Chapter 3.

  ‘Hey.’ A smoky voice called. ‘Get up.’ Power’s head
throbbed overwhelmingly. Feeling had returned with the
effects of his merciless beating present also.
  The cell floor was wet with a mixture of water and
disgusting, stale urine. Power still lay, trying to
recover from his long slumber.
  ‘Hey!’ The person again clamoured, raising his voice,
‘Get up!’ Power turned over onto his back with his hands
over his eyes.
  He dizzily sat up, moaning. 
  Most of the room around him was a brick pavement. The
green mould that grew off it had a water supply from a
slight seepage down the walls from the room above, and
had a glowing look about it. Metal bars guarded the only
exit and a solid iron door stopped any means of escaping. 
  ‘You’ve been lying there for almost three days now.’
the voice said. Power strained his eyes, peering within
the dark shadows at the voices owner. The outline of the
figure looked to be quite a slim and thin one, and was
chained awkwardly to the wall behind him. ‘There’s no
need to be afraid of me.’ the shadow reassured, ‘Once you
can see me, I’m sure you’ll be quite shocked.’
  Getting up off the cold floor, he moved towards the
silhouette. No sufficient light was enough to give the
persons secretive appearance away. Curiosity soon became
overwhelming.
  ‘Why are you here?’ Power asked. 
  ‘I lead some of the Leifarian enemies safely through 
the gauntlet. They were being pursued and had escaped an 
execution. Now I am the one to be executed instead of 
them. Why are you here?’
  ‘I’m not really sure.’ Power replied. ‘All I know is
that some lady’s Master wants me for something.
  ‘Your the great Power, from Oiy aren’t you?’
  ‘How could you tell?’ He questioned suspiciously.
  ‘Everybody’s heard of you. There’s a five hundred
thousand gold piece reward on your head.’
  ‘That’s ridiculous!’ Power said in outrage. ‘My head is
worth twice that amount!’
  ‘Maybe so, but your brain wouldn’t even be worth harden
mud.’ Power turned around to be faced once again with his
capturer. Her dull navy cape commingled with the dim
background. 
  ‘How long are you keeping me here for?’ Power calmly
questioned.
  ‘Oh, you won’t be here for much longer.’ Chaos
promised. ‘After tonight’s banquet, we shall be off once
again. But for the meantime, don’t do anything that you
might regret.’ She let out a ferocious laugh, then turned
and waltzed her way, in hysteria, back down the corridor.
  ‘I wouldn’t worry about her.’ the shadow reassured. ‘We 
won’t be here for much longer.’
  ‘What are you planning to do?’ Power asked.
  ‘You’ll find out tonight.’ the person said with a hint
of insidiousness floating in the air. 
  The rest of the afternoon went by quickly with 
conversation, eating time by the mouthful. The shadow, as 
was found, was a good listener, but never really opened 
up at all. Power spoke about his past, his dreams, his 
hopes, and this person returned all his thoughts with 
philosophy. The screams of torture and the moans of those 
slowly dyeing around them faded away as he and the shadow 
had covered everything they could possibly think of. 
  Music and glee eventually came bellowing down through
the halls of the dungeon and through slight cracks in the
ceiling. Along with the sounds came the smells. Smells
that most of the captured people hadn’t smelt of in
years. The nice, juicy, smell of meat made mouths water
and the scent of gravies, spices and other toppings and
flavours made even the most toughest weep.
  ‘Shouldn’t be much longer.’ the mysterious person
informed. ‘For now, could you try getting me loose of
these awful chains?’ 
  The solid steel chains the shadow hung limp from were
taut and made a lot of noise when ever they were moved.
How Power was going to get the chains undone, he didn’t
know. 
  He tried first breaking them in half with his brute
strength. Veins rippled along his arms, chest and neck as
he struggled to rip it in two. Unsuccessful. 
  He then tried smashing it in two by leaning it up
against the wall and hammering it with his fist. The only
thing he smashed were his knuckles. 
  Finally, he tried tugging it from its anchor. It too 
didn’t work. Nothing physical would work. The only real 
thing that would get this shadow off the chains were the 
keys and only God knew where they were kept.  
  ‘Don’t worry about the chains then.’ the shadow finally
submitted. ‘There’s an easier way I can get out of them.’
