by D. N. Leo
"Had I known, I would have been more than happy to accept the challenges and fight for the Inducer. I cannot reverse the process. What would you like me to do to repay you for your help?"
"Our help? Don't even say that word. It's going to cost us our heads,” the prince roared.
The princess reeled and fainted to the floor. The prince raced to her side and held her up. "Oh, my poor trusting sister. I'm so sorry. I should have taught you better. I should have been a better brother."
Then he looked at Ciaran. "All her life, all she wanted was to be a White Queen. Many leaders from other universes have been through our gate, and she could have married any one of them. But she wouldn't. It had to be the future King of Eudaiz. It had to be you."
"Why?" Ciaran asked. He approached the prince. "Because you fed her with fairy tales about Eudaiz? You've been telling her about a perfect world that doesn't exist, have you?"
"Eudaiz doesn't exist?" The prince was astonished.
"It does. I've never been to it, but I am quite sure it's not a perfect world,” Madeline said from the door.
"But Eudaiz is happiness. It means happiness. True happiness is perfect. What else would one would live for?"
Ciaran shook his head. "You're responsible for screening people's spiritual purity and their worthiness before they get the Inducer for the final transmutation process, am I correct?"
The prince nodded.
"What the princess did was the equivalent of cheating and smuggling people through the gate. Yes?"
A tear of fear made its way down the prince's face. He looked at Ciaran. "If you married her as planned, things would be different," he said. "I guess you're not going to do that."
"What's the punishment?"
"Death for me and for her. Sanction for the castle and my territory. We will have no more passengers. Everything will be cut off until the area dries out."
"If you knew this disastrous outcome was possible, why did you let her do this?"
"I didn't let her. I wasn’t quick enough to stop her. I can't let her die in this castle. The Host can chop my head off or do whatever. But she's just a child."
"How would the Host find out about this?"
"He already knows. When you received the Inducer without going through the challenges, the system expected a marriage between you and the princess. You must have seen the Phoenix?"
Ciaran nodded.
"The Host has now been informed that the marriage was between you and a different queen and that my sister cheated the system. She's doomed."
"How can I fix this?"
The prince smiled bitterly. "There is no way to fix it. Although, as a first time passenger, you have a chance to take a challenge. If you win, you will receive an invitation to meet the Host—and a privilege. With the privilege, you can ask for a pardon for my princess."
"Then I shall take the challenge,” Ciaran said dryly.
The prince shook his head. "I should give my congratulations. You passed the Daimon Gate. Your transport is waiting for you at the gate. This will be my last chance to take any passengers through this castle. Bon voyage."
The prince sat still on the floor, leaning against the wall and holding his sister in his arms.
“What’s your name?” Ciaran asked.
“Brandon.”
“Brandon, I’ll find a way to help you and your sister. I promise," Ciaran said firmly and headed toward the door.
Ciaran, Madeline, Tadgh, and Zach left the Red Castle, but just before they did, Madeline’s psychic mind kicked in. She heard a loud and clear thought. “You’ll never pass the gate alive, Ciaran.”
She looked around. She didn’t know whose thought she’d heard. The princess was still out, and the prince was still crying and stunned by the consequences of what they had done.
Chapter 30
Four horses raced across a field of roses. Madeline had never seen so many wild roses in her life. Beautiful and mysterious. Ciaran, on his white horse, led the group like a true king. In her mind, he had always been more a warrior than a king.
She’d had no idea riding a horse for the first time in her life could be this easy and fun. Zach and Tadgh seemed to manage it easy enough also. They raced as fast as the wind.
Snow-topped mountains fenced in the valley, leading them to the magnificent opening of a canyon. There was no need for Ciaran to say a word—they all knew that in front of them was the way out of the Daimon Gate.
Ciaran turned around. "Ayana and Pete will be waiting for you outside the gate. I'll be right behind you."
"Did you forget something back at the Red Castle, Ciaran? I know the mermaid princess was hard to let go,” Madeline said.
