Ember (31 page)

It wasn't long before Jaden moved away from
Thoran. The latter man's expression seemed resigned enough to make
me guess that Jaden had convinced him to let me come. I thought
then that Jaden would walk over to one of the many boys spread
throughout the room, but he ignored them all, opting instead to
stand alone against the wall a few feet away from me.

I waited a few seconds thinking he might
speak, but nothing came. He looked bothered and somewhat bored . .
. it made little sense with all the excitement of the situation,
but I knew that the first bit, at least, was due to me.

Nearby, two men were fiddling with a
curiously-shaped mechanism. One of them glanced up at me and I
impulsively slid over, closer to Jaden. The unreasonably attractive
boy now had his head leaned back against the wall, eyes closed.
When I checked back at the man who had looked at me he was smiling
oddly. I glanced away after a moment, studying Thoran instead. He
seemed deep in conversation with the two older men. Suddenly they
all turned to look at me with not so much friendly expressions, as
speculative ones.

My chest rose a little bit and I looked down.
I think the whole ambiguity of the situation had me spooked.

I peeked over at Jaden again. His eyes were
still closed. Then I started to strum my fingers on my leg. Just as
I was opening my mouth to ask how long we would be waiting like
this he spoke.

“As soon as Master Boron gets here, we'll
leave.”

My mouth hung for a few seconds. Then I
nodded coolly, before risking a glance at the boy beside me once
again. His head was still leaned back, exposing his throat. His jaw
wasn't as clenched as usual, but everything else was tight enough
to catch the intake of breaths. I thought I saw his features tense
for a moment, before a large hand gripped my arm.

I jerked my head around. Boron was standing
beside me.

“Hello, Evelyn,” he boomed, looking more
gruff, if possible, than the night before. “Jaden,” he
acknowledged. I didn't turn my head to see the boy’s response. “Did
you ever find Ikovos this morning?” Boran questioned.

I nodded. “Yes. Quite easily actually. By the
way, I'm sorry that I left in such a rush.” I smiled apologetically
until silence took over. He broke it unexpectedly.

“Well,” he stated, putting a hand on his hip
and looking back at Jaden. “Isn't that polite. I've been living
with you lot so long, I'd forgotten what manners felt like.”

Jaden smiled skeptically. I tried not to take
notice, grinning sweetly at Boron instead.

“Okay, I better get cracking.” He turned his
head towards Thoran. “I think I'm already late.” He frowned
pensively and walked towards the group of older men.

I sighed and watched as he spoke with the
other Masters. After a while they all split up. Boron headed
towards the large, pillar-surrounded, mechanism. The two I didn't
know went to another piece. Thoran actually left the room.

At least fifteen minutes later everyone was
in the same position. Unfortunately for me this meant my knees were
beginning to lock significantly, the added weight of Jaden's jacket
accounted for most of this. I wondered how he managed to wear this
thing on a regular basis . . . much like I wondered how he had
managed to fall asleep within twenty minutes leaning against the
wall in a loud room. But sure enough, every time I looked over his
eyes were closed and his breaths were slow. I hugged my jacket
snuggly and tried to do the same.

“So you remember all the rules?” asked
Jaden.

Okay, I guess he wasn't asleep.
I
nodded. “Um . . . yes.”

He sniffed then I felt him straighten up.
“Good, time to go.”

As he walked forward, my eyes perplexed and I
glanced ahead. I don't know how he had known, eyes shut and all,
but Thoran was back and five or so other men were standing close by
him.

I followed discreetly behind Jaden.

Like I had originally intended, and
especially now since it seemed Jaden was so terribly bothered at
having me along, I planned to stand off a ways from boy once we got
going. Despite the rules I doubted he would have any
objections.

“Luther and Kale, you'll break off at the
second pass, check the watch-post, then meet back with us after the
meeting.” It was Thoran speaking. Jaden had entered into the circle
of men, expression all business now. A few of them nodded. All of
their faces were rather solemn, which made me a little anxious. I
noticed a couple eyeing me curiously. Thoran didn't give me any
acknowledgment though. There was no doubt that Ikovos was right
about him not wanting me to come.