  ‘If there’s an easier way, why didn’t we use it in the
first place?’ Power asked, huffing and puffing.
  ‘It only just came to me when you separated your
fingers on these shackles.’
  ‘What now?’ Power fell to the ground in exhaustion.
  ‘How about we get some rest.’ he suggested. ‘I’ll wake
you up when the time comes. Trust me.’ 
*  *  *
  Silent footsteps and the clicking of the door rang in
their ears as they waited, anticipating the right moment. 
  ‘Get ready.’ Sly whispered. A vertical ray of light
appeared in front of them as the cell door slowly swung
open. It was Enigma’s capturer, and his opportunity for
revenge had arrived. 
  ‘Good night.’ Enigma said with a grin mixed in with his 
voice. Right in the mouth, he thumped the soldier, 
practically knocking his teeth down his throat for him to
choke on. 
  ‘Come on,’ Sly said, still in a whispered tone, ‘we
must hurry.’ Enigma easily picked the unconscious soldier
up off the paved floor, and tossed him into the dark
cell. 
  ‘I’ll take that.’ Enigma demanded as he spotted his
dagger in the soldiers belt. Quickly, he put it away. 
  Sly armed herself with the soldiers other knife sitting 
in his boot.
  ‘Now, we must be careful and quiet.’ Sly hissed, ‘Even 
though most of the soldiers are asleep, the other slaves
will spring us if they see us.’
  ‘Why’s that?’ the boy asked.
  ‘Well, if you were watching someone else get away, what
would you do?’
  ‘I would try to get his attention somehow.’
  ‘You understand now?’ Sly said with a tiny smirk.
  They trotted on silent feet to the end of the corridor.
Everything was quiet, the workers long since departed. 
  The smoke from the fire the previous day had almost
cleared. Ash still breathed amongst the rubble and the
stone walls seemed cold under its black singed face. 
  ‘Watch your back.’ Sly said, checking the area one last
time. They moved on to the bent gates of the Sanctuary. 
  There was one full moon and a half out of three,
lighting up the sky. It lit up figures concealed, plus it
kept great shadows.
  ‘Where are we headed?’ Enigma asked.
  ‘In a north - easterly direction. Towards the Falls of
Gardna.’
  Blazing fires danced in the still air, blinking when
the odd soldier wandered passed. Pain’s tent was well lit
from the inside. There was a lot of moving shadows
inside, laughter accompanying it. A celebration of some
kind.
  Enigma felt free again. Excitement overcame him as they 
moved onward. 
  Sly gasped. ‘I think were about to be found out.’
  ‘What do you mean?’ Enigma replied in a panic.
  ‘Look over there towards the slaves cage.’ Sly said,
pointing to a well guarded cage. Dogs patrolled the area
with blood thirsty mouths and razor sharp teeth, snarling
their dominance. The escaping pair, Enigma found, was the
focus of their attention.
  ‘Run!’ Sly squealed. She shot off into the open with
Enigma not far behind. Dogs were heard barking and
growling as they sounded the alarm and gave chase. The
moonlight didn’t help either. They were easily seen by
all. 
  The soldiers soon became aware of what was happening,
and proceeded to follow the fugitives, none by horse. 
  ‘I want them brought back to me alive!’ The Master 
screamed, stumbling out of his tent after realising what
was happening. 
  They fought as they ran, dodging air born hounds,
snapping at their heads.
  ‘We’re going to have to stand and fight.’ Sly said,
gasping for air. 
  The hounds were their first problem. As the pair 
stopped, so too did they. Their forces built up, slowly 
circling their prey. One at a time, they dove into 
battle, charging and barking. Enigma aimed for the legs 
with his dagger, slicing at them as they came. An animal 
without legs was helpless. Sly followed suit, and pretty 
soon, dodging and weaving, the others got the picture, 
and ran off cowardly.
  ‘Now the soldiers.’ Sly said, looking at the oncoming
barrage of men. ‘We need to take them by surprise, it’s
our only hope.’
  They ducked behind a clump of trees.
  The first soldier that came along wasn’t to sure of
himself. He could hear an ear piercing quietness that
forced him to cautiousness.
  ‘Get ready.’ Sly whispered. As the man eased closer,
Sly braced her self, and threw her arm wildly into the
obstacle that was the soldiers face. She knocked him
unconscious. 
