Mundahlia (The Mundahlian Era, #1) (38 page)

Half an hour had to pass until I had the decency to make sure the other Enthiduans knew I was all right. They’d spent the minutes after I’d arrived, chatting amongst each other. Unaware of how to comfort me. “Perhaps we should just smile. Show her there is nothing to worry about,” One said. “No, no,” A matured woman, sitting beside him answered. “Let her get it all out. It’s for the best if she runs dry of tears. She’s suffered enough.” These were all faces I sorta knew, but didn’t know how to address them as. The only Enthiduan I had named was Angela. My dungeon buddy, who just last night sat chained to the other side of my now vacant chain. The others went on calling to each other with words like “you” or “sir” or even “madam” or “lady” if they happened to be a female.

Suddenly, the doors ahead burst open. Letting in the orange glow—a tsunami of light that spilled across the floor to fill the room dimly. The Enthiduans became invisible, like they had when I’d first arrived. A woman yielding a lit torch came in. She flashed it in all the directions before stopping on me. She stood for a moment as I looked into the light, my eyes red and swollen. Then, she ran. Making her way over to me, and holding up a side of her long ember dress so she wouldn’t stumble. “Hurry, get up! You don’t have much time!” She rushed, letting her dress flow back to the floor, and reaching for a key from her bust. I saw the curly hair and glasses—The Queen.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Helping you.” She stuck the key into the chains and they fell limp to the floor with a slight
clink
.

“Why?”

“Because, I know you’re innocent. I couldn’t do anything while my husband was still here in the castle. But, he left a while ago with a few of his children. I sent the rest to town just now. It took a while but they finally left.” She pulled me up and brushed some grime away. “The guards are distracted at the front gate—I think someone is trying to break into the castle, so we must go out the back! Now come before it is too late and we both get killed!”

She rushed me out of the jail and nearly flew me up the stairs.

“Wait!” I called, stopping on the steps of the dark stonewalled stairwell.

“What is it?
Please
.” She tugged on my hand, “We don’t have much time.”

“I can’t leave knowing that the Enthiduans are still locked in here.”

“We don’t have time. Someone will be back!” The Queen urged. “I’ve already lost people who’ve meant so much to my family and friends and I. And I vowed to myself never to let it happen again.”

“Please?”

She refrained from pulling my arm and stared at me for a few seconds before agreeing, “I’ll wait by the back door for you. It’s just around the corner, passed the golden doors and across the ballroom.” She pointed with her eyes to a sharp weapon hanging on display on the wall by the door. “Use the axe on the wall to cut them free.” I hopped my way back down the steps before hearing her clear her throat. “I’ve never eaten any of them, just so you know. Just the others. The cooks always prepare me my own food. Normal villager food. Food I enjoy.”

“I believe you,” I said, flashing a quick smile to show that I meant it. “You don’t belong here, either.” And then off she went after flashing me a returning smile—hurrying up the stairs with her dress lifted in her hands.

I headed to the axe, hanging between a pair of torches lit ablaze that I blew out so it wouldn’t bother the Enthiduans. As I freed it from the hook, I nearly fell from the sudden change in weight. It was heavy. About the weight of a cement block. The sound of the metal scraping against the floor sounded as I hauled the heavy object back into the tiny room where the putrid smell I had already gotten used to seemed like the norm. “I’m gonna need help, guys!” I said once in the room. The metal head still scraped across the dirty, wet tiles.

Crack, crack, crack!
The Enthiduans appeared, looking to each other for a moment, then smiling wide smiles of hope on their faces. A pair of male Enthiduans hopped over to me, still bound in their chains.

“Let me see it,” one of them said, motioning for me to give it to him. I handed the axe to him and watched as he freed himself first, and then went on to each and every Enthiduan, liberating them from their chains.

“Thank you!” They said in a cheerful chorus.

“If we hurry, we can all take a ferry out of this vile land! It is nearly sundown. The light shouldn’t affect us as much!” The man dropped the axe to the floor.

“Come on!” I waved. “The Queen’s waiting by the castle’s back door.” I let all the Enthiduans pass me and followed behind. We bolted up the stairs and down the hall. The leader of the group—the liberator, halted. “Where to now?” The castle was like a maze, with halls leading to doors or more halls. We didn’t have time to go door to door.

“She said it was across the ballroom,” I announced from the back.

