Paper Wings

Chapter 13

Tieyan POV

Oh no Krystal! What did you do?

"Join her?" Lillia shouts. "What do you mea-."

I hear a loud crack underneath us.

I look down. Actually, there's nothing to look down at. Just a deep, dark hole.

A scream escapes my tightly sealed lips. Dang it! I tried so hard to be brave! Everyone else is screaming too. Good, good. Oh gosh what is wrong with me.

I land on some rock. Some very, very, solid rock. Ouch.

Grace is lying in the ground.

Beatriz looks at her. "Is she dead? Little Miss Princess isn't so tough hm?"

"She landed on her head!" Lillia yells, ignoring Beatriz.

Did she break her neck? Oh gosh if we let her die the king will kill us!

Abdullah smacks her. Grace groans. "Not dead!" Abdullah declares.

"Krystal?" I shout. Lillia and Abdullah join me in my call. "Krystal?" We all shout.

From way, way down the tunnel I hear a muffled, "help!"

Sumya POV

"My friends?" I yell, but Hedas is already gone.

What does he mean? Friends? Who else is here to save me?

I cough. There's a lot of dust in here. And I need to get out of these chains! I take a little piece of straw and start picking at the lock with it. It opens.

Well that was anticlimactic.

I stumble out of the chains. Suddenly, all the dust in the room just disappears.

Um. What?

I love science. And everything sciency. So me being super-smart and using logic, I figure out there's a vent somewhere letting out the dust.

So I stand up on my jelly legs, and begin to search the room. Aha!

I find a vent. It's not locked. Wow Hedas's traps really don't work.

I open it and squeeze through. I crawl through slowly. There's some spiders, some snakes, but nothing awful. I reach a three-way turn.

Alright. Classic movie scene. Which way should I go?

I chose to go through the middle.

I crawl done more and open the vent on the over side. I enter.

"Sumya?"

I heave a sigh of relief when I recognize the voice.

Beatriz POV

"Help!"

What was that?

"It's Krystal!" Grace shrieks.

"We have to save her!" Says Tieyan.

"Let's go!"

"Not so fast," Hedas booms.

I'm seriously gonna kill him soon.

"You don't think I'd just let you stroll in and get Krystal do you? You have to pass a test first," Hedas says.

Pass a test?

Suddenly there's a cloud of red smoke and we are all in a small room.

"In this escape room, it'll test your knowledge on jewels. If you pass, you get Krystal and her little brother."

Jasper's with her?!

"If you fail," Hedas continues, "you'll get squished by the wall. Good luck."

Lillia POV

Great. An escape room. Just what we need.

"Look!" Tieyan says. She picks up a slip of paper. "What gem can cut through rock?"

Well that was blatant.

"Diamonds," Lillia says.

"Correct." Hedas sats. "They only get harder."

Tieyan picks up the next paper. "In most villages, what type of thing do they pay with?"

"Gold," I say.

"Correct."

"What gem comes from the Latin word that means 'red'?"

"Ruby," Abdullah says.

"Correct."

"What gemstone is made of beryl?"

"Emerald!" Grace says.

"Correct."

"Last question!" Tieyan shrieks. "What gem used to be known as 'Jewel of the Gods'?"

Silence.

Oh no. No one knows this one.

Krystal POV

Oh shoot. Where am I?

There is nothing here! Am I wrong? Is Jasper somewhere else? Suddenly, red smoke surrounded me.

I rubbed my eyes, clearing them of remaining smoke. Now where am I?

"Krystal!"

I turned. Oh my gosh. "Jasper!" I shriek. He's safe!

I hug him until he told me he couldn't breathe. "I knew you'd save me!"

"If course Jasper! Now, how do we get out of here?"

Grace POV

Raking my brain, I tried to figure out the answer. Then, I remember something Harper told me.

Amethyst is the jewel of the gods. Respect it. Worship it, and you can do wondrous things.

"Amethyst!" I shout.

"Correct," Hedas groans. "Alright fine you win whoop whoop."

The doors open, revealing Krystal and Jasper.