‘RUN! NOW!’ Tolero screamed again, answering the question for him.
Gabriel leapt to his feet and fled.
Behind him Kalladon roared, ‘NO! NOT THIS TIME! TALLON! KNORR! SKORN! KRAY! FOLLOW ME - AFTER HIM!’
Gabriel ignored his throbbing stomach as he ran. Behind him the thundering feet of the five Reptilian pursuers sounded like a barrage of machine-gun fire. And they were gaining on him. He could hear their rasping snarls and hisses growing louder and louder.
Suddenly the cavern wall to his right exploded in a shower of flame which narrowly missed his head. Shards of molten rock rained down upon him. He smelt the biting scent of his own charred hair.
‘Skorn you incompetent buffoon! That missed him by a mile! Again! Again!’ Kalladon commanded.
A wet, slapping sound splattered on the ground just in front of him. Luckily his reactions were primed and he dodged the patch of wet ground easily. As he raced past, wafts of acrid smoke stung the inside of his nose. The ground hissed and fizzed and bubbled like a pan threatening to boil over.
‘Knorr, you pathetic dolt! That was even worse! Hit him!’ Kalladon cursed again.
Gabriel raced onwards. His assailants continued to gain on him.
Up ahead the entrance to the Suburban Caverns was fast approaching. He was confident that his reptilian pursuers would not be as agile as him at traversing the maze of stairwells, ladders and walkways and he would be able to lose them with relative ease. However, it was also the last place Gabriel wanted to lead these malicious predators. He had no idea whether any of Sanctuary’s resident were still present within, but it was too great a risk to chance that it was vacant. He momentarily glanced over his shoulder to see how close his pursuers were.
It was a mistake.
Gabriel’s feet skittered on the loose rocks beneath him. As his legs slid from under him, Gabriel lost his balance and toppled over. There was a loud splintering and a sudden sharp pain erupted in his shoulder. Gabriel crashed down hard on the floor of a dark passage and slid for several feet, shredding his jacket sleeve on the unforgiving loose shale. He jumped up quickly and looked back towards the broken wooden panels at the entrance to the tunnel. Hearing the Reptilians scrabbling around outside the entrance, Gabriel felt his stomach drop as he realised that he was now trapped in the Forbidden Mine. With no other choice, Gabriel turned and raced downward into the shadowy depths of Sanctuary.
The air felt damp and heavy. A pungent, stale smell hung in the air like a thick fog. The ground beneath his feet was broken and uneven, decelerating his escape to little more than a fast jog. Thankfully it was having the same effect on Kalladon and the other Reptilian hunters.
The further away from the entrance Gabriel continued, the darker it became. Antique lanterns hung on the walls at infrequent intervals, long ago extinguished and forgotten. The tunnel looked wholly unnatural. The dwindling light cast ominous shadows against the deep grooves and scratches of the mineshaft wall. Ahead the shaft fell away into pitch black oblivion. Gabriel snatched one of the lanterns from the wall for fear of soon being unable to see anything. He continued onwards as fast as he could, trying to maintain his footing whilst also trying to ignite the low grizzly-oil reserves of the lantern.
Another blast of fire erupted from the wall mere inches from his head. The shock made him stumble backwards and almost lose his footing again. However, it also provided him with exactly what he needed to light the ancient lantern. Without stopping he bent down and scooped up a smouldering fragment of rock. The remains of grizzly-oil burst into flame and lit up the path ahead of him, unfortunately it also gave away his position.
A wad of acidic saliva splattered onto the cave wall to Gabriel’s left. A few droplets of the toxic venom sprayed onto Gabriel’s arm, fizzing and burning its way through his sleeve. He yelped in pain as the noxious substance reached his skin.
Soon Gabriel began to tire, his legs ached from the chase. He began to pant more and more, by now he was so far underground that there was little oxygen left in the air. He panted harder and harder, barely able to breathe.
Shortly the mineshaft opened out into an oval-shaped room. As Gabriel ducked behind the wall, yet another fireball exploded behind him. The Reptilians had lost ground and fallen back some. Gabriel had to find somewhere to hide, he couldn’t keep running, his lungs screamed out for oxygen. He shone the lantern around the small room and his heart sank.
