Romulus and Jack didn’t need telling twice and both scrambled towards the gap in the wall. But they were running out of time as it had begun to close.
Romulus slowed down. “Jack, you go first. I’m smaller than you and won’t need as much of a gap to fit through.”
Jack kept running and flew at the wall … only then did it become clear just how fast their escape route was closing. His arm caught between the gap and the wall and he had to be yanked clear by Olivia.
Romulus followed soon after, with a large hairy hand close behind him from one of the Goblin Soldiers. But as luck would have it, it was too big to fit through, and the gap slammed shut.
Hangaku gave a huge sigh of relief as the chilling sound of fist pounding anger from the Goblin Soldiers on the other side rang out as they vented their frustration on the wall inside the crypt.
They’d had a lucky escape and judging by their exhausted and drained faces, they all knew it.
— CHAPTER EIGHT —
Strange Land and Strange Creatures
Several minutes had elapsed, in which time they managed to catch their breaths after what had been a frantic chain of events. And after sufficient rest, and now holed up in yet another long dark bleak passageway, Hangaku informed them on how she had come to know about the moving doorway.
Unbeknown to even her brother, the crypt had been a favourite hiding place for her over the years. Whenever she had felt the need of somewhere quiet to get away and gather her thoughts, the crypt was where she would go.
It was a revelation that struck a chord with Macy, who felt the same way about the bench outside the Forbidden Garden.
As for how Hangaku had found out about the moving doorway, well … the Spell Keeper had shown it to her several years earlier as a quick route to pay her respect to her ancestors in the crypt. But how the Spell Keeper had come to know about it was anyone’s guess.
“Why have you never told me about this place?” Romulus asked. “It would’ve been handy to know about, so I could have used it too.” He was annoyed and a little disappointed in his sister, and it came across in his voice.
“The Spell Keeper swore me to secrecy,” said Hangaku apologetically. “I know it was wrong not to tell you. But I could never have foreseen the nightmare which has now arisen?”
Macy scratched her head and entered the conversation. “You must’ve known about it as you would have come this way to get to the other doorway leading to the Forbidden Garden?”
Romulus hauled himself onto Jack’s shoulders. “We didn’t come this way. Yes… I knew about the crypt, but there is another entrance and that is the one we used. As for this place, well, it’s all new to me.” He pointed all around.
Jack crouched and placed his back against the wall, careful not to squash Romulus. “It doesn’t matter who knew what, and how we got here. There are still some angry Goblin Soldiers on the other side in case any of you have forgotten.” He nodded in the direction of the closed doorway. “I don’t think we shouldn’t hang around here too long. And if that doorway opens again anytime soon, you won’t see me for dust.”
Without warning, Olivia suddenly went hyper. The adrenaline pumping through her veins, brought on by the pursuing Goblin Soldiers had boiled over.
“He’s right! We need to get as far away from here as we can.” She caught sight of a glimmer of daylight in the distance and flew down the passageway towards it.
Macy gave chase. “Come back. You don’t know where you’re going...”
“Not again,” groaned Jack. He remembered back to Olivia’s previous mad dash in the passageway. He placed Romulus and Hangaku back in the rucksack and set-off after Macy and Olivia. “Both of you, STOP!”
Once he caught up with them they all came to an abrupt halt at the open entrance to the passageway — and it soon to became apparent why they had stopped.
Jack nudged in between Macy and Olivia and the first thing he noticed was the complete change in scenery. Wide-eyed and open mouthed all three of them gawked dumb struck, and it took Romulus’s intervention to break the silence.
Running his fingers through his beard, Romulus had a twinkle in his eye. “Magnificent, isn’t it.”
Jack cleared his throat and his mouth finally engaged his brain. “Wow, it’s fantastic!” He scanned form left to right. “Where are we?”
Hangaku had seen the place where they’d ended up many times before — but never under such sad circumstances. “Yes, you’re right ... it is fantastic — but for how much longer? With Kraken ruling, it won’t be long before what you see in front of you is changed beyond all recognition.”
