by M S C Barnes
Leaving his sabre in place, Reynard dropped to the ground and peered into the gap and everyone shuffled around to look. In the dim light they could just make out a wriggling figure and then Zach crawled out of the hole, grinning.
“Here she comes,” he said, winking at Dom. His left arm was still inside the opening and he pulled, yanking a bewildered-looking and very wet Scarlet from the hole. He practically threw her at Dom who immediately scooped her up and ran through the graveyard with her towards the door. Instantly every crow squawked and lifted out of the tree. Three then broke away from the main flock and swooped after Dom. Reynard leapt, twirled in the air, and struck all three with one swipe of his Sælen Sword, sending them flying over the church roof. Landing, he turned and stood ready as the rest of the flock arced right before diving towards the grave.
Zach, crouching, his feet balanced on the grave border, now reached into the narrow opening again, feeling for Lotty.
“Where are you Lotty?” he called. There was no answer and he fished around in the gap, trying to find her. “Lotty?” he shouted. When she still didn’t answer, he leapt back into the hole, disappearing completely into it. In a second a woman was shoved out onto the sloping grave surface. Seb was appalled to see how thick the covering of water-welts was on her skin; the tendrils were many inches long and as Lotty took a gasping breath they disappeared inside her, then shot back out again as she exhaled. She appeared to be unconscious as Zach pushed her further up the slanting grave.
“Lotty!” Henri gave an anguished cry. But there was no time for any sort of a reunion; the entire flock of crows was speeding towards her. Dæved immediately zoomed down, lifted her and shot towards the doorway, where Dom stood waiting on the threshold. Reynard leapt up and struck the first pursuing birds and turned to intercept three more flying swiftly just above the ground. Reaching Dom, Dæved thrust Lotty into his arms and, as he disappeared through the door with her, Dæved pulled it shut behind them.
As the door disappeared, the crows veered away and circled the graveyard as if trying to find something else to pursue.
Henri was already striding towards the gravestone. “We will wait for the totems to lose interest and then go through to the Caves,” he said, trying to mask the worry on his face.
“What about Nicole?” Aiden asked. “Shouldn’t we try and —”
“Zach, quickly, it won’t hold!” The Caretaker shouted over him as the groaning and grating of the trap mechanism suddenly got louder and a horrendous clunking sound rose from beneath the ground. Gradually, in spite of The Caretaker’s efforts to prevent it, the sword shaft began to turn in the earth. Reynard’s sabre was wobbling too and he leapt at it as it was jettisoned. It flew through the air and he caught it several feet from the grave and darted back across to try and ram it back into place, but before he could, the metal casing slid forward, rolling up and over the gap Zach had just reached his hands through. It rolled forward so fast, Zach had no option other than to withdraw his arms before it slammed shut on them. The lid came down with a resounding thud and simultaneously the grave surface sprang back into place, trapping him inside.
A sudden silence fell on the churchyard. The grating and clunking stopped instantly and the crows ceased their cawing. One-by-one they drifted up into the night sky and dissolved.
“Great!” Zach shouted into the silence. “Someone press the stone again.”
Reynard leapt onto the grave border and, reaching over, pressed it. He pushed it several times in fact but nothing happened.
“The mechanism is broken,” he called then, using his Sælen Sword, placed the tip into the ground at the side of the grave, where it met the border, and where the aperture had been. “We’ll try and prise it open,” he said. The Caretaker, withdrawing the other sword, jumped onto the border too and inserted the tip further down the join. They both wiggled and twisted the swords but nothing happened.
Finally they stopped and The Caretaker, looking at Seb, spoke quietly, “It will not re-open.”
“What’d ya say Caretaker?” Zach shouted. “Speak up.”
“I said it will not re-open,” The Caretaker said. “The mechanism is, as Reynard says, broken. We cannot get you out.”
For a brief moment no-one spoke then Zach mumbled something incoherent before shouting, “Okay, I’ll try from the inside.” There was a scraping, scratching sound and then the clinking of metal on metal. Everyone stared at the grave in hopeful expectation. Nothing happened.