A dead end.
In the centre of the room a narrow bricked cylinder, similar to a well rose up out of the floor to waist height. Gabriel supposed that it may have served as a ventilation shaft once upon a time when the mine shaft was in use. On the far side of the room there appeared to have been a large cave-in blocking any further advance. Various other sections of the room had suffered similar collapses, albeit smaller. A few large boulders from the ceiling were scattered here and there. Unfortunately none of these offered any hope of refuge.
The Reptilian claws scraping over the loose rocks of the tunnel floor grew louder. Gabriel could hear their growling and snarling bouncing off the tunnel walls and echoing all around him.
Kalladon began to cackle wickedly. ‘Your light has stopped moving, cub. Have you nowhere else to run?’
Reacting on instinct alone, Gabriel spun sharply and hurled his lantern at the tunnel entrance. The glass shattered as the lantern ricocheted off the craggy surface of the wall. The grizzly-oil fully ignited and sprayed across the entrance sending up a wall a flame, narrowly missing the Reptilians as they skidded to a halt. For the moment Gabriel was sealed off from his pursuers.
‘This won’t save you for long, cub!’ Kalladon snarled over the roar of the flames. ‘I can taste your fear!’
The Reptilians stalked back and forth looking for a break in the wall of red-orange hellfire. The light from the fire highlighted their features intermittently, bouncing off their scales like a collection of precious stones.
As Gabriel glared back at them through the flames he had a sudden, terrifying sense of déjà vu.
A Reptilian invasion.
An interrupted celebration.
The deadly flames.
This was all too familiar.
A little over three months had passed since that fateful day, the day of the Summer Fete. The day his life had been forever changed. He had lost everything he had ever held dear. His home. His friends. His family. All had been lost in the savage inferno that had almost consumed him as well. With a grim realisation, Gabriel noted the irony of his current situation: back then fire had almost ended his life, now it was the only thing keeping him alive.
He vowed that he was going to do everything he could to keep it that way.
Using the light from the fiery barricade he scanned the room again. No new escape routes had revealed themselves. He glanced back at the tunnel entrance. The fire was still roaring although not as fiercely as it had been initially. The fuel is burning up, he thought. As effective a fuel as grizzly-oil is, it will not burn forever.
Through the fire he could still see the Reptilians pacing back and forth. What are they doing? Aren’t they just wasting energy? Gabriel peered through the flames at their eyes. They flickered horribly in the light from the fire. But it was then that Gabriel noticed something rather curious. They weren't staring at him at all! Their eyes flicked back and forth scanning the room repeatedly. It was as though they were searching for something that they couldn’t find.
Then it dawned on him.
They were searching for him!
Gabriel suddenly remembered what Omari had once told him – the Reptilians could see body heat. The fire was therefore obscuring him from view. From behind the flames he was literally invisible to them!
Quickly he began assessing his options.
They can’t see what I’m doing.
There are only two possible escape routes: back the way I have come, or the ventilation shaft.
I have no idea where the shaft leads to.
There
is nothing in here to distract the Reptilians long enough for me to slip past them.
There is nothing in here.
No distractions.
Except the ventilation shaft.
He had a sudden brainwave. It was a long shot, Gabriel thought, but it was perhaps his only chance.
The ventilation shaft had been sealed up many years earlier along with the rest of the mine. A heavy stone cover had been placed atop, preventing access. A very heavy cover, Gabriel thought as he heaved against it. He pushed and pushed against it to no avail. The cover didn't budge even a fraction.
Gabriel began to feel panic set in. If he couldn’t remove the cover, his fate was sealed. He glanced back towards the entrance, the fire was beginning to diminish, the grizzly-oil was rapidly being burnt up.
He felt a surge of adrenaline course through his system, with renewed determination he dug his feet down against the rocky floor. Gabriel threw all of his weight against the stone cover and pushed with every ounce of his strength. The cover slid the tiniest fraction. This was a long way off the kind of success Gabriel needed, nevertheless it spurred him on. After all, if he’d moved it a little he could move it more.