With Romulus by her side tears filled the well of each eye socket, ran down her cheeks and met as one under her chin.
Romulus wiped away his sister’s tears with a piece of loose cloth from the inside of the rucksack. “With the help of our new friends, we will put a stop to Kraken before he has a chance to cause any more heartache.” It was evident he wholeheartedly believed every word he had spoken and secured a comforting arm around Hangaku’s shoulders.
Jack again tried to find out where they had ended up. “It might help if you tell us where we are? Looking around it’s hard to believe anything bad is going to happen in such a pretty place.”
Romulus threw his arms in the air and gave an ecstatic one-word reply. “Tormencer!!”
Jack jumped in. “We were already in Tormencer? I mean … the crypt … isn’t that in Tormencer?”
Romulus nodded and clarified what he’d meant. “Yes, the crypt is in Tormencer. I was simply pointing out that from here you can get a clearer view of what the Land of Tormencer is all about.”
Macy threw Jack a smug stare. “Couldn’t you figure it out for yourself?”
Jack moved further forward. “I was only asking!” he said frostily. But moments later he came to a halt and gripped hold of a large rock jutting out from the wall next to him. “We’re on the edge of a cliff!”
“Don’t worry—” Romulus tried his best to calm Jack’s nerves, “—it’s Tormencer Mountain.”
Macy and Olivia edged forward to see what all the fuss was about. “Jack’s right!” cried Olivia. She grabbed hold of Macy’s hand and took a step back.
Jack howled. “I know I’m right ... but I’m not sure what’s worse … being chased by Goblin Soldiers or hanging off a mountain?”
The mountain ledge they had found themselves on stretched high into the sky. So high in fact a thick blanket of cloud had laid siege to the top of it. Luckily, the ledge was halfway down the side of the mountain. If it had been at the top they wouldn’t have been able to see much.
Gradually, Macy and Olivia felt confident enough to make their way closer to the front of the ledge to get a better view. But Jack on the other hand was having none of it and preferred to stay right where he was … jammed hard against the rocky inside of the mountain.
As the two girls gazed out at across the Land of Tormencer, Romulus gave them a running commentary of what they were looking at.
Dead ahead and to the North was a large lagoon which lay at the foot of a huge flower filled meadow, surrounded by fields of lush low-cut green grass. It was the Valley of Crystal Water; an apt name if ever there was one. The water looked so inviting, and even from their high vantage point it was plain to see why the name had been chosen.
Peering through squint eyes Jack let go of the rock he had been clinging too for dear life and edged forward. He had spotted several large objects floating on the surface of the water. They seemed vaguely familiar ... but then again, maybe not. He questioned Romulus on what they might be, and the answer he received was not the one he, Macy or Olivia had expected.
Romulus spoke in a confident voice and knew exactly what they were. “They’re Loomanators.”
“They’re what?” Jack nearly choked on his words. He didn’t have a clue what a Loomanator was.
“Loomanators!” repeated Romulus. Who then proceeded to explain that they were originally s
ea creatures who had entered the Valley of Crystal Water centuries ago, via a tidal flood which had covered most of Tormencer. The water level had dropped back over the years and about a dozen of the sea creatures had found themselves trapped and unable to return to their natural habitat. Lucky for them they had been very good at adapting to their new surroundings and had produced an abundance of offspring now occupying the lagoon’s magnificent waters.
From the distance they were from the lagoon it was hard to make out a clear vision of what a Loomanator really looked like.
Hangaku asked Jack to let her out of the rucksack and he placed her on the ground.
Romulus kept his preferred position, high on Jack’s shoulders.
Hangaku wandered over to Olivia and Macy and stopped just short of the end of the mountain ledge.
“I know it’s hard to see from here, but once you get up close to them you’ll find their looks are far more ferocious than their actions. In fact, as far as I am aware, they have never attacked anyone.” She smiled as she spoke; it was obvious to see she held no fear of them.