“Can we dig him out?” Greg asked.
“Try,” Henri said, walking back towards them. Reynard and The Caretaker now began using their Sælen Swords as spades, inserting them into the surface of the grave and lifting out clods of earth. However, every time they removed a clump of what was sodden, sticky clay, it would instantly turn into a sandy texture, and pour back into the hole they had created. Reynard tried using his sabre. He cut around a circle of turf and then, using his hands, lifted it out. The clump of soil and grass, initially solid, suddenly fell apart and poured through his fingers.
They tried digging in several different places above, below and between the two graves, but although they were able to lift huge chunks of cloying mud up, once they were detached from the earth, those chunks became granular and the particles slipped between their fingers.
“No digging him out then,” Lily said sadly.
Seb, watching the unsuccessful efforts to free Zach, now believed that the only thing they could do was to follow the guidance of the owl. Hopefully that would show them another way to get him out. He glanced over at the bird, which still perched on the gravestone, and once more, in the periphery of his vision, he saw a hole on the surface of the grave.
As he began to move towards it, Nat touched his arm lightly.
“You feel a need and a duty to rescue him, Seb; I know,” she whispered. “But looking for him will lead you to Nicole; which is what she wants. She will be much more angry now, and desperate,” she said, then paused before adding, “And waiting for you. Seb, you are still injured; let Henri do this.”
Nat was right; the probability was that the route to finding Zach would lead to an encounter with Nicole. She had hidden the girls either as a lure, forcing them all to come looking for them, or, as Henri had said, in order to use them as bargaining chips — an insurance policy. So she was now skulking in the Sanctum, either like a spider at the centre of her web or like a cornered animal, ready to defend herself if they sought her out. He wondered if she knew they had managed to rescue Scarlet and Lotty and that, in getting the girls out of that awful place, Zach had become trapped? He didn’t expect it made any difference. Zach would serve the same purpose the girls had, and if he was Nicole’s bait, Seb knew he had no choice but to take it.
He stroked Nat’s worried face.
“Nat, I can’t —”
“How do we get him out?” Aiden, approaching them, asked nervously.
“We don’t,” Seb said and Aiden looked astounded.
“We can’t leave him there, Seb,” he said.
“No, we can’t. But we don’t all have to go and rescue him. If, as The Caretaker says, we would have to travel through that maze by ourselves, then there is absolutely no point in everyone going. We can’t help each other.”
Unnoticed, The Caretaker had joined them and now spoke, making Aiden jump.
“I agree; not everyone needs to go.”
“Helloooo. Are you guys still up there or have you left already?” Zach called.
“We’re still here, Zach,” Lily shouted back to him.
“I can see a long tunnel; slimy and half full of water but it leads upwards. The girls were blocking it before. I’m going to go along it. You lot need to go and help Scarlet before she becomes all tentically like the others,” Zach said. “I will find my own way out. I guess you’ll be in the caves?”
“Yes,” Henri shouted and making the door reappear took a couple of steps towards it.
“Really?” Seb said. “Yo
u believe him?”
“What?” Henri stopped in his tracks.
“He’s clearly lying because he knows we can’t get him out,” Seb mumbled.
“What makes you think that?” Henri said, annoyed.
“Because he said he can see the tunnel, when he is in pitch darkness and because he said the tunnel is long and leads upwards, when he is actually only about three feet below the ground,” The Caretaker said quietly and Reynard nodded and shrugged.
“So what do you propose?” Henri said, agitated at being delayed going to Lotty. Clearly troubled, he spoke his mind. “I must be honest with you all; I am in a quandary. I owe Zach a debt of gratitude for saving Lotty and I know that he is now in need of saving. I feel it my duty to go and rescue him, but his efforts to save her will be made worthless if I do not go and help her now. You all saw the state of her; the water-welts are starving her of oxygen — that’s how they work. Every time she breathes in, they strip all the oxygen from her blood and every time she breathes out, they strip it from the air around her. She will die very soon; and so will Emile. I am truly conflicted.” He hung his head, looking perplexed and guilt-ridden.
