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

Chapter 58

I didn't know how long it had been since Omega and I jumped through the window and into the early morning streets of Aurelia. Adrenaline and stress distorted time. Plus, I hadn't checked a clock since I had been teleported to Planet Void. Were there even clocks here?

It was hard to believe Aurelia was Void's capital city. Chaos soldiers crawled everywhere, but there were no Void ones to be seen. Even the Void soldiers on the walls had disappeared. Had they been eliminated in the raid? Or were they raiding Planet Chaos, the same way the Chaos soldiers were occupying Planet Void?

Whatever the case, it wasn't helping matters. There were a million places Chaos, Jessica, and Psi could've gone—and with each ticking second, the list grew.

As we sneaked past the fifty-first patrol of Chaos soldiers and took a break in a dark ally away from any prying eyes, I began to lose hope. "Why are we still searching?" I whispered to Omega. "Chaos probably teleported all of them to his castle already."

Omega shook his head, undeterred. "They couldn't have gone out of the city. You can feel Lady Void's presence."

I fell silent and focused. Sure enough, I could feel a fraction of Void's power carom off the walls and enter my body. Maybe that's why I'm not tired.

I scurried after Omega, who had pulled away out of the alley. "We can't search the entire city! It'll take hours—and no doubt we'll get caught."

"Maybe we won't have to." He straightened up, looking ahead. "They're heading west."

I followed his eyes. Sure enough, three figures clothed in black were hurrying away from us. They stuck to the sides of the road, away from the torchlight, as though they wanted to draw as little attention as possible. 

Omega scrambled after them, and I followed. They kept on glancing over their shoulders and stopping randomly to listen for footsteps. Omega and I got into a rhythm, freezing every time they looked for pursuers.

However, an idea started forming. Everything happened so fast that I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong, so I pushed it away.

A thick mist had enveloped the city, shrouding it in a thick gloom. This made it easier for us to blend into our surroundings and not get caught—but at the same time, made it much more likely we would lose Chaos, Jessica, and Psi. Therefore, we were forced to leave a mere quarter of a block distance from them. They slunk through a crossroad, then scurried across a bridge over a pond.

Eventually, they reached a small inn. The doorman greeted them and opened the door, allowing them to pass through. Then he closed the door behind them and posted himself next to it. I cursed inwardly. There was no way we would be able to approach any farther without the doorman spotting us.

Omega, on the other hand, was unconcerned with the situation. "They'll have to come out sometime if they want to escape the city," he explained as he sat down at a nearby bench.

I nodded tersely and started pacing. My attention went to our surroundings.

The street we were on seemed to be lined with only commercial buildings. However, except for the inn, no other buildings looked to be open. Even stranger, the doorman seemed to be the first non-Chaos soldier we had stumbled upon.

Suddenly, four Chaos soldiers dropped down from the rooftops in front of us. I caught a glimpse of their blades in a few rays of the sunrise as they attacked.

Omega and I leaped into action, unsheathing our swords and parrying the attacks. 

We blocked and ducked, the sound of godly metal hitting godly metal ringing in my ears. But since I was facing two attackers this time, I was mainly on defense, forced to back down the street as my attackers pushed forward. As they did, one of the attackers passed a torch—revealing him to be the captain that had been chasing me before. His face was contorted into a snarl as he tried hard to kill me.

In front of me at the inn, I caught a glimpse of Chaos, Jessica, and Psi exiting the inn with three horses in tow. Upon hearing the sound of clashing blades, they glanced our way, startled, then quickly prepared their horses.

Unfortunately, this distracted me. I crashed into the stone wall of a small storefront—allowing my attackers to disarm me. Riptide flew into the air before clattering to the ground a few feet away.

My attackers quickly swarmed me, the captain holding a sword at my throat while his subordinate restrained me with his arms. 

The captain's snarl turned into a creepy smile. "I'm finally going to be able to kill you," he cackled. "There's nobody here to save you." He pointed at Omega, who had knocked out one of his attackers but was furiously fighting with the other, then jabbed the sword deeper into my neck, hard enough to draw out a wince from me.

Ahead in the street, Chaos, Omega, and Jessica spurred their horses and raced away from us. They soon disappeared in the gloomy mist—which was slowly disappearing as the sky turned pink.

I turned back to the captain and smiled. "Why would I need someone to save me when I'm competent enough to do it myself?" With that, I suddenly whipped my head back into the nose of the soldier that was holding me. He yelped in pain, loosening his grip on me, allowing me to dive out of the way as the captain stabbed at where I was—now at the soldier.

The soldier's eyes widened as the sword stabbed through his clothing—pinning him to the wall.

The captain spun around to face me just as I wobbly got to my feet, then charged towards me. He was a big man, a solid foot taller than me. His fist was the size of a grapefruit—which would no doubt knock me out in one swing. I gulped; there was no way I would be able to beat him in a fight.