by SJB Gilmour
Sarah felt oddly out of place in the minotaur hospital. After all, Susan and David were Melanie’s parents. Although she had not been separated from her friend for long, the last four days was the longest Sarah and Melanie had been apart in the entire two years they had known each other. Sarah felt strangely guilty that she was there instead of Mel to see her best friend’s new brother.
As her thoughts drifted back to Felix, she realised it made sense he would want to apprentice himself to Cassandra if he truly wanted to become a master seer. Now she knew why he had come with them. It wasn’t because of her at all that he had joined the group.
Satisfied that he had done what he wanted to do, Felix had obeyed Cassandra and was now standing to the back of the group. Feeling out of place, Sarah joined him, even though she was feeling a little put out with him. She was also feeling a number of other quite confusing, and really quite annoying emotions about Felix, including a strange bond. Like him, she had been an orphan. She had been separated from her parents since the age of six when they had been abducted by Mautallius. Then, just as she had a chance to rescue them, they had died in the battle under Troll Mountain. Of course, being werewolves, their spirits were always at Wolfenvald, but that was not the same as actually living a life with parents the way young Alexander was bound to do.
‘Why don’t we leave here for now?’ Felix suggested.
Sarah thought this was a brilliant idea. The two young teenagers turned to leave.
‘Just don’t get lost,’ Benjamin called out to them. Of course, from one werewolf to another, this was quite impossible, but Benjamin was always very protective of his niece and could not help but try to keep her safe from harm.
Chapter Six
As Sarah and Felix walked out of the underground hospital wing and back into the labyrinth, they found Tor in the middle of a heated discussion with two other distressed-looking minotaurs who looked so similar they had to be twins.
‘His mother’s beside herself,’ one of the minotaurs was saying to Tor.
‘Idiot!’ Tor exclaimed with an angry snort. ‘Of all the nights to go looking for trouble, he has to do it when everyone’s too busy or too drunk to go looking for him!’ He noticed Sarah and Felix approaching and sighed. ‘I’m sorry, young Mistress and young Master. It seems your arrival has given one of our less intelligent young bucks the chance to sneak off when he shouldn’t have.’
‘What’s the matter?’ Sarah asked.
‘Before we go on,’ Tor told them with a wave at the two minotaurs beside him, ‘these are Davey and Merry, my Lieutenants.’
Sarah smiled and shook hands with the two enormous soldiers. Felix did the same, though not quite so enthusiastically. The two minotaurs were very muscular and obviously quite imposing compared to the adolescent’s slight frame.
‘A young buck called Alfred is missing,’ Davey told them. ‘When you arrived, everyone turned to look. It gave him the chance to sneak off.’
Tor shook his great head regretfully. ‘There have been reports that Medusa has been sniffing around again,’ he said apologetically. ‘She hunts us,’ he said with a sad shrug. ‘We’ve tried reasoning with her, but there’s just no talking to that gorgon.’
Davey nodded. ‘Young Alf decided to go and be a hero. The silly fool went off alone.’
‘Medusa?’ Felix asked. ‘She’s alive? I thought she was dead.’
Merry shook his head regretfully. ‘If only that were true. Still,’ he said, sounding as though he was trying to look on the bright side. ‘Her power’s only dangerous to mortals or single minotaurs. She’s actually a bit of a coward. If she comes up against three or more of us, she usually runs away. But one minotaur by himself…’ He held one hand out and waved it back and forth. ‘That’s a different matter. Now Alf’s gone off and we can’t find him. Everyone’s too involved in the ceremony right now and we can’t spare the hooves to go looking for him.’
Davey sighed. ‘Ordinarily, the loss of one young buck would almost be beneficial as a lesson on why not to stray from the herd.’ He grimaced. ‘But by Poseidon, his mother!’
Merry nodded. ‘She can be a little shrill at times.’
‘A little?’ Davey exclaimed. ‘She could scream a fellow’s horns off from twenty paces! Her screeching makes the cud in your gullet turn!’
‘Okay,’ Merry said, gesturing to his twin to calm down. ‘We know. We’ll sort this out somehow.’