  Enigma was quick to follow. They weaved between the
trees, using stealth to their advantage. A battle easily
won. 
  ‘Lets get out of here.’ Enigma said, smashing the last
of the men in the first group. ‘There’s bound to be
others on the way.’
  *  *  * 
  ‘Power.’ the coarse voice croaked, ‘Get up. It’s time.’
  Power quickly cleared the cob - webs from his head. He
found his back soaked with icy water from the wall corner
he had been sleeping in. 
  ‘What’s happening?’ Power asked, stretching his legs
and arms out.
  ‘Keep quite. We don’t want to wake him up.’ 
  Power looked through the metal bars of the cell. He saw
an outline of a figure lit by the torches behind it. 
  ‘Open the door.’ Power’s friend commanded. He then 
watched as the figure withdrew a set of keys from out of 
no where, surprisingly obeying as was instructed. 
  ‘Now come to me.’ was the directors second instruction.
Slowly, the outlined figure walked to its commander, key
outstretched in front of him. Power caught a brief
glimpse of the lifeless soldier. The mans eyes were open,
but yet, all that was visible was his whites. No pupil,
no iris, just like the walking dead in person. 
  ‘Now unlock the chains.’ The heavy metal that bound the
shadow to the wall uneasily shifted from side to side,
jingling in a low bass. The relaxing sigh created by the 
shadow as his arms fell beside him stiffly, echoed 
throughout his body as he quivered with the cracks and
snaps of his joints. 
  ‘Now you will remain here until the morning, and you
are unallowed to wake up before the one hour is up.’
  The shadow uneasily stood up, lurching all over the
place as he tried to regain his sense of balance.
  ‘Now return to your slumber.’ The soldier went limp, 
dropping heavily to the ground.
  ‘And that’s it?’ Power said in disbelief. ‘That was the
plan.’
  ‘More than what you expected, eh?’ The shadow asked,
dusting himself off. ‘Come on, we can’t waste any time.
Lets get out of here.’
  ‘How did you do that?’
  ‘I’ll explain later. For now, we have to get away from
this place.’
  ‘Wait.’ He courteously extended his arm in thanks.
  ‘I almost forgot to introduce myself.’ the figure
remembered. ‘I’m known as Iccer the Sleeper. Ice for
short. I’ll explain my title once we get out of here.’
She too extended pleasantries. They proceeded towards the
only known exit, closing and locking the cell previously
in, quickly behind them. Power’s eyes grew sustained with
shock as the light from the blazing torches shone upon
Ice’s round face. He, was a she.
  Power was totally lost for words. Her voice was as
grotesque as his own, but yet, she was so stunning. Her
vocals couldn’t have be natural. Power refused to believe
that. Her wide set, blue eyes brought out her cute nose
and her brown - blonde hair somehow harmonised with her
loving smile. 
  ‘Snap out of it.’ Ice said, catching Power staring her
up and down as they made their way down the hall. ‘Keep
your mind on the job. Any slip ups or miss - haps and
we’re history.’
  The end of the corridor provided a metal door.
  ‘Before we go,’ Ice said with the hand on the door
knob, ‘expect the occasional guard to pass by. We have to
kill them quickly and quietly in case they see us and
raise the alarm. Now, I don’t know my way around this
place, so I won’t be able to find the egress. We’re going
to need a hostage.’
  ‘Easy. We catch the first guard that comes around and
use him as a hostage.’
  ‘No good.’ Ice replied, withdrawing a sharp, curved 
dagger from the inside of her rough looking trousers. 
‘They’re loyal to their Emperor. They’ll put their own 
lives on the line to save their leader.’
  ‘What does that Chaos woman have in connection with the
Emperor of this place?’ Power asked.
  ‘I wouldn’t know. I can surmise that she belongs to
someone of great power. She must have reasons for coming
here first.’ She moved back to the previous subject. ‘We 
have to capture the Emperor and take him as hostage.’
  ‘How are we going to do that?’ Power questioned. ‘Won’t
their be guards surrounding his room?’
  ‘Most likely. His best guards. They’re no match for you
though. But you must watch out for their swordsmanship.
They’re quite good. After you study them for a while,
though, you understand their pattern of attack.     
  Carefully, they swung the door open, making sure that
no noise came from the aged hinges. The following room
was clear of any danger. 
