Aldric spun his head around to see who had screamed, his heart thudding inside of his chest so hard that he almost wondered why no-one else could hear it. How could something have happened so soon? They hadn't even started fighting yet. The battle was still foreboding upon them yet the scream he had heard was one so full of fear and anguish that he thought that the battle had begun without him. It did not take long to decipher what had happened. Haydon was on the floor her arms tied around her daughter for Feliciana had collapsed.
'Someone, help!' screamed Haydon. 'I don't think she's breathing!'
Aldric couldn't move. He looked at Raiden who simply stared. Evie rushed to offer her expertise but looked panicked. K looked like the only person not to be looking in Haydon and Feliciana's direction. She was pointing to the sky.
'They've followed us,' she whispered to Aldric. 'I should have done more damage.' Aldric glanced upwards. The blinking lights of the LendoZiyan ship came into view.
'There's more than one of them,' said Aldric as more lights passed through the sky.
'The Etchagons,' said K.
Aldric knew that if they didn't get a move on then they would all be arrested and the whole trek to Atarikka would be a waste of time. But they couldn't leave Feliciana.
'Come on Aldric. We have to go.'
The order came from Floyd. Raiden and Aldric reluctantly followed on, both unable to draw their eyes away and it was just the beginning.
By the time they had reached December's Place, Aldric was terrified that he was about to embarrassingly faint in front of everyone, but the blackout never came. Floyd was getting very eager and wound up. He shouted down the abandoned corridors, shouted for the Jagophites to come and face him.
'Calm down,' said Raiden who looked almost as wound up as Floyd did, so the remark had little effect. 'We just have to track down Incursio.'
'Yeah,' agreed Aldric. 'We're meant to be infiltrating quietly.'
'Bit late for that,' said Floyd as the first Jagophite scarpered around a corner and headed straight towards them.
'Save your energy,' shouted Raiden as Floyd lunged his sword into its hard scales. The sword scraped across the Jagophite's back, leaving a tiny graze. He tried again as Aldric and Raiden held back and not until his fourth swing was there any blood. The Jagophite roared and snarled as it made attempts to snap at Floyd's arms but it was no use. One final swing and the creature was stone dead. Its killer stood still for a moment, looming over the body not with triumph but with hate and anger.
'We should go to the basement,' Aldric suggested.
'They'll be more of them,' said Raiden solemnly as he drew his sword.
'A lot more,' said Floyd, his gaze drifting away from the dead Jagophite he had left on the floor. 'And they know we're here...what was that?'
A woman's voice floated through the corridor. She flew around the corner, her eyes wet and her hair tangled, dangling across her forehead.
'You went without me!?' Haydon cried with honest disbelief. 'You can't leave without me, no matter what the circumstance!'
Before they could get anywhere, three more Jagophites rounded the corner. One of them approached the oozing body of its brother. It sniffed it, prodded it with its dirty claw. The other two let out high pitched roars as if crying out in pain. Aldric felt a twisted sense of pity for the animals but couldn't relinquish. He held up his sword defensively, his chosen ones by his side, and glared into each and every eye that lay ahead of him. More Jagophites appeared, more and more. What were they waiting for?
Floyd acted first and charged into the hoard. Aldric felt the breath catch in his throat as he followed on. Raiden and Haydon were synchronised to his own steps but Floyd was more the leader than he could ever hope to be.
He wasn't ready for this. Another Jagophite jumped on top of him, ploughing him into the ground. He yelled out but no-one could hear him above the roars and yells coming from both sides. Floyd and Raiden were wrestling three Jagophites all at once whilst Haydon was being cornered into a wall. The Jagophite's teeth were edging closer to his neck but Aldric would not give up his defence. His sword fell and his hands found the stumpy face, oval nostrils and sleek starved fangs. He pushed. The bones in his arms crackled slightly as the Jagophite's head went back. Aldric heard a snap but he had let his guard down too soon. The Jagophite was angered. Dazed, it clicked its own neck back into position and roared in his face. Aldric reached for his sword, lying uselessly on the floor beside him and jammed it into the Jagophites underbelly. After one last painful holler, it collapsed into a pile.
