Chapter 21

         They weren't expecting us to be in the room. I paid attention to the door they came through because I figured that that would be the door leading out of here, wherever "here" was. There were twenty Heinous Knights in total, which meant we each had to fight two. Unfortunately, these were not the dumb and clumsy knights; these were the big and strong Heinous Knights that knew how to fight as a team. As soon as we started fighting, we realized right away that there was no way that we could take two at once. It was our turn to think strategically.

         We formed two circles, seven of us in one circle, and three of us inside that circle. I was in the circle of seven. We provoked one or two Heinous Knights and let them enter our circle. Then, Irvin, Tamara, and Demetrio (the three in the inner circle) fought them and knocked them out. It was my job, and the rest of us on the outside to keep the other Heinous Knights occupied while those in the inner circle knocked out the Heinous Knights we let in. Since our backs were to the Heinous Knights we had just let in, Tamara, Irvin, and Demetrio had to make sure that they didn't attack us from behind.

         Unfortunately, the Heinous Knights caught on to our strategy the third time we tried it. All of us on the outer circle had just let two Heinous Knights in, but this time it didn't work. As soon as we turned our backs to them, they attacked us from behind. One stabbed Aurelia with his sword, and the other stabbed Hearst. The rest of us on the outer circle with the help of Demetrio, Irvin and Tamara, cut down the two Heinous Knights that had stabbed Aurelia and Hearst. We ran towards our fallen friends, ignoring the dozen other Heinous Knights that remained. All that mattered was Aurelia and Hearst. That was our biggest mistake.

         The Heinous Knights advanced on us. I felt a searing pain in my chest as a Heinous Knight stuck his sword through me. He pulled the sword back out of my chest and I fell onto my face.

         The Heinous Knights chained us to a wall in a way that, this time, we had no chance of getting free. I don't know how long we stayed there, but there was always a Heinous Knight guarding us. It was very uncomfortable, and we were getting weaker and weaker. When we finally had a visitor, about a week had passed, though it felt like years. Our visitor was the last person that Vesta wanted to see. It was Troy. Vesta was next to me when he came in. As soon as she saw him, she struggled violently against her restraints.

         "Oh, how nice. Did you really want to see me so badly?" he asked.

         Vesta called him an insulting name in German.

         "Such a shame. I was hoping I could spare you, as a favor to Julius."

         "How dare you speak his name," Vesta shouted.

         "Come on, Vesta. Julius and I were best of friends."

         "Vesta, you should use your connection with him to get us out of here," I told her telepathically.

         "Okay," she replied in the same way. "Why are we here?" she asked out loud.

         "Who do you mean by we?" Troy asked. "If you mean we as in me and you, I'm here to visit you."

         "That's not what I meant. Why are my friends and I here?"

         "Don't worry, you're just here because if we let the five of you go, you would try to rescue the other five."

         Troy's response was surprising to us all. We didn't know why he spoke like we were in groups.

         "Which five have to stay?" Vesta asked.

         "I thought that was obvious. I thought you knew since you were eavesdropping on us through your silly little screens in your elements."

         "What?" Vesta asked.

         "Oh, don't play dumb on me, honey. I know you were watching my master and my boss. That was how I found you."

         "What do you mean?"

         "You saw the page run into the conference room and tell my master that you had been found, but the page didn't say who had seen you. That person would have been me. I'm kind of like the technician for them, but I don't used plugs and switches. I use my powers and every resource available to me."

         "And so you gave us away just as you did my father," Vesta concluded.

         "Vesta, I didn't want to give you away, but I had to or else I would have been killed."

         "Saving your skin yet again."

         "I would have been convicted of treason if I had let you walk free. Here, the punishment for treason is death. You know that."

         "So working against the Elders isn't committing treason?"

         "No, not here and now. I have good cover here. The Elders and their servants won't be able to find me. If I worked for the Elders, I would have been found. I would have been found in the same way that I found you."

         "No you wouldn't. There's no one better with technology than you. I hate to admit that, but we both know it's true. Why couldn't you work for the right side?" Vesta asked.

         "Vesta, you don't get it. You think you're doing the right thing, but I think you're wrong in the same way that you think I'm wrong."

         "That is so far from the truth you wouldn't believe it if it danced in front of your traitorous eyes. You're doing the wrong thing in every way imaginable. What's so good about Vadrak? He won't kill you if you continue capturing us? Our population may not be as small as he'd like it, but it's a lot smaller than the human population of seven billion," Vesta said with extreme conviction. I could tell that this affected Troy strongly.

         "Don't you dare mention humans to me again," Troy snarled, his nostrils flaring.

