by Eli Ingle
As the ceremony ended and the families were sent away, the fire began to die out. As the statue cooled, the beak of the owl opened and a smoky black orb fell from the beak and was caught deftly by Vegalior, who waiting underneath for it.
“With this, we shall complete Zeph’s transformation,” he declared. There was no response. “My Lord?”
Frivlok was staring at his hands. The energy from the ceremony was finally healing him, returning to him the power he had known at the end of the Dark Wars. His fingernails grew, his skin transformed from thin, papery wrinkles of an ill seventy-year-old to firm, rosy, unblemished skin of a forty-year-old still in his prime. Three new eyes, one in the centre of his forehead and one on either cheek, first grew and then erupted through the skin, tracking the movements of his normal eyes perfectly.
The Commander and Shapeshifter were also changed. The Commander’s muscles grew thicker and he gained, if possible, another few inches of height.
The Shapeshifter, who before had looked as though he were made of insubstantial smoke, grew more solid. His form could change at any time, but there was more substance to it now.
They were as powerful as they had been in the Dark Wars.
They were back.
Chapter Sixteen
Rigel and Jhoan were screaming and falling, plummeting towards the endless pit below. Then with a flip that churned his stomach, Rigel landed with a thud on the ground … the smooth upright ground. Rigel lifted his head but saw that Jhoan had taken the floor worse than he had – a cut along his forehead proved that. The bandit wiped up the fast trickle of blood and flicked it onto the ground. Rigel stood up, dusted himself off and looked around. Just behind them was a sheer one-hundred-foot drop with a fissure in the ground waiting to catch them should they fall. Crawling as near as they dared, they peered over the edge and suddenly realised with a jolt that they were looking down at the path they had just walked down. They had not fallen at all but simply flipped head over heels in a three-quarter circle and were somehow now standing up straight at an angle that should not have been possible. Rigel shook his head just as it began to hurt thinking about it.
“You alright?” he asked Jhoan. The bandit still looked dazed but managed to nod his head. “Let’s just go, I want to get out of here.”
“What if you don’t get out of here?” the bandit moaned, suddenly looking terrified. “What if it just keeps building itself so you never escape?”
“Don’t think like that!” replied Rigel, even though he knew that it was possible. “Anyway,” he added, thinking as he talked, “The people who left the signs at the entrance managed to get through it so there must be a way out.”
“Lucky for us they did,” Jhoan muttered but nodded even as he said it, realising that there was new hope for their quest.
Walking along the gorge, they stepped cautiously as they looked out for any new threats to their lives or their sanity.
“What’s that up ahead?” asked Rigel, squinting at the distance. Jhoan looked up from the floor and glanced at where he was pointing. It was several hours after their fall and the walk was taking its toll on their stamina and morale.
“I can’t see anything,” said the bandit.
“I can. It looks like a light,” Rigel said. Then they stared at each other with wild eyes.
“A light?!”
Charging forwards, they ran towards the sliver of illumination – just a crack in the darkness ahead. At first, it seemed as though their running was fruitless, but then the crack seemed to grow larger and brighter until they could feel sunlight warming their faces.
They were there – almost there! – when the sunlight disappeared like a bolt and they slammed into a dead end of cold stone.
“No. No!” screamed Rigel, banging his fists on the wall. “What now?” he wailed.
Jhoan was not listening; he was staring at the wall. “There’s something written on here,” he said, pointing at some grooves cut into the stone. If they were words then Rigel could not tell what they were saying.
“Can you read it?” he asked. The bandit nodded, which surprised Rigel, but then he berated himself for having such a low expectation of the man’s intelligence. “Well, what does it say?”
“It wants a sacrifice.”
“What does that mean?” demanded Rigel.
The bandit sighed as he ran his hands over the words again. “I’m not entirely sure but you’re giving yourself over to some kind of ceremony and if you do then you’re allowed to leave.”
“Do we both have to do it?”
