In the Tunnels

A screech from below the bridge rang out. "Liar! Thief!" the Dragon Queen wailed.

Aurora felt the stone crumble around her feet as Deragona attacked them from below. Thanks to Gandr's last minute tug, both she and Zan barely missed the razor sharp jaws of the ferocious beast.

Unfortunately they were pulled away from the safety of the tower. The only thing waiting for them was air and the ground far below.

The Empress looked desperately for her husband. She wanted him to be the last thing that she saw before death took her. Their eyes locked for a second and she managed to give him an encouraging smile. 'Take care of yourself!' the woman wanted to scream.

As Aurora readied herself to be shattered on the earth back first, everything went dark. Instead of hitting her shoulders on the ground, gravity shifted such that her feet found purchase. But she was no longer at the base of the castle. At least, the Empress did not think she was.

"What happened?" Aurora asked.

"I do not know."

"I think we are in the tunnels." After her eyes adjusted to the glowstone, the Empress realized that Zan and Gandr were in the tunnels with her. They were the two voices that had spoken.

But there was a third figure with them that confused her. The fairy spoke, "I got here as quickly as I could. It seems I was just in time. Are you alright?"

"Asha?! What are you doing here? And where is 'here'?" Aurora tried to make sense of what was happening.

"Hanna begged me to come because she cannot come herself. I arrived just before you fell. I opened a portal to transport you here into the palace tunnels." Asha spoke so quickly that her words ran together. "Hold on!"

The fairy disappeared through a portal for barely a few seconds. When she came back, she held a satchel in her hand. "Hanna said that you would need your bag. I hope I have collected the correct one." Asha held out the sack by its strap and Aurora quickly collected it from her. The Empress slung it across her chest.

"Yes thank you!" The dark headed woman was happy to have her belongings. She tried to gauge exactly where in the palace they were. The glowstone all looked the same, but the one-way window told her they had moved to the second story of the castle closest to the main bell tower.

The walls around them shook.

"The dragons! They are attacking!" Aurora gasped as she remembered what was going on outside. In her confusion, she had forgotten.

"And the gnomes are here in the tunnels, we must move!" Asha ushered them along.

"We need to help the others." Zan pulled a knife from his Guardian's cloak. A sword would do no good in these narrow halls.

"You can help them by doing your part to protect the Empress. If she is dead, the enemy wins," Asha reminded them.

They could hear others talking in the tunnel, and four gnomes unexpectedly appeared. After a moment of confusion by both parties, the gnomes charged. "Get them!" one called.

Zan and Gandr pushed the Empress behind them and prepared to fight. Asha reacted instinctively by holding up her hands. Before them a portal appeared, which enveloped the gnomes before they reached their target. The portal closed as abruptly as it opened. The gnomes were nowhere in sight.

The other three looked at Asha, who had her hands still raised and eyes closed. "Where did you send them?" Aurora queried with wide eyes.

Asha silted her eyes and then relaxed. "I have no idea. But it was somewhere far from here. Get moving before more of them come."

The group began to move through the hidden halls amid the chaos outside. Each one-way window showed a bleak picture. Rooms were empty and hallways were filled with screaming people searching for the nearest exit. Aurora's heart sunk to see her world torn asunder.

Gandr, who was in the rear, grew more anxious by the moment. He knew how viscous the gnomes could be. The halfling had no desire to return to their torture. "Where exactly are we going?" He asked. "You are a fairy. Can't you just portal us out of this mess?"

Asha gave him a baleful glare over her shoulder. "I could try, but it might not end how you would like."

The fairy had come to work for the Fates because no one else would take her. She had accidentally used magic on a human when she was young, and the feelings it opened in her caused her spells to be erratic. Her emotions altered her magical intentions.

It was blind luck that the portal Asha had made in her panic had landed the trio in the tunnels. While she could control her own movements well, getting others where they needed to go was nearly impossible. Asha did not plan to tell the others just how lucky that had been.

"Anyway, trying to portal out is not the goal. You need to get to the only safe place in the area." The fairy's feet were barely touching the ground as she moved, and Aurora wondered if Asha was actually flying.

Behind them, another band of small angry men spotted the group. Not to be outdone by Asha's portals, Gandr stepped in to take the reigns. He lifted his hands and a mighty wind caused the gnomes to shield their eyes. Twisting his wrists, the enemy's feet were encased in stone. This would not be a problem normally for the gnomes, but the combination of wind and strange glowstone held them in place, at least for the moment.

"Run!" Gandr called. Sweat was forming on his brow.

The other three, who had been watching in awe, turned and moved swiftly down the corridor. There was no time to lose. The tunnel around them shook and through the closest one-way window, Aurora could see objects clatter to the ground in one of the councilman's quarters. She could only imagine the other destruction occurring.

