by Yajat Sharma
“He’s right,” Matt said. “We believe you did the right thing. Raven was wrong to -”
“Wait!” The Scavenger said, his face turning white. “I sense evil, a great evil. And it’s not very far from the tomb!”
“Enough, then,” Daniel said. “Let’s find out the way to reach the first piece of the Crown.”
James walked towards the statue and leaned down to press the thumb of Mascae’s hand.
The throne revolved with a creaking sound and sunk below the ground as they watched in wonder.
The Scavenger looked at the children. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go.”
As they prepared to jump, Daniel asked James, “How did you know where to press?”
James shrugged. “Instincts, my dear. It just came to me.”
The Scavenger jumped down the hole, and the children followed.
As they fell into what appeared to be like a bottomless pit, the Scavenger lowered his hand, forming a gentle sloping curve of wood. James summoned his Elemental Power and converted the wood into soft ice, for smoother impact.
Matt used wind to align everyone in the path of the slope.
The group landed at the top of the incline and sped down. The science worked like a charm. The group skidded to the ground and got up safely.
James jaws nearly dropped to the ground.
They were in the same hall that he had seen in his dream. There were scenes of war and torture painted on the walls. A large lid closed the top of the tomb with the same designs etched on it.
“So you are here at last,” a voice said, snapping James out of his trance.
He turned and saw a young warrior in golden armour standing in front of a throne.
The Scavenger grimaced as he saw the warrior. “I suspected it all along, but I never thought it would be you. Mars, the Avenger, the Warrior Demon, the Man of Steel, the Conqueror and, of course, the Protector of the first piece of the Crown.”
Mars smiled. “It’s good to see that you still remember all my names. It has been a long time since I met you, friend.” He stressed on the word ‘friend’.
“Yes, it has indeed been a long time. We want the first piece of crown, Mars!”
Mars grinned and suddenly pulled out a sword. It gleamed gold, and its blade looked vicious. “It’s a pity we aren’t friends anymore.”
“WHAT?!” the Scavenger exclaimed. “Have you forgotten all the wars we fought together?”
“I remember all of that, Wasp. I remember it.”
“Why then?” The Scavenger asked, eyeing Mars’s sword cautiously.
“I need answers. Where was your honour gone when the Twin Assassins killed Mascae and you didn’t stop them?”
The Scavenger tried to speak, but Mars continued.
“I was shocked, Wasp, shocked when I came to know. I considered you to be invincible, the servant of Lord Arcane! But you cheated us! I disowned you from that day. I engraved the memory of that fateful day into the statue of Mascae, because I knew that you would come here one day, looking for the piece of Crown for your evil plans.”
The Scavenger spoke softly, “You have completely got it wrong, Mars. I never cheated Arcane or his descendants. It was all a trick played by the Twin Assassins. And I don’t have any evil plans. I only want to rid the Dark World from the clutches of the Death Lord, with the help of these prophesied children.”
Mars sneered, stepping aside.
Now that he was not blocking the view of the throne, Daniel saw a scroll. Something yellow was glowing inside it. He gasped as he realized that it was the first piece and the second riddle.
“I don’t believe you, Wasp. You are finished,” Mars announced and charged at the Scavenger.
The Scavenger unsheathed his Lightning Sword and blocked Mars.
The children raced to the throne as the Scavenger and Mars fought ferociously.
As they reached the throne, suddenly, someone stepped out from behind the throne.
A demon.
James gasped. “That’s Blaze of Glory.”
The demon grinned. “Call me Blaze, because that’s the last thing you are going to see before you die!”
As the demon charged at them, Daniel had time to examine him. He had been accurately described by James before – upper body covered with snakes and legs burning with fire that formed faces of angry animals.
The children dispersed in different directions as Blaze shot fire from his mouth. Blaze’s hands held two swords and he swung them, just missing James.
