Rebecca Newton and the Sacred Flame

by Mario Routi

  59

  In the Land of the White Sun, Paul was standing beside Martha in the hospital, holding her hand. Doctor Afterland was sitting on the edge of the bed, gently tending her wounds.

  “I will never be able to forgive myself,” Martha sobbed, “if anything happens to either Leylah or Rebecca.”

  “Nothing will happen to either of them. They will both be fine, dear.” Paul tried to sound more confident than he felt, anxious to calm his wife’s fears.

  “You can’t blame yourself about anything,” Doctor Afterland added. “And don’t forget that the greatest warriors of all time are fighting alongside Rebecca now.”

  “And Rebecca, too, is as good as any warrior can be,” Paul said.

  “It certainly is reassuring to know that Turgoth, Bull, Felicia and Leiko are with her, too,” agreed Martha, but still she looked as if she was fighting to hold back the tears.

  Julius and Adrianna joined them at her bedside - all waiting with agony for news from Tartarus.

  ***

  In the Elysian Fields, Zeus, too, was impatient for news, talking nervously with his brothers, Poseidon and Hades.

  “Things have never been this dangerous,” Poseidon said. “You do realise that, don’t you?”

  “Yes, of course, brother,” Zeus replied.

  Hercules was passing by and Zeus called out to him.

  “Yes, father!” Hercules said, coming over.

  “Did you tell Leiko what he must do if something goes wrong?”

  “Of course I did, father. But nothing will go wrong.”

  “Well, OK then,” Zeus nodded. “Let’s see how they are all doing, shall we?”

  Hades nodded and walked to the rocky wall. As he touched it, it transformed itself into a screen - like a window into Tartarus. The image was a blur to begin with and all they could see were shapes and shadows, but gradually it cleared and they made out the crumpled shape of Turgoth.

  “What’s the matter with him?” Poseidon asked, peering closer. “He seems distraught!”

  “Hades?” asked Zeus. “Can you explain?”

  Hades smiled, which was always a cold and unnerving sight. “Yes,” he croaked, “I can explain.”

  60

  “What’s wrong?” Rebecca asked.

  Turgoth, his eyes still blurred with tears, looked up, puzzled by the sound of her voice. He saw Rebecca staring at him and thought his mind must be playing tricks. He looked down at his empty hands, where he had been cradling her just a moment ago. Now he was holding... nothing. He was holding nothing!

  Then, he remembered the words of Hades and understood. This was the Room of Fears - where your worst nightmares are revealed to you in illusions, making you believe that they are real.

  He jumped to his feet with a cry of joy and pulled Rebecca back abruptly, holding his hand up to the others and stopping them from taking another step.

  “Step back!” he cried. “We’ve reached the Room of Fears. We will all see visions and illusions!”

  “The door is there,” Leiko shouted. “I’ll open it. As soon as you see I’m ready, close your eyes, block your ears and run!”

  Taking a deep breath, he plunged towards the door ignoring Felicia’s screams behind him, knowing that they were delusions. He wrenched open the door and held it, closing his eyes for fear of seeing his beloved wife being devoured alive by demons. Seconds later, he felt them all brushing past him and the moment he followed, the screams died away. He slammed the door shut behind them.

  “This must be our final destination,” Bull said as they came out into a burning forest, the flames licking up into the black skies on the backs of stormy winds. The ground beneath their feet was hot from sand and ashes and waterfalls of lava gushed down from uninhabitable, craggy black mountains.

  “Now what?” Turgoth shouted over the roar of the wind and the crackle of fire.

  “Now we hide and wait. When we see any demons, we follow them,” Leiko yelled back. “With any luck, they’ll lead us to Leylah.” None of the others had any better ideas.

  Crouching low behind some red hot rocks, their skins burning, they waited for what felt like hours before a pair of cackling demons scurried past. Without exchanging a word, the group followed a few paces behind, their progress shrouded in thick, choking smoke. They kept their heads down and covered their eyes to protect them from the flying ashes and sand.

