Phobetor's palace stood in the distance, casting a long shadow. Its black steeples pierced the clouds and dragons swam above it.
"We're finally here," Cade said hoarsely. His throat was so dry, speaking hurt. "It can't be more than five miles."
"How can you be sure this is Phobetor's home?" Tasha asked, sitting on Cade's shoulder.
Cade pulled out his compass. It hummed, trembled, and glowed in his palm. "I can't be sure." He sighed. "But my instinct tells me that here is the place." We never really expected a neon sign proclaiming "Phobetor's Palace", did we?
Tasha shivered and lay on her stomach. "I don't want to go in there. I'm scared, Cade."
"You can wait for me here," Cade said softly.
Tasha shook her head. "No. I've come all this way. I go with you."
Cade lifted the mouse and placed her in his palm. She felt thin and sick, her fur matted. "It's okay, Tash. Why should we both risk ourselves?"
Tasha stared back with black eyes. Suddenly she looked so much like her old human self. She has the same eyes, even in mouse form. "I wouldn't leave you, Cade. Not even if we march to death. Let me die with you, if that should happen. Come. Let's go. Do you have the bottle?"
Cade nodded, and for a moment he could not talk, not without fear of his voice breaking into a sob. He placed Tasha back on his shoulder. "It's in my pocket."
The air was hot and sweat covered Cade. He kept walking across the field, descending toward the palace, and as they moved closer, they saw before them a brick wall snaking across the land. It seemed to stretch around Phobetor's palace, dilapidated and blackened as by fire, topped with barbed wire and thorns. An iron gateway broke the wall, and Cade and Tasha headed toward it.
The gate's ironwork was twisted into the shapes of nude, female demons with claws and wings. Reddish moss hung from the iron. When Cade touched the gates, they screeched open with a cloud of dust.
"No guards?" Tasha asked. "No booby traps?"
"It's strange," Cade agreed.
"We've been fighting Phobetor's monsters from the start, from the Crunge on the bridge and countless others... but here, at his own home, nothing guards the gate?"
"Let's be careful."
Cade stepped through the gate, and at once, it slammed shut behind him with a clank. He turned around and pulled at it, but it would not open again. He stood for a moment and took a deep breath.
"Well, you at least can still sneak out," he said to Tasha with a smile.
The mouse looked ahead. Before them stood another wall, built of craggy stone, bedecked with ash. The road led left or right, overlain with pebbles that creaked under Cade's boots.
"The compass just points forward," Cade said. "Should we go left or right?" He shrugged. "I guess one's as good as the other." He began to walk to the right.
They walked down the road, walls at their sides. Old bloodstains covered the ground, and spirals were drawn onto the brick walls with crude strokes of ash. The air smelled like burnt rubber and pepper. After several moments, they reached another fork in the road.
"A labyrinth?" Tasha asked, peering left and right. Both roads seemed identical, curved so that Cade could not see where they led.
"So it would seem. Let's turn left."
They walked down the road, the walls towering at their sides, and Cade began to feel dizzy with the stench of rot and fire. The walls seemed to grow taller and closer together, trapping him in a narrow corridor. The world became strangely silent, and Cade realized that, for the first time, he could no longer hear the sky. He glanced up and could see umber clouds churn, but their grumble was gone. The only sounds were his feet against the stained pebbles and a murmuring breeze.
When they reached another fork, Cade examined his compass. It led forward, but both roads led sideways, and reluctantly Cade chose one. He shaped an arrow with the pebbles, pointing whence he came.
"It's getting dark," Tasha said, and Cade nodded. Night was falling, and as they kept walking, the symbols on the walls twisted like worms, fleeing into the bricks. Soon the darkness was complete, and even Cade's gems would not shine. If not for the compass, which still glowed, Cade would have thought he went blind. The air, just moments ago sultry, became so cold that Cade shivered.
"I hate to rest here for the night," he said. "Right in Phobetor's backyard! But this labyrinth is confusing enough in daylight."
"We'll take turns guarding," Tasha spoke from inside Cade's sleeve, where she had fled for warmth. "I'll go first."