“Well, that’s good to know,” said Olivia in a nervous voice.
Macy rolled her eyes.” Yes, good to know, but … from what I can see of them, they don’t look too friendly.”
Hangaku turned to Macy. “Oh, I never said they were friendly, just … well … they have never attacked anyone to my recollection.”
As Hangaku continued to describe them Jack’s mind turned to some pictures he’d once seen of the Loch Ness monster. A gigantic, slimy, muscular serpent, with the head of a dragon fitted closely with Hangaku’s description.
But one thing the Loomanators had over the Lock Ness monster was that at night their skin glowed light green and they became luminous. It was a revelation the three children found amusing as their name matched them perfectly.
Romulus interrupted his sister and drew her attention away from the Loomanators. “Look, it’s Tormencer Castle,” he pointed out into the distance.
Hangaku followed Romulus’s finger and zeroed in on what used to be their home. The castle was an imposing structure … big, bold and beautiful. With thick, high outer walls and four turrets, one per corner and dozens of cannons looking out onto the vast lands of Tormencer. It was truly a magnificent sight to behold.
And what made the castles defences even more formidable was the deep, murky moat surrounding it and a massive wooden drawbridge and imposing iron, lattice grille portcullis, guarding the entrance. It reminded Macy of a bulldog’s lower jaw. The inner walls were even higher than the outer ones, and just as thick. And beyond its defences, in the centre, sat a huge circular fortress type building, Romulus referred to as ‘the keep’ surrounded by four spectacular, square outer buildings.
The stonework used in the castles construction looked immaculate, as though it had been laid recently. But Romulus pointed out that the castle had been built over a thousand years before.
The huge smooth polished slabs of stone carefully jigsaw pieced together to make the castle structure were made of a material alien to Macy, Jack and Olivia. In fact, they seemed dumbfounded, as none of them had ever come across such strange looking stone. And as the sun beat down on the castle walls the stonework shone with a multitude of colours and reminded Jack of the rainbow effect from the water pools within the crypt.
The material used in the construction of the castle turned out to be Anstrophy, of which there was an abundance buried deep under the soil. Romulus explained that there were two major excavation mines where the Anstrophy was extracted from, the Pelta and the Sarkna.
Hangaku had noticed something else about Tormencer Castle and it shook her to the core. The ancestral colours of her mother and father which usually flew from every vantage point along the castles vast walls, were no longer visible. Instead, Kraken had replaced them with his own red and black colours. He even had his own flags, flying high on huge poles and placed for all to see on top of every corner turret.
It was an act of spite and it struck a chord with the emotional heartstrings of Romulus and Hangaku as they stood in disbelief. To them, the removal of their family colours was considered appropriate only when the ruler of Tormencer had died. So, to see the heinous markings of Kraken engulfing Tormencer Castle brought an immediate fear that their worst nightmare might have come true. Could their mother and father have been summarily executed?
A flood of tears again flowed heavily from the corner slits of Hangaku’s eyes, and she lost control and spilled her deepest feelings for all to see in an outburst of sorrow. Even Romulus, who had fought to stay strong for his sister in the face of their grief, found it hard to resist the pull of sheer desperation and his numb body started to waiver.
“What is it? What’s happened?” A look of deep concern enveloped Macy’s face. She didn’t have a clue why Romulus and his sister were acting the way they were.
Her questions were soon answered by Romulus. “My family’s colours have been removed and replaced by Kraken’s. The only reason the ruler of Tormencer’s colours would be lowered is to signal to everyone that they are dead.”
Macy gulped hard. “You can’t be sure anything bad has happened to them. I mean, there could be several reasons why your families colours have been taken down. I know I’m not all that clued up when it comes to history—”
Olivia baulked as she threw Macy a stare and let slip a sly comment. “Tell me about it — history isn’t one of your strongest subjects.”
