Wind Warrior (17 page)

The castle was silent as she crept down the
hall leading to the throne room. The heavy oil on the buckles of
her leather armor kept them from creaking as she moved, leaving her
silent as she slid down the hallway. Despite the faint glow from
the lava outside, most of the castle was asleep, adhering to an
obscure sense of day and night within the perpetually lit cave.

She peered around the corner of the hall and
toward the large, throne room doors. For a brief moment, she held
to the hope that the doors to the throne room would be unguarded.
Sadly, a pair of guards stood stoically to either side of them,
their gazed affixed firmly ahead.

Sighing, she stepped around the corner and
approached the men. The guard closest to her shifted his gaze but
he relaxed visibly as he recognized her.

“
Lady Balor,” the guard
said as she approached. “What brings you here at this late
hour?”

“
Lord Balor wishes me to
retrieve something left behind in the throne room,” she replied,
hoping her nervousness wasn’t evident in her voice.

The second guard cleared his throat. “I’m
sorry, my Lady, but we have strict orders not to let anyone into
the throne room without either Lord Balor’s or General Abraxas’
direct authorization.”

Sammy felt herself sweating beneath the
form-fitting armor, though she realized it had little to do with
the heat. This would be her only chance to explore before she left
again in the morning. If she couldn’t convince the guards to let
her pass, then she would never have another opportunity like this
one.

She thought about how her father might react
in a similar situation. He had an uncanny ability to convince Fire
Warriors to do his bidding through a combination of confidence and
unspoken threats.

“
I told you,” she said,
assuming a more regal tone, “that I’m coming on my father’s
behalf.”

The nearest guard swallowed hard and Sammy
immediately knew that her presence was affecting their resolve.

“
I—I can’t let you in,” he
stammered. “Not without Lord Balor explicitly telling me to do
so.”

Sammy frowned, a move that was as much a
calculated expression as one of general disappointment. She knew
her options were fading quickly away, which left her only with one
final gambit.

“
Fine,” she said angrily.
“Then let’s go wake up my father. Let’s go wake up Lord Balor and
tell him that you’ve refused to follow his direct orders and denied
his only child entrance into his throne room at his behest. Which
of you is brave enough to be the one to tell him? You? Or maybe
you?”

The two guards looked at one another
nervously. Sammy knew she was following a dangerous path. If either
guard called her bluff, then she didn’t even want to fathom the
reaction and punishment she might receive from her father.

After what seemed like an eternity, the
closest guard turned back to her.

“
My apologies, Lady Balor.
Please go right ahead.”

They opened the doors for her and she
stepped into the vaulted throne room. As the doors clicked loudly
into place behind her, she released the breath that she didn’t even
realize she’d been holding. Her heart raced in her chest and she
was forced to lean against a pillar for support as her legs
threatened to give out beneath her.

Steadying herself, Sammy hurried across the
throne room until she reached the raised dais. She slid past the
ornate stone throne and pushed aside the hanging tapestry behind
it.

She immediately felt crestfallen. She had
assumed that after watching her father disappear into the secret
passage, the trigger to open the door would be obvious. To her
dismay, it wasn’t. She stared at the towering gray cobblestone
wall, knowing that one of these stones was the one that needed to
be pressed to open the secret passage.

Sammy leaned in close to the stonework and
examined the varyingly sized stones. Some were nearly the size of
her head, while others were carved to fill in gaps, leaving them
slightly smaller than her fist. There were literally hundreds of
possibilities standing before her and her time was far too short to
search them all.

Nervously, she pressed against some of
stones around her head level. From where she had spied through the
crack in the door, she had seen her father pressing a stone higher
on the wall. Her efforts offered nothing in return.

She wanted to bang her fists against the
rocks in frustration but didn’t for fear of alerting the guards.
Sammy chewed on her bottom lip and tugged absently on the end of
her long braid as she stared at the wall.

“
Come on, Sammy,” she
whispered. “Think! This is a secret passage behind the throne of
one of the Fire Lords. Maybe…”

She paused as she looked at the wall
again.

“
Maybe the trigger stone
gives off heat?” she said, without much hope of success.

She closed her eyes and held her open palm
out before her. Slowly, she ran it past the stones, concentrating
on detecting any heat emanating from the stonework.

As her hand passed a stone just above her
right shoulder, she felt a violent tug in her gut, as though the
cobblestones were pulling at her very soul. The tug grew stronger
and she felt her power flowing unbidden through her hand.

She tried to pull her hand away but it
seemed transfixed over the now glowing stone. It shone with an
inner light, like magma was boiling right underneath its surface.
Sammy felt drained and she tried in vain again to pull her hand
back.

The heat in her hand grew more intense, to
the point that it was causing her physical pain. Flames poured
soundlessly from her hand and were as quickly absorbed into the
cobblestone wall. Sammy coughed, as the stone seemed to drain even
the air from her lungs.

When she thought she couldn’t take any more
and unconsciousness threatened at the corners of her vision, the
flow of power suddenly stopped. The burning stone flared a quick,
vibrant red before returning to its lackluster gray.

The wall before her shifted and grated
across the floor as the secret passage revealed itself. Sammy
groaned and was forced to sit on the steps of the dais to regain
her composure before daring to enter the tunnel.

