by Noah Layton
Evelina calmly raised her bow, aiming a single arrow at the descending monster.
Thirty yards.
Twenty.
TWANG.
I heard the arrow leave the string, failing to see its path, but the effect was pretty obvious; the snatcher let out a brief yelp, its wings folding in, and it smashed into the water right next to the boat, missing us by inches.
The small waves that it sent out rocked the boat, and I realised that I had been holding my breath the entire time. Finally releasing it, we looked between each other.
‘I didn’t actually expect that to work,’ Evelina laughed lightly.
A raucous screech was suddenly unleashed from the water, and the snatcher’s hand came erupting through the surface like a zombie crawling from its grave. The arrow that should have ended it was still protruding from the centre of its head, and it was letting us know; it released another screech, clutching at the side of the boat with its talons, its maw gaping open in a furious rage.
But that was met with a rage of my own.
I yanked my sword from its sheath, swinging it back mightily over my shoulder before swiping it back against the side of the snatcher’s head. Its skull fractured, the blade becoming embedded in the centre of its head, before I wrenched it back with a spray of blood – and a light shockwave that burst from the sword, knocking the girls back and onto the surface of the boat. The water rippled sharply with the force of the outburst, just as the snatcher descended back into the water for food.
We had defeated one enemy, but there was no cause for celebration; a mass of screeching from somewhere in the distance roared across the islands and the waters.
We grabbed our oars and began rowing faster towards Zakthos.
Chapter Nine
Golems and Puzzles
Night still loomed and the screeching had quietened as we approached the island, but that didn’t stop us from keeping up our frantic pace, our oars cutting through the water relentlessly until our boat landed on the sandy shores of Zakthos. We leaped out, staying low as we dragged the canoe up the sand, hitting the treeline almost immediately.
I was glad to feel the land once again beneath my boots and to see that there was some semblance of shelter before us, but leaving behind one threat meant confronting another more dangerous one. Zakthos would be my greatest challenge yet.
There was hardly any beach to speak of – only a few yards of sand met us before giving onto thick shrubbery and overgrown wilds. It would be hours until the sun rose, and I had little doubt that visibility in the forest would be terrible.
We dragged the boat into the cover of the forest, covering it thoroughly with large fallen leaves from the undergrowth, before crowding around the map and deciding on our next move in what little moonlight was available.
‘I can lead us easily enough,’ Ariadne said. ‘The journey should only take twenty minutes, presuming the undergrowth doesn’t give us too much difficulty and nothing else impedes our progress.’
‘I can take point,’ I said. ‘You two have done enough already. Let me take some of the risk.’
‘Absolutely not,’ Evelina said, not looking up from the map, ‘You’re the only one who can command the Harpy Core. If you die then this whole mission will have been for nothing.’
‘True, but if either of you die then our chances of getting through any of this in the first place will be slim to none.’
‘I’ve got a compromise in mind,’ Ariadne, always the voice of reason, cut in. ‘I’ll take front and Evelina can take the back – Kit, you can carry the torch. You’ll be protected by us but any attacks during our journey will come to you first, seeing as you’ll be the source of light. Happy?’
Evelina and I shared a look, before we conceded and nodded.
‘Wonderful,’ Ariadne said casually, ‘there’s a fire-striker in my pack. Give me a few minutes.’
The torch was lit within the first few yards of the forest, and from there we set off in the direction of that tiny ink stain.
The forest swarmed up around us almost immediately. The tree trunks so thick that it was if gigantic creatures were dwelling beneath the earth, reaching out to grab at us with their branched fingers. Barbed plants seemed to reach out for us as we passed, intent on dragging wrapping us up and suffocating us.
And then there were the sounds – the snapping of twigs and the cracking dry leaves in the darkness, the whisperings and the life and death of this dark, dense maze.
‘Do we actually know what we’re looking for?’ I asked, keeping my voice just as low as the girls.
‘It could be anything,’ Evelina said from behind me, ‘A temple, a clue… Or some way to access the Core itself.’
She had taken on a more serious approach to things since casting off from Aries – now that our lives were on the line, there was no foreplay to speak of.
Not that I was complaining at not being teased and taunted any longer.
Ahead of us, Ariadne swept through the undergrowth with one of my swords which I had gladly leant her.
‘Keep the torch high,’ she said ‘I need a reasonable idea of what I’m looking at before I accidentally swipe at the tail of some gigantic beast.’
‘That’s funny…’ I smiled, doing as she asked. ‘… You are joking, aren’t you?’
‘Within reason,’ she remarked, ‘but there is some truth to it.’
‘Truth?’
‘There are plenty of stories that have occupied the archipelago for centuries. The creatures you have laid witness to so far may frighten you, but they are nothing compared to the darker tales that are told of our lands.’
‘Like what?’
‘I’ve already told you about the mysteries surrounding Zakthos,’ Evelina continued. ‘Legend has it that a great, terrible monster lurks beneath Zakthos, and awaits it’s time to return to the surface and destroy the beings it deems unworthy.’
I gulped deeply. Suddenly the whole metaphor about the tree trunks being the arms of creatures didn’t seem so stupid.