Cade nodded and sat down, leaning against the wall. He wrapped his cloak around him, shivering. Sitting here in the cold, leaning against the stone wall outside of Phobetor's palace, he felt small and scared. Dream was so far; none of its gods could help him here. Cade had never felt so alone. He opened his breadbox, but found only moldy crusts. The wineskin produced only brackish drops. He would have given the world for hot chocolate, or tea with milk and honey, or a bottle of wine.
He shut his eyes and tried to imagine his bed back home, but it seemed such a distant memory. Leaning against the wall, eyes shut, he forced himself to pretend he was lying in that bed. He brought into his mind the window above the bedside, where he could see the moon. He resurrected his bookshelf, nightstand, radio. He recalled the scent of his sheets, the softness of his mattress, his sea turtle statuettes. Best of all was just being home, safe, away from horrors and fear.
For just an instant, the memory flooded him, vivid and real. For just an instant, Cade felt back home. The memory vanished at once, leaving him in the labyrinth, shivering in the cold, and he could no longer revive it. But it had been enough. It filled him with strength.
That's why I'm here. To save that home.
He drifted off to sleep with Tasha perched upon his shoulder.
The morning broke bleak and so cold, Cade dared not remove his hands from his armpits. In the dim light, he examined the walls around him and groaned.
"It's changed, Tash. Look."
They had gone to sleep by a fork in the road, with an arrow pointing to the corridor they had come from. The arrow now pointed toward a wall. Instead of a forked way, they now sat in a curving corridor.
"Has somebody moved us?" Cade asked.
Tasha sniffed the air. "It still smells the same. I don't think we were moved, and I never fell asleep on my watch."
"Neither did I."
Tasha looked around. "So the labyrinth is alive and changes in the darkness. Where does the compass point?"
Cade checked. "Right into the wall."
They walked down the corridor, until they came to a crossroads, and took one way. When they reached a dead end and turned back, they saw that the labyrinth had changed again behind them. The corridor they had walked down just a moment ago had vanished, replaced by a fork and two narrow paths.
Tasha sighed. "We're lost."
Cade looked down one path, and his breath died. A skeleton lay ahead, clad in diamond armor, the hilt of a broken Dreamblade still clutched in its hand. The skeleton wore a jeweled compass on a chain around its neck, and it held a small bottle in its hand.
The same compass and bottle that Windwhisper gave me.
"Look, Tash!" Cade whispered. He shivered. "We're not the first to have come here."
He stepped ahead, peered around the corner, and saw another skeleton. He approached it. This skeleton too held a chipped Dreamblade and wore armor. It seemed older than the first, and also bore a compass and bottle.
"They came all this way to find Phobetor," Tasha whispered. "They were on the same quest as us. They starved to death in the labyrinth... or died of old age." The mouse shivered.
Cade cursed, spun around, and ran down the corridor toward the first skeleton. But the labyrinth had changed again, and he could not find it, and he felt panic tickling inside him.
"No, it can't be," he said, turning his head left and right, dizzy. "Windwhisper would have told me, or Niv, or the pegacats. Somebody would have told me if others had come this way be
fore me. It's impossible!"
Tasha said nothing.
"How could they not have told me?" Cade said and felt tears burn in his eyes. "It must be a trick, a trick of Phobetor's. I won't believe a thing in this place!" His voice was raised to almost a shout. He panted, his heart raced, and cold sweat washed him.
Tasha spoke softly in his ear. "Pet me for a moment, Cade. Okay?"
Cade took a deep breath, placed Tasha in his hand, and stroked the mouse's fur slowly.
"Petting animals calms people down," Tasha said with a grin.
Cade could not help it. He laughed. As he continued to pet Tasha, he indeed felt the panic dissipate, and he breathed slowly and deeply. We've come all this way. I can't fail here. I didn't take Tasha all this way so that she could die here. And I won't let Phobetor haunt sleepers on Earth.
He leaned down and pried the Dreamblade from the skeleton's hand. It was old and chipped, but when Cade swung it, it seemed strong and swift.
"I'm not a great warrior," he said. "But somehow I've made it here, so let me think. The labyrinth keeps changing, so we can't map it, and can't hope to find our way out."