  The demons led them to a great opening on a cliff. At the edge of the cliff, they found themselves standing above a lake of burning lava. On the far side, they could make out a small cave. At the mouth of the cave sat its guard. It was Calphie the Sphinx!

  “That must be where they’re keeping her,” Rebecca said. “Why else would they need such a ferocious guard? They are expecting us!”

  “Alas,” Bull said. “This is as far as Leiko and I can go. We will never make it across that lake. The three of you will need to fly from here and face the Sphinx. But I fear she may be too strong for all of you.”

  “Then we must use cunning,” said Turgoth. “Calphie won’t want to harm me, so I’ll distract her and you two can creep in behind.”

  The two women nodded their agreement and watched as Turgoth flew directly towards the Sphinx. They then took off at a different angle, waiting high in the air until they saw Calphie was staring straight at Turgoth. At this cue, the women landed a few yards away from Calphie’s lethal tail and hid behind some rocks, listening to Turgoth as he approached the Sphinx. Calphie recognised him immediately and gave a small whimper that suggested she was pleased to see him.

  “Hello, Calphie,” Turgoth said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world for them to meet in such a place.

  “King Turgoth! What are you doing here?”

  “Do you know what they’ve got you guarding here, Calphie?”

  “That is none of my business,” she pulled herself up to her full height, as if physically resisting the temptation to discuss such things. “They told me that nobody is to enter the cave and that’s all I need to know.”

  “Well, Calphie, I suspect that something which belongs to me is in there. The demons stole it from me and I need it back. Would you step aside and let me retrieve it?”

  “Alas, King Turgoth. I don’t obey you anymore. I now work for the Titans.”

  Seeing that Calphie was now staring directly at Turgoth, Rebecca and Felicia crawled round behind her and into the cave.

  Leylah was sleeping peacefully in the corner of the cave, her beautiful face lit by the flickering light of the molten lava that churned into the lake outside. Rebecca ran to her, sweeping her up into her arms and kissing her softly. The baby opened her long-lashed, grey eyes and smiled at her mother, letting out a small gurgle of contentment.

  “Hush, my love. Mummy’s here now,” Rebecca whispered, and Leylah smiled again as if she understood everything. She closed her eyes once more - feeling safe - and her breathing took on the peaceful sound of sleep.

  “We need to go,” Felicia whispered, “before Calphie figures out what’s happened.”

  Creeping back to the mouth of the cave, they could feel the heat from the lake outside on their faces, even though Calphie’s gigantic tail stood between them and the boiling lava. The Sphinx was still talking with Turgoth and her tail was beginning to twitch with annoyance - as if she had guessed that he was trying to trick her, but couldn’t work out how he was doing it.

  Felicia nodded to Rebecca and they both started to run past the tail towards the edge of the cliff. Felicia put out her right hand and took hold of Leylah’s tiny left hand while Rebecca held her right hand as the two women ran together across the ledge and jumped. The cloth Leylah had been wrapped in fell away, dancing for a moment in the heat before being sucked down into the lava below. The heat became more intense and the thermals helped
them to lift off into the air with Leylah between them. They flew as if they were one being, each using one arm as a wing. The baby’s eyes were wide with wonder as they soared high and she let out a burble of pleasure.

  Turgoth had seen them go but kept talking to the Sphinx, his eyes fixed on hers in the hope that she wouldn’t look up above the lake until they were out of sight.

  “So I’ve come all this way for nothing?” he asked. “Can I at least take a look in the cave out of curiosity to see if it’s really there and, if it is, to have the pleasure of touching it one last time? Come on, Calphie. Please! For old times’ sake?”

  “Nobody goes in the cave, King Turgoth,” Calphie was adamant. “Even I am not allowed to do so. I am sorry. And now, please leave.”

