Silver Hooves in the Darkness

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Tension hung between her and the healer once more as they rode in the carriage. Alessandro sat stiffly on his bench, constantly rubbing his hands. What he had planned to do once they arrived at the Dome of the Bound Child, he had not revealed.

Paola leaned back on her seat. The light map had shown that the Dome of the Authority was adjacent to the dome they sought. By using language and guile, Alessandro and Lucia had successfully disguised their communication and had allowed her to call forth the Dome of the Bound Child's signature for inclusion into his ring, and later, into Ercole's gem. But was the Authority so easy to fool? Wouldn't He sense that someone had already tampered with the energies of the Maze? Was He laughing at them in his isolation?

Paola sighed. She only hoped that if she met her death that her spirit would run to Dome Pasture as swiftly as a thought.

The gem on her neck glowed when they crossed the portal into the Dome of the Bound Child. In her mind's eye, the symbol of a chain formed into a circle pulsed a sickly yellow.

The carriage stopped; the lock clicked. Ercole's massive torso blocked the way. His gem glowed the same color as the symbol that had appeared in her consciousness. "There is little here," he whispered as he lowered the steps and offered his assistance.

She and Alessandro entered a darkness almost as complete as that in the Maze. The light pouring from the open carriage and their gems provided little illumination. In the distance, a metallic hemisphere weakly glowed bone white. The hairs of her mane unexpectedly rose against her neck as the structure dimmed further in radiance. Ercole stamped his feet. "We must act quickly! It senses a change!" Paola said, a fear far greater than any Cenere had generated almost choking off her warning, which had come to her unexpectedly.

"Could that be the Dome of Authority, even though your map showed it to be separate from this dome?" Ercole asked with awe.

"I do not believe so," Paola said. If she sent her consciousness to the imprisoned girl within, she would know with certainty, but she did not wish to attract the attention of the Authority.

Alessandro, began to sway, a distracted look settling in his dark eyes.

She tugged the edge of his robe. "Come," she said. "We must finish what we started. We must free her."

"I...cannot," he said through gritted teeth. "It will not allow me. I cannot move."

"But I can!" Ercole thundered, the power and pride of his lineage taking hold of him. He scooped up the healer as if her were a light sack of flour and began to run toward the dome.

 "Wait!" Paola cried, following his gem's light and struggling to overtake his greater stride. The structure up ahead shifted luminosity again, this time darkening to grey. Ercole reached it as its light vanished. Only his gem guided Paola to his side moments later. The stallion lowered Alessandro off of his shoulder. The healer stood, but he could not move his limbs. He attempted to speak, but no sound issued from his gaping mouth. If he could not give voice to the knowledge the book had given to him, their quest was futile.

They had already done all that they could. A power brought forth by their invasion into the dome had clearly defeated them. They should leave now while they had the opportunity to return to the carriage, a glowing point of safety in the blackness.

Familiar hissing suddenly filled the dome as multiple portals into the Maze opened simultaneously and remained opened. The air began to circulate fiercely around them as the atmosphere within various Runs pushed into the dome. The equiniis' gems flared white. Alessandro began to shake violently. Patches of his skin bubbled with rising boils that popped and oozed blood and serum.

"The Maze is penetrating the dome!" Paola cried with horror. "He is a human. It will destroy him! We must retreat back to the carriage!"

Ercole reached for the human, but a dark mass shot forth from the surface of the smaller dome. The tendril quickly wrapped around his arms.

The stallion let out a bellow of fury that in its strength could knock down a stone wall. He kept on shouting and struggling until the tendril pulled him flat against the wall, and with his agonizing cries, the structure absorbed him completely.

Paola clutched Alessandro just as another tendril oozed forth. She brought the image of the imprisoned girl to her mind as the tendril brushed her arm. "Bound Child!" she screamed and teleported into the room cramped with glass and machines that held the victim that had been sacrificed so many cycles before.

The girl opened her bizarre blue eyes. Her thoughts assaulted the equina. You should not have come! she admonished. Behold what you have done! Several mechanical arms manipulated glass tubes that were dark and empty to reveal the curved walls. Bound to it were the blackened shapes of equinii posed in the tortured positions of their last moments. Ercole had his arms raised defiantly as if he had almost made it completely through the wall and into the chamber. For a flickering moment, Paola wondered which among his companions had been his ancestor, Ulisse the Black.

Alessandro groaned. Bits of bone now peeked through his damaged, peeling face. With great effort he raised his right hand, which had lost the flesh on two fingers.

"Alessandro," Paola cried in distress at his continuing decay.

The healer managed a smile before he lurched forward toward the girl. She opened her mouth wide to reveal a pulsing blue light as she attempted to give voice to a sound she could not make.

No! The intensity of the girl's thought made Paola stagger back. She hit a piece of glass that clinked in light rebuke, but burned her with its heat.

Alessandro gently cradled the face of the Bound Child in his hands. She shivered with his touch. The amethyst ring glowed. He whispered the words of release as his flesh fell away in waves of electric blue light.

The healer and the girl vanished, a ball of twisting brilliance taking their place. Hovering above the glass tubes, it began to grow in size and smashed the machinery with each pulse of its expansion.

Destroyer! a harsh voice accused, the same one Paola had awoken from the Dome of the Authority in what seemed a lifetime ago.

The walls of the structure began to buckle, great cracks angling toward the section which held the lost equinii.

 You must complete what we have started or all is lost! You are the key! The anguished voice of Alessandro rang out in her mind.

She would not fail! "Dome of the Authority!" Paola Equina howled.