"All right everyone, cloaking spells," Gabe instructed. In an instant the three were concealed from any possible onlookers.
"Follow me!" Uri called out and the three began to make their way down the beach and up the path towards the cliff side.
At first glimpse, things seemed like they hadn"t changed much, but the closer they came to Rampart, the more they saw that wasn"t true. Climbing around the monstrous boulders and pulling themselves up onto the landing, Gabe saw all of the once lush gra.s.s was now dead and gone, the trees that had towered, climbing up as if they were reaching for the sky, were now reduced to broken and empty sh.e.l.ls, or in some cases, ripped from the earth completely.
The clouds that moved overhead were dark and ominous, causing a chill to rush through Gabe"s body. Approaching the courtyard, Uri crouched behind a deserted and broken down wagon. "You guys ready?" he whispered.
"Yeah," Gabe replied softly. Sophie did not answer.
"Soph?" Uri said, searching for their friend.
"I"ll find her, wait here," Gabe instructed, crawling back in the direction they had come from. "Aperio," he spoke, looking for any sign of the missing party member.
Standing off to his left he caught a glimpse of her, near a dead tree, peering up at the sky. Rushing to her side, he asked, "Are you all right?"
She nodded silently.
"What"s going on?" Gabe inquired, quickly looking around, nervous their cloaking spells would not be enough to keep them hidden for long.
"You don"t recognize it?" Sophie asked, glancing over at Gabe before looking back up at the sky.
"What? What are you talking about?" Gabe felt his heart begin to race and his hands growing sweaty. If they were safe now, based on his physical response, chances were they wouldn"t be for long.
"This was the garden where we shared that first dance under the stars," Sophie explained, looking down and focusing on the ground. "I guess everything changes."
"This isn"t the time for this," Gabe instructed sternly.
Glaring at him, she replied, "Time for what? I"m simply remembering what Rampart was before everything changed."
Gabe could see she was dwelling on so much more than the loss of Rampart. He had hoped his marriage had caused her to bury such feelings. It was clear it had not. "Sophie, I"m not going to lie a I loved you."
"Loved? As in past tense," she remarked.
"Yeah, I mean it that way, it is past tense. I don"t know, we were so young; maybe it wouldn"t have lasted anyways. It doesn"t matter now, though, we"ve both changed a lot. Sometimes there are things in life that can"t be undone; there are choices we make. You made the choice not to reveal yourself when you got your memories back."
"Are you saying this was my fault?" she snapped defensively.
"No, what happened between us wasn"t any one person"s fault. But it happened. And now, I"m in love with Rachel. I think part of me will always love you in some way, but Rachel"s my wife. Do you understand?"
Sophie didn"t speak.
"Besides, you have Damon now," Gabe reminded her.
"He"s just a distraction," she added, staring into Gabe"s eyes. "I"m sorry."
"Don"t be. I only want you to be happy. I really do mean that," he offered.
"I know you do. And I want the same for you. I can see she does that for you a I just wish it would stop hurting." As the last painful words fell from her lips, she looked away, unable to stare into the sea of intense blue that were his eyes. She knew he was right, she"d known for a long time, what had changed in them during recent years was more than want could overcome. What they were was gone.
Gabe didn"t know what to say. He remembered that pain, that hole Sophie had left in his heart. He thought it would always be there, until he met Rachel. He knew there were no words that would bring Sophie comfort. Perhaps, in time, he hoped she could love again.
Moving past him, Sophie grabbed hold of his arm and dragged him behind her. "We shouldn"t stay in one place too long," she remarked, making her way to Uri"s side.
"Where the h.e.l.l were you guys? There"s a patrol walking by every few minutes," Uri said in a strained whisper.
"We"re here now," she replied. "Lets go."
She used her free hand to grab Uri"s arm, dragging both boys behind her now, across the courtyard and into the once familiar building. All of the tapestries that had graced the halls were gone; all of the stone statues had been demolished and all of the carvings chipped away. It was as if any evidence of their existence had been wiped out.
"Shh!" Uri exclaimed, pushing the group against the wall. At the end of the hall they caught sight of two tracker demons. All three held their breath as the beasts rounded the corner, then left their line of sight.
Gabe let out a sigh of relief. Just as he finished exhaling, one of the demons came back around the corner, pausing and staring into the darkness where they hid. It sniffed the air briefly, as if it knew they were there. It was searching for any trace of their location. Gabe"s heart was racing as the monster took a few steps closer to their location, its head waving around wildly at it searched, for what, it did not know.
