The Secret of the Storm Cloud

by Sidney Gibson

  The skateboard, the levitational skateboard! He could use its powerful lifting force to pull free and frenetically he groped in his pocket. Suddenly it was in his hand and clicked open. Click! Click! The skate board unfolded itself just as Miss Wilmcurse had demonstrated. He touched the ‘raise’ button and held on tight. The skate board juddered as if the tugging from the fingers were too strong and for a moment hovered motionless. Then it recovered, slowly lifting Danial free. The sludge threshed and bubbled wildly as a thousand fingers, angry about losing their captive, furiously poked air before retreating back under the surface.

  Shaken by the unexpected attack, Danial manoeuvred the skate board to the safety of the path and collapsed in a heap. Silhouette nuzzled him, checking to make sure he was all right.

  ‘Hey boy, sorry not to have followed you more closely. Must be extra careful, eh? Did that give you a nasty turn too?’

  Silhouette licked him and whimpered softly. Suddenly his ears pricked and giving a rumbling growl gazed intently into to the forest.

  ‘What is it, Silhouette. What do you hear?’

  It was no more than a barely perceptible rustling in the undergrowth, when the deadly swish of a dart from a blow pipe whistled through the air narrowly missing Danial ’s neck. It thudded into the ground beside them.

  ‘Wwhat the....!’ stammered Danial. ‘What’s this?’

  Silhouette’s growl loudly became a snarl as Danial glimpsed a pair of savage looking creatures crouching, stalking, threateningly closing in. Shadow Men!

  The skate board was opened, ready to go. He had seven league shoe laces and could outrun them and escape capture. But what of Silhouette? Would he be fast enough?

  As if reading his mind Silhouette looked briefly at Danial, and barking noisily shot off in the direction of the Shadow Men. He bounded around them in a wide arc, bravely distracting their attention as if saying to Danial ‘Go. Escape. I’ll deal with these sub-human creeps’

  Howling with enraged yells, the Shadow Men forgot about capturing a human and chased after Silhouette instead. With his intelligence and cunning Silhouette would hopefully escape the Shadow Men.

  But now Danial was left to find his way without help of any kind.

  ***

  ‘Danial ? Danial ? Is that you Danial ? Can you hear me?’ A plaintive voice called from the dimness ahead. Danial paused, the skateboard hovering uncertainly at the edge of a tranquil blue pond swirling in mistiness. He had travelled for miles using a combination of full seven league powers when the path was visible and on the skateboard when he could not see or care about uneven terrain. Escape from the Shadow Men only strengthened his determination to reach Phemie and he had become blind to the dangers of the forest. And now this voice called to him.

  ‘Sylphia, it is I Sylphia who calls you prince Danial. Follow and I will show you the secret tunnel to Anniolate’s castle’

  From the direction of the voice an indistinct, translucent image of a thin girlish figure in wispy robes materialised. She looked like clear jelly, but unlike jelly there was no wobble as she moved gracefully across the pond towards him.

  ‘Sylphia! I’m glad to see you - well sort of see you.’ said Danial. ‘How long to reach the tunnel?’

  ‘It is not too far’ replied Sylphia ‘but you must ask no questions. I am not permitted to converse with humankind. I guide only when commanded by the Grand Sorcerers of QWERT You may listen but you are not to speak.’

  How Azel had communicated such a command Danial had no idea but following Sylphia he felt excited to think that Phemie would soon be rescued. They arrived at edge of the forest and he shivered in the significantly colder air.

  The path now merged into the dreaded causeway crossing the swamp, a foul smelling morass polluted with refuse. It stretched in a distant curve towards the sinister grey bulk of Anniolate’s castle. Azel had described it well and Danial felt relieved to have an alternative way of reaching the Evil Supreme Witch.

  ‘Here’ said Sylphia abruptly ‘the entrance to the tunnel is here’

  Danial could see nothing.

  ‘Here’ she repeated ‘I said the entrance is here. Can you not see?’

  Sylphia motioned to an enormous rock. There was no way Danial could possibly shift it.

