There were skeletons everywhere. The battle reminded me of the attack on the village. The guards had better weapons and were more skilled which was good for us. Even so, every time a skeleton was taken down, it felt as if another one popped up in its place.
I tried calling for Ellie but my voice was swallowed up in the noise. I scanned the crowd for her but didn’t see her. Ian was pointing me to the hallway that led to the throne room. The king would be in there. Maybe Ellie was with the king? That would make sense, after all, with everything going on.
As Ian and I cut through the battle to get to the throne room, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I paused and turned around, trying to figure out what had gotten my attention.
Through the windows, I saw Ellie. She was being dragged away by skeletons. She didn’t have her bow and was kicking her legs against the grass, trying to break free. Without saying anything to Ian, I pushed past him and went running out into the courtyard. I hear Ian yell after me but I didn’t stop.
I slammed through the doors into the courtyard. There was more of the battle here, spilling out into the castle and across the grass. In the center of the courtyard, a portal was opening. I had no idea where it was going to take Ellie but I had to get to her before she was pulled through it.
“Ellie!” I cried out.
She heard me. Her head snapped up as her eyes landed on me. She yelled something at me but I couldn’t understand her. I took off into the battle, switching to my sword and shield. As I took down skeletons, someone fired an arrow into one in front of me. I glanced behind me and saw that Ian was giving me coverage.
But no matter how hard I tried to get to Ellie, it was as if she was always a little out of reach. As she got closer to the portal, I tried to pick up my pace. But I could tell I wasn’t going to get to her in time.
Ellie yelled something else at me but again, I didn’t hear it. As the skeletons took her to the portal, I cried out her name. Then the skeletons tossed her into the portal. I watched it swallow her up. In an instant she was gone.
I stopped running. It was as if the battle had stopped. In slow motion, coming around the corner, was Marketh. He was wearing golden robes and holding a staff. He was going over to the portal. When he saw me, he grinned.
This is what he had meant by showing us. He did have something to do with all of this – some terrible plan he was now putting into motion. Marketh was walking over to the portal as the battle raged.
I snapped out of my fog and took off at a run again. Maybe I could get to him in time – if I just ran faster – if I could just –
But he grinned at me and stepped through the portal. In a second, he was gone. The portal closed behind him. I tripped and hit the muddy ground. I could feel someone helping me up. The skeletons were turning around as if they had done their job. They were leaving, I realized, as Ian got me to my feet. Marketh’s first step of his plan was finished.
All I could do was wonder if we had fallen into his trap.
Day 5
After the skeletons left and the portal was closed, King Liam tried to get groups organized. Some were sent out into the town to make sure everyone was okay. Others were sent out through the castle to make sure there was nothing else hidden.
Ian took me to the king, where I learned that the reason Ian could get so close to the throne is because he was part of the King’s Guard. Relieved at having at least a little good luck, I thanked Ian before filling in Liam. I was sure if I hadn’t had Ian help me get to the king, it would have taken a lot longer to get to him and tell him what had happened.
When I finished, Liam looked horrified and went, “This is my fault. I should have locked up Marketh somewhere. Instead, I locked him up in the castle and now he is back to his old tricks.”
“I feel like we have so many questions and no answers. Where did he take Ellie and John? How did he escape? What was that portal?” I was rambling but I couldn’t help it – I couldn’t believe all of this was happening again.
“Lana, you need to get back home.” Liam said to me.
I protested, “What? I can’t. Not now.”
“No, listen to me. If he attacked here, where would he go next?”
My eyes widened as I realized what he was saying, “The End City.”
I got to my feet. My heart was thumping in my chest. Liam was right. If Marketh attacked here, then of course he’d go after Gareth, his other brother.
“Wait, let me go with you.” Ian spoke up.
“What?” I asked.
“You shouldn’t go there alone. Your Majesty, let me go with Lana. That way I can report to you what is going on down there.”