  ‘How are we going to find the Emperor’s quarters?’
Power asked, examining the room. 
  ‘Good question.’ Ice replied, ‘We’ll just have to
search for it until we find it.’
  There was a door on each side of the square room.
  ‘What’s the purpose of this place?’ Power queried. 
  ‘It’s purpose is to capture any of those lucky to break
out of their cell. This is the only exit. It’s like a
soldier on duty twenty - four hours a day. In fact, it’s
one big trap.’
  ‘Wow.’ Power moaned in awe. He took a couple of steps 
forward, getting a better look around. 
  ‘No!’ Ice shrieked. The floor from beneath Power sunk
several inches. A sustained click echoed, seemingly
forever. The floor groaned loosely, as if a large weight
on it’s shoulders had been lifted. The room was
collapsing around them.
  Everything around them started disappearing downwards.
The roof grew closer and closer as the floor raised it
self at a persisting rate.
  ‘The floor’s going to crush us into a pulp!’ Ice
screamed over the deep rumble. She searched for a way
out.
  ‘I know!’ Power bellowed. ‘Quickly, the doors!’
  They tried each door, probing them carefully, but
nothing would budge. 
  The roof continued to cramp their space. The only way
out, evidently, was to go up.
  ‘We can’t go up!’ Ice howled. ‘The roof’s solid metal
as well!’
  ‘There has to be another way out!’ Power said
anxiously.
  ‘Can’t you just smash out way out of here?’
  He quickly considered it.
  The ceiling was about three feet away from the tops of
their heads.
  ‘Pick a side!’ Power said solicitously.
  ‘Why?’
  ‘Just pick a side!’ Picking the door opposite the one 
they had entered, Power gained some distance between it 
and himself, then charged, lowing the shoulder on impact. 
  ‘One more time!’ Power backed up once more. At full
speed, he leant over, entering his shoulder into the
wall. The first time hadn’t quite work, but it 
loosened it a lot, including the ligaments in his arm.
  The impact was hard, but it worked. Power disappeared
through the gap he made with his body, Dust and debris
gathering as he vanished.
  ‘Come on!’ Power yelled, emerging once again.
  Ice was hunched over, making way for the on coming
death. Unsteadily, she ran towards the man made exit.
  Not surprisingly, she found running hunched over rather
awkward, to the point that she fell heavily onto her
face, just short of Power’s extended arm.
  ‘My knee!’ Ice distressed. Her knee had buckled
untimely, twisting it slightly on her totter. 
  ‘You can worry about your knee once your out of there!’
Power yelled. ‘Come on!’
  The room had diminished to but a body width. So too,
did the exit shrink with time.
  Ice’s anguish was hard to fight, but she knew that she
had to get out of there. She could only crawl on her
belly, pulling herself along with her arms and the single
leg that was still intact.
  ‘Got it.’ Ice said to her self. Her finger tips had
fallen into Power’s giant hand. 
  With both arms, Power yanked Ice out of all know 
danger. The gap that Ice was settled in seconds ago, 
vanished, as a solid stone floor sealed up the gap that 
sought out, originally, to destroy them.
  ‘My leg!’ Ice moaned, clutching her knee to her chest.
  ‘Give me a look at it.’ Power demanded, kneeling on the
floor beside her. Ice lifted up her trousers on her left
leg.
  ‘It’s not broken.’ Power concluded as he analysed her
creamy, soft leg. ‘Just bruised. Will you be all right to
carry on?’
  ‘Should be.’ Ice said, unsteadily returning to her
feet. Her heart was pounding wildly.
  They had stumbled upon a room filled with weapons and
heavy metal. Full suits of armour lined the stone paved
walls, glistening in the rooms dim glow. Swords, axes,
knives, maces, and every shape and form of weapon
imaginable lay in an untidy heap, scattered on the floor,
leaving a narrow pathway down the centre for people to
work in and out.
  ‘It won’t hurt anybody if I take a weapon or too.’
Power said, his eyes lighting up as he pondered the room
full of toys.
  ‘I might even get an extra little weapon myself.’ Ice
said looking down at a viciously grotesque axe.
  Power skimmed his eyes over the vast choice of arms.