Aldric stood stunned for just a moment but he was not paying enough attention to the Jagophite that was approaching him from the back. It sped forward, knocking his legs out from beneath him. The next thing he knew, Aldric was facing the ceiling with a sharp pain echoing through his skull. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Haydon withdrawing her bloody sword from the head of a fallen Jagophite. It should have made him feel glad that they were winning but instead it made him wince as he was reminded of the large bump he would have on his head in the morning, if he were to make it that far.
Use the Evepyra, a voice was telling him. He could have sworn it was Aurelia. But he couldn't risk it. He couldn't control what happened when he let himself steep into the realms of the ancient. He could not possibly muster up any power over the energy of the universe itself. How did Ty do it? And where had that Jagophite got to? This Aldric wondered as he pulled himself up. Floyd and Raiden were tumbling around on the floor with a Jagophite in what appeared to be a very complicated looking headlock. Their swords were discarded on the other side of the corridor so Aldric fetched them only to come back to find that they were surrounded by dead Jagophites. All four of them looked stunned.
'I'm sure there were more of them,' said Haydon. 'I don't understand.'
'Where's this basement?' asked Floyd breathlessly. 'He'd better be there or else.'
'Downstairs,' replied Aldric.
'Obviously,' said Floyd rolling his eyes. They were not met by any more Jagophites as Aldric led them all down three flights of stairs.
'Careful,' exclaimed Haydon multiple times as all three of the men repeatedly nearly fell through the broken beams of wood. Aldric almost took a wrong turn. Half the building was gone and most of what was left didn't even look like December's Place. It didn't even feel right to call it December's Place for it was now in the ownership of a monster – Incursio's Place?
Aldric reached the basement but it was not what it seemed. The trapdoor opened up to reveal a hollowed out crater of soil, dust and bones with flesh still hanging off. It stunk worse than the horse stables on a drought-like summer's day.
'I say we go in,' exclaimed Haydon, 'so we can destroy the bastard now.' And she jumped into the crater below. It was unnaturally silent and still. The only sound that could be heard made was the soft crunch of the earth below her as she landed. The calm was broken by her shouting back up. 'There are passageways,' she said. 'They go off in separate directions.'
'We'll each have to take a different path,' called Floyd into the crater. 'How many?"
'Just two, one goes off to the left and the other, all the way out right,' she replied.
'I'll go with you. Is right alright?' said Floyd. He looked at his son, smiled and shook his hand before turning to Aldric and pulling him into an unexpected hug. 'Do me proud my boys,' he said before he flung himself down. Aldric and Raiden were left at the top looking down. Aldric was sure he could hear voices calling him back but jumped into the crater nonetheless. Raiden was the last to fall into the hole.
'Was that K?' Raiden asked as he looked back up.
'I thought I was imagining it,' said Aldric nervously. He didn't want K to get involved but the footsteps grew closer evermore and K, Evie and Milo appeared at the trapdoor.
'Are you alright Aldric?' K called down.
'Where are the others?' asked Milo.
'Haydon and Floyd have gone,' Aldric explained. 'We're splitting up.'
'Is that wise?' said Evie, looking to K who jumped down to join them in the crater before she could give a reply. Milo and Evie followed.
'Is it wise that you've come to gatecrash a battlefield?' said Aldric.
'Save it,' said K raising her voice.
'How's Feliciana?' Raiden butted in.
K blinked rapidly.
'She's in a bad way,' said Evie.
'How bad?' he asked. He looked as if he was going to drop his sword. She shook her head to indicate that she did not know but Raiden looked at her with suspicion.
'I'm sure she'll be alright,' said Milo. 'She woke up just as I was leaving.' He looked down to K. 'That was pretty stupid of you. If I hadn't noticed you run off like that you'd be dead. Why do you risk your life so easily?' She gazed up at Milo, stunned that he had had the nerve to call her stupid.