Ciaran smiled. “Yes, I forgot my four wives and the dozen children I created when we were in the gate."
Madeline rubbed at her tummy. "Well, that saves me from doing the hard labor."
"Seriously, man, what do you need to do?" Zach asked.
"I promised Bran I would get the invitation,” Ciaran said.
"Promised? When?" Tadgh raised his voice.
"When he was trying to give me the training."
"You mean the subconscious training session that almost killed you? The one where I had to dive into the ice water and yank you out? The one where you were hooked to a TV screen and almost died in front of us?" Madeline’s voice raised in pitch.
"Didn't the prince say that you have to take a hard challenge to get the invitation? It's not a freebee, Ciaran,” Zach said.
"Why did you promise Bran?" Madeline asked.
"He promised to give me information about Mother."
"How do you know he wasn't bluffing? She might be out there, on Earth, looking for us,” Tadgh said.
"Knowing that it might be a bluff, do you expect me to say no to Bran's offer, Tadgh?"
Tadgh shook his head.
"I can't do anything until you are all safely out of the gate. Off you go. Please.” Ciaran gestured toward the opening.
"I'm married to you. I don't want to have to handle another wannabe queen lurking around. I'm staying,” Madeline insisted.
"Yeah, too bad. I'm your brother. If I let you find Mother yourself, you’ll bad-mouth me to her for the rest of my life. I can't let that happen. I'm staying, too." Tadgh rubbed the neck of his horse.
"You should go, Zach,” Ciaran said.
"I don't have a reason to stay, but I'll stick around." Zach cast a careless look at Ciaran.
Ciaran’s horse started to get agitated and stomp around. He patted it to calm it down.
"How do you give Bran the invitation? I assume he wants it," Tadgh asked.
"I have to find him."
"Right, so there’s a finding-Bran stage after passing the challenges?" Madeline asked.
Ciaran nodded.
"And whatever the invitation allows you to do, do you have to do that for Bran, too?" Madeline continued her questioning.
Silence.
"That's a yes," Tadgh said.
Madeline got off her horse. Ciaran did the same. He approached her. "I'll also get a privilege with the invitation. And I need to give that to the princess if you don't mind."
"I don't mind. Why would I? But the challenge bothers me."
"It's not hard."
"Tadgh, Ciaran said the challenges aren’t hard!" Madeline pointed at Ciaran.
Tadgh got off his horse. "He's right. Just a bunch of snow-mummies, a pack of wolves, a burning forest, a collapsing bridge over a canyon, and ice water. Piece of cake."
"All right, okay. What do you want me to do?" Ciaran asked.
"Well, I'm not going to sit here and wait. I want in—all the way. I’m going in with you,” Madeline said.
"Same here," Tadgh said dryly.
"I—”
"You don't think I'm useless, do you?" Zach asked.
"You saw the training, you two. You can tell Zach how dangerous it was."
Zach shifted his shoulders. "I'll do my best. What does the invit
ation look like?"
"Do I have a choice?" Ciaran looked at Tadgh, Madeline, and Zach. They glanced at him and waited for him to answer his own rhetorical question.
"Very well. Let's go," Ciaran muttered. He hopped on his horse. "This is a hybrid game between augmented reality and a hologame. We will play the scenarios as we go. Death and injuries during the game will have realistic impacts. But I don't know their extent. The invitation and the privilege will be placed in a box. That's all I know."
Zach rolled his eyes. "Well, how insightful."
Tadgh laughed.
"Let's go." Ciaran's horse wanted to do just that. It raced across the hill of wild roses. The other three horses lagged behind but caught up quickly.
They arrived at a meadow. Madeline remembered it. They had seen it before in Ciaran's training.
"We'll start here," Ciaran said.
"We have company,” Madeline said. “Kyle is here.”
Chapter 31
Tadgh said nothing. He glanced off into the distance and felt a tingle in his heart when he saw Jo riding alongside Kyle, both of them on black horses. Tadgh shook his head and tried to see Jo’s emotions. He saw nothing. This Daimon Gate had somehow blocked his newfound ability. He cursed silently.
