by SJB Gilmour
Sarah then realised something she had always thought to be a myth. She could actually smell Angela’s fear. Well, if Angela was frightened, then Sarah wasn’t going to let anything happen to her teacher. Again, the protective instinct of the wolf took over. She growled and shouldered past her teacher and pawed at the door. It swung open and Sarah rushed through into an enormous dark cavern.
Sarah whined with surprise when she looked up. They were inside the base of what looked like a huge round tower, going up hundreds of metres. The walls were lined with hundreds of thousands of tomes and scrolls. A wide path circled its way up the tower. On that path were a great many sorcerers and alien-looking soldiers.
Two of the soldiers immediately appeared to confront them. It wasn’t the fact that they brandished their weapons that surprised Sarah. It was simply that they were not human. Mostly they looked human, except for their heads. Their black eyes were more slanted than most humans and their skin was a yellowish-brown. Their wide mouths were filled with very sharp, dark grey teeth and their noses were very flat with wide, flared nostrils.
Sarah recognised them from many of the various texts and tomes she had read in the library. These were Sorcerers’ Guild guardslins - goblins for hire who were charged with policing the headquarters of The Sorcerers’ Guild, Conundrum Gate!
‘What do you want?’ one of the guardslins demanded, pointing his spear at Sarah. He was superbly muscled and the way he held his spear gave everyone no doubt that he was quite adept at using it. Sarah was about to respond with a growl when Angela appeared behind her.
‘That’s not your concern, guardslin,’ she told the goblin curtly. ‘We’re here to see The Guild Council.’
‘We’ll see,’ said a new goblin. This one was dressed differently. He wore a sleeveless leather vest, flowing black pantaloons and black leather boots. His only weapon was a long curved sword very much like a samurai sword. He glared at her. He waved over his shoulder and several more guardslins appeared. They carried spears and crossbows.
‘Weapons,’ he demanded, gesturing that Angela disarm herself and hand her weapons to one of his fellows.
‘Very well, Captain,’ Angela said curtly.
It took nearly two minutes for Angela to unbuckle all her weapons and pass them to the stone-faced goblin soldiers.
‘And the rest of them, Captain,’ the goblin in charge instructed, indicating he recognised Angela’s rank just as she had his.
Angela grimaced and then retrieved two more knives that were hidden within her boots. The goblin’s expression did not change. Angela sighed again and then reached inside her vest for a small pack of throwing stars and a length of metal cord with a brass handle at each end.
The goblin captain’s eyes widened. ‘A garrotte?’ he asked, raising one eyebrow. His expression now one of professional curiosity.
Angela shrugged. ‘It pays to be prepared.’ She gave him a sideways glance. ‘As if you don’t have one tucked away somewhere.’
The captain waved to another guardslin. ‘Search them.’
Angela and Mel both stood calmly, with their arms outspread and their feet wide apart as the goblins patted them down. They found two more knives and a leather sling along with a small pouch full of silver shot. The captain didn’t change expression when he was shown these items. He did look quite concerned when he looked at Sarah though.
‘Do we need to search the werewolf?’ he asked Angela.
Angela shrugged again. ‘Have one of your goblins try,’ she suggested dryly. ‘Goblin claws grow back, don’t they?’
‘No better than Amazon heads,’ he growled at her. Then with one claw on the butt of his sword and the other pointed at Sarah, he ordered, ‘Change.’
Sarah took several deep breaths and then let herself resume her human form. It was much harder than she’d expected. It was even harder for her to remain human while three goblins pointed crossbows at her and two more frisked her. Once they’d finished, she resumed her wolf shape faster than she’d ever done before.
Finally satisfied that Sarah and her friends were unarmed, the captain gestured to his soldiers. ‘Take them up,’ he ordered curtly and then strode away.
One of the soldiers stamped one foot. A large elevator appeared beside them.
‘In you go!’ he instructed brusquely.
Angela led Sarah and Mel into the elevator. This elevator, obviously a previous model to the one Benjamin had, was silent and obedient. Also its walls, instead of being solid stainless steel, were glass from about waist height to the ceiling. Its doors slid shut and there was a shudder as it shot up through the middle of the tower.