  ‘Ah, I see you see it now’ said Sylphia. ‘My work is done, I must go. Farewell young prince. Take care’

  ‘But...’ began Danial. But Sylphia had disappeared as mysteriously as she had appeared. Opening the entrance and moving the rock without help looked like a problem with no solution.

  ***

  There was nothing in Miss Wilmcurse’s bag of tricks to solve this one. The rock must weigh several tonnes and little short of a JCB would shift it. If only Azel was here to advise or, if she knew how to use a computer reply to an email he could send using the handheld; a perfect example of the limitations of not keeping up to date with technology.

  ‘Great! Now I ‘m stuck here’ he said out loud to himself ‘Typical’

  The paperless pencil slid provocatively from the backpack’s side pocket. How and why it did Danial didn’t stop to think, but it was the obvious way to contact Azel. Hurriedly snatching it he wrote in the air with the smoke from the pencil:

  ‘Entrance to tunnel blocked by rock. Please advise how to move it. Thanks. Danial ’

  Checking his spelling Danial huffed on the message and recited ‘huff’an puff’an readum message, Azel Goodwill’

  The smoke churned around making the message incomprehensible, and promptly vanished into thin air.

  ‘Very impressive’ muttered Danial highly sceptical of it ever arriving anywhere for Azel to read. With a resigned sigh, he settled himself on the ground and leaned against the rock, hands clasped behind his head. Until a reply came back - if ever one did come back - he was stuck. Unless he braved the causeway after all.

  ***

  ‘Oh no!’ exclaimed Azel as Danial ’s paperless pencil message manifested itself over the table in the Bilberry’s kitchen. ‘I don’t believe this. Look here Bilberry’

  Azel had waited for Giant Bilberry to get home from the forest before setting out on her return to Lower Chantment and sat chatting with him in the kitchen before she left.

  ‘That useless creature Sylphia’ she went on. ‘I specifically told her not to leave Danial until he’d opened the entrance. She knows how to do it; she knows where the pebble is. She’s just being stupid. You can’t rely on anyone these days can you? Empty headed or what’

  ‘Well you sure can’t see brains in ‘er head that’s for sure’ said Bilberry cheerfully. Azel pushed her chair noisily across the hard floor of the kitchen and stomped across the room in an exasperated temper.

  ‘It’s the last time I ask her to do anything. Now let’s get this sorted’

  Crossly grabbing the message as it hung in the air, Azel rolled it around in the palm of her hand forming it in the shape of an arrow. Flinging it towards the open door she nonchalantly nodded in the direction of the forest and it disappeared in another puff of smoke.

  ***

  It seemed like less than ten minutes since Danial sent his message when Azel’s arrow smoked its way around his head oscillating and pointing towards a small pebble beside the rock. Danial sprang to his feet and scrutinised the pebble. It was loosely attached to the rock by a thin silvery thread. He tugged it lightly, surprised by its springiness. A soft ‘boing’ sound echoed from behind the rock. Slowly the rock rolled, its weight grinding against the ground, moss and earth cascading from its edges to reveal the entrance to the tunnel.

  Gingerly he peered inside expecting to find it dirty, rough hewn and dark. Instead the tunnel walls were rippled and rounded, a smooth hard floor curved out of sight glowing in a mysterious translucent light. This was going to be easy! The skateboard would simply fly through this
tunnel and in no time at all he would be bringing Phemie safely home. The big snag was knowing where to look in the castle’s vast number of corridors, dungeons, and chambers. The more time spent searching the greater chance of Anniolate discovering him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Rescue - and escape!

  ‘Now listen to me one more time, my girl’ said Anniolate, her words falling with deadly softness from twisted lips ‘Get it into your pretty little head nobody’s ever going to find you here. To resist training in the art of evil magic only means more trouble for your mother back in that snivelling little village. Do you understand? Don’t you realise how lucky you are to have been brought here? Many girls out there would cut out their tongues for an opportunity like yours’

  She hesitated. ‘On second thoughts, they wouldn’t cut out their tongues would they- they wouldn’t be able to utter any spells would they?’

  Anniolate threw back her head and laughed horribly; a maniacal laugh echoing round the bulky arches of the cauldron room. The cronies loafing about sniggered and leered at one another in agreement.

