They were still looking in the chamber.
There seemed to be nothing more but the shadows suggested that there
was something else hidden.
“There’s nothing here,” surrendered Kiyor.
Manar was spying a tunnel she found, opposite the
way they came in. When walking along this other tunnel, she found a
metal door on one side.
“There are carvings here, recently made,” reported Rowan.
“Where?” asked Kiyor.
“Where the banners were.”
Even the last bodyguard looked around her curiously.
Where the banners had been hanging when Rowan and Kiyor first saw the
place, were carvings of Auras, one on each side of the room.
“There are Angels here!” gasped a bodyguard.
Surely enough, on each side of the dome’s
circumference and exactly a quarter of the way round from the Aura
carvings, were carvings of Angels. The Angels had wings of feathers
while the Auras were depicted with the wings of bats. Whispers began to
mock them in laughter.
Hawk wandered along the chamber.
“Don’t go too far,” warned Siren.
Her brother smirked. “I won’t go too
far. I just get restless if I stand around too long. Besides
there’s no movement here.”
Hawk slowly walked towards the way they came in. The
place was eerily silent. Considering that they were in someplace well
lit, the silence bothered the pair not too much. Hawk’s footsteps
were the only sounds in the room. He reached the way they came and
stared down the tunnel for a bit. His face turned quizzical.
“Who took the body?” he called out.
Siren panicked. “There’s someone here! Come on Hawk! We have to warn the others!”
The whispering in the chamber suddenly turned louder; they could hear
“Run”, “They’ll get you”, “Not
safe”, “Get out”, “Danger”, “the
Fear”, “they hunger”. A screech echoed in
Rowan’s head, making her scream.
“ROWAN! ROWAN!” Kiyor was shaking her, like she was in a nightmare.
Hawk and Siren ran into the chamber.
“Someone’s here, we’ve got to get out!” told
Siren.
“Someone took the body,” told Hawk.
The walls started changing shape, faces loomed out.
They tried to run out the way they came but a wall was shimmering into
existence. Manar shouted to go the other way so they did. Rowan rushed
through the airy wall. Kiyor banged against stone.
Rowan banged on the other side. “KIYOR!
KIYOR!” She could hear Kiyor shouting too. She had to get him
out! She couldn’t leave him in darkness like Larees!
Manar and the other bodyguards pulled Rowan away.
“We have to leave Mistress! We’ll come back for him
later!”
Hawk opened the metallic door and rushed up the
stairs behind it. A shaky Rowan had to be forced up the stairs. At the
top of the eternally stretching stairs was a door. Hawk opened this
door and struggled through the piles of boxes and chairs into the
storage room. People wandered in a little confused. Rowan had mostly
recomposed herself. Hawk kept leading and looking around. He then found
another door and opened that.
Everyone went through this door and hurried up the
stairs into the dark room. Siren locked the door and followed everyone
else. Even though it was dark, light from the fading moon filtered
through the windows and outlined solid boxes and a stage.
Hawk scoffed. “A deactivated casino.”
“Good cover for sorcery,” said Siren.
“All of you go out through the main entrance
and wait outside,” told Manar. “We’ll have to find
the others.”
Rowan was idly following the three but her bodyguard held her back.
Manar seemed more relaxed and warm.
“Couldn’t help but notice you were freaked out back there.
You alright?”
“I’m fine,” replied Rowan in a neutral tone.
Manar’s posture stated: ‘Yeah right.’
Rowan led her away. “We have more important things to think about Manar. We need to act now.”
“At once
Mistress,” Manar insulted, yet almost spat.
They found themselves in the cemetery once more. All the other bodyguards were gathered at the side of the memorial building.
“You’re all here?” checked Siren with obvious curiosity.
“Sure we’re here,” answered a man
who was possibly her cousin. “We bolted as soon as
‘shadows’ killed this guy.” He indicated the dead
body behind him.
“Shadows?” enquired Manar to his partner.
The woman shook her head but spoke neutrally.
“I can’t describe it. He just went here for a leak and
someone killed him…but no one was here. I realised there was
immediate danger so I got the others.”
“I praise your intuition,” told Rowan. “There was danger.”