Then the elevator lurched around in a wide arc around the top of the tower, which spread around a wide room the shape one would normally see at the top of an airport control tower, only much, much bigger. Sarah counted nine large doors. They were covered with intricate runes and symbols but as far as she could tell, they were all exactly alike. Then the elevator came to a shuddering halt outside one of the doors. Its door opened, as did the door it stopped outside of.
‘Mind the gap,’ one of the guardslins advised.
Sarah looked down. The elevator was suspended, mid-air, hundreds of metres from the ground below. The gap the goblin mentioned was a scarily large space between the elevator and the beautifully polished floor of the enormous round room.
In the middle of the floor was a shimmering nine-pointed star set in dark grey granite. As they moved closer, they noticed that in the very centre of the star, a much smaller star was carved. The star-shaped hole was pitch-black and the edges of it were crusted in ice. A strange green mist wafted out of it.
Around the outer edge of the largest star were nine large stone tables at which nine sorcerers each were sitting and standing. All conversation stopped as the three walked into the hall. Each of the robed sorcerers wore heavy gold chains around their necks from which hung solid gold nine-pointed stars roughly the same sizes as the hole in the middle of the floor. The sorcerer who met them in the middle had a different star around his neck. His star was not gold but a white-looking metal. Sarah cocked her head to one side and her sharp wolf eyes stared at the star intently. It wasn’t silver, she guessed. Given the nasty nature of silver, it would be unlikely that this guy would have the awful stuff around his neck. It had to be some other sort of precious metal.
Buzzing about one end of the table was a small mob of chattering pixies. Each held a small crystal ball out as though he was holding a microphone. As soon as they saw Angela, there was a flurry of squeaks and squawks and quite a bit of swearing in Pixie before they all disappeared.
The sorcerers behind the benches immediately began chattering and calling out. The sorcerer with the white metal star hanging around his neck carried a battered old staff, also carved with the same sorts of runes as the door. His face was tanned and he wore an exquisitely trimmed beard that Sarah found oddly repulsive. She could tell this was a man who spent way too much time on his appearance. He turned and glared angrily at the surrounding sorcerers and struck the floor with his staff. The noise level dropped to a dull murmur. He turned back to Sarah and her friends.
‘Well, Golden Mane,’ he said to Sarah, ignoring Angela and Mel. His voice was dry and dusty. ‘Welcome to Conundrum,’ he drawled maliciously. ‘You really should have consulted Cassandra before coming here, young lady.’ He smiled tightly, his expression showing that he clearly thought he knew something Sarah didn’t. He then gave her the slightest of nods. ‘I am Marzdane, Chairman of the Sorcerers’ Guild, and these,’ he gestured to the robed sorcerers at the benches, ‘are some of my fellow counsellors.’ He looked down at his robe. ‘Ahh, you’ve noticed my platinum badge of office,’ he remarked, stroking the star fondly. ‘One day, I imagine you’ll be wearing this thing, but not any time soon.’ Now his voice dripped venom and his eyes were narrowed with a new cruelty. He looked past Sarah to Angela.
‘Welcome back to Conundrum Gate, Angela,’ the sorcerer said to Ange
la. ‘I suppose I have you to thank for ridding us of the presence of those pixies, but if that was a good-will gesture, I’m afraid it’s a little light.’
Angela gave him a scornful look that told him quite clearly that the reason the Pixierazzi had gone was none of his business.
‘You’re being very brave, showing up here,’ Marzdane almost purred, ignoring her look. ‘Tell me,’ he went on over the clatter of dozens more guardslins arriving, ‘is there one good reason why we shouldn’t lock you up and throw away the key?’
Marzdane stepped up to them menacingly while the goblins took up stations all around the room. On instinct, Sarah moved in front of her teacher with a low growl. The sorcerer laughed wickedly and flicked his fingers at her. In a flash, Sarah was floating with her paws about half a metre off the ground. She howled in frustration as he poked her with his staff, sending her drifting out of the way into the centre of the room. Water dripped from her golden coat, sounding very loud on the polished stone floor. She gave herself an involuntary shake, sending a fine mist of water drifting through the air.