The answer seemed so obvious to Sarah. ‘Why don’t you take us to where you last saw him?’ she asked, changing form into her Golden Mane werewolf shape. Felix followed suit and assumed his much nicer Grey Mane form. Sarah grinned at him then turned back to Tor. ‘Well? If I can tell the difference between these two by their smell, I should be able to pick up the scent of your lost buck.’
Merry laughed and clapped Davey on the back. Tor chuckled to himself and shook his head with newfound respect for the werewolves. Felix winced. If he had received such a blow, it would have sent him reeling.
‘I must admit,’ Tor said, grinning, ‘If there’s any way you can help, we’d all be in your debt — if only for the sake of our ears.’ He led the two grinning werewolves back through The Labyrinth to a small command post where the young Alfred had been stationed.
Sarah sniffed the ground several times. There were hundreds of different minotaur scents there. She whined in confusion. ‘Do you have anything that this Alfred might have used or touched?’ she asked Davey. ‘Maybe something he wore?’
Davey nodded and went behind the command post to a row of lockers. He yanked one open and withdrew a large blanket. He held it out for Sarah and Felix to sniff. ‘Bucks on duty work a six hour on, six hour off shift. When they’re not eating or standing guard, they’re usually asleep.’
Sarah and Felix sniffed the blanket. The wayward minotaur’s scent was now very easy for her to pick up. She sniffed the ground again and wagged her tail. She knew exactly which way Alfred had gone. Just then, another minotaur runner came racing up to Tor.
‘I’m sorry Lord Tor,’ he said, panting and snorting, ‘but we need you back in the main hall.’
Tor muttered a curse and then glanced apologetically at Sarah.
‘Don’t worry, Lord Tor,’ Sarah told him, using his proper title. ‘I’m sure we’ll be able to handle Medusa if this Alf has managed to find her.’
Tor nodded gratefully at her. ‘Thank-you, Mistress,’ he said, then turned, and ran with his two lieutenants and the runner back to the main hall.
When they were out of earshot, Felix turned to her seriously. ‘Are you certain you will be able to deal with this Medusa woman?’ he asked. His grey brow was furrowed with doubt.
Sarah had been receiving quiet instructions from Wolfenvald for the last few minutes. She knew Medusa’s powers would not work on either of them. Also, she knew Felix did not know that and could not resist playing with him.
‘Sure,’ she said with a nonchalant shrug. ‘And she’s not a woman,’ she corrected him. ‘She’s a gorgon.’
‘She hunts minotaurs!’ Felix protested. ‘She is dangerous, Sarah Kopernik!’
Sarah turned and regarded the nervous Grey Mane with her best poker face. ‘So am I,’ she told him in as deadpan a voice as she could manage. She grinned and nudged him. ‘C’mon,’ she told him. ‘Let’s go find this Alf guy.’ She bent down and began following the scent trail that Alf had left behind. ‘The trail’s pretty fresh,’ she told Felix. ‘He can’t be that far away.’
‘I am not so certain,’ Felix replied, running along beside her. ‘These minotaurs can travel quickly if they need to. Lord Tor and his lieutenants set quite a pace back to their main hall.’
The two werewolves followed the trail through several kilometres of tunnel until they finally came to an opening in the side of a cliff face. Sarah skidded to a halt and swore softly.
‘The trail stops here,’ she told Felix.
The Grey Mane whined in frustration. ‘He cannot have merely leaped out
into sea!’ he protested. He went and peered out over the cliff then cautiously backed up a few steps. It was night and the moon and stars glistened on the sea down below.
Sarah joined him overlooking the water. Now wolves have very sharp eyes. Sarah peered out at the water for a few minutes, and then she spied something that gave her hope.
‘You know, I think that’s just what he did,’ she told Felix. ‘Look there.’
There, out on the water, was a small boat being rowed by what looked like a very large man. The more Sarah concentrated and focused on the boat, the better she could see. Yes, there was indeed a minotaur in that boat. He was rowing towards a small island several hundred metres further out.
Felix whined. ‘Sarah Kopernik, I must confess something to you,’ he said, sounding quite shy.