Tasha nodded. "That's why all the heroes failed before us. They were great warriors, but they could not fight walls."
"But could they climb walls? If we could climb up, we could view the labyrinth from above. It could change all it likes--we'd still have a view of it, and know where to go."
The dead knight carried rope on his back; it looked like more of Maninav's magical rope, sturdy as if new. After a few moments of work, Cade managed to fashion pieces of the knight's armor into a grappling hook. He tied the hook to the rope, spun it, and tossed it over the wall. Cade tugged on the rope. It seemed sturdy, and he placed a foot against the wall.
Just as he began to climb, circular saws burst from the top of the wall, screaming. They spun with flashes of light, and the rope fell, torn, into Cade's hands.
"Wow," Tasha said.
Cade nodded. "We don't want to climb those walls."
"I wonder if any of those heroes before us managed to climb the walls, and met those blades." Tasha shuddered. "The thickest armor would not help them."
Cade thought for a moment. "No. But you can do something they, with their fancy armor, could not."
"Sniff out apples a mile away?"
"That too," Cade said with a smile. "But even better. You can fly."
Tasha looked at him, one eyebrow raised. "Cade, are you all right? I think you're confusing me with the pegacats."
"Not at all. Brace yourself." With that, Cade grabbed Tasha and tossed her into the air.
"CADE!" Tasha screamed, airborne. Cade caught her as she fell back down.
"What are you doing, Cade!?" the mouse demanded, panting. "Trying to give me a heart attack?"
"Tasha. Did you see anything up there?"
Tasha shivered. "Yes, Cade, I saw my life flashing before my eyes."
"Well, look more carefully this time." Cade tossed Tasha a second time, then caught her. "What did you see?"
Tasha stared at Cade in silence for a moment. Then she sighed. "We're going to have to do this every few steps, aren't we?"
Cade nodded. "Sorry, sis."
Tasha sighed again, the heaviest sigh Cade had ever heard. "The castle is that way. Let's walk down this corridor."
For long hours, Cade walked through the labyrinth, tossing Tasha above the walls every few moments. With Tasha's reports on the changing walls, and the compass pointing toward the palace, they finally reached another gateway.
Phobetor's palace loomed beyond.
Chapter Thirty-One
The Fang of Kar
Cade and Tasha hunkered behind a boulder, staring up at the palace. Gargoyles leered down from the battlements, spewing lava from their mouths, and blood dripped down the stone walls. Black dragons coiled under the clouds and demon shadows danced in the windows.
"Is this the place?" Tasha whispered. "Are we finally here?"
"Look at the compass, Tash. It's moving from side to side."
The needle shifted to the right, then to the left, again and again.
"Phobetor must be pacing," Tasha said. "We're at the right place." Suddenly the mouse froze and sniffed. "Monsters!" she whispered. "Coming close."
Cade slunk toward a jet statue of a demon warrior, its face twisted in rage, tusks of steel jutting from its mouth. He hid behind the statue and peered toward the palace. Three monsters came walking from behind a wall, covered in dank fur, wearing black armor and sporting claws. Horned helmets hid their faces.
"Guards," Cade whispered. They looked mean, and Cade doubted he could defeat all three in battle.
Suddenly the monsters began to sniff. Their eyes squinted, and they rushed to the statue where Cade hid.
Damn.
"Hey, you!" the monsters grunted, bursting around the statue.
Cade swung his sword.
Monster blood flew, and one guard fell.
Cade did not wait for the other monsters to attack. He ran, heading back into the labyrinth. He heard the monsters pursuing, howling in rage. He dared not turn to look. The monster footfalls thundered behind as Cade ran through the labyrinth, until finally he heard their howls moving in the wrong direction.
The monsters were lost.
Cade fell to the floor, breathing heavily, his heart racing. "That was close," he said.
Tasha nodded. "Agreed. Now toss me. Let's find our way back to the palace."
Still trembling with adrenaline and fear, Cade tossed Tasha above the walls, then caught her. "Move this way," Tasha said, and soon they were back at the palace. They could still hear the monsters howling in the labyrinth, lost among its magic and secrets.
