The Quest for the Temple Key by Brandon King

Author:Brandon King
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction
ISBN: 9780988953741
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC - KDP Print US
Published: 2014-08-29T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sundered

Even with the great span of experience with humans that Ercen and Kimar had collected over generations, they had never experienced the unbridled, shattered hysteria that Freida’s abduction unleashed. Never had they witnessed the volcanic emotions—first exploding, then seething, then erupting, then spewing—of a mother whose child is stolen from her. Heidi’s fury only relented when she had utterly exhausted her terror-spawned anger. Finally, she collapsed in a heap, whimpering softly to herself. Amy had tried valiantly to keep Heidi from harming herself—and everyone else in their remaining party. Johann, stricken to his core, was altogether inconsolable for a long time. Peter, though speechless from his own tidal flow between guilty gratitude that it wasn’t his daughter and nauseating horror that Freida was taken, simply stayed near Johann, hoping to lend comfort.

Immediately after Freida’s abduction, Kimar had hastened after Anders, who had eagerly followed Paign’s tunnel hunt for the gargoyle. Only Kimar and Ercen fully knew the dangers these tunnels held. “Do not leave this place! I will return with the boys,” Kimar said.

Within moments of Freida’s disappearance, Ercen had shrouded Danielle, encompassing the girl in a canopy made by her wings. She sobbed uncontrollably, even as she held fast to Tiny, who was, quite possibly, the most distraught of them all. Danielle clutched at the huge mastiff’s chest, as the dog quaked from head to toe, his right leg spasmodically twitching. Little had she known that a dog could groan.

Amy stood next to Heidi, struggling to control her own fear, as her hands lay gently on the shoulders of Freida’s distraught mother.

No one paid any attention to the passage of time, so it wasn’t clear how long it took Kimar to return with the boys. Paign was in a foul temper. Anders had finally given up on trying to calm his cousin.

“Look, what’s next? How do we retrieve Freida?” Paign snapped, frenzied, looking mostly in the direction of Ercen. “There must be a way, and we must find it!”

Then Paign bellowed in fury, and hurtled a fist-sized shard of stalagmite nearly across the cavern’s width. Peter estimated his throw at sixty yards. Wow, that kid has an arm, he thought.

While the shard was still clattering off in the distance, Ercen slowly withdrew from Danielle and rose to her full height. “Yes, Paign, it is a certainty that we must rescue Freida.”

Ercen gazed at Heidi, whose face was a mottled mess of tears, fury and fear. “She is in grave peril, but she is not yet in imminent danger. It will take time for the minions of Kahrnahrgx to alert him about her. Neither Kimar nor I recognized the gargoyle that captured her. But he is of the obsidian class and therefore very dangerous and likely a high-ranking scout. But he—the scout—will need time to discover the whereabouts of Kahrnahrgx, or perhaps he’ll first report to a senior officer. Still, we need to leave this place, soon.”

Peter had been listening and watching Johann and Heidi carefully. The blood seemed to drain out of both of them.

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