Lyan
I was still half asleep when dad shook me slightly to wake me up. I opened my eyes little by little and found him petting my hair from a corner of my bed.
" Just give me five more minutes" I said as I turned and moved away from him, knowing perfectly well that the five minutes would turn into ten at least.
" I'd love to give you those five minutes, but the second trial is starting soon, don't you want to see it?" Dad asked as he moved closer to me and continued petting me. Oh, God he was sooooo good at petting that I just wanted to rest my head on his lap and let him ruffle my hair for hours, but I had more important things to do.
" What will it be about?" I asked, trying to get intel while I pretended to stall for time.
Dad chuckled as he ruffled my hair even harder.
" You'll know in a little while"
I groaned internally, my information collection had failed. Now I was really going to have to wait. I just hoped that Ruan would keep his word and take us out of here, but he would only do so if he was still pissed with dad, so I was secretly hoping they hadn't made up. Now that I thought about it I could just ask.
" Is Ruan still angry at you?" I asked as I slowly got off the bed, yawning all the way.
" Why would he be angry at me?" Dad tilted his head, confused.
I suppressed my smile. If he didn't know that meant he hadn't talked to Ruan and chances were he was still pissed.
" No reason" I lied.
Dad looked at me weird, as if he had read my thoughts but couldn't see the bigger picture yet but nodded, letting the topic drop as usual.
" Get dressed. Everyone is already waiting in the throne room" Dad said as he exited my room and gave me some privacy.
I changed as fast as I could into soft and comfortable clothes. I put on a velvet jacket, in case it got cold, a stretchy shirt and tight black pants.
I combed my hair in the mirror and arranged it into one big braid, I had really missed my hair when I was at the academy, and after checking I was ready to go I called for dad, who entered my room as if he owned it, which this been his castle and all I guess he did.
" Are you ready?" Dad asked as he grabbed my hand.
I nodded and we appeared in the throne room, mere steps away from the actual gold and bone throne that I didn't have the guts to ask my dad if it was real bones.
I sat on my throne and faced the crowd. As expected there were way less demons than yesterday, but my guys were right there, looking at me as if I hung up the moon, and more importantly: totally unharmed.
The moment I saw them, there, standing, tears were brought to my eyes. Guess I hadn't trusted Ruan very much. I didn't let my tears fall as I looked at them and gave them my brightest smile, so that they knew I was by their side even though I couldn't help them directly.
" This trial will be easy" Dad said, getting up from his throne and looking around with his characteristic unhinged smile. " All you have to do is find a golden chalice and bring it back to me" That was all? It was easy. I began to panic, how would Ruan stage their deaths if there was nothing that could kill them down there? What was the catch?
All the demons began murmuring amongst themselves and my guys looked at each other with disbelief and then at me, as if asking me if I knew anything, which I clearly didn't.
I too, along with everyone else in the room, looked at Dad with curious eyes. Just what was he planning?
" Is that really all?" I whispered.
Dad turned to look at me and smiled so warmly that I knew there had to be a trick.
" Of course". After answering me in a voice so low that only I could hear he turned to face everyone again. " The trial will take place in the dungeons " Dad smiled maniacally " and for the duration of it we will free all the prisoners down there. Killing is allowed" His smile turned even more derranged " what's more, if you kill them you'll earn extra points that will come in handy in the next trial, but if they kill you" his smile widened " then they get their freedom back"
Murmurs and groans erupted all around the room. I glared at dad. That was what he had planned. I really didn't know what retrieving a chalice hidden deep in the dungeons had to do with being a good servant, just as the other trial it seemed to be random stuff that dad liked to inflict upon other people with no relationship to the actual job whatsoever. It was bad, but at least now no one would doubt Ruan if he said my guys had died during the trial.
" And one more thing" Dad said just as everyone was already talking among themselves " there are only fifteen chalices " he said with a smile as he took my hand.
I looked at the contestants and started counting. Twenty-five. There weren't enough chalices. Dad was planning to make them fight with each other.