The adrenaline surged around his system even more vigorously. With every fraction Gabriel shifted the heavy stone cover, his confidence grew exponentially. The stone groaned in violent protest as it slid, yet soon the shaft opened up a slight crack. A wave of hot, pungent gases rushed upwards from the depths but Gabriel fought through the feeling of nausea – he had to. At that moment his entire world consisted of only two things: himself and the stone cover. It was his mission, his purpose to move the cover aside and nothing, nothing would keep him from fulfilling that.
After what seemed like an eternity, gravity eventually took hold of the heavy cover and it fell off the side of the cylindrical shaft with a loud booming clang that reverberated around the small room like the echo of an old church bell.
The heat billowing upwards from below was almost overbearing, not to mention the toxic stench. Gabriel slipped off his still damp jacket as he heard Kalladon cursing and swearing from behind the ever-shrinking flames. He ducked down out of sight just as the Reptilians stormed into the room and swarmed around the ventilation shaft like vultures circling a carcass.
Kalladon bellowed in fury. ‘NO! He has escaped me again! Quickly into the shaft – after him!’
The other Reptilians were hesitant.
One pointy-faced, horned minion dared to speak up, ‘B-but Kalladon, Master... the cub has entered the world below.’
‘I don’t care if he has entered the bowels of Hell itself!’ Kalladon roared, delivering a violent slap to the insurrectionist with the back of his hand.
Another spoke up. ‘B-b-but M-M-Master, we’ve all heard the stories of what lives down there,’ the sinewy, snake-headed follower stammered.
Kalladon grabbed him by the throat. ‘Are you more scared of children’s stories, or of me?’
The snake-headed minion gulped nervously.
‘You see this?’ Kalladon picked up Gabriel’s jacket from where he had left it on the rim of the shaft. ‘The cub is running scared. He is leaving a trail that even a bumbling fool like you could follow. He will not have gotten far and I will not risk him escaping me again. Do not defy me! Inside! Now!’
With great reluctance the Reptilians clambered into the narrow passage and manoeuvred their way down. One by one they disappeared into the depths. Kalladon was the last to follow. With his broad shoulders, it was a tight squeeze for him but he persisted nevertheless. He lowered himself down until only his head and shoulders were still visible. Then he stopped.
He raised his head and scanned the small room. His vile tongue flicked in and out rapidly, tasting the air around him.
‘You filthy coward!’ he hissed, ‘You are an insult to your species, you insidious little-’ His tirade was cut abruptly short as a heavy rock bounced off the back of his cranium.
Kalladon looked around dazed.
‘That was for my parents,’ Gabriel said with zeal, stepping out from behind one of the larger boulders.
‘I will kill you for that!’ Kalladon snarled.
‘Like you weren’t going to kill me anyway?’ Gabriel snapped. He lifted another hefty rock high above his head. ‘This is for everyone else you've ever killed – including my family and friends!’
Gabriel brought the rock down on top of Kalladon’s head with a force that would have crushed a normal man’s skull.
But Kalladon was no normal man.
The Reptilian leader roared in pain. He struggled against the confines of the shaft and started to clamber back out. His right arm shot out of the mine and reached out for Gabriel, slashing wildly.
Gabriel easily dodged Kalladon’s grasp and raised the rock again. ‘And this one? This is for me... and for all of the times you’ve ruined my life!’ He swung the rock with all of his might, connecting hard with Kalladon’s left cheek. The momentum sent Gabriel tumbling across the rocky floor.
Kalladon spat blood as his head spun sideways and his eyes glazed over. His body fell limp and his head slumped forward. Falling into unconsciousness, the Reptilian leader could no longer control his descent and he slipped backwards down the chute into darkness.
Gabriel was quick to act. He knew that once the other Reptilians discovered their fallen leader, they would clamber back up the shaft to correct their mistake. He jumped up and darted over to the lid of the mineshaft, now standing at angle against the shaft wall. Positioning himself behind the heavy stone cover. He planted his feet again, locked his legs and heaved with all his might.
