Chapter 19: The Crater

   Anonni had missed the action by several minutes, by the time he arrived.  What had once been a well-kept piece of lawn outside the mansion’s walls was now an over ten metre deep crater, spanning almost twice that in diameter.  Anonni wandered up to the edge, and looked into it.  He couldn’t see anything, for the light was long gone, and the moon had hidden behind a cloud, as if even it was fearful of what had just happened.  Anonni found a pair of daggers in his rucksack, and used them to climb down into the crater.  It wasn’t steep, but the soil and rock had been so cleanly cut into that there were no footholds, and no places for him to hold on to.

   After a minute of climbing down, Anonni reached the bottom.  He was too deep for any light to get in; he was in complete darkness.  This wouldn’t hinder him much, as he could feel his way into the centre, but Anonni decided to have light anyway.  A smaller, green cylinder, when opened, shone out an intensely bright light, illuminating the entire crater from almost any angle.  With this, Anonni easily found what he was searching for.  The locket sat in the direct centre of the crater, completely undamaged.  Anonni bent over and picked it up, unsurprised by how cold it was.  Another Interimo, in his grasp… It felt different to his previous encounter.  The last, and only Interimo he had encountered took the form of a small comb, but it felt different even beyond appearance.  He couldn’t have described it, but it almost seemed… heavier… older… stronger…

   Anonni was unsure whether Interimo usually differed so much between one another, but would get nowhere thinking it over.  He threw it into his already heavy rucksack, along with the light cylinder, and began to scale up the walls of the crater.  Billy and Paul had to have been somewhere out here, and surely would have seen the light too.  He would look for them, then return to Rebecca and Carrie.

 

   “No…” Carrie gasped.  Her legs could no longer take the strain, and she fell onto her knees.  Rebecca grabbed her before she fell into a tree, but also welcomed a chance to rest.  This wasn’t the ideal place, however…

   Rebecca gave a short, spiteful laugh.  “We won.  This is where Edward started it… and we stopped him.  We survived!”

   “We… You don’t have the locket back yet,” Carrie reminded her, sliding to the ground, panting.

   “That man… Anonni,” Rebecca said.  “I trust him.”

   “But you’ve only just met him!”

   “I know.  But… he just seems… trustworthy.  I can’t explain why…”

   Neither said anything for several moments.  Rebecca felt tired… She hadn’t slept since the night before… But she mustn’t fall asleep, not now…

 

   “The light’s stopped,” Billy noticed, and they stopped running.  “We should go back.”

   “Go back?” Paul cried.  “Are you mental?  I’m not going near that blasted thing again!  What if it goes off just as we’re walking up to it?”

   “Rebecca had it for months, and nothing happened,” Billy explained.  “And Uncle Sam had it for years, right?  It must only do that if it feels threatened… It only exploded as the Knight was about to pick it up!”

   “But Anonni wants to destroy it!” Paul argued.  “If we find it, we’d take it to Anonni, who would destroy it, so it would be threatened!”

   “Let’s find Anonni, then,” Billy said.  “Rebecca must be conscious by now…”

 

   “Rebecca?” Anonni called through the trees.  “Carrie!”

   Rebecca was the first to wake, and therefore the first to hear him. 

   “We’re here!” she cried.  “Carrie, wake up!  It’s Anonni!”

   Anonni leapt through the trees, and found them.

   “Ah, yes… I don’t blame you,” he noted, observing how tired they looked.  “You can’t have had much chance for sleep, with everything you’ve been through �" what did happen, out of curiosity?  How did half the hill become blown apart?”

   Rebecca briefly told him what had happened.

   “Good Trilliad,” he gasped.  “I thought I’d got into trouble in Briadon, but you two were defenceless!  The fact you survived is… remarkable…”

   “I’m not sure how we managed, myself,” Rebecca admitted.  “We got lucky.”

   Carrie let out a long and loud yawn.

   “You both must still be tired,” Anonni said.  “You can sleep now for the rest of the night, I will keep watch.”

   “Don’t you need sleep?” Rebecca asked.

   “I’ll manage.”