“If all goes well we should be back before
ten,” continued Thoran. “Vaan, don’t forget that I need you to take
over guard duty for Jaden tonight.”

One of the younger men nodded. Jaden seemed
unsurprised.

“Okay, all set,” said Boron, who was still
working by the large contraption.

Without a word everyone moved in unison to
stand on the metal, pillar-surrounded, grate. I gulped, eyes
downcast, and did the same. I had absolutely no idea of course why
we were doing this, but that's how it usually went with the
order.

There was plenty of space for the eight of
us. Once Boron was on things got a little cramped. I was close to
an edge between Jaden and one of the middle-aged boys. I wondered
briefly if it would be against rule four, and one, I guess, if I
asked someone else a question. Jaden's eyes were focused sternly
ahead. I decided not to press my luck then bit my lip. As put out
as he was, why had he decided to take me anyways? . . . Just then
the floor shuddered, followed by a loud succession of clicks and a
drop. I almost lost my balance at the sudden movement. Once I
steadied I realized that the floor was still moving. Not the whole
floor, just the metal grate, it was moving downwards. My heart
started to beat a bit faster, far beyond a fish out of water at
this point. I think Jaden's eyes grazed me once as the grate
continued to lower, but him along with all the others didn't seem
the least bit surprised.

When we had gotten below floor level, the
hole above us closed. It was pitch dark now. All that could be
heard was the clicking mechanisms of the lift. Finally a glow came
from below. The walls were stone, though not the dark Meoden
obsidian, as I would have guessed. I suppose that wouldn't be
possible considering we hadn't gone through a portal yet . . . come
to think of it I didn't even know if we were going to the Meoden
dimension. What had Ikovos told me about this? . . . We'd only
talked about it a couple times. Once at the pool, another at the
cabin . . . apart from Sylvanus only one name had been
mentioned.

Demian.

The area began to lighten, exposing the lift.
My head shook slightly when I saw a red sphere come into view, it
was at the other end of the plain, gray-stone, cave we were
lowering into. As soon as the lift clicked into place the men moved
off towards the portal. There was a horrible chill in the air. I
shuddered as they crossed the cave. Jaden stopped last after taking
a step. He didn't turn his head, but I knew that he was waiting. I
looked on searchingly for a moment, then walked behind him.

A few men had already gone through, hardly
slowing their pace as they disappeared into the sphere. The whole
thing felt much like a procession, or a march into battle. The lack
of talking only added to this.

When there were only two people left ahead of
us, Jaden moved back behind me. I didn't turn to look at him, but
my heart skipped a couple beats, this proved he was at least
aware
that I was still present. When the last man went ahead
I didn't let myself hesitate, following straight through.

The other side had me disoriented, but mostly
because of the view, I had actually managed
not
to end up
flat on my face. The cave was so identical to the one I had just
been in, though, that I thought something must have misfired. There
was even a lift which the men were already piling onto. Two details
told a different story. Firstly, up until now I'd been rather cold,
despite the jacket, now a stuffy heat filled the cave, too intense
to chock up to natural fluctuation. Then there was the
disheartening presence of black obsidian, a dead giveaway in and of
itself.

For a couple seconds I froze, unsure of
whether to follow the group or wait for Jaden. I went with the
first option, though it made little difference, by the time I was
on, Jaden was already beside me.

A corner of my mouth lifted, but I
immediately reprimanded myself. W
hy are you smiling? He's the
one that's making you all freaked out and insecure to begin
with.
The floor began to lower again.
He didn't even give
you fair warning about the lift, or the portal . . . goodness know
what's next.

Just then a bright, orange light shone from
below. At the same time a low roar broke the prior silence and a
concentrated heat poured in, as if a pressure seal had been
released. My brow narrowed, I almost wanted to lean down so that I
could see what was in the next area quicker.

