The Inner Kingdom: Quest One (Dragon Quest Book 1) (9 page)

Knowing she was right, I turned my back to her so I wouldn’t have to look at her accusing eyes. “I know this may sound crazy, but ever since we were brought here I have felt a connection to different things. It’s like I have memories that have been locked away and I can’t reach them. I just want to know the truth.”

“Me, too. It’s very strange. Like there is something I should remember,” Ashley agreed looking at the picture above the bed. “I must admit, I am a little curious. Let’s just hear them out tomorrow. Maybe not everything they say is a lie.”

After a long pause, “Fine, let’s just hope that saying isn’t true,” Angie replied.

“What saying?” Ashley and I inquired at the same time.

“Curiosity killed the cat."

The Information

Location: The Path

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Angi
e
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I was awakened to the sound of someone knocking on the door. Pretending to be asleep, I ignored the noise, hoping that it would end.

To my relief, the knocking ceased as I snuggled deeper into the pillow under my head. My seconds of bliss were abruptly ended by the sound of pounding on the room door.

Reality hit me when I opened my eyes. I begin to recall that I was no longer home or on Earth for that matter.

As I glanced at the lit fireplace, which took the remainder of our strength to activate its celta last night, I caught myself becoming confused about what was true and what was not.

The noise had returned, and this time it didn’t sound like it was going away as I sat up in bed and stared at the door. The soft satin covers and the smell of burning firewood was almost enough to lull me back to sleep, despite the loud knocking.

Dragging my achy body out of the tangled limbs that belonged to my sisters, I didn’t bother to straighten my wild hair as I opened the door to find Leo with his hand raised in the air to bang again. He was still sporting his armored clothes except today his armor plated chest, boots, and cuffs were gold and the clothes beneath were silver.

“What?” I growled, looking up at the one person I wasn’t expecting to find at the door. “Why are you here?” I was never much of a morning person, so my voice held an extra edge to it. 

He stared at me with one eyebrow lifted, not letting his face betray what he was actually thinking. “I take it you slept well, since you did not hear the helpers’ attempts to wake you.”

Opening the door wider to glance around the corner, I found three ladies standing against the wall whispering to one another, which turned into giggles as they saw me. “What’s wrong with them?”

Clearing his throat, he said, “It is very improper for a lady to open the door to a person of the opposite sex in her… sleeping attire.”

“Improper? I look like I am wearing a rug,” I exclaimed as I motioned at the calf-length thick red fabric with wide shoulder straps. “Secondly, I don’t see you as human, let alone a man. You are more like a homicidal invention, of my hormonal teenage nightmare, which I can’t seem to be able to awake from.”

“I assure you that this is not a dream, and I have no time to confirm or deny your sanity.”

“Never mind that. Why are you here?”

“To hurry along the process of getting you ready since Mina will not let anyone break the agreement that was made.”

“What agreement?”

Sighing heavily, he said, “The one she made with you and your sisters about boundaries.”

“Then that must mean you came here to escort us home.”

“I am here to make sure that you are properly escorted to Nolin whom in return will answer any questions that you may have."

Crossing my arms over my chest, I asked, “Is that a yes or a no?”

I could tell he was beginning to lose his composure as he rubbed his temple with his right hand. “Why can’t you just do what you are told?”

“Do I look like a pet you can boss around?” I countered.

“A poisonous snake would make a better pet!” Leo shouted, putting his foot in the room before I could slam the door closed all the way.

“You are now seriously violating the agreement.” I accused, putting all my weight against the door, which did no good as he slid the door open with ease.

“I have had enough,” he muttered, closing his eyes while cupping his hands out in front of him.

“Angie, what’s going on?” I heard Ashley’s voice call out.

Peering back at the bed, I could see that both of my sisters were now wide awake.

Ignoring her question, I glanced back at Leo to find that there was now a small white orb in his hands. Without opening his eyes, he threw the orb hitting the wall above the dresser, causing it to move and morph into a window that let in a blinding white light.

“A warning would have been nice,” I muttered while my eyes adjusted to the bright light that now filled the room.

“You left me with no other options.”

I swore I saw a grin on his face as he took in my apparent discomfort.

Paying no attention to the questions my sisters directed my way, I grabbed Leo’s arm before he could fully leave the room.

I let go of his arm only when he actually stopped. “How did you do that?”

He leaned down about an inch away from my face. “If you are really curious, be a good girl, and let the helpers do their work.

After he exited the room, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning around, I found April and Ashley standing behind me with their arms crossed.

“What was that all about?” Ashley questioned at the same time April gave the okay to the three women peeking in the room to enter.

“How long were you awake?”

“I wasn’t sleep when you got out of bed,” Ashley admitted smoothing down her long hair.

“If you weren’t asleep, why didn’t you say anything?”

Before Ashley could answer me, April interrupted us. “We are going to have to continue this conversation later. Since the helpers are now behind schedule, they want to assist us quickly."

“Alright, but there will be a part two to this discussion,” I muttered as the women were already coming toward us.

A short time later, we stood dressed in plain single strap, light fabric gowns, which were the same color of our dresses the previous night. Our hair this time was brushed and left to hang loose.

We were given gold sandals that tied up our calves to wear, which were very comfortable despite the fact that I never liked sandals with strings that went between my toes.

“If you do not mind following us, we will lead you to Grand Elder Nolin,” the tallest one of the helpers announced, shepherding us out of the room.

Once we were down the hall, I could not stand the silence any longer. “Now can you tell me why you kept quiet this morning?”

“You are questioning the wrong person. I was going to let you know I was no longer sleeping, but April covered my mouth.

I turned to see a red-faced April pretending to be very fascinated with the architecture as she listened to our conversation.

