THE KEEPERS RISE

Chapter 17 - Crack of Dawn - Part 1

*Remember to click the play button to listen to the soundtrack as you read!*

Velda woke up from yet another nightmare, her fourth of the night. Each of them had ended in the clutches of the Red Wolves, which only furthered her conviction to find a way to unlock the ship's controls and rescue the other Keepers. She got up and walked quietly to the bridge. Only Ivy was there, and she informed Velda that Ozul, Jessie, and Reuben had gone back down to the weapons room. "They have hope for it yet," Ivy sighed, "but I doubt they'll get anything working. You saw the state of the place."

Velda nodded ruefully. "They'll be lucky to salvage anything at all. Especially if they're in the dark as to how it all works." Will'ym suddenly approached them from behind, and Velda glanced back at him, startled. His aura had flared up briefly. "What is it?" she said.

He shook his head and stared past her out the window. "I just don't know what to do. Ozul can try to help Jessie and Reuben, of course, but none of us really have any control over where we're being taken. It's hopeless."

Velda winced at his words. "We can still prepare ourselves for the inevitable. It's better than nothing."

Will'ym brightened a little at this. "We haven't practiced our swordplay in a while," he mentioned. "That would be better than nothing."

Velda glanced at Ivy, who shrugged and turned back to the control panel on the wall, staring as if she wanted to see straight through it. "All right, let's do that, then."

Will'ym led the way out of the bridge, then conjured a sphere of magic to light the halls. "There must be a training room on this thing somewhere," he murmured, sweeping the sphere back and forth to the doorways. It illuminated them with an unnatural, glaring brightness.

Velda followed him as he searched the halls. She knew she'd found the ship's training room with Ivy before, but she had no idea how to get back to it. They eventually took a flight of stairs to the area right below the bridge. Instead of a hallway, the stairway gave way to a huge room, lit only by the stars through a window as wide as the one on the bridge. Will'ym expanded his sphere of magic and separated it into four globs, moving them to the ceiling to light the room.

The room looked like it was meant for meetings. Two long tables ran down its length, and a podium stood at the front, facing away from the windows. A square emblem with a stylized black and blue bird on a silver background was attached to the front. "This could work," Will'ym mused.

Velda didn't need to be told twice. Grateful to stretch her magical abilities for once, she connected her stone's stream to the table and all of its chairs, lifting them and putting them aside at the back of the room with one continuous swipe of her hand. Will'ym nodded in approval and followed her lead, drawing a white line along the floor to be their starting mark. He approached it, sword in hand. When Velda did the same, he blocked the edges of both their blades.

Velda watched Will'ym settle into his stance, and they stared into each other's eyes, daring each other to move first. Will'ym's eyes were glowing a deep white, accentuated by the darkness. Something about the glow was foreign, though, and it gave her goosebumps. She looked closer, narrowing her eyes in confusion. Something was different.

Will'ym lunged at her so quickly that the motion was a blur. Unable to react, Velda fell backward, and Will'ym held his sword to her neck. Her sword clattered to the ground. "Nice one," she said nervously, trying to get up, but he didn't give her room to move. The four spheres on the ceiling fell right onto her wrists and ankles, keeping her on the floor. Will'ym's smile was surging with madness, and Velda shuddered but couldn't look away. "Will'ym, what are you doing?" she quavered, struggling uselessly against the magic. She tried to use her magic to escape, but her stone was blocked by the sphere on her right hand.