Vaul peaked around the edge of the wall and looked down the hallway. There was no sign of either of his siblings. The baby Gold Dragon smiled to himself and crept along silently. Suddenly, there was a hiss, and a white blur landed on him. Alleia pinned her brother to the ground and slapped him on the head with a forepaw. "Tag! You're it!" she giggled.
Vaul crawled out from under his sister and scowled. "No fare, you cheated!" he cried.
The baby White gave him a haughty look. "Oh yeah? How so?"
The baby Gold cursed inwardly as his sister called his bluff. "Well, let me think."
She turned and started to fly away. "When you can find a reason, let me know. Until then, you're it." She stopped in mid air and hovered over a large vase on a table. "You can come out now, Narin. Vaul's it." There came no reply. "Narin?" she asked tentatively.
A few seconds later, snoring could be heard from within the vase. Alleia growled and inhaled. She opened her mouth and released a small cone of frost at the base of the vase. There was a moment of silence. Suddenly, a scream erupted from within the artifact. Narin popped out of the vase and landed on the ground with a thud. The baby Red Dragon looked up at his hovering sibling. "Why'd you go and do that? I'd just dreamt I'd caught the biggest tuna in the world." He straightened the black bandanna around his neck and got to his feet.
Alleia smiled and landed. "Well that's what you get for falling asleep on the job. You were supposed to tell me when Vaul was coming."
"Ah ha!" yelled Vaul as he ran over to them. "You did cheat!"
"I did not!" replied Alleia, her voice going up an octave.
"Yes you did!" screeched Vaul. "We weren't playing Zombie tag!"
"Yes we were!" she snarled.
"No we weren't," he growled.
The two of them were nose to nose, when the sound of foot steps interrupted the argument. The three Dragon kids instantly bolted for the nearest pair of curtains. They knew very well that playing in the Palace halls was forbidden, and the three of them definitely didn't feel like getting caught. They had just ducked under a deep blue drape as a pair of brown boots walked past. As the foot steps disappeared, three little cat like heads poked out from under the curtain. Alleia smiled devilishly. "Tag's boring now. Let's follow whoever that was instead."
Before answering, Vaul looked at his brother. Narin's eyes were twinkling with anticipation of this new game. Vaul, too, wanted to try and follow this mystery person. "Okay, let's do it," replied Vaul.
Smiles on their faces, the three baby dragons leapt into the air and followed after their new prey. They glided down the hall listening for foot steps. Sounds of the mysterious figure echoed down a hall to the right. Their tiny wings flapped faster until voices could be heard. Vaul signaled for them to land, and the others complied. They landed in the middle of a darkened hallway and made their way to its end on padded paws. There was a faint clicking sound. The triplets stuck their heads around the bend in the hall to get a better look. There were two figures standing not twenty feet away. Due to the lack of light, Vaul couldn't quite make out their faces. One was completely shrouded by the surrounding shadows, and the other was covered in tattered rags. The one in rags was speaking in a raspy voice. "It has started?"
"Yes, master," replied the other in a whisper which concealed its voice.
"Good," said the rag man. "I'm going to leave the city in your hands while I spread my plague among the other Western kingdoms. All you need to do is keep the Princess from finding some way to cure it. Do you understand?"
"Yes, master," it answered with a bow.
The man in rags nodded and walked away, leaving a clicking sound in his wake. Moments later, the other figure followed. Vaul looked at his siblings with wide eyes. "Should we tell Leeta?" asked Narin.
"I dunno," replied Alleia. "Could either of you see who the one in the shadows was?"
Vaul shook his head. "I don't think we should say anything yet. If we tell the grown ups, they'll probably just start yelling at us for playing in the halls." The baby Gold started to walk back to the main part of the palace. "Let's go and find Mom before she starts to look for us."
"Yeah, that's just what we need now," replied Narin. "Mom turning the place upside down trying to find us."
"She'll see right through our lies," added Alleia.
"We'll just have to chance it," replied Vaul.
Having all agreed to remain silent for the time being, the three siblings made their way back to their room.
Leeta entered her chambers followed by Carla. The Princess collapsed into the nearest chair. "What are we going to do? How can we stop a plague?"
Carla closed the door to the Royal chambers and sat down on the edge of the bed. "I don't know," she said sadly. The Premier had a brief flash of her vision. Her blood went cold at the thought of that outcome. "No," she whispered harshly.
"What?" asked Leeta.
"That can't happen," she whispered. "I won't allow it to happen." The Premier rose from the bed and headed for the door.
Leeta rose from the velvet chair to follow. "Where are you going?"
Carla raised her hand to halt the Princess. "I'm going to the library to look for something."
"Well, I'll come with you," said Leeta.
"No," replied Carla. "It'll be easier if I do this on my own. Besides, you need to get some rest. If you're rested, you'll have a better chance of fighting off possible infection." Before the Princess could say another word, Carla left the Royal chambers.
The Premier moved quickly through the dimly lit halls of the Palace. Carla's feet barely touched the ground as she broke into a run. She blew past several Palace aides without uttering a word. The only thought on her mind was the vision of her world dying. Completely out of breath, Carla arrived at the great oak doors of the Palace library. Taking a deep breath, she pushed them open and went inside.
It was like entering a world outside of the mundane. A couple of small magic lamps hung from the ceiling creating a sphere of light that stretched for several yards in all directions. Shelves and stacks of books lined the walls and overflowed from the various visible tables. Carla carefully unhooked one of the lamps and grasped it tightly in her tiny hand. Then the Premier gingerly moved forward into the depths of the great library. Once in a while she passed some scribe or mage huddled in a corner over some long forgotten tome. She was slightly taken back by the amount of books that filled the upper chamber. There are more books on this first floor than there are in all of Vane , thought the Premier.