“Don’t look at her like that; she probably did it because she did not want to interrupt your flirting.”

“I was not flirting,” I denied.

“Just promise you will control your temper around him since he seems to be the only one that sets you off,” April said, finally looking toward me for a response.

“Fine, I will try to become less upset when he is around.”

“No matter whom you flirt with, or not flirt with, we must not get attached to anyone here. We will get the opportunity to leave one day, and it would be better if there was nothing here to miss,” Ashley murmured low enough that only we could hear.

“Ditto,” I whispered back.

Meeting eyes with April, she hesitantly agreed as Ashley and I suspiciously looked at her.

“It is easier this way. We must not allow ourselves to feel anything toward anyone here,” Ashley declared, stopping us as the helpers continued to walk, oblivious to our argument.

April turned toward us looking more determined than I have ever seen her. “It’s just that, I can’t stop wondering if everything is true. What if we are obligated to help the people here?”

“We are not obligated to anyone here. We do not belong here,” I replied.

“Well, according to everyone here, this is our home,” April countered, not backing down. “I just want to know the truth. What else can explain the strange abilities we have developed?”

“Maybe it is a side effect from being here. These powers cannot be limited to us; you saw what Leo did back there.”

The sound of someone clearing their throat caught our attention. As we stopped to see who made the sound, the four helpers were beginning to look impatient as they motioned for us to keep up with them.

We continued walking in silence until the ladies stopped suddenly in the middle of the hallway. The tallest one rubbed her hand across a celta in the shape of a peacock creature like the one that led us here. Shortly after touching it, the symbol disappeared, causing a section of the wall to lift up, forming a doorway that led out into a sidewalk made out of shiny white rocks.

The rocks were very smooth and did not hurt when I stood on them, which was very surprising due to the fact that I was wearing thin sandals. The sun felt wonderful against my skin, energizing me in a way. The smell of flowers was overwhelming as I inhaled deeply, feeling better after just a minute outside.

“This is where we part,” said the one who activated the celta as we looked back at her for further instructions. “The path will lead you to your destination. Just activate the celta.

Before we could ask where the celta was located, she had already closed the doorway.

“Great! Now what are we supposed to do?” I yelled, looking around for anything that resembled a celta. “Have any ideas, April?”

“I don’t know. Mina said that celtas are made and activated by energy. Maybe we can locate it with the same method.”

“I say we just follow the path, and just see where it goes. We already know that Nolin is our destination,” Ashley strategized out loud.

Checking around the area, I could only see flowers everywhere I looked. It reminded me of the field we traveled by when coming to the castle. The path ran through the gardens and disappeared around the outside of the castle, which was so high I couldn’t see the top. “It’s better than standing here wasting more time.”

Ashley gave me a strange look. “Coming from the person who spent most of the morning arguing with Leo.”

“He started it with that, 'I man, you woman, obey me attitude.'” I explained, getting annoyed at the way Ashley stared down at me.

Standing a little over five-foot-five, mostly anyone would have to tilt their head downward to look at me, but Ashley’s stance exaggerated my short stature and gnawed at my patience.

April continued as if she did not see or hear anything. “While we’re walking, let’s try to activate the path ourselves. I’m not sure how these rocks are supposed to lead us to Nolin, but I am guessing it would be much faster than wandering around.”

Ashley shrugged her shoulders. “It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“Whatever,” I sighed, walking beside April

“I believe this will work better if we hold hands,” April said, grabbing my hand. “Remember what Mina said? Let’s try pulling on our energy and focusing it toward the path.”

As soon as our hands touched, I could feel the tingling sensation coming back to my hands as I tried to focus my energy into my hands exactly like the time when we were trying to travel back in time. In the darkness behind my eyelids, I could see a light, and I tried to make it flow into my hands. As my hands began to get warmer, I pulled them away from April and opened my eyes to find a red orb similar to the one Leo had made earlier.

“Wow, this is weird and cool all at the same time,” Ashley murmured, holding a blue- tinted orb that was twice the size of Leo’s. “That was easier than I thought.

“I know,” April agreed holding a green orb. “What do we do now?”

“Why are you asking us? This was your idea,” I reminded her.

“More like a hypothesis of mine.”

“You mean, you really don’t know what we are supposed to do next?” Ashley asked, playing with the orb in her hands.

“Was I the only one listening to Mina yesterday?”

“I believe so. After she showed us the hidden bathroom, my mind was on a hot bath and sleep.”

“Same here,” I said, agreeing with Ashley for the first time today.

“Okay, she said something about commanding the energy to do what you want, and then transfer it to the celta, but in our case the path since we can’t find the celta."

“Alright, let’s command our energy to take us to Nolin,” I suggested.

On the count of three, we decided to concentrate on our energy to lead us to Nolin and then transfer it to the path.

When we released the orbs of energy into the rocks, we were surprised to feel them move underneath our feet along the path.

“We did it!” April cheered as we began to pick up speed.

“Am I the only one that feels like we are going to fast?” Ashley inquired as the rocks began to rush us through the field of flowers and onto a network of paths.

There were a lot of people using the path as a method of transportation, and it appeared as if we found the heart of the Inner Kingdom as we passed houses and stables.

I know there are many people regretting taking the paths today
, I thought, as I almost collided into a little girl with pigtails. “Sorry!”

“How do we make it stop?” Ashley screamed as we began to pick up even more speed. The scenery around me was blurred as we continued down the path, like we were qualifying for the Daytona 500.

Abruptly, the rocks stopped moving, causing us to be thrown forward. Expecting to be seriously injured, I braced myself for impact;  when I didn’t feel any pain I opened my eyes that had involuntarily closed to find myself and my sisters floating a foot above the ground.