The Seal of Oblivion (19 page)

A few feet into the hall, it forked
into two halls. Laqiya looked at Isis.

“Which way?” she asked.

Isis paused and then frowned while
shaking her head. “I don’t know. I can’t sense it.”

“How about we follow that snake?” Sakura
moaned from where she was resting on Plainshield’s back, lazily pointing to the
snake that was slithering past them down the left hall.

“Last time we saw that snake,
Delsaream attacked us,” said Adria.

“But who’s to say he wasn’t going
to do it anyway. Besides, if the snake is going that way and the Anaxars are in
there, it means we’re on the right track, right?” Laqiya asked.

“What if it’s a trap?” Nightshield
asked.

“The way I see it,” Isis said, “If
they want us, it’s only a teleport away. Why keep them waiting?”

“Your call,” Plainshield said to
Laqiya as she lowered Sakura to her feet and helped her to stand steady.

Laqiya flashed the flashlight down
the hall the snake had gone and then down the other before deciding to go with
her instinct and follow the snake down the left hall. Everyone else followed
her as she flashed her flashlight ahead, just in case they had to run. The
further they went, as light began filtering in from a room at the end of the
hall. Laqiya clicked off the flashlight when the light from the room began to
suffice to guide them. She stepped into the room first. It was filled with
glass cases and stands, as well as items decorating the walls.

“What is this?” Sakura asked
heading to one of the cases in the middle of the room. “It looks just like a
fancy jewelry store.”

“Isn’t it obvious,” Isis said
pointing to the weapons hanging on the walls of the room. “It’s an armory, a
personal one it looks like.”

“An armory…” Laqiya said as she
looked at a spiked ball hanging on the wall with a handle on it. “Then maybe we
did go the wrong way.”

“No. There’s a door over there,”
Nightshield said pointing to a door over in the left corner of the room.

“You think it leads anywhere?”
Laqiya asked.

Isis nodded. “It definitely leads
somewhere.”

They didn’t go directly to the door
first though. The weapons in the room were just too tempting not to look at.

“We should hurry up,” Nightshield
warned.

“Wow,” Sakura said. “Look at this
sword. It’s beautiful.”

Everyone crowded around the silver
blade with an amethyst colored hilt engraved with ancient letters in its own
glass case in the middle of the room. Under it was a silver plaque also
engraved with ancient letters, part of it matching the ancient letters on the
hilt of the sword, and in the corner was a rose being choked in the thorns of
its vines.

“Can you read that Nightshield?”
Laqiya asked.

“It says, the last Anaxarete’s
Malevolent
,” Nightshield said fingering
the plaque as she read it.

“It seems familiar,” Laqiya said
touching the case.

She stopped as she got that hair
raising feeling again and felt a spark run up her spine. Laqiya pulled her hand
back just as the same black snake from before came from behind the case and
hissed at her, baring its fangs.

“It’s that snake,” Isis said taking
a step back as it hissed again.

“It’s an omen,” Laqiya muttered as
her senses alerted her again. “Move out the way!”

They were quick enough to miss the
brunt of the attack but Kailash’s water whip did manage to shatter the glass
casing around
Malevolent
, causing those
closest to the case-Laqiya, Isis, and Nightshield-to end up with various cuts
from the glass on their arms and part of the upper back.

“Get out of here,” Nightshield
ordered as Plainshield led Sakura into Laqiya, Isis, and Adria’s care.

Laqiya didn’t need to be told twice
and tried to make a dash for the door on the other side of the room by running
between the cases. The glass exploding around her caused her to duck and cover
her head and face.

“Where you going
pretty flower?”
Aurian asked floating above her.

Laqiya gripped a shard of glass,
oblivious to the pain as it cut her palm. She then sat up and threw it at
Aurian with the force of mind behind it. It embedded itself in his shoulder and
he cried out in rage, losing his concentration and falling out the air. Laqiya
got to her feet and went in the opposite direction, out of Aurian’s sight, but
the man only leapt backwards to block Adria, Sakura, and Isis from reaching the
door.

Sakura screamed, unconsciously pushing
Aurian back with her power, succeeding in making him angrier. Isis stood in
front of Sakura and Adria to catch Aurian’s attack. Isis pushed up Aurian’s
mind induced punch with her arm and aimed for his neck. Aurian stopped the
attack by grabbing Isis’s arm. He twisted it, causing Isis to cry out and
adjust into a less painful position. With her footing messed up, Aurian took
the opportunity to throw Isis aside into one of the cases.

