Fablehaven: Fall of the Shadow Beings – Chapter Two

The Hall of Whispers

“All right Kendra, Vanessa and Raxtus. We have a pretty good team put together here but even so, we need to be alert at every moment. The Hall of Whispers will very likely be the hardest place we ever encountered. The entities in there will very likely radiate magical fear so I need all of you to drink this potion for me. Tanu made it for the Wymroost trip.” added Braken hastily.                                                                                                                                                                                                                When everybody finished their potion, they mounted on Raxtus.                                 “I would like to have Kendra keep her hand on me since there is such a long journey ahead of us.” muttered Raxtus.                                                                          Kendra obeyed immediately. No sooner that two minutes in air Braken shouted over the wind ” Three griffins Raxtus! The one one the bottom  is trying to cut of a dive. If you drop me right now can you catch me later?”                                             “So you want to use the strategy Warren used before with the harpies right?” clarified Raxtus.                                                                                                                                    ” Exactly! Vanessa hand me the sword now.”                                                                Vanessa gave Braken the sword and at that exact moment Raxtus let go of Braken. Braken whistled through the air while Kendra clutched her face so hard that you could see nail marks on her face. Suddenly, she heard a loud screech. Braken had hacked of a wing of one of the griffins and one of the griffins on top was zooming toward them at 75 miles per hour. Raxtus spiraled down and caught up with Braken right before the impact with the ground. Kendra sighed with reileif.                                                                                                                                                       “You okay Braken?” questioned Kendra with concern in her voice.                   “Good as new. In fact Raxtus should be setting us down at any moment now to intercept the griffens. He wants us safely out of harm’s way but I’m going to charge at that griffen that I sliced the wing off of. Got the plan? Right. Wait for it Raxtus……..wait…….and now! Drop us!”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Raxtus dropped his passengers and swooped to engage in combat with his feathery opponents. The griffins dived and spiraled gracefully pecking Raxtus from behind. They were involved in this dangerous dance until Raxtus, faking to be ever so concentrated on one griffin swiped his tail and one griffin was out of the picture. Unfortunately, the battle one the ground wasn’t going that well. Bracken had knew from his two thousand years of experience that griffins have a hard time turning and when they do turn they turn jerkily like a puppet with half it’s strings cut. But this griffin was a different story, every move Bracken did was perfectly blocked like if this griffin had been prepared for combat. Bracken was tiring and the enemy was showing no signs of weakness. Then Kendra saw why. There was a wizard, a female wizard that was chanting empowering the griffins even more. She was standing on a high rock near a cliff. Kendra clenched her teeth. She was probably going to have to sacrifice herself in order for this to succeed. Lost in thoughts, Kendra jumped as a arrow whistled by her ear missing Kendra by a fraction of an inch. She had forgotten Vanessa was there to help her.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   “Vanessa!” shouted Kendra.                                                                                                     Now it was Vanessa’s turn to jump. She turned and exclaimed”Kendra!” Kendra pointed at the cliff and Vanessa now saw the real problem. She unsheathed her sword and tossed her bow and arrow set to Kendra who caught it and slung it over her shoulder. Vanessa quickly motioned to Bracken and Raxtus who both understood now. Then Vanessa beckoned for Kendra to come with her. The crept along the edge of the cliff always staying hidden. Vanessa whispered “Shoot now!”                                                                                                                                       To late. The sorceress turned her eyes widening and hesitating no more, she began another spell, a different one this time. As she chanted, the sorceress rose into the air encased to a golden sphere shimmering with magic the it popped into and blue glittering ball of power and the sorceress directed it to Vanessa and Kendra, her mouth twisting into a evil smile.                                                                          “Run!” mouthed Vanessa” I’ll take care of this.”                                                                     Instead of running, Kendra snuck behind the sorceress and threw her sword with deadly accuracy. But who knew the sorceress had the Sands of Sanctity? The sorceress laughed without humor.                                                                                                “I am Natacionda! You will never win a direct fight against me!”                                 “You’re right! We will never win a fight against Natacionda! So Raxtus, leave the griffins and lets get out of ………………”                                                                                        Whack! Miss “I’m so magical” Natacionda threw the shimmering ball at Vanessa. Even so, Raxtus carried all the passengers out to sea including Natacionda. But Natacionda was a special case. Raxtus spiraled higher and higher and higher to make her dizzy so she couldn’t work any magic. Then, SPLASH! Raxtus dropped Natacionda while she wailed and cursed at everybody on Raxtus’s ride.

Kendra looked at the Hall of Whispers. There was no opening, anywhere. That’s when she spotted something. A little hole. Kendra called everyone over. Bracken examined the hole while Vanessa stared blankly at the wall.                           Suddenly she shouted” I know! Look at the bricks right here. They all have black on the edge of them and these bricks make a arch…………..”So there must be a round key somewhere to open this doorway.” Kendra completed the sentence for Vanessa .                                                                                                                                             “Exactly!” beamed Vanessa ” Who knew that now we are going key hunting?

“The key”Kendra remarked”must be some kind of round cylinder. But who has a guess on what it’s made of? We passed a pile of cylinders on the way here………..” Suddenly a inscription appeared-Either pass or die that will be determined on your first key try.                                                                                                                                 “That means we try one key and we will either pass or die”Braken said.                     ” We will be  looking for a key that’s silver like the roof .” Raxtus said from up above them.                                                                                                                                           “Wait Raxtus.”Kendra said” we can’t find the key the normal way as most people have done it. They’ve probably looked in the key pile but that can’t be right because the key wouldn’t let itself be so easy to find. Take me up on that roof and we’ll split up and search.”                                                                                                          Vanessa cleared her throat”Ummm, maybe I should do it in case there are dangers up there.”                                                                                                                                “Don’t fret Vanessa. Relax. Nothing can go wrong with Raxtus up there.” soothed Bracken.                                                                                                                                  Raxtus picked Kendra up and flew up and started to laugh.                                               “I am not your meek little friend Raxtus! I am the guardian of the key! I am able to take shape of the first animal that flies up here.”                                                             ” Raxtus is immobilized! The key is up here too.”shouted Kendra.                                 She bit the duplicate of Raxtus with all her might.                                                                “Oweeee!” screeched the fake Raxtus.                                                                                         He dropped her right above the key. Kendra grabbed the key and threw it to Vanessa. Bracken caught the key and inserted into the key hole. A hole appeared in the roof where Kendra was. Before she fell into the hole though she saw that Raxtus was able to fly away as the monster crumbled to dust. Then as Kendra reached for the crumbling roof, darkness engulfed her.

To be continued……………………….