  “You are stubborn, Calphie, but I respect you for doing your duty,” Turgoth said. He bowed low and respectfully before taking off after the women.

  Calphie, feeling proud of herself for having withstood the King’s charms and outwitted him in whatever his plan might have been, settled back down and resumed her guard duties.

  Rebecca and Felicia waited with Bull and Leiko for Turgoth to join them. The moment the King landed, he ran to Rebecca and kissed her passionately before kissing his daughter’s smiling face.

  “We need to go now,” Leiko said, “and we’d better go fast!”

  As they hurriedly retraced their steps, they were surprised by how few obstacles they came across. It was almost as if all the occupants of the underworld had withdrawn out of respect for some greater force. None of them spoke as they ran, their eyes darting around them at all times, alert for a trap or an attack.

  Eventually, they reached the place where they had earlier faced the skeletons, Asterius the Minotaur, and the Gorgons, and then they realised why no one else had impeded their escape from the lake. The mighty Titan leader, Cronus, stood waiting for them with his vast arms folded, and this time, Turgoth knew that this was not an illusion.

  “You didn’t really think you would get out of here, did you?” he asked in a surprisingly quiet and silky voice. “You can’t be that stupid! Did it not occur to you that we had made it surprisingly easy for you to reach your goal?”

  “Easy?” said Turgoth lifting his left eyebrow, his voice full of irony.

  Cronus started to laugh, but it was not a joyous sound - more like the sound of limitless swords scraping hundreds of rocks, growing louder as it echoed through the numerous passages and bounced off a thousand rock faces.

  “Now, you’ll surrender the Flame to us or you’ll all die, and we’ll take the Flame anyway!”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Rebecca, holding her baby tightly in her arms. “We don’t have the Flame with us.”

  “You mean to say you do not know everything after all, Little Princess?” Cronus mocked. “Of course, you have it! Isn’t that right, dear demigod?”

  Leiko pulled himself to his full height and stared back at the Titan without speaking. The others waited for him to deny it but he said nothing.

  “Leiko?” Felicia said.

  “We wouldn’t have been able to survive in Tartarus for more than a few minutes without the Flame,” he explained. “My father had it prepared for us and gave it to me in the Elysian Fields. It’s in a lantern in my rucksack. The Gods ordered me to tell no one.”

  “And what about Leylah?” Rebecca asked. “How did she survive?”

  “She’s an infant. She still has the Flame burning fresh inside her,” Leiko explained.

  “Bravo! And now, may I?” Cronus said, stepping forward.

  “You are not getting it!” yelled Turgoth, launching himself at the Titan.

  “Turgoth, no!” shouted Leiko, but it was too late. The moment the King struck the Titan, his crystal sword broke like fragile glass and his hand became paralysed. Turgoth screamed in pain and the Titan’s laughter rose once more. The noise grew greater and greater and Rebecca saw that at least a dozen other Titans had appeared from the surrounding gloom to enjoy the victory that now seemed inevitable.

  “And now,” Cronus shouted, “I will not say it again. Give us the Flame!”

  The sound of the Titans’ laughter seemed to be growing even louder, bringing rocks down from the walls of the cavern. Then, Rebecca realised that they were no longer laughing, but the roar was still building. The Titans also started to look around nervously as they realised that there was an earthquake in progress. A massive flash of lightning temporarily blinded them all and, as their sight returned, they saw Hades towering above them.

  “You know that I cannot allow you to even approach the Flame,” Hades boomed. “Let them pass and you will not perish!”

  The monsters exchanged looks and then started to laugh again.

  “It is you who will die here, little God,” said Cronus.

  “Oh, but I’m not alone!” Hades roared.

  With each new flash of lightning, another God appeared. Zeus; Apollo; Athena; Poseidon; Ares, God of War; Hermes; Demeter and Artemis, with their bows and arrows; Hephaestus; mighty Thor with his hammer, and his father Odin; Osiris; Ra and Hercules. At least thirty of them now surrounded the Titans.