Gabe wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his sword, preparing himself for the battle. Uri followed suit, yet all three remained still and silent.
Behind the beast, out of sight, there was an inhuman moaning. The demon turned towards the source, barking a response, and then as quickly as it had arrived, it was gone.
The three waited a moment longer, too scared to even move. When they finally realized the coast was clear, Uri punched Gabe in the arm with all of his might.
"Ouch! What the h.e.l.l?" Gabe whispered in an agitated tone.
"Next time why don"t you just tell them where we"re at?" Uri gasped.
"Will you stop it? He didn"t mean anything by it. He was breathing for Christ"s sake." Gabe was surprised to hear Sophie come to his defense after their recent conversation. "Let"s get to the library as quick as we can, all right?"
Uri nodded, staying close to the wall. The three made their way down the corridors, following the maze of black hallways, avoiding contact with any other beings.
"Are we going the right way?" Uri asked, looking over his shoulder at Sophie.
"Yeah, it should be just up ahead, on the right," she replied, moving around him and taking the lead.
"G.o.d, it all looks so different," Uri remarked, his voice soft and full of sadness.
"Here," Sophie instructed turning into the archway. She paused for a moment, wondering if she had made a mistake. There was no longer a door where one once had been. Emerging into the room, she gasped when she saw what the place she had once loved so dearly, had been reduced to. At one time the shelves towered high into the tops of the cathedral ceilings. What stared back at her now, caused her chest to ache.
Spread out around the room were mountains of books, or what once had been books. They were now mangled piles of soot and ash.
"Oh G.o.d," the desperate words slipped from her mouth.
The room took a minute for the boys to register. When they realized what they were looking at, they both reached out a comforting hand towards Sophie. "I"m so sorry." Gabe offered.
Pulling away, Sophie refused to make eye contact with either of them. "They"re just books. They may have gotten into the catacombs, but I doubt they figured out where the false walls were. Come on."
Not knowing what to say, Gabe and Uri followed in silence, weaving around the piles of destruction all around them. Gabe knew Sophie well enough to know the sight of what the demons had done to her precious library was breaking her heart, but he struggled with how to comfort her. There was already so much confusion in their relationship that any response he thought of seemed inappropriate, so he simply followed her in silence.
Carefully moving down the stone steps at the rear of the room, they saw that the door that led into the catacombs had long ago been destroyed.
"Maybe I should lead," Uri suggested.
Sophie ignored his offer and continued into the darkness, the boys staying close behind her. Echoing through the halls they could hear various beastly noises. It sounded like they had entered some sort of monster"s den, and it was close to feeding time.
"Be alert," Uri whispered.
The shadows all around them were in constant movement. Gabe held his breath; the cloaking spell gave him no comfort. Only one of these creatures would need to catch their scent and it wouldn"t take long for them to be ferreted from their invisibility.
Sophie grabbed each of the boys tightly around the wrist, pulling them firmly. She moved quickly, darting around corners, making quick work of the blackened corridors, Gabe wondered how she could see in the darkness, but then realized she must have still had her steps memorized. After all, this place had once been her sanctuary.
She came to a halt. Peering around the darkness, looking for any sign of life, she waited another moment to be sure. Then reaching out with her left hand she ran her fingers over the cold wet stones before her, feeling around in the darkness.
Gabe watched, waiting with intense antic.i.p.ation. Then it happened, she pressed and turned one of the stones, the result, a false wall shifting and moving to the side.
"Quickly!" she instructed, looking around anxiously.
The two did as they were told, Sophie rushing in behind them and sealing the door closed after.
"Jesus, that was crazy," Uri commented.
"Just a little," Gabe agreed, a slight laugh at the end.
"We need to work quickly, it won"t be long until one of them is able to pick up some trace of our scent," Sophie reminded the group.
"Illuminare," she spoke softly, a light at the far end of the room igniting in response to her command.
Gabe glanced around the room; there were hundreds of old wooden crates covered in a thick layer of dust. "This is going to take forever," he remarked.
Sophie, ignoring his comment, crossed straight over to a cl.u.s.ter of boxes. Rubbing away the dust on several of the crates she stopped when she reached the one at the far edge. "Oh ye of little faith," she commented, stepping to one side to reveal her discovery.
"Huh?" Gabe huffed.