Sarah was not really listening to him. She was much more interested in the minotaur out on the glistening water. After a few moments of silence, Sarah turned to see a very different Felix. His tail was tucked between his hind legs and he was actually shaking.
‘Don’t tell me you’re afraid of heights, Grey Mane,’ she exclaimed, looking out over the cliff.
Felix sniffed. ‘Not heights, Golden Mane,’ he replied sounding a trifle insulted. ‘I’m simply unused to swimming.’
‘Who said anything about swimming?’ Sarah replied. She concentrated for a moment and then muttered ‘Ichtumbler!’ which was Magaeic for “take us there!” Suddenly Sarah and Felix were transported instantly to the shore on the island towards which the minotaur was rowing.
‘Now what?’ Felix asked, looking around at his new surroundings. ‘I do not like this. Trouble is coming.’
Sarah shrugged. ‘Trouble’s always coming,’ she replied a little wearily. ‘Now, I guess we just wait.’ She padded down to the water’s edge and greeted the sea. ‘Hello again,’ she said to the sea.
Distantly over the waves came the sea’s watery reply, ‘Greetings again to thee of Wolfenvald. Fare well tonight.’ Then the sea was silent again once more.
‘I have not seen that before,’ Felix breathed. He wagged his tail ruefully. ‘The powers of The Golden Mane truly are worthy of legend.’
Sarah grinned. ‘It’s nice to hear you talk like a wolf again instead of a smelly boy,’ she told him teasingly. In the moonlight, she knew that had he been in human form, the Grey Mane would have been blushing. The two werewolves sat and watched the wayward minotaur row his undersized boat towards the small island. When Alfred finally grew near the shore, Sarah nudged Felix and they scampered behind a large rocky outcrop.
‘What are we doing?’ Felix whined quietly as they watched the minotaur haul his boat up onto the shore. ‘We’re just supposed to bring him back.’
‘We said we’d find him,’ Sarah argued. ‘We didn’t say anything about getting him back to The Labyrinth.’
‘But he’s hunting Medusa!’
‘So? I don’t know about you, Grey Mane, but I’m curious. You’re supposed to be a seer. Don’t you know about Medusa?’
‘I know she turns people to stone,’ Felix retorted, now very nervous indeed. ‘And I sense trouble is coming very close now. And I do not smell any worse than you do!’ he added indignantly.
Sarah chuckled. ‘You’ll just have to make sure you don’t look at her then won’t you? Now shut up and let’s see where he goes.’
Alf secured his boat to a large rock and began climbing up into the rocks. Sarah was surprised at just how fast and agile the minotaur was. Being very careful to stay in the shadows, well out of sight, Sarah and Felix followed Alf until he came to a small cave opening. There he paused and looked around behind him. Satisfied he wasn’t in any danger, Alf shrugged to himself and went inside the cave.
‘We should follow him,’ Felix whined quietly.
‘In a moment,’ Sarah replied. ‘He’s got good eyes and ears. He’s prey, remember.’
Felix wagged his tail in agreement. ‘And probably has a keen nose, I’d warrant. If we are as smelly as you say, he would probably be able to detect us.’
Sarah could not help but bait her new friend again. ‘I may smell,’ she admitted, ‘but trust me, I smell better than you. When was the last time you had a shower?’ she teased him. Then she detected a new scent, and it was one she had smelled before. The last time she had smelled that scent, it had been at Conundrum.
‘Stop!’ she barked.
Felix stood stock still, his hackles raised. ‘I smell it too,’ he growled.
The smell was coming from behind them. Sarah could detect at least two different scents and they were definitely goblins. She turned around and looked this way and that, but could not see over the rocks. She swore softly to herself and changed form. The extra height of her human form would give her a better view of whatever it was that was behind them. As carefully and as quietly as she could in her human shape, Sarah climbed up onto one of the rocks to see past and down to the shore. Unfortunately, her human form was not quite as stealthy as her wolf form.
As soon as she had climbed to the top of the boulder, she realised her blunder. Quite suddenly and quite alarmingly, she came face-to-face with the loaded crossbow of a Guild guardslin.
‘Don’t move,’ the goblin ordered.
