Magic Spawn Origins

Magic Spawn: Chapter 69

by Meredith Skye

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Once the girls had the key, escape from the jail cell was easy. They released Ehina who, after she retrieved her weapons, dispatched the two remaining skeletons, with a little help from Anya and Haley.

Now that they had all their gear, they were ready to move forward. They didn't bother exploring all the side doors, as they didn't want to find any more creatures to fight. Surely, the main hall would lead them closer to their destination—which was, hopefully, Arlunn, Ehina's home-world.

The current hallway was at least 10 feet wide and stretched on ahead of them as far as Anya could see.

"I'm sure it's this way," said Ehina, nodding down the long hall. No one argued.

As they began their trek deeper within the strange fortress, Anya entertained a thought that had been lurking in her head for awhile: that of her mother, Aldena.

Of course, Aldena wasn't really her mother. Technically, she wasn't even a foster mother, as they'd never done any paperwork. Aldena had just taken her on, kind of letting her tag along on her ongoing journey. Anya didn't care about the paperwork, but she loved Aldena and desperately wanted to be her daughter. Permanently.

Did Aldena love her too? If she didn't like having Anya around, she simply wouldn't have let her come along, or paid for airfare to Europe, taken her out to so many restaurants and even bought her fun, new clothes.

For Anya's 13th birthday, they went to Paris and climbed the Eiffel Tower, visited the L'arc de Triomphe and the Louvre! Then Aldena took her to the best restaurant in town, overlooking the Seine. She even let her drink some wine. It had been a magical day!

It had been nearly a year since Anya found Aldena and she had heard all the stories of Cathal, of a brother and sister who got lost and ended up on Earth, and even of Molan. Anya had assumed they were just stories but they had to be true. But this also meant—Aldena was not from this world! The brother and sister who came to Earth had to be Aldena and Corey!

And if Aldena had found a way home to the Realm of Cathal at last—wouldn't she leave Earth and return there? And if so, would she take Anya with her?

The thought of being left behind caused Anya exquisite worry. And even that thought made her feel selfish and small, at this moment, with so much at stake. The fate of the world (or at least Nebraska) should be more important than that.

Anya followed the warrior, Ehina, and Haley down the hall. She couldn't fight and wasn't sure that she'd be of much use. But there was little choice right now. If they could get through to Ehina's world—at least they'd be safe.

Most importantly, they had to make sure that Ehina made it through ... otherwise, there would be no help from the Arlunni to fight Molan. Then what would happen to them all? This had to work!

Near the beginning of the hall was a large metal gate up in the ceiling. No doubt a protection they could use if intruders came (from Arlunn?).

After that, the hall seemed to go on forever! And there was no sign of it ending. Finally, they came to a second metal gate, also open.

Up ahead the view opened up. The hallway ended, opening up onto a platform about 30' wide by maybe 15'. From there, three narrow walkways branched off in the shape of a W. Each had a platform at the end of them; the left and right platforms were round, about 20' in diameter. Each of these had a single crystal pillar at the center of them.

Below was some sort of chasm made of jagged black rock and filled with mist from whence an eerie glow emanated. Anya couldn't see the bottom from where they huddled back in the hallway.

The middle walkway had a large oval platform on it with a gateway arch in the center, set up on a dais. On each side were two more tall dark obelisks made of different color crystal: orange, yellow, purple and blue.

Surely, this was the place they were looking for. "I assume this is it?" whispered Anya.

The problem was that three skeletons guarded the main platform. And already, the creatures had spotted them and begun to stir.

"Yes," said Ehina. "If I can get to the archway I can do the teleport spell and I should be able to draw enough power to get back to Arlunn, but it will take a minute or so to set the spell. But I can only teleport one."

So, Haley and Anya would be stuck here, no matter what. They both faced this news stoically.

"What do we do?" asked Haley.

Ehina took a deep breath and put on her adult lying-face. "You girls can't help here. You should go back, find a place to hide. I'll take it from here." She waved them back.

Then Ehina ran forward to attack. The girls should have run, but both Haley and Anya stood transfixed, watching the alien warrior.

"Girls? She's like one year older than me! They'll kill her!" said Haley, pulling out her mace. "I can fight too!"

"You're no warrior. She's had training," hissed Anya.

"I've had some training too," said Haley. "And what about Molan? If she fails, then what? We can't defeat him without help!"

Anya had no answer for her.

"I'm going to stay and fight," said Haley. "You go back!"

 Determined, Anya followed her. "We'll both fight!"

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