"Really dude? Why do you think Michael suggested Sophie help us. She knows every inch of this place," Uri answered. But Gabe did know that about Sophie, he wasn"t sure how he could have ever doubted her. He saw her love for these artifacts and books early on in their relationship. Of course she would know where to start searching.
"How do you even know what you"re looking for? I"d think it would be like finding a needle in a haystack," Gabe inquired.
"Not really. We know the approximate age of this weapon was during the early days of the Guardians. You just look at the time period in which the Guardians were sent to earth, they you search any records within a five hundred year period around that time." Sophie explained. "There really aren"t that many records from that time frame. I would say the books in this box and that one there would be most likely to contain the information you"re looking for ... well, if it even exists."
"Gee, thanks sunshine," Gabe snarled.
"She"s got a point," Uri noted.
"That"s it. Can everyone shut up and start looking? This is the best shot we"ve got," Gabe pleaded.
"Find anything?" Gabe asked looking over in the direction of his friends.
"No, and I"m thinking we"re not going to," Uri replied.
Slamming a book down on a nearby crate Gabe shouted, "d.a.m.n it, Uri!"
Jumping to his feet, Uri rushed up into Gabe"s face. "What the h.e.l.l do you think you"re doing? Do you want to bring every demon in a five hundred foot radius coming this way?"
"Why the h.e.l.l not? According to you, everything is hopeless anyways," Gabe argued, not attempting to lower his voice.
"I"m serious, you"re not going to put us in danger because you can"t keep it together. I"ll lay you out right here," Uri warned, pushing his chest into Gabe"s body.
"I"d like to see that," Gabe taunted.
"Fine," Uri growled.
"Will you two shut up for a second? I think I found something," Sophie exclaimed in an excited whisper, hopping up onto one of the closed crates.
"What?" Gabe gasped. "Are you serious?"
Sophie nodded, rapidly skimming the pages with her fingertips.
"Well? What does it say?" Uri asked, quickly forgetting his confrontation with Gabe.
Before Sophie could say a word, a screeching and intolerable sound blasted out all around them.
"What the h.e.l.l is that?" Gabe cried out, covering his ears.
"If I had to guess, an alarm," Sophie shouted back.
"Nice Gabe! I told you someone would hear you," Uri snapped, glaring at his friend.
"We have to get out of here. If the trackers know we"re here it won"t take them long to find us," Sophie said turning and running towards the rear of the room.
"Wait, isn"t the exit this way?" Gabe called after her.
"We need to split up. You guys go that way and I"ll take another way out. We"ll meet back at Iron Gate," Sophie replied, clutching the book tight to her body, wrapping her sweater over top of it.
"No, I don"t think it"s a good idea for us to split up," Gabe argued, but Sophie didn"t stick around for the discussion.
"She"s right man, the more targets the trackers have the harder it will be for them to find us. Come on, we"ll go out this way and then we should split up, too," Uri instructed, grabbing his friends arm.
Gabe hesitated for a moment, before at last complying with the request, his voice shook as he stated, "I have a bad feeling about this."
"Is there anything we ever do you should have a good feeling about?" Uri asked, approaching the exit.
"True," Gabe agreed.
"Cloak again, and as soon as I open the door stay close to the wall until we make our way out into the open. I"ll head to the south and transport to a safe zone from there. You get to the beach and transport from there." Uri laid out the plan, and before Gabe could prepare himself the door was open and he was running.
The colors pa.s.sed by in a blur, the growls and snarls that surrounded him felt like a chaotic tornado he was caught in and he was trying to fight his way out of it. He couldn"t tell if something sensed his presence, or if they were just the normal sounds of this strange place. Darting up the stone steps through the library, and down the corridors, Gabe clutched his stomach. The auguries were intense; they felt as if he were being repeatedly stabbed.
Emerging into the clearing, Gabe watched as Uri darted off in the direction of the south gate. Without hesitation he made his way back, the same way they had arrived. Looking over his shoulder, hoping to see any sign of Sophie, his body felt heavy when he saw nothing. Where could she have gone? He wondered.
Looking back in the direction he was running, his body came to a hard stop, his feet skidding and kicking up dust as he did so. A tracker was directly in his path. He froze, uncertain if the beast could see him or noticed the disturbance to the earth from his presence.
Due to its responsiveness, it wasn"t long before Gabe was certain the monster could sense his presence. He needed to get around it and flee before the tracker honed in on his exact location. Carefully stepping to the left, Gabe attempted to maneuver around the beast. It matched his steps, fluttering its leathery wings.