Sucking some air through my nose, I shook my head. “I’m trying to figure it out, but I’m almost positive that there was nothing like that in our house. We didn’t collect things.”
His face was going red, the tattoos blending into his skin tone. I wondered briefly why his marks were red while Daniel’s were black. It didn’t really matter, it just struck me in that moment as odd.
He took a step toward me, so I quickly said, “Is it a literal key? Did you check the house before you burned the damn thing down … you probably destroyed it.” That would be a nice sort of karma.
“This object would not burn.” That was all he said, before he turned and flicked his head. A guard appeared at his side. Whatever joy I’d gathered from singing vanished in a puff of terror. The guard, again one I had never seen before, held chains in his hands. Before I could blink, or fight back, he was on me, trussing my hands behind my back.
“I’m telling you the truth!” I said to Laous.
He nodded. “I know you are. I’m very good at discerning truth from lie, but that doesn’t change the fact that the information is within you … somewhere. Trainer here is going to see if he can’t give you a little incentive to figure it out.”
Incentive?Everything clenched in my body; my legs seized up and wouldn’t move. This didn’t bother Trainer. He lifted me with one arm, half dragging my body out of the egg and across the room. I started struggling as hard as I could with my arms restrained.
I could not move him at all. I might as well have been fighting a rock. He was silent as he hauled me between what looked like hundreds of egg prisons. I kicked out, aiming for the back of his knees. He avoided the strike with ease. Shit, I really needed to work on my self-defense skills, even though something told me I wouldn’t have much hope of beating this guy, even if I were the best trained fighter in Earth.
I tried to calm myself, tried to think again of what this key could possibly be. Keys were designed for locks, right? So it had to be something which could be used in that manner. Something metal, maybe…
Could the answer be hidden in the stories mom told me? Like the one about the boy and his dragon. Did they hide it here in Overworld? My frantic trip down memory lane was interrupted when we reached an arched doorway, stepping from the white egg room out into … the underworld.
I had a perfect view from where we stood. The egg level, was sitting right above everything else. Then there were multiple … platforms … dropping down like a giant staircase, each step spanning off into the distance. I could barely see the ends of most of them, and yet somehow I could still see some detail from all the different levels.
Each level had a different version of hell on it. One was a land of fire and flame, red slashing across black, ringing with screams of pain and panic. Another was a land of monsters, giant beasts screeching in the air and on the land, ripping into each other and Daelighters. Right at the very bottom I was catching glimpses of an oasis, but it looked like you had to get through six or seven levels first before you had a shot at the oasis.
The Cascading Justices.It had to be.
Lexen had briefly explained it to me, but I couldn’t remember if everyone who came here had to fight for their peaceful existence. Had he said something about good and bad deeds being weighed?
The guard startled me by growling in my ear: “Laous thinks you are our salvation, but you’re our curse. The treaty cannot fall. I’m giving you a chance. If you make it through the justices, you will find escape.”
He released me, and since I hadn’t been prepared for it, I tumbled forward. Then a heavy boot into my back sent me flying right over the edge into the step below.
17
Icouldn’t tell you how long I fell for, my screams echoing in my ears. After an eternity, trees caught me, my body slamming into them with enough force to knock all breath from me. At some point the restraints holding my hands behind my back were torn free, almost taking my arms with them.
My body ended up wedged in the branches of a tree, my dress shredded, along with half my skin. I didn’t move for many long moments, trembling, struggling to draw breath into my lungs. A branch had pierced my shoulder; the pain was muted as adrenalin coursed through me, but just trying to tug myself free was enough to send sharp jabs of agony through me.
Knowing I couldn’t just hang there and starve or bleed to death, I sucked up every ounce of my bravery, gave myself multiple pep talks, and wrenched my arm off the branch with a loud scream. Panting breaths were my sole focus for a few moments as I waited for the stabbing sensations to die down. It didn’t. Eventually I just sucked it up and dragged my pained and broken body further up the branch. My blood made everything slippery, and I was athletically challenged, so it took longer than it should have to reach the trunk. Once I was pressed against it, I wrapped my hand over the wound in my arm, applying pressure. I was losing way too much blood. There was no way I’d survive if I didn’t get that under control.
A burst of hysterical laughter left my lips, followed by a sob. Who the hell was I kidding? There was no way I was making it out of here alive. Six lands of terror.Six!Before I would find freedom.
Still, I was never one to give up. I would fight until there was no more fight left.
I tore a strip off the bottom of my dress. It was pretty much in shreds at this point. I kept tearing until it was thigh level – the long dress would hamper my ability to run and climb. The heels would have to go too, but since I had no idea how my feet would hold up in this sort of terrain, I’d remove them when I had no other choice.
Searching for what looked like the cleanest part of the material, I pressed a bundle against my wound, and then used another long strip to wrap round and round my shoulder, compressing the blood flow the best I could. Once I had done everything I could to staunch the bleeding, I focused on the land I was in.
This hadn’t been a level I’d seen much of when I looked across the justices, so I hadn’t noticed what dangers were lurking within the trees. Logically I knew there had to be a ton, because … it was hell. The first level of hell to be exact, which technically should be the worst.
The ground below my perch looked like what I’d expect to find in a forest. Undergrowth, leaves, shrubs. Perfectly normal. Lifting myself off the bough, I shuffled forward, ignoring the pull of rough bark-like material against my skin. The trees here were a lot like Earth’s, except instead of wood they were made from porous-looking stone. Almost like … coral. The leaves were also different, but not enough that you could tell until you got closer.
There was another thick branch just below mine. I lowered myself down onto it, shuffling along again, before finding another lower one. I continued on this way, slowly, steadily, body fatigued but not letting me down yet.
When I was on the lowest branch before ground level, I slowly swung myself down. My lack of athletic ability was definitely going to be an issue here, but I was determined to survive. The skills needed would just have to be learned on the run. When my legs were dangling, my one good arm taking most of my weight as I lowered myself, my strength gave out and I tumbled the last few feet to the ground, landing with a solid thud.
There was a brief pause, like the land was confused about what had just happened, and then everything went to shit. The ground started to violently rock and buck like an angry bull trying to throw its rider off. I was tossed into a nearby tree, pain slashing my cheek and arm.
My body slid down to stop on a large bushy shrub and the land calmed. My heart was racing as I tried to figure out what had just happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. Deciding that the longer I sat still the worse it was going to get, I rolled off the plant and dropped almost gracefully to my feet.
