The Serpent of Eridor

by Alison Gardiner

  ‘How are we going to get in?’ asked Tariq.

  From his top pocket Zorrin took the red enamel box which had sat on his desk.

  ‘Time tears,’ said Keeko.

  ‘Correct. One will transport a lump of rock back to a different time zone. I only hope I can throw it that far.’

  ‘I throw javelin,’ said Alex. ‘Shall I do it?’

  Zorrin nodded as he pulled a glove out of an inner pocket. ‘Put this on before you touch it, or you’ll end up in another era.’

  Alex pulled on the silver glove, the finely-woven metal mesh cool on his hand. Taking the box, he removed the small clear ball. It lay in his hand reflecting the clouds above it like a soap bubble.

  ‘Wish me luck.’ Alex flung the time tear at the mountain.

  A jagged black line cracked through the cliff face, etching out a vast piece of rock. Then the stone fragment vanished, leaving a hole in the side of the mountain.

  ‘Brilliant,’ yelled Keeko.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Alex, shoving the box and glove in his pocket. ‘Wherever it landed they’ll assume it’s a meteor.’

  Skoodle shook his head. ‘They won’t be assuming anything. They’d be lying dead under it.’

  The ship sailed through choppy water into the massive dark cold cavern, which extended one hundred metres towards the mountain’s heart. The sides of the hole dripped water as if the rock face was bleeding brine. They sailed slowly past the mouth of several tunnels, which straggled away from the newly-gouged out channel. After a few minutes Yidgit moored against the mouth of one of the larger passages.

  ‘I’ll stay and help look after the boat,’ said Skoodle, looking through the gloom at the dark sinister hole. ‘I don’t do cave and aqualate combos. Childhood fear. Sorry.’

  ‘You get to choose,’ said Ikara. ‘Walk or I carry you. In my stomach.’

  ‘You’re a big bag of sympathy, aren’t you? A real pussycat,’ replied Skoodle.

  ‘Cuddles is my second name.’

  Zorrin lead the way on to the floor of a damp tunnel, the rock strata visible in the lamplight from Phaedea’s decks. ‘Sail back to open waters and wait for us there,’ he instructed Yidgit. ‘We’ll transparticulate back to the boat when we can.’

  ‘Can you disparticulate from inside an aqualate’s stomach?’ asked Skoodle.

  ‘Possibly, but you might bring the contents with you.’

  ‘Ventus,’ said Figstaff.

  A swirling breeze blew up, filling Phaedea’s sails and swinging her round to face the sea. The wind straightened to propel her into open waters. The tunnel became gloomier as her light grew distant.

  ‘This is cold, but a hundred times better than a mass of blood-poisoning snakes,’ said Ikara, her voice echoing into the shadows. ‘It’s a pity it wasn’t our first option.’

  ‘There was a good chance it wouldn’t work. I’m a wizard, not a fortune teller.’ Zorrin unrolled a map, copied from the one in his study. Pulling out a stubby yellow stick, he tapped it twice on the wall. The tip exploded into flame, illuminating the tunnel brilliantly. He tapped it once more and the fire reduced to a warm glow.

  ‘Ice,’ said Skoodle.

  Zorrin groaned. ‘They recycle dead hamsters into finger puppets, you know.’ He pointed to one of the black lines in the labyrinth criss-crossing the map of Hypnos’s lair. ‘Our locator dots are here. We’ll follow this tunnel through to the central chamber, but we must be careful: Hypnos may pick up our scent long before we make it to his inner sanctum.’

  Zorrin opened a small velvet bag, inside which lay some scarlet orgreebs. ‘Take one each so we can communicate without Hypnos hearing. To use it, whisper. The sound will be transmitted to all the other orgreebs.’

  As they followed the glow from Zorrin’s stick, the reassuring sound of the sea behind them grew fainter. In the gloom Alex missed his footing, sending a stone ricocheting into a wall. The sound echoed down the tunnel, seemingly forever. Breathlessly they waited. Yet after an agonising few minutes no ugly snout, no lacerating teeth had appeared in the damp air. Exchanging a glance with Alex, Zorrin moved forward.

  ‘Wish you’d paid more attention to your ‘How to walk like an Apache’ classes at school,’ whispered Skoodle via his orgreeb.

  ‘And me,’ added Ikara.

  ‘Thanks,’ whispered Alex. ‘Shoe. Stone. Mistake. The End.’

