by Trevor Booth
The spire was almost tall enough to reveal the Yen-Gyle Forest behind them. Ariana looked out toward her former home and quickly turned away.
Te’oma stared at Ariana, his heart beating faster than it ever had before. Ariana stared back at him. “Why do you think the door to the lift opened for us?” asked Te’oma.
“I’m not sure. Is that really what you want to talk about?”
“No,” said Te’oma. He put his hand softly to her face, and leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips.
Te’oma lifted his head. Something caught his eye. He stared hard into the distance. At first it just looked like a vague shape in the sky, then it became clear. It was a trio of dragons, and in the fields below were hundreds and hundreds of hybrids and death hounds, marching through the waist-high snow. Te’oma’s heart raced when he realised that they were marching towards Yen-Dori.
“Hey!” snapped Ariana, opening her eyes.
Te’oma pointed at the army heading their way, “Look!”
Ariana’s eyes almost fell out of her head when she saw them. “We have to warn the others. How do we get back down?” she said.
The two put their hands up against the invisible walls of the lift and fumbled around. Suddenly, with a jolt, the lift started to descend. The walls turned dark and a small light came on.
“Did you do that?” asked Ariana.
“I didn’t do anything,” said Te’oma.
The lift came to a stop at the bottom of the spire, and the door reappeared before them and opened. The two quickly ran out.
Kyest and Julius sat at the table looking rather serious. In total silence they sipped their drinks. The door to the room burst open and Te’oma and Ariana came running in, puffing and panting. Te’oma blurted out an indistinguishable sentence.
“Slow down. Catch your breath,” said Julius.
“We have to leave. There are dragons, at least three of them, heading this way,” said Te’oma. Julius got to his feet.
“Relax,” said Kyest. “They’ve been here before and they haven’t been able to get in.”
“You don’t understand. They’ve brought a whole army with them. There must be hundreds of men, hybrids and death hounds,” said Ariana.
Kyest quickly got to his feet. He knew the city was protected from the dragons, but an army would be resourceful enough to break its way through the city gates.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” asked Julius.
“The path of Yen-Dori,” said Kyest.
“It’s the only place they won’t find us,” said Julius.
“What’s the path of Yen-Dori?” asked Ariana.
“There’s no time to explain. We just need to go now,” said Julius.
“Now?” cried Ariana, looking longingly at the bed she had so desperately looked forward to sleeping in. “They are a long way away. Surely we can rest a while before we go?” she pleaded.
Te’oma took Julius aside and explained that, although their journey was very important, they also need to rest. Julius agreed and Kyest was more than happy for them to sleep while he kept watch on the city gates.
Kyest hurried away to prepare his city’s defences. Ariana, Julius and Te’oma all lay down on their incredibly comfortable beds, but not one of them could sleep because of a mix of fear of what was approaching and guilt for not helping to stop it. Eventually, however, the warmth and softness of the bed prevailed and the three fell asleep.
They slept for a long time, their minds and bodies at peace. The night passed quickly as the army approached. Kyest and his people kindly let them sleep for as long as they could.
***
The three were shaken from their sleep by the howl of death hounds at the city gates. Julius jumped out of his bed fully dressed. “We’ve slept too long. We have to go,” he shouted. Julius, Ariana and Te’oma quickly got dressed and, in the blink of an eye, the three ran out the front door.
The light from the sphere blazed above, briefly blinding them. Te’oma shielded his eyes. Flying above were three enormous dragons raining giant balls of ice down on the city’s protective shield.
The army stood in formation at the city gates. The noise was deafening as hundreds of people ran towards the gates, trying to hold the army back.
An exhausted Kyest and Lorain ran up to Julius. “You need to make your choice now, stay and fight or face the path of Yen-Dori,” said Kyest. Julius looked at Ariana and Te’oma.
“We trust you to make the decision, Julius,” said Te’oma. Julius wrestled with his thoughts momentarily. “Thank you for your hospitality, but Yen-Dori it is,” said Julius.
