“Well met,” declared Ugg.
The six strangers hustled together, expecting to be ambushed by the other two people who had created the footsteps. They were very tall and slender, just like the one found dead in the maze. Ugg didn’t know where to look, so many faces with so many eyes…
“I mean you no harm.”
Ugg became encircled, three of the green creatures faced him with their spears while the remaining three faced outwards keeping guard. They were just as cautious and protective as Ash had been with him and Janna.
“Can you understand me? Do we share a common language? Please, say something.”
One of the green men pointed his spear at Ugg and then at the other footprints. Ugg got the message loud and clear.
“Gone. Long gone. It is just me, I swear.”
The green man snarled at Ugg and once again pointed its spear at him and then at the ground in front. Ugg obeyed the direction and kneeled, with his hands clasped behind his head.
“Wait. If you understand me, even just a little, tell me where you came from? From the other side of the mountains? Across the seas? Just reveal a piece of this huge puzzle to me and I can die a happy man. Wait, I’ve got an idea.”
Ugg slowly moved his hands down and began to draw in the sand in front of him. This, at last, got some response from the strangers. Ugg drew a rough maze, then working backwards he drew the valley and the stepping waterfalls and finally, Harwell, as a small circle with an X in the middle. Ugg even made sound noises to represent the waterfalls and him falling through the air.
The others looked at each other and seemed to understand Ugg’s drawing. One of them marked another entrance into the maze, but from the other side.
“Yes, you see, we are on the same quest. Where is your home? Keep drawing,” beckoned Ugg.
They did not keep drawing, however, and began to walk away from Ugg. Seemingly disinterested. They knew Ugg was no threat to them, but they had learned enough from the drawings and some of their own questions had been answered.
“Is that it? Stay, we can still learn from one another. There is so much we can find out, even just drawing,” shouted Ugg. “Please.”
Ugg attempted to follow, but his legs were too sore and he collapsed to the ground.
“No! At least kill me, don’t leave me to starve and boil under the sun.”
Ugg was left alone, staring at the tower with its golden peak. He missed Ash and Janna, he missed his friends.
“I didn’t give them much time, damn it,” he thought.
Lying flat on the sands, Ugg fought hard against closing his tired eyes. But eventually he conceded and fell into a deep sleep.
Ash and Janna were walking at a fast pace, the dunes had begun to decrease in size and the first rays of the dawn had started lighting the eastern horizon.
“Today is the day we end our quest,” said Ash. “Today is the day we get our answers.”
“Closure would be nice, but in truth I’ve enjoyed my time inside the Clouded Mountains more than I did outside it. Whatever happens I am not going back to Harwell, unless I am wielding an enormous power and I can vanquish the corrupt and dark of heart.”
“A bold statement. What happened to make you hate the people of Harwell so much?”
Janna stopped to look at the rising sun and the pale blue sky.
“I have always preferred the sunrise and the morning sky. Look at the blue, it is so fresh and clean. It is as if every day is reset and the horrors of yesterday forgiven. It makes you believe that because it is a new day, the world will have changed for the good. But it never does.”
Janna paused for a few seconds before continuing.
“I was taken by the priests when I was a child. I was homeless, vulnerable and… they abused me… repeatedly.”
“That’s horrific, I’m so sorry. I had no knowledge of this or I swear I’d have slain every priest in the citadel.”
“No one knows because they have absolute power over the city. It is all a corrupt, evil web praying on the weak. The homeless children are the easy targets. They are monsters Ash, and they need to be stopped. That is why I had no fear of The Gauntlet. I knew there was nothing more frightening inside it than what I had already faced as a ten-year-old locked in a room with disgusting old men.”
“I’m so angry. If you had told me this back in the valley of peace, I would have swam back under the wall, hacked my way through the birds and rampaged through Harwell with my sword, butchering anyone who stood in my way.”
“You’d have been killed by the birds and of no use to us. Your son would have grown up without a father. We deceived you back in the valley: Ugg and I had always intended to leave we were just waiting for another knight, one we could trust. We needed to see if you had the determination to succeed.”
“I did wonder why you changed your minds so quickly... I’ve never thought of myself as being persuasive. It is fine, it made no difference to me - I was jumping anyway.”
“I know you were. Something powerful created this land and I’m going to ask it for the same power, so I can return to Harwell and spill the blood of the priests – all of them.”
“Some of the priests must be good. Let’s say you get the power you seek, you can’t just butcher all the priests. It’s fair enough to kill the ones who abused you, but give the others a fair trial.”
“I’ll kill anyone who gets in my way. I’ll kill every priest, they are all in on it. No exception.”
“And if I got in your way?”
Janna moved closer to Ash, he could her feel her breath on his neck. She kissed him gently on the neck.
“You are a good man, but I can never love you. I can never love anyone. Don’t get in my way, I beg you. I’m here for me, I always was.”
Janna walked away, leaving Ash in a range of competing emotions: rage, compassion, sadness, confusion. Ash stared at the rising sun and calmed his brain. There was only one thing to think about: reaching the tower. Everything else that came after that he’d deal with one by one.
