by Lari Don
The Master was rubbing his toes in the blood on the floor. “Your poor weak hearts are working hard to pump this blood out. Can they take the strain?”
As they circled each other, Helen saw that Yann was still managing to use his speed to keep out of reach of those sharp horns and huge hands.
She said to Lee, “But if we brought a weapon in for Yann, wouldn’t it be cheating?”
Tangaroa whispered, “Don’t worry about cheating. The Master is using us and our weaknesses as weapons against Yann, so we can take part in this fight. Do you want me to get the mirror?”
Lee nodded. “Tangaroa and I will go back for it.”
Helen said, “No, you’re both as obvious as peacocks, with your bright blue skin and bright green cloak. If you go, you’ll be missed. I’ll go. Rona, will you help me carry the mirror?”
Rona nodded.
Lavender said, “Where will we put it?”
Catesby chattered, the rest of the friends nodded and Lavender translated quickly, “That deer painting is about the same size. Catesby says we could put the mirror on the back of the painting and flip it round. Look, it’s not swung back flush to the wall, it’s hanging squint.”
Helen said, “Great idea. Lavender, you fly to the picture, nip through the gap at the corner and mark where it is on the other side of the wall, so we can find it once we’ve got the mirror.”
“Are you sure you won’t get lost?” said Lavender.
“Six left turns,” said Helen, “then six right turns on the way back. But how will we find you and the picture?”
The flower fairy smiled. “I’ll think of something.”
Helen took one more look at Yann, bleeding from his arm and his leg, and at the Master, with purple bruising on his ribs, then saw Lavender flutter casually over to the deer picture and slip behind it.
Sylvie flickered into a girl beside Helen. “I’ll move around behind the boys and try to look like three girls at once. But please hurry, Yann doesn’t look as strong as he did when he woke.”
Helen and Rona stepped back into the corridors of the maze.
Helen whispered to Rona, “Choose left every time and count to six.” The girls held hands, and ran through the maze.
As they sprinted round the tight corners, Rona asked, “Why do we have to fix the mirror to the picture? Why don’t we just take it in and hold it up?”
“Because if the mirror is part of the maze, the Three might not think it’s a weapon and might not think it’s cheating.”
They ran past slates and baths and curtains, running full pelt along corridors they had crept through earlier. As they ran the maze, using her bright torch beam to light the way and not slowing to check round corners, Helen hoped all the fauns were watching the duel.
They skidded round the final corner, into the wider space of the old bedroom, and Helen dashed to the mirror on the wall. Only it wasn’t really on the wall: it was part of the wall. Helen tried to pull it off, but it was tightly wedged in.
“How do we get it out?” Rona ran her fingers round the bumpy golden frame.
Helen stood back. “That’s what’s holding it in.” She pointed to a chair leg, overlapping the corner of the mirror. “That and the weight of the whole maze over it.”
She opened her rucksack and took out the rock.
“You’re carrying rocks now!” said Rona. “What does that cure?”
Helen smiled. “This gives uruisks headaches, rather than curing them!”
She bashed the chair leg until it splintered, then she shoved Lee’s sword behind the frame. Rona forced her spear in as well, and they tried to lever the mirror out of the wall. Rona’s spear broke after two tries, and Helen bent the sword, but eventually they levered the mirror out.
It was heavier than they’d imagined and chunks of wall crumbled into dust as they pulled it out, but when they stepped back, the mirror awkward in their arms, the wall was still standing.
“Six right turns back,” said Helen. “And watch out for Lavender on the way.”
They left the broken weapons on the floor and ran back through the maze. They weren’t as fast now, because it wasn’t easy manoeuvring a long mirror round tight corners.
They could hear hoofbeats and grunts from the middle, fading in and out as they ran round the maze.
When they got to the third junction, Helen saw something to their left. “Wait! Did you see a glow down that corridor?”
Rona shook her head.
