Reunification (11 page)

The emergency stairs which Resita
described were located only a few feet from the elevator's door.
The door to the stairs had already been knocked off its hinges by
something, likely by one of the monsters, based on the deep, long
claw marks we found on its metallic surface. That almost made
Resita faint, but I told him we would be safe so long as we kept
our wits about ourselves and did not allow ourselves to be taken by
surprise. Still he tried to faint, so I slapped him instead, which
appeared to wake him better than any reassurances on mine part
(though based on the way he rubbed his face, he clearly was not
happy about how I hit him).

Upon entering the stairwell, a powerful
stench, like rotten eggs mixed with melting rubber, assaulted mine
nostrils, making me cover my nose to protect it. So too did Resita
cover his face, though I could tell by the watering of his eyes
that that gesture did little to aid him.

And by the Old Gods' three hundred names,
what a narrow and dark stairwell this was! The hallway outside at
least had the occasional flickering of light to allow us to see the
path before us, but 'twas as pitch black as a vampire's heart in
here, with a sticky, humid air that reminded me of the tropical
jungles of the Trinity Isles. Where this humidity came from, I knew
not, although I guessed this, too, was from the lizard
creatures.

Looking up, I could not see anything, save
for a handful of pinpricks of light that appeared to be the windows
on the doors of the next several floors. But they were too small to
show us anything of the upper levels. Indeed, for all I knew, the
stairs had been completely destroyed by the lizards, which would
undoubtedly make our escape from this place that much more
difficult.

“
Maybe we should rethink
this,” said Resita, his voice slightly muffled behind his feathery
hands. “We don't know what's up there. We could try to repair the
elevator instead. I mean, I've never actually repaired an elevator
before, but I think I know—”

“
Nay!” I responded, my
voice echoing in the narrow stairwell. “We go up and into the
darkness, whatever lies ahead. Unless ye would like to spend the
rest of your short days inhaling the stink of your deceased
friends, that is.”

Resita held up his hands. “Fine, fine. But
let's be quick. I don't like the darkness at all.”

“
Neither do I,” I
replied. “Yet I will not allow it to conquer me. I shall lead the
way.”

It was thus that I began to ascend the
staircase, which felt like concrete under my bare feet. 'Twas still
too dark; I heard the clicking of Resita's claws on the steps
behind me as we climbed higher and higher into the shadows.

We had to ascend carefully, for though the
stairwell seemed empty 'side from us, that did not mean that there
were no lizard creatures hiding above us, perhaps lying in wait.
Granted, I knew virtually nothing about the habits and practices of
these beasts, but if they were smart at all, they would do just
that.

As we climbed, I could not help but think
about mine sister, Kiriah. Somehow, I knew she was connected to all
of this. I did not know if she was currently aware that I was
trying to find her, but I knew she had to miss me as much as I
missed her.

After all, Kiriah and I had been the
closest of siblings prior to her sudden disappearance. How I
remembered our youthful days, when we would explore the deepest and
darkest corners of our family's mansion! Even as a young child, she
had been radiant, with her yellow blonde hair and her pale skin. I
well remembered how she had always told me that she wanted to be a
princess when she grew up, though 'twas an impossibility, for King
Waran-Una had no children and we were not wealthy enough for that
dream to ever be anything more than the whimsical desire of a
child.

Yes, we had become somewhat distant when
we grew up, but that was simply the normal passage of time, which
erodes all things eventually. Even so, our bond had been strong,
strong enough that her sudden disappearance had left a lasting scar
on my mind that was unlikely to ever go away completely until I
found her again.

It was the thought of reuniting with her
that spurred me on toward greater heights. In this case, quite
literally, for Resita and I had to keep ascending higher and higher
on these stairs to reach the first floor, and, eventually,
freedom.