“Then I wish you all the best of luck. Lorain will show you the way,” said Kyest, as he quickly ran away.
“Right. We must hurry,” said Lorain. She ran down the street, away from the city gates. They followed her, running through a maze of small city streets, each looking exactly like the last. They reached the end of the city. A large, stone home, more magnificent than the others, stood against the cliffs that towered over the city. Lorain pushed open the door and ran inside. Ariana looked up at the towering cliffs and, for the first time in a very long time, she could smell Yen-Gyle Forest above.
They made their way through the empty home. Lorain walked down a flight of stairs that led them to a dimly lit basement. Half a dozen axes sat in a wooden rack on the wall. She picked up one of them and started smashing at the wall, but it was strong and did not give way easily. “Help me,” said Lorain. Te’oma, Ariana and Julius all picked up an axe and hacked at the wall.
They bashed and chipped at the stone, until, finally, the wall came crashing down. Dust blew everywhere. They covered their eyes and mouths and, when it settled, they could see another wall, this time made of one large, smooth piece of stone.
At the side of the wall was a small panel and, in the panel, was a crystal disc, similar to the one they had found in the forest. The panel glowed brightly. Lorain quickly pressed the button, but nothing happened. She pressed it again and again. “I don’t understand. Father told me this was the way,” said Lorain.
A powerful crashing noise echoed throughout the city, the vibrations rocking the buildings. “You stay here. I’ll go see what that was,” said Ariana. She quickly ran back up the stairs. Te’oma followed her.
“Let me try that,” said Julius. He reached down and pressed the disc. The stone wall suddenly rumbled and shook then, slowly, it started to lower.
The wall dropped down all the way, revealing a tunnel. Crystal stalactites of all different shapes and colours hung down from the ceiling. Lorain stood in awe of it.
Ariana and Te’oma came running down the stairs. “The city gates have been broken,” said Te’oma.
“Then there is no time,” said Julius as he grabbed Ariana and Te’oma by the hands and pulled them into the tunnel. Before Lorain had a chance to move, the stone wall rose back out of the ground, sealing the mouth of the passageway. Lorain was left outside, and Te’oma, Julius and Ariana were locked alone in the silent darkness.
“Kindness is a gift that can always be given, the harder it is to give the more it is worth.”
Chapter 9
The Sigamante
The wind howled across the great plains of the south. The desolate fields stretched on forever and waist-deep snow, whipped up by the winds, flew around like tiny darts.
Damon waited knee deep in the snow, his face obscured from view by layer upon layer of clothing. His eyebrows and eyelashes were covered in frost. He looked out at the expanses ahead. He knew that he was going in the right direction because the closer they got to the shore the more vicious the winds became. On his back slept six-month-old Te’oma, wrapped up in thick sheep’s wool. Behind him was Gaia. She was young and full of hope. On her back was Sky, Te’oma’s four-year-old sister. Sky wrapped her arms around her mother as tight as she could, shivering in the cold. She played with a small silver pendant that hung around Gaia’s neck, marvelling at the beautifully carved butt
erfly on its face.
“Careful where you walk,” said Damon. The fields were once rocky wastelands covering the ever-rumbling volcanoes below. Although the volcanoes hadn’t managed to penetrate the icy land for nearly a hundred years, every now and then they made their presence known by shaking the land.
Being near the southern pole of Sentari, the sun set on the great plains quite early. Damon dug an area out of the snow, large enough for the three to sleep in. Gaia did her best every night to make the inhospitable place a playground for her children. She laid their sheepskin rugs across the snow and put Te’oma down. Sky quickly snuggled in next to Te’oma, holding his hand and giggling. She was a sweet young girl, who simply adored her little brother.
Damon pulled a strong tarp over the hollow, blocking the wind. With a small fire blazing in the corner of the makeshift home, it was almost bearable. The two played on the rug for so long that they fell asleep. Gaia pulled a woollen blanket over them and kissed their heads.
