Then, for a further two hours she endured the bitter cold of the extreme altitude as
they passed over mile upon mile of desert, until a strange and wonderful new land came into view. ‘Take me down,’ she ordered, pointing to a strip of land far below. Salen responded, swooping beneath the cloud cover. ‘Over there,’ she said pointing to a clearing in the forest and Salen flapped his wings wildly several times before making a perfect landing. She disembarked, sliding down over his shoulders.
‘Wait here,’ she said. The fearsome looking beast grunted and roared, rolling back its wild black eyes, acknowledging her command. Swaying to-and-fro restlessly, Salen lay down on the ground and fell fast asleep out of pure exhaustion, while Kira headed off into the dark forest.
A brisk walk up a steep shingle track brought her to a sweet smelling glade, surrounded by towering trees, just as the sun could be seen setting through a filigree of branches above her head. She stopped briefly, taking in the beautiful sight.
Then she became aware of a gurgling sound from somewhere behind her. Swinging around she saw what looked like a small furry animal of some kind, lying motionless just a few paces away. It seemed injured and helpless. ‘Ah, you poor little thing,’ she said walking slowly towards it. She didn't want to scare it. Hovering over it, she held out her hands. She stroked it gently.
The soil beneath her feet suddenly rumbled hugely like an earthquake and exploded
around her. It opened up in a blast of dust and bloodied bones, swallowing her instantly. Screaming, she fell into the darkness. Only to rise up moments later in the coiled grip of an immense serpent. Now she realised the injured animal was a decoy and really the tail of a hideous predator. The perfect bait for catching curious animals and stupid blue-blood warriors, she thought.
She was forced back down the hole screaming. The ground rumbled and shook.
There was another explosion of dust and bones. Heartbeats later, she reappeared again. She was still screaming, trying to get a hand to her sword. She couldn’t reach it. Her arms were firmly trapped by the serpent's coils.
Suddenly a hideous snake-like head appeared in front of her. Jaws wide. Fangs dripping blood. I'm going to die, she thought. The serpent came face-to-face. Eye-to-eye. Panic filled her. Terror gripped her. She stared at the abomination. Screaming, she closed her eyes. There was nothing she could do to save herself. She was going to die. Unless a miracle happened. Here. Now.
Suddenly, the sound of flapping wings filled the air. And razor sharp teeth ripped the serpents head from its body. Kira opened her eyes. ‘Salen! Thank the man-gods for making you my saviour,’ she said. She slumped down beside the serpent’s gruesome remains. Salen flapped his wings wildly and swallowed the head.
‘I’ve never been so glad to see a dragon before,’ she admitted, patting its horn crested nose as if it was a pet.
Salen rolled his eyes and roared.
‘That wasn’t a moment too soon. Another blink of an eye and I would have been dead. Come, follow me. I may need more of your assistance,’ she said leading Salen through a patch of towering bean trees towards a small village. The inviting aroma of roasting meat drifted on the breeze, making her hungry. Obediently Salen followed her, plodding behind, leaving a trail of fallen trees in his wake.
On the outskirts of the village she ordered Salen to wait behind the tree line, hidden from the view of villagers, but close enough to aid her, should she need help. She didn’t want to frighten anyone with his terrifying appearance.
She entered the village, passing a smithies workshop first. He was hard at work,
beating white hot metal on an iron anvil. Bright sparks flew everywhere. She passed a large group of children, noisily playing hide-and-seek in a field of corn, taller than them. They were running around, deliberately flattening the corn stalks, laughing and giggling excitedly. She walked on, passing mud huts with thatched roofs, makeshift shelters and a lean-to made of animal-hides.
All were bustling and buzzing with life as she made her way toward a middle-aged man sitting beside a well. She stopped and smiled kindly. ‘Hello,’ she greeted, watching him lowering a thin line down the well. ‘What are you doing?’
He didn’t answer, or even raise his head to look at her. But he did keep lowering
the line down into the well. ‘Excuse me! What are you doing?’ she asked again, a touch of impatience in her voice. She watched him curiously. Again, he didn’t reply.
