by Frewin Jones
She stepped back with an appalled gasp. The black globe was an Amber Prison. How long had it been there? Years? Centuries? What crime had that man committed that warranted such a dreadful punishment?
Shuddering, she carried on along the tunnel. Many of the dark niches were empty, to her relief, but still too many contained the awful black spheres—ancient Amber Prisons that had been left there to rot in the dreadful silence.
She came to another place where tunnels met and branched off. She gnawed her lower lip, staring into the half-circles of blackness. The place was huge. How would she ever find Edric?
“I have to find him,” she muttered aloud. “I’m going to search until I do, and that’s all there is to it.”
She picked a tunnel, scratched her arrow on the stones, and continued her search.
Not all the Amber Prisons were in the same state of decay. Some were pitch black, but others still had a pale light in them. And occasionally she came across one where the trapped figure was clearly visible, outlined in the orange glow. Those were the worst, because she could see the agonized faces of the victims staring at her with their unseeing eyes. She learned not to look too carefully at those spheres. She just gave them a quick glance to make sure it was not Edric inside, then moved onward into the foul darkness—and onward and onward forever and ever and ever….
“How long have I been in here?” she breathed, resting for a moment. Minutes? Hours? Time meant nothing down here. Her arm ached with holding up the lantern, and the sword dragged at her right hand. She was chilled to the bone, and her legs were starting to shake with tiredness. Much more of this, and she would just sink to the ground and give up.
“Edric!” she shouted, but her voice was swallowed up by the blackness. “Edric, where are you?”
…and Juliet is my sun…
“I wish I was,” she mumbled. “I could use a bit of sunlight down here.” She tightened her grip on the sword and walked down yet another of those vile tunnels.
She counted her steps to try and get some indication of time and distance. One hundred paces. Two hundred. Another junction. Another scratched arrow. Another tunnel. One hundred. Two hundred.
And then, stumbling along in a weary daze, she suddenly noticed an amber glow ahead of her that was stronger than anything she had seen so far.
Edric? Please let it be Edric.
Her heart thudding, she ran forward.
The light was seeping out of one of the niches. Hardly daring to hope she might have found him at last, Tania peered around the corner. The amber sphere glowed so brightly, she couldn’t look at it for long—but she saw enough to recognize the face that gazed emptily out at her, clawed hands still snatching at nothing.
“I did it!” she whispered.
Tania put the lantern on the ground and stretched her left hand toward the thrumming yellow surface. The amber was quite cold now. She pressed her hand against it, staring at Edric’s face.
“I found you!” she murmured. “I knew I would.”
She stepped back from the globe, holding the sword in both hands.
“How am I going to do this without hurting you?” she said aloud.
And then she was aware of a new light—a hot, red flickering light coming from directly behind her.
“Halt, intruder into the forbidden place! Your life is forfeit!”
She glanced around in time to see the heavy, knobbed head of a crystal mace swinging toward her. She tried to duck, but the mace caught her a glancing blow on the side of her head and she stumbled to the floor, the sword springing out of her hands and clattering across the stones.
She lay on her back, her head throbbing with pain. A man in black livery stood over her, a flaming torch in one hand, the mace lifted for a second blow.
XIX
Tania managed to squirm out of the way just as the bulky head of the mace came crashing down an inch from her skull. She felt rough stone graze her cheek as she writhed away from the black-clad warden.
With a grunt of anger, he lifted the mace again. She kicked out, but although her foot made contact with him, he didn’t even flinch. The air hissed as the mace sliced down, missing her by a hairbreadth as she tried to crawl across the floor to the sword.
A booted foot stamped down on her ankle. Tania cried out with pain as she struggled to get free. She strained her arm across the floor, trying to reach the sword. Her fingers touched the hilt, but she couldn’t get a grip on it.
She twisted around so that she was on her back. The guard was holding the mace above his head in preparation for another blow. Summoning all her strength, Tania kicked at his shin with her free foot. He let out a howl and staggered back, his boot coming up off her ankle. She rolled onto her front again and flung herself at the sword.
This time she was able to close her fingers around the hilt. She hoisted it into the air as the mace came plummeting down. There was a shivering impact that sent shock waves along her arm, but the keen edge of the sword had split the crystal mace in two. The severed head thudded down beside her and the warden, caught off balance, reeled and fell against the wall.
She scrambled to her feet.
“Get away from me!” she shouted, flourishing the sword in front of her. “I’ll use this on your head next! I will!”
The guard eyed her warily, the ruined stump of his mace hanging from his hand. She lifted the sword and made a move toward him. He thrust his hand out, shouting words she did not understand. Flickering amber lightning flared out from his fingers.
Instinctively, Tania brought up the sword to ward off the flashing threads of light. They sparked on the blade, hissing and dying in an instant.
The warden grimaced, throwing a curse at her before turning and fleeing along the corridor. The skittering red flame of his torch was soon swallowed up by the darkness. She heard his feet beating on the cold stone flags for a few moments, then there was silence.
Tania let out a long, shuddering breath. She had no idea if she really could have used the sword on a living person.
