The Door Within by Batson Wayne Thomas

Author:Batson, Wayne Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The tunnels had been created by moonrascals for moonrascals—not humans. It was always night in those narrow passages, and the air was thin and foul-smelling. Aidan led the way, but he didn’t feel much like a leader. His heart raced the whole time, and he felt like he could barely breathe as he inched along the passage. It seemed like forever passed between each glowing arrow, but they always appeared.

Every once in a while the tunnel would split, and a glowing arrow would direct them left or right. The moonrascals were obviously leading them somewhere.

The tunnel had been level for several hours, but it gradually began to rise.

“We’re going up,” Aidan whispered back to Gwenne. “Maybe we’ll come out soon.”

“I hope so,” Gwenne replied. “My knees are aching rather fiercely!”

But they did not come out soon.

The tunnel curled, swerved, and banked. Occasionally, it would level out for a time, but it always began to rise again. Though their straining muscles suggested that they had been crawling for an eternity, Aidan and Gwenne had lost any real sense of time.

“How many arrows have there been?” Gwenne asked.

“I stopped counting,” Aidan admitted. “I think there were thirty-three when I stopped, but that was hours ago.”

More time passed, and Aidan simply fell over on his side.

“How can it keep going up like this?” Aidan asked, weariness in his voice.

“I do not understand it either,” Gwenne agreed. She fell to the side of the tunnel. “By my reckoning we should have come out by now. Though where we might come out, I have no idea. There have been so many turns, I have completely lost any sense of direction.”

After another couple of hours of climbing, Aidan felt a warm breath of wind sail through his hair. It was startling in the dark.

“Did you feel that?” he asked.

“Yes, we could be nearing the surface!” she replied excitedly.

They increased the speed of their climb, hoping to find an exit soon, but what they found was a large hole in the floor of the tunnel. It had glowing arrows all around it.

“Uh-oh,” Aidan muttered.

“What?” Gwenne asked, straining to see.

“There’s a hole with arrows around it. I think it’s a slide!”

“A slide? You mean . . . like the one in the hole when the Tempest was coming?” she asked.

“Yes, exactly. I think this is another one. And unless you want to crawl all the way back the way we came, it looks like this is the only way. The tunnel ends here.”

“There is no way we are going back,” Gwenne argued.

“I know, but I feel like we’re so high up . . .” Aidan was unsure. The warm breeze wafted up through the hole. What if the slide leads to some fiery dungeon in the pits of Paragory? he thought.

“Look, Sir Aidan,” Gwenne said as if reading his mind, “we need to go. We will die anyway if we stay in these dreaded tunnels any longer.” With that, Gwenne gave Aidan a surprisingly strong push, and he tumbled into the hole.

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