  Phemie, awkwardly tied with thick hairy rope to an oversized and ugly carved chair, looked askance at the cronies. Their toadiness was unbelievable and as for that filthy old hag Venefica who had brought her to this place, she had difficulty remembering anything except the overpowering stench of the woman. Anniolate had tried to sweet talk her into accepting initiation for training as a novice and Phemie’s resistance made the Evil Supreme Witch angry and exasperated. She expected everyone to obey and agree to her every obsession and had not bargained for such courage and determination from one so young.

  Anniolate pushed her face up close, glaring angrily. ‘Are you listening?’

  Phemie shrank back, turning her head to the side. The witch’s breath hung stale around her nostrils and her pallid white complexion looked pock marked and dried-up. Ever since she had awoken, Phemie had struggled to reach the crystal given to her by Danial and send a signal, but the rope was too tight. She would have to fool the Evil Supreme Witch into thinking she was co-operating.

  ‘I said are you listening?’ Anniolate repeated ‘or shall we ask Catastrophe to use her, let’s say persuasive powers, on you?’

  At the sound of the name, a matted bundle of spiky hair stirred in a corner of the room and unfurled itself, flexing discoloured claws and stroking a pimply tongue around its stained whiskers. It sauntered sluggishly across the cauldron room, claws clicking ominously on the flagstone floor. It was probably the most human looking cat Phemie had ever seen, with an evil fanged smile and eyes hideously slit by a baleful stare.

  ‘Catastrophe is my constant friend and companion’ smiled Anniolate affectionately stroking the cat ‘but of course, she is not everyone’s friend and loves to scratch and bite. Sometimes I just can’t stop her.’

  The cat flexed its claws again and looked hopefully at Phemie, waiting for the word to attack.

  The cronies shuffled about and nudged each other in anticipation.

  ‘What is it you want me to do first, then?’ demanded Phemie, now intent on outwitting her kidnapper.

  ‘Ha! The girl’s seen sense at last’ cried Anniolate. Venefica, undo the rope. She’s ready to talk’

  Catastrophe hissed horribly in frustration and swiped at a large black fly. It was lanced on a single claw and with a slurp, swallowed whole before the cat slunk back to its corner.

  Phemie held her breath so as not to smell Venefica as the rope around her was unravelled. Its roughness had made red marks on her wrists and she realised she must have been tied up for some considerable time. But now Danial could be sent the signal.

  Instinctively she clutched at the crystal thinking hard, hoping Danial would have his computer switched on.

  ‘What is that?’ screeched Anniolate ‘What is that hanging round your neck?’

  She reached for the crystal and with a terrified scream fell back as if suddenly stung by a wasp.

  ‘It is a royal crystal! Here. In my castle! Get it off her. NOW! I feel its force on me. GET IT OFF HER!’

  Venefica sprang forward, warily grasping the chain around Phemie’s neck to avoid touching the crystal and snatched it off with a painful sharp jerk. Hastily she waddled over to the window and threw it out, listening for the splash as the crystal fell into the swamp far below.

  Phemie watched in horror as her only hope of contacting Danial was taken from her and gone forever. She had no idea whether the signal would have reached him, where he was or even if he knew she had been captured. She would have to wait and play the Evil Supreme Witch’s game for as long as she could.

  ***

  Danial hesitated when his hand-held PC vibrated. Messages always seemed to come through at inconvenient times and the entrance of the tunnel was not the occasion to get spam. Reluctantly he logged on. The familiar jingle and the ‘Megahard Doors’ logo appeared on screen.

  ‘Tring trong. You have a new message’ spoke the computer, a graphic 3D crystal rotating across the screen. Danial could hardly believe it. Phemie’s signal! She’s OK. But where is she? Hurriedly he punched in his password.

  The screen went blank. Slowly a coloured plan of the castle emerged, an arrow head pointing to the cauldron room and a dotted line showing the tunnel beneath. Brilliant! The risk of being discovered hunting round the castle had evaporated like magic!

  It was darker inside the tunnel than it had first looked and the light faded as the steepness of descent increased. In the dimness it seemed almost vertical, burrowing deep under the swamp above. With the steepness came speed, slipstream pulling at his hair and clothes, stinging his eyes, walls leaving only a vague impression of their rippled smoothness.