“No,” said the bandit and his words sounded heavier than ever. He pointed to some even fainter writing:
One can give over his heart and many get past but the Darkness in their minds will forever last.”
“Well don’t do it!” said Rigel.
“What choice do I have?” spat the bandit. “I’m here to protect you and I can hardly let you do it and we are not staying here so that’s that … I accept,” he said, spreading his arms wide.
At first, nothing happened, but then with a crack like distant thunder and a rush of howling wind, Rigel watched as a spike of black smoke shot through the bandit’s forehead, leaving the other side and dissipating like a harmless cloud. The bandit went limp and fell to the floor just as the wall began to split and opened down a crack in the middle. Sunlight flooded their eyes and stung them, accustomed to the dark as they were. Jhoan was not moving and, for fear of being trapped again, Rigel dragged him out into the light before attending to him. Jhoan’s body fell before he could stop it and landed with a thump in the dust, his head bouncing unhealthily against the floor. A cracking noise made Rigel turn around and he saw the split in the stone close three-quarters of the way shut, leaving a black split down the rock where mist swirled around it. Turning away, Rigel shivered and looked down at the bandit, who was still unconscious, before trying to shake him awake. When he did not seem to be waking, Rigel sat back on his haunches and looked down at him, wondering what to do. He was breathing, so Rigel was not concerned that he was dead, but he was disturbed enough to wonder what he ought to do. Suddenly Jhoan began shaking all over. Rigel realised he was having a seizure, and jumped to his feet, panicking. Why did they never teach this kind of thing at school? They taught you long division and how to write an essay and how the Ancient Egyptians built their pyramids but how to help your friend who was having a seizure? Nah, forget about it …
Bending down, he tried to hold his friend down but to no avail – he was thrashing too strongly. Before Rigel could do anything else, the bandit opened his eyes and screamed. Rigel fell backwards, shocked as his friend sat up with blood streaming from his eyes. Charging to his feet, he picked Rigel up and threw him with inhuman strength across the plain, where he fell with a thud in the dust. The bandit was clutching his eyes as he screamed but even as Rigel watched he saw the blood stop and the bandit fall to his knees, sobbing. Wary of going any closer, he stood up and looked at him.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“Never better,” replied Jhoan, sounding more like his usual self. He moved his hands and wiped the blood away, leaving two smears of gore across his cheeks. “Yuck.”
“What happened?”
“Ancient curse probably – payment for leaving the gorge.”
“I’m starting to see why there was a ‘keep out’ sign in front of the entrance.”
“Oh yes.”
“Shouldn’t the others be here now?” wondered Rigel. “If they’re travelling through Bliss Gorge I can’t imagine what would be keeping them there.”
Exhausted as they were, the last thing Rigel would be able to do now would be to lie down and sleep. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he came to a decision.
“We could go and walk down to the exit and have a look,” the Light One suggested.
“Alright.”
Walking down past the cliff edge, they moved towards where they thought t
he exit to Bliss Gorge should be. Sure enough, after a bit of searching, they saw a vertical crack down the ridge, and nodded to each other before walking towards it. As they drew closer, they realised that sunlight, brighter than what was emanating from the red sun in the sky, was streaming out from of it, casting a warm glow on their skin. Stepping towards it in wonder, Rigel closed his eyes as the heat seeped through his skin, warming his whole body and leaving him sighing in contentment.
“Oh that’s lovely,” said Rigel.
“What is?” asked Jhoan, looking at Rigel.
“The sun,” he replied, not opening his eyes.
“What sun?” asked the bandit. He was sounding impatient now.
“The sunshine. Look!” Rigel snapped, pointing to the dappled sunlight on his forearm.
“You’re just winding me up now,” grumbled Jhoan. Rigel felt a spike of annoyance prickle him but just as he was about to say something a wave of calm serenity washed over him and he sighed, feeling alright again, with no wish to argue. All was right with the world. He started grinning broadly.