Outside the hut, Damon stood in the cold night wind, keeping a vigilant watch over his family. Gaia stepped out of the hut. The wind smacked her in the face. She wrapped her scarf around her head and snuggled in closely behind her husband, wrapping her arms around him. This was not the life she wanted for her children, but she was so grateful that Damon was always there to be her rock.
The morning sun rose over the plains. Damon and Gaia were woken to the screams of baby Te’oma. Weary from their long journey, Damon and Gaia pulled their children close, in the vain hope of just a little more sleep. Eventually the boundless energy of young children took over and the kids leapt out of bed excitedly. For them, the cold and the wind could not dampen their enthusiasm for a new day.
They packed up their belongings as they had done each day for months, and continued their long journey across the plains. That day, the journey was not so hard. The sun shone and, for once, there was not a breath of wind. The only form of discomfort was the sun’s glare off the snow, a little price to pay for the welcome change.
Gaia let Sky walk up ahead with her father. Even though the snow was almost as deep as she was tall, she bounded through it like it wasn’t even there. Days like these were few and far between, and she soaked up every moment, playing with her father and her little brother.
At long last, after months of arduous hiking, the end was in sight. The mighty southern ocean came into view. It was one of the few remaining waters of Sentari that hadn’t frozen over. At the edge of the ocean, where the snow finally gave way to the sea, lay thousands of giant black boulders, some as big as houses. They were the last visible remains of the lava fields that once dominated the landscape.
Just beyond the rocks, glistening in the late afternoon sunlight like a beacon of hope, was the Agean Star Boat. Though small in size, the Agean was more than it appeared. Its wooden exterior was lined and held together with the finest strands of gold. The giant sail that flapped in the wind was made from the silk of thousands of silk worms, woven over generations to create the lightest, strongest sail the south had ever seen.
“I don’t believe it. How is this possible?” asked Gaia.
“That is the king’s boat, the last of our great boats,” said Damon.
“How was it not destroyed with the rest?”
“The king had it sailed up here for safekeeping nearly one hundred years ago, long before the dragons tore our cities apart. He may have been a pompous idiot of a king but he certainly knew how to look after himself – luckily for us as it turns out.”
Damon started digging at the snow, carving out a sleeping ground.
“What are you doing? Why don’t we just sleep in the boat?” asked Gaia.
“It’s too late in the day. To swim out to the boat now is far too dangerous. You don’t want to know what hunts in those waters at night,” replied Damon.
Damon and Gaia set up their hut for one final time. The kids fell asleep early that night. Damon and Gaia initially found it hard to sleep with the unfamiliar sound of ocean waves lapping up against the rocks, but eventually exhaustion got the better of them.
They drifted in and out of consciousness, but it was not a normal sleep. Every now and then they heard voices and caught glimpses of strange faces. They tried to open their eyes, but they could not. For several days they slept, their bodies unwilling to wake.
Finally, with a jolt, Damon woke up. His eyes were blurry and his head was pounding as if it had been hit by a sledgehammer. Everything was dark except for a faint flicker of light in the distance. As his eyes began to clear, he could see the wet rocky walls that surrounded him and, directly in front of him, were rusty, old iron bars. Damon was in a prison cell.
His thoughts quickly turned to his family and he scrambled around the cell trying to find a way out. He ran his hands over the walls, trying to find a door, and sliced his hand open. The walls were razor sharp. He held his hand in pain as blood poured out of the wound.
A wrinkled hand reached out from the cell next him, grabbed Damon’s hand and pulled it though the bars. “Show me that,” a strange voice said. Damon’s hand was poked and prodded, he tried to pull it out, but the man’s grip was too strong. Finally, the man let go and Damon pulled his hand back in. The blood had stopped flowing and there was only a small mark where moments ago the gash had been.
“You need to be careful in here young man. You could bleed to death before anyone notices,” said the man.
“Who are you?” asked Damon.
