Kingdom of the Gods: Godkiller (Sequel to Mythical Madness)

Chapter 14

14: Make Way for Prince(ss) Ali(ce)!

ALICE'S POV

I had deduced that the best way to get into the mines undiscovered was to sneak into the ranks of a new shipment of slaves and pretend like I was one of them. Therefore, I could get in fairly unnoticed by the others. So I left our little camp on the edge of the cave and went back to the mine entrance where a shipment of slaves just so conveniently happened to be trundling in. There were about 30 slaves in all, and some Bokkenrijders were on foot behind them, whipping them along.

I phased through the ground and went underground until I was in the middle of the slaves. Then, I popped up from under the ground, right in the middle of the group so I looked like one of them. A werewolf that I had popped up beside looked at me for a second, puzzled, before going back to walking.

The Bokkenrijders guided us to a large building near the entrance to the mines. The building was made of steel and iron, and a skinny Skinwalker (one of those annoying Native American shapeshifters) stood at its entrance, leafing through some papers. Behind the Skinwalker was a huge, imposing buggane (remember Groundbreaker?) who stood there with his arms crossed, looking around and scanning the crowd.

One of the Bokkenrijders went up to the Skinwalker and his buggane bodyguard. The Bokkenrijder said a few words and gestured to us, and the Skinwalker nodded before telling us to make a single-file line to be sorted to where in the mines we would go.

I got in line behing an 10-foot tall, skinny blue and green river troll who was wearing nothign but a loincloth. Lilypads were in his long mane of dreadlocks, and his red eyes gleamed with anger. Behind me was a Boroma, one of the massive African dog-creatures. He looked like a huge, muscular dog-man covered in gray and tan fur with huge claws in place of hands.

When it was the troll's turn to go up, the Skinwalker looked him over quickly. He then looked behidnt he Skinwalker to me and the Boroma.

"Alright, all three of you are strong. You'll be in the fire mines. Step to your left. Next!" called the Skinwalker.

The Boroma, the troll, and I all stepped aside, huddling in a trio as two Bokkenrijders armed with axes stepped to the sides of us. A djinn came over and joined us, and we started to move towards the fire mines. Suddenly, I noticed somethign very odd about the djinn...I had seen him before!

"Itris?!" I called to the djinn. The djinn turned around and looked at me, and his eyes widened.

"Alice?! What the heck are you doing here! When I met you, it was when Imdugud attacked!" Itris said.

"Hey! Stop talking!" said one of the Bokkenrijders, bashing Itris in the shoulder with the hilt of his axe.

I cringed inwardly, but I didn't say anything as we kept walking. We passed under a low tunnel and started walking towards another cave. For those of our readers who haven't been with us before, around two months ago, on our last journey, we had fought a massive Sumerian bird demon called Imdugud. Itris had been there, and he and his demigod friend Sara had helped us a little in the fight against some of the little monsters Imdugud had brought with him.

As I thought this, we moved into a huge cave. The cave's floor was black with soot and ash, and a river of lava ran along the floor. Slaves who were being guarded by more Bokkenrijders were lined up across the sides of the river, dipping huge pots of some type of metal into the lava. After being filled with lava, the pots were carried by more slaves into another cave. The Bokkenrijders dropped us off at the end of the line, and they left the cave hurriedly.

The troll, the Boroma, Itris, and I all looked around. None of us knew what to do, but suddenly, a creature came limping up to us. It was a Wraith, a faceless demon from European folktales. This Wraith was about 8 feet tall, and he was skinny, wearing tattered black clothes. Smooth skin was where his face should have been, but the most unusual thign about him was that his left leg was twisted aat a horrible angle. Most Wraiths are usually able to jump huge distances and perform other amazing athletic feats, but with a leg like that, this Wraith definitely couldn't.

"Welcome to the fire mines! I''m Snapleg, and I'll be your teacher. Working in the fire mines is very easy. Just grab a pot, dip it into the lava, and once it's full, pass it on to one of our carrying slaves, who will take it to the next chamber. Explosions, lacerations, third-degree burns, charrings, overflows, asphyxiation, and other painful forms of death are very common here, so don't touch the lava!" the Wraith said.

Snapleg placed down four of the huge pots in front of us, and hobbled away. As he did so, I instantly called the three others over into a huddle.

"Alright. We're getting out of here. I'm not an actual slave. I'm really fromt he outside, and I have four demigods ready to help you get out. So we need to start a rebellion. First, what are your names?" I asked the troll and the Boroma.

"This is Yddrgi. And I'm Tukandu," said the Boroma in a deep voice, pointing to the troll and them himself.

"Okay, well, Yddrgi and Tukandu, you'll be the main oens in this plan. You're our strongest warriors, and if we can spread the word about the rebellion, you two will have to lead most of the fighting. But for now, we need to spread the word and find a good time to begin the fight," I told them.

"Ghost Princess have good plan. Yddrgi tell others about plan. Other trolls come, and we fight well," Yddrgi the troll said.

"I'm in. I don't know if all the other slaves will participate, but we have to try," Itris said.

And try we would.