by Mark Robson
Despite their silent approach, Elian sensed them coming and turned.
‘This is ridiculous!’ he exclaimed in frustration, putting his hands on his hips and frowning. ‘How can it be possible?’
‘Fang says he can explain it,’ Kira said. ‘I’ll relay what he says.’
‘It is actually quite simple,’ Fang began, ‘though the mechanics behind it are likely to be complex. This trap works on sequenced pressure. As we move along a passageway, our weight on the flagstones is translated through mechanical means into signals that are raising and lowering certain mirrored panels ahead of us. The direction we are travelling dictates the sequence and in turn shapes the passageway that we meet ahead of us. Not all the mirrors move. Most have solid walls behind them. The trick is to find which of the mirrors are mounted on a false wall, and which, if any, conceal the way to the dusk orb. We should look to the flagstones, too. I feel it likely that the key is under our feet.’
No sooner had Kira finished repeating Fang’s explanation to the others than the voice they had heard in the main entrance hall spoke again, its booming tones echoing around the corridors.
‘Well done!’ the voice said. ‘Well done, indeed! I never thought to see someone solve the mystery of the mirrors so quickly. You have a keen eye for detail, dusk dragon. I shall save you the trouble of smashing up my maze. It is difficult to find craftsmen who can make suitable replacement mirrors these days. Take the passageway to the left again. You will find the exit quickly enough. Do not tarry. Delay and you will die.’
‘Wait!’ Pell called. ‘Who are you?’
‘Pell is wasting his breath,’ Fang commented to Kira. ‘His presence has gone. I think I’m beginning to understand more than just the nature of this castle.’
‘What do you mean?’ Kira asked.
‘I believe I’ve solved the riddle of the orb,’ Fang replied. ‘We shall see if I’m correct when we meet the owner of that voice.’
Kira did not want to wait for an answer, but she could tell from Fang’s tone that he would tell her no more at the moment. His voice had a grim edge to it. Whatever he was thinking, she was certain it was not pleasant. The natures of the previous two orbs resurfaced in her mind’s eye. One filled with blood, another formed from a dragon’s heart – what would make up the core of this orb?
Ever protected, the dusk orb lies
Behind the cover, yet no disguise.
Afterlife image, unreal yet real,
Lives in the shadows, waits to reveal.
Was the voice waiting to reveal the orb? It appeared to live here in the Castle of Shadows. If it was really waiting to reveal the answer, why was it playing games and setting traps? The rhyme still made no sense.
The hairs on the back of Kira’s neck began to prickle.
‘The voice wasn’t bluffing,’ she hissed in an urgent whisper. ‘We’re not alone in here any more. Move! Quickly! Something’s coming – and it’s not friendly.’
The feeling that danger was approaching was more than intuition. Years of hunting in the savannah of Racafi had tuned her senses and refined her instincts. She could not say how she knew, but she knew they needed to get out of the maze as fast as they could.
Fang led the way forwards. The riders followed, with Firestorm at the rear. They rounded the corner and, as promised, a short way down the mirrored corridor was a large hole in the floor. The stone flooring had slid aside to reveal a set of stairs that were designed for a dragon to descend. The steps were too deep for the riders to step down, but they dropped down from step to step, Firestorm providing light with his breath.
Firestorm began his descent. No sooner had he fully committed to the stairs than a whispering grate of stone on stone began above them. It concluded with a soft thump. The opening into the mirror maze had shut. A warm flush of relief ran through Kira’s body and the sensation of imminent danger dimmed to a glimmer. The tension drained out of her shoulders. Whatever had entered the mirror maze was trapped. Despite the fact they were being herded forwards with no control over their path, Kira felt sure that an encounter with whatever was now in the passageways above would not have been pleasant.
As they neared the bottom, Kira felt a flutter of excitement in her stomach. A pile of unlit torches lay on the ground next to the bottom step. Each rider grabbed a couple of torches from the stack. Firestorm lit one of Elian’s and he lit one each for the others. Kira climbed Fang’s side and the others passed her up the spares, which she inserted, handle first into her saddlebags. They stuck out of the top, but she wedged them in place so they would not fall out. Then she climbed down to join the others.
