by Gray, C. M.
‘Oh yes you’re responsible, you will pay and I’ll…’ Bartholomew didn’t get a chance to continue as a sharp sword was pressed to his throat. Azif stood watching as his guards surrounded the bedraggled pair.
‘You obviously do not like this caravan. We are in sight of the city, thus the law of the desert is satisfied; we shall allow you to leave here.’
Bartholomew’s jaw dropped. ‘Let us leave? You’re going to strand us here and make us walk to the city from here?’ He stared across the shimmering desert at the distant city and licked his lips nervously.
‘Yes, you shall walk. You have offended me and my people and you shall walk like a camel into the city and no man shall respect you.’ Azif waved to his men who pushed Bartholomew away.
‘And you can have Mustep to keep you company. I believe he is your friend, is he not?’
Mustep fell to his knees with a cry of anguish and frustration, hands set in a prayer of appeal, but the caravan master simply turned his back on him and walked away. Mustep fell forward into the sand with a sob, beating his fists at the injustice of life.
The caravan continued its slow march to the city, while Bartholomew, Matheus and Mustep sought to keep a little dignity and silently walked after them in the ankle-deep sand.
‘This is so unfair,’ muttered Bartholomew, ‘so unfair. All we seek is justice. I simply don’t understand why the Source treats us so.’
****
After dropping Pardigan, Tarent and Mahra in a high, sheltered area of the mountains, Quint guided The Griffin back towards the palace to pick up Loras and the princess. Mahra had told the princess to prepare to leave and she’d been excited at the thought of a magician coming to rescue her. Mahra only hoped that Loras would live up to the princess’s expectations.
Finding Loras proved to be no problem; he was perched high up on one of the palace roofs waving up at the approaching Griffin with the princess at his side. Below them a group of the sultan’s guards were attempting to climb up but Loras was keeping them back with a whole array of different spells; the princess clutching his arm giggling and clapping in delight at each one. As The Griffin approached, Loras stood and started whirling his arms around his head and smoke began to fill the area below them confusing the guards even more. The sultan’s magician had been trying unsuccessfully to counter every spell that Loras had used but his magic was nothing compared to that of Loras - the old magician could be heard screaming in frustration and rage. If he did something that Loras hadn’t known before, then Loras learned how it was done almost instantly, and it became little or no threat to them or was sent straight back to confound the old magician further.
The Griffin landed, sending roof tiles crashing to the courtyard below as it scrabbled for purchase, and they came running over. Quint helped them both up and showed the princess where best to hold on.
‘My daughter, I forbid your leaving! Listen to me, I am your father and your sultan.’ The voice came floating up out of the smoke. Quint glanced at the princess but she tossed her head, wrapped her arms tighter around Loras then poked her tongue out in the sultan’s direction.
‘He may be my father and also my sultan, but he doesn’t even know my name. Let us leave here.’ She shook her head dismissively and motioned them on with a regal wave. The Griffin lurched up with huge beats of its wings and several arrows flew past them as the smoke was blown away. They could hear the sultan berating his guards.
‘Don’t shoot, you fools, that is my daughter! If you hit her I will make you die a thousand agonising deaths.’
Glancing back, they watched as all but the sultan started down from the roof, leaving him to stand alone to watch without moving until they were well out of sight.
The entrance to the mines was high in the mountain range at the base of a huge cliff, and had only a narrow path running up to it. If they hadn’t had the princess to guide them, it could well have taken weeks to find amongst the rocks. The Griffin set them down and then flew off so as not to attract unwanted attention to the entrance should anyone be watching. Gathering round, Mahra introduced the sultan’s daughter as Princess Fajera and she quickly took the lead.
‘There’s only one torch here. You’ll all have to follow me closely as the tunnel is treacherous. It will take us some time to reach the guardian’s cave.’ The princess struck a flint and lit the torch, holding it out in front of her.