  ‘Yeah, for all of us,’ whispered Skoodle.

  Zorrin murmured. ‘The tunnel terminates just up ahead.’

  ‘So do we,’ muttered Ikara.

  In another few metres the tunnel opened into a vast high-vaulted cavern, lit by the glow of an illuminated lake in the centre. As the surface of the water rippled in the slight draught, light danced and shimmered on stalagmites and stalactites. The glow from the central lake didn’t reach the walls, where deep shadow pools held their secrets. In awe, the group stared at the dark majesty of the cathedral-like cavern.

  ‘It’s all fine and hunky-dory getting here,’ whispered Ikara. ‘But where on earth do we start looking?’

  ‘In this central cavern,’ murmured Zorrin. ‘Hypnos would want to keep the sapphire somewhere close to him, so he could protect it. I suspect that he uses the tunnels purely for getting out to catch food.’

  ‘Tasty morsels like us?’ asked Skoodle. ‘He’ll think it’s his birthday, with us all coming right to him. Hold the stick high, so he’ll think there’s a cake.’

  ‘Hush, gloomy guts,’ said Keeko.

  ‘This cave is gigantic,’ pointed out Alex. ‘It will take hours to check. Furthermore, he would hardly leave it lying around on the floor.’

  ‘Nooks and crannies in the walls may be a likely hiding place,’ suggested Tariq.

  ‘Think he’d have put it in that thing?’ Keeko pointed to a high ledge many metres above the ground on which stood a dirty turquoise cup-shaped object, its upper edge jagged as if it had once been a whole oval. Further along the narrow ledge the mouth of a tunnel opened.

  ‘Could you climb the rock face below it?’ Zorrin asked Keeko.

  Keeko looked at the glistening wall running with water. ‘No. It’s too slippery. Too few handholds.’

  ‘How about getting to the ledge from further along the wall? Looks a bit less steep and damp,’ suggested Skoodle.

  ‘No chance,’ replied Keeko, shaking her head. ‘Suicide bid. I’m too pretty to die.’

  ‘There is another way,’ said Zorrin. ‘Give me a moment.’

  Staring hard at the stalactite in front of him Zorrin stood completely still, then transmorphed into a small orange and blue parrot. He soared over the edge of the cup, perching for a moment to tap it. After flying around the mouth of the tunnel Zorrin swooped back to the ground. With a squawk, he transmorphed back to a wizard.

  Dusting a few orange feathers off his shirt Zorrin said, ‘Unfortunately there’s no sign of the sapphire. The cup is empty but the inside surface is beautiful, shiny like an opal. We’d better split up and start searching the walls.’

  ‘How?’ asked Ikara. ‘Even a snake’s eyes aren’t that good. It’s pitch black over there.’

  ‘Dip your heads in the lake everyone,’ said Zorrin. ‘Being fed from a tributary of the River Ohm, the lake is self-illuminant.’

  ‘What?’ asked Skoodle.

  ‘Creates its own light.’

  ‘Fantastic. Hamster with a halo. Dip me first,’ said Skoodle, hopping up and down.

  Alex lowered Skoodle into the lake by his back legs. Righted again, Skoodle’s head glowed as if each hair was a tiny fluorescent tube. Droplets of water cascaded down his back like runway lights.

  ‘Ice,’ said Keeko. ‘Me next.’

  Zorrin groaned. ‘Even in here? Ice?’

  ‘Yup. Defrost, pedantic one,’ said Ikara.

  Other than Zorrin, who chose to use his light staff, they all dipped their heads. Ikara dipped her tail in as well then wriggled across the floor, leaving a fluorescent trail as if she were an elongated snail.

/>   ‘I’ll start over there,’ said Zorrin indicating the back cavern wall. ‘Tariq, can you begin—’

  The surface of the lake started hissing and bubbling. From deep in the water came a roaring, rapidly increasing like a jet taking off. Something dark loomed in the depths, enlarging every instant. With a crash like a thunderclap, the surface of the lake exploded.

  The monster Hypnos erupted from it towering eight feet high, scaly arms outstretched, vicious claws ready for ripping. Instantly, Alex sprinted towards the boat tunnel, pounding across the hard unforgiving ground. The roars of Hypnos echoed off the cavern walls, filling his head with noise. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Tariq running to a nearby tunnel, Keeko clamped to his chest.

