The Pages of Destiny (The Four Elementals Book 3) by Yajat Sharma (best authors to read TXT) 📕

James suddenly shouted, “Whoever you are, we are ready. WE ARE READY.”

The fog vanished within seconds, and the voice came back again. “Good. You children have nothing to do with the Dark World. You don’t belong here. Don’t interfere. Take your Matt and get out from here to your Earth and leave us to manage this world in the manner we like.”

“I agree. Matt is our only concern. You get your Skull Warrior, and we won’t come in the way,” James said. “We just want Matt.”

“James, are you crazy? We can’t do that.” Daniel was distressed.

“Don’t listen to him,” James said to the voice. “The First Page is not with us but with the Scavenger. I will convince him to hand over the First Page to you, but for that you need to call him here.”

James secretly winked. Archer, Daniel and Pyros saw his wink. It was a signal for the others to keep quiet and let James remain in charge of the situation.

After a pause, the voice spoke. “I don’t have time to hunt for the Scavenger.”

“Then, let us find him. We will find the Scavenger, anyhow,” James said.

“Hmm,” the voice spoke. “I’d rather propose something else. I will release you all. After three days, we will meet outside the Cotton Village Library. I don’t care if you come alone or with the others or with the Scavenger. I just need the First Page. And remember, in case you do not turn up or try and do something fishy, I will banish you all from the Dark World forever.”

James was thinking fast. “Wait! We just discussed that we would use the pages together and open the dimension. It wasn’t the deal that we would hand over the First Page to you.”

“Good point, dear boy,” the voice spoke. “I was just testing you to see whether you had agreed to my proposal just to get out of here or not. I don’t think so. We will open the dimension together. Rest assured that I will not fight you or the Scavenger, and we shall maintain mutual peace while opening the dimension. You should also assure me that once you take Matt, you four children will straightaway move to Earth immediately. You should have no concern about what happens in the Dark World after that. Agreed?”

“Yes, we agree,” James replied confidently.

Suddenly, the intensity of the light increased. It became so intense that the children and Pyros had to close their eyes. The lights kept on flashing for some time, and then vanished.

They opened their eyes and found themselves outside the Master Library of Cotton Village.

Daniel turned and gasped. “H-how is this possible?”

“Illusion,” Pyros muttered. “Our prisons are very much there, but we can’t see them. The evil person made an illusion. Smart.”

The group started exiting the Cotton Village in the bright sunlight. James said, “Archer, cover yourself with burning fire. I need you to sustain it for at least a minute.”

Archer did the same, focusing hard. Everyone backed away as fire engulfed his body.

After about a minute, there was a sparkling sound as suddenly, a black device fell crackling from Archer’s head. James directed Archer to stop his flames. Archer made the fire disappear as James bent down to examine the device.

“It was as I expected,” James said, rotating the device in his hand. The device was blinking.

“What?” Daniel asked.

“Wait,” James said. He turned to Pyros. “Pyros, I need you to use your magic to make our bodies and clothes resistant to fire so that Archer can do the same procedure to us.”

Pyros was confused but agreed. He raised his hands, and James, Archer, Daniel and Pyros too were coated with blue light.

“Do it quickly,” Pyros said. “I won’t be able to hold this much longer.”

Archer quickly sent a flow of fire towards the group that bunched together. In a minute, there were crackling sounds as more devices fell from each one.

Finally, Archer stopped, and so did Pyros, both exhausted from the ordeal.

“Now will you explain, James?” Daniel asked.

“A spy device,” James said, crunching the various devices littered on the ground with his foot. “Planted by our captor, to keep an eye on us and to hear our plans. Thankfully, now he won’t be able to trace us.”

The others admired James for his foresight.

Daniel said, “We didn’t speak there, James, but I have serious objection to the deal that you made without discussing with us.”

James frowned. “Cool off! Why do you think I took a great risk to wink at you? The evil person was listening to our conversations. Maybe there were cameras. Luckily, we were not caught or else our entire plan would have blown off. The future appears dark, but we will find some way.”

“Good, James. That was quite brilliant stuff from you,” Archer said.

Daniel, however, still looked unconvinced. James gestured to Archer to just leave it at that.

“Who can the evil person be?” Archer asked Pyros.

Pyros shrugged his shoulders, signalling that he didn’t know.

“We can deduce a lot of thing about him. Well, for one, he’s intelligent,” James said. “He knows a lot about us. Also, he seems to be from Earth.”

“WHAT!? How do you know that?” Pyros asked him.

James was not surprised to hear such a response from his friend. “Metronidazole, one of the drugs he talked about, is an Earth product.”

James continued, “Further, his voice was robotic, computer-generated. There’s no way of knowing what kind of voice that was. It could be a kid, for all we know.”

“So where do we go now?” Daniel asked. “We don’t even know where the Scavenger is.”

“My cave, of course,” Pyros said. “All right then, let’s betray a friend.”

Everyone laughed.

4

An alert Scavenger paced inside Pyros’s cave, his Lightning Sword in his hands. He was worried as he didn’t know the whereabouts of his friends.

His mind swam back to the Library...

“It’s a trap!” the Scavenger exclaimed. He turned and saw a platoon of huge men with ferocious hounds. From behind,