Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (7 page)

But I still said it. “I can’t trace or open
a doorway.” My breath was coming out in small little huffs. “We’re
stuck here, Luce.”

And I needed to get to Nephilius before the
tournament.

Not to mention I needed to save the worlds
if the Seventine were all released. Neither of those things was
going to happen if I was indefinitely stuck in pixie land.

A feeling of helplessness flooded my being,
something I hadn’t felt since enlightening as a Walker. Breaking my
melding bond had weakened me, but I’d still never felt this useless
before.

I sank to the ground. Cerberus lay next to
me, his huge heads nudging into my side, and with a huff of air he
closed all four eyes and went to sleep.

“
I feel like
I’m back on Earth.” Tears sprang to my eyes.
Stupid and annoying were these emotions coursing through me
with the speed and power of a tsunami. “I can’t save
us.”

I knew deep down that I’d been taking my
Walker abilities for granted, tracing wherever I wanted with ease,
relying on Brace or Josian if I got into trouble, using my energy
to do things which I could have used my own physical self to do.
Now it looked like I was back to my time on the streets of New
York, relying only on my common sense and instincts to guide
me.

Lucy
crouched on the side away from Cerberus. Her hands reached out and
she rubbed my arm. “Abby, you’re still strong and powerful. We’ll
find a way out of here. There’s always something, and you and I
will not give up until we
discover it.”
Her flower eyes were calming – something about the color yellow did
that to me – and her voice was soothing as she continued
talking.

“My gut tells me that in the end when you
face the Seventine it won’t be your Walker powers that save us. It
will be the earthling, human side of you. The side which learned to
scrape herself up and use that genius mind to save herself and
others from shitty situations. You might have forgotten that side
in your flood of awesome Walker abilities, but you were pretty
awesome before them.”

I rested my head on Cerberus’ soft
shoulders. His Walker energy rose and mingled with mine. It was as
soothing as Lucy’s new pixie façade. I thought about her words. The
conviction with which she spoke was reassuring. I sat up a little
straighter.

“You’re right, I was sent to Earth for a
reason, to learn something. Maybe that which could help us in the
final battle.” And I needed to be both girls now, the Walker and
the earthling.

Cerberus
shifted under me, and a low growl started. I lifted my head to see
what had upset him. I suspected it was Refis returning. I
looked
more thoroughly, though, as Lucy
then scrambled to her feet.

“Do you feel it?” Her voice was low and
hard. “Something angry is coming our way.”

I stood in one smooth motion. I didn’t like
the sound of her words.

“Angry?” I said. “You can feel its
emotions?”

“Yes.” she bit out. “But I can’t see
anything.”

I couldn’t either, but this world hid many
things from us.

“Refis!” Lucy suddenly threw her head back
and started to shriek.

I stopped looking around and started
focusing on the spectacle that was Lucy. She was freaking out,
running both hands through her blond curls, and shuffling
backwards. “Help us!”

Her reaction felt a little over the top,
considering we couldn’t even see what was coming at us. But just in
case I gathered the small amounts of energy that I could access
there. Cerberus was on his feet too, and he was huge again, which
sent trills of fear through me. His worry was far worse than
Lucy’s. He was massive and ferocious; what the hell was coming at
us?

One of his heads nudged me back behind him,
as his ominous growls filled the space around us.

“Run!” Refis yelled.

We spun our heads to see the pixie flying
toward us, his sword held aloft. “It’s the goblins.”

As with most
of the danger
s in my life, his warning
came too late.

In a
swirling mass, creatures flew in over the treetops. They were small
and dark red in color, with angry eyes and fat little pot bellies.
They had tufts of hair on various parts of their bodies and bulbous
noses that sat just above a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. Within
mere moments t
hirty of them started to
circle about eight feet above us.

Refis spoke,
doing that voice projection thing again. “Don’t let their skin
touch you. It’s poison
ous and will burn a
hole straight through anything, including your clothes. And they
spit the same poison.” He was closing in on us, but the goblins
were going to attack first.

