Quest for the Secret Keeper

by Victoria Laurie

  Ian came to his senses then and grabbed Wolfie’s arm, shouting to Carl, “Send the beasts after the sorceresses!”

  Carl turned toward the beasts, blew on the whistle, and pointed at Caphiera and Atroposa. “Attack them!”

  For good measure Carl blew on the whistle several more times, and each time, the beasts growled and whined and the sorceresses screeched, but the hellhounds did leap to their feet and lunge at the evil sisters. Reaching Caphiera first, the hounds darted and snapped at her while she used a new ice shield to deflect them.

  Amid the chaos Adria appeared from out of the woods, a dagger in her hand; she adroitly skirted the hounds and Caphiera and ran straight for Atroposa.

  But as Adria approached, Atroposa did something extraordinary: she whirled around in a tight circle, creating a thick cloud of dust, blinding everyone and everything in the yard. A moment later the dust cleared, and standing in the middle were Caphiera and Atroposa with Adria trapped between them. “Call off the beasts!” warned Caphiera, barely holding them at bay. “Call them off or Adria dies!”

  “No!” Adria shouted, but Carl had already put the whistle to his lips, and with another fierce blow on it, he ordered the beasts to fall back; however, he blew it again and also ordered them to guard the sorceresses, lest they attempt to hurt Adria or flee.

  Adrastus got to his feet, helping Iyoclease up too. Ian pulled Wolfie with him as he went to see to Perry, who was just coming back to consciousness.

  “Give us the box!” Caphiera commanded. “Give it to us now or your wife will die!”

  Adrastus eyed first his wife, then Carl. “We have control over the beasts, Caphiera,” he said, avoiding the sorceress’s gaze. “If you hurt one hair on my wife’s head, Carl here will release the hellhounds and they’ll tear you both to pieces!”

  Had the sisters been uninjured, the hounds would have been a mere nuisance, but both of them were much worse for wear and everyone in the yard knew it. If the beasts were unleashed, the sorceresses would face a very real threat.

  Atroposa turned her hollow eyes on Carl as if she wished she could send him away in a cyclone of fury.

  While Ian was watching the scene warily, he was also trying to get his schoolmaster to his feet. He’d turned his back on Dieter, and that was all the opportunity the man needed to dart behind Carl, snatch the whistle from his hand, and shove him roughly to the ground. Then Van Schuft began to blow on the golden instrument in earnest.

  Immediately the hellhounds turned their attention away from the sorceresses and over to Dieter. “Keeper,” Dieter said menacingly. “Hand me the box or I shall have the hellhounds rip your wife to shreds.”

  The beasts turned their evil red eyes hungrily to Adria, who bravely stared back at them even though her face drained of color. “My husband,” she said softly, her eyes never leaving the beasts, “do not betray the Oracle!”

  Ian looked to Adrastus, and never a more sorrowful expression had he ever witnessed. The general reached into the folds of his cloak and took out the last silver box. “I swore on my life to Laodamia that I would never willingly give up the boxes to the enemy,” he said. “And I meant every word of that oath sworn, but, Wife, my life holds little meaning without you.” The general then tossed the treasure to Dieter, who caught it easily.

  “Mistresses,” Dieter said next. “If I’m to give you this box, which no doubt contains one of Laodamia’s final prophecies, then I would like some assurances from you.”

  Caphiera laughed wickedly. “You do not tell me what to do, mortal!” she spat. And with a snap of her fingers, she pointed up to the tree Dieter’s son was standing under. “See that?” she asked.

  Ian raised his eyes and saw that a branch on the tree was bending low due to the weight of one very long and sharp icicle, which dangled dangerously right above Wolfie’s head. Another snap, and another icicle appeared; then another and another until the whole tree was lined with them.

  “Wolfie,” Dieter said very quietly. “Come here, boy.”

  Wolfie’s eyes were large and frightened. He had taken one step toward his father when an icicle dropped to within an inch of his foot. “If he moves even a hair,” Caphiera warned, “I shall loose the whole lot upon him!”

  Dieter was speechless, his eyes focused on all those deadly icicles. “Hand us the box,” Atroposa demanded.