  Slow. Slow down! Rocks and debris had suddenly caused the skateboard to shudder violently. It pitched and smashed along the uneven floor threatening to throw him off and Danial knew he must slow down not only to avoid wrecking it, but also navigate ever tightening curves and an alarming shrinkage of the tunnel’s diameter. Even crouching low his head brushed dangerously against the ceiling. Without warning a solid wall appeared out of nowhere in the gloominess directly ahead. Instinctively he slammed on the brakes as hard as he could, bringing the skateboard skidding and sighing to a stop with just twenty nine centimetres to spare.

  ***

  The tunnel was sopping wet, dripping as if it might collapse at any time under the weight of the swamp. Gingerly he stepped off the skateboard, rapidly pulling back his foot as it crunched on something. Rat skulls. Millions of them. Bones from legs, ribs, and spines covered the floor. Yellow decaying teeth jutted from jawbone cavities, staining the stagnant puddles of evil smelling swamp sludge. He had come to a dead end in more sense than one as he realised with revulsion this must be where the yellow toothed rats came to die. Bilberry said the tunnel lead straight to the castle and hadn’t mentioned this. No mention of a wall either. There was no obvious way forward.

  Attempting to ignore the crunching of bones beneath his feet, Danial edged closer to the wall. It seemed impenetrable. He felt his way across its width, searching for a door or way through of some kind. Then, low down on one side his probing fingers discovered an opening. It was barely big enough to crawl through, and to judge from the pile of slimy debris on the other side part of the tunnel had already collapsed.

  Stretching before him a flight of uneven stone steps led upwards and away from the dankness the rats graveyard. He yanked the skateboard through and began to climb.

  It was a long way up and it was clear the stairway had not been used for many years. Layers of dust and grime were everywhere, many steps barely formed having eroded away. They tested Danial ’s stamina to the limit and he was out of breath and sweating with the exertion of climbing quickly when total darkness closed in. He had reached the confines of Anniolate’s castle and her evil influence extinguished all for
ms of light.

  He stumbled, wildly peering into the blackness feeling for the next step. ‘How much further?’ he panicked. ‘How many more steps?’

  ‘Take care now, Danial ’ said a voice above him ‘There’s no need to worry.’

  ‘Azel!’ gasped Danial ‘how did you get here?’

  ‘Ah ha’ replied Azel ‘I‘m not a grand sorcerer for nothing you know. Anyway, I’m not here really. It’s only my image projection you’re seeing. Now what you need is some light, otherwise you’re never going to reach the top. Here, rub this on your fingertips’

  A candle appeared magically out of the darkness, hovering in front of Danial. But it had no wick to light.

  ‘I know what you’re going to say’ went on Azel. ‘It hasn’t got a wick to light’ she mimicked a whinging voice. ‘Just rub it on your fingers. Quickly please, my projection spell’s running out’

  Danial rubbed the candle on his fingertips. Magically, broad beams of light pierced the darkness wherever he pointed.

  ‘Hey, that’s cool’ he exclaimed. ‘Thanks Azel’ But she had gone as mysteriously as she had appeared and he had no time to think about how she had done it.

  ***

  At last he was on the top step and at the bottom of a shaft less than two meters square. There were no doors, the only exit being up a decrepit wooden ladder, rotting and rungs missing reaching up to the underside of the loose floor slab discovered by Bilberry.

  Danial took hold of the ladder to re position it. The aged wood simply crumbled in his hand. It was useless.

  It took him but a moment to remember the skateboard’s multifunction performance. Set in platform mode its lifting power was perfect. ‘Miss Wilmcurse’s a clever woman. It’s as if she had foreseen all the problems’ muttered Danial clicking the levitation control button.

  Smoothly the skateboard rose, lifting Danial and automatically hovering where he could push up the stone slab. It had not been moved for many years and dust encrusted cobwebs hid the join. He scraped them out of the way, jumping in alarm as he dislodged an enormous thick bodied hairy spider which plopped on to his shoulder and scurried down his arm before falling to the ground.