“Oh, so you think it’s funny now, do you?” Jhoan challenged. Rigel felt no desire to respond so just carried on smiling. “You little weirdo,” Jhoan spat.
Something in the back of Rigel’s mind was ringing like an alarm bell at Jhoan’s irrationally hostile behaviour but then the wave of pleasant apathy swept over him again and he thought no more of it. What he did start to notice was the smell of flowers and perfume wafting through the rift that wafted gently on the light wind. Looking over to Jhoan, he saw him also sniffing and was glad at least that the bandit could smell the same thing, even if he could not see the sunlight.
“What is that god awful stink?” Jhoan coughed as he covered his nose with his sleeve.
“Excuse me?”
“It smells like something dead and rotten,” he choked. Rigel flashed him a look and was about to say something when he thought about the bandit’s earlier outburst and decided to remain silent for fear of provoking another negative reaction from him. Once again, in the back of his mind, he got the feeling that there was something there – something masked by the smell he was smelling, a faint hint of corruption, but then the perfume of the flowers swept his mind and he found himself smiling once more.
Walking forwards he found the walk more pleasant than any previous one he had taken recently.
Inside the gorge, they were greeted with flowers of all colours – vibrant reds to the subtlest of pale blue – growing out through the rocks, surrounded by fresh grasses and blossom-covered trees that added their own scent to the already sweet air. Rigel sighed as he looked around and despite his contentment, he could not help but be jealous that Laurie, Erdiz and Rona had been the ones who had the chance to walk through it.
“Something about this feels off,” commented Jhoan, looking around. Rigel rolled his eyes and sighed.
“I wish you’d give it a rest,” he said. “That’s all you’ve been saying since you got here. Just appreciate the calm and serenity – it’s beautiful!”
“And I wish you’d give it a rest saying that and actually look around you. There’s something very wrong with this place. It’s like there’s something lurking just out of sight, watching ….”
“That’s just you. You’re so used to a life of paranoia and fighting that you can’t appreciate nice things.”
“You know what? I’m done here. I’m finished talking to you.” Jhoan stalked off, looking furious. Part of Rigel’s mind attempted to feel emotion again but then it was swept up in the strange feeling of euphoric sunshine.
Slowly following the bandit, Rigel stopped after a minute, finally registering some actual emotion rather than the soft feelings of warmth he had felt previously. Scattered around him on the floor and leant against the walls were hundreds of people, sprawled and motionless where they had fallen. Up ahead he could already see Jhoan checking the pulse on the neck of one of them. Rigel ran over to him.
“Are they alive?” he panted. The bandit stood up, rubbing his hand on his jacket.
“Yes, they have a pulse, they’re breathing … but they don’t look alive.”
Rigel prodded one unceremoniously with his boot. The body rolled over with a dull thud, remaining still.
“You don’t think it’s a disease, do you?” he asked, suddenly covering his mouth.
“No, I don’t think so – there are no symptoms here that indicate illness …. It’s like they just lay down and decided not to move again.”
“I don’t like this,” said Rigel.
“Really?” asked Jhoan, sounding surprised. “I’m having a whale of a time.” Rigel scowled at him. “What happened to all your sunshine, perfume and good feelings?” asked the bandit, cocking his eyebrow at him.
“They’re still there,” Rigel admitted, “but it does feel tainted now, whatever this is. Where do you think the others are?”
“Who knows? They might be trapped in here – there are so many of these people that they could be blocking the path further along or the others might have caught whatever it is they’ve got.”
“You said it wasn’t a disease!” protested Rigel.
“It’s not, but it’s obviously something. Come on, let’s see if we can find them.”
Continuing on their way, they moved along the gorge, keeping an eye out for Rona, Laurie and Erdiz.