The cover wouldn’t budge even a fraction.
It had taken all of his strength to push the cumbersome stone, but lifting it was beyond his capabilities. He scanned the room looking for alternatives. He settled on medium sized boulder which appeared to have sheared in half when it fell. With effort he picked up the broken rock and half-carried, half-rolled it over to the ventilation shaft. After further effort he managed to heave the rock up onto the rim of the shaft.
Gabriel manoeuvred the rock into position but to his great dismay, instead of covering the hole the rock fell into it. Luckily it wedged itself in the shaft part way down, caught against the ladder and the opposite wall. The rock didn’t completely seal the shaft but he doubted the Reptilians would be able to move it or squeeze past. Nevertheless, he couldn’t take the chance and quickly began gathering up every other piece of rocky debris that he could lift, hurling each down into the mineshaft. After several minutes he had built up a substantial barricade part way down the chute of a few feet in depth. Satisfied with his work he headed back to the Theatre of Life to re-join the others.
Had he stayed, he would have heard the muted, disgruntled grumblings of the Reptilians filtering up the ventilation shaft as they realised their mistake. This was followed by their blood-curdling screams that were abruptly cut short.
After that only silence remained.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
AFTERMATH
By the time Gabriel had returned to the entrance of the Theatre of Life, the skirmish between the Reptilians and the Council Guards had all but concluded. Several of the Guards had broken away and made it to the armoury with Styne. Once suitably armed, the Guards divided themselves between ejecting the remaining reptiles from the Theatre of Life and attacking those holed up in the Council Chambers.
With reduced numbers and without a leader, the Reptilian uprising quickly collapsed. As the tide began to turn back in favour of the Colony, the majority of the Reptilian aggressors fled. However, not all were so lucky. Archaius and two of his comrades were captured and imprisoned deep in the dungeons, far beneath Artisan Plaza.
Through interrogation, Archaius and the two other prisoners revealed the extent of the Reptilian’s infiltration. It was a rather harrowing account that worried many. Archaius had assumed the role of Hookbeak several weeks prior to the Harvest Festival. It had been presumed
by many that Hookbeak had left his post through his own carelessness and ineptitude. In actual fact, Archaius, posing as Master Tigris, had convinced Hookbeak to reopen the gates. His Reptilian accomplices had then overwhelmed him. When the real Master Tigris had returned with his students to find the gates open and unguarded, it was because Archaius was disposing of the Gatekeeper’s murdered corpse. It was at that point that Archaius had assumed the role and look of Hookbeak.
Since then, many had witnessed Archaius, posing as Hookbeak, in various different locations throughout Sanctuary, including Wingtail Academy, Artisan Plaza and the Reservoir. At the time, little had been thought of it, but as the deception was unearthed many feared just what information about Sanctuary and its secrets Archaius had revealed to his Reptilian comrades. Even under intense and lengthy interrogation, however, on this subject Archaius remained stoically and determinedly tight-lipped.
Another worrying revelation about the evening of the Harvest Festival came not from Archaius but from Pixell. Fortunately, despite initial fears, Pixell had been found alive, yet out cold, near to the entrance. For almost three days afterwards the small fairy lay unconscious in the hospital wing. Timpani never left his side. Gabriel, Seth, Sattan and Tamera visited as often as they could. So too did Tolero and Omari. As it was the Council that had requested Pixell’s services for the evening, on each visit Omari could not summon up the courage to look Timpani in the eyes. She assured him repeatedly, however, that she did not hold him or the Council responsible, yet Omari’s guilt remained.
***
Late in the afternoon on Tuesday, Pixell finally opened his eyes. He was groggy but lucid in his explanation of what had happened. Early in the evening, Pixell explained, he had ascended to Sanctuary’s Entrance Hall. The phony Hookbeak was already there having taken over from the previous guard some time before. Pixell had stealthily settled down in a small recess in the wall and whilst maintaining a continuous vigil on the Gatekeeper, went unnoticed by him.
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