Jim Armstrong and the Goblet's Curse

Chapter 28: Nothing Can Ever Go Right

  I didn't know how long I could keep them all froze, so I knew I had to act fast. I sidestepped all the people held frozen and headed towards the door at the other end of the cavern. It was a dirt and rock door, just like the rest of the place. I went through it easily.

It was dark on the other side, so dark that I couldn't see my own two hands in front of me. I clicked Lumière to illuminate the room, but soon realized that I didn't need it.

The room brightened and was washed in a bright silvery light that pierced my eyes. It took a good minute for my eyes so adjust to the sudden brightness, but when they did, I could make out the room perfectly.

Same dirt walls, same rocky ground, same dusty air that was making it hard to breathe. But once again, the rocks and dust weren't the focus of attention.

The giant hourglass of sand was.

In the middle of the cavern was an hourglass filled with fine sand, sparking against the torch light. But the sand was golden, like beach sand. It was a bright silver. It was a silver even brighter than Cecy's hair, and Cecy's hair was blinding. There was something majestic about the Sand that made me stop in our tracks and just stare in awe. It was completely silent in the cavern. Nothing was moving. It seemed as if the very air was holding its breath. The Sand from the upper bulb trickled in a soundless, seamless stream into the lower bulb. Something told me that when all the Sand from the upper bulb had fell into the lower one, the whole thing would flip and repeat the process.

Around the hourglass, hanging from the ceiling of the cavern, were... things. I wasn't quite sure what they were, but they were small and purple, with a blackish hue.

I took a step forward, then another, then another, until I was standing right in front of the hourglass. This close to the Sand, I had to squint to see. The Sand was too blinding to look at directly. I placed a hand on the hourglass. It was cool, cold to the touch, but not the normal cold. It was the sort of cold you get when something is so hot, that it becomes cold.

I was just wondering how I was going to even get any Sand out of the hourglass when I took a closer look at the purple things hanging from the ceiling. They were small pouches, swinging from golden ropes, waiting to be used. They were hanging low enough that if I stretched, my fingers could just brush the bottoms of the pouches. I couldn't, however, grasp enough of the bottom of the pouch to pull it down. I was going to have to jump.

I jumped straight into the air, but missed the pouch. I hit the ground, then tried again. My fingers brushed the pouch, but I didn't catch hold. I tried once more, and this time, was able to grab the pouch.

I hit the ground again, bringing the pouch with me. The golden string pooled to the ground, falling around me as I held the pouch in my hands. It was made of some sort of velvety material, and the inside was a thick and tough, black material.

Okay. I had something to put the Sand in. Now, I needed the Sand.

I looked behind me to make sure I still had everyone frozen. In my mind I knew I did, but it was still nice to have that reassurance.

I looked up at the hourglass holding the Sand. It seemed to be just a hourglass, with no way to get the Sand out. I walked around it, surveying the unyielding surface. As I made my way to the other side of the hourglass, I saw something. It seemed to an ice/water dispenser that you see on fridges.

Okay.

I approached the dispenser and saw something different about this one. Instead of having a picture of ice on the pad, there was only a blank white surface. I'd seen this before, on the door of Noah's and my dorm room door.