Mel paled in fright. She backed behind her aunt. Angela’s eyes narrowed as she eyed the goblin soldiers warily. Then the air around her shimmered and her weapons suddenly reappeared. She drew one of her knives with her left hand and her sword with her right.
While Marzdane did not appear threatened by Angela one little bit, every other sorcerer in the room did very much. The goblins paused their advance, which was probably a very good thing, Sarah noted as she watched her teacher in awe. She really did look like she knew how to use her weapons.
‘I’m not interested in your old grudges, Marzdane!’ Angela grated as she scanned the goblins with a steadily moving gaze. ‘I brought these two here because there’s an unleashed troll in suburban Melbourne. It was looking for one of them. You know that there’s never just one troll. There could be hundreds more. Whatever The Guild might think of me doesn’t matter one iota right now. The Guild has a duty to protect these two innocents!’
At this, the assembled witches and sorcerers began chattering nervously among themselves. Marzdane however, was not impressed. He glowered angrily at Angela.
‘Hold fast!’ he barked at the guardslins and they stopped their advance. To Angela, he snapped ‘Prove it! Put away your weapons!’
This drew several awed gasps from the audience. It was quite obvious none of them would have dared risk confronting Angela so boldly. Still, after one last deadly glance at the soldiers around her, Angela sheathed her knife, but held onto her sword. She stood at ease with its point resting on the floor in front of her feet.
Marzdane sneered at her. ‘No-one in their right mind would take up with the trolls after their behaviour during the Napoleonic Wars! No law abiding sorcerer or witch would dare!’ He stamped his staff on the ground to quieten the other counsellors. ‘Besides,’ he added with contempt. ‘They’re all confined.’ Then he levelled his staff at Angela.
‘You, Angelina Hardingleflass,’ he warned, pointing his staff directly at Angela’s chest, ‘were ordered not to return to Conundrum. An alleged sighting of one mere troll isn’t enough to protect you from the consequences of breaking that edict!’ Then his eyes narrowed. ‘Are you sure you didn’t come here just to see me one more time?’ he asked nastily.
Angela then proved just how quick she could really be with her sword. There was a blur of movement and suddenly Marzdane’s staff was chopped in two. Now she stood warily, levelling her sword.
‘You should know better than to point anything at me, Marzdane,’ she growled. Of course, this sent the council into a flurry of gasps and cries.
Sarah had managed to stop drifting through the air. She turned to Marzdane and resumed her human form. When she did this, of course, she fell the small distance to the floor. She landed lightly and marched resolutely towards the robed sorcerer. She made sure she was between him and Angela.
‘There was too a troll!’ declared Sarah vehemently. ‘We saw it! It was dressed like a man in a dark coat and hat. Then the storm came and it got wet and started to burn! Miss Harding made the disguise go away and it ran off.’
This Marzdane took more seriously. He discarded the half of the staff that he’d been left holding.
‘That doesn’t make sense,’ Marzdane muttered to himself. ‘Tell me about this disguise,’ he asked her, his eyes suddenly burning with curiosity. The news of the troll’s disguise seemed to rattle him for some reason.
‘I just told you,’ answered Sarah. ‘He was dressed like some kind of spy or reporter. Nobody wears a hat and coat like that anymore.’
‘It,’ corrected Marzdane absently.
‘What?’ demanded Sarah.
‘It,’ Marzdane repeated, forgetting about his distraction for a moment. ‘Trolls don’t have a gender. They reproduce the same way worms do. That’s what makes them so hard to kill. Chop the head off a troll and before you know it, you’ve got two of the most unpleasant critters around. The head grows a new body and the body grows a new head. Nasty brutes, trolls. Never did like them. No good for anything. They smell bad and taste worse.’
Sarah snorted. Who would eat such a disgusting creature?
Marzdane began pacing the stone floor, shaking his head. ‘Impossible,’ he muttered.
‘It couldn’t be!’ protested one of the witches. ‘She was banished! Her confinement was warded by The Guild itself!’