‘I can give us light as well,’ said Loras happily as two glowing blue globes appeared in his hands and floated into the entrance, instantly lighting the path. The princess smiled in approval then led them inside.
The tunnel was dark and narrow and appeared to be as treacherous as the princess had promised. It angled down, branching out in several places as other tunnels disappeared off into the darkness. Loras, who was at the back, made sure to mark the wall so they’d be able to find their way back if, for some reason, they didn’t have the princess to guide them. From several of the branch tunnels they could hear strange sounds and moaning, water dripping or rushing, and at one part the crash and thump as, within another tunnel, something gave way.
‘What is it that lives down here making all those sounds?’ asked Quint, fingering the sword at his belt nervously.
‘Nothing lives down here except the guardian.’ The Princess giggled. ‘Maybe a few mice or rats,’ she poked Quint with her finger. ‘You’re not afraid of mice are you?
Quint ignored her. ‘So what’s making all the noises?’
‘It’s the wind or water moving, or maybe the earth shifting,’ answered Tarent. ‘The earth is constantly moving and shifting beneath us, we just don’t notice when we’re happily walking around on the surface - down here it’s different.’
They followed the princess down and down, twisting and turning until they all felt completely lost.
‘How did you find these caves, princess?’ asked Mahra when they stopped for a rest. ‘I mean this is hardly the type of exploration trip that most princesses would make, is it?’
‘I’m not like most other princesses. I should know, I have thirty-eight sisters, who are also princesses, all of whom are happy to sit and sew or sing and dance prettily, acting like perfect dummies as they wait for a husband to be found for them. I, on the other hand, want more than all that sitting around and I don’t want a husband.’ She gazed at Loras. ‘Well, not any old husband any way.’ She smiled. ‘I want to choose my husband, not be found some smelly old merchant’s son to spend the rest of my life with. So I escape as often as I can and come to these hills. On one of those trips the skull called to me and guided me down to its cave.’
At last, after what seemed like most of the day, they saw that the blue globes had halted their travel at the entrance to a large cave. The princess placed her torch into a holder to one side of the opening and bade them follow her in.
‘Hello?’ she called. ‘Guardian? Are you here?’
‘Child? Is that you?’ a weak voice drifted from the dim confines at the back of the cave. Do you bring me visitors?’
‘No, she brings me visitors and well you know it, you old fool,’ said another voice.
‘Silence!’ hissed the guardian. ‘Come forward, child, bring these visitors to me. I’ve waited so very long to meet them.’
‘They will be more of a match than you think, old man,’ came the second voice again.
‘I said silence!’ screamed the guardian. ‘You have promised me for countless years of waiting that you would not interfere at this final time of reckoning.’
‘I did, so I shall say no more and remain silent, my old friend. You have waited long and dutifully for this day and I shall now cease to interfere.’
The Griffin’s crew followed the princess into the darkness, nervously fingering their weapons, unsure of the strange conversation they’d been hearing. Out of the gloom came a wizened old man with a long white beard. He supported himself upon a stick that was nearly as bent as he was and it was with obvious effort that he lifted his eyes t
o see them. The princess ran over to him.
‘Let me help you, guardian, please…’ but he shooed her away.
‘Stay back, girl. Your task in these things has been completed and I thank you, but stay back while we talk.’ He waved his old hand towards the side of the cave and the princess, crestfallen, backed away.
‘Welcome, visitors. Allow me to introduce myself to you. I am the guardian of the skull.’ He cast his watery old eyes over the group. ‘So young,’ he murmured. ‘So very young.’
‘I’m fed up with people telling me how young I am,’ growled Pardigan in a low voice.
‘Shhh,’ muttered Quint.
The guardian shuffled a little closer. ‘I am the guardian of the skull and I was set here…’ He thought for a moment, obviously trying to work out how long he’d been sitting in the old cave, guarding the skull. ‘I have been here too long. That’s how long I have been here, far too long. I was placed here to guard this skull against the one thing that my masters feared most. The one thing that might turn time against them…you!’