Whatever was down this tunnel, she had to
remind herself, it had drastically changed her father. It had
stripped away the compassionate man that had existed before her
powers manifested when she turned eighteen. Whatever was down this
tunnel, she swore it had caused Lord Balor to show fear when she
asked him about it in her room. Anything that caused her father to
fear wasn’t to be taken lightly.

When she felt confident that she could walk
without stumbling on weak legs, Sammy stood and entered the narrow
tunnel.

The heat within the tunnel was oppressive,
far more than she was even used to within the lava-filled cavern
behind her. Her nervous sweat evaporated as soon as it left her
skin, leaving her feeling parched and lightheaded. It only grew
hotter and more stifling as she walked down the gently sloping
tunnel.

The way ahead was completely dark and she
was forced to create a small flame in her hand to illuminate the
passage. The tunnel was made of worked stone and she passed massive
rock support pillars every few feet, causing her to turn sideways
to fit between them.

She followed the tunnel for a long ways,
constantly wandering deeper and deeper into the earth. The heat
grew more intense until her skin seemed to crawl. Sammy found
herself absently scratching the exposed skin around her forearms
and neck as it itched more and more in the heat. Her breathing
became labored and she felt lightheaded, as though the oxygen were
being burned out of the air around her.

Heaving, Sammy paused and leaned against one
of the support pillars. She leaned her head against the stone,
hoping the coolness would alleviate some of her discomfort but even
it radiated heat.

She glanced over her shoulder, wondering if
it was worth discovering what at the end of this tunnel had so
greatly affected her father. Coughing loudly in the narrow stone
passage, she wondered if it would be worth discovering it if she
lacked the energy to make it back to the castle alive.

The difference between the loving father
from her youth and the callous man who now sat on the throne drove
her forward again. Sammy pushed away from the pillar and staggered
back down the descending hallway.

She wondered how long she had been walking.
Ten minutes? Thirty? An hour? The guards surely had noticed she
wasn’t coming back by now. She wondered who they would tell; if her
father or General Abraxas would be the first person they awoke to
warn about her betrayal. Even if she made it back to the surface,
she might face a short-lived victory before facing either or both
of their wraths.

As she wandered down the hall, she wondered
why she was putting herself through this. She was betraying
everything she’d known, everything she’d been taught since birth.
Despite her concerns, she knew why she was searching for answers.
Xander. Just the thought of his name sent relieving chills all over
her body. It made no sense that she’d long for him after only a few
days together but being apart from him was leaving her in anguish.
Whatever was pulling them together, it was far more supernatural
than a normal attraction.

While her thoughts were consumed with
memories of Xander, she reached the end of the narrow hall. The
passage gave way to a cavernous room. The walls of the room
stretched to either side of her, disappearing in shadows far beyond
reach of the meager flame in her hand. Glancing upward, she could
barely tell the curve of the ceiling before it, too, vanished into
gloomy darkness.

Nervously, she caused the flame in her hand
to grow until the tips of the flames licked high above her head.
Even with the intense flame burning in her hand, the massive room
swallowed her light with its darkness well before it lit to either
the ceiling or any other nearby walls.

The light slowly faded back to flickering
candlelight in her hand before she extinguished it completely,
casting the entire room into blinding darkness.

It wasn’t the intimidation she felt at the
dauntingly enormous room that caused her to extinguish her flame.
Instead, it was a feeling in her gut—an inordinate sense that she
wasn’t alone in the room. In such a dark chamber, her flame was a
beacon for the creature that resided within.

Sammy reached out and gently touched the
wall behind her. She slid her feet on the stone floor to make sure
she didn’t trip as she backed against it. Each scrape of her booted
foot sounded like steel grating against steel to her heightened
hearing. Her own heartbeat sounded like a drum pounding as it
rushed past her ears. She could feel her eyes dilating as they
tried to adjust to the inky blackness but she couldn’t see anything
this far underground.

“
I hear you breathing,
fleshling.
”

The voice sounded like a whisper but was
full enough to fill the cavernous room. It sent shivers of fear
washing over her.

“
Come
closer
,” the unseen voice hissed.
“
I can already taste your fear in the air.
It’s intoxicating.
”

“
Who’s there?” Sammy said,
her body shaking uncontrollably. “Show yourself!”

A jet of flame roared across the far end of
the room. Its sudden brilliance was blinding after the complete
darkness in which she’d been standing. Sammy raised a hand to block
away the sudden light but it faded as quickly as it had come,
leaving her once again in the all-consuming black.

Sammy’s heart pounded and she slid along the
wall toward the passage, eager to be gone from this living
nightmare. Her foot nudged against a loose rock on the ground and
it tumbled away, bouncing loudly against the protruding
stonework.

Across the room, a single, massive orb of an
eye opened and stared at the frozen Fire Warrior. The reptilian eye
glowed a sickly yellow; its vertical pupil contracting as it stared
across the cavern. The draconic orb blinked once, disappearing
momentarily before reappearing and staring at Sammy.

“
Leaving so soon,
fleshling? I’ll see you again.
”

Ignoring her previous concerns about her
light, Sammy ignited a flame in her hand and ran into the narrow
passage. Mocking laughter followed her as she fled quickly.

The trip back up the inclined hall was far
quicker than she remembered on her descent. The secret doorway was
still opened and she handily knocked aside the dangling tapestry
before staggering back into the throne room.