The gorge remained clear and bright and despite the piles of bodies around them, Rigel struggled to ignore the euphoric pleasure creeping through his veins again, leaving him with a broad grin on his face. Jhoan still appeared to be unaffected whatever Rigel was experiencing and remained ever on the lookout, his head darting from side to side as he attempted to spot the others as they walked. Occasionally one of the bodies would shuffle slightly and make them jump with alarm and surprise but the action was usually slight and uneventful – as soon as they had moved it would settle down again. Unmoving.
Several hours later, Jhoan and Rigel rounded a corner and were greeted by a horrific sight, one that the bandit had nevertheless predicted. The walls of the gorge closed together until the gap between them was only a few metres wide. Under normal circumstances, the path would still have been easy to navigate but as it was, the bodies had bottlenecked there and blocked it, forming a huge wall at least eight feet high over which it looked nearly impossible to cross. Many had tried, however, and as Rigel looked at the pile, he pointed soundlessly at the bottom, shocked. Rona was sprawled across the pile as if she had fallen from the top of it. Rigel ran over. Upon his insistent shaking, he managed to get Rona’s eyes open briefly. She saw Rigel and smiled broadly, wrapping her arms around him before collapsing again.
“See if you can see the others,” grunted Rigel as he struggled to hold her weight. “They might be somewhere close by.”
Jhoan nodded and started moving the other bodies out of the way. He stopped briefly, swearing to himself.
“They’re all smiling!” he spat.
“What?”
“They’re all smiling as if they’ve got no worries in the world. Look!” he pointed at one of the nearest bodies.
Staggering over whilst still holding Rona, Rigel peered down at the nearest man and saw that, sure enough, he was smiling.
“That is just … that is not okay …,” he said, stepping away from it.
“You’re telling me,” replied the bandit. “They’re all at it!” He shuddered and stepped away from them.
“Can you see Laurie or Erdiz?” he asked. The bandit shook his head. “You need to look!”
Growling, Jhoan ran around the edge, scanning the faces. He found both Laurie and Erdiz several yards the left of where Rona had fallen. Both Laurie and Erdiz were grinning broadly with their eyes shut. Pulling them out, they laid them in a row and tried to wake them, but after several minutes of cajoling they gave up; it seemed like a lost cause.
“Hang on,” said Rigel, “where’s the cart?”
/> They shared a look before turning to face the pile of bodies. Shuddering, Jhoan climbed up them gingerly and looked over the top.
“Would you believe it?!” he cried.
“It’s on the other side,” finished Rigel. “Wahey.”
“Well now it makes sense – they obviously couldn’t get the cart any further and tried to climb over and fell down.”
“And suddenly decided they were too tired to move?”
“No, whatever it is that’s affecting these people must have also overwhelmed them.”
“I just wish I knew what it was,” said Rigel.
“So do I,” agreed the bandit. “Although you never know, they might know and be able to tell us when they wake up.”
“If they wake up,” grumbled Rigel, finally wording the thought that was worrying him.
“I’m sure they’ll wake up again.”
“No, you’re not! You don’t know what it is or what it does. You’re just saying that to try to make me feel better, which isn’t working by the way…”
“Okay, okay ….”
Standing in silence for several minutes, each traveller was temporarily lost in his own thoughts.
“How shall we get the cart back?” asked Rigel.
Jhoan scratched his chin. “It packs itself up, doesn’t it?” the bandit asked. “That’s how we got it through the portal?”
“Yes,” replied Rigel. “Although I don’t know where the button on it is.”
“We’ll find it. We’ll have to take the crates off and carry them over by hand, but it shouldn’t take too long.”
“Okay.”
“Let’s make sure it doesn’t take long,” Jhoan said. “I really don’t like it here.”
Rigel had stopped listening. He was staring at a patch of beautiful red and yellow flowers.
“Rigel!”
The Light One spun around. “What?” he asked.
“Let’s get a move on.”
As gently as they could, Rigel and Jhoan climbed over the pile of bodies and arrived at the other side where the cart had come to a stop.