The taskmaster gasped, leaning forward as Loc brought it down, again and again, cracking his ribs. It was just what Loti needed to regain her grip on the shackles.

Loti grabbed them, doubled her grip, and she spun around, getting on top of him, pinning him face-first in the dirt.

She squeezed all her might, her wrists bleeding from the shackles cutting into them. Blood and sweat stung her eyes, and she lost all sense of time and s.p.a.ce as she squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.

It was a long time after he stopped moving that Loti finally realized he was dead.

She looked down. He lay there, perfectly still, all the world perfectly still, and she realized she had just killed the man.

And that nothing would ever be the same again.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

Darius slashed and slashed, the click-clack of his wooden sword piercing the air as he blocked blows alternately from Raj and Desmond, each attacking him from both sides. They were driving him back, and he was working up a sweat as he sparred with them, doing his best to fend off one blow after the next. The sun was setting after a long day of labor, and as they had nearly every day during this last moon cycle, Desmond, Raj and Darius sparred, letting out all their aggression for the Empire, all their frustration with their taskmasters, on swordplay.

On the sidelines, Dray sat there, watching every slash, snarling at Darius' attackers every time they landed a blow. Clearly he wanted to pounce, but Darius had finally taught him to sit there and watch patiently. Yet his snarling filled the air, and Darius did not know when he would finally snap and defy his command. He was so loyal to Darius, as Darius was to he, that there was no controlling him.

Over the last moon cycle, Darius and Raj and Desmond had become close friends, the two older boys determined to make Darius a better fighter. It was working. Darius felt his arms and shoulders grow tired, but not as tired as they had been in days before; and while in the past days too many of their blows slipped past, today he managed to block their blows as they attacked relentlessly.

Back and forth they went, Darius blocking side to side, spinning around after blocking one high blow and even venturing to fight back, slashing. He felt himself getting stronger, quicker, more confident. He knew that as their friendship deepened, so had his skills in combat.

Darius was concentrating, finding a weak point in Raj's strike, about to land his first blow-when suddenly, a girl's voice cut through the air.

"Darius!"

Darius, distracted, turned at the sound, and as he did, he lowered his guard and received a mighty blow on the ribcage.

He cried out and scowled at Raj.

"Unfair!" he said.

"You let down your guard," Raj said.

"I was distracted."

"In battle," Desmond said, "your enemy hopes for distractions."

Darius turned, annoyed, and was surprised to see who had been summoning him. To his shock, there was Loti, fast approaching, looking distraught. He was even more surprised to see her eyes were red from crying.

Darius was baffled; he hadn't seen her for the entire moon cycle, and he was certain she never wanted to see him again. He didn't understand why she had sought him out now, or why she was so distraught.

"I must speak with you," she said.

She was so upset her voice broke, and he could see the agony across her face, deepening the mystery.

Darius turned slowly and looked at Raj and blank.

They nodded back, understanding.

"Another day," Raj said.

They turned and walked off, and Darius and Loti were left standing alone in the clearing, facing each other.

Darius walked toward her, and she surprised him by running into his arms, embracing him, and hugging him tight. She cried over his shoulder as she did. He didn't know what to make of it; the ways of women were endlessly mysterious to him.

"I'm so sorry," Loti said, crying, over his shoulder. "So sorry. I am such a fool. I don't know why I was so mean to you. You saved my life. I never thanked you for it."

Darius hugged her back, holding her tight. It felt so good to have her in his arms, and he felt redeemed to hear this, after all they had gone through. All the suffering and anguish and disappointment and confusion he had felt over the last moon cycle began to melt away. She really did love him after all. As much as he loved her.

"Why didn't you-" he began.

But she cut him off, leaning back and raising a finger.

"Later," she said. "For now, I have urgent business."

She cried again, and he looked into her face, wondering, then reached out and held her chin.

"Tell me," he said. "Whatever it is, you can tell me."

She paused for a long time, looking down, then finally she looked up and met his eyes.

"I killed one of them today," she said, her voice deadly serious.

Darius saw the seriousness in her eyes and knew this was no joke. His stomach dropped, realizing.

She nodded back, confirming it.

"They tried to harm my brother," she explained. "I couldn't stand by. Not anymore. Not today."

She broke into tears.

"Now the Empire will come for me," she said. "For all of us."

Now Darius understood why she had sought him out; he pulled her to him, and she held him and cried over his shoulder as he held her tight. He felt sympathy for her, as well as compa.s.sion-and most of all, a newfound sense of respect. He admired her actions.

He pulled her back and looked at her meaningfully.

"What you have done," he said, "was an act of honor. Of courage. An act that even men were afraid to do. You should not feel shame-you should feel pride. You saved your brother's life. You saved all of our lives. We might all die. But now, thanks to you, we will all die with vengeance, with honor in our lives."

She looked at him, and she wiped away her tears and he could see he had comforted her; yet her face flashed with concern.

"I don't know why I came to you first," she said. "I guess I thought...that you would understand. You among all of them."

He clasped her hands.

"I do understand," he said. "More than I could say."

"I must tell them now," she said. "I must tell all the elders."

Darius took her hand in his and looked at her meaningfully.

"I vow by the sun and the stars, by the moon and the earth below it. No harm shall befall you while I live."