" Is killing other contestants allowed?" I asked in a low voice.
Dad looked at me and gave me a smile, the one that gave me the creeps and made me think that the world was doomed. Killing was allowed. It was definitely his plan, the way he'd smiled at me and looked at me with pride in his eyes only confirmed my theory. He wanted them to kill each other, but why? He could just chose the best candidate and then let the rest go. I didn't see the need to murder all the losers, but dad clearly didn't see eye to eye with me.
I glanced at my guys, who were whispering among themselves, one last time and then looked at dad, with his smile showing all his teeth still in place. I just hoped my guys would be alright and manage to survive until Ruan found them.
' Don't you dare mess it up Ruan ' I thought, just as dad exited the throne room and took me, followed by everyone else, to the lower levels and right into the dungeons. I wondered how they'd be.
Turns out you shouldn't expect a lot from dungeons. The wall that led to it was just as dark as everything else and didn't have any distinctive features, but the moment dad opened it an acrid smell hit my nostrils and I gagged, backing away. Just what on earth was in there? It smelled like how I assumed death would, all rotting and putrid.
Dad petted me on the back and chuckled slightly. How dare he think I was weak? I just didn't like strong, bad smells. I glared at him, but decided to let it go. We didn't have that much time together after all.
" Let the trial begin" Dad said as he urged the demons to move forward with his eyes.
The moment they were all inside he closed back the wall and turned to look at me.
" Let's go have breakfast" He said as he grabbed my hand, a little bit harder than he usually did, the pressure sending spikes of pain all over my arm.
I looked at him from the corner of my eye, but his expression was the same as always, not a hint of anger in his eyes. What the fuck was that about?
Jack
This place reeked. As soon as I stepped foot inside I gagged and I saw Orus placing his hand over his nose, making a face of pure disgust. Oscar, on the other hand was as happy as always, smiling as if we weren't smelling death itself.
" Let's get going. We have to find that chalice" Oscar said as he looked around to the multiple side tunnels that almost all the demons had already taken and chose one at random.
" Do you even know where we're going?" I asked as I still covered my nose, pushing back the urge to gag.
" Of course" Oscar said, his voice the personification of confidence even though I knew he had no freaking idea where we were, much less where the chalices were hidden.
I snorted but followed him. His choice was as good as any, and it wasn't like we had a map.
We hadn't been walking for that long, in fact we hadn't even reached the end of the corridor yet, we were in the middle, looking all around us and trying to find anything that shone in the half darkness where the torches didn't reach when Orus went rigid and stopped on his tracks. I turned to look back at him just as he began speaking.
" What's that?" Orus snapped his head, rotating it almost 180 degrees to look back, not moving his body at all, just waiting tense as fuck.
" What?" Oscar tensed up too, his smug and superior expression gone from his face.
" Don't you smell it?" Orus asked in a low voice.
" Smell what? The death? Of course I do, but I've been smelling it since the beginning. It's nothing new." I said, confused.
Orus glared at me and signalled for me to shut up, which I reluctantly did. Shifters usually could sense things before I did, and I wasn't willing to risk ignoring Orus's gut feeling when we were inside a dungeon filled with murderers that wanted to kill us to gain their freedom.
From my left Oscar suddenly paled and my heart almost stopped. What on earth had they seen that had made a maniac with no emotions pale like that? My own face also went white and I shivered. I really didn't want to meet whatever had scared Oscar.
" Should we run?" I whispered.
Oscar looked between me and the shadows on the far edge of the hallway and nodded.
I didn't need any more confirmation to run. I took off as fast as I could in the opposite direction, followed by Orus and Oscar.
We ran as fast as we could from whatever was chasing us, I still hadn't seen it nor did I want to, passing as a flash by different holding cells with opened bars and a smell that was even worse that the one that had attacked us when we'd entered the dungeon.
