AllFreeNovel
Share Us
46
Aidan could no longer see where Onnika and Caryn were, and there was no getting through The Gauntlet’s barrier. It was an exercise in futility, a punching bag for their aggression. Neither he, Lear, nor Asher had even made a dent in the fucking thing. It was made of some kind of impenetrable material that even his dragon’s breath could not affect.
When the girls had dropped from his line of sight, he thought he might go mad not knowing what had become of them, so he shifted back into his two-legged form and toed through the corpses of countless machines on his way to find a holo-screen to anxiously watch the live feed. Hidden cameras caught the action as Onnika and Caryn scrambled to escape a deadly creature in what appeared to be the bowels of a desolate cave.
Accepting defeat, Lear and Asher joined him, breathing deeply, repressed aggression wafting off them in waves. “What were they thinking?” Lear snapped. “This is madness.”
“Caryn went in first,” Asher announced. “I do not know why, but I saw her as she entered.” As he spoke, one of the machines that still had a little juice limped closer to them, still following its programming.
“And of course Onnika followed,” Aidan deduced. She would follow her sister into hell itself. He both admired and cursed their undying loyalty to one another. “It’s up to them now. There is nothing we can do.”
Asher regarded the approaching machine with disdain, cocked his fist and smashed it into the metal casing, sending it flying to the other end of the room. The action was recorded and broadcast over the feed. It appeared their failed attempt at a rescue was just as entertaining as the girls’ near-misses with death.
“I hate this race,” Aidan spat. “I’m never doing it again.”
“You’ll get no argument from me,” Lear muttered.
Asher grit his teeth. “If Caryn does not survive, I will make it my personal mission to hunt down the commissioners and take their spines with my teeth.”
“There you are.” Zeek was crossing toward them, observing with mild interest the tattered machine parts along his path. “Did a bunch of cyborgs explode in here?”
“Something like that,” Lear replied with a sneer.
Zeek’s gaze snapped to the feed. “What is…are you kidding…are they…?”
“In The Gauntlet,” Ash groused. “Yes.”
Zeek’s expression twisted into reverence. “I can’t believe they did it without me.”
“Did you know about this?” Aidan thundered, yanking Zeek onto his toes by the collar of his shirt.
Zeek blinked up at him, taken aback by the unexpected aggression. “Did I know they were going to attempt The Gauntlet? No. Of course not.Iwanted to. It’s a giant puzzle game.”
Aidan pointed up at the screen as that monstrous creature chased Onnika up the side of the cavern. “Thatis not a puzzle.”
Zeek looked closer. “I think it is. Do you see those bells on the back wall? They almost blend in with the rock. I’ll bet if you hit them in the right order, the creature would be immobilized or maybe a door would open up.”
Sure enough, there were a set of three bells lined along one wall near the ceiling. “Oh, come on!” Aidan bellowed. “How is anyone supposed to spot those while dodging a man-eating creature and with so much adrenaline coursing through their veins?”
“They don’t call it The Gauntlet because it’s easy,” Zeek calmly replied.
Resisting the urge to strangle his jovial friend, Aidan set him down and watched, horrified, as Onnika battled the creature. As usual, she didn’t follow the rules. She did things her way. Instead of working the puzzle, she simply eliminated the problem, nearly splitting it in half by dropping a massive shaft of stone on it.
He found himself anxiously biting his nails, pacing, clawing at his hair, while Onnika and Caryn made their way through two more rooms of death and destruction. The first had been another cavern-type environment with mammoth saws that shot up from the floor. In that room, Caryn had yanked Onnika back just before a razor-thin blade could rend her in two. Seeing that made him understand why Caryn might have assumed she could do this alone. Onnika had said Caryn’s magic led her in the right direction, like a walking good luck charm. But she was a fool to think she could have run this obstacle course without help, particularly in her weakened condition. Without Onnika at her side, she would have died several times over already. On the other hand, Onnika’s magic was of zero use. She could not determine the intentions of unfeeling machines or creatures. She was working purely on instinct and grit.
The second room had been the one with the burned pillars and the flaming vents, the one where he’d watched another man forfeit using a white flag, which neither Onnika nor Caryn seemed to be in possession of. As they leapfrogged through the room, he could tell the pillars offered little protection from the extreme heat. Their clothes were singed in places, their skin blistering. Caryn looked on the verge of passing out. Onnika practically had to drag her along.
Now they limped into an empty room at the edge of The Gauntlet, where the glass allowed onlookers to get an up-close and personal peek, like some kind of grisly exhibit in a zoo that never should exist. Aidan, Zeek, Asher, and Lear all crowded around, visually checking the girls for wounds. Their skin was badly burned, new blisters boiling to the surface. They were both covered in grit and grime, their clothing torn in places, singed in others. Onnika had a grim-looking gash on her arm, dripping blood. Caryn’s expression appeared almost vacant, as if she were miles away…or wishing she was. She gripped her head and sank to her hands and knees. Onnika rushed to her side, saying something they couldn’t hear, but then her gaze swung around and met Aidan’s. Her jaw dropped, and she instantly appeared sorrowful.
Apparently, she could see out as easily as they could see in. Desperate to touch her and hold her safe in his grip, he began pounding on the glass, blasting into it with his fists and shoulders. Lear and Asher did the same, but as before, there was no effect, and Zeek urged them to stop, pointing out that the girls might need the aid of their hearing to figure out this next puzzle.
Their attacks instantly ceased.
The room was plain, with no visible markings that Aidan could make out, a metal-paneled room much like the one that had nearly suffocated them with poison.
Onnika’s head whipped around, studying the slate-gray walls. She shook Caryn, who appeared to be fading fast, slumped on her side, her chest heaving as though it was difficult to draw in breath.
Aidan grabbed Zeek by the arm and dragged him close. “Do you seen any hint of what they’re meant to do?”
