Chapter Twenty : Our Only Hope

They made it to the main corridor before the echoes of Tremaine's anger faded. Aiden heard the man shouting at his men to chase them and then the pounding of booted feet close behind.

Aiden ran, letting his memory lead him without thinking, searching for a place to hide. They ended up back in the narrow chamber where he found the blue and yellow stone. He controlled his breathing, crouching down in the dark next to Ashala, trying in vain to form a plan. Senses tuned for any hint of pursuit, he turned to her to ask her where they should go when she collapsed to the floor.

He let her cry for a minute then helped her up. She wiped at her face with her hands, getting her grief under control, soft hiccups and red rimmed eyes the last trace.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"So am I," he said. "Ashala, this is my fault. Tremaine is here for me."

She shook her head, long, black hair swinging. "One way or another, my people are doomed, Aiden. That Portal Key is our only hope." He realized with a shock she wasn't talking about the one in his backpack.

"You want to steal Tremaine's Key?" He laughed. He was a master thief, wasn't he? How absurd she had to be the one to think of it. It was perfect, actually. A working Key would take them wherever they needed to go, to the Guardians or his parents if he so chose.

She spoke as if his laugh meant he thought she was crazy.

"It could be done," she said. "All you need to do is touch it, don't you?"

Aiden hesitated. "Maybe not," he said. "These things are alive, right? They have a will of their own. What if his Key won't work for us because it chooses not to?"

Ashala shook her head. "You have the Blood," she said. "She won't be able to say no."

"Works for me." Aiden felt his mood suddenly lift, nodding and smiling. He hugged her, too. "You're brilliant."

Ashala blinked away more tears and tried to smile.

"My father always says that."

"So, where's our best option to get caught?"

"Caught?"

"If we let him catch us, I break for the stone when he's least expecting and bam! We're out of here."

She made a face, nose wrinkling. "That's a terrible plan."

"Thanks."

"What if he just kills you? Or me? Or you get away but I don't? Perhaps you are not so worried about that."

Aiden felt hurt. "Hey," he said, "not fair, Ash. I do care. You saved my life, remember? I owe you."

"I still think it's a bad idea," she said.

"Not like we have a whole lot of choices," he said. "Maybe alone I could get to him. Lift her, if I was able to get one of those uniforms!" he trailed off as he thought the scenario through. It just had too many unknowns. "You know the caves better, Ash. What's your plan?"

"An ambush? We could lie in wait and attack?"

"Sorry, fair's fair. That idea sucks."

"Then what?" She threw her hands up in exasperation, voice rising. Aiden shushed her.

"We'll think of something," he said. "In the meantime we have to keep moving. Where's the closest exit? Just in case we have to get out of here for a while."

Ashala led him back into the hall and deeper into the passage, past where Aiden had been before. They emerged into a small, dim cavern. Ashala pointed at a tunnel leading away.

"This goes to the surface near where we found you," she said.

Aiden hesitated immediately, heart constricting around the memory of his near death. Ashala laid one hand on his arm, nodding slowly.

"We don't have to go," she said.

"It's the last place they'll expect," Aiden said. "Crazy, right?"

Ashala bit her lower lip before shrugging. "Probably."

Decision made, Aiden forced his feet to move, his mind to shove aside images and feelings connected with heat and thirst. But they had only started toward the tunnel when Aiden realized they weren't alone. He dodged to his right and just avoided being liberated from his head when a sword whistled at him out of the darkness. Aiden shoved Ashala to the ground and spun around in time to aim a kick at the knee of a second attacker. The men were dressed in light armor, Tremaine's men. The soldier went down with a cry, knee dislocated by the kick. Aiden had enough time to reverse his position and send another kick, this one to the wrist of the first man. He dropped his sword, hand numbed, leaving himself wide open. Aiden launched himself into the air and drove both feet into the man's face, sending him crashing to the ground, unconscious. One more blow to the kneeling soldier sent him to oblivion too.

Aiden heard the scrape of rock but was too slow, spinning anyway, knowing a sword was coming for him from the whistling sound. He heard a dull crack as he twisted to face the last soldier and saw the man freeze, eyes rolling back into his head. He fell forward, sword no longer a threat, face-first into the hard stone floor.

Behind him, Ashala tossed a large rock to the ground and nodded to Aiden.

"We need to hurry." She gestured at the guard's uniforms. "An ambush in these would make all the difference."

It didn't take them long to strip two soldiers and don their clothing. Aiden missed his sneakers right away. The man's boots pinched his toes. He left his backpack behind, a dead giveaway. Instead, he emptied one of the man's pouches of a few coins that had no use to Aiden and odds and ends. The Key he tucked under the leather tunic, within easy reach if necessary. He hesitated over the blue and yellow stone in his sock, and then stashed it with the rest of their things in a crevasse, returning to find Ash insured the men would remain unconscious by applying a smaller rock to their foreheads.

Aiden tried to ignore the blood and the fact she killed at least one of them with her attention and followed her back into the tunnel. It wasn't long before they heard the sounds of fighting and more screams echoing toward them.

"There is a ledge ahead," she said, "above the firestone gullies. I used to hide there as a child. It is the perfect place."

"How do we lure him?"

She shrugged. "Call his name."

Aiden shuddered at the thought. There was no finesse in it, no tricks of the trade. No back door either and he was used to having one. He patted the bulge in his shirt and reassured himself. The Key might not be working perfectly, but he did have a back door after all.

We, he reminded himself.

It was a great plan. The first group of soldiers they met ignored them, too focused on chasing down some of the Rishi. From the sounds echoing around them, her people were putting up a fight. Ashala was furious and wanted to chase after them, but Aiden pulled her focus back. She was even more grim after that, her face a mask Aiden couldn't read. The second group they encountered tried to get them to team up but was distracted before they got too close.

Aiden felt more confident by the moment.

Their plan would have worked if they had just a little more time. As it was, they just neared the place Ashala was guiding them when Tremaine emerged from a side tunnel, his Key glowing in his hand.

"Found you." Aiden felt the rise of power within him and saw an answering glow from under his own shirt. Without time to think, he dodged toward Tremaine in a vain attempt to take the black Key from him. Tremaine stepped back and allowed the half a dozen men with him to surround the two youths.

Knowing he had no other option, Aiden reached under his tunic with one hand, gripping Ashala's fingers with the other. Tremaine's face twisted in rage.

"Kill them!"

But before Tremaine's men could stop him, Aiden's seeking fingers grasped the Key.

In a great flash of now-familiar light, he and Ashala vanished.

***