Chapter 10: The Crystal Tower
It only took Ash and Janna a morning’s walk to finally arrive at their destination. But to their initial disappointment they discovered there was no city lying at its base, not even a water pool. Just one single, enormous tower of spiralling white crystal, which rose up from the sands like a tree trunk from the soil.
The abrasive winds and punishing sun had left Ash and Janna’ skin feeling raw and their bodies weak, but the extra water courtesy of Ugg had been a life saver for them. Yet they were exhausted and both sorely missed the company of Ugg. Ash, in particular, was finding Janna to be too intense to be around alone.
“I don’t see an entrance,” said Ash, despondently.
“It might be around the other side, let’s check it out,” replied Janna.
Ash took a quick glance behind him and scanned the horizon, but he could not see the pursuers. There had been no sight or sound of them. Ash pressed the palm of his right hand up against the smooth tower and he was surprised to find the building was cool to the touch.
“It is reflecting the heat. Remarkable,” he said. “If we can get inside we should be well protected from the sun.”
The two of them began the walk around the wide base of the tower. It wasn’t long until they found what they wanted: a very thin slit in the base of the tower just wide enough for them to squeeze through.
“It’s quite a discrete entrance. Whoever built this has skill that far eclipses anything our craftsman can do back in Harwell. Well, this is it. You first?” smiled Ash.
Janna entered first, followed by Ash. The floor of the tower was also made of white crystal but there was no water and no food that they could see, only steps. Thousands of steps as far as their eyes could see ran upwards around the inside of the hollow tower. Tiny holes in the tower’s wall let rays of light seep in, illuminating the inside enough for them to see the steps.
The knights stood looking up, completely a
ghast at the challenge facing them.
“This is going to be tough. At least it is cool in here, but still, my legs are already exhausted,” said Ash.
“We should make a start, get some elevation between us and our pursuers. We have to assume they are still behind us. Their greater numbers will count for nothing on these steps, they can only proceed single file or two abreast.”
“Unless they throw their spears at us.”
“They won’t do that. They wouldn’t risk missing and wasting their weapon.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I wouldn’t do that and risk missing or, even worse, providing my enemy with a weapon to throw back. Let’s take it steady, but let’s not stop until the light fails.”
“Perhaps they are better at throwing spears than us? Either way we should keep the gap large. After you, as always.”
They began their ascent up the countless steps. There was an end, they knew there was, but it was obscured by the great height and the column, gradually thinning, hid its climax. After a couple of hundred steps both knights were sweating heavily and fairly exhausted. Progress was slow and they had no choice but to take frequent breaks to sit on the steps and let their tired legs recover.
“I feel a bit dizzy,” said Ash.
“Me too. My head is spinning.”
Janna peeked down over the steps but quickly pulled her head back, “That doesn’t help at all. I don’t feel too well.”
Janna suddenly vomited over the edge of the steps.
“Are you alright?” said a concerned Ash.
This was the first time he had seen any weakness or infallibility from Janna.
“I feel better now. This is so silly, I don’t know why it’s affecting me so much it’s just steps.”
“It’s the lack of food and water, combined with the elevation and the motion of going round and round. It would be odd if we didn’t feel light-headed and sick. We can rest a while longer if you’d like?”
Janna stood up and Ash immediately understood her answer, he reluctantly followed her up and they battled onwards and upwards.
It wasn’t long until they stopped again, not through exhaustion but because of a blockage on the stairs: a skeleton.
Ash and Janna were stupefied by the body, it was a human skeleton!
“This…is…unbelievable,” exclaimed Janna. “It’s a knight from Harwell, it has to be.”
“It looks like it. This person, whoever it was, came so close. We weren’t the first to make it this far after all.”
“No. Clearly not. I have no idea what is waiting at the top. What if we are just the latest in a long line of knights to make it? What if a great deal of them actually survived? I was too cautious to wait so long back in the valley.”
Ash could sense panic in Janna’s voice.
“I’m not so sure, I passed a lot of bodies in the pits. I think that’s where the majority died. But perhaps we have been too arrogant of our abilities? If we have got this far then why couldn’t more knights have done it also? If they died in the dunes the sand would have buried their bodies and removed every trace of them. For all we know, we were walking over a mass graveyard?”
“Let’s continue. I want answers. I need a resolution,” said Janna, who was still feeling nauseous and worse for wear.
They respectfully stepped around the skeleton and continued. The sun was setting and the light inside the tower gradually dimmed to a dull grey and then to black. The knights stopped to rest and because they couldn’t safely see ahead. But another source of light soon revealed itself to them: the golden peak shimmering in the moonlight shone its aurora down through the tower. It bathed the knights in a gentle and dim golden light and renewed their spirits. Ash and Janna rewarded themselves with a smile, but then Ash glanced downwards and his mood quickly changed.
“Look! Down there, the others have caught us up. There are five of them,” whispered Ash to Janna.
“Damn it, we have lingered for too long. We must go – now!”