  Van Schuft didn’t even hesitate. He threw the box directly at Caphiera, who had to duck to avoid being struck. The moment Ian saw the sorceress crouch, he lunged for Wolfie, tackling him and rolling with him away from the tree. All around him he heard thud, thud, thud, and when they’d well cleared the branches, he looked back to see that the sorceress had released every one.

  But Ian’s attention quickly turned back to Caphiera and Atroposa, because he realized that Adria had leapt for the box too, had caught it, and was now holding it between her palms. In the next instant, the air about her shimmered just as the four walls of the silver treasure collapsed inward. In seconds, the beautiful box became a flattened glob of metal.

  “No!” Caphiera roared when she saw what had become of the box. Adria smiled triumphantly at her and dropped the useless artifact to the ground. A moment later she was impaled by half a dozen icy spears, and she wilted to the earth.

  Carl, Iyoclease, and Adrastus, seeing what had befallen Adria, all cried out, each reacting in the same manner as they raised their swords and lunged forward to attack. But then, so did the beasts!

  It was as if the chaos released them from Dieter’s control, and they flew into the mix, snarling, growling, and lunging forward. One of them got hold of Atroposa, and Ian saw the sorceress raise another dust cloud, sending the beast hurtling through the air and striking a nearby sapling with such force that the tree broke in half. The beast dropped to the ground near Dieter and lay there for a moment, shaking its head while growling and snarling at its former master. Van Schuft was so startled that he dropped the whistle at the beast’s feet. The hellhound’s lip curled back menacingly, and Dieter let out a shriek and bolted straight into his home, leaving his son behind.

  Perry, who had finally regained his senses, called out to Ian, “Help me get to Adria!”

  Ian got to his feet, dragging Wolfie up with him, and the three ran to the side of the fallen woman while Carl, Adrastus, and Iyoclease fought the sorceresses and the other hellhound. Ian crouched next to Adria and looked at her wounds. There was a series of terrible punctures to her upper chest, and blood soaked the ground underneath her. “Ian …,” she whispered, clutching his arm.

  “I’m here!” he said to her. “We’re going to take you through the portal, mistress, and we’ll send for our Healer! She’ll put things right, don’t you worry!”

  “No,” she gasped. “Too … late.”

  “Try not to talk,” Perry told her, bending low and gently easing his arms underneath her.

  “Ian …,” she repeated as Perry lifted her into the air. And she reached out to grip his arm feebly again, as if she had something terribly important to share with him.

  “I’m here,” Ian said. “But please, try not to talk, mistress.”

  Adria took a labored breath that sounded more like a gurgle. “Tell … Iyoclease …”

  Ian bent close to her, barely able to hear. “Yes? Tell Iyoclease what?”

  “Tell Iyoclease … Magus … kill … him.”

  Ian stepped back, stunned, and he and Perry shared a silent grim exchange.

  “We must get to the portal now, Ian,” said the schoolmaster. “Bring the boy and the others!” Perry then turned and hurried out of the yard.

  Ian looked down at Wolfie, who was pale as a ghost and staring wide-eyed into space, obviously in shock from his near brush with death and all the awful sights taking place in his yard. Gripping him firmly by the hand, Ian shouted for Carl, who was barely holding his own with Iyoclease against Atroposa. The sorceress was whipping dirt and small cyclones at them while ducking away from the snapping jaws of the hellhound.


  Meanwhile, the other beast was attacking both Adrastus and Caphiera, and they in turn were furiously going after each other while fending it off.

  Ian had a sudden thought and he darted over to the whistle Dieter had dropped. Putting it to his lips, he blew it twice and shouted, “Beasts! Attack the sorceresses only! Leave the others alone! Attack Caphiera and Atroposa only!”

  That was as much as he managed to shout before a gust of air blew him backward and he fell over one of Caphiera’s fallen icicles. The whistle flew out of his hand, and he left it in the dirt. The beasts were now focused only on the sorceresses, and Ian had to help Perry get Adria to the portal.

  Ian grabbed Wolfie by the arm again and tugged him toward the slope while he shouted to Carl.

