Free The Key of Kilenya by Andrea Pearson Page A

the air, and
the sheen disappeared. The snake released Jacob into the room. He
whirled, ready to defend himself, but the snake moved back into the
hallway, turning to bite the wood several times around the top,
bottom, and sides of the door frame. The same translucent veil
materialized again, sealing the entire entry, and the snake
slithered down the hall and stairs.
    Rushing to the nearest window, barely
noticing the junk and oddly placed rolls of cloth on the floor,
Jacob saw the snake enter the thick forest and disappear. He
watched for a few moments, but the snake didn’t return.
    The pit was beneath the window. It wasn’t
very deep—maybe two or three feet—and Akeno was there, thrashing
around in the remains of charred furniture and other debris. Jacob
pounded on the window, trying to get Akeno’s attention, but the
Makalo didn’t even seem to notice.
    A cold wind blew on the back of Jacob’s neck,
making his hair rise. He turned and nearly yelled—a partially
decomposed body appeared to be falling out of the chair only a foot
or so in front of him.
    Panicked it would fall, Jacob held his hands
up to protect himself and stepped to the side, barely missing
another body that lay across the floor, arms stretched toward the
door. He jumped away from it, noticing what he’d assumed to be
rolls of cloth were really bodies sprawled on the ground, reaching
for the exit. He made his way to a clear spot and looked
around.
    The room was very large. There was a massive
bed against one wall, a fireplace on another, and several chairs
placed in random positions around bookcases, tables, and the
fireplace.
    Nearly every chair held human remains,
ranging from full skeleton to decomposing corpses only having been
dead for maybe a few months. There were jugs of water and bits of
both fresh and moldy, uneaten food on a table in one of the corners
of the room.
    The smell of death and decay became so
overpowering, Jacob felt as though his lungs would burst if he
didn’t get clean air at once. He steeled himself as he passed the
bodies, rushing back to the window to open it and let in fresh
air.
    But the window wouldn’t budge.
    Jacob’s eyes landed on the water jugs, and he
grabbed one—it was heavy with water. He smashed it against the
window as hard as he could. The result was water splashing all over
him and the nearest body, the jug shattering, and the window going
undamaged. He grimaced. He should have dumped the water out
first.
    At this point, he saw several broken things
on the floor below the windows in the room, where it appeared
others had also tried to break the glass.
    Jacob groaned. “Oh, man, I’ve really got to
get out of here.”
    The sound of his own voice startled him, and
he looked over his shoulder at the bodies. He felt stupid when he
realized he was checking to see if they’d moved. He took a deep
breath to calm himself, and studied them. What if, like them, his
only chance to get out was to go through the doorway? But why
hadn’t the others gone through? They weren’t tied up or anything.
They weren’t even near the door. None of them was closer than five
or six feet.
    Resolving to get out, Jacob crossed the room,
coming up near the sheen. He stopped three or so feet away, peering
at it. There was a slight movement, a few swirls in the silver.
Light pink and blue mists emanated from it, and Jacob was
distracted by the color for a moment—it was the first he’d seen in
at least an hour. Reaching toward it, he felt something pass over
his skin when his hand went through the mist before touching the
sheen. It was cold—very cold—and a sharp pinpricking feeling
started at his fingertips, moving to his wrist where the mist
stopped. Pulling back his arm, he examined his hand. No blood, no
mark, nothing.
    He looked up, took a step closer, and put his
hand out again, determined to touch the actual veil this time. The
same cold, prickly feeling started at his fingertips and reached
his elbow. He held