James went behind Blaze, trying to get to the throne. But Blaze was quick to throw a lance at him. Matt’s Elemental Power changed the wind’s direction and saved James just in time from being impaled.
Daniel concentrated and made roots grow out of the floor. He directed them to the throne, but Blaze burnt them to ashes. Blaze slashed his sword at Archer, who blocked it. But the impact knocked his sword away.
Daniel gathered his friends quickly. Archer protected them temporarily from Blaze’s attacks by building a wall of fire.
“He’s powerful,” Archer said, as beads of sweat glistened on his forehead. “We will have to change the plan. Three of us should distract him, while the fourth aims for the piece.”
The four nodded and again attacked Blaze.
Meanwhile, the Scavenger was fighting with Mars with all of his might. Soon the Scavenger drove him back against the wall.
The Scavenger risked a glance at his friends. They were losing against Blaze.
The Scavenger ducked under an attack and executed a knuckle punch that drove Mars to the ground. Before Mars could recover, the Scavenger leapt towards Blaze. He distracted him as James, Archer and Daniel kept Mars occupied.
Matt rushed towards the first piece.
He reached the throne and heard Blaze of Glory and Mars cry, “NO!”
Matt stretched his hand and got hold of the scroll. Holding it with reverence, he carefully unfurled it, revealing the yellow piece of Crown. A riddle was inscribed on the scroll. He put the scroll in his pocket and eyed the yellow piece with wonder.
A shadow came in front of him.
Suddenly, everyone felt the atmosphere grow cold, filling the tomb with darkness. The shadow emitted an aura of gloom and fear.
The children’s vision became blurred. They watched helplessly as the shadow snatched the yellow piece from Matt’s hand.
Boy. The voice was so cold and dark that it made everyone shiver. Give the second riddle to me! Quickly!
“NO, MATT,” the Scavenger shouted, “Don’t give it to him!”
But Matt pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and threw it towards the moving shadow. A cloaked hand snatched the paper. The dark figure disappeared into the walls of the tomb.
Mars looked at the Scavenger, his eyes blinking. “What was happening? I don’t understand. The dark figure seemed to control my mind.”
But the Scavenger wasn’t listening. With blazing eyes, he rushed towards Matt. “What did you do?!”
“WHOA,” Matt exclaimed, backing away. “Don’t worry. I fooled him! I gave him the wrong piece of paper!” Grinning, he pulled out another scroll.
The Scavenger immediately calmed down and grinned. “Smart thinking!”
Mars intervened, “I am sorry I said those things about you. That deceiver had control over me.”
The Scavenger bowed his head in response. “I understand. Forget about it. We have more important things to discuss.”
“Hey! Where’s Blaze of Glory?” Matt asked, looking around. “He just disappeared!”
“His destiny is fulfilled,” Mars said. “He was meant to stay till the first piece was not in the hands of anyone. At the point when Matt took out the piece, he obtained salvation.”
“I understand everything!” James exclaimed, slapping his forehead. “It’s all so simple!”
Everyone looked at him.
James said to the Scavenger, “Remember that we gave the Elite Warrior the location of th
e first piece? Well, he must have informed the Death Lord, as expected. The Death Lord arrived before us. When you sensed evil, you were right. The Death Lord arrived at the right moment, took the first piece and disappeared.”
James shook his head. “The Death Lord proved clever. I thought that we had done the right thing when we had told the Elite Warrior the location of the first piece.”
“Don’t worry about it,” the Scavenger said firmly. “What has happened cannot be reversed. Look at the bright side. If we didn’t have the Lightning Sword, we would have been captured easily by now.”
It seemed Daniel was still trying to comprehend what had happened. “Hey, Daniel! Are you okay?” asked James.
Daniel said, his voice cracking with fear, “Yup, I am okay. You mean to say… that dark figure… he was…”
The Scavenger’s face was grim. “Of course, Daniel, my boy, that was the Death Lord.”