“There!” One Enthiduan from the front pointed to a set of grand golden doors at the end of the hall with the words
Ballare Cuartara
written above them in a faded black ink. We came into a wide open room. Black and white tiles lined the floor, and the room was decorated in fabrics of white, gold, and sliver. A silky transparent golden set of curtains shielded what looked like a massive stage where another pair of intricately designed thrones sat. A soft spotlight shining down on each one like they were being displayed. A gorgeous chandelier hung a few feet above, and tall vine-decorated pillars were placed around the room. It looked glorious. Like it belonged to Greek or Roman mythological Gods. A room where they would conduct their business and sit each day while guards and peasants came up to them to ask questions or perform. “There’s the exit,” the same Enthiduan upfront pointed to the other set of doors at the far end of the room. We all scurried our way over. But once we made it midway across the glossy floor, the room fell dark. Pitch-black. Lit only with the soft lights of the Enthiduans, which only emitted a small barrier of white light about ten feet in each direction.

A wicked female laugh arose from the darkness above us. It was almost a hiss. “And
where
do you think
you’re
going?” An eerie rattle sounded.

“Wh-wh-who’s there?” An Enthiduan, who I couldn’t quite see from being surrounded by much taller ones spoke.

A large mass crawled across the ceiling. The light from the Enthiduans was too faint, but I could still see the shapes and some details. It was large—and long, with scales the colors of a light tan nearly covered by wide dark-brown diamonds. We all looked up, watching it slither across the top and rustle past the chandelier, making the clear beads on it chime. I’d seen this mass before, wrapped around my torso. Willa.

“What are you doing here? You were supposed to be out in the town!” I said, angered.

“Ye
sss
. I wa
sss
. But I never really liked the Queen and found it odd that she wanted all of us to leave our own ca
sss
tle. I knew
sss
he was up to
sss
omething. And I wa
sss
right. Ju
sss
t wait until I tell my daddy. Ssshe’ll be dead, just like the others. I’m
sss
ure of it!” She shrieked with laughter.

“What do you want Willa?” I asked.

“
Tsssk, tsssk, tsssk,
” I heard. “You
sss
should know by now, Rini—” The slithering stopped and I felt a sharp claw-like nail tap my shoulder. I turned and found Willa’s grotesque, skin-crawling, and nightmarish face, suspended upside down, flashing me a wide grin. “—I like playing with my food.” Lightning quick, her mouth opened up wide showing me the pink lining for her mouth, and those oh-so painful looking porcelain fangs. I jumped out of the way before she could dig them into my throat, which I’m sure she was aiming for. Her long tall fell from the ceiling and dropped to the floor—bringing the chandelier crashing down, as she stumbled down.

The Enthiduans and I ran as fast as we could to the door, but Willa regained her posture and slithered her way past me and the remaining Enthiduans who hadn’t made it out yet—about two of them. A mature man, and a younger boy. Willa’s claws dug into the wall, trapping us inside. “Gotcha!” she hissed. “Where are you to go now?”

“Shield your eyes,” The mature man said to me in a hurry.

“What?” I asked.

“Shield your eyes!”

The little boy in front of me reached up to my face without warning and covered my eyes with his tiny hands. From behind my eyelids, I saw a bright flash of a white light—like the flash of a camera—and then heard a high-pitched shriek. The little boy’s hands moved away and I saw the serpent that was Willa rubbing her eyes and stammering with anger.

“Come on.” The little boy pulled me out of the room. Hot on the heels of the mature man who had literally just flashed Willa and pushed passed her.

“Come back here!” Willa stammered, bursting through the doors—still in a daze, and slithering her way to us.

We were on the top level in the now darkening castle. Below us was the door leading to freedom—cracked open and letting in a slice of the orange and purple light. I recognized the area that was all too familiar, only I had been with Angela the last time I set foot on this area earlier today. The Queen was gone. The door, open—she’d probably ran out with the other Enthiduans.

Just as I was about to make for the stairs, I was whipped to the ground by Willa’s large heavy tail.

“You’re not going anywhere!” She said in a shrill as her tail wrapped around me and lifted me to her. She was still blinking her beady eyes, trying to regain her vision. Her black forked tongue flashed in and out as she inhaled my scent yet again. “I should just finish you off right now.” Once again, her sharp fangs protruded as her vicious mouth whipped up into a hiss.

“You just ate. What’s the matter, still hungry?” I sassed.

“I’m always in the mood for a sssnack?” She grinned.