The torches gave off an unusual scent, much like the musk candles that merchants from the Far East traded on markets all across Areth. The odour was warm and sweet, instantly raising images in Kira’s mind. Not memories, but hints of dreams and daydreams; strange lands, balmy nights, exotic trees and birds with feathers of many bright colours.
The riders took the lead this time, walking with Fang just behind them and Firestorm remaining as the rear guard. The tunnel was wide enough for the dragons, and appeared to have been carved through solid grey rock, the colour of the castle above. The walls were rough-hewn with odd alcoves and holes where darkness clung until direct light exposed their empty interior. The orange light of the flickering torches made shadows dance and flee with swift, darting movements. More than once, Kira could have sworn she saw movements that were not shadows, but she was quick to dismiss them as figments of her imagination. She felt no warning prickle of danger and was sure that if there were anything alive down here that could hurt them, she would sense it.
‘What was that?’ Nolita whispered, coming to an abrupt halt.
‘What was what?’ Kira asked, dropping her voice to match Nolita’s hissing whisper and scanning the passageway ahead for any sign of movement. She held her torch high, but nothing was in sight. Nolita’s face was pale as milk and she was shaking again.
‘It . . . I could have sworn . . . there was a dragon’s tail,’ she stammered. ‘A black dragon’s tail. I saw it whip away around the corner ahead. I think Segun has managed to get ahead of us somehow.’
‘Nonsense!’ Pell said immediately, but Kira was surprised to hear a note of uncertainty in his tone. Had he seen something, too?
‘Did you see anything, Fang?’ she asked.
‘No,’ he replied calmly. ‘I sense there is a presence ahead, but it is not close enough to see.’
‘Relax, Nolita,’ Kira said, placing her hand on the girl’s shoulder. ‘After the shadow demons and the halls of mirrors it’s not surprising that our imaginations are running a bit wild. Fang assures me there’s nothing there.’
‘But I saw . . .’
‘I saw something, too,’ Elian admitted softly. ‘I couldn’t say what it was, but something is ahead of us. I definitely saw movement.’
Nolita looked at Elian. Kira found it hard to tell if Nolita was grateful for his admission, or terrified by it.
Pell had gone uncharacteristically quiet. The heady fumes of the torches coiled around them as they paused, filling the air with their musky scent.
‘Let’s keep going,’ Kira suggested. ‘We’ll stay on our guard and be ready to let Fang and Fire take the lead, if necessary. Come on. It can’t be far now.’
She took Nolita’s hand in hers and led her onwards along the passageway. They had hardly walked a dozen paces before a roar from behind brought the four riders to an abrupt halt. A bright flare lit the tunnel as Firestorm belched huge jets of fiery breath back along the way they had come.
‘What’s happening, Nolita?’ Kira asked, unable to see around Fang well enough to tell what Firestorm was doing.
‘Fire says we’re being followed,’ she replied. ‘He says he wants to let whoever is behind us know that we’re in no mood for games.’
‘Did he see who it was?’ asked Elian.
‘No, but he says he’s been aware of them almost from the moment we des
cended the steps.’
‘Shadows in front, shadows behind – the castle is doing its best to spook us,’ Kira said, trying to sound brave, but no longer sure that she felt it. ‘Well I’m not going to let figments stand in my way. We came for the orb. Are we still going in the right direction, Fang?’
‘As far as I can tell,’ he answered. ‘I can’t be sure, but my heart tells me we are getting closer.’
‘That’s good enough for me. Let’s get this over with.’
Chapter Twenty-four
Power that Binds
Kira led the way forwards, striding ahead at a bold tempo. She still held Nolita’s hand and was all but dragging her companion along behind her. The boys followed, a couple of paces back. Elian looked uncomfortable, while Pell tried and failed to appear unconcerned.