12
James along with his friends, the Scavenger and Mars were all in Mars’s room at the tomb, trying to solve the second riddle. They had racked their brains, but they couldn’t figure out anything. The riddle went like this:
The Trail of Fire shows the way,
And no one will ever prevail.
Unless the lost soul is found,
And it closes the Golden Wound.
You must find the Shrine of Youth,
And get the nectar from the womb.
So that the soul will not be mute,
Come on, start the way, from the Tomb.
James could only figure out the last line.
Mars said, “I will share some information I have about the Trail of Fire. The Trail of Fire shows the way. The Trail of Fire starts from the origin of a rainbow. It comes for exactly two minutes and thirty-five seconds, and then disappears. The beauty of the trail of fire is that if anyone manages to catch it, he can go to any place of his choice in the Dark World, even the place where the second piece is hidden!”
“But what about the other stuff in the riddle,” James asked.
Mars sighed. “What if the other lines are just distractions? The best we can do is to find the Trail of Fire.”
But James knew better. He had solved hundreds of puzzles and usually everything mentioned mattered. Nothing could be brushed away as a distraction.
“So where do we find the origin of a rainbow?” he asked.
Mars beamed. “I know a place.”
Mars led them out of the tomb, into the green meadows. It was a beautiful sight. The birds were chirping happily, and rabbits were hopping merrily.
“I can’t see anything except the grassland,” Archer said. “Where is the rainbow?”
Mars ignored him and pointed to a spot in the grass. Then he looked at the Scavenger. “I think you know what to do, Wasp.”
Nodding, the Scavenger knelt on the grass. He closed his eyes and muttered a spell.
The ground shook. Bolts of fire erupted from the spot in the grass. The bolts merged together to create a portal that glowed with dazzling light.
The Scavenger looked at Mars. “Thank you, Mars. I won’t forget your help.”
Mars bowed his head. “You have helped me in so many ways. This is just a small repayment.”
“Are you not coming with us?” James asked.
Mars shook his head. “Sadly, no. I never venture out of my place.”
The Scavenger bowed his head and leapt into the portal.
The children followed.
James found himself in the middle of a bubble of red-like substance, which looked like fire. But it wasn’t fire, because it didn’t hurt him. He floated like a weightless ball. His friends were nowhere in sight.
Blasts erupted all around. James gasped in horror when a massive orb of fire hurtled towards him.
As James ducked, a voice whispered into his ear, “Find it in the grave, only the Wasp knows.”
Then everything turned dark.
James flicked his eyes open. He was lying on the floor of Mars’s room in the tomb. Mars looked at him with relief on his face.
“What happened?” James asked, getting up with a gasp.
Mars answered, “I don’t know. The portal closed after you jumped. I turned to leave when the portal opened again, and all of you toppled out.”
“How long was I unconscious?” James asked.
“Just about ten minutes. I brought all of you in here.” James saw the others for the first time; they were all unconscious.
The Scavenger opened his eyes, groaning. James shouted in relief, “Oh, thank God; you all are alive.”
Mars queried in an urgent tone, “What happened?” As the others began to wake up too, James helped them to sit up.
The Scavenger’s face took on a grave expression. “I am not sure. When I entered, I saw fire surrounding me all around. I was just floating senseless. Someone flung a ball of fire at me, and then I was unconscious.”
“The same thing happened to me,” everyone chorused.
“Something malfunctioned,” James said, “And I have a sneaky feeling that it’s to do with a certain half-cracked riddle.”
He quickly went back to reading the riddle as Mars rolled his eyes.
The Scavenger tried to say something but James interrupted. “Okay, I think I am getting something. We need to use the Trail of Fire to reach the second piece of the Crown. And no one will ever prevail. The Trail of Fire malfunctioned. That means we couldn’t prevail. Unless the lost soul is found. It means that the Trial of Fire could only work if we find a lost soul first. And it closes the Golden Wound. The open Golden Wound must be the reason why the Trail of Fire is malfunctioning.” James looked around. Everyone stared at him dumbstruck.