“Can Seb heal them?” Nat asked.
“Not without his Dryad,” Henri said, sadly. “Water-welts are plant-based and, in order to remove them, a Custodian must use the plant-life-force of their Dryad twin.” He turned to Dæved who nodded. “Alice is stricken and so Seb will not have the capability.” He looked anxiously across to the gravestone that held the door.
“Well how long will it take you to cure them? Could you do it first and then we can all go and find Zach?” Greg asked.
“Zach said the water in there was rising,” Aiden said, sounding upset. “If you delay rescuing him, he may drown. Zach?” he called. There was no answer.
“I don’t believe it will take very long to cure them, Aiden,” Henri said.
“And it won’t take long for Zach to drown,” Lily said guardedly.
Seb wasn’t listening; unnoticed by the others, he moved towards the owl. Zach had saved so many people already tonight; that there was even any discussion on who, how or when he was to be rescued, Seb had to admit, surprised him. In a heartbeat his friend would give his life to protect him and now he would do whatever was necessary to find him and get him out of that place.
As the conversation amongst the group continued, he reached the crooked grave, captured the distant light from the torch Lily was still holding and shone it onto the mound below the owl. A hole appeared, deep and dark and with a glistening rim to its top edge. Without a pause, before he could lose his resolve, Seb jumped in.
Going it Alone
He braced himself for a fall which never came. As soon as he crossed the glistening rim of the hole Seb’s world opened out into a midnight meadow where a gentle summer breeze ruffled the tall grass and the smell of honeysuckle filled the air. A bright, full moon cast silvery light over rolling hills which stretched far into the distance beyond the meadow in every direction. A cricket chirped; a frog croaked and made a gentle splosh as it dropped into the water of a small pond to his right.
Feeling strangely exhilarated, Seb had the sudden urge to jump into the pond himself and he took a few paces towards it. The moonlight reflected in its calm surface danced. He began to run, giggling to himself, and only now did he register the fact that he was pain free. His feet felt fine, his head and back too. No pain at all. He lifted a hand and touched his head, feeling for the gashes across his crown; they were gone. He giggled again and trotted to the edge of the pond and then he noticed a figure sitting on the bank on the opposite side. Nat. She was huddled into herself, staring into the water, shivering with cold.
Seb worked his way around the pond, running his fingers through the tall reeds as he went, and then he sat down beside her. She didn’t look up, just remained, hugging her arms around her body and trembling. He put an arm around her and she snuggled in to him, lying her head on his shoulder as a snowy owl drifted over the surface of the pond and landed at her feet.
“Here, have this,” Seb whispered to her and began to remove his jumper. But that act sent his brain reeling. An image filled his mind: Alice’s charred and burned body and him, removing his jumper and draping it over him. How am I wearing my jumper? As soon as that thought hit him, more followed. Why am I not in pain? Where did my injuries go? How is it summer? Actually, how did we get here? Where is here? He stared at the owl. It hooted and tilted its head. Seb put a hand to his neck and felt for the small charm Dom had given him. As he pressed its solid shape between his thumb and forefinger, the falsehood of his surroundings became clear to him and the real world returned.
He had fallen! He lay in a crumpled heap at the bottom of a ten foot shaft, pain coursing through his body from the awkward landing. That’s more like it, he thought, struggling to his feet. He put a hand on the damp clay wall to his left, waiting for the pain to subside. Glancing up he could see the dim outline of the hole he had jumped into and suddenly Nat’s head appeared over it, silhouetted against the night sky and the waving yew tree branches.
“Seb,” she whispered, “Don’t do this, please. I know you want to save Zach but it is so dangerous.” She was crying and Seb’s resolve began to waiver. But Zach had saved his life and now needed someone to save him. Since Henri was needed elsewhere Seb could see no alternative but to go in search of Zach himself.
“He saved me, Nat. And he would do it again, and again, without thinking. I have to find him before he drowns.”
She sniffed but didn’t argue.