Laqiya stood up and looked into the
broken cases for something to help Adria and Sakura. Her eyes landed on a long
black stick, like a baton, a kendo stick, a staff! Something about the word
staff resonated in her as she grabbed the stick and before she could thick how
stupid it was, she twirled it in her hands ran for Aurian twirling it into the
man’s neck and side.

“Get out of here,” Laqiya yelled.
“Go!”

Adria grabbed Sakura, careful not
to touch the glass and made a run for the door. Laqiya gripped the staff with
both hands and faced Aurian. She glanced at Isis, who was still trying to get
up and wincing at the pain caused by the pieces of glass piercing the top of
her back. Before Laqiya lost her nerve, she twirled her staff and pointed it at
Aurian in a challenge.

Aurian smirked, and Laqiya calmed
herself, silently hoping she could tap into the force of mind the same way Isis
did. Aurian charged forward and attacked, and with a force that seemed to take
control of Laqiya’s movement, she used the stick to block Aurian’s every move.

“Laqiya come on!” Adria yelled when
she, Isis, and Sakura got to the door.

“Nightshield,” Laqiya yelled.

“Go ahead,” the feline woman
shouted. “GO!”

Laqiya nodded and found an opening
to sweep Aurian’s feet from under him and then hit him in the neck again at a
pressure point Isis’ sister had showed her years ago. Aurian cried out and fell
to the side. Laqiya dropped the staff and bolted for the door. She went through
the door and then turned around to looked at Chasity Pearl and Nightshield, who
were both fighting against Kailash (Laqiya briefly mused that for two people
who didn’t get along, they fought well together), and Plainshield who was using
Delsareams’s vines against him.

“Nightshield, Chasity,
Plainshield,” Laqiya shouted.

“Just go ahead flower girl,”
Chasity said holding her wing.

“Laqiya come on,” Adria said
pulling Laqiya through the door and slamming it shut.

“Is everyone okay?” Laqiya asked
sliding down against the door, trying to catch her breath and ignore the sounds
of fighting in the other room.

“We aren’t dead,” Sakura muttered
shakily.

“Easy for you to say,” Isis
muttered wincing as she took pieces of glass out her shoulder.

Adria went over to help her get the
pieces out before snatching off her bandana and wrapping up Isis’ shoulder.
Isis leaned against the wall, careful not to disturb her injured shoulder. Then
they all heard the loud crashing noise in the room and the four launched
themselves off the wall and huddled together.

“Laqiya, I want to go home. I don’t
want to do this anymore,” Sakura said with her hands in her hair as tears
sprang to her eyes.

“Sakura,” Isis said grabbing the
girl by the shoulders. “We have to move.”

“I don’t want to.”

“But Lady Sahajah—” Adria began.

“I don’t care about Lady Sahajah!”
Sakura screamed. “I hate this. Everyone’s getting hurt.”

“Sakura,” Laqiya said starting to
kneel down to try to comfort her, but Isis stopped her.

“You don’t have time for this. You
and Adria go ahead. I’ll stay here with Sakura until she calms down, if she
calms down,” Isis added as she held the girl.

“You can’t stay here,” Laqiya said.
“I can’t leave you behind.”

Isis sighed, rolling her eyes in
exasperation. Then she said, “If you wait here with us, you’ll never face Lady
Sahajah and ultimately you’re the only one that can stop her. Laqiya, you don’t
need us.”

“Yes I do,” Laqiya whispered. “I
want you all with me. Without you guys—”

“You said it. It’s what you want
Laqiya. All of us have been helping to push you along the way, even when you
didn’t want to, but now you’ve got to decide for yourself. I think six months
is enough time for you to finally decide. If not, we’re already doomed,” Isis
said firmly. “Now you and Adria go ahead.”

“Isis…”

“Go!”

Laqiya reluctantly stood up, and
Adria grabbed her hand and began to pull her down the dark hall. As then went, Sakura
and Isis fading from sigh and earshot, the hall with its gray cement block
walls, damp and musty smells started to reflect the gloomy atmosphere of the
castle and Laqiya’s mood.