"I do not suppose you have a bow in that cloak of yours?" Aurora asked the Guardian with a pleading gaze.

Zan nodded briefly and one materialized from the folds of his garment. "I always keep one, just in case," he told her as he passed her the weapon and a quiver.

Aurora threw the arrows on her back as she ran and drew a feathered shaft. The extra weight of the satchel and quiver made the Empress feel heavy, and her breathing became more labored.

Seeing her effort, Zan held out his hand. "Let me take your bag. I can stow it in my cloak."

The Empress shook her head and gave a negative gesture. She picked up her pace, "No, thank you. I will keep it with me. I do not want to lose it if we get separated."

More voices in the hall forced them to halt. Aurora drew back her bow and waited for someone to appear. The first gnome, a creature almost as wide as the passage, lumbered around into view. "Don't move!" he called to them.

"Funny, I was going to say the same thing." Aurora let the arrow loose into the gnome's thigh--at least she assumed it was his thigh as he was so oddly shaped-- and sent the gnome backwards into his comrades.

The other two creatures regained their footing and were on the group within moments. Gandr and Zan, each with a knife in hand, engaged the combatants in a clash of steel.

"A portal for these fools would be nice," Gandr called to Asha. The fairy closed her eyes and held her breath. An ethereal hole appeared behind the gnomes, and Gandr and Zan happily pushed their enemy into it.

The two males brushed off their hands. "That was easy," Zan said. "I thought...watch out!"

The same two gnomes who they had just fought appeared behind the ladies. Aurora barely managed to use her bow to block a hit. She took the pointy end of the staff and rammed it into the gnome's stomach. The staunch creature fell backwards, while the other gnome stayed away and eyed them with contempt.

Asha flushed crimson. "Sorry! Let me try again." A portal opened up on the ground, and this time the two gnomes vanished without a trace and did not reappear.

"I gather your magic is the slightest bit unpredictable," Gandr commented to the fairy.

"That is putting it mildly," Asha agreed.

"They I am glad you did not portal us into the middle of the earth," Zan responded as he realized the danger.

The beautiful fairy nodded. "Me too." Asha looked around trying to get her bearings. "I think we are close, aren't we?" There was a growing look of panic on her face. "I have never actually been here, you know."

Aurora pointed with her bow. "It is just around the corner. Let us go."

The fairy allowed the others to go ahead of her. She needed to make sure they made it safely. They were almost even with the entrance when the walls and floor shook so violently that all of them were forced from their feet. Zan used his cloak to shield Aurora and himself from the falling debris. "That was significant," the Guardian said.

"Oh!" Asha gasped.

"Let her go!" Gandr ordered.

When Zan and Aurora looked, a gnome had seized Asha and was holding a knife to her neck. The ugly enemy had taken advantage of the tremor and caught Asha by surprise. "Throw down your weapons and I will not hurt her," the gnome promised in a deep throaty voice.

"I will be fine, my dears. Get inside where they cannot follow you." Asha nodded confidently.

"Thank you! And tell Hanna thank you also." Aurora felt the wall, and the passage to the Storehouse appeared. "Get inside," she told the men.

Gandr looked up and saw a fissure forming about Asha and the gnome's head. He could not resist the urge to put one of his former tormentors in their place. "You will not hurt her," he mocked. "But that will certainly hurt you at least a little. After all, that is not normal stone." He pointed up. As the gnome looked, Gandr screamed, "Now!"

Asha shrunk to a prick of light and disappeared while Gandr stomped on the ground with a thunderous pounding. The fissure grew and the glowstone began to pour to the ground in increasingly larger chunks. The enemy gnome was pummeled with the cave-in.

"Uh oh..." the halfling realized too late just how much damage he had caused. The whole tunnel was quickly collapsing. With both the males at her side, Aurora slipped into the Storehouse's passageway. They looked back through the entrance, watching the glowstone fall until it completely blocked their view.

"Why isn't this part collapsing too?" Zan wondered aloud. The place where they were now was not glowing. In fact the only light was that emitted by the Fate's chain around Aurora's necklace.

"I have often wondered if this was part of the palace or the Storehouse. I guess it is part of the Storehouse. Shall we go inside?" Aurora suggested like some graceful hostess. The trio walked the corridor as the light on the chair grew brighter and brighter.

Finally they entered the first of the Storehouse's chambers, and the lights split into a thousand fireflies to light the sconces around the room in a blue light.

"We made it!" Aurora plopped ungraciously into a wooden chair and rubbed her hands and eyes.

"Yes," Gandr agreed, not sure what else to say. They were safe from the gnomes and dragons, but were trapped within the Storehouse. The only exit they had access to was now blocked by more glowstone than even he could move.

The Guardian looked around anxiously. The Empress had come here on purpose, but why? "What do we do now?" he queried.

Aurora gave him a weary sigh. "The hardest thing of all, Zan. We wait."