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I press myself against the walls and wait.
Just a few seconds later, I hear steps going past.
One. Two. Three. Four.
And then, I strike.
As the last elf runs by, I leap out and cut deep into his throat before he even knows I’m there. Immediately, the other elves turn around to face me, and I throw his body forward at them before racing down the corridor as fast as I possibly can.
An arrow follows me, just barely missing me as I turn down another hall. The elves are still behind me, and they’re gaining.
That’s okay. There are three tunnels that meet here. I’ll lose at least most of them here, I think, racing down the left one. I check behind me briefly to make sure they haven’t made it around the corner to see which one I’m taking. It looks good.
I can hear them come to a stop at the junction.Perfect,I think, turning down another tunnel.That gives me time to plan my next attack.
This place is a complex maze. It’s almost made for this kind of thing. Maybe it even was.
I pause to catch my breath. I’m standing there, when suddenly, one of the elves steps out from a passage I didn’t remember. But it’s just the one. They must have split up to follow me.
“She’s here!” he cries and raises his sword. But the tunnels are echoing, and even if the elves knew how to navigate them, it would take them time to find us. As is, I should be okay, at least for a little.
I back away from his sword. The walls are tight, and it’s difficult to get an opening. I realize as I keep retreating that I won’t be able to do so for long. Soon enough, this corridor is going to come to an end.
“You gave us a good chase,” the elf says. “But we always win in the end.”
“It’s not the end yet,” I spit back.
But then, I feel stone against my back. A dead end. And he’s about to strike.
But once again, the temple saves me. The walls are tight, tighter than he expects, and he’s used to fighting in open spaces. He draws his sword back to strike, and it clatters against the wall of the temple.
It makes just enough of an opening for me to strike. I dodge inside where he’s trying to swing, and I stab him right in the gut. He looks surprised for a second, and then he falls back. I lean down and grab his sword.
As I’m running away, another elf appears in front of me. Immediately, I turn and run down another passage.
“She’s this way!” the elf calls. “Running away from me!”
I hear other footsteps. There’s at least one other near enough to be a danger. And I’m not sure what passage I’m running down, either. There aren’t any cross-passages, just a chamber at the end of it.
I run into it. I haven’t seen this room before. It’s a highly decorated room, with shells all over the walls in bright colors. In the center is an altar, which I realize must be the heart of the temple. Several other passages lead into it. There is no roof to it. Above it is the magic bubble that surrounds the whole temple.
Wherever I am, it’s important.
And then, from two separate passages, the three elves run in.
“You aren’t supposed to be here,” I tell them. “You’re desecrators here.”
“We’re enforcing the law,” one of the elves returns, pulling out an arrow and arming a bow. “We’ll go where we want to catch a monster and an escaped human.”
But I can feel the power here. It’s Laiken’s power, but it’s also mine now. I live here, too, and the temple recognizes me. It knows that I’m its guardian.
I may be outnumbered, but I’m safe here. The temple is protecting me.
And I’m protecting it as well. Together, we will defeat anyone who tries to hurt it.
Anyone who tries to hurt Laiken. Because he is connected to this temple and to this chamber.
“No,” I answer. “You won’t. You made a mistake trying to track us here. If you had let us go, that would have been it. We never meant any harm to you. But now, you’ve hunted us. And you’ve come all the way to the temple.”