Still using the damp wall for support, Seb lowered his gaze to his surroundings. He could just about make out three openings — three tunnels — leading off this circular shaft. One opened straight ahead of him, there was a second to his right and a third, beside him, to his left. He turned. The wall behind him was solid. Just the three tunnels then.
He had no idea which one he should take and stood, dithering.
Nat had been joined by The Caretaker and Henri who stared down at him, and he guessed all the others were gathered around the hole too as the light from Lily’s torch suddenly flooded the space above their heads.
“Nicole is down there somewhere, Seb,” Nat said, no longer whispering. “You can’t go in there.”
“Nat, Zach has saved Aelfric, Trudy, Greg, Scarlet, Lotty and me tonight. How can I not go and get him?”
“Stand to one side, Seb,” The Caretaker called. “I am coming down.”
“There’s no point. If you are right about us having to travel the maze alone, then you can’t help me through it,” Seb said.
Ignoring him, The Caretaker suddenly leapt into the hole and landed sure-footedly beside him — but then stood like a frozen statue. Letting go of the Sælen Sword — which had shrunk back to miniature size the moment it had crossed the glistening rim — and allowing it to fall to the ground, The Caretaker stared into the darkness of the tunnel straight ahead of them. Seb waited, straining his ears and eyes, but the only things he could hear were the gentle drip of water and his own heavy breathing, and the only thing he could see was blackness.
After a minute he glanced at The Caretaker’s face and noted the vacant look, the blank expression. Then he remembered his own experience jumping into this shaft.
“Caretaker, it’s not real,” he said, tugging The Caretaker’s sleeve. “Whatever you are seeing, wherever you think you are — it isn’t real.”
Still The Caretaker didn’t move. Seb tried several ways to break the illusion. He tugged, patted, pushed, shouted, and even stamped on The Caretaker’s foot, but nothing worked.
“What’s the problem Seb?” Greg called down, his frizzy-haired head appearing beside Nat’s.
“I think The Caretaker is trapped in an illusion. When I first dropped down here I thought I was somewhere else. It felt really real; it was only because of my jumper that I realised it wasn’t.”
“Because of your jumper?” Greg asked, puzzled.
<
br /> “Never mind,” Seb called back up, not willing to go into detail. “Just, I can’t bring The Caretaker back to reality.”
“I will come down,” Greg shouted and stuck a leg over the edge.
“No!” Seb yelled. “There isn’t room and you could end up in the same way.”
Looking at The Caretaker, whose pale eyes still stared off into nothing, he tried one last thing. “Morgan, Aelfric needs you here! He’s in danger,” he shouted and instantly The Caretaker flinched, blinked and stared around, looking, Seb guessed, for Aelfric. “It was an illusion,” he explained, quietly.
The Caretaker, looking slightly surprised, gave a brusque nod, then, retrieving the small sword and slipping it into a pocket, immediately began examining the shaft, turning in the confined space and staring along each tunnel before looking at the damp wall behind them.
Waiting, Seb also faced the blank wall and noticed that, every time he blinked, a residual image of the owl standing on the grave under the yew tree appeared on the clay surface. He turned to look along the tunnel on the right but instantly felt drawn back to the wall. The residual image appeared again. He blinked and rubbed his eyes and blinked again.
“What Seb?” The Caretaker asked, noticing him fidget.
“It sounds silly, but I feel like we should go this way,” Seb said, doubtfully, pointing at the solid wall. “It can’t be though; it’s just a wall.”
The Caretaker looked at him keenly then turned, took one step and placed a slender hand on the wall; it passed straight through the solid surface.
“I trust your judgement — And so should you,” The Caretaker said, smiling.
Seb looked back up at the silhouetted heads above him.
“Please don’t follow us,” he called to them. “I have The Caretaker and we will find Zach,” he said with some conviction now, his confidence boosted. “Go and help the others.” He heard Nat sigh and sniff, though she didn’t speak.
Aiden’s head appeared momentarily over the opening and he yelled down, “Seb, you may need this.” He dropped a shiny object into the hole. Before he caught it Seb already knew what it was — Aiden’s tin.
