Jericho only half noticed the advance of General Rommil’s troops down the hillside, through the trees beyond, and into the pocked castle courtyard. His focus remained on Ethan and the promotion of fear. The soldiers advanced without any resistance whatsoever. After all, King Nichols had been under his command in reestablishing his throne and the invitation to the priests of Shaddai.
Jericho constructed the elements around the boy to encourage panic. Through the spiritual plane, he conjured visions and voices to haunt the boy. He promoted the rush of adrenaline and the myriad chemical components of a take-flight-response to what the boy was experiencing.
Jericho felt his racing pulse, his labored erratic breathing, and the sweat pouring from his pores. I have you, Deliverer!
Overwhelming light severed him from the darkness. An ethereal blade lashed out at him from a towering figure that materialized before him. Jericho instantly abandoned his hold on the boy to save himself from the sudden onslaught. The angel rushed his retreat and overtook him with a thunderous blow to the face.
Jericho reeled. Smoke rose from the white-hot wound left by the angel’s fist. He flew at his attacker, grappled with him, and then stammered back again. “Let me pass!”
The angel said nothing.
Jericho shot over the angel, but was quickly intercepted and cast down. He tried to reach the boy through his connection. Nothing.
“How? Why? What is the meaning of this interference in mortal affairs?” Jericho demanded.
The angel cocked one eyebrow with curious satisfaction and then spoke. “Prayer.”
Jericho screamed like an animal, then flew at the angel with his sword in hand. Thunder sounded as their blades smashed together in combat. Jericho wailed on his opponent repeatedly, but ultimately the angel proved too powerful.
He sidestepped an attack and caught Jericho full force with his heavenly sword. Jericho floundered backward to the ground, realizing his predicament. “No! Not now!”
His spiritual body began to dissolve while the angel watched. The angel disappeared with a smile on his face, leaving Jericho to disintegrate. The demon watched as the mortal plane, the castle, and the Deliverer faded from his vision. He would have to wait to find him again.
Seth led Ethan and Levi down into the depths of King Nichol’s castle. Levi carried their torch and a sword recovered from the unconscious soldier. He brought up the rear as they descended the stone steps of a long spiraling staircase.
“If you don’t mind my asking,” Levi said, “why exactly are we going into the dungeon?”
Seth’s voice echoed back from the darkness ahead. “With General Rommil’s forces invading the castle we’ll need a secure way out.”
“There’s a secure way down here?” Ethan asked.
Seth hesitated to respond. “There is a way.”
When they had reached the bottom level, a cylindrical chamber opened up before them. Racks of old weapons lined the wall all the way around. Levi started toward something that caught his fancy. “I could do with one of those.”
Seth caught him by the shirt as he tipped forward almost falling into a great pit in the middle of the floor.
“Whoa!” Levi cried as his torch revealed his error. Seth pulled him back. Levi patted the priest on the shoulder. “Thanks, lad. I owe you one.”
“One?”
Levi ignored the remark. “Where do we go now? Don’t tell me that hole is our way out of here.”
Seth grabbed two swords from a nearby rack and placed them through the grime encrusted sash around his waist. “Okay, Captain, I won’t tell you.” He clicked his tongue, then leaped out over the pit. Ethan and Levi watched horrified, until they saw him catch hold of a chain extending up out of the pit where it attached to a pulley system anchored to the roof.
Seth dangled there, waiting for the others. “You’ll both need weapons, gentlemen.”
“How in the world did you do that? Your blind…I couldn’t even see that chain,” Ethan said.
“You’d be surprised how well your other senses develop when you don’t have your sight,” Seth said. “echoing sound, like a click of the tongue or even a whisper, works well to give me a picture of things your eyes can’t even see.”
Ethan was now even more impressed with the ingenuity of Shaddai’s priests.
“What’s in the hole?” Levi asked as he pulled a large cutlass from one of the racks.
“The dungeon is down there and our way out.”
“But I’ve heard no one has ever escaped the dungeon at Macedon’s castle,” Levi said.
“One person did.”
“How do you know?” Ethan asked.
“Because I’m that person. Now we must hurry before-”
Torch light filled the stairwell, reflected off of the stone walls.