Macy ignored her and continued. “I do know during medieval times, when a castle fell into the hands of an enemy, their colours, standards, banners and flags would be lowered and replaced with the victors. But it didn’t mean the old rulers had always be killed.”
Olivia withdrew her stare and found herself having to agree with Macy. Of course, both of them had no idea what had happened to Zorax and his wife Helena. They were, if anything, trying to convince themselves the worst hadn’t happened to them.
Whether or not they believed what Macy had said, it seemed to have worked. Romulus and his sister looked noticeably less distressed and they decided to put all thoughts of what might have happened to their parents to the back of their minds.
Romulus turned his attention away from Tormencer Castle and homed in on an area to his left, called the Nebier Forest. The Nebier Forest was a part of Kraken’s stronghold and was also his birthplace. It was a place of fear and pure evil within the Land of Tormencer. Where many had fallen foul of its unwelcoming terrain and even more unwelcoming inhabitants, never to be seen again.
Romulus looked deep in thought — Kraken firmly on his mind. With the Book of Spells and Ring of Power in his twisted grip, the whole of the Land of Tormencer was now his playground to do with as he wished.
The Nebier Forest was not what Macy perceived a forest should look like. To her it should have been filled with trees, greenery, flowers, and all manner of wild animals, much like the Dean Forest back at Chandler House. But even from the distance they were from it, it was clear the Nebier Forest was nothing like that. There were no birds or animals of any description to be seen.
Lifeless and leafless burnt tree trunks, and spindly branches spewed out from its pot marked, dust clad scorched earth. And huge swathes of dirty black rocks and boulders jutted out and formed a rough covering all over the forest floor. And many large hills, ditches and rock mounds could also be made out dotted all around. It had the appearance of a bomb blast site which had taken all the goodness from within it and left in its place only bad.
“I can see why someone as dangerous and unpredictable as Kraken would find this a good place to call home.” Olivia rubbed an itch on the side of her nose as she spoke. “By what you’ve told us of his passion for power, the Nebier Forest suits him down to the ground.”
Romulus agreed. “I couldn’t have put it better myself... Though, until you meet him, you can never truly understand the absolute need to stop him — but stop him we must.” He looked increasingly agitated an
d clenched his fists. “We need to avoid the Nebier Forest at all cost. Although you might not be able to see them, believe me when I tell you, Goblin Soldiers from Kraken’s army will be patrolling somewhere down there. They’ll be watching and waiting for any sign of unrest or trouble.”
Jack looked puzzled. “I thought Tormencer Castle was Kraken’s base?” He was struggling to keep up with the pace of events which had unfolded at breakneck speed so far.
“No…” Romulus replied sternly. “I’m sure he’ll have a strong following at the castle, but the Nebier Forest is his home from home. It’s where he grew up. No, he’ll never leave the forest unguarded.”
Romulus dropped his gaze and concentrated on what would be their first port of call. Directly below Tormencer Mountain lay another barren wasteland, known as Calmarti.
Macy looked down and noticed a similarity with the Nebier Forest. Although it wasn’t blackened and burnt, it was sparse. “It looks like a tornado has blown through it — it’s wrecked.”
There was one reason and one reason alone for the desolate sight beneath them. The weird creatures who lived there … namely a family of over three hundred gigantic snails called the Navatron.
— CHAPTER NINE —
Snails and Trails
The Navatron were massive, slimy, shell packing, veggie-eating monsters the size of an average family car — with similar appetites for refuelling.
On first spotting a group of the huge beasts weaving their way up the steep mountain path towards him, Jack rubbed his eye sockets vigorously and followed it with an irrational blinking spree. But it didn’t work ... he still couldn’t get his head around the enormity of the massive beasts moving ever closer in a slow single-file formation.
Macy and Olivia on the other hand seemed to have concluded nothing other than out of the ordinary was going to be found in Tormencer. So, in their minds why should finding a colony of giant snails be a surprise?
Macy Vickers and the Book of Spells Page 7