The Golden Amulet (PJO, Sequel to The Silver Ring)

Chapter 29

Rosaline was serious about having a long talk with Psi. 

Or more like yelling at him for the better part of an hour. 

At that time, I was busy scarfing down as much as I could at the dining table. Adriana watched me with big eyes, as though she didn't know a human could eat that much in one sitting.

However, I couldn't enjoy my meal in peace; even through two closed doors, I could hear the yelling match between Psi and Rosaline. And it was souring my mood since whenever I heard the yelling, my mind would think back to why Rosaline was yelling at Psi.

It was not a good feeling.

So I took the initiative. If two doors couldn't block out the noise, I would do it myself. I turned to Adriana and said, "Rough day, huh?" Just as I said it, I realized I had never had a one-on-one conversation with Adriana, so I didn't know if she would reply.

Fortunately, she did. She seemed to have no qualms about talking to new people. "You could say that," she said with a sigh. "Conniving against my brother-and-sister-in-arms is hard. I've been living as a Void soldier for half of my life. At least it's for a good cause . . ." She trailed off as she thought of something. "Speaking of which, do you have the map? I heard your conversation outside with Rosaline about the difficulties you had with Psi—which wasn't that hard to hear, given that you guys were practically yelling at each other."

I pulled the scroll out of my pocket and placed it on Adriana's outstretched hand. "We could do some planning of what route we'll take," I suggested.

Meanwhile, Adriana unrolled the map and weighed it down with several arrows so it wouldn't roll back into its compact form. "I can't believe Chief Katuni allowed this important piece of intel to be buried in the stupid ground of a hut that was at the border of the village," she said as she looked it over. "It was way too easy to steal—and this could've been easily lost."

"Maybe he thought it was a less-obvious place to hide it?" I theorized. "Usually, leaders would keep their important stuff in a vault or somewhere where they would live and be protected by dozens of soldiers—but sometimes, that's the first place that is robbed." I suddenly thought about another reason. "Or maybe it was meant to be found?"

"Like it was hidden in a horrible spot and the guards are supposed to let any robbers escape with it because they had written the wrong stuff on it?"

"Exactly."

"I don't think that's practical. They would waste a whole hut for this ploy that probably wouldn't even have worked—especially since they're in the forest. Nobody comes here or knows about this place excluding Void soldiers. In addition, it really looks like they need more space. I saw some construction going on at the north end of the village. It wouldn't be a good investment of resources."

"It's probably real then," I agreed, feeling a bit foolish that I even thought about that being a reason. I directed my attention to the map itself. "What's the best way to get to Deeplige while aggravating the least amount of Void bases possible by avoiding them?"

"Well, as Rosaline said, we have to get through the Forbidden Forest." Adriana circled a patch of green with her finger that was west of the Void base we were in. "That's a pretty weird name, considering this base is surrounded by forest."

"That is strange. Although we shouldn't take the warning lightly. A dangerous monster might be living there. If we find out its misinformation later on, then we might have to adapt our route considering the whole map might be crap."

"That'd be a problem," Adriana agreed. She pursed her lips as she went on our route. "It looks like we're going to have to climb a mountain range. Then we'll be at the border of Deeplige."

I suddenly realized why Adriana looked anxious; it was the same reason I was anxious too. "A mountain range?! We can't go around it?"

"Unfortunately, no. At least, not without alerting a Void base." She turned the map towards me, allowing me to see the two red dots on the north and south sides of the mountain range. It was a big one too; it stretched almost half of the map.

"The Void soldiers are using it as a natural barrier," I realized. "Look at the size of those dots where the mountain range ends—they're at least five times as big as the dot for this Void stronghold."

Any suspicions of Adriana betraying Psi, Rosaline, and I disappeared as I got to know her more.

Still, however, something felt off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It was probably something else than Adriana's motives. Chief Katuni's behavior seemed extra suspicious; why on earth would he spare a Chaos soldier? He must've had an ulterior motive—as though he would've gotten a better reward by letting me go rather than capturing me at that moment.

"Which means we're going to have to climb over it," Adriana finished, her face looking as pale as mine probably did.

"We don't have to," Rosaline's voice came from behind me.

I spun around to see a satisfied Rosaline enter the room with a disgruntled Psi in her tow. They sat on either side of me, and Rosaline gave Psi an expectant look.

Psi took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

Instead of responding to him, I turned toward Rosaline. "You put him up to this?"

"Of course. Now accept his apology."

Still, I ignored him. "You realize he's going to kill me in my sleep, right?" I asked as I carefully watched Psi, lest he pulled out a dagger and stabbed me at that moment.

"He won't. Now accept."

"Alright." I turned towards Psi. "It's okay, but only this time. Never kick me in the balls. If you do want to kick me, might I suggest my gut? It does the same thing . . . except not make me feel like my body's going to die . . ."

"Okay," Rosaline interrupted me. "That's enough."

"Now, what were you saying about not crossing the mountain range?" Adriana asked, a bit too quickly and loudly, though I pegged it on her being anxious.

Rosaline turned the map towards herself. "Well, the bases can't defend everything the mountains don't block. There's just not enough manpower in ratio to space, even if . . ."

I wasn't meaning to tune her out, since I was earnestly listening for any way we could avoid traversing the mountains. But then I heard a noise.

Specifically, a twig snapping from outside.

Normally, I would peg this on animals, but they were usually smart; if there's a gigantic square mile of space in the middle of the forest that had just been occupied with dozens of trees, and if I were them, I would think it would be dangerous. 

So it had to be something else. I jumped out of my chair and quickly crept towards the nearest window.

Seeing my rapid movement, Rosaline also stopped her explanation, and Adriana, Psi, and Rosaline looked at me curiously.

I opened the curtain covering the window just slightly so I could look out, but nothing could look in.

Black silhouettes were taking positions around the house.

Void soldiers.