  Vaguely aware that Zorrin hadn’t moved, Alex flung a glance over his shoulder, hoping not to see Hypnos’s snout just behind him. Zorrin was backing away slowly, calmly facing the gargantuan beast.

  Alex stopped and swung round. ‘Run, Zorrin,’ he yelled. His voice echoed round the cave, poor competition for the mighty bellows issuing from Hypnos.

  Zorrin’s voice came to him through the orgreeb. ‘Keep going,’ he said urgently. ‘I haven’t gone mad.’

  ‘You sure?’

  ‘You heard the wizard. Hit it,’ yelled Skoodle.

  ‘I’m OK,’ insisted Zorrin, although his voice sounded tense.

  Alex picked up speed and sprinted as if all the demons on Earth were after him.

  ‘Faster,’ yelled Skoodle. ‘Run while your legs are still attached to your body.’

  ‘That’s strangely motivating,’ returned Alex.

  Hypnos focused on the closest figure: the wizard. After a moment’s hesitation Zorrin pelted for the blackness, his light staff held in front. Hypnos sprinted after him, an avalanche of muscle and teeth, his claws clattering on the spiky rocks.

  ‘Ventus,’ called Zorrin.

  A slipstream of air picked him up, zooming him into a tunnel. The aqualate surged into the confined space, every horrific sound magnified in the echoing void. Zorrin hammered along just in front of the serpent’s flickering tongue, only millimetres from the jagged rock walls.

  A gust of heat on the back of Zorrin’s neck gave him a fraction of a second’s warning that Hypnos must be a fire breather. A blast of flame shot forward, scorching the rock behind him.

  ‘Centra,’ Zorrin shouted.

  An invisible shield particulated behind Zorrin, deflecting the inferno. Hypnos screamed as the flames rebounded into his face.

  Enraged by pain, Hypnos drove on faster – gradually inching closer as Zorrin surfed the air, weaving crazily. Zorrin’s mind was racing: max speed, but losing ground. He would have to transparticulate soon. As every second passed the danger of wizard tag increased. Yet if he disappeared Hypnos would turn back to the central cavern.

  An idea sparked into his mind. If Hypnos thought he was still ahead the monster would charge on, buying them time. Zorrin checked his map. Six feet away a tunnel ran parallel to this one. Rounding a sharp bend Zorrin transparticulated into the tunnel next door, sending the fire torch ahead on the air stream as a decoy.

  Zorrin reappeared in total blackness. Hardly daring to breathe, he stood for a moment and waited, listening.

  CHAPTER 29

  In a stone cell in the heart of the mountain, a prisoner sat slumped, head drooping forward almost to his chest. Restlessly, pointlessly, he twiddled a rat bone in his fingers, as he had done for many empty years. Despair had long ago left him. Cold, all-consuming anger and lust for revenge were the only emotions he now felt. His filthy grey beard straggled down to the waist of his tattered robes. The starving man didn’t notice the disgusting stench of his personal filth, mingled with the stink of rotting rodent carcasses.

  Rats roamed freely at his feet. In the beginning he’d beaten them away as they gnawed at his disintegrating boots, but when they’d become his only source of food, he had allowed them to stay. With the ache of hunger wrenching at his guts, he’d smash one against the wall, then cook it with the small amount of magic he still retained. Rat-tails, skulls and bones littered his cell.

  The receding clatter of Hypnos’s claws sounded in the air. Yet something was different. In the lined and filthy face, the eyes glittered through the darkness, hungry for vengeance. He leaned his head to one side and concentrated.

  *

  The roaring became fainter. The trembling in the ground beneath Zorrin’s feet subsided. Igniting a tiny fire in his hand, he listened for a few more seconds, then increased the light. The tunnel lit up, its craggy stone walls scorched where Hypnos had bellowed out his anger over decades.

  ‘Hypnos has gone for a bit,’ Zorrin said aloud to the others through their orgreebs. ‘Return to the main cavern.’

  Before he could summon an air stream, the croak of a barely human voice reached him.

  ‘Zorrin.’

  Thunderstruck, Zorrin halted and looked about. No one was there. The walls were solid, containing no chink or hole from which someone could have called him. But a voice had spoken; one he had not heard for a very long time.

  ‘Saranak?’ he asked, taking out his orgreeb.

  ‘Over here,’ called the voice from behind him.

  Zorrin wandered back down the corridor, until he came to a very small slit in the stone, through which seeped the pungent smell of rotting flesh.