Helen said, “I thought I saw a faint light. It might be one of Lavender’s lightballs.”
“If we turn left, we’ll get lost.”
“No, we won’t.” Helen put her end of the mirror down, rummaged in her untidy rucksack and pulled out a scalpel.
She scraped an arrow on the wall at eye-height, pointing right, and led Rona to the left. Then she switched off the torch. In the sudden darkness, she saw a pale glimmer. A lightball, hiding behind the next corner. Helen moved fast to follow it, running round two more corners and taking left at another junction.
“The mark!” Rona called behind her. “You didn’t mark this corner!”
Helen turned round, marked their way back on the wall, then ran after the lightball. She found it floating in the middle of the corridor, and followed it round one more corner to…
Lavender, perched on the string on the back of the painting. “At last,” she murmured.
“How’s the duel going?” Helen scratched an arrow on the wall, then stood the mirror up to measure it against the picture.
“They’re both tiring, but no one has landed the winning blow.”
The mirror was slightly narrower than the picture but a similar length.
Rona whispered, “How do we fix it on? Lavender, could you stick it on with magic?”
Lavender shook her head. “Not firmly enough to hold it in place while it swings right over. Do you have glue in there?” She pointed to Helen’s green rucksack.
“Only enough for fixing mermaids’ tails, not enough to hold a mirror. We need nails.”
They searched the rubble and found rusty nails in the base of a wooden desk. Then Helen, listening nervously to the laughter of the Master on the other side of the wall, wrecked a pair of scissors prising nine nails out.
Rona, who’d been holding the mirror in place, held her hand out for the nails.
Lavender whispered, “What do we hammer them in with?”
“Helen has a good rock,” said Rona.
“What, the rock I left in the bedroom?”
“Oh. What else do we have?”
Helen was starting to wish that she carried a tool kit rather than a first aid kit. Lavender peeked round the picture. “Hurry up. Yann has two wounds on his flanks now and the Master is still looking confident.”
Helen wondered if her torch was heavy enough to use as a hammer, then she saw a frying pan in the wall near Rona’s knees, and tugged it out by its greasy metal handle.
“Lavender, let me know when Yann’s hoofbeats will cover a hammering noise.”
The fairy smiled. “Just start hammering now. I’m getting pretty good at silence spells.”
Rona held the mirror and picture together so they didn’t swing round, Lavender muted the noise, and Helen whacked at the nails with a frying pan.
When all nine nails were in, Rona let go, Helen stood back, Lavender fluttered away, and the mirror stayed where it was. They stared at it for a minute and it still stayed where it was. So they all nodded and turned in different directions.
Lavender sighed, “I’m lost, how do we get back?”
Helen pointed to the arrow she’d scratched into the wall. “That’s how to master a maze.”
They sprinted back to the last corner she’d marked, then counted right for another three and almost ran into the back of Lee’s shining cloak.
“What took you so long?” said Sylvie.
Helen replied, “We didn’t bring enough tools.” She realised she was still gripping the frying pan
, so she put it down.
“Yann has been holding his own,” said Lee, “but the Master hasn’t been bedridden for days, so he’s got more energy.”
Helen looked between Lee and Tangaroa’s shoulders. Yann was now bleeding from an arm, two legs, his horse’s flank and his human chest.
The Master wasn’t bleeding at all, but was bruised all over.
The Three were still watching, chattering quietly and smiling.
The fauns were watching too, arms folded, heads to the side.
And the picture was still hanging slightly squint. No nails poking through, no mirror visible. Just a nervous deer, with unwieldy antlers, hanging upside down.
“Now Yann has to turn the mirror and force the Master to look at it.” She frowned. “How do we tell Yann without telling the Master?”
Lavender said, “I could fly over again.”
“That would look suspicious.”
Catesby chattered an offer.
But Helen said, “Let me try from here.” She pushed between Lee and Tangaroa, and called out, “Yann, dear, why don’t you try something new? All you’re doing is dancing around, dear. What about trying something else? Dear!”