What came into view took the breath from my
chest. A massive, no
gigantic
, round chamber. It had to be
at least a-hundred-and-fifty feet high, even longer across. The
walls were all dark obsidian, but they shown a bright orange from
what lied beneath. A lake of fire, for lack of a better term, too
thin to be lava. Rock jabbed up in places along with gusts of
maroon, flame-laced, steam. It was like nothing I had ever seen
before, and we were at the peak of it headed down.

A hand rose to my chest and I rocked a step
back. This caused me to bump into one of the boys. He eyed me oddly
as Jaden's gaze flicked over. I mumbled a quick apology and scooted
back ahead, even further when Jaden straightened a bit closer
between us. It was now that I noticed there were no bars around the
edge of the platform. I looked down again. At least seventy-five
feet still to go, and nothing but stone and fire to catch your
fall.

My eyes swiveled. “Jaden, why wouldn't you
have—” I turned my head around as I said it, only to wind up
staring at the chest of his jacket, closer than I expected. I
gulped, tilting up, “—have railings?” I finished in a whisper.

He looked somewhere between bothered and
confused. “Why would we need railings?”

I turned back around, for multiple reasons,
leaned over the edge again, and shook my head.
Men. How
egotistical do you have to be to not even put a bar on a
hundred-foot lift over lava?

It was another good minute before we reached
the rock base below. Once again they all just started off
unceremoniously. The piece of rock we were on now was rather thin
across, maybe twenty feet, but it went on for a long ways ahead.
Thoran and Boron led the group, talking quietly now. Everyone else
followed behind. Me and Jaden were somewhere in the middle.

The area surrounding was more daunting than
I’d expected, that much was certain. But something about the warmth
and the noise, not to mention the group of heavily-armed men, made
me feel secure enough to reinstate the “travel-away-from-Jaden”
plan. I stayed back at least six feet, walking near the edge and
studying the flames below.

We kept on like this long enough that my
thoughts drifted back to the meeting ahead.
Okay, so this Demian
character. I don't know a lot about him. The only thing I've heard
was from . . . huh, where was it again? . . . Don't remember, but
it was something about him getting rid of other Meoden. . . . Maybe
he's not so bad . . . maybe he's not like Sylvanus.
My heart
skipped, but I kept it bottled. I had no reason to believe that
Sylvanus would be there today, I'm sure Ikovos would have warned
me.

Only . . . Ikovos didn’t know, did he? . .
.

A flame steamed up to my left, jerking me out
of my thoughts and into the uncomfortably hot present. I touched a
hand to my head then studied my palm. I was sweating significantly,
in fact everyone was. Lucky for them, they didn't have
giant
coats
on. I looked down at it, then ahead at Jaden . . .
why
did he make me wear a coat?
I shook my head dismissively.
Just one more thing to add to the list of ways he makes
absolutely no sense.

I turned my attention to the chamber. The
area was so massive compared to me. This had to be the pinnacle of
surreal-ness since I had met Sylvanus, which was saying something.
A week ago I barely knew anything beyond Tiver, and the only future
in sight was spinster baker or town outcast. Now, here I was, in a
giant chamber, in another dimension, with a group of vigilantes, on
my way to a meeting with the worst sort of bad guys. . . . I
started thinking this over with awe at first, but it quickly turned
to anxiety. This whole thing was so far beyond me.

Despite the heat, I hugged the jacket tighter
around myself and moved a bit closer to my
“escort”.
We’d
just reached the wall of the giant cave, walking through only to
enter
another
giant, if not slightly dimmer, flame-floored
cave. I tried to study the group, but all their faces seemed rigid
and distant, not at all relatable. Once again I moved closer to
Jaden. It was against the rules to be far after all. . . .

Within half-an-hour I had used this excuse to
move only inches away from Jaden. Once when I was thinking about
the Sylvanus again, another when I thought I saw one of the boys
give me a weird look. When the group stopped abruptly, I had moved
so
close that I plowed right into him. He turned and gave me
a look that I would have paid anything to know what it meant.
Unhindered, and calm somehow. It made my stomach knot.

I held for a few seconds, not currently
capable of keeping my expression from turning gravely distraught,
then turned to the others.