The Quest for the Temple Key

His backhand was wickedly fast. She didn’t have time to dodge his swing and was flung sideways into the middle of her cell. When Freida stood up, she rubbed away the blood dribbling from the multiple cuts on her bruised cheek. Glaring at him, she realized there was an opening behind where he stood. It must have been not only where he came throughbut where he’d been hidden all along. Strohrnahq himself had been a part of the wall!

“What do I want? What do I WANT?” he screamed back at her in a blind rage. “I want you—all of you wretched wingless bipeds—to die! To vanish! To leave this world at once! Since the dawn of time, you have been a scourge upon the earth. We would be rid of you, once and for all, finally. Kahrnahrgx has something special planned for you, human—the ‘Chosen One,’ indeed! But for what you have been ‘chosen,’ he has not said. That is his special little secret. He doesn’t seem inclined to share it with me!” The gargoyle exploded in guttural, mirthless laughter.

By now, Strohrnahq’s face was just inches from Freida’s, his wings spread out to their full span and shook, his hands so tightly fisted that his talons flailed around her face and his spittle landed on her arms. His rage was horrifying.