The Devil's Assistant (Watty Awards Finalist 2011)

Devil's Assistant [25]

Chapter 24

We stopped off at another location created by the strange earth people. I was told that this was a stronghold, a fortress. It was one of many dotted around the globe and was completely identical to where Calantha would be staying with Danny and the others that had been left behind. I only hoped that it was as impenetrable as Donalbain has been boasting it is, I couldn't survive if something happened to Danny, he was my life, my reason for living and there was no way anyone was going to take that away from me.

The three thousand square feet of the fortress was nestled on top of a large mountain in the Grecian part of the world. Apparently it was where the rumours of mount Olympus and the gods first started. Apparently some hapless young boy had spotted the earth people joking around and sparring with each other with their powers and he, being a rather intelligent man but a believer in a higher power, had concluded that these beings he had seen were gods and goddess that the priest had talked about. I was curious about this man but Donalbain shrugged the stories off saying they weren't important but they were one of the reasons that they now remained hidden; their influence over human kind became too great as rumours of their kind spread spouting mythology of gods and goddesses in different countries.

Apparently there was a reason that we were here. As we travelled deeper through the fortress with my own little entourage, my arms became covered in gooseflesh even though the endless corridors were relatively warm, especially with the heat radiating from Donalbain. We had passed several decrepit rooms that looked as if they had been abandoned for an age but most startling was the artillery within those little pockets of doom and gloom.

"They're from times when we have been attacked." He gestured to a room that we passed that had muskets and cannons as well as rotting wood tipped with handmade spear heads. "As you can tell the majority of this is human technology, we store it until we have time to destroy it. For such a primitive race, it still surprises me the number of ways you invent to kill yourselves." He glanced right mat me as he said this and all I could do was shrug my shoulders. What do you say to that? I can't say that I disagree because I've always been against unnecessary fighting.

He allowed me to peer into the gloom before continuing on. I knew that wherever we were going was important but no one would give anything away. In fact everyone was strangely silent, including Lucius who often found it impossible to keep his mouth shut. I think I strangely miss his commentary and the way he always makes everything into a flirting opportunity. Heck since the incident with each of us trying to dry hump the other, he has been strangely distant in the flirty sense. Maybe it freaked him out just as I did me. I snorted at the thought. Lucius would never let something like that affect him.

We had been walking for nearly thirty minutes before the group came to an abrupt halt. I bumped into the guy walking in front of me but he didn't even spare me a glance over his shoulder to check that I was okay. Rubbing my nose that was throbbing slightly I looked around to see what was so special but to me it appeared to be just that a nondescript hallway with no feature discerning it from the ones we had walked down to reach this point.

Donalbain pressed his hands out in front of his, feeling through the air as if searching something before grunting and pulling it back. He shook it a few times before turning to face us but I noted that his eyes were trained on me. "This is far as the rest of us can go, only you can continue on." He spoke with authority to show that I couldn't question his words but I wanted to know why the hell I even had to go down there in the first place. There was no way I was walking down these corridors all on my own unless there was a good reason. Donalbain must have saw the fight in my eyes as he gestured behind him, hissing when his hand came in contact with something I could not see. "The key is back there and only you can venture on. Only you will be able to decide what to do with the key, this ward is here so that no outside can influence the one who wishes to possess the key. If you choose to use it that is your choice, if you choose to destroy it, it will also be your choice. Just know that your choice will dictate the fate of the world."