‘Still doesn’t explain the disappearances,’ Ariadne said from the front, chopping through further leaves and plants. ‘Such a being wouldn’t just reach up on occasion and drag weary travellers down.’
‘Let’s just hope they all lost their way,’ I intervened. ‘How much further?’
‘We’re almost there.’
We proceeded on in our trek, slowing as Ariadne held up her hand and turned back to us.
‘We’re just a little way off,’ she whispered back. ‘Be on your guard.’
I drew my sword, holding it in one hand and the flaming torch in the other. I had been in the midst of several vicious fights already, but dressed in my lighter armour and holding my weapon and my torch at the ready, I felt like a warrior for the first time.
My heart pounded faster, but not only at the thought of something infernal attacking us from the darkness up ahead and all around; an anxious excitement filled me at the prospect of what we were about to uncover.
Back on Earth, everything had been uncovered, the unknown made known and the mystery sucked from the surroundings without mercy by the insatiable desire of the human condition.
Out here, though, there was so much that was still left to the imagination.
The trees thinned out a little, making way for my growing anticipation. An ancient temple? An elaborate stone statue? Both? Anything could be awaiting us in the approaching clearing.
But as Ariadne drew us to a stop, checking the map in the torchlight, we found…
Nothing.
‘I don’t understand,’ she said with disappointment. ‘Whatever it is, it should be right here.’
‘Let me check it,’ Evelina said irately as I held the torch over the map. She examined it carefully, looking back the way we had come. ‘No… Where is it? This is definitely the spot.’
We were standing in a small clearing amongst the towering trees. Somewhere in the night a flock of birds cawed lightly, flurrying
overhead. Ariadne and Evelina continued to survey the map while I looked about, resigning myself to the role of torch-bearer.
But then that was why I had been brought along in the first place – it was my job to carry things, be it the light or the Harpy Core that we would hopefully find, even if the odds of the latter happening were looking pretty bleak.
Then, another sound came to my ears. It was ridiculously out of place, the lightest of creakings followed by a slow ticking sound. It was the stereotypical sound of a bomb on a movie set, and it put my nerves on edge like you wouldn’t believe.
The girls paid no attention, continuing to survey the map.
Crunch.
I realised too late how tough the ground felt where we were stood. At first I put it down to how cleared this section was compared to what we had pushed through so far, but that wasn’t it; because I wasn’t standing on dirt. I was standing on concrete.
Not for long, though; the ground beneath gave away and collapsed into the earth like it had never been there at all, and it took me straight along with it.
I crashed through the ground, falling several yards into a hidden pit that had been waiting beneath us the entire time.
Smashing into the ground alongside the rocks, I stumbled to the side and landed on my back. The hit completely knocked the wind out of me, and as I opened my eyes amidst the broken blocks and clouding dust, the only thing I saw was the window of dim, white light of the moon overhead.
‘Kit!’
The silhouettes of Ariadne and Evelina’s heads came into view, blocking out what little light was available to me.
‘I’m here!’ I shouted up, wheezing for breath. ‘I’m okay… I think…’
‘We’re coming down.’
They dropped down, spreading their wings and floating to the ground lightly in a much more graceful fashion than the ass-whooping that I had taken from a hidden room.
Dick move, hidden room. Dick move.
I had dropped the torch on the way down, and after I had stood and brushed myself off Evelina handed it back to me.
‘Good job, Kit,’ Ariadne said, nodding at me. ‘You found the place by literally just standing there.’
‘I aim to please,’ I groaned, running my hand over my back. I may have had the strength of a harpy and some of the durability that came along with it, but that still hurt like a bitch. ‘What is this place?’
Evelina looked about in the darkness. ‘You’re the one with the torch.’
‘True.’
I held it high, surveying the quiet, dank surroundings. A musty stench of moss and dust, laced with the vague scent of rot from somewhere nearby, had sent us all covering our mouths. Only in the torchlight did I finally lay eyes upon the source of that terrible smell.
Bones littered the ground that we stood upon, culminating in several messy heaps of broken pelvises and shattered vertebrae. A high-pitched squealing emitted nearby from one of the piles, and we all turned sharply in the direction of it with our weapons raised.
The pile shuddered, bones rattling against each other and tumbling down their small hills, until a small rat-like creature emerged from the top of the pile, staring back at us with large, black eyes surrounded by matted green and brown fur. It screeched at us once again before running off into the darkness.
I followed its trail with my torch, knowing that there had to be more to the place than this; the creature, though, would likely scurry through a crack in the wall and into the unseen, claustrophobic workings of the walls.
But it didn’t – following the creature’s path, we looked to one end of the small chamber that we stood in to see it dash down a flight of steps, the doorway surrounding them standing just large enough to let us through.
We all shared a look.
‘I accepted the dangers of this mission the moment we set off,’ I said quietly, my voice still echoing lightly against the walls, ‘Hell, I accepted how many things in these lands of yours wanted to kill me the moment I arrived. I’ve made my peace with that, because what else can I do? But this time, I think I’m gonna play my I’m-the-asset card and say that somebody else can go into the unknown-tomb-of-death first.’
