Chapter 7

"Come on, Jorie. We must move quickly. Two thousand years the master has waited to give his final lesson and now that he is done, the Citadel must die," Mista said.

"Why?" Jorie asked like a small child.

Nonetheless, he took her proffered hand and followed her to the Hall of Confluence where Dothan waited Jorie didn't even question why he suddenly knew the name of the room.

"It is done and done well, my love," Mista said to Dothan. "The final sequence has been activated and the guardians have been set loose.

Dothan pulled the strap on his energy rife and brought it to bear

"Energy weapons are useless, Dothan. They only attract and strengthen the guardians. Keep your sword at the ready until we are aloft."

Mista fled the hall. Dothan and Jorie followed her into the courtyard. Already the center of the open area was filled with translucent beings which floated on the air like balloons. They had pale white organs inside the envelope of their bodies which seemed to bob and weave like they were riding currents of air. Even the outlines of the guardians twisted and writhed as if their bodies had no structure. Every moment, more of the creatures emerged from beneath the grass. Indeed, the grass was quivering as if the blades were being jerked around by their roots.

"Hold my hand," Mista ordered her royal companion. "You are not a disciple. If you let go, they will kill you." Turning to Jorie she said, "Stay focused. If you maintain your form and balance, they will not molest you. Show weakness and they will harvest you like a deformed cub."

Jorie swallowed his fear and ran. He kept pace with Dothan, his face nearly touching the back of Dothan's shirt. Jorie was halfway around the inner courtyard when he made the mistake of glancing towards the center of the courtyard. The entire space was now filled with guardians that rubbed their bodies ceaselessly against each other. Sensing Jorie's attention, one approached, sweeping between Jorie and Dothan. The guardian shrieked and Jorie screamed, nearly breaking his concentration.

Dothan's great hand seized Jorie's forearm and pulled him straight through the gossamer being, which broke and reformed behind him. They were running again. Mista raced into the doorway and nearly tripped all of them. Crumbles of stone littered the stairs, making them treacherous. Jorie shook his head to shake off dribbles of sandstone that kept hitting him on the head as they fell from the ceiling.

He looked ahead and he could see a pale line on the floor that hadn't been there when they had entered the Citadel. Another shriek from a guardian behind him caused Jorie to look back up the staircase. The guardians were following. All of them were trailing the royals and him. Scared out of his wits, Jorie doubled his speed, nearly passing Mista and Dothan.

Mista ran up the stairs and around the false staircase, confident in the direction. The floors were becoming more and more littered with falling chunks of the sandstone ceilings and it had become easy to lose sight of the walls. Keeping the dust out of their eyes meant keeping their heads pointed down.

After they ran through the room with the window, Mista appeared to become confused, as if she didn't know which way to go. The line on the floor was still clear to Jorie and he was no longer willing to defer to his royal companions.

"Follow the line," Jorie yelled. His voice seemed to excite the guardians more as they poured through the doorway just behind them. Their shrieking ratcheted up a notch.

Jorie took the lead. Larger chunks were falling out of the ceiling and he had to dodge a few of them on the ground. A good size piece caught him on top of his head and Jorie paused for a moment, stunned. The guardians were boiling in the tunnel behind them and they were shrieking. More afraid of the guardians than the collapsing walls, Jorie started flee again.

They ran harder. The guide line was widening on the floor. Jorie prayed that meant that they were getting closer to the end. The line took a sharp left. Jorie ran through the crumbling tunnel, feeling through his feet that the floor was rising. He was in the final shaft.

A speck of light appeared. As he ran with Mista and Dothan breathing heavily behind him, the light grew larger. The guardians were screeching and their voices doubled in the echo of the tunnel, spurring Jorie to pump his legs.

Jorie plunged through the opening. In the gloomy light, he couldn't see the ground at his feet and he immediately tripped on a root and fell on his face. Even as he went down, the flash of an energy weapon sizzled past his head, singing his hair.

The guardians bellowed and the trees shook violently. The sentinels roiled over him like a vengeful tornado. Jorie tried to lift his head out of oily, foul muck whose smell made him want to retch. Insects were dive bombing his ears. A huge hand that could only be Dothan's pushed his head back into the muck.

Somewhere in front of him, a man screamed like his lungs were being ripped out of his body. More energy weapons went off. A thick beam struck took down a line of trees and their trunks shook the ground as they smashed to the ground. At the same time, he heard more crashing from the tunnel.

More people screamed, men and women. A final "woompf" of the collapsing tunnel coated Jorie with dust. The dust frightened the attacking horde of insects and they withdrew, clicking and hissing all the way.

Then there was silence. Nothing stirred and Jorie picked his head up again. He pressed his hands into the gooey mess and pushed up. He turned his head and wiped his eyes on one shoulder of his shirt.

With the trees gone, the sun was bright for late afternoon. To Jorie's left was a raw burn that had started somewhere out in the field and ran through the trees to torch vines growing on the sandstone. The only sound he heard was the rustling of the royals who were just starting to move behind him.

Dothan crept forward with his sword and knife at the ready. Halfway down the blackened path, Dothan motioned for the other two to follow. Using his sword as a pointer, Dothan indicated something of interest. Jorie peered over and saw a dead body with a look of holy terror etched on its face. Blood pooled in the eye sockets and dripped out of the ears.

"Guardians," Mista said.

Dothan moved forward again with his sword pointed downward. Several times he used the tip to point towards other corpses. Stepping out of the trees, Dothan pointed at the two FADs sitting in the clearing. The first one had blood splattered on the inside of the windshield. Dothan reconnoitered the immediate area while Jorie and Mista waited in the shadow of the trees.