Death's Daughter: A Disney's Descendants Story

Into the Forbidden Fortress

    The five of them entered the Forbidden Fortress, which was doing a rather good job at living up to its name. It was almost impossible to tell the darkness of the shadow world outside the castle from the shadow world within. Either way, it was intimidatingly dark, and the farther they crept inside, the more they could hear their nervous whispers echoing through the ghostly, abandoned chambers.
     Jay wished he'd worn something warmer than his leather vest. Mal's lips were turning blue, Carlos's breath appeared in white clouds as he spoke, Evie was on the brink of losing almost all feeling in her hands, and Hesper's fingers felt like icicles when Jay grabbed them. (It was strictly for warmth)
     Inside every corridor they entered, a dense fog floated just above the black marble floor. "That has to be magic. The fog doesn't just do that," Mal said.
     Carlos nodded. "The refracted energy seems stronger here. I think we're closer to the source than we've ever been."
     As he spoke, an icy wind blew past them, whistling in through the shattered stained-glass windows high above them. Each step they took reverberated against the walls.
     Even Jay was too intimidated and for once, and kept his hands to himself. That was until they found the scepter of course, then he'd have to man up. Jay knew that, and he'd made his peace with it—no matter how well they'd all gotten along on the way here.
Villains didn't have friends, and neither did their children. Not when you get right down to it.
     "What's that?" Jay asked, pointing. Green lights flashed through half-shattered panes of glass, but he couldn't figure out the source.
     "It's what we've been tracking all along," Carlos answered. "That same electromagnetic energy: it's going crazy." He shook his head at the flashing lights on the box. "This fortress was definitely exposed to something that's left a kind of residue charge—"
     "You mean an enchantment?" Hesper asked.
     He shrugged. "That, too."
     "And so, even after all these years, this place is somehow still glowing with its own light?" Evie looked truly amazed.
     "Cool," Jay said.
     "In other words, we're getting closer to the Dragon's Eye," Mal said bluntly, shrugging off the conversation.
     They continued walking through corridor after corridor, until they passed through dark hallways full of framed paintings shrouded in cobwebs and dust. "It's a portrait gallery," Evie said, straining just to see the walls through the shadows. "Every castle has one."
     "Mal, stop it—" Jay shouted, looking behind him, jumping away.
     Mal reached out and tapped his shoulder. She was standing right in front of him. "Hello? I'm not back there. I'm over here."
     "Crap. I thought that picture was you." He pointed.
     "That's not me. That's my mother," Mal said with a sigh.
     "You really look like her, you know," Hesper said.
     "You two could be twins," Evie agreed.
     "That, my friends, is called genetics," Carlos said with a smile.
     "Gee, thanks—I look like my mother? Just what every girl wants to hear," Mal replied. But Hesper could see straight through her. All Mal wanted, more than anything, was to be just like her mother.
     Exactly like her.
     Every bit as bad, and every bit as powerful.
    Hesper would know, she wanted a the same thing, but on a different level. Hesper's true desire, like any kid, was praise. She wanted praise from her father, to have him look at her and smile. Truly smile.
     That was why she was here. She was trying to gather as much information on the Dragon's Eye. Such a powerful source could surely return her father's powers. Something he longed to have back. But the further Hesper went into the journey, the more her heart told her not to do it. After all, this was Mal's quest. And if the Dragon's Eye feel into anyone else's hand, besides Maleficent, who knows what she would do to the culprit.
     "Now, what?" Mal asked, as if she were trying to change the subject.
     Before them were four corridors leading to four different parts of the fortress. A foul draft issued from each. Jay yanked out a matchbook from his pocket and lit a match, muttering a quick "eenie-meanie-miney-mo."
    "How scientific," Carlos said, rolling his eyes.
    "You got your way, I got mine. That one," Jay said, pointing to the corridor directly in front of them. Just as he did, the wind blew out from the same passage, and the foul stench of something rotted or dead cam along with it.
     The wind snuffed and blew the match out.
     The three girls held their nose, as the smell continued to dwindle in the air around them.
    "Are you sure about this?" Hesper asked him.
    "Duh, of course not. That's why I played eenie-meanie-miney-mo! One corridor is as good as the next," Jay said, entering the corridor and not waiting for the rest to follow.
     "No, wait—you don't know where you're going. Carlos, check your box- compass-thing," said Mal.
     Carlos brought the box up to the intersection. It beeped. "Okay, I guess maybe Jay's right."
    "Of course I am."
     The four followed Jay into the dark corridor.
    The sound of Carlos's beeping box was echoing of te stone walls. It led them to a dank, cold stairway that led further downward, deeper into darkness. The air felt colder and damper and in the eerie silence cam a distant rattle, like bones striking rock, or chains rattling in the wind.
     "Because that's comforting," Evie sighed.
     "The dungeon," said Mal. "Or you might know it as the place where my mother encountered the love struck Prince Phillip."
     Evie's eyes widened in awe. It was probably the most famous story in all of Auradon. "Maleficent was going to lock him down here for a hundred years, right? That would have been fun."
     Carlos looked around. "She nearly pulled it off, didn't she?"
     Mal nodded. "If not for the trio of self righteous, busybody, blasted good fairies." She sighed. "End of scene. Enter Isle of the Lost."
     "I don't know about you guys, but I feel like we've been down here for a hundred years already. Let's get on with it," Jay said. It was obvious he was more alert. That was because he was on the job now.
     They came to a dungeon door. Carlos held the box inside, listening for its beep. "This is the one."
    He went ahead with the box, while Jay, Hesper, Mal, and Evie helped each other slowly down the steps, bracing themselves against the wall as they went. There was no rail and the treads were coated in black moss. Every step squished in the darkness, and it felt as if every step was on something living and wet.
    "Suddenly the whole mud river thing doesn't seem so bad," said Evie.
    "Seriously," Jay said. Hesper internally squirmed at the thought of the mud river again. The visions of her father falling into the River Styx flashed in her mind. She sighed and continued slowly walking down the moss covered steps.
     "I think this is it," Carlos said, pointing to a rotten wooden door that was hanging party off the hinges. Hesper went to open it, but the frame collapsed, sending the wood clattering against the floor.
     "Well," Hesper said. "There goes that door."
     As they entered, Jay couldn't help but notice that the shattered remains of the door and it's frame looked like a kind of mouth—a panther's mouth—and they were stepping through it's open jaws, into the mouth of the beast.
     "Did any of you notice—"
     "Shut up," Evie said tensely. They had all seen the same thing, which couldn't be good. That was probably why nobody wanted to talk about it.
     The five of them walked inside. The room was impossibly dark. There was not even a hint of light, not a glow from a distant window or torch. Jay reached out, looking for a wall, something to touch.
    "Maybe we should find a flashlight or something in Jay's pockets, before we touch any—" Carlos warned, but it was too late. Jays had struck something with his hand.