Chapter 17: Falling Deeper

We ran together down the dock toward the rocky shore. A wide path began at the end of the pier, and that road wound up and through boulders and hills.

Felix was older and taller, and he easily outpaced me. He moved ahead by several paces once we reached the road, which still had wagon wheel tracks, as if it had been frozen in time. The grass on either side of the road was brown and stiff. The wind didn’t move it at all.

The more we ran forward, the air became thick and heavy, like a storm threatened to sweep away the whole island at any moment, despite the sunny, clear sky, and there was no breeze.

Felix rounded a hill before me, and when I followed, the ruins met us – a stone archway across the road, and beyond that were tall, large buildings made of stone on either side of the road leading to a massive structure at the top of a hill, the palace Galen had talked about. The buildings and palace were without roofs and half of the walls were gone, whether by the explosion Galen spoke about or time or both, I didn’t know.

Felix stopped at the archway, and I joined him there. He scanned the buildings and areas ahead, looking for the danger we both felt.

I stepped closer to him and whispered through my panting. “Hey. Listen. We need to work together on this.”

Felix turned on me with a scowl. “What are you talking about?”

“Look. They want us against each other, divided. That’s what they’ve done to humans for centuries. But we don’t have to participate in that. We can help each other.”

He scoffed. “Haven’t you been paying attention? We’re fighting to survive, here.”

“Have you been listening?” I raised my brow. “We’re going against an immortal wizard. This is so dangerous, Galen and Iletus are waiting back at the boat, ready to leave at any second. If it’s about survival, we need to work together.”

Felix chuckled and shook his head. “Not a chance. You barely made it out of the last test alive. If Mande hadn’t been so stupid to try and kill you himself, he would have beaten you. You might need me, but I don’t need you.”

“Maybe. But maybe not. We don’t know what we’re going to face up there.”

He shook his head. “Like I said, it’s not personal.” He took a deep breath and moved forward in a crouch, his head on a swivel.

I growled and leaned against the archway for a few more moments, watching Felix head to the right, using the buildings as cover. With my own deep breath, I went to the ruins at the left, moving from shadow to shadow, keeping my head down and ready for anything.

Every building I moved past, I searched within for a moment for any items of treasure. No way I would be that fortunate, but I had to try. They were empty shells.

Felix made his way toward the palace, which seemed the likeliest place for any silver or gold, and the best place to find a crazy, powerful wizard.

Closer to the palace, other objects dotted the ground, like deteriorated wooden buckets and rusted iron tools strewn about. A part of me thought of grabbing one of the common hammers and running back to the boat, but no way Galen would count those as treasure.

Tightening my jaw, I crept toward the front door of the palace, which had once been a cast iron gate but was now twisted and torn by some fierce force, a power I didn’t want to encounter.

Felix had already gone before me. I could see his bare footsteps in the dust and ash on the cracked marble floor in the spacious entryway. I went to the right into what seemed a ballroom. Patterns in the floor peeked through the dirt and grime, and broken colored glass covered the ground in front of the high, empty windows along the northern side of the building.

Barefoot, I did my best to pick my way through the ballroom and found my way into a hallway down the center of the palace. Again, hints of common objects littered the hallway and rooms, but nothing of treasure. I approached a thick, wooden door half opened, a bright area beyond it.

I made no sound, sneaking up to the door. I gave the door a gentle push with my fingertips. I caught a glimpse at the vast room within, domed with big, irregular holes in the roof, the sun beaming through.

The ancient hinges squeaked like wounded mice while the door opened. The area past the door seemed empty, as well, so I forced it open another few centimitres.

And a series of detritus cascaded down all around me. I cried out and covered my head with my arms while pieces of wood and iron crashed upon me and the hard floor beneath, stirring up dust and ash. Coughing, I ducked and rolled into the room.

Within a few seconds, I had made a great deal of noise, and the clamor echoed through that room, the hallway behind me, and the whole palace.

Once the garbage stopped falling, I looked up and swore. Someone had wedged those items above the door, a type of trap.

Felix.

All that noise would have woken the dead. Or an immortal wizard.

I stood and wiped the ash from my face. “Not personal, huh?” I muttered and cleared my throat. “Feels pretty breakin’ personal.”

Lightning flashed above the dome, sparking across the cloudless, blue sky.

Slowly, I looked up. My shoulders slumped.

The wind picked up through the holes in the wall and the roof.

“Well, break me,” I whispered.

A whistling, whooshing sound came first, then a figure came crashing through the roof, wood splintering and shattering in all directions. I crossed my arms once more over my eyes, and shards of wood and stone peppered me like small arrows.