'Look,' she replied, folding her arms. 'I may not be a soldier or an Isahiel but that doesn't mean that I can't help.'
'Please,' Aldric sighed. 'Stay here with Milo and Evie. I don't want to see you get killed, okay.'
'I'm coming with you,' she said firmly. Her word was final and they jumped down one by one. Raiden kicked at the bones and debris whilst he waited which Aldric found annoying. They were meant to be keeping quiet.
'Come on,' said Aldric. 'Let's go.'
'Wait,' said Raiden, kneeling down to pick something up. 'This is just brilliant!'
'What is it?' whispered K, trying to catch a peek of the small silver thing Raiden had cupped in his hands. It was some sort of grubby little box. Raiden opened it and a momentary glow of amber and blue rose from it.
'A way out,' he said, lifting the pendants from the box.
'What are they doing down here?' said Evie. Raiden looked around himself and grinned.
'I wonder which bones are mine,' he said darkly. Evie looked momentarily confused but it sunk in.
'That's disgusting,' she said.
'No this is great,' said Raiden. 'I was carrying these when I died so they're linked to Aldric's pendant. We can use these to get back to the Crystalline-Caves.' He looked up from the pendants and at each one of them as if expecting praise. 'Don't worry. I'm not going to use them now. I hope they still work.'
The five of them headed off to the left. The path reminded Aldric of the tunnels that he had first walked the first time they had all encountered Jagophites. A lot had changed, but if the tunnels were the same ones, he knew where they would lead. As it happened, it turned out that they were not the same but that they did run parallel to the old ones. Aldric recognised the route – maybe the old ones had become occupied or caved in.
It did not take long to reach the end of the path. They discovered that the pathway opened up into a chamber, one that Aldric had never seen before. The chamber looked a little like a poor imitation of the lost Zace-Ella temple. They walked into the centre of the room, looking in all directions for Floyd and Haydon but they hadn't appeared. There was another path leading away from the chamber but Aldric felt his heart sinking as he realised that it could just be some other path, leading to some other place of unimportance. They were alone. None of them spoke about where Haydon and Floyd could have ended up. They didn't want to think because the mind could torture them with horrible images that may and may not have been true. It was easier to forget for the time being.
'What are we going to do Aldric?' K asked. 'I don't see Incursio here. I don't see anyone.'
'Look,' he replied. 'Up ahead, there's a door.'
'Doesn't look like a door,' said Raiden. It was a very large and round plate of wood with no handle and as they approached it looked like there was no way of opening it. It was too heavy for any of them to lift. K looked at Aldric almost expectantly. He knew what she was hoping for but Aldric still refused to try out his powers. They were stuck if something went wrong. He shook his head. K nodded to show that she understood. Raiden kicked the door with his heavy boots and made a slight splintering but nothing more. They all remained quiet, listening to the sound of each other's breathing.
'Maybe we should...' began K but her voice trailed off. The door was rising upwards and disappearing into the rocks. Small dusty bits of rubble fell from the crack from which it was rising into. The five of them backed away from it, brandishing their weapons. Raiden replaced his sword and reached for the bow on his back instead whilst Aldric and K stood either side of him with swords. Evie fiddled with a crossbow and Milo reached for his arrows only to send everything clattering to the floor. When he had picked up his equipment, the door had disappeared and they were standing face to face with darkness. K lowered her sword but Aldric and Raiden did not. She crept closer and Aldric pulled her back by the arm.
'They're teasing us,' he told her.
'Come and get us,' shouted Raiden as he shot an arrow into the dark. He must have hit something for the next thing they knew there was a roar of pain. There was a scrapping and a straggling as the eyes of the many Jagophites loomed into sight. Aldric lowered his own weapon at the revelation but gripped it all the tighter. He had expected numbers but it wasn't until he had seen them had it sunk in what they were up against. They had just opened a vault containing hundreds of Jagophites.