  ‘Are you in here?’ he asked, peering into the blackness, but unable to see anything.

  ‘Yes,’ Saranak replied, voice thin and hoarse from disuse. ‘Let me out, Zorrin. I can help you.’

  Zorrin frowned. ‘You help me? How?’

  ‘I know how to kill the creature.’

  ‘Then tell me quickly. Otherwise my friends and I may die.’

  ‘It’s not that easy. You must let me out. Then I shall assist you.’

  ‘A good try, but with your past history of treachery, I’d rather face Hypnos alone.’ Zorrin turned away, relieved to be leaving the stench.

  ‘No,’ croaked Saranak. ‘I swear to help you, on the Rod of Gethsite if I must. I need to be free, so that I can kill that traitorous monster by my own hand.’

  Zorrin turned back. ‘You remember what will happen to you if you break an oath sworn by the Rod?’

  ‘Yes, I know too well. But note this: I’ll not swear to fight on your behalf always. Just today. It’ll be enough.’ The voice began to sound stronger as hope filled Saranak.

  ‘Deal done. Vow.’

  Saranak coughed hoarsely then said:

  ‘By the power of the Rod, at this moment I swear:

  In Gethsite tortured find me, if breaking oath I dare.

  Till midnight tonight Zorrin’s ally shall I be,

  Those who fight against him are enemies to me.

  Revenge will be mine; though it cost my living breath,

  By the power of my hand, Hypnos shall meet death.’

  The last word echoed softly down the tunnel, a chilling refrain.

  Zorrin nodded. ‘It will be binding. Stand back.’

  He put his tiny fire on the floor, then held out his arms towards the wall, not quite touching it. Hands aligned with the slender fissure, he murmured. ‘Nactras vobe.’

  The gap started to widen, creaking as the rock groaned against the powerful enchantment surging through it. Yet, despite his efforts, the gap remained too small for even the wasted frame of Saranak.

  ‘Nactras vobe,’ Zorrin repeated, sweating profusely, his mental processes pitted against intricately-woven magic.

  The spell gave with a loud crack. A jagged fissure appeared in the grey stone wall. Through the crack limped a pitiful creature, physically broken. Yet his eyes blazed with the passionate fire of hatred, giving dangerous life to his thin face.

  ‘Thank you. This allegiance, albeit brief, should be to the advantage of each of us. Perhaps you would dim your flame. It’s painful to my eyes after so many years in the dark.’

  ‘You have suffered, Saranak,’ said Zorrin, red
ucing the brightness of the fire as he picked it up.

  ‘Hypnos tricked me. I, who had taken him on as an apprentice when no one else would, who spoke to him of hidden magic, taught him dark spells that few dare to use, roused demons that fewer still can muster. Yet it was me he turned against when his knowledge became great enough. The student overthrew the master.’

  The filthy bent wizard propped himself against the wall as he spoke, his reedy voice cracking.

  ‘Why did you allow him to learn enough to overcome you?’

  ‘I didn’t teach him that. He stole my books and papers. He’s an evil one. Yes, I see you smile. I’m evil in your eyes because my path differs from yours, and many of the Dark Sciences are well known to me. Yet I am not a traitor to my associates. Now he’ll pay the penalty of all traitors: death. Let’s get on with it.’

  His bowed figure set off at a limp, his breathing ragged after only a few steps.

  ‘Have all your powers gone?’ asked Zorrin.

  ‘Not all, but few remain.’

  ‘Since we’re at present allies, I shall assist you.’ Zorrin pointed at Saranak. A burgundy hooded cloak appeared over Saranak’s filthy rags.

  ‘Better.’

  ‘Ventus.’

  An air stream whisked them towards the central cavern.

  ‘Good spell,’ Saranak murmured. ‘Almost civilised.’

  ‘Do you know where the Sapphire of Akan is?’

  Saranak drove a hand through his dirty grey hair. ‘Hypnos has it. He stole it from me.’

  ‘Where does he keep it?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘How can you kill him? What’s his weakness?’

  A faint smile appeared on Saranak’s face. ‘In our newly-formed allegiance, you’ll have to trust me. You’ll find out a minute or so before he dies. For years I have plotted his death. Revenge must be by my own hand.’

  The wind stream deposited them in the main cave. Saranak gazed around the cavern, screwing his eyes up against the cold blue light of the lake.

  ‘You remember this cave well, I take it?’ asked Zorrin, putting his orgreeb back in.