I sent a blow to the side of her face, and nearly fell to the floor from her loosening grasp. “I’ll be damned if I go back to the dungeon again.”

She hissed even louder, ready to strike, inches from my face. The rattle at the end of her tail shook violently. Her muscle tightened as tight as I’ve ever felt it and I let out a moan as I felt my bones beginning to crack and chip away from underneath her grip.

The Enthiduans who’d been stopped with me returned from the bottom of the steps and threw themselves on Willa, trying to pry me away from her.

“Get off of me!” She screeched, trying to grab for them. They clung on strongly and did what they could.

“Leave—while—you still—can,” I managed to get out. One of them had already sacrificed themselves for me, and I wouldn’t know what I’d do if they died for me too. They didn’t hear me, or if they did, ignored it. The mature man whacked Willa clear across the face, and the small boy opted for biting. She flicked her long tail up and sent the Angels flying. She reached for me with her sharp, villainous claws, but I clasped them together and knocked them away. I managed to grab a hold of one of her hands and brought it to her back. Her other claw came around her shoulder trying to free herself, but I grabbed for it as well. It slipped from my fingers and instead Willa pounded me in the side, swinging it behind her. I yelped with pain, but still kept my grip on her hand, and tried again for the other. And then, success! I grabbed for her dry, scaly hand and matched it in the back with the other.
I’ve learned this before! Now’s not the time to mess it up!

With a mighty kick, I struck the lower-middle of her back and she fell to the floor, howling in pain as I felt something snap. Her whipping tail swooped me off my feet and I landed back-first to the ground, as she wrapped herself into a coil. I was helped to my feet by the same two Enthiduans who held something in each of their hands. The little boy tugged on my shirt. A small glowing orange pearl levitated above his hand. Next to him, the other Enthiduan had a lime green one in his. “Miss?” he said.

“Yes?”

“We’d like you to have these.”

Pearls? I pulled the one Angela gave me from the pocket and held it in my hand. The small hand from the little boy’s hovered over it, dropping his into the pile. The other man did the same.

“Thank you for freeing us.”

“It’s no problem,” I looked down at the back door. “You’d better get going if you want to make it.” Willa wanted me. Not them. For once, I decided to sacrifice myself so that they could go free. Besides, I’m not as fast as them. Willa would catch me in no time if I decided to run for it.

The Enthiduans smiled briefly then dashed down the steps in a hurry.

Willa’s attention fired up. “Give me those pearl
sss
!” she ordered, her rattler shaking violently behind her. “You were the one who took the pearl from the other one. Give them to me
now
!” She licked her lips as though already thinking of the three powers she would gain with them.

“No!” I tucked all the pearls back in the pocket.

We circled around each other until my back was to a large stained glass window and she was directly in front of me. Cornering me. This was it. The end.

Willa was pretty beat up. She wiped a trail of blood from her snake like nose. All she needed was the snake hair and she could pass as Medusa. Her black forked tongue flickered in and out again. “Give them to me thi
sss
in
ss
tant and your death will come quickly and almo
ss
t painle
ss
ly.”

“No!” I said again, this time bravely. “If you want them—” I patted the shirt pocket. “—come and get them.”

“Give them to me!” she lurched forward from the coil she was in. And then the moments after happened in slow motion. I’d seen this before many times on Animal Planet. The lightning fast strike of a snake. It frightened me on TV, but made me shiver and get drenched in sweat now that a large widening pink mouth with sharp shiny fangs was coming toward me. It was all I could see. Fangs and a pink lining with ridges going down the top. Then, I felt a strange force and energy come from my side, pushing me out of the way. And suddenly, things were normal speed again. I had been shoved aside by something or someone, and was now watching Willa crash through the large window that shattered into sharp pieces of reds, yellows, greens, and blues. A mushy hit sounded, followed by a dimming screech. Then, silence overtook the surroundings. Drowning out any other sounds to announce to those nearby that something gravely had just happened. I carefully walked to the broken window and peered over the edge. The naked body of Willa stayed lodged in the metal pipe protruding from a beautiful fountain in the lush, floral-drenched garden below. A giant shish kabob. The clear water spouting from the fountain faded from a faint pink into blood red as it continued to pour over her body.

This was it. I didn’t waste any more time running down the stairs and out of the castle to freedom at last. Once out, I spotted the ferry in the very distance of the island. A small white dot in the water. There was only one thought that popped into my head as I ran as fast as I could toward it as the sun kissed the horizon and night settled in.

Home.