[COMPLETE] R E V E R S E #NaNoWriMo2k17

Chapter 23

"Ajax."

The sound of his name being said so close made him jump. He bolted upright, and Stella took a step back.

"It's me! Don't panic!"

He yelped quietly. "What? What's happening? How did you get on my side?"

She shushed him. "Quiet. You know how I got here."

He took a good look at her. She'd somehow removed her chains, which he could see lying in a pile over on her side of the cell. There was a hole in her bars as if someone had bent them apart, just large enough for her to squeeze through. Judging from the snores and lack of light, it was still nighttime.

"What do you want? You could get killed like this?"

She stared at him for a second, sorrow on her face. "Go."

"What?"

She held a hand to his chains. Instantly, he heard them snap. They flew off him and landed in a neat coil at his feet. His neck band loosened and fell onto the floor with a clang.

"What are you doing?"

"You have to go." Her eyes were red and puffy, and with a jolt he realised that she'd been crying. "I've decided, Ajax. You have to escape."

"What about you?"

She chuckled softly. "Someone has to stay here and convince everyone not to give up, right?" She took his hands in her own. 'Find the other gods. Find the Warden. Get their help. Tell them about what's happening here."

"How am I supposed to leave without getting killed? There's monsters everywhere!"

She reached down, picking up one of the broken chain links on the floor. It twisted in her grasp, pulling and straightening into a small, simple, silver armband. She turned it over in her claws, concentrating, before handing it over to him.

"What did you just do?"

"I enchanted it," she whispered. "It's... it makes the wearer invisible. Sight and sound."

He stared at her, dumbfounded. "Stella, I-I don't-"

He wasn't even ready. He'd been preparing himself for certain death, and suddenly he'd been thrown onto a life-or-death quest which could determine the fate of the world.

"Do it for me. For Tas." She met his gaze, unswerving. "Please."

Never in his life had he felt so torn. Lost between safety and risk, death and hope, truth and lies. Still, the thrill of adventure was already pulsing in his veins.

"I-I can't do it!"

"You can! You have to. You WILL."

He shook his head, taking a step back. He was squeezing so hard on the band it left an imprint in his palm.

Stella paused, then opened her hands. A tiny sack, no larger than her claws sat in it. It appeared full, although full of what he had no idea.

"Take this." She thrust the sack at him. "It contains magic items. Its enchanted, so it can hold a lot more than it looks."

"How did you -"

The holder can make it disappear at will. Just take it!"

The jail door slammed open.

"It's impossible!" He cried out. His panic ws threateningto drown him any second. "Why me? Why don't you go yourself?"

"Because you have potential."

He froze, staring at her. Voices were shouting outside. They'd heard the noise. The monsters were coming.

His last image of Stella was her slippng back over to her side of the jail. The bars were already bending themselves back into shape, erasing the evidence. The coil of chains twitched on the ground. "I'll hold down the fort. One last time." They locked gazes with each other. "Go!"

And then he was running, straight out the door, sliding the band up and onto his wrist as he burst into the corridor, his footfalls echoing loudly off the walls. He ran, ran for his life, ran for all of the other's lives as he navigated the caves on pure instinct, using what little knowledge he had of the area.

A group of guards, a mixture of Raptorik and Longneck - matched past him. He slipped through them without a word. No one cast him any glances. Stella's spell worked - he was completely invisible.

He ran like he'd never run in his entire life, dodging confused warriors, jumping over obstacles, ducking ledges, before finally, inexplicably, he saw light, he smelled the fresh air and with one mighty pump of his sore wings he exploded out of the cave into the sky.

He flew like never before, anything to get away from that place, half expecting Talona to come out, screaming at him to stop, sending her soldiers over to kill him.

But none came. The night was silent as he drifted over the eerily deserted landscape. He'd escaped, but Stella and the others were still trapped. Waiting for the day they met their fate.

He knew what he had to do. Stella's gaze was enough to remind him. He banked sharply to the right, skimming over the sea, heading straight for the Shifting Expanse. The moonlight was like a beacon, illuminating his way. He would pay a quick visit to his neighbour, the Stormcatcher.

Five days. Five days to save the world.

The ultimate quest had begun.