The underground passageway continued in a gentle curving descent to the right. Shadows continued to dance and leap ahead of them, but Kira ignored them. Her head was aching and her eyes felt sore. The orb was close. She was sure of it. All she wanted to do was face whatever challenge awaited and get it over with. The rhyme did not hint at what sort of challenge it might be. Nolita’s had been a test of bravery. Pell’s had been a test of courage, skill and endurance. What challenge awaited her?
The slope grew steeper and the steady plink, plink, plink of water dripping into a pool seemed to echo unnaturally loud in her ears. Was that mist ahead? Underground mist? She had never heard of such a phenomenon. The wispy tendrils thickened until the entire passageway was filled with an unnaturally thick fog that reduced visibility to no more than a few paces. Barely slowing at all, Kira forged onwards into the murk and was gently swallowed up.
The slope flattened suddenly. Kira stumbled as her legs adjusted to the change. The passage straightened. A glance back over her shoulder and she could see Fang’s great eyes reflecting the torchlight above the heads of her companions. She touched him through the bond and was reassured by his calm.
The torches began adding to the murky atmosphere, giving off grey smoke into the moist air. They guttered and spluttered, but continued to burn on stubbornly in spite of the damp. Where just minutes before, the sound of dripping water had rung around them like a bell, now all sound fell dead, muffled by the mist. The temperature tumbled. To the riders it seemed as if they had crossed another threshold into a different world – a dead world where nothing grew and the dark had strength to smother light. The shell of light around them shrank to little more than a fragile cocoon as they stumbled forwards, engulfed in stone and strangling fog. The four young people instinctively bunched closer together as they pressed forwards.
A sudden gust of air snuffed out all of the torches with a single huff. The bubble of light around them burst and the darkness flooded in. Kira stopped and the other riders bunched and bumped like a contracted caterpillar.
‘Where did that wind come from?’ Elian asked.
‘No idea,’ Kira answered. ‘There’s not a breath now and there wasn’t any before. It was almost like someone blowing out candles. Nolita, can you ask Fire to make us some light until there’s enough space for us to relight our torches, please?’
There was the slightest of pauses and then a bright orange glow with an accompanying roar from behind lit up the passageway.
‘RUN!’ Nolita yelled. ‘Something’s coming for us!’
The others did not question her. They ran. There was enough fear and urgency in her command to make them act first and ask questions later. The light dimmed briefly and then flared again. Whatever Firestorm was projecting his flame at was getting the full force of his most ferocious blast. They slowed as the blazing light faded to leave them momentarily running blind, but they kept travelling forwards, accelerating again as soon as Firestorm hurled another spraying burst of fire along the passage behind them.
Almost like punching through a wall, the riders erupted from the fog as they reached the end of the tunnel and emerged into a large underground cavern. They skidded to a momentary halt and then, realising they might possibly be trampled by their own dragons, they scattered left and right. Fang was not far behind.
In the dark of the chamber, burning red eyes looked in on them from all directions. The orange glow from Firestorm’s approaching flame silhouetted outlines of six great night dragons facing them in a waiting semi-circle. As the light from Fire’s flaming breath became brighter, so the waiting dragons began to close in.
Nolita screamed, the noise amplifying and multiplying as it reverberated around the huge cavern.
Firestorm exploded out from the wall of fog, his fire extinguishing before flaring back with devastating ferocity. He spewed molten fire in a broad arc to keep the approaching dragons at bay, but without effect. The night dragons continued to close in on them, apparently immune to the heat of Fire’s hottest blast.
To Kira’s surprise, Fang did not react to the approaching night dragons. At every other encounter with night dragons his first instinct had been to camouflage himself. This time he did nothing.
‘Is it Segun?’ she asked through the bond.
‘Relax,’ he said. ‘What you are seeing is not real. They are phantoms induced by the fumes from your torches. It is only your belief that is giving them form.’
‘Can’t you see them? They’re all around us!’ Kira persisted frantically.