  “You go on!” Carl said. “I’ll be along soon!”

  But Adrastus abruptly left off pummeling Caphiera and whirled away from the fight. Grabbing Carl by the collar and nudging Iyoclease up toward Ian and the others, he shouted, “To the portal!”

  Ahead of them, Perry began to stumble on the steep slope, and Adrastus passed Ian and Wolfie, going quickly to Perry’s side to take his wife from him.

  Carl caught up with Ian then, his chest heaving with exertion. “The box,” Ian said, motioning with his head toward the figure of Adrastus, carrying his wife quickly up the hill.

  “I … saw,” Carl said. “I don’t … think … I can save it,” he gasped. “She … destroyed it completely.”

  As the six of them hiked up the slope, the noise of the battle between the sorceresses and the hellhounds grew less intense and a horrible yelp was soon followed by a howl, long and low. The sound was especially mournful, and Ian suspected that one of the despicable brutes had finally perished.

  He was glad about it, but he also knew that with one of the beasts out of the way, the sorceresses would team up and eventually dispense with the other; then they would focus their evil attentions on Ian and his group.

  As he helped the despondent Wolfie up the slope, Ian looked behind him and saw Iyoclease, bringing up the rear. The soldier was bleeding from a nasty-looking wound on his arm, and he looked terribly pale, but he didn’t complain; instead, he kept a guarded eye on the path behind them.

  Ian was immensely relieved when he spotted the portal a few moments later and saw that it was indeed open. Adrastus reached it first and he knelt at the entrance to gently lay down his wife. It wasn’t until Ian was a few steps closer that he realized Adria was dead.

  The general was overcome with emotion, and his broad shoulders sagged and shook while he mourned the loss of the woman who had been with him from the start of his quest.

  Iyoclease came up behind Ian, his breathing intense and labored. Ian squinted at the soldier and found him grimacing with pain and sweating heavily from the brow. What was worse, Ian now recognized the shape of the wound on Iyoclease’s arm. “You’ve been bitten!” he said.

  Iyoclease didn’t answer him; instead, he sank to his knees, dropping his sword and groaning in pain. Carl and Wolfie looked to Ian, as if they didn’t know what to do. “Schoolmaster!” Ian called to Perry.

  Perry moved to Iyoclease’s side to inspect the wound, which was turning black and angry. “Please, sir,” he said desperately, placing a hand on the general’s arm. “We must get Iyoclease through the portal. He’s been bitten by the hellhound!”

  Ian understood all too well what would happen if they didn’t get help for Iyoclease quickly. He knew that Eva was in London, and he hoped the soldier could hold on long enough for her to arrive and save him.

  Adrastus ran a loving hand over Adria’s face, closing her eyes and whispering something softly in her ear. He then got up and moved over to Iyoclease. Rummaging through a leather pouch he carried under his cloak, he removed a small container of yellow powder. He sprinkled this on the wound and when the powder hit Iyoclease’s skin, it sizzled and hissed. The soldier groaned through gritted teeth, but he didn’t flinch or turn away.

  With Perry’s help, Adrastus then brought Iyoclease through the portal, into the familiar tunnel leading them back into Dover. Ian and Carl followed while Wolfie moved listlessly over to the wall well inside the cavern, sat down, and put his head into his hands, as if it was all simply too much for him.

  After handing the yellow powder over to Perry, Adrastus turned his attention to Ian, taking him by the shoulders. “The powder will prevent the poison from spreading, but you must get Iyoclease to the Healer as quickly as possible.”

  “We’ll send for her right away,” Ian promised.

  Adrastus nodded. He then took off the two bronze cuffs wrapped around his wrists and gave these to Ian. “Here,” he said.

  Ian hardly knew what to say or do, but he knew he couldn’t accept the cuffs from Adrastus. “I can’t take these!” he protested.

  “You can and you will, Ian,” Adrastus told him firmly. “I have failed you, lad. I have betrayed my oath and it has cost me my heart. If there is any redemption to be had, it may lie with you and these cuffs. Use them to find out what was in that box.”