She turned back to the Amber Prison. Edric’s glazed eyes stared out at her. She wondered if he could see her, if he had witnessed the way she had fought to rescue him.
One way or another, she would soon know.
She checked the silken wraps around her hands, making sure her skin was still protected. She lifted the sword.
“Carefully, carefully,” she whispered. She had seen the effect Isenmort had on the door to the dungeons and on the warden’s mace. She had to shatter the Amber Prison without hurting Edric.
She brought the sword up close to the globe and very gently touched the metal point to the amber surface.
A blinding flash bleached the tunnel ash white. Tania stumbled back, screwing her eyes closed. She felt the sword shiver in her hands and heard a sound like the tumultuous beating of huge, leathery wings.
Then there was a blast of furnace-hot air that knocked her off her feet.
She lay panting on the floor of the tunnel. The sword was lying some distance away from her. The lantern had been knocked over, but thankfully it was still alight. She got onto her hands and knees and picked up the lantern. Thick amber smoke rolled and boiled in the niche, and the tunnel was filled with a sharp, spicy smell. She couldn’t see a thing.
Her stomach churning, she got to her feet and moved slowly into the smoke.
Edric lay curled up on the ground.
She knelt at his side. “Edric?”
There was no response.
She put her hand on his shoulder. “Edric?”
He gave a low moan and his eyes flickered.
He was alive.
She put down the lantern and struggled to lift him up. She managed to heave him into a sitting position, his head leaning heavily on her shoulder.
She rested her cheek against his hair. “Edric?” she said. “You have to wake up and help me. I can’t do this on my own.”
The voice was so soft that she only just heard it. “Tania?�
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A thrill went through her. “Yes! Yes, it’s me,” she whispered. “I’ve got you out of the Amber Prison. But we’re in the dungeons, and it’s a long way out.” She hugged him to her. “I’d carry you if I could, but I can’t. You have to wake up properly.”
His head lifted and his clear brown eyes gazed into her face.
“But soft…what light…” he murmured. “…it is the east and Juliet is my sun.”
She smiled. “That’s not right,” she told him gently. “Romeo says: ‘and Juliet is the sun’ not ‘my sun.’”
“I’m never going to get that right.” He sat up, wincing with pain.
“Are you hurt?” she asked, looking anxiously at him.
“Just stiff,” he said. “And cold.” He smiled at her. “I saw you fight that guard,” he said. “I’ll have to remember never to get on the wrong side of you.”
“You saw that?”
Edric nodded. “I couldn’t move in there, but I was still wide awake.” His voice shuddered. “That’s the real terror of the Amber Prison: Your brain works perfectly all the time, and you never sleep, not even for an instant.”
She stared at him. “I saw other prisons. Some of them looked very old. Surely the people in there aren’t still alive?”
A bleak smile lifted the corner of his mouth. “A prisoner in amber is trapped for eternity.”
“Then shouldn’t we try to free them?”
“Oberon doesn’t imprison anyone without a good reason,” Edric said. “These people are too dangerous to be let loose. The King of Lyonesse and many of his most deadly knights are incarcerated in here, and they were the most terrible enemies Faerie ever had to face.”
Lyonesse? Tania had heard that word before. Then she remembered. It had been in the library. “Sancha was reading a book about the Wars of Lyonesse,” Tania said. “Are these people prisoners of war, then?
“They are,” Edric told her. “The wars lasted for a thousand years, and Faerie was very nearly overrun before Oberon managed to defeat the King. That’s why they can never be set free.” He looked at her. “That warden will be getting reinforcements. If we don’t want to find ourselves facing a whole troop of them, we need to get out of here.”
Tania put her shoulder under his arm and levered him to his feet, one arm around his waist, the other hand holding the lantern. He was wobbly, but he was able to stand. He tried a few steps and nearly collapsed again.
She looked at him in alarm. How was she going to get him all the way back to the Adamantine Gate?
She didn’t have a choice. She had to.
“Come on,” she said briskly. “Let’s get going.”
He put his arm around her shoulders and leaned on her, breathing heavily.
“It’s this way,” she said, indicating the way she had come. She decided not to let on how far it was.
“No,” he said. “It’s the other way.”
She frowned. “How do you know?”
“I could see when they brought me here,” he told her.
“Oh, yes. Of course.” She turned and they began to walk slowly along the tunnel. This was the same direction in which the warden had run. She hoped they weren’t walking straight into a bunch of armed guards.
Edric was only able to walk slowly, his full weight sometimes bearing down on Tania’s shoulders. At first, they spoke to each other, but after a little while, his head hung down and he stopped talking.
Tania saw a square of red light flickering up ahead. A black stone door stood wide open. The Adamantine Gate.
“I don’t believe it,” she breathed, almost laughing out loud. “I must have gone the long way around.”
“I…must…rest….” Edric mumbled.
“Not yet,” she said. “This is a really bad place to stop, Edric. Soon, though.” She helped him through the doorway and out into the torch-lit corridor.