‘I only see them when I look through your eyes,’ Fang said calmly. ‘My sight is not so easily fooled. They are like the mist in the tunnel and the imagined movement at the edge of your vision. None of those were real. They were visions, caused by the substance you were inhaling. There is a presence here, but it feels faint like a distant echo.’
Kira felt Fang communicating with Firestorm, but she could not hear what he said. To her horror, Fire reduced his flame to a trickle – just enough to provide a little light. Fang then walked straight towards the nearest of the approaching night dragons. It drew its head back as if to strike, mouth open wide, displaying its rows of vicious pointed teeth. Horror turned to amazement as Fang walked right through the dragon and out the other side. She blinked rapidly several times to confirm she was not seeing things.
‘They’re not real!’ she said aloud. ‘They’re not real. Say it with me!’ she urged the others.
‘They’re not real. They’re . . .’ she repeated the words over and over, adding volume with each repetition until she was shouting it at the top of her voice. One by one the others joined in. First Elian, then Nolita, and finally Pell began to chant the words until belief in them began to grow. All the time the night dragons closed in around them, looming larger and larger. Was it her imagination, she wondered, or were they fading?
‘FORWARDS!’ she yelled. Grabbing Nolita’s hand again, Kira dragged her straight towards the approaching line of dragons. Nolita flinched as a night dragon lunged, closing her eyes and stumbling, but she did not stop chanting and moving forwards. One moment the dragons were there, the next they were gone. Faded into memory like a bad dream.
A glow on the far side of the chamber began almost immediately, filling the vast space with a gentle light. It looked like an amorphous cloud, much like that of the Oracle, but as it took shape it became apparent that this was not the same entity. Wings, talons and teeth – the floating vision resolved into a dragon – a dusk dragon like Fang.
‘So you are here at last!’ It was the same booming voice that they had heard in the hall of mirrors. It sounded pleased and relieved. ‘I have waited such a long time for this day. Have you come on the Great Quest to restore the Oracle?’
‘May I have use of your mouth, Kira?’ Fang asked, his tone very formal as he made his request. Kira was surprised, but she agreed immediately.
‘Yes. We have,’ he said aloud.
Hearing Fang’s voice coming from her mouth felt and sounded most strange. Kira was amazed that her throat could produce such a rolling, masculine voice. The others were equally astounded.
‘And do you know what is needed in order fo
r the orb to form?’ the glowing apparition asked, floating down until its talons settled on the cavern floor.
It was then that Kira noticed the metal plinth, right there, next to the owner of the voice. It looked just like the one they had seen in the Valley of the Griffins.
‘We do,’ Fang said.
‘We do?’ she asked silently.
‘I told you I had solved the riddle,’ he told her. ‘The required sacrifice will not be pleasant, but it’s one I’m willing to make. This is what I was born for, Kira, but I did not want to worry you. As soon as I worked it out, I knew you would not be happy.’
‘Tell me!’ she ordered, her heart pounding as she tried once again to untangle the words of the rhyme.
‘Your sight is true, Longfang,’ the great voice announced. ‘You were not deceived by the shadow demons, you saw through the mystery of the mirrors and your eyes could not be fooled by hallucinations. Step forwards then and claim the Orb of Vision. I shall remove that which is needed.’
Suddenly it all clicked into place. Kira knew what this phantom dragon was going to do and her stomach turned at the thought of it.
‘No!’ she cried in her mind. ‘You can’t do this, Fang! It’s too horrible. It’s wrong!’
Ever protected, the dusk orb lies
Behind the cover, yet no disguise.
Afterlife image, unreal yet real,
Lives in the shadows, waits to reveal.
An eye! The rhyme spoke of an eye! Ever protected in its socket – sometimes hidden behind its eyelid, but never disguised. Fang’s eyesight was his most precious asset. He relied on his sight as much as he relied on his camouflage for protection. How could he be expected to sacrifice an eye?
This apparition in front of them must be the afterlife image. Did that make it a ghost? If so, how could it have substance enough to remove Fang’s eye? Yet she knew this was exactly what it intended to do. She felt sick. What could she do to stop it?