  “But I don’t even know how—”

  “Put them on and cross your arms over your chest. The portal will connect with your mind. It will see your intentions and it will know how to achieve your goal. But know this, Ian: when Laodamia gave me these cuffs, she said they had once belonged to her husband, Iyoclease. I will leave you to work out the meaning of that.”

  With his piece said, the general stepped back and turned to go. Ian called out to him. “General! Where will you go?”

  “Home, lad,” he said without turning around. “I will use the portal to go home and bury my wife.” Adrastus then stepped up to the body of Adria, bending down to retrieve her cuffs. He placed them onto his own wrists.

  Distracted by Adrastus, Ian didn’t immediately notice that Perry had given the yellow powder to Carl before he too stepped across the portal line, back to Berchtesgaden. “What are you doing?” Carl said sharply, which pulled Ian’s attention to his schoolmaster.

  “I have a plan,” he said to them.

  “What plan?” Ian said, already feeling dread.

  “The Führer will be here in a week,” Perry told them. He motioned to the SS uniform he still wore. “This will help me get close enough, lads. Dressed like this, I can get to the Führer and I can kill him. And if I can do that, then I can end the war.”

  Ian and Carl stared incredulously at him. “But that’s suicide!” Ian shouted.

  Perry offered him a sad smile. “Yes,” he said. “Please tell my brother what took place here and let him know I was thinking of him in the end.”

  In the next instant, the portal wall closed.

  DIETER’S REPLACEMENT

  Dieter Van Schuft lay sprawled on the ground amid the rubble of his ruined home. He’d been knocked flat by a cyclone that had exploded into his home, sending shards of glass, wood, brick, and rock hurtling about, and catching Dieter in the chaos too.

  Feebly he worked his way up to a sitting position and stared down at himself. He could see a dozen puncture wounds in his chest, none of them deep but all of them almost too painful to bear. Panting for air, Dieter looked at his upper right arm to inspect one of the wounds more closely. He could see something black embedded in his skin, and he could have sworn whatever it was, was digging its way deeper.

  He searched about, looking for something to cut the thing out with, and he realized that he was sitting amid the dismantled pieces of his master’s chess set. Clumps of Gorgonite were spread about him, and in a terrible moment of clarity, he realized that what had punctured him was the Gorgonite and it was now working its way under his skin, as if it had a mind of its own—as if it was possessed by something dark and evil.

  Dieter moaned as the pain intensified. He could feel his life slipping away from him. He tried to get to his feet, but his efforts were feeble, so he lay back against the wall and pulled open his shirt. A blackness was forming where the Gorgonite had penetrat
ed his skin, and when he lifted his trembling hand, he could see that the blue hue to his veins was now turning an ugly black. The Gorgonite was poisoning him, and there was no antidote. He was a dead man.

  Dieter closed his eyes. He thought of his late wife, and his son—who was surely dead by now too. Dieter’s breathing became shallow, and he knew his time was at an end. But in his final moments he became aware of something other than the pain and the heaviness in his chest. Something seemed to join his consciousness and oozed into his body, as if it was replacing him. He didn’t know what, but he did know it was something dark. Something evil. Something of extraordinary power. And in his final seconds of life, Dieter knew what had entered his body.

  A few moments later Dieter’s eyes opened, and he raised his chin to look around again. Only it wasn’t Dieter who looked out at the world. The thing that took the form of Dieter Van Schuft got up and limped out of the wreckage to the yard. There he found Atroposa and Caphiera, bleeding and angry and muttering over a piece of melted metal. With amusement he realized the melted metal was the Secret Keeper’s box.

  “What do you laugh at, mortal?” Caphiera demanded when she spotted him laughing at her in the yard.

  The thing inside Dieter didn’t answer but bent low and picked up the whistle, which he’d found with no trouble at all. He stood again and observed the still form of one of the beasts, lying crumpled and broken nearby. The male, he knew, because he’d received the beast’s spirit in the underworld, but the she-beast was still alive. Putting the whistle to his lips, the thing inside Dieter blew and heard the mournful wail of Medea, the hellhound, somewhere up the mountain.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” spat Atroposa.