Jo was alive. That was all that mattered.
She was in black leather attire, double swords suspended from her back. Her hair blew back as she rode, making the angles of her foxy face sharper. Her green eyes shone brilliantly. They smiled at Tadgh.
Kyle and Jo approached but slowed and stopped at a distance. Jo looked at Tadgh and nodded slightly.
"I hope we are not in competition here, Ciaran," Kyle said.
"I think we are," Ciaran responded dryly.
Ciaran's white horse and Kyle's black horse stepped back and forth, stomping their front hooves in agitation.
"I need only the privilege. If you’re after the invitation, then we are not in competition."
"The invitation and the privilege come together. I have promised the privilege to someone. I'll need both the invitation and the privilege," Ciaran said.
"The privilege is for Jo, not for me. I dragged her into the gate against her will. I thought I could appoint her as a Sciphil. Turns out that I can’t because I’ve been exiled. Jo needs a pardon from the Host. She needs the privilege."
"Otherwise?" Ciaran asked.
"Death by a thousand lightning bolts at the exit. Is that what you want for her?"
Everyone looked at Jo. Her face was as cool as steel. She kept her eyes on Tadgh.
Ciaran turned around, looking at Madeline. She showed neither approval nor rejection. That was enough for Ciaran. That meant she couldn’t read anything from Jo.
Ciaran nodded. "Fine. If you honor what you say, we can benefit from the collaboration. If you don't, there may be a long future ahead for us, but I promise to cut yours short."
Kyle nodded.
They raced ahead along the meadow. Ciaran and Kyle led the group. Jo managed to pull her horse up to ride next to Tadgh. She looked at him again. This time, she smiled. That was Jo's smile. Tadgh was sure of it.
"I thought we lost you," Tadgh said.
Jo said nothing. She reached over and stuck a black rose next to Tadgh's daggers. She smiled again. Tadgh grinned and pushed his horse to get closer to her. But she pushed ahead and rode alongside Kyle.
In front of them, an army of faceless mummies rose from the tall grass. The mummies formed a line across the meadow and charged at them. This was the exact scenario from Ciaran's subconscious training.
The group charged straight ahead, six warriors on horseback. With weapons drawn and eyes fierce, they were ready to kill.
"Round them up,” Ciaran said.
The horses ran in a circle, surrounding the mummies who hurled stones at them. Speed helped. They had horses and thus had the advantage.
Kyle and Jo had long, black spears. Ciaran, Madeline, Tadgh, and Zach had two daggers each. They rounded up the mummies, killing a number of them without much difficulty. The rest ran away, howling like wounded dogs.
"Fire is coming. Go left," Ciaran said.
The group veered left and raced toward the cliff. They had seen this before. A skinny hanging bridge connecting the two mountains swung in the air, presenting an opportunity for disaster. The bridge could accommodate only one person at a time. They knew the wire would snap.
They dismounted. The fire closed in behind them.
"The box is over there. I’m sure of it," Ciaran said. "Right behind me." Ciaran clasped Madeline's hand and ran across the bridge. Tadgh and Zach followed right behind them. Kyle and Jo came after. They formed a line and rushed across the swinging bridge.
The fire approached and consumed the horses. The wire snapped, and the bridge dropped from that end, hanging by a thread from the other side. They all clung desperately to the knotted rope of the bridge, knowing it wouldn’t hold for long.
From the bottom of the line, Jo began to climb up and over everyone else’s bodies. Being petite was certainly an advantage now. She climbed over the edge like a spider. Unravelled a black leather rope wrapped around her waist, she tied it to a stone for purchase and dove down the cliff to grab Ciaran's hand.
"Climb up quick, Kyle," Ciaran said and reached his other hand to grab Madeline's. Madeline reached for Tadgh, and he, in turn, grabbed Zach.
Kyle climbed up quickly from the bottom, then Zach, Tadgh, Madeline, and finally Ciaran.
"Well done, Jo," Ciaran said.
