The Duke's Secrets

Chapter 25 - Elizabeth's Power

Celestia's pulse thundered in her ears as she sprinted down the hallway, dragging Elizabeth by a tightly clutched hand. Elizabeth stumbled along, her speed dull and erratic as she wasn't quite moving from her own will. Her mind was stuck in a whirlwind of chaos, fixated on the ghastly image of the Duke that her mind had captured from the quick glimpse of him before they rounded the corner of a hallway.

It's too fuzzy to be something I saw with my own eyes, she thought. A haze is obscuring something. Despite the ample, though eerie, blood-red moonlight filtering through the windows and the torches on their brightest setting casting their flickering glow, Elizabeth found herself unable to shake the feeling that the image in her head was somehow distorted—No! Incomplete! I couldn't look at his head! Why?

Elizabeth's mind suddenly snapped back to reality. She finally took in her surroundings, first noticing Celestia's odd indecision about where to go at a hallway crossroads. Then, it dawned on her why Lilith had insisted they stay in her room, as the once-familiar hallways had all transformed into a shifting labyrinth. Familiar doors now led into other hallways, which would vanish once they went through them, leaving only a blank wall behind them instead of the door they just went through.

"Stop!" Elizabeth finally shouted.

Celestia slowed to a stop, her grip on Elizabeth's hand loosening as she sank to the ground, gasping for air. "Okay...only for...a moment..." she managed to say between breaths. "Then...keep running...Papa knows...labyrinth better...he'll find us...Mama tasked me...protect you...from his madness...we must keep...running..."

Elizabeth knelt beside Celestia, attempting to replicate the calming breathing technique the Duke had used on her. It proved challenging, as she couldn't quite catch her own breath, but she persisted, knowing that Celestia's well-being hinged on her success. And gradually, Celestia's gasping breaths steadied, averting the danger of her fainting.

"Do you know why the Duke is after me? Has this happened before?" Elizabeth questioned. I need more information, she thought. Something isn't adding up. What is it? What am I missing?

"No...he's never targeted anyone like this," Celestia's reply was faint. "But that's not important right now! We must keep moving before he catches us. Mama is strong, but Papa is stronger when he doesn't hold back. She can only buy us so much time." Celestia tried to stand, but her legs buckled beneath her weight. "No...no...no!" she muttered through her teeth. "Stand up! Come on! We need to run! Don't do this to me now!"

Celestia attempted to strike her legs in an attempt to awaken them, but Elizabeth grabbed her arm, stopping her as tears welled up in Celestia's eyes. The realization dawned on Celestia quickly—her exhausted body could go no further, and again, she wished desperately that her body wasn't so fragile, that she was strong like her mother.

"Elizabeth, you need to leave—"

"I'm not leaving you here!" Elizabeth's voice was firm, her will unwavering as she attempted to lift Celestia, only to have her slip from her grip. "What are you doing? I can easily carry you and run—"

"No! I'll only slow you down if you carry me. Papa isn't after me. He's after you. You need to run as fast as you can. Papa is fast—"

"I'm faster!" Elizabeth yelled. "And I am not going to leave you here alone! I don't even know where here is because of the mess the floor is going through! You're coming with me, or we're staying here—"

"E-liz-a-beth!" the Duke's voice boomed into their souls.

Their faces drained of color, and their hearts began to pound so loud in their chests that the other could hear it as they heard the Duke's haunting cry. They couldn't turn to see him, but they knew—every fiber of their being knew—that the Duke was closing in and that Lilith had bought them all the time she could.