Yann frowned at her. “If you’d like to give it a go, dear, I’d be happy to take a break. It’s not easy out here.”
Helen said, “It’s not been easy in the corridors either, dear. So I suggest looking round, dear, and trying something new. More gently this time, dear.”
“Stop calling me … oh!”
Yann looked at all the walls in turn, then grinned at Helen. “Thanks, dear.” He trotted across the open space towards the picture of the deer.
As Yann stepped away, looking at the wall rather than his opponent, the minotaur ran at him and punched the centaur in the chest with both huge fists.
Punched him in both chests.
Two punches, landing hard on his human heart and his horse heart.
One heart which had been overworked for the last two days, the other heart which had been injured and only healed two hours ago.
As the two hammer-blow punches landed, Yann gasped and fell to the ground.
The Master laughed. “That was your real weakness, horse-boy. Not your legs, not your friends, but your weak and ailing hearts. Thank you for finally letting me near enough to attack them.”
Yann lay on the floor, legs limp, looking up at the deer picture. Unable to reach it.
Chapter 30
The minotaur stood over the centaur, prodding him with dirty toes.
Yann’s breath was coming in shallow irregular bursts. Helen wondered if either of his hearts had stopped when they were punched. But he was still conscious. His head turned towards the Master, then towards his friends.
The Master put a foot on his flank. “Surrender, horse-boy.”
“Not yet,” Yann whispered. “Both my hearts are still beating and I’m not giving in.”
The Master lowered his horned head, aiming one point at Yann’s human torso and the other at his horse chest. “I wonder if I could pierce both your hearts at the same time?”
Yann’s breath was coming easier and he tried to roll over. But he was pinned down by the Master’s foot.
Helen muttered, “This is my fault, I distracted him.” She took a step forward, wondering if she could reach the picture to turn it over herself.
But Lee held her back. “Wait. Have faith in him.”
Yann looked up at the Master and spoke clearly, “At least I have hearts to pierce. At least I have friends who would miss me. At least I don’t have to pay uruisks to protect me, and I don’t have followers who are waiting eagerly for me to fail…”
The Master glanced at the fauns. And the moment the minotaur’s attention shifted, the centaur rolled to the right, got his long strong legs under him and pushed up, knocking the Master off balance.
Yann leapt to his hooves.
He took one step over to the deer painting and very gently, with his human hand, pushed the top corner of the frame.
The picture swivelled, the deer swung out of view and the mirror swung into the heart of the maze. Before the picture frame stopped moving, Yann cantered behind the minotaur and grabbed him.
They struggled and scrabbled on the black and white tiles, Yann’s pale arms round the minotaur’s wide chest, the Master bellowing and jabbing back with his elbows.
The centaur shouted, “I can’t hold him!”
Lavender yelled, “Yes you can. You have the healing power of Scotland in your veins!”
“So does he!” gasped Yann.
“But you were healed at sunset on the spring equinox. You have the strongest power, Yann. He only has a shadow of it. You can do it.”
As they watched the two wrestle in the middle of the maze, Helen muttered, “Is that true?”
Lavender whispered back, “If it gives Yann confidence and weakens the Master, it becomes true.”
The centaur’s hooves smashed tiles as they fought, and the minotaur’s bare feet bled on the sharp corners. Yann’s arms held tight, the minotaur’s breathing faltered and Yann slowly forced the minotaur round to face the mirror.
The Master shut his eyes and whimpered, “No! Don’t make me look!”
Yann adjusted his grip and shifted one hand up to the bull’s face.
Helen looked at the mirror. The weight of the glass was pulling it forwards. “Hurry up, Yann!”
Yann yelled, “Which eye?”
Helen called back, “His left!”
Yann used his fingers to push the Master’s left eyelid up, then Yann held the Master’s squirming head still and forced him to look at the mirror.