Liam nodded, giving his agreement. I yanked Ian along with me. If Ian really wanted to come along, then I wasn’t going to stop him. I didn’t care who came along. I needed to get back home now.
We took off at a jog, down the hallway, through the guards and towards the portal to take me back to the End City. George, the man who had been sitting at the desk before, looked up.
“I heard about Ellie. Do you know where she could have been taken?”
“No, but we have to go back to the End City right now.” I said.
“I’ve never been through one of these portals.” Ian said, hesitating in front of it.
I yanked him forward and then pushed myself through the portal before he could say anything else. The humming noise filled my ears but this time I didn’t close my eyes. I wanted to be ready for whatever was going to be on the other side of things.
Ian wasn’t used to the portals so we both fell onto the ground together. Very graceful. I looked up, not sure what I was going to see.
The city was quiet. Well, to be fair, the city is normally very quiet. Unlike the hustle and bustle of the Over World, we tend to keep to ourselves down here. But even this was a sort of eerie silence that covered the city.
Getting to my feet, I hurried down the steps and went into the city. Ian trailed after me. He was a bit slower than I was. He had never been here before and was taking everything in. When I entered the main street of the city, I looked around.
There was no one here.
Together, Ian and I went into every shop in an attempt to find people but there was no one to find. It was as if everyone in the city had been snatched up. That included Josh. I sat down on the curb after we spent thirty minutes looking.
The city was so quiet that it felt smothering like a blanket. Ian sat down next to me but didn’t say anything. What could you say about everyone in a city vanishing?
Finally, I spoke, “What Marketh did at the castle…it wasn’t just his escape. It was a distraction too. I bet at the same time he was escaping; he was taking everyone out of the city too.”
“He didn’t want me in the city, did he?” I said, “That’s why he took John. A distraction. He knew Ellie would reach out for me. I led her right to Marketh to take her. Now he has both of them and my entire city. And Josh.”
“You can’t blame yourself. You had no idea he was planning something like this. No one did. He literally escaped from the castle! No one has ever done that. We don’t have all the answers yet.”
“I don’t know what to do.” I admitted, feeling lost.
Ian fell silent and was looking around the city as if a clue would pop out at us. Then he got to his feet.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“We were looking for people, not clues. Let’s check the city again for clues. Where is your leader? Maybe something in his house can help us.”
“I’ll take you to our council hall. We don’t have a castle or anything down here.” I said, getting to my feet.
We cut through the city. In the silence, our steps sounded very loud. We walked up the stairs to the council hall. I wasn’t expecting to find anything. I guess I was feeling a bit beaten down. I couldn’t help but still blame myself for all of this.
“Marketh took a portal out of the castle. What do you bet he opened
up one here to pull everyone through?”
“It would have had to be a few of them,” I said, “One portal wouldn’t have been enough.”
“We didn’t see any signs of portals, did we? Usually the ground looks a bit scorched wherever one opened up.”
That was true. We hadn’t seen any signs of a portal and we also hadn’t seen any scorched ground. I stopped in front of the front doors of the council hall. The door was swung open.
We stepped inside. I was half expecting wither skeletons or something to attack us but there was nothing. The hall was usually neat and orderly but everything was knocked over. There were signs of fighting. This was the first time we had seen something like this in the city. Every other place looked untouched.
“Well, this is something at least.” I mumbled as we took another step inside.
“Yeah, the rest of the city didn’t show any signs of battle.” Ian said as we walked through the council.
Even with the signs of battle, there was no sign of anyone else in the building. I wandered down the hallway that led to Gareth’s room and stopped. Instead of his room, the entire back section of the building had been destroyed. It was as if a giant foot had stepped into the back half of the building. I could see directly outside from here.
“Ian!”
He was there in an instant with his sword drawn, probably thinking I was under attack or something. But he stopped in his tracks and his mouth opened.
“What is this?” He finally said.
As I walked forward, I could feel glass and small rocks crunch