by Adam Blade
“That’s true,” said Tom, feeling a swell of determination. With Elenna, their animal friends, and the Beasts of Avantia on his side, he knew that it was his destiny to defeat Malvel.
The road they were following led through fields where cattle grazed peacefully. A few trees grew here and there in the lush grass; the afternoon sun cast long shadows.
Soon they came to a crossroads. Tom brought Storm to a halt and pulled out Wizard Aduro’s enchanted map. As he unrolled it a red path began to glow, leading to the coast.
“That’s the road we took when we met Sepron the Sea Serpent.” Elenna pointed out, peering over Tom’s shoulder.
“Then at least we know the way.” Tom rolled up the map, put it back in the saddlebag, and urged Storm on.
They passed through a narrow belt of trees and began to climb a hill. Tom noticed that the sunlight was growing hazy, as though night was falling. A chill wind whispered over him. But the sun still stood well above the horizon, and the sky was blue except for a few puffs of white clouds. Tom glanced around, uneasy. He couldn’t see anything except trees and fields.
Then he looked up. High above in the blue sky, black dots were flitting back and forth. Tom remembered the vision Aduro had shown them. “Bats!” he exclaimed.
He felt Elenna lock her arms tightly around his waist. “I thought bats only flew at night,” she said.
“Malvel bent the great Beasts to his will. It must be easy to get bats to do his bidding,” Tom replied grimly.
He reined Storm in and gripped the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it. The black stallion threw his head up and his harness jingled. Beside the horse, Silver stood stiff-legged, barking angrily at the sky.
The bats flew lower and lower, until they were swooping around Tom and Elenna. Storm snorted nervously; Tom patted his neck to reassure him. Silver leaped into the air, his jaws snapping vainly at the leathery wings.
Tom and Elenna had to duck to avoid the creatures’ talons. Tom didn’t dare try to outrun them on Storm; the path was steep and rough, and the stallion could easily be injured. In a desperate move, he drew his sword and slashed at the whirling pack of bats. They fluttered upward out of range and then clustered together in a rolling ball.
Elenna gasped in astonishment. “What are they doing?”
Slowly, the ball took on a different shape. Icy fear rushed through Tom as he recognized the hooded being that had laughed at him so cruelly on that mountainside. It stretched across half the sky, from above Tom’s head to the distant horizon.
“Malvel!” he exclaimed.
The Dark Wizard was using the bats to give form to his evil face. Tom could see the gleam of his sunken eyes and the twisted line of his cruel mouth. Mocking laughter poured out and Malvel’s voice boomed around them.
“I hope you enjoyed my surprise. You are fools if you think you can defeat me!”
Tom raised his sword. “I know we can defeat you. We’ll track down every piece of the armor that you have stolen. Nothing is going to stop us!”
Malvel’s laughter echoed again. “Nothing? Not even new Beasts with evil hearts? Beasts that I have created?”
For a moment Tom was shocked into silence.
Silver let out a miserable whine, and hurled himself into the air again, snapping at Malvel’s shape.
“New Beasts!” Elenna exclaimed. “What do you mean?”
Malvel replied. “You’ll find out soon enough, when you meet Zepha. Maybe then you’ll change your minds.”
“Never!” Tom cried defiantly. “You can conjure up whatever Beasts you like, but they won’t stop me. I’ll never fail Avantia!”
But who — or what — was Zepha? Tom felt a lurch of fear in the pit of his stomach as he thought of the six new Beasts he would have to face.
Then the bats began to scatter. Malvel’s face broke up and disappeared, but his jeering laughter echoed around the hills until every last bat had vanished.
Tom sheathed his sword. His stomach was still churning. Elenna looked white and shaken, Storm was sweating and trembling, and Silver’s tail was dragging in the dust of the road.
“I think we should make camp,” Tom said, trying to keep his voice firm. “The sun’s going down and it’ll be dark soon.”
Elenna nodded in agreement. They dismounted, and Tom led the way to a small clump of trees not far from the road. There was a pool in the middle of the trees, at the bottom of a rocky hollow. Tom unsaddled Storm while Elenna collected wood and made a fire. They were both glad of the bright flames as the sun sank lower and darkness began to creep around them.
