The Pegassian Order

15. Taken

Cara took the fourth tunnel marked by the horse shoe symbol and before long, she found herself face to face with the Pegassian Treasure. The treasure was more vibrant in life than any of the images she had seen of it. She had seen text book renditions and old paintings which were now faded and dull. The pearly white body of the sculpture was so robust and smooth, it had small dimples and bulges making it seem like the body of a real, living, breathing horse.

The treasure was very much real and enough for her to take a few handfuls and begin a new life with, she thought as she took a handful of the solid gold coins and slipped them into her backpack. She took several more handfuls until her backpack pulled at the seams where the handles met the bag. She swung it onto her back and it hit the small of her back with a hard thud. Gold was heavy.

She approached the horse and ran a hand along its surface. The way Pegasus peered upward at the heavens with both pride and purpose stirred something deep within her. She stopped short of the fountain and stepped back suddenly. Her eyes were on the droplets of water leading over the edge of the fountain and onto the ground before her. The dark patches where droplets had fallen still gleamed. She kneeled and touched it with a finger, it confirmed her suspicions. It was freshly spilt. Somebody had been here.

Was it Elliot and Rafi? Where were they now?

She had narrowly escaped the weird cult and had been sure to avoid them by keeping close to the shadows just as they did, and remaining as silent as possible as she moved through the passageways. Was it one of them?

She noticed that other than the large dents in the heaps of treasure left from where she had taken several handfuls, the treasure was untouched. She scanned the room. She hadn’t seen anyone emerge from the tunnel, she hadn’t even heard anything. There was no sign of any commotion or disturbance except for the water droplets.

For a moment she considered going back to the surveillance room she found and playing through the footage to find out what happened, but decided it was too far back and it was just too risky to turn back at this stage. She couldn't risk bumping into the cloaked figures, who knew what they were up to. Whatever it was, she didn't want anything to do with it. She just wanted to take the treasure and return better prepared to retrieve the rest of it.

Cara stepped closer to the fountain and peered into the crystal clear water. It shimmered at her, showing her, her own tired reflection. The watered shimmered again as she ran her hands through it and drank from the fountain. Ripples formed, smudging her features and morphing them until for a moment it looked like there was someone standing behind her.

Cara waited for the water to stop rippling, waiting for her reflection to return to normal but when the ripples stopped the reflection remained the same. Cara swung her elbow backward and connected with layers of clothes. A cloaked arm reached forward and locked her into a headlock and pressed his or her forearm firmly against her throat, tightening the hold gradually and increasing the pressure on her windpipe with each passing second until she was drained of air and couldn't breathe.

The figure was suffocating her. Her eyes drifted from the treasure to the statue of Pegasus again. And the thought returned to her, what was she dying for? She thought of Elliot's quest to find her sister, she thought of the endless riches in her backpack and all around her. She thought about Katrine.

She pulled at the figure's thick arm but it remained there like a contraption that had been locked into place. Her lungs began to burn and she wheezed for air as tears streamed down her cheeks. The figure bent her forward over the fountain so she could see her reflection. Every tear drop that fell from her face struck her reflection, shattering it into several bands of colours and shades.

Cara stared at the hooded stranger's reflection, it was as if the grim reaper himself had come to collect but she wasn't ready to pay up. It wasn't her time, was it?

As though the figure had read her mind, Cara was hauled away from the fountain and thrown into the pile of treasure. She gasped as the sharp coins cut into her back. She rolled over to one side and felt a weight push her face down into the dusty treasure and remove her backpack.

A moment later, Cara saw golden coins from her bag rain back down onto the heap of gold on which she lay. There went her hopes of a new and better life. A new start. The figure grasped her hair and pulled her up to her feet then slammed her against the wall and strangled her once more.

This time, Cara had no fight left in her body. And as her final breath escaped her lips, she blacked out.

When she came too, she was in a rusty metal cage which hung above flowing water. She gasped awake and tried to swallow but instead felt a burning sensation fill her throat. The skin on her neck was severely bruised, she could tell from the way it pained her to turn right or left as she tried to gather her bearings. She was locked inside a cage which swung gently in the air and was suspended above water by a thick rope beneath which burnt a candle.

To Cara's horror, she realised this too was a trap. The candle was burning slowly through the thick rope and she would soon be plunged into the water to drown. She had another idea, one which involved not dying.