Jo nodded and smiled. Then she moved to stand next to Kyle.
They were in front of the magnificent entrance to a white stone cave. Ciaran and Kyle entered it. The group followed.
In the middle, the cave opened up liked a grand hall. The white stone was illuminated, shedding a mysterious light throughout the cavernous room.
They heard a tapping sound as if an army of people walking on sticks was moving toward them.
A white claw appeared. Then they saw body with many legs.
"Is that a crab? I’m not particularly in the mood for seafood right now," Tadgh said.
"I think it's a white scorpion. It's as big as a cow!" Zach exclaimed incredulously.
"Six of us against a cow-crab. Folks, I think we've got a winner," Madeline joked, shifting her daggers.
Ciaran said to Kyle, "Would you mind taking the left?"
Kyle nodded.
With lightning speed, Ciaran darted to the right, and Kyle moved to the left. They jumped across the tops of a few stones and landed on top of the scorpion. It started to whirl around. Ciaran swung his dagger, and the two eyes of the scorpion flew away. Kyle brought his spear down into the top of the scorpion. A stream of black liquid spilled out and rained down on its white shell.
Suddenly, rows of smaller scorpions appeared from every direction.
"Holy crab!" Tadgh said. All of them ran toward the creatures. Daggers swung, spears stabbed. They use whatever weapons they could, stones and sand included, to fight the hard-shelled army.
Chaos.
Ciaran was always right there beside Madeline. Kyle and Jo fought back to back, and Tadgh and Zach did the same.
After a long while, with the cutting off of enough legs, eyes, and claws, the fight came to an end. Some wounded scorpions scurried away. The white shells of hundreds of scorpions littered the ground.
Between them, there were some minor scratches, bruises, and bleeding, but no serious injuries.
"That was easier than I thought." Zach grinned.
"There will be more," Tadgh mumbled as he remembered what he had seen in Ciaran's training.
They walked over the dead scorpions to another compartment of the cave. The light from the white rocks lighted the way.
From a gap between two large rocks, a shadow leaped at Ciaran, pushing him down onto the ground.
Chapter 32
An enormous white wolf looked down at Ciaran. He swung his daggers, and the wolf backed off quickly. Suddenly a larg
e pack of them appeared. They stalked the intruders in a circle, looking at the group as if they were their next meal.
Jo swung her rope. It wrapped around the neck of a wolf and ripped its head off in one pull.
Tadgh gasped.
The group broke out into another round of fighting.
After a long while, they had killed several wolves. The wounded ones ran away.
This time they sustained more injuries.
Ciaran helped Madeline up from the ground. "Let me see." He looked at a nasty bite mark on her left wrist. "This will get infected," he mumbled.
Madeline turned him around, inspecting a gash from a claw and a bite mark at the back of his neck. She hadn’t covered his back well enough. "This one, too."
Ciaran looked at Tadgh. "Two bites on the legs and one on the left arm. Otherwise, I'm good as new,” Tadgh reported.
"A gash on my back and one on my right arm. I can't see my back, but it hurts like hell,” Zach said.
"Let me see." Madeline looked. "Oh, it's nasty."
Nearby, Jo was checking her injuries. She was bleeding from both arms and her back. Tadgh approached. Jo gestured for him to keep a distance. He stopped.
Ciaran shrugged off his jacket and tore shreds from it. He secured Madeline’s injuries then gave her the remaining part of the jacket. "Could you take care of them, please?" He gestured toward Tadgh and Zach.
"What about you?"
"I'm fine."
Madeline nodded, took the jacket, and went to tend to Tadgh and Zach.
Ciaran stood in the middle of the grand cave and stared at a gigantic illuminated column in the middle. He walked around it. He pressed his hand on the column. It was smooth and icy.
The box has to be here, he thought
Ciaran examined the icy surface. The hundred-foot column held up the ceiling. It was the life support of the grand cave. He noticed a red dot swirling around inside. What was it? Ciaran pulled his dagger out. He anticipated the moving path of the dot and stabbed at it.