With a whistling sound, the first one dived
down toward Lucy. I blasted my energy out and was satisfied to hear
a smacking sound as it hit the creature hard. With a shriek the fat
body tumbled away. I called more heat to my hand and waited for the
next attack.

Damn! I wish I could access all of my Walker
energy.

They circled us again. It looked as if they
were hesitating to attack, unsure of what else I might do. This
allowed Refis to reach us. His sword rang out and sliced a goblin
across the throat. Too busy looking into the air, I hadn’t even
seen it creeping on the ground toward us. Its goopy black blood
sprayed out a little, and my shoes sizzled as it touched the rubber
soles. I quickly stepped clear.

“Everything about them is lethal to us,” I
warned Lucy.

“Should we try and run for cover?” she
asked.

Refis shook
his head. “They’re too fast, especially with air advantage. But if
you can give me a few minutes – it takes longer because of the
protections on the castle – I’
ll open a
portal inside. The queen will understand in this
circumstance.”

He started performing the complicated
movements with his sword again.

“Alright, Luce, let’s kick some goblin ass,”
I said.

We stood back to back, so no critter could
sneak up on us.

They came in groups of six, surrounding us
on all sides. I had both hands held aloft, power filling them in
wisps of light. The first six were taken out by a growling
Cerberus. His huge paws swiped through them as if they were pieces
of paper. He was clever enough to not use his teeth, instead
utilizing claws and paws as his weapons. And he never yelped, even
though I could see red patches where his fur had been burnt
away.

I blasted two from the next round of red
goblins. Lucy kicked out, her boots and jeans thick enough to
protect her. Her foot crushed a bulbous nose, followed by another
and another.

“Considering they’re as ugly as heck, you’d
think they’d be stronger on the brains front.” Lucy round-house
kicked one, breaking its arm this time. “They don’t even have a
game plan. Why are they just coming at us randomly?”

Cerberus was taking them out faster than we
could process, but one still breached our defenses and landed on my
arm. I cried out as the acidity of its skin burnt through my jacket
and onto my vulnerable skin below. One of Cerberus’ large heads
swung around and he let out a ferocious bark. His tail jabbed out
and the pointed end speared straight through the goblin.

Holy shit, I hadn’t realized how lethal his
tail was. The pain in my arm distracted me again, burning deep into
my body. One of Cerberus’ heads dropped down and he licked at my
wound a few times. Immediately there was relief from the burning,
and the healing process appeared to be accelerated. The burn was
gone within seconds.

“Thanks, Cere,” I said, giving his head a
hug.

“
These are
the distraction, now their guards are coming,” Refis
said
, answering Lucy’s question from
before.

He still stood apart from us. So far the
goblins had not reached him; none could make it over Cerberus.

“On my command you need to dive through this
portal.”

I turned back to the goblins, wondering what
the guards were, and then I saw them.

Emerging from the trees on the left side of
the castle. They were exact replicas of the red, potbellied fliers,
but they did not fly, and they were massive. They marched in
formation toward us, and when they noticed Refis and his portal,
they stopped their slow process and started at a run.

At that moment a mass of pixies poured from
the castle, heading toward the large goblins.

“The queen’s army,” Refis said. “Too slow as
usual.”

He wasn’t
kidding. I’d have to say they
weren’t
really keen to fight the goblins, judging from their leisurely
flight out of the stone building. The massive red creatures were
closing in.

“Refis, what the hell are you doing?” Lucy
shouted.

And I wasn’t far behind her this time.

If they hit
us, it was going to be bad.
Each of them
was almost the size of Cerberus and we only had one of him. There
were at least ten of them.

“Now!” his shout finally came.

I gripped Lucy’s hand. Cerberus nudged us
from behind. At the last second I released a large blast of energy
to knock the smaller goblins away from us. We ran for the split
Refis had created. It took five steps, less for our giant doggy
friend, and we were inside. And I felt a tearing sensation this
time, as if something was trying to halt us leaving.