She touched his shoulder, shaking him gently. ‘Are you deaf?’ she asked.
‘Actually, he is deaf…’ a soft voice from behind announced.
Kira spun around sharply, startled by the voice.
‘He’s fishing for a sacred Firestar, believed to be down there,’ said the newcomer,
an ancient-looking man, tall and bony with high cheeks and long grey hair. His lips were thin and dry with a brownish crust over them, ‘You’ll get no reply from him. He is deaf… dumb… and blind.’
She fixed the old man’s gaze. ‘Then how do you know what he’s doing if he can’t
speak?’ she asked.
‘Because he’s my son,’ said the other, ‘and he used to do the same thing before the
accident that left him this way.’
‘I see. You have my sympathy,’ she consoled. ‘But is there such a Firestar? Does it
really exist?’
‘No one knows for sure. It’s a dry, bottomless well. Many have attempted to climb
down in search of the Firestar. None have ever returned. I've always assumed that they fell to their deaths. I believe it to be pure myth, myself,’ shrugged the man, smiling with his top lip curled, showing his large; quince and black teeth.
‘Interesting,’ she said, staring down into the darkness.
The old man took a firm hold of his son’s hand and helped him down from the well
wall. ‘Come, it’s time to eat.’
And as the two men walked off together, hand in hand, she picked up a stone and
dropped it down into the well, listening for the sound of impact. There was none. Just an eerie silence. She picked up a another stone, throwing it forcefully down into the well and listened. Again it made no sound. There was however, cool air rushing up the walls of the well, which led her to believe that it wasn't bottomless.
If the blind man’s suspicions are correct, and there is a Firestar down the well, it’s worth investigating at the very least, she thought. She climbed up onto the wall of the well, swinging her legs over the side and began climbing down into the darkness. Then for what seemed an eternity she descended the slippery, vertical wall, clinging on for dear life by her fingertips with her toes forced firmly into any crack or crevice that might afford her a good foothold. And occasionally she would lose her grip briefly, reminding her how dangerous her journey was.
Cold and desperately tired she decided it was hopeless and could go no further.
She sighed heavily, taking deep breaths and began her long climb back to the surface. And then her hand pushed against a cross shaped brick and a hole in the wall opened up in front of her. A bright light shone in her eyes. And the fusty smell of mildew and sulphur filled the air, making her eyes sting.
The bright light faded, leaving dreadful shadows. ‘Holy Mother of Loden,’ she gasped, falling through the hole into a dark chamber. She shook her head and swept the vault with her eyes, uneasily searching the shadows as she crawled along, feeling edgy and claustrophobic. Is this where some terrible evil lurks, she thought? Well even if it does, I’ve come too far to turn back now. Could it be a burial chamber, she wondered? Or a secret hiding place for a hidden treasure from a long lost civilisation? Whatever its use was, it was certainly creepy looking and made her feel ill at ease.
She scurried around the room on her knees, examining unknown objects, her nose inches away from them. Her eyes gleamed in the dark and were deep set like those of a hawk. And so swift, silent and furtive were her movements that she was like a hound pic
king up a scent in the dust of a thousand years. It lay thick upon the floor.
Unexpectedly, the hole in the wall suddenly ground shut behind her, noisily sealing
itself.
‘Oh, no, no, I’m trapped!’ she whimpered, feeling for the join in the wall with her
fingertips.
‘Welcome to my world,’ announced a husky voice, startling her.
She spun around and came face to face with the newcomer – a sinister looking,
strangely garbed figure, dressed in brightly coloured attire. Something dark and threatening emanated from him. He was small, but well-built with blond hair and bright blue eyes, which sparkled like the light of pre-dawn. Then for a heartbeat she stood watching him juggle three glowing balls that changed in colour constantly.
‘Who…who are you… and what is this place?’ she stammered in a whisper, unable
to remove her gaze from the shimmering balls.
‘This tomb is sacred. And I am its Guardian,' said the other.
