The Prophesy Tower. Chapter 61. Write a Novel Challenge.
There they were. Standing right in front of Neina’s house.
Ryder and Frankie, inevitably, were still walking far behind them continuing their secret conversation.
A strong wind blew past them.
“What in the world is taking you so long to join us?” asked Charlotte in a loud voice. The strange thing was that Charlotte received no reply.
When they turned back to see why; to understand what on earth they were doing that meant she had not even deserved even a cursory response, they saw no one there.
The spot where Frankie and Ryder has been standing was now empty, their bodies erased as if they had never existed.
Neina, Archie and Charlotte became distress and confused.
“W- Where are they?” pleaded Neina.
“They were walking right behind us,” Archie responded – as if that answered anything at all.
Charlotte quickly pulled herself together, her reason prevailing and lending a serious tone to her voice that immediately calmed them and earned their rapt attention.
Funny how people grab onto whatever, whoever, puts themselves forward with any kind of answer when the going gets tough ….
“Ryder and Frankie has been behaving strangely. We all knew that – even if we did not confront them. I think there is something that they are hiding from us.”
“What are they hiding Charlotte,” Neina challenged, not even knowing whether she really wanted an answer.
Charlotte did not have a chance to begin revealing whatever she did, or didn’t know. Suddenly, from nowhere, Isla appeared and the temperature perceptively dropped enough to make breathing a struggle and their fingers burn with the chill.
The explanation for Ryder and Frankie’s aligned with the appearance of Isla, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind of the cause. The look they shared confirmed their worst fears and no words were necessary.
“Stupid people!” laughed Isla. “You suspected that something was “wrong” with Ryder and Frankie. Did you imagine that they were just ambling? Imagine that they would just catch up? Did you forget that I can take away the lives of those you care about without a sound?”
“I don’t care about what you can do.” Neina shot back angrily. “You have underestimated me. Do not test me. It would be better for you to tell me where Ryder and Frankie are. Now.”
Isla laughed. “I am not scared of you Neina.”
“Mabe you should be Isla” Charlotte interrupted – and, strangely, smiled.
“You are children” Isla responded coldly. “You are nothing.” In seconds Charlotte was catapulted up into the sky before hitting an invisible barrier that made a cracking sound as her back smacked painfully against it. Charlotte fell back to the floor 20 metres away, barely moving.
“If you won’t do my work, I will take her life and those of your two friends, who are struggling for their lives near the corner of the Volcano.”
“STOP!” Neina demanded.
“Tell us what we have to do,” pleaded Archie.
“You do exactly this. Travel back to The Mors World and secure the turquoise gemstone. You will know it by ….”
“What are you going to do with it?” Neina interrupted.
“Enough talk. Go now. Bring me the gemstone and I will allow you all to live.”
“How can we trust you Isla? How do we know that Frankie and Ryder are even alive? Charlotte questioned, wondering as she did so where her courage had come from.
She was greeted with silence. Isla had gone, leaving only a crumpled gold paper falling from the space she had occupied and a storm of hail and snow that cut their skin.
Archie jumped to catch it. “Just do what I say and leave the rest to me.”
Escaping the storm, they forced open the door of Neina’s house, struggling to shut it against the bitter wind that ranged outside.
Together they huddled around the table, whilst the last embers of the fire extinguished itself in a rush of icy air from the chimney that left little respite from the storm outside.
Clutching the old pen and some old sheets of long forgotten writing paper, Charlotte and Archie set about planning the journey back.
It was as they collected their thoughts and began to focus that they noticed Neina smiling strangely.
Before they could ask her why, Neina got up from her chair and rushed to a hidden panel in the wall that opened into an old library, lit by candles. They could see what seemed to be thousands of books lining the walls of a long tunnel that disappeared into a pinprick of utter blackness where the light failed to travel.
Entering, Charlotte and Archie saw Neina throwing books off a shelf high up on the left of them, each crashing on the floor like flotsam as she searching for whatever book it was that really mattered.
“What are you searching for Neina?” asked Archie.
“A book,” replied Neina without looking at them.
“What kind of book” questioned Charlotte.
Neina did not reply. She did not needs so. She had found it.
In her hands, Neina held a leather bound book inscribed with symbols and a picture of a Tower.
Charlotte and Archie watched as she turned page, after page.
“I found it!” Neina exclaimed joyfully.
“What?” Charlotte and Archie asked her in unison.
“I have found the way to kill Isla,” replied Neina.
As the echoes of the old library swirled around them like voices of a long forgotten baritone choir, Neina continued, “This is my father’s book. His last words to me were that I should seek what would be found in the Third Chapter of The Tower. And here, look, it says that the most pwoerful magician can be killed only with….Turquoise.”
“A powerful Magician like …. Isla?” Archie questioned.
“Yes. She can be killed with ‘The Turqoise Stone‘” Neina read aloud.
“But why would she tell us to bring the thing which can kill her?” questioned Archie.
“Maybe she is does not realise …,” Charlotte wondered aloud.
“Perhaps …,” Neina responded, now deep in thought.
“So, when are we leaving for The Mors World?” asked Archie.
“Tomorrow,” replied Neina.
As she answered him, a second voice filled the room. “Repeated journeys back to The Mors World are not safe.”
They turned and saw Janus standing at the door.
“What do you mean? We have already returned” Neina questioned.
“You will put life at risk,” replied Janus cryptically.
“We have no choice. Janus, come with us. Help us. Neina asked him with a force of will that shocked both Archie and Charlotte.
Janus did not answer. He simply turned and beckoned them to follow as the purple light of another place entirely opened before them, washing away the walls of the cottage in its wake, just as the tide washes away sandcastles on the edges of an always temporary shore.
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The Prophesy Tower – A Novel.
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