What had been a little old man only a moment before exploded into action in a flash of red light. The staff was flung up turning into a flail, a short staff with five long strands running from it, each strand tipped with the head of a poisonous snake hissing and spitting venom. The guardian had grown to almost twice his previous size and with eyes glowing red and yelling a terrible cry, he pulled back his arm and sent the spitting heads at the group of heroes as they stood mesmerised in shock before him.
The flail snapped down and the snakes each struck for a different member of the crew. Finally jolted into action, they tried to defend themselves as best they could. At the front of the group, Quint drew his sword and cut the head from the first snake but his triumph was short-lived as the head fell to the floor, hot acidic blood sprayed over him and he fell down in agony, his hands covering his face. Tarent had drawn his twin swords but seeing what had happened to Quint, he replaced them into each other with a quick snap and struck out with the staff instead, instantly causing one of the snakes to fall limp. Mahra had turned into the Black Panther and had succeeded in shredding another of the heads with a swipe of her claw, but had suffered much the same fate as Quint. She was now whimpering at the back of the cave nursing a badly burnt paw that hissed and steamed as the venom burnt into her.
‘Guardian, guardian, please stop!’ wailed the princess, sobbing at the madness erupting around her.
Pardigan threw a knife at the guardian but it was turned aside as the flail came up to strike again, the snakes renewed and five fresh poisonous heads came flashing down towards them. Loras stepped forward and held out a hand forming a solid wall of air, momentarily stopping the forward motion of the snakes. The guardian shrieked in anger, the cry echoing back into the caves.
The flail was pulled back and then struck down once more sending Loras crashing to the floor with the force of it, yet somehow, he still managed to maintain the defensive wall.
Seeing that different measures were called for, Pardigan scanned the dim shadows behind the guardian and with a shimmer was gone, place-shifting to where the skull lay.
The skull pulsed a deep blue. ‘About time, young man. I knew one of you would have this ability. Now shift us back and out of here before my old friend hurts somebody.’ Pardigan picked up the softly glowing skull and shifted back to behind his friends.
‘We have what we came for, let’s get out of here,’ he shouted and Mahra limped out whimpering, followed by the princess. Quint was edging back towards the door, his face a mask of agony while Loras held the guardian at bay, but the young magician was weakening. Each crackling strike of the flail was draining him as the red Chaos energy of the guardian met the blue Order energy of Loras’s wall of air in a shower of light and sparks. Tarent stood at his side ready to defend his friend if he possibly could.
‘The roof,’ the skull muttered from the confines of Pardigan’s cloak. ‘The roof is weak.’ Pardigan looked up to see that the roof was indeed fragile, a series of cracks running all over it. ‘The largest crack,’ came the muffled voice of the skull.
As Tarent and Loras made it to the entrance of the tunnel, Pardigan sent a knife flying underhand at the largest crack with all the force he could muster. A load groan echoed round the chamber and several large pieces of rock came crashing down - but the roof held. Seeing what his friend had done, Quint strung an arrow and sighting as best he could through burning eyes, let it fly at the same spot. Several more large pieces of rock came crashing down, smashing onto the cave’s floor causing the guardian to spin round, fear and uncertainty now etched upon his monstrous face. Another knife from Pardigan and a large slab of rock fell crashing down, pinning the guardian to the floor. He writhed there unable to move, the snakes hissing and spitting, dragging themselves towards the group, eyes glowing red and poisonous venom dribbling from their mouths. Loras dropped the wall of air and sent a bolt of blue energy at the roof and a large section exploded with a crash. There was a heartbeat of hesitation, and then the whole roof, carrying the weight of the mountain above it groaned and then dropped with a ‘whump!’ sending dust billowing out into the tunnel, ending the guardian for good.
Now in the total darkness of the tunnel, they were choking on dust until Loras lit two glowing blue globes and sent a crackle of energy into the air. The energy bolt caused the dust to drop to the floor, and they were at last able to breathe again, all of them noisily sucking air into aching burning lungs.