“That doesn’t matter. Just sit still and keep your mouth shut.”
Damon sat down on the cold, rocky floor, still grasping his hand.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” said Damon.
***
Sky trembled in the middle of a large, round wooden disc that hung suspended by rope. Below was a river of lava that bubbled and spat as it ran slowly over the jagged rocks below. The heat from the lava created a haze all around, blocking the walls of the cave from view.
With a thud, a small plank of wood dropped down on the disc where Sky sat and, from out of the heat haze, stepped a large, ugly man. His hair was long and severely knotted, his skin was rough and cracked, and his face was dark and covered with battle scars. He wore little clothing as the heat from the lava provided a constant source of warmth.
Sky sobbed and cried out for her father. The man kicked her in the side and she winced in pain.
“Stand up!” said the man. Sky quickly got to her feet, shaking with fear. “I am Oonuk. You are ours now,” he said, his reeking breath making Sky feel sick to her stomach.
Oonuk walked around Sky, looking her up and down. “Come with me,” he said, quickly walking out over the plank across the fiery lava below. Sky walked nervously out onto the plank. The river spat lava into the air. Sky dropped to her hands and knees and crawled across the log. Oonuk groaned with disapproval before grabbing her by the hand and pulling her out of the room.
Sky was ushered down an intricate series of tunnels and caves. Every now and then, the flow of lava came into view and any thoughts of escape were quickly removed from Sky’s mind. One wrong turn could be the end of her. She was thrust into a small room, in the middle of which sat dozens of children. Directly behind the kids was the river of lava. Standing around them, keeping guard, were ten men, equally as ugly as Oonuk. Sky was pushed to the ground with the other children.
Oonuk stood before them. He may have been ugly, but he commanded attention and respect. “You are all children of the Sigamante now. Your parents are either dead or soon will be,” said Oonuk. One of the children, a small boy not much past his sixth birthday, began crying uncontrollably. Oonuk motioned to one of the other guards, who quickly grabbed him by the leg and held him upside down over the lava flow. “We will look after you here but, I warn you, disobedience is greeted with swift punishment,” said Oonuk. The guard lowered the young boy towards the lava. One of his hands got so close that the skin on the back of his hand began to bubble and blister. The poor boy scr
eamed out in agony.
Sky bravely got to her feet. “Put him down. He’s just scared,” she said. The boy passed out as the guard threw him back onto the ground like a rag doll.
Oonuk grabbed Sky by the throat and lifted her up to his eye level. “You do not question our ways. This is how it has been done for generations,” he said. Sky looked down at Oonuk’s arm and noticed that it was disfigured by burn scars.
Oonuk put Sky down on the ground. She hurried over to the boy to make sure he was alright. One of the other guards swooped in and pushed Sky out the way. He picked the boy up and took him out of the room.
Sky was taken away with the other children and placed in a room not too dissimilar from the one Damon was in. For weeks, the children were left in there. Every so often, the door would open slightly and food scraps would be thrown in. The children squabbled and fought over who got what. Sky learned fast that if she wanted to eat, she had to be ruthless. As the weeks passed, she learnt to anticipate when the food was coming and force her way to the front. Sky was strong for her age and quickly established herself as boss.
The longer they were left in the cave, the more savage the children became. Some of the smaller ones became weak and barely moved from their small corner of the cave. Occasionally, during the night, some of the children would be removed from the cave. After the first month had passed there were only five children left in the room. Not that Sky had noticed. She had become so focused that all she thought about was food and dominance.
Finally, the door to the cave opened. The light from outside poured in and the five remaining children shielded their eyes. Oonuk walked in and stood over them with the light beaming around him. “You five shall become Sigamante,” said Oonuk, before abruptly walking out of the room. Five women rushed in as he left, each of them as beautiful as the men were ugly. Equipped with towels, food and drink, they hurried to the children and helped them to their feet. Sky stared wildly at the women. She had become so savage in that cave that she had forgotten what tenderness was.