Seth loosened his grip and slid down the chain into the darkness of the pit. “Come on! We must hurry!”
Ethan ran to one of the weapons racks. “Go, Levi! I’ve got to get a sword!”
Bonifast jumped across the pit grabbing the chain which was still taut with Seth’s weight below him. “I don’t like this one bit,” he complained. Then he slid down.
Ethan grabbed a medium sized sword from the rack and hefted it for feel. The light suddenly emerged into the chamber with a massive man holding the torch.
“There you are!”
The man pulled his great broadsword and swung it at Ethan. Surprised, he tried to block only to have his new weapon knocked away. The man roared at him and swung again. Ethan only had time to evade. He somersaulted backward, missed the chain and plummeted into the pit.
Ethan flailed in the darkness until his hand brushed metallic links. The chain! He seized it desperately. Searing pain tore through his left arm all the way to the shoulder, but his fall halted. He grabbed the chain with his other hand and began a slower descent.
After several minutes his feet touched the ground and hands supported him in the darkness. He still couldn’t see anything-not even his hand in front of his face.
“We’ve got you, lad,” Levi said. Just step down easy. “It takes a minute to get your bearings down here.”
“Where’s Seth?”
“I’m here, Deliverer.”
“Hey, I think I can see a little better,” Ethan said. “Is there some source of light?”
A torch fell through the darkness above and landed near them on the ground.
Seth turned toward it. “I feel heat, is that a torch?”
“They’ve tossed it down from above,” Levi said. “They’ll be coming after it I imagine.”
Seth pulled his weapons. “Then it’s time to leave.”
Ethan started to pick up the torch. “Well, we can certainly use this.”
Seth rushed to stop him. “No! We must get away from it. The heat will draw them.”
“Draw what?” Levi asked as he began to back away from the torch.
“Kung lizards.”
Levi immediately pulled the cutlass from his belt. “You led us into a nest of Kung lizards? Are you insane?”
Ethan grabbed his weapon and backed away cautiously from the torch. “What’s a Kung lizard?”
“Warm blooded reptile twice the size of a horse, lad, and mean as they come,” Levi said. “I thought you said there was an escape route down here, Seth.”
“There is. The Kung lizards tunneled into the dungeon years ago, while I was a prisoner of Nichol’s father. They attacked the other prisoners and the guards, but I used their own tunnel to make it out to safety. We can use that same tunnel again.”
The chain began to move and rattle.
“Rommil’s men are coming down,” Ethan said, peering into the darkness, expecting the lizards.
“The lizards should be hibernating this time of year,” Seth explained.
“Yeah, but that torch and these soldiers will stir them up for sure,” Levi argued.
“Then let’s hurry and get out of here before they wake up,” Ethan said. “I’ll realm shift and find the tunnel.” A look of disappointment quickly settled on Ethan’s face.
“What’s wrong, lad?”
Ethan looked puzzled. “I’m not sure. For some reason, I can’t realm shift.”
“But why?” Levi asked.
The chain rattled again, and voices echoed from above.
“This way, gentlemen,” Seth said, leading the way into the darkness. “We don’t have time to solve puzzles right now.”
They readied their swords and followed the blind priest into the darkness away from the torch. Ethan heard hissing behind him and turned just before entering one of the corridors to a cellblock. A huge slender reptilian head appeared silhouetted by the torchlight.
Ethan froze and gripped his sword tighter in anticipation of an attack. The reptile turned its head toward him. A tingle shot up his spine. The beast stood only twenty feet from him. Then it turned back toward the torch and the dangling chain.
A soldier dressed in black and crimson armor slid down the chain into view then dropped to the ground. He looked up to his comrades. “I’ve reached the bottom!”
The huge Kung lizard lunged forward, snapping a whip-like tongue at the man. The sticky coating on its tongue seized the soldier, holding him fast, then quickly drew him into the beast’s jaws. The soldier screamed as the lizard crunched down upon his armor.
It pulled him away from the torchlight into the darkness. Ethan heard it tearing away the armor plating as it went for the soft flesh beneath. Ethan ran to catch up with the others, his stomach churning.