Kira grew frightened and moved her gaze, watching streams of shadows sliding over the cobweb covered walls. 'You’re not going to try and hurt me, are you?' she asked in a small voice.
Koki didn't answer the question, but he did introduce himself. Then one of the balls suddenly turned into a large, perfectly cut Firestar. It glinted in the dim light. ‘Is this what you’re looking for?’ he asked, continuing to juggle. ‘If so, is it worth dying for?’
Kira’s eyes widened. She nodded. Few had ever seen the Firestars they were willing
to kill or die for. ‘It's worthless to me on its own, but joined together with the others
they'll grant everlasting life. That’s a prize worth the risk.’
‘So, come and take it if you can,’ he dared with a confident grin. ‘Many have tried.
Many have died. And believe me, there have been many I assure you.’
His voice faded. He vanished with the Firestar, laughing feverishly, leaving her wondering how to get it. Suddenly, the walls of the vault began to groan inward, closing behind her, leaving her with no choice but to move forward. She crawled – spider-like – scrambling further into the chamber just as the stone floor beneath her feet began to grind slowly into the walls, revealing thousands of spiders in another chamber below.
‘I – hate – spiders!’ she screamed, watching them creep, crawl and scatter everywhere. Some were tiny. Others were the size of a fist, and larger.
The ceiling began grinding down towards her too. Sharp metal spikes scraped noisily through holes in the ceiling. Then, she noticed the Firestar sitting precariously balanced on one of the stone floor tiles, farthest away from her. It was disappearing into another hole in the wall. I've got to do something quickly before it vanishes forever, she thought. But she couldn’t reach it. It was too far away. Yet, if she dived at it she could get it. However, that meant falling amongst the spiders.
Paralysed with fear, she felt her whole body tingle at the dreadful thought. But then the lethal spikes thrusting down toward her was a terrifying sight too. She made the dreadful choice. She dived, screaming. Seizing the jewel, she fell amongst the spiders.
‘You scum-bucket, Koki,’ she screamed, covered from head to toe within moments. She wailed like a banshee. ‘Get them off! Get them off! Please get them off!’ Her mouth was bone dry. And her haunting screams echoed out of the chamber and up the walls of the dry well. No one was there to hear. Or help.
She climbed to her feet, frantically spitting spiders out of her mouth. She brushed them off, and out of her hair. Then she found herself brushing at nothing. All the spiders were gone. Vanished. ‘What the–?’ she gasped, eyes wide.
‘The spiders were never really there. It was merely an illusion. However, it was
entertaining to say the least,’ Koki’s voice whispered in her ear.
Without uttering a word she climbed out of the chamber, up into the vault where
she'd been only moments earlier. Touching the tip of one of the metal spikes, which had almost skewered her, she cursed Koki profoundly. Then the hole in the wall ground open in front of her. The spiders might have been an illusion, she thought, but the deadly spikes hadn’t been. She put the Firestar in her knapsack and slung it over her shoulder. Crawling out through the opening, she quickly climbed back up, and out of the well.
It was almost dark now. So she made her way back over to the tree-line where Salen
was still hiding. She made camp for the night and fell fast asleep with him watching over her. However, Salen wasn't the only one watching. Once again, two haunting eyes blinked in the darkness of the shadows from the dense woods to her rear. And a cold voice hissed quietly. ‘Sleep well warrior. There's no point killing you just yet. Even though I do hate loose ends.
Chapter 16
Early the next morning, Kira's eyes sprang wide open. The sound of Salen’s leathery wings flapping, startled her awake. He was belching flames and plumes of thick black smoke from his massive jaws, aimed at an opening in the tree-line at about one hundred and fifty paces to her rear. She sat up wondering what was going on. She didn’t have to wait long to find out either. Another dragon – much bigger than Salen – appeared from out of the fire-storm raging within the fierce burning trees. Smoke filled her nostrils. ‘Great man-gods!’ she screamed. She sprang to her feet and took cover behind a rock.