Cara tried the padlock on the front of the cage, it was old but solid. It clinked as she tugged it. It didn't budge. She turned back to the cage she was in and noticed one bar in particular was bent. Gripping it with both hands she tried to bend it further out of shape until it formed enough of a space between the two bars to allow her to slip through the gap. The splinters from the rusty metal bars dug into the flesh of her palms as she pushed the bars with all her might, but it was no use. The bars remained firmly in place.

The flame burnt through more of the rope, sending the cage swinging to one side. Cara let out a cry as she was tossed to the other side of the cage. She peered down at the water, there was no way to tell how deep it was from her position, but she had an inkling it was deep enough to drown her if she was trapped in the cage.

As the cage swayed and the flame ate its way through what was left of the rope, Cara pressed her back against the bars and planted her boot against the bent bar at the bottom of the cage. She gripped the bars behind her and pushed downward with all her might, doing her best to send all of her weight through the bar.

The cage swung further now, there was very little of the rope left, so little it began to creak uneasily. Cara slammed her boot down hard and the bar bent more. She lowered herself and swung her legs out through the space between the bars and gripping the bars, she lowered herself out and dropped into the water just as the final threads of the rope snapped apart in the face of the flame.

As Cara crashed into the water, the cage followed closely behind. She swam hard and fast, making space between herself and the metal trap. She turned and watched it hit the ground. Her heart hammered in her chest and her lungs ached for air already. Her entire body ached as she swam in the direction of flowing water. She had heard once that when lost, it was wise to follow the flow of water. At least, she thought that was the saying.

None the less, she swam for her life, or at least for what was left of it. She swung her arms forward alternately and pulled them back, pulling water back with them and propelling herself faster. She would come up for air now and then, and the more she swam the more frequently she was having to take the risk of resurfacing for air and being spotted by one of the cult members.

Eventually the water seemed to find what Cara initially thought to be a dead end, but as she squinted through the cloudy water she noticed small slits along the wall, filtering the water through. But she could go no further.

She peered up and swam toward the surface, hope filled her chest as she anticipated sucking in the cool air beyond the rippling surface. Suddenly, a shadow flitted past the surface of the water and Cara slowed down, pondering on what to do.

Another shadow moved past the surface, only this one loitered for a few moments then shrunk away as if somebody was standing nearby then walked away. The suffocation intensified in her chest and swelled, rising up ward until bubbles burst from Cara's lips against her will and rushed to the surface.

Cara clamped her hands over her mouth and peered up, her feet kicking gently to keep her afloat.

No shadows came.

Unable to stand it any longer, Cara swam upwards and gasped in a lungful of air as silently as she could. While she sucked in air, she kept herself submerged in the water as much as possible so not to be noticed. As Cara drifted closer to the edge of the pool she realised she was in a large water fountain of some kind which was at the end of a long room lined with pews and pillars. As her eyes landed on the cloaked figures standing around Elliot and what looked like her friend Rafi, but deathly white, a chill ran down her spine.

There was a vertical rectangular stone tomb standing against the wall at the far end of the room. It had the entire journey of Medusa to Pegasus engraved on it and the handle was a pearl tear with snakes engraved over it.

Were they going to bury Elliot and her friend alive? She looked around her and noticed a narrow pathway to one side which led to a few higher levels which, if she was strong enough, she could leap off and climb up to the stone reams running along the top of the pillars and around the room.

It would give her a better vantage point at the very least, and at the very best, it would help her work out a strategy that wouldn’t get them all killed. She waited until she was certain that everyone's backs were turned and she climbed out of the water and hurried over to the path, not caring for the wet footprints she left behind. The cloaked figures were too busy with Elliot and Rafi to notice.

She sprinted up the pathway and held out her arms as she crossed from one stone ream across to the other until she came to a halt directly above the stone tomb. From this angle she could see they were separating Elliot and Rafi. A group of them held Elliot back while another group carried Rafi to a small stone table stained with a dark red which made Cara's stomach twist. They sprawled him out across the table and tied his wrists and ankles to the corners so he couldn't escape, only, he didn't even object. He was near-death already. It was Elliot who was struggling and objecting. She struggled with all her might, only to be overpowered by the group holding her back. She was pleading with Rafi to fight and hang in there, but Rafi was too out of it to know. Cara hadn't realised how deeply Elliot cared for Rafi before.

That was when she decided that if she was going to do something, she needed to do it now.