Elenna unpacked the food she had saved from the feast and handed Tom some bread and cold chicken. “I wonder why Aduro didn’t warn us about the new Beasts,” she said.
“Perhaps he didn’t know,” Tom replied. “This is a different Quest. This time we’re on our own.”
Elenna’s eyes shone with steely resolve. “We’ll manage,” she said. “We’ve got to.”
When they had finished eating, Tom wrapped himself in his cloak and lay down beside the remains of the fire. He gazed up, searching. The moon shone brightly behind wisps of cloud; no black specks dotted the sky and the wind carried no sound of leathery wings.
But now Tom knew that something else was out there. Something even more dangerous than Malvel’s vicious bats.
A new set of evil Beasts.
Maybe they were already circling around him, hidden by the night. Tom peered into the shadows, but he couldn’t see anything.
It took a long time for sleep to come.
CHAPTER FOUR
DANGER AT SEA
BY NOON THE NEXT DAY, THEY WERE DRAWING near the coast. Tom remembered how they had struggled through the floodwaters that Sepron the Sea Serpent had caused. Now the land was clear again: Gardens were growing and houses had been repaired with new wood and thatch. Tom felt proud that Avantia was safe again, but couldn’t help but worry what could lay in store if Malvel carried out his evil plans.
At last the road led Tom and his friends through a patch of thin woodland and out onto the shore.
“Look!” exclaimed Elenna, pointing. “All the fishermen’s huts have been rebuilt. And there are lots of new boats.”
At first Tom was pleased to see the snug new huts and the brightly painted fishing boats pulled up on the beach, with fishing nets piled up beside them. Then he frowned.
“Shouldn’t all those boats be out at sea?” he asked. He exchanged an uncertain glance with Elenna. “What’s going on here?”
“There’s a smell of dead fish, too,” said Elenna, wrinkling her nose.
Tom spotted a wisp of smoke rising from behind some boulders farther along the beach. He and Elenna dismounted. Leaving Storm to crop the grass under the trees, they headed for the rocks. As they drew closer they saw a group of people crouched around a driftwood fire. One woman was ladling stew from an iron pot into wooden bowls. All the people looked worried and miserable.
Then Tom recognized a tall boy with red hair and a freckled face. “Calum!” he exclaimed.
The boy looked up and sprang to his feet. “Tom!” He hugged Tom and then Elenna, before bending down to plunge his hands into the thick fur around Silver’s neck. “It’s good to see you again.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” Tom said. He would never forget how Calum had helped him when he came to free Sepron the Sea Serpent from Malvel’s evil spell.
“What’s going on here?” Elenna asked. “Yes, why is no one out in the boats?” Tom added.
The men and women around the fire exchanged nervous glances.
“It’s too dangerous to go out to sea,” Calum explained after a moment’s hesitation. “A couple of our people didn’t come back yesterday. We found wreckage washed up onshore, but no one knows what happened to the boatmen.”
Tom glanced swiftly at Elenna. She was looking as confused as he felt. Sepron was free now, and should have been protecting this part of the kingdom. What had gone wrong?
> “Do you know why they disappeared?” he asked Calum.
A man Tom recognized as Calum’s father, Matt, pointed out to sea. “Whirlpools,” he said. “They appeared a few days ago near those rocks. No one knows why. Only a fool would go out there now.”
“Or Lindon,” another man said with a bitter laugh.
“Who’s Lindon?” Tom asked.
“A stubborn fool,” the man replied.
“He doesn’t know what’s good for him,” a woman chimed in. “He insisted on going out this morning, trawling for fish, just as he always does. He hasn’t returned yet.”
“And goodness knows why he went,” Calum’s father added grumpily. “The pickings are thin enough. Since the whirlpools appeared, all the fish have gone.”
“Some of them have washed up dead,” Calum said, pointing to the edge of the water.
Tom could see the gleam of silver fish lying amongst the other debris. Silver trotted down to the water’s edge and snuffled at one of them. Then he drew back with a disgusted snort.