Two more of the wicked creatures appeared, armed with swords. Sarah stood stock still, but Felix did nothing of the kind. He snarled and leaped at the goblin. The goblin faltered and as he fell, he fired. Sarah lurched to one side and the bolt missed her millimetres. She lost her footing and fell clumsily to the rocks below her, picking several nasty scrapes and bumps along the way.
While Sarah was falling most ungracefully, Felix was clasping his jaws about the goblin’s throat. He gave one mighty twist and the goblin’s head came clean off, sending a huge spray of steaming purple blood all over him and the surrounding rocks. The remaining two goblins lunged at Sarah with their swords. She shrieked and rolled this way and that. The attack had come so fast and she was not able to concentrate on any more than dodging the goblin’s blades. Even in her clumsy human form, Sarah was still very quick. Not one of the potentially very dangerous sword-thrusts struck her. Unfortunately, that was all she was able to concentrate on. Changing into her werewolf form was impossible.
Felix leaped at a second goblin. This time, he caught him by the left leg, tearing out the hamstring. He let go the moment the goblin fell and, before he hit the ground, that goblin too was minus his head. This left only the third and last goblin. His momentary distraction at the fall of his comrades was enough. Sarah bounced up, changing form mid-air and struck the goblin full in the chest with her forepaws. He fell backwards and she landed on top of him. His sword fell away with a loud clatter.
‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded.
The goblin didn’t answer. He merely snarled and struggled to get out from underneath her.
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Sarah growled. ‘I know how to get all the answers I need.’ She focused her mind on the goblin as she had done before with the troll in the desert and later with the succubus princess, and two beams of golden light shot from her eyes into the gleaming black eyes of the goblin. It would only take a moment and she would be able to sink her mind into the consciousness of the goblin and discover all she needed to know. She didn’t get the chance however.
Felix was in a furious rage. He snapped at the goblin she was holding down, and with one huge bite, chomped the top of the goblin’s head off from the scalp to the nose. Goblin brain and blood gushed out of the skull like sloppy mincemeat. Sarah felt a sharp pain behind her eyes and the beams of light from her eyes blinked out.
‘What did you do that for?’ she demanded. ‘I was about to find out what these guys were doing here!’ She sniffed the semi-headless corpse of the goblin. ‘Now I don’t know if they had time to report back to Marzdane! If they were just scouts, they won’t be missed for a while, but if they were from nearby, there will be a lot more of them real quick!’
Felix sniffed as if the a
nswer was obvious. ‘They are simply scouts,’ he assessed. ‘Look at their weaponry. Guild guardslins do not normally carry crossbows. I think they were on reconnaissance.’ He licked his bloody chops. He grimaced. ‘You could have warned me,’ he complained. ‘These things do not taste very nice.’
Sarah was about to argue, but thought better of it. There was no point. Instead, she chuckled and wagged her tail. ‘You should taste troll,’ she advised. ‘They’re almost as bad as demons.’
Felix was surprised. ‘You’ve eaten a demon?’ he asked. ‘What for?’
‘I bit one,’ Sarah corrected him. ‘I wouldn’t eat one.’ She shuddered. ‘You kind of had to be there.’ Then she nodded back in the direction Alfred had gone. ‘Why don’t we find out what he’s up to?’
Felix whined and looked about. ‘Is it safe?’
‘You’re the seer,’ she countered, her yellow eyes gleaming.
Felix sniffed. ‘Even Cassandra cannot foresee everything. I could be mistaken.’
Sarah wasn’t convinced. ‘I doubt it. I can’t smell anything else.’ She grinned. ‘C’mon, let’s go find out what that minotaur’s up to.’
With that, she abandoned the three headless corpses of the goblin scouts and bounded up the hill towards the cave. Felix yipped excitedly and rushed to follow her.
‘Golden Mane!’ he yelped. ‘There’s more trouble ahead!’
Sarah stalked warily into the cave. Inside it was dark and musty. The sand beneath her paws was cold and damp. The cave smelled of dead sea-creatures and rotting seaweed. Apart from Alfred’s strong bovine odour, there were two other scents. One was a sweet, feminine scent she did not recognise. The other smelled alarmingly of old sweaty gym socks. That could only mean one thing. Troll!