Chapter 17

I’m starting to get tired of this. Why is it that I pass out when my memory-sharing ability is triggered – especially when I’m not the one to trigger it?

I wake up to two faces looking down at me. Ruby smiled. “He’s awake.”

From somewhere nearby, I hear Walker say, “Good. Get him to his feet. We have to get moving.”

I shook my head and sat up. “Hold on to your horses, Walker. I’m getting up.”

“Get up faster,” he growled. “We’ve already wasted enough time, waiting for you to disable that wall.”

“Oh, darn!” I said, allowing my sarcasm to control my tone. “You had to wait on me? Too bad none of this was MY IDEA!”

“Don’t you raise your voice to me!” he snapped, his face turning red.

I got to my feet. “Raise my voice to you? Who the fuck do you think you are? We wouldn’t be wasting our time if you would help.”

He shook his head and pulled mom to his side. He tilted his head toward her but kept his eyes on me. In a quiet, yet disingenuous voice, he said, “Your son is forgetting the situation.”

She looked up at him, confused.

He squeezed her to his side to remind me of what was at stake.

I opened my mouth to say something else but then closed it. I glanced to my sides looking to see what Jade and Ruby were doing. Both of them avoided looking at me. No, they wouldn’t be any help. They may not help Walker, but they certainly weren’t going to help me.

I looked at Walker again. He continued to watch me. I waved past him, toward the open hallway. “Well? Are we going, or do you want to waste more time glaring at me?”

He sneered, shot Jade and Ruby angry looks, and then turned, with mom clinging to his arm, to lead us on down the hallway.

Jade and Ruby didn’t say anything. Neither did I. Really what would we say? It wasn’t like I was going to apologize for anything I said, especially to Walker. Neither of them interfered or tried to stop me from getting angry with Walker. It made me wonder, what would they have done had Walker and I started fighting?

The three of us followed Walker through a few hallways. Unlike most of the previous hallways, which seemed to contain mostly stuff that had to do with seduction and sex, now, I found myself inundated with various emotions that had nothing to do with feeling like getting intimate with anyone. I considered summoning Rho for someone to talk to, but I couldn’t chance that someone would overhear my side.

When we turned the corner leading to one particularly long hallway, Jade caught up to me and lightly slapped my shoulder. “What are you thinking, arguing with Walker like that?”

I looked at her. “He deserves everything I do to deter him. Remember, I’m as much a hostage as my mom.”

“Maybe,” Ruby said, “but your mom doesn’t have any power. She’s of no real use down here.”

I spun on her. “And that means I’m better than her?”

“Well...” she hesitated, seeing the anger filling my face. “He’s just using her to make sure you do what you’re told.”

I stepped closer to her, feeling my anger burning hotter. “That does not mean he will simply leave me, her, and everyone back in the manor alone once he has everything he’s after.”

She frowned at me like she was confused. “What would he gain by hurting you after the fact, especially if he believes he might have to return later for something else?”

“That would be the ONLY reason he would have to leave me and mine alive,” I said.

She shook her head, not convinced.

I growled in frustration. “If you believe that, then you may not know the man you’re working for.”

While we argued, I kept an eye on Walker and mom. They reached the next corner and continued without noticing that we had fallen so far behind. I shook my head at anything else Ruby might say and stepped past her to head down the hallway, trying to catch up to Walker and mom.

Before we made it halfway to the corner, we saw a flash of light and heard the sounds of something tearing or ripping. A scream came next, followed by a roar of something big.

I took off running, not caring if Jade or Ruby could keep up.

I was about ten feet away from the corner when Mom came running back our way.

She grabbed me, pointed back at the corner, and stammered, “He ... He ... He...”

Another roar came from around the corner. I had heard lions, tigers, bears, and several other large animals roar, but this was bigger, deeper, and rough – as if this thing had rocks in its throat, grating together or something. Then I was hit with the smell of smoke. Something had been cooked, and, oddly, it smelled like barbeque.

I pulled mom back away from the corner, further back along the hallway through which I had run. Without turning my back on the corner, I focused on mom. “Where’s Walker?” I asked, not sure if I was happy or what about his disappearance.

She shook her head and kept repeating, “He ... he ... he...” Then she stopped. I had to look at her to figure out what was wrong. Her face was pale and she was looking up. Ruby and Jade, both standing behind my mom, were looking up as well.

I frowned and looked in the same direction.

The sound of shifting rocks found me as did something heavy thumping the floor. I thought that maybe the ceiling was caving in, but that wasn’t it. I spotted something made up of rock. It was the same type of stone that made up the walls, floor, and ceiling. However, these formed a rough, elongated head with what looked like horns. The head turned and peered around the corner at us with a pair of red glowing eyes. It wasn’t floating. Instead, it was attached to a long neck. I heard more heavy thumps and more of the body of this inexplicable beast came into view. There were two more heads. One was on a shorter neck than the first, but it had two eight-pound hammers worked into the head like horns. The last head, centered between the other two, was bigger and had a fan of knife blades splayed out around it like a lion’s main or something. Both of these heads had red, glowing eyes that matched that of the first head.

