Wednesday, May 18, 2016

The King's Challenge #302

We are in the final stretch. Only 64 episodes to go before we reach our target of 366 (because it's a leap year!) and then all will be gathered into one book ...


TKC 302

I am alone with Siri and Leffandir in padded chamber. This does not thrill me in the slightest. Yet I may have dealt with such a situation if it had been merely a padded chamber. The gaping dark hole the men vanished into thrills me even less.

The tapping is much louder and far more insistent. It becomes a rhythm beating into my every thought, weaving through the beats of my heart as a refrain of malevolence. Yes, malevolence. I am not comfortable at all.

Something is wrong.

Leffandir speaks first. “I feel a presence. It wants to destroy.”

Swallowing, I can only nod. Her words prove to me that I am not being fanciful; there is something other positioning itself and it may be to our detriment.

Siri whispers, “That door was sealed away for a reason. We should have left it alone.”

Hell. She is correct. Why do men always act without thinking?

A head erupts into our space, causing all three of us to flinch hard.

Ross grins at us. “Commander Gennerin sent me back for you. You are to follow.”

Unfortunately the commander is correct also. We cannot stay here. If the men do not return, we will be trapped. If we choose to follow into the darkness after too long a delay, we may be lost.

I incline me head. “Lead the way, Ross.”

The head vanishes and, drawing breath as if I will never again know oxygen, I swiftly step into the darkness and follow. I do not look back, but am aware of Siri behind me, with Leffandir trailing her.

Ross switches on the small light seated on the shoulder of his uniform, to my relief. “Keep your torches off,” I hear him say, “and follow mine.”

He is correct also. Too much light is a dead giveaway. The possibility exists also that we may need our torches if we are in darkness for a lengthy stretch; best not to expend them simultaneously.

It sounds as if we are entering a maze created to confuse us, one erected on a giant world lost in space. No longer does it remotely feel as we are aboard a ship.

I am not comfortable at all. Something is definitely wrong here.




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