Free Chartile: Prophecy by Cassandra Morgan

in an
unspoken agreement of rest. Dimitri gently laid Piper in the moss
and grass by the water. Carefully, he cleansed her wound, wiping
the blood streaks from her arm with immense care. Jayson dropped to
his knees and splashed the icy water on his face two handed. He
looked at Piper who was ashen and sweaty.
    “ This is my fault,” he
whispered. “I fell asleep. The fire died. Damn it! Why does this
keep happening to me? First the trolls, now this? Oh,
God!”
    “ Jayson, this could have
happened to any of us. We were all exhausted,” said
Jack.
    “ If she dies —”whimpered
Jayson.
    “ She’s not going to die,”
said Leo so assuring, they knew it was forced.
    They fell silent, looking at Dimitri,
waiting for some kind of reassurance. But it never came. Dimitri
never took his eyes from Piper. He softly arranged her red hair
against the dark green moss. “Let’s keep moving,” he said abruptly.
He lifted Piper with ease and hurried onward.
    The boys suspected they may have been
slowing their progress, but they still managed to arrive at
Fortress Kelsii just as the sun peeked over the top of the
mountain. It illuminated the great entrance in a shimmering array
of gems and color. Two carved stone doors stood open before them,
at least twenty feet high and each twelve feet wide. They were
inset with hundreds of gems, and were as strong as they were
beautiful. Six armored guards stood at either side of the doors.
The boys were surprised to see they were all very tall, and even
more muscular and built than Dimitri. They had the same dark
complexion, some even darker. These were not the dwarves the boys
had expected.
    “ Dimitri,” said the guard
on the right. “Thank the stone you are alright. What is going on?
Who are they?”
    “ There is no time to
explain, Imohad. Piper has been attacked, and I believe it was a
vampire.” The faces of the guards turned suddenly grave. They
fidgeted and whispered amongst themselves.
    “ A vampire? Snap, man,
that’s what that thing was?” Leo asked, but was ignored.
    “ Come,” replied Imohad.
Four guards escorted them inside, their bright, polished armor
clanking off the stone walls.
    Even in their concern for Piper, the boys
could not help but hope they would get another opportunity to
explore the grandeur that surrounded them. They hurried along so
quickly they were unable to take in everything Fortress Kelsii
offered their wandering eyes. Different kinds of rock had been
layered and arranged in intricate patterns, pressed and swirled
together. The runes were their own work of art. Some had been
chiseled into the rock face, while others had been carved from
large pieces of gem stone, and had been fixed to the wall above the
tunnel entrances. There were Dwarvik runes, Draconian runes, Elven
script, and several other kinds of writing. They adorned the walls
of the great circular room they entered immediately beyond the
front gates. At least thirty tunnels led off the main entrance,
each with a different pattern and colored gem at the top of each
entrance.
    “ Someone inform the
Empress and Queen!” Dimitri called.
    One of the guards nodded and took off at a
run toward another tunnel. Jayson, Jack and Leo were panting to
keep up. They knew that even if they were separated, Piper was all
that mattered now.
    Twisting and turning, never ending, on and
on the tunnels went. The path they took was smooth and square, and
illuminated by jewel-encrusted oil lamps along the way. Finally,
they turned down a wide corridor and saw their first door in what
felt like miles. The guards pushed it open, making room for Dimitri
and the boys to pass through. Inside was a high ceilinged room with
white marble floors and walls. There were many small beds along the
walls, and the shelves were lined with herb-filled glass pots. A
small fountain bubbled forth from one wall, falling into a basin
and draining through a pipe to a hole in the floor. It was clean
and more advanced than Jayson, Jack