         "Why ever not? It's not as if you could do anything to me," Vesta said.

         "Oh yes I could, I could kill you, torture you, punish you until you beg me for mercy."

         "You could kill and torture me, but I will never beg you for mercy. Never. When I said you couldn't do anything to me, I meant that you couldn't do anything to hurt my pride and spirit. Even if you did torture and kill me, I will have lived a life that you could never live. I have nine amazing friends who would give their lives for me, and I would give my life for them. There is not a single thing that I wouldn't do for them."

         "You're pathetic," Troy said scornfully. "You hardly even know the sons of Sergius."

         "I know them a lot better than you think. I feel like I can open up to them in a way I never could with the other five."

         "What other five? You mean the ones I had killed for exploring a human religion? Vasuman, Bhudev, Kanak, Jafar, and Rohan? Yes, I'm the one who had them killed. You don't have to look so surprised."

         As soon as Troy admitted that he was the one who had killed the other five, Gina, Aurelia, Izumi, and Tamara flared up. Vesta was already angry, but now she was even angrier.

         "I'm not sorry I had them killed. They reminded me too much of . . ." his voice trailed off.

         "Reminded you too much of humans? Is that why you had them killed?" Vesta yelled.

         "Hmmm, that was one of the reasons, but to be perfectly honest, they were quite . . . annoying."

         "Vesta, calm down," I told her telepathically.

         "He killed my friends, he's about to kill you, me, and everyone else, and you want me to calm down? " Vesta practically shrieked in my mind.

         "Yes, calm down because if you don't, we'll never get out of here. You have a connection with him. I know you don't like it, but it's our only way out. We don't want to spend more time in here. We need to get out of here and fight off the evil that is spreading. Do it now Vesta! "

         "TROY!" Vesta shouted with as much force as she could muster.

         Troy was monologging, but he abruptly stopped when Vesta yelled his name.

         "Yes, Vesta?"

         "I'm sorry I yelled at you, I needed to get your attention."

         My brothers and my other friends all looked surprised that Vesta had apologized.

         "Stop, she's getting us out of here. Don't say anything," I told them.

         They nodded as Vesta continued talking with Troy.

         "I'm sorry, Troy. Once I stopped to think, I think I can at least try to understand your point of view. I know I can't truly feel what you're feeling because I haven't been through it myself, but I'm letting my prejudice against you go. I think that you truly believe that the way Vadrak is headed with this world is the right way to go. If you believe that, then I'm saying okay. Believe it. But this, what you're doing? That's not what you believe, Troy. I know you. I know that you don't enjoy hurting people. The way you have us hung here, this is hurting us. You know that those Heinous Knights guarding us can't speak English. Make them guard outside. Let us down, and then we can talk where we don't have to suffer from the pain that we're all currently in."

         "I can't, I'd be killed," Troy said.

         "Yes you can, Troy. Send them to guard outside, and then we can talk in peace and in private."

         I wasn't sure if Troy was going to go for it. He hesitated for at least two minutes until he finally relaxed and turned to the Heinous Knights.

         "Zostaw nam (Leave us)!" Troy barked at the Heinous Knights.

         When the Heinous Knights were gone, Troy slowly walked towards Vesta.

         "If this is a trick, then I swear, I will never visit you again, nor will I spare your life."

         "I understand, Troy. I won't do anything but sit and talk."

         Troy removed her chains and helped Vesta down off the wall.

         "Please help my friends, too, Troy," she said in a soothing voice.

         I had the feeling that he was dazed and that was why he was letting us down. Once he let the ten of us down, we sat against the wall, trying to regain some strength before tackling him.

         "I promised that I wouldn't attack him, but that doesn't mean you can't," Vesta said telepathically. "I'll keep him talking, and I'll make him turn his back to you. Once I say the word 'attack' in any sentence, that means that I need you to attack. If I say 'attack on the Elders' attack Troy. If I say anything else involving the word 'attack,' knock him out and let's get out of here."

         "Come on, Troy, let's talk."

         She moved around so that his back was to us.

         "Tell me Troy, did you come to visit us or me?"

         "To be perfectly honest, I came to visit you. You're still my little niece that I watched grow up. You were so small then. I can pull out memories of your mother, Julius, and me playing with you. You loved it so much. Once you got older, we started play wrestling and that was fun, but I had to be careful. I didn't want to drown you."

         Vesta laughed and said, "I still remember that. Jumping on your lap, running towards my father."

         "Yes, once you were close enough to him, he'd sweep you up in his arms and swing you about. You'd burst into flames and torch the living room or the patio, or wherever you were playing."

         "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to attack the house."

