Chapter 22-

At first glance, it would’ve probably looked like a murky cavern. Hot, black, and damp. A sickening boiled-meat smell wafted around the room. It wasn’t until Ardeth flung a torch inside that everyone gasped. Words were unable to rise up to their mouths as their minds were overrun by the intensity of such a discovery. Ravena had stepped in and adjusted the mirror that gave light, and that just added to the wonderful chaos of whirling brains of each and every person. Inside was like a crystal palace, a glass cavern. Light radiated through each shimmering diamond-shaped wall and exploded into beams of all different colours. Ice shimmered along the floor, without a trace of snow. None of them could fathom how on earth there was an Ice Palace underneath the DESERT! Everyone still had their mouths open except for Ravena, who was trying to look over the lumbering shoulders of the Medjai. Ardeth was the first to recover. He mumbled something in his native tongue and quickly barked an order at his men in which Ravena did not comprehend. They moved out and scanned their new surroundings.

“What did you say to them Ardeth?”

Ardeth placed a hand on her shoulder and steered them both away from the entrance.

“I just told them to try to look for anything that might lead us to the Star of the Hephealites.”

“Well, you might want to tell them to be cautious, my father had told me when I was a young girl that in here there are definitely... what’s the word... right, booby-traps.”

The Medjai leader looked around absently.

“My men are trained to be cautious, but I will inform them anyway.”

While Ardeth quickly told his men, Ravena slid on the skidding ice, trying to look for clues. Her hands gripped the walls to maintain her balance and composure. She heard Ardeth from behind her telling her to be careful. She gave a nonchalant wave, giving him a brief know-it-all glance before replying.

“Ardeth, please. I lived on the streets of Italy practically my entire life; I know how to be careful.”

He just shrugged before returning his attention back into the cavernous paradise. The Medjai were clueless in their attempts to finding clues. Ravena’s mind raced as she tried to re-enact the scene between herself and her father. She remembered how musty his bedroom was, and how it was clustered in ancient books and globes. How he held her hand in his, struggling to express his thoughts. He tried so hard to tell her, that it even took his last breath right in front of Ravena to tell her. She shook the dying image away from her mind, and tried to focus on his words. She soon found herself in the middle of the room, still trying to pick up the pieces. Ravena took one more step, before hearing a tinkling of shattered glass, and felt herself collapsing. Ardeth watched in horror as his beloved disappeared out of sight beneath the ground, from obviously a trap door.

“RAVENA!”, he cried.

He raced towards where she last stood and flung down on his knees, trying to find the cracks of a trap door. He could find none, but nonetheless Ardeth kept crying out her name. His men ran to where he knelt and pounded on the ground, hearing or seeing not a trace of the beautiful Italian.

Ravena groaned in obvious pain. Dammit, what the hell was it with her and falling down into some unknown pit? Darkness had enveloped her but then she realized that her eyes were still closed. She opened her eyes, and once again saw darkness. Or at least until Ravena turned her head to the side, in which her eyes narrowed in confusion, although she couldn‘t understand why, what she saw wasn‘t as strange as the glass cavern. For walls there were mirrors. They reflected her shocked expression a hundred times, because that was how many mirrors there seemed to be. As far as she could tell, she was in a small corridor. Despite the consuming darkness, a bluish-white tint of light wrapped around the edges of the mirrors, giving Ravena enough view to see the mirrors. It was like a screwed up Alice in Wonderland. She looked down at the ground. In the middle, leading down the corridor, there were silver coins implanted into the ground, like beckoning to tell her that this was some sort of path. Ravena ran to the edge of the corridor where she hit a fork-in-the-road. The realization struck her like a bolt of lightning. She was in a maze, a magical labyrinth. The path of coins had turned into a corridor on the left. Ravena knew what she had to do, and she was supposed to do it all by herself. Suddenly she heard her name being called, at a faraway distance. It was Ardeth. Ravena ran all the way back to the spot where she had fallen and looked up into the endless ceiling of darkness. She screamed with all her might.

“ARDETH?! Are you there?! Please answer me Ardeth, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Ravena listened for a moment, trying to decide how far into the ground she was in so she could decipher the strength of her voice being carried out to the top. Her knees almost gave out with weakening relief to hear her name being called back, but this time it was ALL the Medjai replying. Ravena tried to make out Ardeth’s voice amidst them all, and giggled when she heard him tell his men to shut up.

“Ravena? Are you alright? Are you in any pain? Where are you exactly?”

Ravena grinned at all the questions.

“I’m fine Ardeth, just a bit scratched up. I’m in some sort of maze, mirrors surround me.”

She couldn’t hear his sigh of relief.

“Ravena, I want you to stay right there. My men and me are trying to find a way to get you out.”

Ravena looked into the beckoning corridor, and reluctantly looked back up into the sea of blackness.

“Actually Ardeth, I was just thinking I should get a head start into this labyrinth. We don’t want to waste time and who know how long it will take for you guys to get in here?”

This time Ravena COULD hear his sigh. Ardeth knew she was right, but he didn’t want her to get hurt. He hesitated before replying.

“Do you still have that scimitar I gave you. Use it if necessary. Don’t wander too far ahead of us, we’ll try to catch up as soon as possible, and Ravena, be careful.”

She nodded to herself at all of these obvious things.

“I will Ardeth. Don’t worry about me. It’s strange, because even though it’s creepy down here, I’m not scared in the least bit.”

They said their goodbyes, and Ravena turned her head towards the corridor. She took a deep breath, and started to walk down the magical labyrinth.

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