‘This is it,’ Evelina said, staring into the shadowy abyss ahead. ‘This has to be it.’
‘This just seems a little easy,’ Ariadne replied. ‘I’m not sure…’
‘It’s easy until arrows come flying out of hidden holes in the walls and puncture our throats, leaving us to bleed out,’ I said dryly. The girls didn’t respond; looking over at them, they were both staring back at me with raised eyebrows. ‘Oh come on,’ I continued, ‘You can’t tell me that you’ve never seen Indiana Jones.’
They shared another look and returned to me with the same confused expressions.
‘Right, of course you’ve never seen Indiana Jones,’ I muttered to myself.
‘I’ll take point this time,’ Evelina said, ‘But I’m taking the torch.’
She yanked it from my hand, spilling hot embers onto the sleeve of my armour, which I promptly patted out.
We headed to the start of the passage, all three of us peering down into the darkness, which fought angrily against being exposed to the light. It continued down at a steady, consistent drop for maybe forty yards. More bones littered the steps, the stone walls chipped and covered with steadily climbing vines that had likely spent years pushing their way through to allow nature to reclaim the land. Cobwebs were in abundance, and a thick layer of dust floated in the air.
But further down where the passage levelled out, another open doorway led into another darkened room.
‘Are we ready?’ Evelina asked, quelling her breathing.
‘I don’t like this,’ I said, scanning the floor and the walls.
‘Well, nobody likes it,’ Ariadne said. ‘Would really want to live down here?’
‘I mean the situation. Why build something like this if you’re gonna make it easy to get through? We’re hunting a legendary artefact.’
‘It wasn’t easy,’ Evelina said. ‘We only found it by accident.’
‘Fine,’ I said, returning to the chamber I had fallen into and heading to a pile of bones. ‘I’m so going to hell for this…’
I found the most substantial remnant in size, half of a skull with the teeth chipped away. I should have shuddered at the thought, but desperate times and all.
‘What does your culture say about desecrating corpses?’ I asked.
‘We treat our own with respect,’ Ariadne said. ‘All else can rot.’
‘Let’s hope this didn’t belong to a harpy, then.’
I threw the skull down the steps, watching it bounce off walls and roll carelessly.
Clickclickclick.
It was unmistakable. All three of us had seen it; thin, razor sharp arrows flew from the walls, slamming into the stone opposite.
‘Oo-o-oh…’ I said sarcastically, trying not to sound cocky but being unable to resist. ‘Who’s the weirdo now?’
‘Traps,’ Ariadne said obviously. ‘You were right.’
‘So how do we get down there?’ Evelina asked openly, still staring ahead.
I don’t believe in the collective unconscious or anything like that, but in the same instant we all shared another blank look, turning back into the chamber behind us.
A minute later we had gathered up almost every pile of bones in the room and threw them down the passage. Just as with the skull, they struck the stone walls and pinged off each other madly before drifting further to the bottom. In their wake arrows flew from the walls madly, snapping and striking upon the passageway until all went quiet.
‘So…’ I said. ‘Are we saying that’s all of them?’
‘Only one way to find out,’ Ariadne admitted.
‘I mean… We could have missed one. Considering how many came out, odds are that there are plenty more.’
‘Then we take a warrior’s approach,’ Evelina said, clamping her lips shut, taking a breath, and-
&n
bsp; She started forward, planting the bottom of her foot against the top step like a sprinter ready to begin a hundred yard dash in the Olympics, and threw herself forwards.
Suddenly she was sprinting down the steps, literally running for her life.
‘What the fuck?!’ I exclaimed, my mouth falling agape, before Ariadne’s face came into the frame.
‘You really want to be the last to get down there?’
She grabbed my hand, and suddenly we were running too.
Pure adrenaline had hit me during the prior fights, but this was like nothing I had ever felt. At any point an arrow could strike; it could either be in my body and cause me an injury or a slow death, or it could go straight into the side of my head and take me out instantly.
Evelina was ten yards ahead of us, her torchlight the only thing that we could rely on for any semblance of direction or awareness.
Flitting sounds moved all around us, but I couldn’t pin them down to the hundreds of bone fragments that Ariadne and I were kicking aside or the invisible arrows hurtling through the darkness.
Up ahead, the torch turned horizontal, along with Evelina – she leaped forwards, threw her wings out sharply before almost immediately tucking them back in, and divebombed to the end of the passage.
We reached the final ten yards – the most likely place that we could be hit with the bones having not moved as far as they should have.
‘Hold on!’ Ariadne yelled, wrapping her arms around me and jumping into the air.
She carried my weight effortlessly, putting her harpy strength to good use – at least that’s what I thought at first. She executed the same move as Evelina, throwing her wings out before tucking them back and sending us both hurtling towards the torch.
Clickclickclick.
Those were definitely arrows, but we were moving too fast to be hit – I hoped.
‘WATCH OUT!’
We crashed to the bottom of the passage, slamming straight into Evelina, the three of us landing in a heap on the hard floor.
We were bruised and battered – but alive.
It was only after a few seconds that I realised I was still lying atop Ariadne.