Janna raced ahead of Ash, almost sprinting up the steps and taking them two at a time. Ash glanced back periodically and could see the others were struggling with the steps just like them, stopping and starting and the fifth member of the party was lagging quite far behind. Unbeknown to Ash, the sixth of their group had perished in the sands not long after Ugg had greeted them.
Ash continued up the stairs, adrenaline surging through his body. It was a competition and he didn’t want to be the loser.
Ash managed to catch up with Janna, who was feeling dizzy again and had stopped to catch her breath.
“You go on ahead, I need to get my head clear,” said Janna.
“I’m not leaving you, especially if you feel sick. I think I see the end, it’s not far.”
Janna looked up to see the exit but that made her feel worse and suddenly she hurled vomit over the steps once again and down through the centre of the tower.
“Uh,” she groaned. “Where is it coming from? I haven’t eaten for days.”
But the vomit had other consequences also. Ash and Janna heard the strange grunting voices of the others, alerted to the presence of the knights.
“Oops. What have I done?” asked Janna. “Come on, let’s reach that end.”
Through sheer will and determination Janna carried on, followed closely by Ash who kept a careful watch over her in case she collapsed backwards or drifted off the steps. The knights could hear the others shouting and their voices grew louder and louder – they were closing the gap and quickly.
But the end was in sight! A bright golden space shone out above the last step and seeing it, Ash and Janna simultaneously smiled with relief. Ash looked back, he could see the others not more than a hundred steps away and, to his horror, noticed that one of them was preparing to throw its spear!
“Get down, Janna!” he cried.
The spear came sailing through the air and struck Janna in her right thigh and she cried out in anguish. She could go no further with the wound and lay on the steps.
“Just go! One of us, one of our kind, must get their first.”
Janna pulled the spear out of her thigh, blood gushed out and sprayed against the wall.
“I will fight them. You go, please, we must succeed! Do not fail our quest so close to the end!” pleaded Janna.
But Ash couldn’t leave her. Not so close to the end. He grabbed Janna underneath her armpits and dragged her up the steps. Another spear came at them but narrowly missed Ash and clattered against the wall. Ash managed to grab it and hurled it back down at the others, striking one of them in the chest and causing it to fall off the stairs and plummet to the ground. Its friends cried out in sorrow and Ash momentarily felt bad for their loss, but it was kill or be killed. With one last almighty pull, Ash entered through the exit space dragging Janna through behind him. A door suddenly slammed shut and closed them off from the stairs.
After a short period of time the others banged on the door but there was no way through for them. Then there was screaming, which faded away and, finally, silence. Ash and Janna had won. The others had perished as the steps they were standing on had vanished into thin air.
Chapter 11: A Game of Gods
“Clean her up, she’s bleeding everywhere,” said a voice behind Ash.
Ash was startled by the deep, commanding voice. The entire room was suddenly bathed in an ambience of soft golden light and it was difficult for Ash to decipher where the voice had come from or distinguish any features in the room. But then a single ray of intense light hit Janna’s wound and Ash watched in astonishment as the skin miraculously healed over and life poured back into his companion’s body. Janna opened her eyes, which were as sharp and healthy as the day they met.
Ash smiled, “Welcome back. We did it! We completed The Gauntlet. We won.”
Janna stood up and together with Ash they walked further into the mysterious golden room.
“I can vaguely see them, but they are not like us.
Not like the others either. They are like a vertical pulse of shimmering light,” whispered Janna.
“No need to whisper, Janna. We know everything you have ever said or thought of since the day you were born,” said another voice.
“Reveal yourselves. We deserve to know who we are talking to after getting this far,” declared Ash.
The golden haze of the room dimmed. Ash and Janna immediately noticed the floor – it was a map of The Gauntlet!
“There is Harwell, to the south. And the waterfalls and the maze. Everything is on here!” exclaimed Ash.
There were two more cities, one to the west and one to the east, and three identical passageways all leading to the common ground of the maze. Three beams of light enclosed Ash and Janna; one was silver, one blue and one green. Ash and Janna instinctively moved closer to one another, yet both knew they were powerless against the unknown forces.
“I am Yari, One of Three. We are the gods of this universe and you have successfully completed our little test. Congratulations. It was close at the end, but I am proud of you, and happy, because you are my creation and you won. That’s now put me ahead by one in our epic tournament.”
“You won, Yari, but it was only just. I can’t believe after all this time I lost by a whisper. Still, it was gripping to watch. Welcome Ash and Janna, I am Khith, Two of Three. The green folk, as you called them, were my creation and they did me proud. But alas, coming second counts for nothing in this colossal game of ours.”
“Well, mine never even got close. Useless fools were too lazy. I don’t think I made them with enough adventurous spirit, hardly any entered the mountains. They mostly opted for the beach life! I am Liya, Three of Three.”
The three gods remained in their spirit form and were bright for Ash and Janna to look at.
Yari, the silver light, suddenly burst out laughing. “I’m still thinking about when the three of you ate one of Khith’s creations. I enjoyed watching that and gloating about it to my brother. Shame about Ugg, I was rooting for him. But without his sacrifice you’d never have made it. I made you well.”
The Gauntlet ( A Fantasy Novella) Page 7