The room erupted into shouts and arguments. Mel and Sarah crowded around Angela.
‘Silence!’ Marzdane snapped at them. ‘Which one of you summoned the storm?’ he asked suddenly.
Mel and her aunt looked at each other and shrugged. ‘Neither,’ Angela said flatly.
‘What’s going on?’ Sarah almost cried. Had she been the one to summon the storm months ago, as the elevator had accused her of doing?
‘Something unpleasant,’ replied Angela seriously. ‘That’s why I brought us here. If I’m right, then the disguise that troll was using can mean but one thing.’
‘Never mind the troll, Angelina,’ Marzdane growled ominously. ‘You know the consequences of tampering with the weather. If you summoned that storm – and believe me, I’ll find out if you did – no werewolf protector will be able to help you!’
‘You’re missing the point, you old fool!’ Angela raged. She sheathed her sword and gestured at him angrily. ‘Something is going on with the trolls! They don’t just show up in suburban areas wearing disguises! I tell you, this one was looking for one of these two girls and we all know what that means!’
‘What is that?’ Mel demanded, nervously looking about, rubbing her head. The assembled counsellors were all on their feet and yelling at one another.
‘That all the trouble Master Harding here went to, to capture Miranda was for nothing. She’s escaped and somehow re-established her powers and once again is in league with the trolls,’ another voice said from behind them. Sarah whirled to see her Uncle Benjamin in human form, flanked by Roberta and Robert in their Brown Coat werewolf forms. All three were looking very grim, especially Roberta, whose ears were down flat and whose teeth were bared ferociously. One of the goblin guardslins broke forward and went for her with a short sword.
Angela drew her blades again with practiced speed, but Roberta was even faster. She leaped at the goblin and snapped at his neck. With a savage twist, Roberta, who until now had never shown any sign of violence at all, sent the goblin’s head flying in a spray of dark, foul-smelling blood. She landed and snarled at the remaining goblins.
‘Back!’ Marzdane yelled at the rest of the guardslins. Their dark eyes gleamed with anger and frustration and many barred their pointy teeth, but they did as they were told.
‘General Guntex will hear of this, Chairman,’ one of them snarled as he resumed his position.
‘Humph,’ Marzdane snorted. ‘He should be grateful to Madame Coppernick here for ridding his ranks of an idiot.’ Then he turned to Benjamin. ‘What are you doing here, McConnell?�
�� the nasty sorcerer sneered. ‘And you know Angelina no longer has any right to that title.’
‘Says you,’ Angela grated in a dangerously low tone that sent a chill through the crowd.
Benjamin strode forward, his face like a thundercloud. He pointed at Marzdane angrily.
‘You and I are going to have words later, Marzdane,’ he warned ominously. ‘I’m summoning a full council caucus. And as for the rest of you,’ he waved at the rest of the witches, sorcerers and goblins, ‘you should all know better. Angela wouldn’t risk coming here with two children if she didn’t think it was important. What’s got into you all?’
‘Hardingleflass shouldn’t be here!’ accused one of the witches who was obviously feeling bolder than her fellows. Several of the guardslins raised their spears and swords again in agreement.
‘Silence!’ Benjamin roared. His voice was overlapped with a horrific clap of thunder that shook the room. The witch who had spoken fainted dead away and many of the others shrank back in fright. The guardslins clapped the visors on their helmets down and began to advance again. Not one managed to take more than two strides before each and every one of them was frozen in place as Benjamin threw a single-worded spell at them.
‘Stickum!’ he commanded, freezing the goblins mid-step. Then to everyone else in the room he yelled ‘Enough!’
Sarah was shocked. Her most favourite uncle in the whole world had always been so nice and gentle. In fact, she had never even heard him raise his voice before.
Marzdane appeared equally furious. He strode forward and stood directly in front of Benjamin. The air around the two sorcerers shimmered and sparked. Those of Marzdane’s cronies who were still conscious, all shrank back even further. Roberta gave a low growl and bared her long white fangs warningly.
The sorcerers glared at each other in silence for a long moment. Sarah felt sure her heart was beating so loudly that everyone in the room could hear it.