The Master stared at his reflection. He stopped struggling and just stared. Then he laughed. “I never knew that!”
Helen could see the mirror tipping very slowly, the nails slipping out of the picture frame.
The Master stopped laughing and tried to back away. Yann dug his hooves in. The Master said, “I never … That’s not…”
Then he moaned, “That can’t be true!”
He started struggling again, trying to close his eye, trying to get away from the mirror, trying to get away from Yann. The minotaur was whining, “No, that’s not me,” and clawing at Yann’s hands, clawing at his own eye.
But Yann held firm.
The Master screamed. “NO! That can’t be me…”
The mirror fell, and shattered on the ground.
Yann let go of the Master.
And the Master fell onto spikes of glass and tile.
Suddenly, there was complete silence in the maze.
The minotaur lay unconscious in the middle of the floor. Yann stood, both hands pressing against his human chest.
The Three tucked the wool, needles and thread away in their cloaks.
The fauns moved forward.
Helen saw Lee lift his sword and Sylvie flicker into a wolf.
But Frass knelt on his hairy knees beside the Master. Then he nodded to four younger, beardless fauns, who grabbed the Master’s arms and dragged him across the floor, through the broken glass.
Frass looked up at Yann. “He failed the Maze. He is no longer the Master. Those of us who run the Maze will elect a new Master and train him better, so he doesn’t put his faith in such complex plans and doesn’t underestimate his opponents.”
Lavender called out, “How long does it take to elect and train a new Master?”
Frass smiled. “About ten years.”
Helen felt the group around her sigh with relief.
The fauns pushed the scarred tabletop aside and jumped through the hole, bumping the unconscious minotaur along with them. Once the last of the fauns had leapt through and the table had swung shut, the Three stood up.
“Well done, dear boy.” They laughed. “Dear boy! … What an amusing end … to a fascinating duel … Congratulations, son of Petros … Your healing will hold … and your hearts will be strong.”
They smiled at Yann, then at his friends, from t
he depths of their hoods. “It was a pleasure … to work with you all … We will see you again … to heal your wounds, or even better … the wounds you inflict on others.” They pulled their cloaks around them and left by the Turkish rug.
Helen crunched over bloody glass to Yann.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. “That was a very good idea. Though you could just have said, open the wardrobe door, rather than kick it open. And you could just have said, look at the back of the picture.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t want the Master to know what we were doing.”
“I didn’t know what we were doing either, which made it a little difficult.” He winced and held his hands to his chest again.
Sylvie howled and Lee said, “I agree. Let’s get out of here. The wolf isn’t the only one who’d be happier in the fresh air.”
Yann nodded. “We’ve left Sapphire out there with all the uruisks, so let’s go and give her a hand.”
They wound their way out of the maze, turning left and left and left again, until they found the splintered front door.
Helen followed her friends into the clean dark Borders night, and they saw Sapphire, sitting in the moonlight all on her own. She roared. Yann laughed, then turned to Helen. “She built a bonfire of the uruisks’ weapons, so when they woke up with no shields or axes, and saw her crouching over them blowing little flames, they ran off!”
Then he coughed and bent over in pain.
“What’s wrong?” Helen asked. “Is it those cuts?”
“The cuts look bad and they feel bad too, but I think several of my ribs are broken and they feel much worse. I need some of your first aid, Helen.”
She dropped her rucksack on the grass. “I have nothing left. I dumped or used or broke everything to get us into the maze and through the maze, and to fix that mirror to the picture. Anyway, you don’t need first aid. You need proper medical treatment. And not from the Three this time. So let’s head back to Clovenshaws, and get an expert to look at you.”
Yann said, “Back to Clovenshaws? Are you inviting me to your house?”
“Yes, I am. If you can trust me, you can trust my family. Come on everyone, let’s go and have supper at mine.”
The centaur said, “But we could go to Cauldhame Moor, to my herd’s healers.”