“Are you guys understanding me or am I just blabbering like a fool?”
“A fool,” Archer instantly replied.
“Great. The next line is:
Must find the Shrine of Youth
And get the nectar from the womb
So that the soul will not be mute;
Come on, start the way, from the tomb.
I think only the ‘lost soul’ knows the way to cure and close the Golden Wound, but it is mute. To make it talk, we have to find nectar from this place called the Shrine of Youth. Once the soul starts talking, it will heal the Wound, and BINGO, we can use the Trail of Fire.”
Everyone clapped.
“I remember something else!” Matt said, “Before I got out, a voice whispered to me, ‘Find it in the grave only…’” he paused, looking around, “the Wasp knows.”
The Scavenger nodded. “Yes, I heard the same thing, but I am confused. I know…”
It struck James suddenly. “This lost soul – it’s Mascae, isn’t it? You were there at the place of Mascae’s murder – you should know where his grave is. I am sure Mascae’s soul is still wandering at the place he was killed. We need to find the soul and take it to the Shrine of Youth. On Earth, there is a country named India, where the people believe that the soul can only attain salvation through various means, as prescribed in scriptures. Troubled souls remain mute until they get salvation. I believe Mascae’s soul will be no more mute if it is given salvation. This will happen only when the soul breaks its muteness and heals the Golden Wound. The soul will get salvation and only then will we be able to take the Trail of Fire and get closer to the second piece.”
“Absolutely, everything appears so logical,” the Scavenger said. He turned to Mars. “Let’s get the prerequisites first. We will come back for the Trail of Fire.”
Mars bowed. “Good luck.”
The children followed the Scavenger out of the tomb and boarded their chariot. The Scavenger whipped the horses and headed back to the forest.
After what seemed like ages, the Scavenger brought the chariot to a halt. They all climbed down. The Scavenger clicked his fingers, and the chariot disappeared. From there on, they marched on foot.
Soon they reached Mascae’s graveyard. The grave was built of huge rocks, with ancient
shiny letters inscribed on the tombstone.
The Scavenger neared the grave. After having examined it reverently, the Scavenger turned to the others and declared, “I am going to talk to the soul of Mascae. Someone needs to accompany me, someone brilliant to make him understand.”
“That’s James.” Archer gave him a poke. “Go on.” James walked up to the Scavenger. The Scavenger turned to the grave again and extended his hand.
James did the same and held his hand on the grave. Within moments, his consciousness started drifting away.
***
It was pitch dark.
“Come on, Mascae, come on,” the Scavenger whispered in the eerie silence.
“Where is he?” James asked.
“Just concentrate on your surroundings. If you feel anything near you, spread your arms and try to grab hold of the soul.”
They waited silently. Within a few moments, James heard a sound. It was as if someone was drawing out a knife.
He immediately extended his arms and caught something that felt solid, not ghostly!
“It’s me!” the Scavenger hissed.
“Oh, sorry.” James quickly backed away.
They waited again. James was able to feel for the first time that silence was unbearable to live with.
“Try waving your hands without any noise,” the Scavenger said.
James silently shuffled his hands.
Something slammed into him at once, and they both stumbled to the ground. James clutched the thing tight and cried for help. It writhed hard to free itself, jerking him violently in the process, until it finally shot out of his hands.
Before it could flee, the Scavenger clasped it with both hands.
“Stop it, Mascae,” the Scavenger said. “Stop struggling. We need to talk to you.”
Mascae’s soul took a physical form and appeared.
“How dare you come to me?” Mascae asked. “What face do you have to talk to me?”
“Well, you are mistaken. Let me clarify,” the Scavenger said.
After a momentary silence, Mascae spat with rage, “Get out from here. You left me to die when I needed help! I don’t need any clarification.”
The Scavenger frowned. “That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is.” Mascae tried to wriggle free.