Bending over Quint, Tarent poured healing energy into his friend who lay, eyes closed with relief, as his burns were slowly healed. Loras moved over to Mahra and tried to do the same for her but the Black Panther bared her teeth at him and growled. He stepped back in shock.
‘Don’t be such a baby, Mahra! I’m going to heal you, it won’t hurt.’ The panther shimmered and Mahra the girl stared up at him, teeth gritted in agony, tears running paths down her dusty face.
‘Just heal me, boy! And hurry, cats don’t like pain.’ She held out her hand and soon her face relaxed and her scorn turned to thanks.
It took them quite some time to get to the top of the tunnel. Slowly helping each other retrace their earlier steps, as they sought out the signs left by Loras. They smelt the fresh air before seeing any light and when they did finally emerge it was to a star-filled sky and chilly night air. They sat down to rest while Mahra shimmered into an owl and did a fast circuit of their surroundings to see if anybody else was up on the mountain. She was soon back, allowing herself to drop down exhausted besides the others.
‘We’re quite alone up here; we can rest safely until morning.’
‘I cannot believe I have been such a fool,’ sobbed the princess. ‘The guardian deceived me. I thought he was such a sweet old man, yet he turned into…into...a monster!’
‘You were not deceived,’ said the Skull, pulsing a deep blue from the rock where Pardigan had set it.
‘It was written in the annals of history, that you would do exactly what you did. You fulfilled your task beautifully, my dear. The guardian was indeed a sweet old man and a great friend to me as well during all these years. We spoke many times of how the final events would play out, and towards the end, I believe he had no wish for victory at all. His mentors misguided him many years ago and set him on a path that he had no way of leaving, at least not before today. Now he is finally at peace. Be happy for him, child, remember him as the kind old man that he was, not the monster that his destiny forced him to become.’
‘Wasn’t so kind when he was flinging that whip thing about, was he!’ muttered Pardigan.
‘No he wasn’t, but that wasn’t the man, that was the guardian, and he fulfilled his role in things admirably, the same as did you all. And now we must go on to finally complete the great spell. Rest now, heroes, in the morning you may read your book and see the final pages.’ The Skull became silent and the blue glow faded away.
They managed to start a fire and set an order of
watch before turning in. Pardigan, who had drawn the first guard duty, sat contemplating the valley below and the silent city of Dhurban, with its twinkling lights still showing across the desert.
I wonder what Bartholomew is doing down there right now, he mused.
****
Chapter 22
Tipping The Balance
Loras and Quint took the princess back to the palace in the early hours of the morning. She was still upset at the death of the guardian, but the Skull had spoken kindly of him and the long years they had spent together.
‘He was a good man given a bad duty. For hundreds of years I was his only company, the very object that he had been told to defend the world against. When you started to visit him it was the happiest he had been for centuries. You must try to understand that death was a blessing to him, a long-awaited release from the task in which he had lost all belief. You both played your parts in the events splendidly.’
As The Griffin landed on the roof of the palace, the princess wrapped her arms around Loras’s neck and planted a huge kiss on his lips. Taken by surprise, Loras’s hands went up and, with a pop, two blue bolts of energy shot off into the air. Smiling, the princess scampered away before turning back to wave.
‘Don’t forget me, Loras. I’ll always remember you. Come back for me, won’t you?’ She blew him a kiss and with that she was gone, leaving Loras quite unable to move. Quint had to slide down off The Griffin’s back and nudge him for Loras to respond in any way.
‘Got a bit excited there eh, Loras,’ said Quint with a grin. ‘Come on; let’s get out of here before the guards come.’ He helped the still dazed Loras onto The Griffin’s back and they soared aloft on silent wings, back into the star-filled night, a thoughtful Loras gazing back at the twinkling city already far below.
****
‘That sounds fairly simple,’ said Pardigan, leaning over Tarent’s shoulder.