  ‘What really signifies my personality.’ Power said to
himself. ‘Broad sword? No. I’m not that much of a
barbarian. Battle axe? Nope. To difficult to handle.’ He
took a couple more glances here and there, until he came
to just the right type of weapon, sitting alone, all by 
itself in a corner. ‘Of Coarse!’
  Ice’s jaw dropped, ‘That’s it?’ Ice said, bewildered. 
‘A set of throwing knives?’
  ‘They’re not just ordinary throwing knives. There’s
seven of them and there’s a belt that you strap around
you body too.’ Power flourished a black leather strap
around, seven ultra sharp knives sitting side by side.
  ‘Throwing knives. I can’t believe you chose throwing
knives’ Ice said still in a minor state of shock.
  ‘Why’s that?’ Power asked, clipping the belt over his
shoulder and across his stomach.
  ‘Well I thought you’d get more of a man’s weapon.’
  ‘Throwing knives are much more useful than swords and
maces and axes. They’re small, easy to handle, they don’t
slow you down when running, and if you lose one, there
are many other’s like it.’
  She shook her head in disbelief. ‘Help me find the
right weapon.’
  Ice’s choice of weapon was more extraordinary than
Power’s. They were like metal gloves that fitted easily
on to her hands with a sharp spear point over the
knuckles. Tiny spikes jagged the forearm’s of the gloves,
reaching back to her elbow.
  ‘What would you call that?’ Power asked his accomplice.
  ‘I’m not sure.’ Ice admitted. ‘But I’m sure they’ll do
some serious damage when the time comes.’
  ‘You’d just want to be a little more careful with your
hands. You could do harsh damage to yourself if your not
careful.’ The dangerous gloves were a suitable accessory. 
Power thought it gave Ice a more hazardous look.
  The corridors that followed, unnecessarily led the two 
companions blindly all over the place. Worried spirits
and cautious minds, wasted their unlimited energy as they
peeped their heads around corners, lingering for the
occasional guard. 
  The path to the Emperor’s room was windy, and at times,
seemed as if they were going round in an endless circle
of mazes.
  ‘These halls sure look the same.’ Power whispered. 
  ‘Of coarse.’ Ice responded. ‘The Leifarians have a lack
of imagination. Instead of making rooms and corridors
different from each other, they just made them the same
to save themselves architectural problems.’
  ‘Leifarians?’ Power questioned.  
  ‘That’s what you call the country men of this place.’
  ‘Oh.’ Power said, finally understanding. ‘We’d better
be careful from now on. We’d have to be getting pretty
close.’
  ‘It’s taken a while hasn’t it.’ Ice admitted.
  As quick as a flash, they’d reached the entry to the
Emperor’s room. They hid behind a corner, making final
preparations for what they were about to do.
  ‘You didn’t tell me that the men were going to be
suited up in armour.’ Power hissed, looking around the
corner at the stout, shiny plated armour of the guards 
watching their Emperor’s room.
  ‘Neither did I.’ Ice confessed. ‘But it shouldn’t be to
much harder to take them out. There’s only two of them.’
  ‘Wrong. It’s going to be much, much harder. For one, we 
won’t be able to knock them of their feet because they 
have armour on. A noise that loud could wake up the rest 
of the soldiers including the Emperor. Secondly, were 
going to have to hit twice as hard, once. If we don’t 
knock them out the first hit, were going to have to keep
on hitting them, and that’s going to make a big noise as
well. And three, look at the size of their swords. It
reaches from their arm pits, right down to the ground,
and the size difference is so much greater.’
  ‘All right. Enough. So I didn’t think of all the
negative possibilities involved. I’m not perfect you
know.’ 
  ‘I was just saying.’
  ‘How can we fix this?’ Ice asked herself quietly.
  ‘We could find the second most important in the
hierarchy.’
  ‘That would be almost impossible. You saw the how long
it took just to get to where we are now. I have a better
idea.’ 
  Ice closed her eyes, raising her finger tips to her
temples, making sure that she didn’t pierce herself with
the sharp arrow heads at the end of her knuckles. A very
soft murmur came from her lips as she opened her eyes
with only her whites showing like the soldier in the cell
previously. The soft murmuring continued on, as Power
became doubtful of his sudden friendship found within
this mysterious young girl. 
  ‘Done.’ Ice said, returning back to her normal state. 