“Eden?” She looked around. The corridor was empty. That wasn’t good. She had been banking on Eden’s help in getting him out of here. Her sister’s ability to put the wardens to sleep with just a touch of her fingers would have come in really useful. She just hoped that Eden hadn’t been caught unawares by Gabriel’s guards—or, a nasty thought, by Gabriel himself.
“We’ll just have to do it on our own,” Tania said. She suddenly realized that she had left the sword in the dungeons. She had been so concerned with getting Edric to safety, that she had forgotten it—not that she could have carried it, anyway, with Edric to support and with the lantern in her other hand.
She looked back into the dungeon. Could she risk leaving Edric here while she went to fetch it?
She shook her head. No. Now that she was with Edric, she had no intention of leaving his side. They’d have to manage without the sword.
She just hoped that she could remember the way back to Eden’s apartments. A door, a corridor, a long flight of stairs. Another door? Was that right? She wished she had paid more attention.
There were footsteps in the corridor, coming toward them. Tania froze, holding her breath, her arm tight around Edric’s waist as he slumped against her.
The footsteps came closer. Not the hard clump of booted feet—the light patter of shoes, of someone walking quickly.
A figure appeared. Tania saw a red dress, long black hair, a familiar face.
“Rathina!”
Her sister broke into a run. “Tania, well met!” she said. “I was fearful for you when you vanished. I am glad indeed that you have returned safely. Fear not, I met with Eden; she told me everything. Quickly now, I will help you. We must quit this place before the wardens come.”
She put her shoulder under Edric’s other arm and between them they half carried him along the corridor.
“Where’s Eden now?” Tania asked.
“I know not,” Rathina replied. “She told me to come here and help you, then she was gone about some urgent errand.” Rathina looked at Tania over Edric’s lolling head. “Her hair, Tania, did you see her hair? It was white!”
Tania nodded. “I saw it,” she said.
“’Twas ever black as a raven’s wing,” Rathina breathed, her eyes wide. “I have never seen the like.”
They came to the wooden door that led off the torch-lit corridor. They managed to sidle through with Edric still held between them. Tania was becoming more and more concerned; at every step, he seemed to be growing weaker.
“We need somewhere to hide,” she told Rathina. “I’m not sure I can remember the way back to Eden’s rooms.”
“I know a better place,” Rathina said. “A secret place where none shall find us.”
“Edric’s ill,” Tania said. “We need Hopie.”
“I will fetch her once we are safe,” Rathina said. She smiled. “Do not fear, little sister, I will lead you true.”
Rathina took them by a quite different route than the one Eden had used. Tania quickly lost track of where she was, but she felt very relieved when they left the dark corridors and stairways behind them.
Edric was still able to drag his feet, one after another, but his breathing was labored and his chin had sagged onto his chest. Even with Rathina’s help, Tania wasn’t sure she could support him for very much longer.
“We are almost there,” Rathina panted. “Do you see that door?” She nodded ahead toward a small arched doorway. “That will be your sanctuary while I summon help.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Tania gasped.
Rathina looked at her. “Do not despair, dear sister; all will soon be over.”
The door led into a small windowless chamber with austere white walls and hardly any furniture. Rathina pointed to another door that stood at the head of a shallow flight of steps.
“Beyond that door is journey’s end,” she said.
They hauled Edric up the steps and Rathina opened the door.
As Tania stepped through into the unlit room, she got the impression of a vast space opening out in the darkness, as though the walls and ceiling soared
away to unknowable distances.
“Where are we?” she asked.
Rathina closed the door behind them before she replied. There was the click of a key turning in a lock, and suddenly Tania was bearing all of Edric’s weight.
“In the Hall of Light,” Rathina said, and there was a new, hard edge to her voice. “You have evaded your destiny for too long, Tania. But the true path of your life can no longer be denied.”
Bewildered, Tania gently let Edric sit down on the floor with his back against the wall. She stood up again, holding the lantern toward her sister’s face. Rathina was standing with her back to the door, smiling darkly, her eyes gleaming like diamonds.
“What are you talking about?” she said.
“Can you not guess?” Rathina reached out her arm. “Behold, your groom awaits!”
An eruption of amber light bloomed in the darkness. Tania spun around. The light was coming from a cauldron that stood on a low dais. And standing at the edge of the rising amber glow was the figure of Gabriel Drake, smiling at Tania in dark triumph. Long sinister black shadows streaked up from his face, and his eyes were pools of darkness in which evil points of silver fire glinted.
“Well met, my lady,” he said. “Never was a groom kept waiting for so long a time by his reluctant bride.”
The shimmering radiance that came from the cauldron was not strong enough to light up the walls or the high ceiling, but Tania knew exactly where she was. This was the hall that Gabriel had shown her in the hand mirror—the hall in which their conjured images had performed the first ceremony of a Faerie Wedding, the Ritual of Hand-Fasting.
She looked at Rathina, saddened beyond words by her sister’s betrayal. Instead of helping her and Edric to escape, Rathina had delivered them both straight into Gabriel’s hands.
Rathina’s dark eyes stared levelly into hers. “Did I not say it would be wise to do as Gabriel wishes?” she said. “You would not have done this of your own will, so I had to bring you here.”