“Silver! Here, boy.” Elenna tickled the wolf ‘s ears as he returned to her. “Be careful where you put your nose.”
“These were good fishing waters,” the woman went on. “But if the whirlpools stay, we’ll have nothing but a few vegetables to live on.”
Tom gazed at Calum. The boy’s eyes were filled with hope. He was the only one from this village who knew that Tom had freed Sepron from Malvel’s curse.
“I think I might know something about this,” Tom said softly, so that only Calum could hear.
“Wait here.”
Beckoning to Elenna, he hurried back to where they had left Storm. He pulled the magic map out of the saddlebag. When he unrolled it, he could see a picture of a golden helmet resting in the sea beside a rocky islet.
“That’s exactly where the whirlpools are,” said Elenna.
Tom met her anxious gaze. His pulse began to race with a mixture of fear and excitement.
“You heard what Calum said,” Elenna went on. “Boats that go out there don’t come back.”
Tom gazed out across the waves. “I don’t have a choice,” he said. “This is my Quest. I have to go.”
CHAPTER FIVE
LINDON
TOM PUT THE MAP BACK INTO ONE OF STORM’S saddlebags. As he turned to the shore once again, he spotted a fishing boat sailing around a headland toward the beach, its white sail billowing.
“That must be Lindon,” he said. “Maybe he’ll take us out to the whirlpools in his boat. Come on!”
Tom and Elenna hurried down to the water’s edge, Silver and Storm trotting behind.
The boat soon reached the beach, and the fisherman leaped out and pulled it up beside the other vessels. He lifted a reed basket out of the boat, but Tom could see there were only a few fish in the bottom.
“Are you Lindon?” Tom asked.
“That’s me.” The fisherman dumped his basket on the beach and straightened up. He was a tall young man with shaggy dark hair. His face was harsh and unfriendly. “Who wants to know?”
“I do. I need to go out to sea. Will you take me?”
“I might, if the price is right,” Lindon replied. “Where do you want to go?”
“Over there.” Tom pointed out toward the rocky islet.
Lindon raised his eyebrows. “There are whirlpools out there. That will cost extra.”
Tom exchanged a glance with Elenna. “I can’t afford to pay you,” he began, “but —”
“That’s all right.” Tom realized that Lindon was staring past him at Silver. “I’d accept a trade. I’ll take that mutt off your hands.”
Elenna stepped in front of the wolf. She looked furious at the suggestion that she would hand over her faithful friend. The hair on Silver’s spine rose up and he let out a soft growl.
“We can’t do that,” Tom said firmly. “Isn’t there something else you want? Or anything we could do for you?”
Lindon narrowed his eyes. “Why do you want to go out there, anyway?” he asked.
Tom knew he couldn’t tell anyone about his Quest. The first time had been bad enough, with the good Beasts of Avantia under terrible curses. But now that Malvel had unleashed his own evil Beasts on the kingdom, it was even more urgent to keep the Quest a secret. The people of Avantia would panic if they knew what the Dark Wizard was up to. “I have something important to do,” he said.
Lindon let out a bark of rough laughter. “‘Something important?’ You’ll have to let on more than that if you want my help.”
Tom saw that Elenna was red with anger on his behalf. He had to act quickly before she said something they would both regret.
The people of the village did say that Lindon liked to take risks. Maybe he would help if he thought that Tom was equally reckless.
“I want to see if I can survive diving into a whirlpool,” Tom said, thinking quickly. “And I’ve also heard the fish are dying. Maybe I can discover what’s causing it.”
Lindon looked at him with astonishment for a moment. Then he shook his head and laughed. “Well, you’re a mad one, make no mistake,” he said, then paused, a sly look passing over his face. “If you don’t come back, I’ll have your fine-looking horse.” He nodded to Storm, who pawed the ground anxiously. “If you do make it, I’ll just shake you by the hand and wish you well.” He sighed. “Who knows? Maybe you can find out what is killing the fish. We’ll all starve if it continues.”
Tom stroked Storm’s neck. “Don’t worry, boy, I’ll be back,” he said reassuringly, but he couldn’t ignore the swelling fear in his stomach.