One other thing that crossed mine mind was
my fellow Knights. I still did not know for certain how much time
had passed since I had been cast into sleep by that she-elf
Lanresia; however, I could guess that it had been more than a few
hours, which meant that Sir Lockfried was most likely expecting me
to report for duty any minute now. That I had not, was as obvious
as the sun was round, which no doubt meant that Sir Lockfried had
noticed mine absence by now. In all likelihood, he would send
someone—perhaps even my friend and closest ally, Sir Alart—to mine
home to find out the reason behind my delay.

Though even then, I could not count on Sir
Alart coming to my rescue. I had left no note or clue indicating
where I might have gone, after all, as I had not expected to be
gone from Dela for more than a day. Even if they found out I had
gone to Xeeon, that meant nothing, because I was no longer
there.

Thus, aside from Resita and mine faith in
the Old Gods of my ancestors, I was truly on my own here. I could
rely only on myself to get out of this mess, a very sobering
thought indeed.

At least the stairwell that we ascended
was empty of enemies so far. The strong stink of rotten eggs and
melting rubber still afflicted my nostrils, and my feet felt cold
against the concrete steps, but it seemed as though the creatures
that had come this way had long since disappeared, though it would
take the faith of a fool to believe that they had left
entirely.

And believe me, despite not being a highly
educated man, I was no fool.

Yet for a while there, I almost believed
that we would reach the first floor without any issues or troubles.
I believed that, until we reached the door to the second floor. I
turned to walk up the next set of stairs, but then mine foot went
through a hole where the next step should have been and I nearly
fell in.

Thankfully, Resita's claws grabbed the
collar of mine shirt before I could fall into the hole. 'Twas an
abrupt grab, which hurt my neck, but it was better than falling in
headfirst, which likely would not have ended well for me.

Resita dragged me back from the edge and
then let go of my collar. Readjusting the collar of mine shirt, I
said, “Thank ye for saving me, Resita. I thought I was going to
meet mine end there.”

“
No problem,” said
Resita's voice behind me. “If you had fallen, you would have
cracked your head open, which would have been very messy and would
have left me to fend for myself in this place.”

“
Indeed,” I said. “But
why are these stairs missing the next steps? On Dela, no staircase
is missing even one small step. Is this an example of the failures
of Xeeonite engineering?”

“
This has nothing to do
with Xeeonite engineering,” said Resita in annoyance. “I don't know
for sure what happened, but I can guess that either the lizards
destroyed the next few steps on these stairs or maybe the shaking
from the explosion knocked them off.”

“
How peculiar,” I said,
stroking mine chin in thought. “How come we did not run into these
missing steps on our way up? They should have fallen either way,
should they have not?”

“
Didn't you feel those
little bits of concrete on the steps?” said Resita. “I did. I
didn't think much of them at first, because I thought maybe it was
just a few bits that had been knocked off the underside of the
higher steps, but now I am starting to think that those were the
remains of the next few steps. The only one that isn't missing is
this one right here.”

I could not tell which he spoke of, but I
did hear his feathery fingers run along a concrete surface nearby.
I reached out with mine hands and felt what was clearly a chunk of
torn concrete. 'Twas so baffling a thing that I wondered just how
strong those lizards must have been, to tear a chunk of concrete
off the steps and rest it here like that.

But dwelling on that thought was not
relevant or helpful to our current situation, so without turning to
face Resita, I said, “How can ye tell there are a few steps
missing? Seems like there was only one missing step to I.”

“
Because, like all
Checrom, I have limited night vision,” said Resita. “I can only
really see the general outline of things in the dark, but it's
enough for me to tell that there are at least three steps missing,
maybe four or five at most.”

“
I can jump four or five
steps easy,” I said. “Then ye can follow, or perhaps wait here
until I can find help.”

I bent my knees, readying myself to jump
through the air like a leaping tiger, when one of Resita's claws
fell on my shoulders. Ordinarily, such a move, in such a black
place, would have made me grab and hurl the attacker over my
shoulder to defend mine life, but as I knew it was Resita, I
refrained from doing so.