All three heads were attached to a body about the size of a small car. It held itself up on four limbs the size of tree trunks and the front limbs had dagger blades for claws. The stone that made up the hide of the entire thing was broken up. The pieces moved around each other like an odd set of Lego bricks held in place by something under its armor.

Other than missing the wings and not being able to discern details regarding its tail – if it even had one – I knew what this was supposed to represent: a chimera.

The whole thing pulled back and all three heads opened up to roar.

The noise was deafening. I had to clamp my hands over my ears because it was so loud it hurt. I recalled a movie where it was suggested to cover your ears and open your mouth to protect yourself from a grenade explosion in a small space. I opened my mouth too.

When the roar ended, I looked up to find the head on the longest neck pulling back. Somehow, I knew what was coming and I created a shield that extended from one wall to the other and from the floor to the ceiling. It would keep all of us safe from whatever this thing was about to spew at us.

The beast blasted the shield with fire. The fire spread across the translucent shield and smoke billowed up too. We lost sight of the beast for a minute.

I turned to the women. First and foremost, I had to protect my mom. My first thought was to hand her the blanket I still had tucked under my jacket, but something told me that was a bad idea. Instead, I said, “Mom, head toward the end of the hallway, but keep us in sight.”

She looked at me for a second, nodded, and turned to go.

“Why are we staying?” Jade said. “That thing killed Walker.”

I looked at her. “Do you know the way out of here?” It was a rhetorical question and I continued with, “I might be able to find the entrance, but we would have to go back through everything we’ve been through again. Do you want to do that?”

Before either of the women answered, a heavy thud came from the shield. I turned to find the goat head had rammed it and was pulling back to do so again.

I turned to the women again. “Even if Walker is dead, this thing isn’t going to stop.” Another thud hit the shield and I was sure I heard it crack. “We have to dismantle this construct if we want to get out of here in one piece, much less have a chance to find Walker or his body.” A third thud caused more cracking.

“What do we do?” Jade asked.

I shrugged. I had no idea. My shield shattered.

I cast my armor spell and waved the women back. I couldn’t have timed it better because the beast hit me with a huge claw. The sheer size of the claw was roughly the same as a trashcan lid. Between the size of the beast and the weight of the stone, I was like a ragdoll in comparison and easily knocked to the side. My armor protected me from being ripped to shreds by the nails and kept me from being flattened against the stone wall, but I was still dazed from the attack.

For a few seconds, I couldn’t see anything but stars. I kept trying to pick myself up from the floor only to lose my balance and fall back down. I was terrified that the beast would do something else to finish me off.

I shook my head to clear my vision because I thought I saw two beasts. However, my hearing worked just fine. I faced toward the sound of something hitting rock.

As my vision cleared, I could make out Jade holding a pair of her stiletto daggers and watched as she leaped to the side to avoid being clobbered with a claw. Ruby held up her hands as the dragon head spewed fire down at her. She used her version of a shield spell, which redirected the fire away from the pair.

I finally picked myself up off the floor and looked around, looking for anything that might help. There was nothing to use, and I was having trouble thinking straight. I needed something – anything – that would help with this situation. I considered summoning Rho for advice, but while I watched the women struggle with the beast, I believed them to be too close.

The beast lumbered after the women. I looked past it and the pair, down the hall, and spotted my mom watching from nearly the end of the hallway. If this thing got past Ruby and Jade, it would go after her. She would have a head start, but there were so many other obstacles in the vaults making it impossible for her to find a way out.

I looked up at the dragon’s head. It was rearing back for another fire attack. I decided on an inverted bubble shield and cast one on the dragon’s head.

The head tried to breathe fire, only for the fire to be completely contained by the shield. The beast then became enraged. The lion and goat heads roared. The dragon’s head flung around and slammed the shield into the wall and floor, trying to break the shield. The entire construct stumbled around and kicked out in its frustration.

Since the beast wasn’t focused on any one person, I chose to use the distraction and try to open it up to see what was at the core of the construct. I focused and used my telekinesis spell to rip away the entire side of the beast’s torso between the front and rear legs.

The beast bucked, as if in pain, and its hind foot caught me. I flew back to the hallway intersection and slammed into a corner. My armor protected me, but I was much further away from the beast now. It was the only good thing about the new situation because it would take time for me to get to my feet again.

I heard the shield on the dragon’s head shatter, and I heard the thuds of the heavy construct as it turned to come after me.

I shook my head to clear it and got to my feet again. The beast had turned around and had all six glowing eyes locked on me. I looked both ways along the hall that the long one intersected. The walls of one hallway were missing massive sections of stone. I looked at the beast again, noted it would take a moment for it to reach me and made my way toward the torn-up hall.

The chimera continued my way. The dragon head reared and spewed fire at me.

I dove to the side, out of the line of fire.

When I regained my feet, I summoned Rho.

“Yes, Master?” she said, showing up wearing leathers that made her look like some sort of medieval traveler.

I pointed at the corner. “There’s a beast. It looks like a chimera. What made it?”

She frowned in puzzlement and then went to the corner and looked. She gasped and moved over to me. “Where did that come from?”

I waved at the walls around us. “Guess.”

She shook her head. “But this stone was chosen specifically for its ability to suppress magic. There shouldn’t be anything down here, short of a Magus, that can directly manipulate the stone like that.”