‘We won’t have any trouble from any body with in hearing 
distance of the two armoured soldiers.’
  ‘I’ll take your word for it.’
  ‘You ready?’ Ice asked.
  ‘More than ever.’
  ‘Okay, lets do it. I’ll take the closest one.’
  Left, right, dodge, weave. The scuffle just a game in
Power’s eyes. He smashed his enemy several times in the
head, sidestepping swipes and jabs from the knights
overly large weapons, severely dinting the soldiers
golden helmet. It didn’t faze them much. They moved back
and forth, taking turns advancing on each other. Ice
blocked her opponents lunges with her modified gauntlets,
sparks spraying, metal on metal. Power didn’t have that
advantage though, avoiding his attacker with formidable
speed. 
  With her deadly gloves, Ice struck her fighting partner
many times in the ribs, cutting through the metal armour,
crimson blood slowly oozing out if the gaping gaps. She
was first to take out he opponent.
  ‘Gee, that was quick.’ Power said, striking the soldier
in the head with his vein infested forearm. 
  ‘Need any help?’ Ice offered.
  ‘You kidding?’ Power replied. ‘You already killed your
rival. Your not taking mine.’
  ‘Well hurry up then.’ Ice said impatiently. ‘Lets get
this over and done with.’
  ‘Right.’ Power drew back his head then thrust it
forward into the knights cranium.
  ‘Does that hurt?’ Ice asked, watching the unconscious 
soldier fall to the ground.
  ‘No. Doesn’t hurt at all. My head is as hard as the
stone that surrounds us. Real thick too. What should we
do with the soldiers?’
  ‘Nothing. Just leave them there.’
  ‘You’d think that the Emperor’s room would be more
securely guarded.’
  The golden double doors leading into the Emperors room
was, surprisingly, unlocked. 
  ‘That makes it easy, doesn’t it?’ Power declared.
  Carefully, they swung the giant doors open. The immense
room was dimly lit by ornate candles scattered here and
there, welcoming the grim shadows with heat and light.
Fire burned rare oils and herbs, creating a sweet
fragrance. A tremendous mirror reflected all solid things
visible, and occasionally, a flicker of heat passed it’s 
huge eye. 
  ‘Did you - ?’ Power asked, not quite reaching the
particular word he wanted. 
  ‘Yes I did. He’ll stay asleep no matter what you do to
him.’
  ‘What would you call what you did back in the
corridor?’
  ‘I’d call it brain washing.’
  ‘Why would you call it that?’
  ‘Because that’s what happens.’
  ‘So it’s safe to pick the old guy up?’
  Ice nodded.
  The Emperor was lightly dressed for bed, a rough shirt 
and trousers covering his frail body. Wrinkled skin 
marked his tiny torso, with white hair scarcely covering 
his head.
  ‘How are we going to get him to take us to the exit if
he’s unconscious?’ Power asked, poking the man lightly.
  ‘I’ll revive the other soldiers.’
  Power reached down, grabbing the Emperor roughly, by
the scruff of the neck, throwing him over his thick
shoulder. A key laying on the pillow came to his
attention.
  ‘What do you think it’s for?’ he asked.
  ‘Don’t know.’ Ice avowed. ‘Hold on to it any. We might
need it later on.’
  ‘I’ll take a bit of a look around while you return
everyone back to normal.’ Power strained his eyes around
the room.
  He lit a torch up with a near by candle, catching fire 
in a ball of flames. Portraits of past Emperors dotted 
the maroon velveteen walls, the trade mark green eyes, 
peering down, watching lifelessly their every solitary
move. Varnished oak tables beared colourful, lush flowers
held in finely carved wooden vases. 
  ‘What’s this?’ Power asked himself. A solitary table
lay on it’s own against the wall, locked. There was an
inscription. "The large squall blows wild, brain set for
disaster. Death awaits all those who oppose it. Pirouette
the azure stone so that the attention of the spinning
sand he’s caught. Death, bringing life." 
  ‘I wonder what that meant?’ he questioned. ‘May as well 
try the key.’ The silver key slid into the lock easily, 
successfully turning.
  ‘Hey it worked.’ Power said victoriously. He pulled
open the previously locked draw, peering inside. ‘What on
earth his that?’
*  *  *  

    Source: geocities.com/hath69