Aura

Chapter Five

  The hot sand swallowed them up quickly, and Rowan was getting the sensation of drowning without any water involved at all. Dust filled his lungs, but he couldn't cough. His eyes were forced closed as the sand cascaded over the top of his head, and he was buried deep in the desert floor.

  Rowan was promptly spit out onto cold, hard stone for the second time that week, and was well aware that his surroundings were dark, and sand was trickling from the ceiling.

  A lot of sand and a small girl's body landed softly beside him, and Zoe sprang up, glancing around her warily. Seraphina and Vivian arrived at the same time.

  "Get off of me," Vivian ordered.

  "I'm not on you, you're on me," snapped Seraphina.

  All four of them struggled to their feet, brushing sand off. Zoe was the first to wake up truly.

  "You guys, where are we?" Zoe asked quietly, as if a single sound would wake up the dangers in store for them.

  "It's like an underground cave," replied Rowan as he walked over to the walls, feeling the smooth stone.

  His hands stopped against something raw and sharp, and he looked closer to find that it was a small crystal, stuck into the rock walls. Rowan yanked it out with surprising ease. It was beautiful, an elegant shade of rose pink, and it glittered in his fingers.

  "What's this?" Rowan inquired nobody in particular.

  It was Seraphina who answered. "Sit down and I'll catch everyone up on what we've got so far."

  And so Rowan found himself trying to get comfortable on the damp rock ground as Zoe built a fire out of what she could find and Seraphina pulled an endless amount of paper out of the endless amount of pockets in her magenta leather jacket.

  "For most of my journey before today, I've been collecting these," Seraphina explained, laying the papers out so everyone could see. "I've stolen some, bought some, found some, been given some... Overall, even these cost me years of effort."

  Rowan could see that they were clues; prophecies, maps, other explorers' accounts of their adventures, and more; and he picked some up, glancing at them before setting them down and picking up another. The dry, crisp paper felt almost mystical in his fingers.

  "There is a prophecy that I took the longest to get," Seraphina said, pulling out a small scrap of yellowed paper. "It was rumoured to be the clue to start your journey."

  Zoe took hold of the prophecy and began to read, and as she did, her thin voice filled the cave and the fire began to burn brighter, and Rowan could see in it moving shapes.

  "Where the borders burn brightest

  Blood cares not in the slightest

  The Aura lies by land of forest, water, dust and fire

  Guarded by light alone, hidden only by desire"

  Zoe handed the prophecy back to Seraphina, who held up a map, similar to that of Zoe's. Rowan had gotten used to it now, and was familiar with the shape and the division of the land. This map had X's marked in red ink in various spots.

  "When Viator created the Aura, he made a key that led to it," Seraphina continued. "He broke it into five pieces and hid each one in a different region of Auradelle. The last thing I ever did during my search was steal this off of someone from the Purple Sip."

  She delicately held up a small crystal similar to Rowan's, with the same rosy colour. It was larger, and the shape was more ragged.

  "We find all the pieces, we put them together, we unlock the Aura, problem solved," Seraphina concluded.