Ali and Alonzo picked up their weapons, and then followed Indri down to the dungeon. They had planned for the rest of yesterday, and they knew it was imperative they act fast. It really hadn’t taken long to figure out what they were doing. It wasn’t as if they were taking an army down there, after all. It would be just the three of them.

Finn and Tara, Hanna’s friends, had begged to help, but Tara wasn’t physically healthy enough to be helpful, and Finn had broken his leg directly after he had been given permission to come. He had been dreadfully disappointed, but he had accepted that he couldn’t go with stoic calm, smiling at Ali and Alonzo when they came to visit him.

Ali found himself wishing the younger boy had been able to come. He was strong in illusions, like Ali, and he could’ve been helpful. But they had what they needed, and they would just have to make do without him.

Alonzo followed Indri down the cracked stone stairway into the dungeon. Ali hesitated, listening to the eerie dripping of water and silence, but then he plunged after them. Indri flipped on the flashlight and pulled out the map. He looked at the traced path that led down into the secret complex beneath the dungeon.

“Alright, Alonzo, use the chalk to make a big X on the walls every few feet. If we lose the map in the fight for any reason, I want to be able to find the way back out. Keep in line with me. If we lose each other, we won’t be able to finish this and chances are, you’ll be wandering down here for good. Ali, remember. When we’re within a few feet of the complex’s entrance, switch the illusion on.” Indri instructed.

The two boys nodded, readying their weapons. Then the trio began moving down the narrow passages, illuminated by nothing but the sharp beam of Indri’s flashlight.

“We’ll end this once and for all with Zane.” Indri whispered.

***

Silence pervaded the tunnels of the dungeon as the three walked down the corridors. Slick flagstones slid out before them and behind them as they tread onward. Water dripping was the one sound that broke the stifling silence. 

It was nearly unbearable, and they all began to look forward to the soft scratch of the chalk on the stones of the wall. They would've spoken, but sound traveled far in the dungeon, and they didn't want to give Zane an alert to their presence before they had to. 

Each of them was consumed in their own thoughts. Alonzo was thinking about Hanna and how much he missed her. He wondered if she would really remember him when they finally killed Zane. He also thought that perhaps they might not manage to kill Zane. If that occurred, they'd be dead, and he wouldn't care about any of it anymore. 

But if they failed, that would mean the end of the world as they knew it. Zane had already plunged the world into one Dark Age. They couldn't fail and let him do it again. 

Ali was thinking along similar lines, but he was only thinking about his sister. He wished he could've said so much more to her, but he hadn't. Guilt and regret overwhelmed him in the silence, and the bleak walls the flashlight could eluminate seemed to leer at him. They whispered to him that he was a failure, that he could never be the leader his father wanted him to be. They murmured that he was too late to save his sister. It was too late to apologize to her. It was too late to make things right. 

He was strong, but these thoughts and the recent events had already broken him, and he felt tears welling in his throat. He wanted to sit down in the puddles covering the flagstones beneath their feet and sob like a two-year-old. He couldn't though, so he pressed on, refusing to give in to the despair filling his heart. 

Indri was not thinking along any of those lines. He was, of course concerned for Hanna. She was like his own daughter, but for him, the more pressing concern was Zane. He had little doubt that Zane wouldn't harm Hanna because of who she was and who she resembled. However, Zane would have no qualms at all about killing them. That fact did worry him. Especially since the beast could shift into anything he wanted to. 

Indri doubted Zane could really be counted as a male. He classified as more of an it in Indri's mind. Especially since he acted like he was no better than an animal. Well, he probably wasn't, so little wonder there. 

Still, he knew exactly what would happen if they didn't succeed at killing Zane. They couldn't fail. That was the end of the story. But if they did fail, then the whole world would be conquered by a crazed lunatic, and there was little doubt that Zane would plunge the whole world into another Dark Age. Indri didn't even want to think about the amount of chaos that would be caused if they failed to win the coming battle. 

Doesn't matter. We're not going to lose. Indri thought to himself. It wasn't going to happen. He wouldn't let it happen.