed more than most women he had met, especially when Vevin
went full dragon.

Meanwhile, Sir Danth had shifted to another
pair of Rojuun and quickly dispatched them. Princess Anilyia was
looking back and forth between the knight and dragon as though
trying to figure out which was more frightening.

He noticed his cousin was bathed in fire
again, only this time it was up the length of her arms. Tathan
removed his hand from her shoulder and took a step back. She turned
to him and used that otherworldly voice again. “Go beyond those
doors,” she said, pointing to a pair of doors across the way,
heading northwest. The blue fire coming out of her mouth was
surreal, like smokeless flames close to the wood of a hot fire. He
was entranced by it until the princess pulled on his arm. She
seemed more afraid of Liselle than the knight, dragon or horrors of
the cavern they were in.

They ran in that direction, doing their best
not to get too close to the tables. The princess had her dress
hiked up around her calves and was moving as fast as she could.
Tathan stayed close to her. Sir Danth appeared at the doors and
quickly killed three Rojuun who had just opened them in a desperate
attempt to get away from the dragon. Vevin roared again before
heading toward the door, stepping over the tables and their
dissected bodies. Sir Danth led the party into the tunnel a short
ways. Vevin became human again so he could fit. Then they turned
and looked for Liselle.

She appeared at the tunnel entrance. Seeing
they were safe, she turned around. A deafening crack filled the air
and the rock floor in front of her broke. Water spouted forth,
reaching for Liselle. Tathan dashed forward to rescue her, only to
be grabbed and held by Vevin. “It’s magic,” he said. Tathan stopped
struggling against his grip and they watched the magic unfold.

The water swirled around Liselle, mixing
with her fire to become a living entity that was both liquid and
heat. She held her arms out to thrust the firewater into the
cavern. The roar drowned out all sound as the cavern was flooded. A
sharp smell, similar to rain, filled the air.

From what little they could see, the
destruction was complete. Bolted tables were ripped out of the
ground with ease and flung against the far wall. Human and Rojuun
bodies disintegrated under the spell, regardless of whether they
were dead or alive.

For three minutes, water spiraled up to mix
with Liselle’s flames creating the destructive flow. It stopped
just as suddenly as it had started. Liselle stood at the entrance
to the tunnel, staring at the cavern, her fire spent. Tathan and
Vevin both rushed forward to catch her, but were surprised when she
didn’t fall. They each grabbed an arm upon reaching her.

She smiled. “Hi. It’s all better,” she said,
gesturing to the now empty room. They looked and saw that there was
no longer any trace of the wickedness that had existed before. The
blood was washed clean, the bodies gone and even the tables had
been annihilated. Sir Danth and the princess walked up behind them.
If Anilyia had been impressed by Liselle’s power before, she was
absolutely in awe now.

“Liselle,” Tathan said gently. “You must be
exhausted. We’ll get you someplace safe and let you rest. Vevin can
carry you if need be.”

“I’m not tired at all. In fact, I feel
completely refreshed,” she replied with a smile. Upon seeing his
frown, she laughed lightly. “I told you, the world didn’t like what
was happening in that room. It asked me to cleanse it and I did so.
In return, it rewarded me.”

“Rewarded?” Tathan asked, suddenly very
interested. “What reward did it give you?”

The smile became mysterious. “Knowledge,”
she answered. Then she turned to walk down the new tunnel. Princess
Anilyia jumped out of her way. “The world also refreshed me so that
I’m not hungry and tired. It also told me how to get out of the
tunnels.” The rest of them hurried along behind her, eager to
escape yet mystified by everything that had just happened.

Her Royal Highness, Princess Anilyia Felicia
Romenia Illiath Turllisa Wannita Ullbra of the Kingdom of Mayncal
was miserable. Being a princess sucked. Sure, there were nice
clothes, admirers who wanted to be her, servants to take care of
her every need, powerful people paying attention to her and nice
clothes, which bore repeating. More than anything, she missed the
nice clothes. They felt good against her skin and made her feel
beautiful. Everyone complimented her on them.

They wouldn’t compliment her on the dress
she wore now though! It was torn and tattered. She didn’t like it
anyway. Those stupid, evil Rojuun had made it for her and they
simply had no eye for design, probably because their eyes were
stupid. Everything about the Rojuun was stupid. Why did anyone need
four arms and two voices anyway? If they were truly as impressive
as they thought, they would be able to succeed with the proper
amount of two arms and one voice. Instead, they had to cheat.
Rojuun were grotesque as far as she was concerned.

It didn’t help that they had kept her a
prisoner. Being a princess was great until someone accosted you in
the royal garden in the middle of the night, killed your personal
guards and your best friend, dragged you to the evil Iynath Empire
and teleported you to a godforsaken hole in the ground with
monsters to watch over you while waving their arms and trying to
murder you with their singing.