The Book of Time: A Guardians of Time Novel

Chapter Ten: Escape

"So, the Keeper had seized Neptune before you arrived?" Ayden asked his uncle.

Both men were still chained to the darkest wall in the corner of the dungeon. Asher was explaining how he had become a prisoner in a place that he once ruled.

"Yes. When I brought the entire city to Neptune, it required a massive amount of my power. I was very weak."

"But if you are the first Warrior....your powers should be innumerable."

"Well yes, but even the most ancient and strongest magics have their limits, Ayden."

Ayden was unsure how his uncle remained down here for so many years. In the long days since his being brought to the dingy room, his legs and arms were asleep. The feeling of stabbing pins radiated up and down limbs that were well on their way to being numb, but he was alive. They were fed, barely, and they had discussed many options for attempting an escape.

Ayden was positive that it had been almost three days.

He had observed what he could in the dark. There were many other places among the walls and pillars where one could be chained. A couple of sets of chains held the skeletal remains of what Asher called "forgotten prisoners." There were rats, or what Ayden thought were rats, that scurried along the cold stone floors looking for food remnants. He was disgusted to see teeth marks in the bones of a prisoner that had died many years ago in the chains next to him.

"Have no worry, my nephew." Asher said with a belly deep laugh. "We are prisoners that the Keeper is not going to forget. They have been looking for my bloodline for generations. Stenos's idea of universal domination was not only his."

"The Keeper?" Ayden asked

"Yes. The mans a lunatic. Did you happen to walk through the village before you got into the castle?"

"It was pretty desolate. Then I was attacked by that demon girl and her creature. I didn't really catch much while trying to stay alive." Ayden responded while shuffling his legs beneath him from a kneeling to sitting position.

"So, you didn't see. The Keeper encases most of his prisoners in stone. All around the city of Atlantis you can see the statuesque remains of the people there that he has 'saved.' His collections." Asher explained.

"What separates the prisoners and those in these collections?"

"Who knows....those who have magical abilities, royal bloodlines, rare creatures. Maybe they get to be kept in cages instead of stone. But you name it he has it I'm sure."

"Could there be other Warriors?" Ayden asked, as his wide eyes tried to see through the dark to his uncle.

"Anything is possible, but I doubt it. I brought a small population back with me to Neptune. Most perished before we arrived and the rest died over time from lack of food, water, doctors. Most of The Keeper's collections come from the outside."

"And his plans for us?" Ayden asked.

"I can't say for sure. But, for us, I would imagine he has something in mind other than stone coffins." Asher smiled.

"Why haven't you just broken free?" Ayden asked Asher the question that had been burning within him since he was chained in the dungeon. "You have to have powers beyond imagination."

"Oh, aye, when I can access my power stone, I could do things that you would not believe, even when my magic does reach its limits." Asher smiled.

With everything Ayden had seen since his return to Edin, he seriously doubted it. "Where is your stone?" He asked.

"The Keeper took it when they chained me up. He has it hidden away and I believe there is dark magic blocking me from it. I can't feel any power at all."