         Troy was about to say something more, when we knocked him out from behind, and he slumped to the floor.

         Vesta stood up and said, "We should tie him up."

         The ten of us wrapped Troy in two of the chains that had been used to hold Demetrio and Tamara. Irvin, Demetrio, and I quietly approached the door that we knew the Heinous Knights were guarding. We quickly pulled them inside the little prison that we were in and knocked the Heinous Knights out as well. We tied them together, and the ten of us left the room.

         We had no idea where we were going, but we took whatever direction felt right and plunged ahead. The building we were in was labyrinthine. I lost track of direction completely, and by the time we managed to find our way out, at least an hour had passed.

         The ten of us snuck out of the building we had been kept in and found ourselves in a courtyard surrounded by a fence with sentries every hundred feet. It was nighttime, so the cover of darkness was on our side. I signaled to Irvin, suggesting we teleport out of here, but he shook his head. A spell had been placed so that no one could teleport in or out. If we wanted to escape, we'd have to escape through the gate or under the fence.

         Before any of us could object, Timur and Aurelia hurried forward to see if the fence was metal and whether or not they could get us out using their powers. They must have communicated telepathically and agreed to check out the fence despite the danger they put themselves in by doing so.

         Fortunately, they had timed it just right, so that the sentries missed Timur and Aurelia with their big lights that they shone around the courtyard. Irvin, Demetrio, Hearst, Vesta, Izumi, Tamara, Gina, and I all took cover behind a building as a sentry light landed on the spot we had been a few seconds ago. Once the sentry light had passed, Timur and Aurelia hurried back to us with a report about the fence.

         "I have no idea how to sneak out of here. The fence was made to hold back a hecapsycheir of every kind. It's kind of like that wall we had to get past when we first escaped from the room with posts," Timur said.

         "You mean the one where we used the Heinous Knight's five keys?" Tamara asked.

         "Yes," Timur replied.

         "I don't suppose you saw the gate up close, did you?" I asked.

         "No, why?" Aurelia said.

         "Because if we could get out of the gate, maybe we could teleport from there," I suggested. "I have no idea where we are and just from looking around, I don't recognize any of the geography."

         "Do you think that we could possibly summon the keys that we used to unlock the wall?" Vesta asked.

         "What do you mean?"

         "The keys that we used to get through the wall when we were trying to get out of here in the first place. I don't remember when it was, it was after the Heinous Knights tied us up, but before the room with doors full of dangers."

         "I think I know what you're talking about, but do you remember what they looked liked well enough to summon them?" I asked.

         "Yes, I got a good look at them."

         "Couldn't hurt to try, right?" Tamara said optimistically.

         Vesta closed her eyes and held out her arm. She squeezed her eyes even tighter, and the keys appeared in her hands. Before we could say or do anything, she darted out to the fence, barely missing the lights from the guard towers. The rest of us waited for the lights to pass and followed her.

         Vesta threw each key into the corresponding wall, and we slowly made our way out. This was the first bit of luck we'd had all week. We made it out safely and the guards never noticed anything. It was still too dark to tell where we were or recognize any of the geography, but the woods were a couple hundred yards past the gate and guard towers, so we ran for the cover of the trees.

         When we reached the trees, Irvin said, "Don't teleport anywhere, I can sense that they've placed some sort of spell that will detect if any hecapsycheir teleports to or from this island."

         "We're on an island? Are you sure?" Izumi asked.

         "Yes, Izumi, can't you feel it?"

         "I can sense that the presence of water is near, but I figured it was a salt lake or, perhaps, an estuary."

         "If we can get to the nearest beach, perhaps Izumi and I could get the rest of you out of here," Irvin suggested.

         "If we're too far away from land, I can't," I said. "Vesta and I would disintegrate."

         "If you promise not to burn it up, perhaps Tamara and I could build a boat that we could all ride in as Irvin and Izumi control the waves so that we can get out of here," Hearst suggested.

         "I won't burn up the boat, don't worry," I said.

         "Neither will I," said Vesta.

         "This forest borders the ocean in that direction," Irvin said and pointed obliquely to his right.

         Irvin and Izumi led the way. We ran through the forest and were careful not to make to much noise. There was an occasional crunch of a dry leaf, but for the most part, we were as silent as dead mice. It took us about ten minutes to run the three miles to the farther edge of the forest.

         The forest extended to the end of a fairly steep cliff that was about fifty meters above the beach. Hearst and Tamara chose a tree to build us a boat. They left no trace of where the tree had been, but Demetrio took several seeds from the tree's cones and planted them. Hearst and Tamara finished building the boat in about three minutes. Izumi and Irvin used their powers to bring the ocean to us, and Hearst and Tamara lowered the boat into the water. The boat was large enough for the ten of us to fit comfortably. We all got in, some more gracefully than others, and Irvin and Izumi shoved off.