Tom had faced danger in this ocean before. But now he had to defeat Zepha and find the golden helmet. If he didn’t, he would lose his horse as well as his life. Not to mention leaving the golden armor in Malvel’s evil grasp.
CHAPTER SIX
OUT TO SEA
I‘M COMING WITH YOU,” ELENNA SAID, AS Lindon got the boat ready.
“No,” Tom told her. “Not this time. I couldn’t have freed Sepron without you. But defeating Zepha and finding the helmet is something I have to do on my own.”
Elenna bit her lip, then nodded, understanding. Tom unfastened his scabbard and handed it to her.
“You might need this,” he said. “And my shield is tied to Storm’s saddle. The people here are desperate; they might be dangerous. And you never know what Malvel might do.”
Elenna hesitated. “But won’t you need your sword and shield?” she asked.
Tom knew he would be vulnerable without them — but there was no way he was leaving Elenna with just her bow and quiver of arrows. He’d have to rely on his wits. He took Elenna’s hand and wrapped her fingers around the hilt of his sword. “I’ll be fine,” he told her.
“I’ll stay with Calum and his father,” she said. “I’ve nothing to fear from them. But, Tom, be careful. Remember what Malvel said about Zepha.”
Cold fear gripped Tom again. He didn’t even know what Zepha was. How could he prepare to fight an evil Beast when he had no idea what it looked like?
“Are you coming or not?” Lindon’s harsh voice interrupted his thoughts.
“I’m coming,” said Tom, pushing down his apprehension.
Elenna grasped his hand. “Good luck,” she said. Silver added an encouraging bark and Storm whinnied.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon,” Tom promised.
He helped Lindon push the boat back into the water and scrambled over the side. The sky was covered with thick, gray clouds. Lindon raised the sail, and soon the boat was scudding over the waves again. Tom looked back at the shore where Elenna, Silver, and Storm stood. Already they seemed very small and distant.
As Lindon steered the boat out to sea, the wind grew even stronger. The water became choppy and the boat pitched up and down on the waves.
Tom gripped the side and stared down into the sea. He thought he could make out the movement of some dark shape far beneath the surface. Suddenly, the water began to churn an
grily and Tom gasped as he realized that the boat was swirling around in a huge circle. A whirlpool was starting up — and he and Lindon were at the center of it!
Memories of the deep, green water and the feeling of his chest straining for air bubbled up from Tom’s mind. He had faced Sepron in these very waters — and nearly drowned in the process.
Lindon laughed. “Getting scared?” he taunted. “Do you want to change your mind?”
“No!” Tom was determined not to let Lindon see he was afraid. “This is what I’ve come for.”
Lindon grunted and deftly steered the boat out of the whirlpool. Tom could tell he was a skillful sailor. Even so, the boat rocked dangerously and water slopped over the side, soaking Tom. Lindon guided the boat to the edge of the churning water. “I’ll wait for you here,” he said. “But don’t take too long! Otherwise I’ll be heading back to collect your horse.”
Tom climbed onto the side of the boat. The water was circling faster than ever, opening a cone-shaped passage into the depths of the sea. Tom’s heart thumped in terror, but he knew he couldn’t turn back. Another memory struggled to the surface now, stronger than the others: sunlight on the sea, air rushing into his lungs, and the tooth of a sea serpent in his hand. When Tom had dove into the sea to meet Sepron, he had emerged victorious.
“I have to do this,” Tom muttered. “For the golden armor. And to defeat Malvel.”
Tom took in a lungful of air and closed his mouth tightly. Then he dove off the boat’s edge.
CHAPTER SEVEN
INTO THE WHIRLPOOL
THE WHIRLPOOL SUCKED TOM DOWN INTO THE depths of the ocean at once. The force of the water dragged at his clothes and wrenched his arms and legs. Tom felt as if he were being torn apart.
Swirling water was all around him. Caught up in the powerful current, Tom spun around and around. He fought not to lose his bearings, but soon he couldn’t tell whether he was facing up toward the surface of the sea or down to the ocean bed.