The Forgotten King by D W Vogel

Author:D W Vogel [Vogel, D W]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944452858
Publisher: Future House Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21: Following the Voice

Treffen stared at the disappearing light.

“Did you see that?”

Gawain shook his head with a squeak of his helmet. “I heard a voice. Didn’t really see anything.”

“But the voice . . . it’s Emerald. She really is here.” Treffen hurried to the corner where the light had disappeared, just in time to see the faint glow vanish from another hallway up ahead. “Come on,” he hissed. “We have to find her. She’s lost down here.”

“So are we,” Gawain muttered, but followed Treffen.

The faint sounds they had grown accustomed to had faded to silence. Even the drip of water was muffled. They chased the light down hallway after hallway. Treffen wanted to call out to Emerald but couldn’t risk alerting anything else to their presence.

The light flickered down a long staircase. They hesitated at the top.

“We can’t go down another level,” Gawain said. “We need to get out of here. Now.” The anger that had been in his voice was gone, which frightened Treffen more than the anger ever had.

“But I heard her,” Treffen insisted. “She’s like a sister to me. What if that thing was telling the truth? Are you going to go tell King Jasper that we were this close to rescuing his daughter, but we ran away because we were scared?”

The words had an immediate effect. Gawain straightened up, raising his sword. “Of course not. But what if it isn’t her?”

“It’s someone. Isn’t that enough?”

The voice floated up from below.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me? It’s so dark here.”

Treffen flew down the stairs at the sound of Emerald’s frightened call. Gawain clanked down behind him.

The air was closer down here, damp and thick. The walls looked fuzzy with mold. Treffen’s feet slipped on the slimy stones as he hurried after the disappearing light. Why is she running? And how is she running so fast? But Emerald had always been quick. The girl was practically an elf, except for the rifle she carried, which no self-respecting elf would ever wield.

Up ahead, the light was closer. It flickered like torchlight, but paler. What is she burning down here? Treffen grabbed the torch from Gawain, slinging his bow back over his shoulder.

“Come on, keep up,” he hissed to the Knight. “She’s right there.”

The light stopped moving. Treffen skidded to a halt. Just ahead, a low, arched doorway led into a room lit by the flickering, pale light. Treffen crouched low on the floor and crept forward. He couldn’t see the far end of the chamber, which was in deep shadow, but Emerald had to be just inside that archway.

He sidled around the corner and into the chamber just as the light winked out.

Gawain was right behind him.

And right behind him, the archway filled with grasping, thorny vines that burst through the loose mortar in the floor, writhing toward Treffen and Gawain and blocking their escape.

A bright, shrill laugh echoed through the room. “You found me.”

The light reappeared, floating around the room, illuminating the high corners of the vast chamber.

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