"We have to hurry--before more guards arrive," Cade said. He approached the body of the monster he had killed. It lay bleeding, a pile of shaggy fur and armor. Cade gripped the body and pulled with all his might. The monster was heavy, three hundred pounds at least, Cade guessed. He worked for long moments, straining to drag the monster back behind the labyrinth wall.
"This won't be pleasant," he warned Tasha, then unsheathed the monster's dagger.
Tasha looked away in disgust. "Cade, really!"
"No choice," Cade said, his hands covered with the monster's blood. "It's the only way we can enter this place."
Tasha gagged.
Half an hour later, Cade stepped back toward the palace, clad in the monster's fur. The smell of blood still clung to the pelt. The monster's helmet hid his head, and he held its bloody dagger in his hand.
"This is seriously disgusting," Tasha said, hiding inside the fur. "And it stinks to high heaven."
"Everything in Nightmare stinks," Cade spoke inside the iron helmet. His eyes were narrow and his fists clenched. "We'll fit in."
The end was close now, he knew, and fought back the fear. He could feel the enchanted bottle in his pocket. It was so small, no larger than shot glass, yet the fate of the world hung on it.
Touch this bottle's mouth to Phobetor, Windwhisper had said, and he will be sucked in and imprisoned.
Cade clutched the bottle. That is, if Dream has not fallen already, he thought. Should Dream fall, the bottle would lose its magic. He had carried this bottle all the way from Seashell Shore, so many miles away. How long ago has it been? A year? Longer? Cade did not know, but he wanted this quest to end, desperately. He wanted to go home.
An archway led into the palace, carved from black stones, a twisted golden face inlaid into every brick. Clanking in his armor, reeking of the stolen fur, Cade stepped into the Fang of Kar, the palace of Phobetor. He found himself in a dark hall lined with jet statues of demons. Centipedes the size of dachshunds scurried across the floor, covered with jeweled armor, and Cade caught his breath as he hurried across the hall. The centipedes gazed at him for a moment, then continued with their business. He breathed out shakily and turned into a corridor.
"I don't like this place," Tasha whispered. "I know I've said t
hat of many places, but I hate this one the most. It's too quiet."
Cade checked his compass. When he held it sideways, the needle pointed up. Phobetor is on a higher story. This palace was many stories high, and Cade could not guess which floor Phobetor was on. The top floor, he decided. The God of Nightmare would want to gaze upon his kingdom.
He swallowed, sudden dread filling him. Was Phobetor watching the labyrinth from his tower? Did he see Cade make his way through? Cade gripped his sword. He had been so weary and confused, he had never considered that. Then again, if Phobetor did know he was coming, would he not have captured Cade at the palace gateway?
Cade sighed. I'm hidden now, here in this corridor. All I can do is go on.
He began exploring the palace, moving from hallway to hallway, up stairwells, across halls of statues and ornaments. Monsters traveled the palace around him: great bats that walked on all fours, demonic bald moles, and naked balls of fat that dragged themselves with tiny claws. He even saw creatures of Dream in this place. Some were corrupted foxes and deer, the animals Loor cursed. Others were Elorian slaves, collared and shackled, some bearing the marks of beatings and torture.
How does Dream fare? Has it fallen to the armies of Nightmare?
Soon Cade heard a commotion of grunting, slobbering, belching, and cheering. The scent of meat filled his nostrils. A mess hall. He followed the noise and smell to a door and opened it, just an inch, to reveal a chamber full of dining monsters. Every monster of Nightmare seemed to fill the place, from tiny imps with hairy knuckles, to towering blobs of many eyeballs and ears. They surrounded wooden tables, feasting on trays of meats, drinking from a thousand bottles of sour milk.
"You don't suppose they have any Golden Delicious apples, do you, Cade?" Tasha whispered.
Cade was famished, but this food made him feel sick. Who knew what this meat came from, animal or monster?
"No, I don't suppose so. Sorry, Tash."
The monsters ate lustily, splattering the room with juice and gobbets of meat, tossing bones over their shoulders. Whenever they emptied a bottle, they tossed it aside to smash or roll along the floor.
The Gods of Dream: An Epic Fantasy Page 31