I felt powerless as I ran. Being unable to do anything, not defend yourself and much less fight back, was horrible. It made me feel the same way I had when I had lost my mother and Lyan, a useless idiot, but at least back then I'd had my magic, but now I had even lost that, the only thing I was good at. I was dying to get Lyan and run back to Earth, where I would, at least, be able to defend myself.
I wasn't a bad runner, not by far. Both my stamina and speed were decent, but running for so long had taken it's toll. My whole body was tired and begging for some rest. That mixed with the fact that yesterday I had barely been able to sleep, I was too scared of that worm thing to fall asleep, and too tired from my run across the desert to recover. And now on top of that I was running again. My whole body was protesting against it, and I was this close to listening to it and stop running, but the fear I had seen in Orus's and Oscar's face kept me going.
" I think we can stop now" Orus said, slowing his pace until he was just walking.
The moment he said that I dropped to the floor and breathed as hard as I could, treasuring the oxygen.
" Is it gone?" I asked when I got back my breath.
" For now" Oscar said with a dark face.
" Let's start searching here" Orus said as he chose a cell at random and entered it after making sure there was no one hiding in the shadows.
After checking everywhere he came back out and glared at me.
" Get going!" He half shouted, half whispered.
I jumped up from the surprise and looked around. Oscar was in fact checking another cell and I was the only one frozen in the middle, not doing anything.
I nodded and started searching. Without the torches that only lit up the hallway at several points and without my magic to cast light the task was harder than I thought. I had to manually touch everything to make sure I didn't skip anything. If things kept going this way we were going to be at it for an eternity.
I sighed when I finished my cell and there was nothing there. This was definitely going to take a looong time. When I was sure there was no chalice in the cell hidden anywhere, not that there were many places to hide a chalice inside a dungeon, I went out slowly, and with great care as to not hurt myself with the pointy edge of the bended and broken bars and started again.
We moved as we checked the cells. Each one of us checked one and when we were done with a section we moved on. We had checked almost twenty cells in total, but there was no chalice to be found anywhere. Was our strategy really the good one? Maybe the chalices weren't even inside the cells and were hidden inside a secret room or compartment. If that was the case we had just lost a lot of time doing nothing. I could only hope that wasn't the case.
" Stop" Orus said just as I was about to enter another cell, all the fear almost gone after not having encountered anything or anyone in all the time we had been looking.
I turned around and stepped back, moving away from the cell.
From afar I couldn't quite see Orus's expression, but I could see he was as still as a statue.
I slowly went up to him, being careful of where I stepped, knowing that if I accidentally stepped on a tilted tile the sound would call anyone outside to us and tell them our exact position, which was the last thing I wanted.
" What's wrong with...." I couldn't even finish my sentence before Orus placed his hand over my mouth, shutting me up and grabbed me, throwing me over his shoulder, as if I was a potato sack and ran with me to the closest cell.
Oscar appeared a few seconds later, walking so silently that if it weren't for the torches on the opposite wall I wouldn't have noticed he was there at all.
As soon as Orus put me down I turned to glare at him and opened my mouth, ready to roast him, but he just looked at me with panicked eyes and I shut up. What exactly was out there?
I tried to walk to the bars to see what had scared them so much, just wanting to take a quick peek, but Orus and Oscar pulled me back, grabbing me by the sleeves. Oscar crouched low and Orus followed him, dragging me along.
We stood there, in absolute silence, for what seemed like an eternity. No noises could be heard and no one dared to move. We were all as still as statues, not moving a muscle. I didn't dare to scratch my nose even if I was dying to do it, because whatever was out there was close and I was sure that I didn't want to meet it.
"Clanck!!!"
All of the sudden the noise of the bars being pried appart and thrown into the floor could be heard. My whole body went as stiff as possible. That had sounded very close, too close for my taste, but the culprit of the sound never came.
I didn't hear any footsteps as the sound went away and after a while Orus calmed down and Oscar breathed heavily again. We were safe. I breathed as deep as I could and tried to get up, I too sore to stay on the same position any longer, but Orus pulled me back, just in time to avoid a claw that went straight for my eyes.