Muttered words from Refis seemed to be
working toward knitting back together the rift he’d created.

“Can they follow us through?” Lucy leaned
forward, resting her hands on her knees.

Her breath came out in a few harsh puffs.
Which was fair enough, she had been kicking the shit out of
goblins.

“Not if I get it closed in time,” he
muttered again. He was one cranky little pixie.

I could hear screeches, and a few little red
arms were trying to tear apart the void, but before that happened
the knitting process finished and we were safe.

“How many different species are stuck in
this land?” I said, locking my gaze on to Refis. I wasn’t removing
it until he answered. If we were to survive here we needed more
information.

“There are a few. Some we live with
peacefully, other we battle at times. Warring over land and
resources.” His green face fell, the lines of his alien features
drooping. “But mostly boredom. We are all stuck here and have been
for many years. I’ve tried every possible avenue for escape, but to
no avail.”

I rubbed my
chest. Those heart palpitations seemed to kick in harder when he
m
entioned the inability to leave pixie
land. Helplessness and fear warred within my body. To distract my
thoughts I focused on where we were.

Refis’ portal had landed us in a darkened
room. It was small. Stone lined the walls and, judging by the
shelves and random junk, it was used either for storage or cleaning
equipment. The limited space pushed us close together and thank the
gods Cerberus was back to his horse size. Still his doggy drool was
dripping very close to my face, but if he’d been full size we’d all
have been squashed against the walls.

“So are there any unexplored avenues of
escape? Something that others have failed at?” Lucy wasn’t giving
up; she started to push Refis for information.

“The only way to leave is via the road of
perdition,” he said. “I have traversed the path, but the end is
forever closed. The queen’s pain locked us in here. She’s the only
one with a clue as to how we can escape. I’m hoping that today, if
I bring her … some news … well, she might come back to
reality.”

Awesome. Perdition and a space-cadet queen.
Well, at least we had Cerberus, hell-hound for the road to hell.
Seemed fitting.

Refis squeezed past me, and light flooded
the room as he slowly opened a door. It was massive, at least ten
foot high. Not to mention the ceilings, which towered well into the
air.

“Stay close,” Refis said, before he sidled
out of the dark room and into the light beyond.

I reached the door first, but Cerberus
gently nudged me to the side so he could squeeze himself through
the opening. His body blocked us in for a few moments – Lucy and I
avoided the tail – before finally he moved aside, allowing us to
exit the storage room. With two heads he could look down both sides
of the hall at the same time. Very convenient. I could see Refis
marching along, quite a distance from us, so I pushed past my guard
dog and hurried after him. Lucy stayed close to my side. Cerberus
followed. I felt safer having him at my back.

The hall ran for miles, twisting and turning
within the labyrinth of this castle. There were many intersections
where we had to turn left or right, and the stone walls never
changed color or texture. Without Refis’ slender form in the
distance we’d have been lost instantly.

“Feels like he’s leading us on a pointless,
haven’t-we-been-here-ten-times-already journey.” Lucy’s breathing
was heavy. She had to really move to keep up with me, even though
I’d slowed my pace considerably.

I was just about to respond when the hallway
was abruptly cut off by a massive stone wall that extended all the
way into the ceiling. Refis was standing before it, his back to us
as he stared at the structure blocking our path.

“How do we get through?” I demanded as I
reached his side.

“Patience,” he cautioned me, one of his
hands resting against the stonework. “This is the prison section of
the castle. It was designed to be very difficult to escape from.”
His eyes sparkled at me, followed by an uncharacteristic grin.
“Unless, of course, one holds the key.”

And just like that he pulled out a brick
from the center of the wall. A brick that looked exactly the same
as the hundreds of others. But as soon as the stone was removed,
the wall magically crashed down around our feet. And yet there was
no noise and no stones actually on the ground.