“Maybe we should have stayed back
there with Isis and Sakura,” Adria said. “It’s freezing.”

Laqiya only nodded as fear began to
creep up inside her, Isis’ words ringing in her head. Her cousin was right.
Laqiya wouldn’t have gotten this far if it hadn’t been for all of them pushing
her along and encouraging her. Nightshield and Plainshield found the first
staff piece for her. Sakura got lost in the woods and forced Laqiya to come
find her and as a result find the staff piece because Laqiya had ignored her
senses. Then Chasity Pearl realized where the third piece was. Laqiya hadn’t
even sensed that one, and later she had been ready to quit because she couldn’t
control her powers.

“What kind of hero would I be?”
Laqiya asked aloud.

“What do you mean?”

Laqiya blinked. “Oh. I forgot you
were there Adria.”

“What do you mean?”

Laqiya sighed. She might as well
tell her.

“Look at me. I’ve been running the
entire time. The only reason I’m here now is because you all pushed me along
the way, Sheera fussed, and I have no choice. I wouldn’t have even gotten this
far without you all pushing me along. How am I supposed to defeat Lady Sahajah,
let alone the Tyrant like that?”

Adria was silent as she blankly
looked at Laqiya, coming to a complete halt. Laqiya raised her eyebrows at her,
not sure if Adria could see the motion in the dark. For a while, Laqiya thought
Adria wasn’t going to say anything when finally she spoke.

“Who told you that load of
bullcrap?”

“Isis is right.”

Adria rolled her eyes. “She was
just trying to get you to move on without them. Sure you might not be this far
without us helping push you along, but we’d be nowhere if it weren’t for you
getting a move on when we did push you. None of us could have done the things
you did and quite frankly, I’m jealous.”

Laqiya wasn’t expecting Adria to
say that and stuttered, “
Wh-
What?”

“You convinced Celina to give you
the first staff piece. You fought the guardian of the second piece when he
almost killed you and Sakura, and you were willing to fight Sahajah in the
museum for that staff piece. I’ve never seen someone face danger like you did
that night, without batting an eye. I wouldn’t have. Laqiya, you think less of
yourself than you are. Sure you can’t fight like Isis and with your powers it’s
a flip of a coin most of the times, but you’ve got something none of have?”

Laqiya crossed her arms. “And
what’s that?”

Adria gave a sheepish grin. “I’m
not sure yet, but when I figure it out, I’ll let you know. The point is yes you
could have done all this without us, but we’d be nowhere without you. You’re
the glue that holds us all together, our common denominator.”

Laqiya didn’t know whether Adria
was just saying those things to make her feel better or if she meant it. But
there was
a certain
sincerity to the words that Laqiya
couldn’t deny.

“You really think I can do it?”

“Somebody has to. And if you can’t,
who will?”

Laqiya thought she could name a few
people, but didn’t tell Adria that as they continued down the hall, coming upon
a set of stairs that spiraled upward and led to the tower at the top. Laqiya
started up them and stop at about the forth step to look at Adria.

“You don’t have to come,” she said.
“You can go back and I wouldn’t be angry.”

“There’s something called loyalty,
and I don’t think you’ve come to understand the concept yet,” Adria joked as
she went up behind her. “Now let’s go.”

The stairs seemed to last forever,
and Laqiya found herself getting dizzy from going up the spiral stairwell
leading up to the tower. She should have been afraid the higher she got, but
instead all she felt was resigned acceptance, somewhere inside of her she felt
ready, like her every experience in life was leading her up to this point,
especially as she began to sense Lady Sahajah’s presence. They arrived at an
old wood door with a round horseshoe handle on it. Laqiya put her hand on it
and glanced at Adria, as if giving her one more time to turn and run. But
either Adria didn’t see it or was ignoring her. Laqiya sighed and opened the
door.

It looked like any tower Laqiya had
seen in movies, particularly the depictions of the Tower of London. The only
light in the room was a small window in the back of the room, the light from it
shining directly on the staff piece, which sat on a table in the middle of the
floor.

“This seems way too easy,” Adria
said to her.

Laqiya looked around the room,
avoiding the call of the staff piece as she became to circle the room, running
her hands over the wall and circling back around to where Adria was standing in
front of the staff. She had that nagging feeling again, something weighing on
her mind, pressing down on her as though urging her not to do something.