The Guardian Chronicles 2: Dark Horizon by Matthew Burkey Page B

heavily.
    “Don’t worry about him,” Tony said, shaking his head. “Come on; let’s get over to the portal room so that we can show you the academy.”
    “We’re going there now?”
    “Yeah,” Ryan answered. “Trust me, you’ll love it.”
    Gabriel could hardly argue with him, although he was having a hard time figuring out a scene that was more amazing than what he had so far seen at Aegis. Ryan led them from the room and then took a right as soon as they were out in the corridor again. They made their way toward circular door, guarded by two impressive looking young men. The door hissed open and Gabriel stepped into what was the most amazing room at Aegis yet.
    The room wasn’t overly large but looked like it had been made entirely of crystal. Pulses of multicolored light radiated out from where-ever their feet touched, fanning out in all directions and cascading down the whole crystal structure before finally racing off to the center of the room. And at the center of the room stood the portal, it looked like a ring of frosted glass; ribbons of gold energy would occasionally ripple across the calm surface.
    “Wow,” Gabriel breathed.
    “Come on Alice,” Ryan smiled. “It’s time to go down the rabbit hole.”
     

CHAPTER 5
     
    Gabriel wasn’t sure what to expect when stepping through the portal. He watched Ryan go through first, the gold rippling energy across the surface collected around him and then he was gone.
    “Go ahead,” Tony said. “It’s perfectly safe.”
    Gabriel took a deep breath and stepped forward. His skin tingled for a brief moment, like there was too much of a static charge in the air, that sensation was followed briefly by a blast of cold and then an explosion of white light and then Gabriel found himself standing in a chamber that looked just like the one that he left.
    “Not a bad way to travel, eh?” Ryan asked.
    “That was…fast,” Gabriel said. “Where are we?”
    “The academy,” Tony answered. “In France.”
    “We’re really in France?” Gabriel asked, as Ryan gestured toward the door.
    “Yep,” Ryan smiled. “Come on, we have to get you to the weapon master ASAP, after that Jonathan wanted to talk to you and then we can give you a quick tour.”
    It seemed like his whole day was going to be filled with tours. Then again, they did have a lot of ground to cover. He followed Ryan out of the chamber, surprised to find that they stepped out into what appeared to be a very pleasant fall day. He was also surprised to find himself standing what appeared to the courtyard of a massive castle.
    “Welcome to the academy,” Ryan spoke, gesturing around them. “Technically, it’s called Castle Veritas, the Guardians moved in about 500 years ago. We’ve been expanding it and using it for our academy ever since.”
    “Doesn’t that draw attention?” Gabriel asked. Looking around, he estimated that just by what he could see it was easily as large as whole area of Aegis and he had a feeling there was a lot more that he wasn’t seeing.
    The courtyard was surrounded by massive walls, at least thirty feet high. Several towers were spaced around the wall, although none of them appeared to be manned. At the far east end of courtyard sat a massive structure that appeared to be the main keep. A colossal tower jutted out from the center of the structure with two smaller towers to each side.
    “Not really,” Ryan offered, as they started across the stone courtyard. “Gylphs protect the place and hide us from pretty much everyone and everything. The only ways into the academy are heavily guarded. Come on, we need to hurry it up, it’s not a good idea to keep a weapon master waiting.”
    Gabriel could have figured that it wasn’t a good idea to keep anyone in the Guardians waiting. He quickened his pace to catch up with both Ryan and Tony as they made their way up the main steps and into the keep. They took a quick right and ended up going down a long corridor, lined