“
Are you insane?” said
Resita, sounding far too much like mine mother for my tastes. “You
can't make that jump. Maybe if we had some light in here to help
you see, you might stand a chance of not falling to your death. But
with this darkness, you'd have to be the biggest idiot in the world
to try it.”

I stood back up to mine full height,
shrugging off his claw as I looked over my shoulder at the
bird-like humanoid. The light from the tiny window on the door to
Floor Number Two showed me only part of his face, enough so that I
could see how incredulously he was staring at me.

“
Then what do ye suggest
we do, bird?” I said. “Go back down to the fifth floor and die
among the dead?”

“
No,” said Resita,
shaking his head, causing a few feathers to fall out of it as he
did so. “Instead, I think we should go into Floor Number Two.
There's another set of stairs on that side that should take us up
to Floor Number One.”

This revelation utterly floored me. I was
so taken aback by it that I almost stumbled backwards into the hole
where the steps had once been, but I caught myself in the nick of
time, though I was still shaken by Resita's words nonetheless.

Resita must have noticed my reaction,
because he said, “Um, why did you do that?”

“
Because I had never
known about those other stairs before,” I said. “Why did ye never
mention them until now?”

“
Because there was no
reason to,” said Resita. “If these damn stairs hadn't been
completely trashed, then we could have gone up to Floor Number One
easily. As it is, we'll have to cut across Floor Number Two to get
to the stairs on the other side.”

“
What luck!” I said. I
spread my arms. “Brother Resita, we shall hug to celebrate this
brilliant stroke of luck, which must have been granted to us by
Walnak himself!”

Resita, however, held up his hands
defensively, as though I was about to assault him instead of
embrace him. “There's no need for any of that. I mean, we can't
celebrate just yet; after all, there's a good chance that those
lizard creatures are in the second floor, unless they've already
left this place.”

“
Even so, we shall fight
them as though they were nothing, for we have righteousness on our
side,” I said, forming a fist with mine right hand. “The Old Gods
themselves are protecting us, of this I have no doubt.”

“
I don't know who or
what the 'Old Gods' are, nor do I want to,” said Resita, who now
sounded as nervous as a tiny bird that knew that a hungry cat was
nearby. “Let's just keep moving. If that door is
locked—”

“
Then I shall knock it
down like the Tower of Malnuth!” I cried, shoving Resita aside as I
walked over to the door to the second floor.

But as it turned out, when I tried to push
the door open, it flew open without any trouble. Its hinges creaked
loudly as it did so, an unnecessarily loud noise in this quiet
place. Did make me cringe, but I still held my hand on my energy
knife in case any monsters lay awaiting within, ready to take
advantage of our momentary surprise.

Yet when I looked through the open
doorway, I saw no sign of any of those lizard-like creatures at
all. 'Twas nothing more than a long, empty hallway, similar to the
hallway back on the fifth floor, though this place lacked the
corpses of the lower floor.

“
It appears that our
worries were unfounded, my dearest Resita,” I said, looking back
over my shoulder at my bird-like friend, who stared at me as if I
had acted like an idiot. “There is not one sign of any lizard-like
creature; to wit, there is—”

Mine words of reassurance were interrupted
by the screech of some kind of beast, a screech I had never heard
before in my life. This sound was followed by something slamming
onto the floor and coming at me at frightening speed.

I whirled around and saw a giant, humanoid
lizard-like creature running at me, its claws bared. It moved
almost too fast for me to see it in any detail; hence, I decided to
act instead of observe.

I drew mine energy knife out of my sheath
in one smooth motion. I clicked the tab on the handle and a blazing
red energy blade popped out of it, hot and burning to the skin, but
that mattered little to me, for I assumed that this heat would be
enough to wound the accursed beast mortally.

But despite the speed at which I drew and
activated mine weapon, the lizard-like humanoid was upon me faster
than mine eyes could follow. I saw only one of its claws, sharp and
jagged like a knife, coming at me like the talons of an eagle, but
I responded by slashing at its arm.