The newly arrived dragon with wild cruel eyes returned fire instantly, shooting the most ferocious plume of flames. Salen was enveloped completely. Then as the white-hot glow blackened and hissed, another even greater cloud of flames billowed around him. Sparks flew, writhing up in the reddening smoke. Kira stared hard to see the shape beyond it. Behind the rock she cringed and trembled as the searing heat began melting everything. Can Salen withstand such an awesome display of fire-power, she thought.
A heartbeat later, her question was answered when he emerged unharmed from within the swell of flames and smoke. He was flapping his wings wildly, rolling his eyes. He flared his scales and spines aggressively, thundering his tail from side to side, chopping trees into splinters of wood no larger than twigs. He roared. The ground shook. Both dragons exchanged columns of searing flames, time and again, until the sandy soil beneath them ran like a rainbow-coloured river of molten glass.
Kira cowered behind the rock with no idea where the aggressor had come from, and no thought of why it was attacking them. But she did wonder whether their rival was protecting something.
Salen let out an incredibly loud roar. Kira covered her ears, watching his long tail swing and curl like a whip about the newcomer’s neck, dragging it to the ground. A cloud of dust swelled, hanging in the stillness of the air. And when it cleared, the newcomer was deathly still. At the bottom of the valley a haunting, soul-deadening laughter resounded as the defeated dragon vanished in front of her eyes.
‘You have a powerful ally, warrior. My dragon should have been big enough and
strong enough to kill you both. But I hadn’t foreseen such resistance. I won’t make the same mistake twice,’ announced Koki's voice, as if from a far off world.
‘There’s more to this place than meets the eye. I think we should stay a while
longer to investigate,' said Kira striding towards Salen. 'I wonder what Koki will summon against us next?
Salen roared, rearing up on hind legs, belching flames.
Follow me,’ she beckoned. And he lumbered behind her like a disciplined pet, watching her every move, and both of them spent a considerable amount of time scouring the whole area. They discovered nothing.
The sky was clear and blue, and all the while birds sang on the topmost branches of the surrounding trees as columns of midges hung in the stillness of the air, above spilling mounds of wild roses. Then for no apparent reason she angled her search towards a small clearing and accidentally tripped over a tree root in the dry ground. A trench opened up in front of her, revealing what looked like another ancient tomb.
She moved
slowly forward in the uncertain shadowy light and could see that there
were glancing, glimmering eyes peeping at her from every nook and cranny. Then as she approached she realised that the tomb was a kind of sanctuary for solemn owls, who shifted their weight lazily from one leg to the other as her footsteps disturbed their slumbers. Some proved to be ugly, fat, lop-eared creatures, brown and white in colour, the like of which she had never seen before. Others were black as night and beautiful, but with a clumsy waddle.
She went further inside. ‘I knew it. I knew we’d find something,’ she said excitedly,
walking down the few moss-covered steps. ‘Salen wait here and don’t move,’ she commanded. He obeyed in a half-stupefied fashion and slumped uneasily to the ground, keeping its baleful eyes wide open for any unexpected occurrence.
Lowering her head she entered an even darker hole in the ground. A putrid smell
filled her nostrils. It was like a mixture of tar and sulphur and rotting flesh. And the appalling stench was so bad that she almost fainted. Salen lay peering down into the hole, impatiently huffing and puffing smoke rings into the air.
Kira couldn’t see too clearly, but eventually her eyes became accustomed to the dim light. Not that there was much to see. Other than some ancient-looking writing, scrawled in blood on a single wall, and a large brown jar sat in the centre of the room.
Another inscription written in a circular fashion surrounded the jar – on the mosaic
floor tiles. Whoever had done the writing had obviously written it in their own blood. And in a great hurry. It puzzled her, even though she had a small knowledge of several alphabets. It seemed to be in some sort of code and she could barely make out one word in four. Nevertheless, the one word she could read with an unambiguous clarity was the seven-letter word scrawled on the wall – Isadora. Her blood ran cold. She instantly recognised the infamous name from her childhood days.
The Blackhawks Impossible Quest Page 17