“Five! What happened to the rest?!” He snapped at the henchmen after he had counted our heads.
It was the first time seeing our soldier escorts fumble nervously with their hands. One of them swiftly made some sort of sign language with their fingers, then recoiled from a blasting into their ears.
I gulped when I had understood the hand signage. Seven of us had perished along the way.
“Dead?!” The unmasked man huffed at the end of his outrage. He slammed a palm to his forehead. “I’m surrounded by trash.”
Troy and Kalia were doing their best not to look scared. I saw the other two remaining were the red-head manly boy and another boy with two-toned eyes. Both stood aloof. My heart ached with remorse that none of the little ones had survived.
“These cretins will have to do. Continue to The Zone.” He exited the chamber.
Seven kids had died along the way, and all this man could say was, “that will do.”
I felt anger at the way these adults treated us. For now, I decided to bottle up my feelings and thoughts on the matter. It wouldn’t do well to draw death defying attention my way, after coming so far.
We left the chamber and shuffled along a straight path towards chi-chinks, hisses, grumbles, grinding, chatter and heat that made me sticky with sweat. The smell of raw ore and mildew was strong. Our direction moved away from those sounds and led us into an enormous cavern, which was cool and refreshing to my skin.
“Oh my!” Kalia gasped with awe.
I banged into her back.
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“Hey.” I grimaced and rubbed my nose. Then I saw what made her blurt words filled with wonder.
The cavern was supported by eight white marble columns. Each one had an image of gods and goddesses carved into them. White flamed torches burnt a steady line along the rock walls, giving each carving a life like appearance.
I said prayers in my head as I passed each column. To the goddess Zin and her boas. The emperor’s god Dan with his lion face and strong human hands driving a chariot over evil fauns.
“Our benevolent goddess, Anwar.” I noted as I passed the column of the majestic figure in flowing robes and crown of roses. Her right arm held a sword at a man’s throat as he was about to violate the woman beneath him. Her left hand showered her children with rose petals.
“Amazing.” Troy’s voice quivered as we passed all the other gods and goddess with their welcoming arms and flowing robes.
The henchmen stopped us before an enormous set of steel doors that had majestic symbols and images embossed onto its surface.
One of them pointed to the columns. We nodded and bowed our respects to our gods. The henchmen did the same. From the corner of my eye, I spied four columns of horsemen almost hidden within a nook.
The first column held a man clad in heavy armor. He rode a gallant steed. One of his gauntlet hands held a scythe and the other tugged at the reins. Etched on the next was a hooded man whose billowing robes flowed about his steed. His arms were poised with a nocked arrow in a longbow drawn for release. Silver light illuminated the column image of a robed magis with his gauntlet hands. They were pulling hard on the reins of the rearing steed with hollow eyes and a snout twisted with an evil snarl. My heart raced with familiarity at the sight of the final horseman. A mighty warrior in an armor covered with horns. A battleaxe was raised high in one hand. His rearing horse had a nasty snarl that looked ready to mangle heads.
The sight of each one made me feel empowered for some reason. It particularly restored my chi.
“Amazing. Just staring at these columns are making me feel alive.”
“Can’t you spare sympathy for your baby brother?”
I gasped at the stranger’s voice in my head. Or more accurately, a memory of a conversation. Before I could lock onto it, the voice and words were gone.
A bell twanged throughout the cavern. The doors opened with a drawn out grind. We resumed our trek through more corridors and rock paths.