         "There's land about fifty miles from here. I think we may be able to teleport from there," Demetrio said.

         "I agree," Gina said. "I think that's our best shot for now."

         "I don't think we can control the waves for much more than fifty miles," Izumi said. "I know where you're talking about, I can sense it too, but on the way, there's a whirlpool. We'll have to go around it which will make it about eighty miles."

         We took turns getting rest, and Irvin and Izumi took turns controlling the waves. While Vesta, Gina, Aurelia, Tamara, and Izumi rested, I sat back in my seat and thought about what had happened to us. I wasn't sure how much time had passed, but I knew we still had to stop Vadrak. If the Elders were really going to build this new dimension with the help from the automaton, then how in the world were they going to make our entire hecapsycheir population go through the portal.

         We had all learned about the risks of traveling between dimensions. I knew that there a small possibility that the Elders and teachers and everyone else had lied about the portals being dangerous, but I doubted that. I had trusted the last Elders. I didn't think I trusted the newer Elders because of our last encounter, but now that I knew that these Elders were being manipulated by Vadrak, I trusted them. I know that doesn't quite sound right, but I trust the Elders, I don't trust the Vadrak manipulated Elders.

         When it was finally time for me to get some rest, I let my thoughts fly aimlessly through my head. I didn't have any dreams telling me what was happening in the world, but the rocking of the boat was making me seasick. I had sat up and helped Irvin stay awake, but because my brothers and I had talked quietly, I was able to ignore the swaying of the boat. Now, since I wasn't concentrating or thinking about anything in particular, I felt the full pull of the ocean.

         I still didn't know where we were, but I knew for sure that we weren't technically on Earth. There are different levels in Dimension A. The ground level is the Earth that mortals know, the Earth with seven continents and four oceans. Then there's several other levels that mortals can't see. One of those levels was where we fought our battles with Vadrak. We might be on that level, or we might be on yet another level that I had never seen or visited. I could still sense the danger of the water, and I had to control my fire so I didn't burn up the ship and drown myself, but apart from that, I had no nautical bearings.

         I hadn't realized how much time had passed, but sooner rather than later, Vesta was gently shaking my shoulder.

         "Get up," she said softly, "land is ahead."

         I sat up. About ten miles in front of us was an island with a channel wide enough for our boat to squeeze into a small bay. We sailed in, landed, disembarked, and hid the boat. Demetrio and Gina made sure that we didn't leave any tracks so we could walk freely.

         "What do you think, Irvin?" Timur asked. "Can we teleport out of here?"

         "Yes, I think so, but just to be safe, I don't think we should all teleport to the same place at the same time. I think we should split up but still have a partner in case we can't find each other for some time," he said.

         "That sounds like a good idea, do you think we should teleport to the main level of Earth or some other level?" Vesta asked.

         "I think we could be safe on the hecapsycheir level for a while, but I think we should stay away from each other until we deem it safe enough to reunite," Irvin replied.

         We had already silently agreed on partners; Demetrio and Gina, Timur and Aurelia, Irvin and Izumi, Hearst and Tamara, and Vesta and me.

         "What if we each chose a different part of the hecapsycheir level to stay at? Each couple could stay in the land corresponding to their element and do whatever is needed so long as we don't attract too much attention," I suggested.

         The hecapsycheir level had a mainland with six different sections where the majority of the population lived. All of this was separate from the five other lands, one for each element. In each of these, there was a place where theta majority lived but there were other parts in the land. We would go to the outskirts of the town.

         "I believe that that's good enough," Irvin replied. "Anyone object?"

         No one objected, but Aurelia added a question. "What about a way of contacting one another? When we think it's safe, of course."

         "I think that for now, our best means of contact is meeting at the same place. I think that the safest place will be on one of the levels made for hecapsycheires only. That way, no Heinous Knights can get to us," Irvin proposed.

         "I know of a place," Izumi said. "My uncle has a large mansion in the northeastern part of the hecapsycheir level. We should meet there."

         "Good," Gina said.

         The rest of us agreed on meeting at Izumi's uncle's house. We also agreed that we would each go there at a different time. Izumi and Irvin would go first, a week from today, Vesta and I would join them in a month and so on until Timur and Aurelia met us in six months time. We said our goodbyes and split up to teleport back to the hecapsycheir level.

         "Are you ready?" Vesta asked.

         I took a deep breath. "I'm ready," I replied. We held each other's hands and teleported to the Land of Fire.