  “Follow the passage that Hades just created for you,” Zeus ordered the Orizons and their fellow travellers. “Get out of here. It’s our fight now!”

  They all ran for the exit, glancing back at their Gods as they went.

  CRACK! Zeus was striking the Titans with thunder and Poseidon, with thick ice. BOOM! A great explosion as Hephaestus hurled balls of fire into their midst. CRASH! Demeter and Artemis were shooting arrows of light into their eyes, making them reel and stagger, while Ares, Apollo and Odin were attacking with swords. Thor, moving with the speed of light, was hammering a Titan on the head.

  Two Titans had fallen dead before the others recovered their wits enough to counterattack the Gods with all their might and hatred. Rebecca paused for a second in horror as she saw at least five Gods collapse beneath the force of the attack. At that moment, Leylah woke and let out a cry, reminding her mother that she must flee the scene so that the Gods no longer had to worry about protecting them and the Flame.

  They ran on towards the exit as the walls of Hell began to crumble around them under the onslaught of the battle raging behind them. Earthquakes and explosions sent rocks and stones hurtling past their heads. Bull protected Rebecca and Leylah, using his body as a shield to cover them from the worst of the blasts.

  The moment they escaped from Tartarus, they found themselves in the Gorgons’ Lair in the Land of the White Sun. The secret gate sealed behind them and, at that moment, absolute silence fell. They knew the Gods had gone, too - back to the Elysian Fields - leaving the Titans in their eternal prison once more.

  The battle had been immense. Three Titans were killed and two others injured. The five Gods Rebecca had seen fall died too, and another seven were seriously injured, but the Flame would help them to recover. None of the Gods she knew suffered any injuries.

  They limped back to Utopia and went straight to the hospital, where Doctor Afterland could ensure that Leylah was unharmed and then deal with Turgoth’s damaged hand.

  Rebecca’s family joined them in the hospital and Martha wept uncontrollably at the sight of her granddaughter and great-granddaughter safely returned.

  Epilogue

  One week later

  It took a few days for the pain in Turgoth’s hand to subside as Doctor Afterland worked on it with the Flame.

  Rebecca decided to leave the family farm and move inside the Fortress of Utopia, where Felicia’s house used to be. Nothing could harm Leylah there and Rebecca felt that, with her daughter safe, there was no power in the universe that could stop her from protecting the Flame. Furthermore, she had now appointed a new personal guard for Leylah, her grandfather’s special gift, brought to her a couple of d
ays ago from Kenya: Her dear lion!

  Everyone knew that the forces of Evil would never stop trying to seize the Flame. There were rumours that the Titans were using demons to contact the Sartani on Earth and share with them their secret technology. In this way, they would be able to create evil creatures on Earth too, like demon clones, creating a new dark army that could join forces with Tartarus in order to attack Utopia and try, once more, to seize the Flame. But for now, all Rebecca and Turgoth could do was wait and prepare for the future.

  ***

  Once Turgoth had fully recovered, Lady Felicia and Lord Leiko invited him and Rebecca for dinner to celebrate their success. Bull and Doctor Afterland would be there too. They sent Pegasus and Lenus to pick them up.

  Upon their arrival, Little Alexander welcomed them alongside his parents.

  “I see that you didn’t bring my future daughter-in-law with you!” said Felicia and everyone laughed, because they had all dreamed the same dreams of how the future might be...

  Acknowledgements

  It’s true that being an author is a lonesome ride, but this doesn’t mean that authors are all by themselves. On the contrary, a writer is usually surrounded with people who are very dear to him and who also help him, inspire him and support him. At least that is my experience and I would like to grab the chance to thank from the bottom of my heart:

  My publisher in the UK, Mr Paul Andrews, for his trust and the perfect collaboration, as well as all the wonderful people at Oak Tree Press.