SWNOVELS Chapter CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CONSTERNATION WAS PAINTED ON JENNY’S CUTE FACE. She was overrun by snakes. Having her back to the wall, she had run out of available space to retreat. She could hear water dripping somewhere. Why her senses would pick up on that when she was in such peril was beyond her. One of the king cobras struck the sole of her right foot and replicated. Because her knowledge of spells was limited, hitting the serpents only created more of them, worsening the situation, she didn’t know what to do. Her heart was racing, and her right hand was shaking slightly. Each narrowly missed strike by the snakes was starting to add up. What if the wizard Caius was evil? But why would her father have sent her to him unless he hadn’t known? He could have changed over the centuries. It was all a guessing game at this point.
It was a peculiar thing, but she missed her mother. She missed her laugh and her kind words. Jenny wanted to be home in the comfort of her living room sofa with her mother singing in the kitchen. She missed her hugs even though she sometimes pretended she didn’t want them. It was so important to enjoy life because one never knew when they were going to face deadly snakes.
“Get away!” To her dismay, she attempted to enter their minds to control them but discovered they didn’t have any. They weren’t life forms in any absolute sense. It was realized that they were not genuine snakes but a product of magic. However, that didn’t make them any less dangerous She thought it might make them more treacherous, a thing that acted with no mind or instincts, perhaps controlled by an unknown entity. Jenny could detect real poison in them, and the smell of it was unpleasant.
Because the girl wizard had limited life experience and no formal training in the art of magic, battling a vampire was one thing, but going up against a high-level wizard that may have had centuries to perfect his craft was something else. It was unfair, but many things in life were unfair. She had no options that she could see. No way to jump over them and run; they appeared to be as fast as she was. If she died here, her mother would want to kill her father, of which she was certain.
Jenny commenced going through the motions of making another ball of energy. The proximity of the walls might do as much damage to her as to the snakes. She did not know how the spell would react, which worried her. What if she accidentally turns herself into a snake? Although that certainly seemed improbable, she was aware of Zacharia’s situation, which she would have thought was impossible. There was, of course, another risk; if it didn’t kill them, it might fill the cave with ten thousand cobras. The problem was that she could think of no other possible solution. Jenny would rather face three vampires at once than battle magical snakes.
“Ah!” she screamed as one of the cobras struck the end of her sleeve. It couldn’t have been any closer. With the ball of energy formed, she launched it against the far wall, which wasn’t very far. The blinding light and concussion rendered Jenny unconscious and continued to echo as she lay motionless. The smell of sulfur and saltwater saturated the air. After several seconds Jenny stirred, opening her pretty green eyes; her vision was blurry and shaky. She was also a little dizzy.
Jenny had been too close to the energy ball. When she managed to focus, she saw that all the snakes were gone except one, which was huge. It was fifty feet long and the girth of a large tree. She stood, and it launched itself at her, and the power of it striking the wall took a chunk out of it and then another. She considered forming another ball of energy but then dismissed it; she certainly didn’t want it to be any larger.
The snake’s tongue was huge and threatening. Jenny could see that it was preparing to strike once again. She grabbed her sword and cut its belly open; it didn’t heal or replicate. Things were looking up, and she could not afford to give it time to recover. The anger on its face looked like human emotion, a combination of pain and disgust. Jenny jumped up and cut its head off, and she watched as it fell lifeless. It turned to dust as if sand had been released inside a bag, with only its outer skin remaining.
After kicking at the snake’s remains, the 12-year-old went over to the chest and turned the gold key. It was empty except for a single cockroach that ran around inside. She thought the key was heavier than it should have been; it looked like it could have been made of solid gold, so Jenny pocketed it. If nothing else, it would be a lovely keepsake. She reached the left door and discovered a square hole in the floor just past it. There was no other way, so she considered jumping down, but it was dark. She couldn’t tell if she would drop ten feet or a hundred.
Jenny dropped and landed safely. She then heard rock grinding on solid rock as the ceiling appeared to get further away from her. She then realized that the floor was descending. There was a flicker of light in the distance, a torch burning in a hollow in the wall. She faced a puzzle etched into the wall, which was so familiar. Of course, it was from one of her dreams. Nine squares as in her dream. She deduced that three in a row would probably open a door, but what would happen if she pressed the wrong three? She didn’t think it would be anything good. She had pushed the top right square in her dream, so she forced it, giving her three separate ways to go.
Jenny then felt stupid. She had not examined the chamber for potential clues. Getting it right the first time was necessary because there might not be a second. It was difficult for her to see in the darkness, and then it wasn’t. Her eyes adjusted, seeing as if the sun had come up. Jenny could now see that the walls and the ceiling were full of holes. Press the wrong combination, and she imagined that arrows or something magical would be released by the thousands, and there would be no way to avoid them, even with her exceptional speed. It was an ingenious device. Hieroglyphics on the ceiling but nothing she could make out; her instincts told her that it was a diversion. If the roof were a distraction, the floor would be the opposite. Jenny looked down, and it took her a minute or two to realize that she was standing on nine huge blocks, just like the puzzle. The parallel three on the right were a bit darker than the rest. Was it the solution? She thought it must be. It felt like being trapped inside a video game but with no way to start over.
“I hope this is it.” She pressed the stones into the wall accordingly. On the third push, a massive slab of granite fell in with a loud crash, displacing dust and loudly echoing off the walls, permitting her entry into the next chamber. The sound of it falling into the next room had been deafening and had made her jump.
“What the heck is going on in here? If this were a movie, it would be called The Temple of Dust.”
Two large gentlemen dressed in Egyptian garb, both wearing pleated see-through linen robes, were arguing. They both wore colorful beads around their necks. Wosret and Hebeny pushed one another. It was a heated argument with angry faces.
“I told you she would make it this far!” Wosret pushed Hebeny hard, almost knocking him over.
“Well, she won’t make it past this one!” said Hebeny.
“Yes, she will!”
“No, she won’t!”
“I told you she would make it this far!” Worset pushed Hebeny hard, almost knocking him over.
“What the?”
Then, Jenny realized that the two gentlemen weren’t real; they were on a magic loop. She walked up to them, and her hand went right through Worset. Even from a foot away, they looked so natural. She ignored the two Egyptians and explored the room, but the problem was there wasn’t much to see. It was a massive chamber made of white granite with nothing in it. She felt around the base of the wall for another hint but didn’t find anything. The first few times the magical entities went through their so-called act were interesting. Then they became annoying, and not long after that, the two were aggravating.
“I told you she would make it this far!”
“Shut up!” Jenny screamed at both of them. She attacked and cut through them with her sword, but there was no effect; she may as well have been fighting a ghost.
“I told you she would make it this far!” Worset pushed Hebeny hard, almost knocking him over.
“Please shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!” When they started again, Jenny wanted to bang her head against the wall. She had had enough. She just wanted to get out of there.
The room was solid, with no way out.
“Oh no.”
“I told you she would make it this far!”