Carla slowly walked through the maze of stacks until she came to a spiral stair case leading down into the deeper levels of the library. The books she would need were within those deeper levels. Taking another breath, Carla placed her foot on the first rusted steel step. The entire stair case groaned, and Carla jumped back. Some lone mage shooshed her from someplace. Get a hold of yourself, girl , whispered Carla inwardly.
Steeling herself once more, Carla began her decent into the lower levels of the Palace library. After a half an hour of searching, Carla finally found the section on ancient diseases and their possible cures. She placed the magic lamp on a nearby table and reached for the first volume titled, The Burning Question: How to Cure Athlete's Foot.
Most of the night went by as the Premier sat hunched over the tomes on ancient sicknesses. Carla had gone through six or seven volumes, when she finally found what she was looking for. The Premier eagerly flipped through the pages of a journal recounting another time when a massive plague struck. The journal spoke of how the sickness appeared out of nowhere, and how it felled people by the thousands. The songs and prayers of the priests could do nothing to stop it. Finally, the Head Priest went on a journey to the Goddess' Tower to speak with Althena.
Once there, the Goddess gave the Priest several weapons to combat the plague. One was the Goddess' Seal, but that wasn't an option because it was still on Lunar in New Pao. The Second was an artifact called the Grail of Purity. Hope rushed through Carla, but it was quickly dashed as she read a side note in the margin dated around the time of the Great War. It said that the Grail was destroyed by Zophar's forces along with the original main Temple to Althena.
Carla cursed profusely for several moments. She slammed her fists down on the table, knocking the lamp on its side. Muttering, Carla reached to lift the lamp, when she noticed something on the next page of the journal. At first glance, it looked normal, but with closer examination, she realized that there was a portion missing at the top. The first quarter of the page was blank before the story continued on about how the Head Priest used the three artifacts to heal the people.
"Three?" said Carla in a low voice. "But I..."
Then it hit her. Someone had erased the next passage about the third artifact. With the Seal thought missing and the Grail destroyed, the third item was the only thing left to stop this new plague. Someone had already discovered this, and Carla would bet real silver that this person didn't have the people's well being in mind. Acting quickly, the Premier reached inside her blouse and pulled out the Star Crest. It shone with radiant power in the dim light that only the mage could see. Carla closed her eyes and drew upon the Crest's power.
Seconds later, a tiny cloud of starry dust appeared and plastered itself on the blank portion of the page. Carla opened her eyes and read the passage before the spell ended. It spoke of a third artifact called the Kiss of the Althena. It was described as a small red jewel embedded in a portion of the Goddess' Crest. A note in the margin said that the Kiss had been moved, after the destruction of the Grail, to a secret temple under the former location of a great city on the West coast of this continent. The city's name had been Angellis.
Hope renewed, Carla returned the books to their shelves and went for her lamp. She had to tell Leeta about the Kiss immediately. She had taken up the lamp and started for stairs, when a footfall echoed in another part of the level. Carla's heart stopped. "It's nothing," she told herself.
Another step sounded, this one closer and behind her. Then another step came from in front of her. Despite her efforts to calm herself, Carla knew that she was in trouble. With a thought, the Premier snuffed out the light in the lamp, and she was plunged into darkness. A few words, and Carla's vision blurred until her surroundings reappeared in a magical light only she could see. With the Cat's Eyes spell working on her eyes, Carla began to warily move forward. She quietly drew the dagger at her belt. The mage cursed inwardly. Because of all the books, she couldn't risk casting any attack spells, or else the precious tomes might be damaged.
The first attack came without warning. A hooded figure lunged at her from seemingly nowhere. In his left hand, a short sword waited to run her through. Acting faster than she thought possible, Carla closed her eyes and made a quick gesture. "Prism Globe!" shouted the mage. A tiny globe of light flew from her hand, hung in the air, and suddenly, for half a second, released a brilliant blast of light which illuminated the entire level.
The figure in front of the Premier shouted in agony as he was blinded. Carla opened her eyes and lunged, dagger first. The small blade drove through her assailant's tunic and into his chest. He groaned and fell to the floor dead. Carla looked over her shoulder at the sound of running, and saw several more hooded figures coming at her. Not wasting any time, Carla left her dagger buried in the corpse and ran for the stairs.
She reached the stairs and started to climb, and a hand grabbed the tail end of her robe. Using a move Connery had taught her, the Premier spun around and kicked the attacker square in the face. He flew back and crashed into his fellows behind him. Spurred on by fear, Carla scaled the spiral stairs two at a time until she finally reached the top. Below, she could hear her pursuers coming up. The Premier said a quick prayer that no books would be damaged as a result of her next action. The spidery language of magic flew from her lips until Carla cried out the activation words. "Light Ray!" A red beam of pure energy shot from her fingers and sliced through the support bars holding up the spiral stair case. There was a tremendous groan and the stairs collapsed into the darkness below. Seconds later, a loud crash signaled the end of her attackers.
Carla's body screamed for her to lay down and go to sleep, but the Premier ignored those pleas. Unsure of her safety at the moment, she couldn't risk letting down her guard. At an unbelievable speed, the dark haired mage sprinted from the library and headed towards the Royal chambers. She completely ignored the curses that the library's occupants hurled at her as she fled the scene.