She looked into his eyes, and he could feel her love for him, a love spanning centuries. She embraced him, leaning in close and whispered into his ear, the very words he had been longing to hear: "I love you."

CHAPTER TWENY TWO.

Thorgrin, joined by his Legion brothers, walked slowly, cautiously, through the land of the dead, blinked, and wondered what had happened. He felt as if he had lost all sense of time, as if he had been down here for weeks, perhaps even an entire moon cycle, walking through a strange vortex of time and s.p.a.ce as he marched through the endless tunnels in the land of the dead. He knew it was not possible to be marching for so many days, yet he felt so weary, his eyes so heavy. Had that much time really pa.s.sed?

He blinked several times, peering through the reddish vapor that came and went in these ma.s.sive caves, and looked over to see his companions looking equally disoriented. It was as if they were all finally just now stepping out of the fog, back into the present time. Thor remembered the riverkeeper's warning: a few steps in this land can last many moons.

"What has happened to us?" Elden asked the question on all of their minds.

"Have we been marching all this time?" O'Connor asked.

"And yet it feels as if we've just entered the tunnel," Reece said.

Thor looked all around, taking in the surroundings, thinking the same thing himself. He was immediately on guard, squeezing his fist around the hilt of his sword, as he felt a cold draft cling to his skin. Creepy noises filled the gargantuan cave, echoing out of nowhere in this place of blackness. The only thing to light their way were the sporadic fires shooting up from the ground, every twenty feet or so, flaming along the sides of the cave. Occasional geysers of fire shot up, some of them sparking, others slowly bubbling. More so than any place he'd ever been, this place felt like a place of darkness and gloom and death. Thor felt that they had entered another dimension, a place where no human was supposed to travel. He began to wonder if they had made a very big mistake in coming here.

"Guwayne!" Thor shouted.

His voice echoed off the cave walls, returning to him again and again, as if mocking him. He looked about, stopping, listening, hoping for any sound of his child. A baby's cry. Anything.

There came nothing but cruel silence in response. Then, after a long pause, the sounds picked up again-the distant drips and squeals and fluttering of wings, the myriad hidden creatures in the darkness. There also came the distant sounds of hisses, of soft moans, of chains rattling. Endless moans and cries echoed in the air, the sounds of souls in anguish.

"What is this place?" Indra asked, her voice gloomy.

"h.e.l.l," Matus answered.

"Or one of the Twelve h.e.l.ls," Elden added.

Thor walked carefully, avoiding small pools of fire, and he felt a deepening sense of apprehension as he heard a distant roar and rumble of some sort of creature.

"If everyone is dead, what is that?" Matus asked. "What are the rules down here?"

Thorgrin stepped forward, gripping his hilt, and shook his head.

"There are no rules," Reece said. "We left the rules in the land above."

"The only rules here are told by the edge of your sword," Thor said, drawing his sword with a distinctive ring. The others followed, all holding their weapons, all on edge. Reece held a mace, Matus a flail, Elden a sword, O'Connor his bow, Conven his sword, and Indra her sling.

"I don't think these will be of much help," Reece said. "After all, these creatures have already been killed."

"But we haven't," Indra said. "Not yet, at least."

They continued marching toward the sounds, deeper and deeper into the cave, the sounds getting louder as they felt themselves enveloped in this other world.

"GUWAYNE!" Thor shouted again.

Again, his voice echoed, this time followed by mocking laughter coming from somewhere deep inside, bouncing off the walls. There came a dripping sound, and Thor looked up to see small drops of lava dripping from the ceiling, sporadic drops, like rain, hissing as they landed.

"OW!" O'Connor shouted and jumped.

Thor saw him jump out of the way and wipe a smoldering flame off his sleeve, slapping it out. They all banded together more closely and hurried down the center, where there was less dripping.

"They said no one leaves," Matus said. "Maybe we will die sooner than we think."

"Not here," Reece said. "As crazy as it sounds, I don't want to die in the land of the dead. I want to die above ground."

Conven stepped forward, looking relaxed, as if he were comfortable here.

"It might just save us a trip," he said.

They marched and marched, the red vapor rising and disappearing, Thor peered into the darkness, some portions of the cave lit by greater flames than others. He looked everywhere for Guwayne.

Yet everywhere he went, there were no sign of him.

Thor heard a sudden rattling, and he looked over and was shocked at what he saw. At first he couldn't process it. But then, the mist cleared and it came clearly into view. He was not seeing things.

There, but a few feet away, Gareth, Reece's brother, appeared out of the darkness. Chained to the wall with iron shackles about his neck, he stared out at them with a gaunt face and hollow cheeks. His arms and legs were shackled by silver shackles, and he had a dagger protruding from his chest.

He smiled at them, blood dripping from his mouth as he did.

"Gareth," Reece gasped, stepping forward, holding his sword out before him.

"My brother," Gareth said to him.

"You are no brother to me," Reece said.

"Do you recognize this dagger in my chest?" Gareth asked. "It is the one I used to murder Father. It has been plunged back into me. For all eternity. Would you take it out for me?"

Reece backed up in horror, staring at his brother, horrified.

Slowly, Reece backed away. He turned, and Thor could see the fear in his face, and then he continued down the tunnel.

The others joined him, all turning their backs on Gareth, leaving him there, chained to the wall, doomed to live out his h.e.l.l for eternity.