The Scroll of Knowledge

Chapter 10

They tossed me into a cage and locked it behind me. I spun around and grabbed the bars.

"Let me out!" I shouted. The door shut behind them.

"Don't bother." There was a woman in the cage next to mine. She was sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall. I could barely see her in the darkness. "These cells were made to keep people like us inside. Nothing you do will work."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"A keyholder like you. I'm guessing you're the new guardian for the Scroll of Knowledge. Gave me a massive headache when you put that thing on." She raised her right wrist. There was a bracelet around it like mine. "The Sword of Destruction. If I can't get out of this cage then no one can. That guy over there has the key to Pandora's Box. Nasty stuff." There was a man across from us huddled in a corner rocking himself. "The one next to him has the key to the Scale of Truth."

"You can't lie to me," he said. "Came in handy as a cop. Fiona's right. I hate it when keys change hands."

"The Book of Time is always changing hands. The new one three years ago... that was definitely the worse," Fiona said.

"I'm Terry by the way. He's Rokas," Terry said, nodding to the other man.

"I'm Amber," I said. "Are there more of us?"

Terry and Fiona glanced at each other. "We're not sure," Terry said. "I met Fiona about thirty years ago. This is the first I'm seeing of the rest of you."

"Thirty years?" I asked. Neither one of them looked older than thirty-five.

"Time runs differently for us," Fiona said. "You'll understand soon enough when everyone around you gets old and you still look like you're in your twenties."

I sat on the ground. "What's going to happen to us?" I asked. I began to retwist my hair. It was a habit I'd developed recently. Mom's voice echoed in my head, telling me if I kept playing with my hair I'd go bald. I forced myself to stop.

Fiona shrugged. "Who knows? They'll most likely kill us or try to get us to work for them. They might leave Rokas alone though. No one wants that key." She sighed and leaned against the bars of her cage. "Someone always wants full control the keys. It gets tedious after the first few centuries."

"Centuries?" I asked. Just how old were these people?

"The main guy, Ian, he has one of the keys. He's one of the first keyholders in this past millennium," Terry said.

"Ian? Brennan mentioned him," I said.

"Who's Brennan?" Fiona asked.

"The person I was staying with." I sat up straight. "They were going after Shay next."

"Shay?" Terry asked.

"Why does that name ring a bell?" Fiona asked.

"The keyholder for the Book of Time," I said.

Fiona nodded. "I'm sure they want that one. The Book of Time plus the Helmet of Protection and the Sword of Destruction. The worst possible combination. This is why we stay away from each other."

The door swung open. I jumped to my feet and held onto the bars.

"Derek!" I said.

He ran towards me and grabbed the bars of my cage. "I don't have much time before they notice I'm gone."

"What's going on?" I asked. "They said you were dangerous."

His face scrunched up in pain. "I swear. I never meant for this to happen. I was just going to give them the key. You wouldn't have known about any of this."