I couldn’t understand how I could have lost him. Out of breath anyway, I leaned on a nearby tree and tried to listen for footsteps or any rustling within the forest—but it was deathly silent. Eerily so, as I would have expected to hear birds squawking or other creatures in the undergrowth.
Their absence bothered me. A lot.
Not wanting to stay still, I kept moving, hoping that either I would pick up Jenus’s trail again, or I would at least come to the end of the forest and out the other side.
Eventually I came into a clearing. The trees thinned out, and the ground rose up to form a small hill up ahead. I hurried toward it, hoping it would offer me a good vantage point to locate Jenus—or at least show me the way back to the castle.
When I looked over it, I saw that the hill sloped back down to reveal more forest, but also a strange, large circular structure that was almost the same size as the main belly of the castle.
It had no roof, and had I been a bit higher, I would have been able to see right down into the center of it. Staring at it for a while, I came to the conclusion that it was some kind of arena—something like the ancient Roman Colosseum—as the interior was ringed with rows and rows of circular benches. I wondered if it was the stage for the next trial.
As I made my way down the hill toward the building, I could also see that there were no doors or windows anywhere—its stone walls were smooth and completely uninterrupted.
How are you supposed to get in?
The structure didn’t really make any sense—if it was the stadium for the trials, it would surely need to have large entrances.
At this angle, I could also see a large golden disk floating at the top of the building, right in the centre. There were marks on it, like a script carved into the metal, but I didn’t recognize the alphabet.
I looked around for a way to get closer and lighted on a tree that had grown on the slope at an angle, its branches leaning in toward the structure. I started to climb it, wanting to get a better look at the floating disk and see if I could try to memorize some of the writing—Tejus might have a book in his room that could help decipher it.
The tree was a fairly easy climb, since it grew at an angle, but even so, I scraped my knees painfully on the bark, and I couldn’t manage to reach a more helpful vantage point from which to read the script.
“HAZEL!”
The bark echoed through the forest, and I almost fell from the tree in surprise.
“HAZEL!” The voice came again, and I recognized it as belonging to Tejus. With a sigh of relief, I called back and made my way back down the tree.
He appeared in the clearing and strode toward me. His face was immobile, set in grim lines—which didn’t bode well for me.
“What the HELL have you been doing? I told you not to leave my side! And at a time like this—it is so dangerous for you to be out alone right now—” Mid-tirade he yanked my arm and drew me closer to him, yelling furiously at me, his usual composure completely gone. “I don’t know what stunt you’re trying to pull, but it’s a waste of time—I have told you, commanded you, not to leave my side. This is just so irresponsible and childish. You could have gotten yourself killed!”
I felt blown away by the blast of his anger. The exhaustion I’d been feeling for the past twelve hours had left me numb, and I couldn’t even string a sentence together to defend myself.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” he barked, waiting impatiently for an answer.
I didn’t have anything to say.
“Right, if you won’t speak up, I’m going to have to force it out of you. You’re not giving me any choice.” He was fed up with my recalcitrance and I could feel the slight tingling on my scalp which told me he’d already started bonding our minds.
You can’t!
A wave of despair and desperation hit me—I had no place left to turn, and I was sick and tired and fed up of trying to pretend that everything was okay. As soon as the headache started to hum at my temples, I threw every emotion inside me back at him. Not memories, but feelings—red and raw and black, the pent-up confusion and misery that I’d been experiencing ever since my brother and friends had left me.
I could feel our connection becoming intensely strong, as strong as it had been the first time we’d tried to mind-meld, and now my feelings were washing over him in waves, naked and exposed for him to endure with me.
Soon after the first intense wave, the feeling started to settle, my own emotions subsiding as if I’d given part of them away. When the mind-meld started to feel more tranquil, I could feel an echo of my own despair in him. It was for different reasons, and it had a different quality to mine—less visceral, but just as bleak.
Tejus took a step back, withdrawing from our connection. The rage had completely disappeared from his expression, and been replaced with something else I didn’t quite understand.
He took my arm again, but not as tightly as before, and began to steer me toward the castle.
He didn’t say another word.
Benedict
Even though I couldn’t see the castle, I had a sick feeling in my stomach as I heard us cross the gateway.
Julian, Ruby and I were now in the back of the wagon, covered by some flimsy feed sacks, masquerading as sunroots. I thought it was a pretty obvious ploy, and didn’t give Ash any points for creative thinking, but apparently it was working. As we bumped along over the cobbles, no one from the castle stopped us or asked Ash any questions. Clearly security wasn’t as tight here as we’d first thought.
The bull-horse drew to a stop, and Ash pulled the sacks off us. He helped Ruby out of the wagon—of course—while Julian and I jumped down ourselves. We were in a deserted part of the castle, hidden away in a small courtyard which was covered in clothes lines.
Ash opened a small wooden door and ushered us through. The heat hit me as soon as I was inside. I had remembered the castle as being nearly ice-cold, but here—in what was obviously the servants’ quarters—the building was toasty warm.
Ash led us down a narrow corridor, with lots of different arched doorways leading off on either side, and beckoned us through the smallest door, which was right at the very end.
“It’s not much, but you’ll be safe here,” Ash said, looking at Ruby. She nodded and looked around.
It was a plain room. The gray stone walls didn’t have any decoration, no posters or pictures. There was one hard bed in the corner with a crumpled blanket heaped over it, and a single—very worn—chair. But though it had none of the luxuries of the rest of the quarters I’d seen inside the castle, this room at least felt homely.
“I’ve got to go and cook breakfast,” Ash said. “But I’ll bring you some food soon, and some extra blankets—you’ll have to sleep on the floor, if that’s all right?”
Again Ash directed his question at Ruby, and I rolled my eyes. The knight-in-shining-armor role was getting pretty tired, but I guessed I had to be grateful for it—I didn’t think Julian and I would have been getting the same level of help without Ruby.
“That’s great—thanks so much, Ash,” she replied.
“Thanks, Ash!” I smiled and waved, letting him know there were other people in the room, in case he forgot.
Ash gave me an odd look and then left the room, shutting the door behind him.
We tried to get as comfortable on the bed as we could, all sitting upright with our backs against the wall. Even though we were exhausted, there wasn’t enough room on the bed for us to lie down.
“I need the bathroom.” Ruby sighed. “Did you see one on the way in?”
“I didn’t,” Julian murmured, and I couldn’t remember seeing one either.
Ruby got off of the bed. “Stay put—I’ll be back shortly. I’m going to go and find one.”
As soon as she left the room, I rose from the bed. This was exactly the opportunity I needed to go and make sure that Hazel knew we were alive and well. I had considered sharing my plans with Ruby, but as much as she would
have wanted to find Hazel, I knew she’d never want to put our lives in danger.
Personally, I thought it was worth it.
I had to find my sister.
“What are you doing?” Julian hissed at me.
“Going to find Hazel. She needs to know we’re alive. Can you imagine what that jerk did with my wristwatch? I bet she thinks we’re dead or captured somewhere and I can’t let her keep thinking that.”
“You can’t! The place is going to be swarming with sentries—you’ll be seen! Not to mention Ruby is going to kill you,” Julian replied, jumping up and trying to block my way to the door.
“Since when did you become such a wuss? I need to do it, Julian—let me pass!”
He stood aside, reluctantly, and I opened the door. When I turned back round to close it, Julian was right behind me.
He squeezed next to me and joined me in the corridor.
“Two humans stand a better chance than just one,” he grumbled at me, “even if it is a small chance.”
I smiled in the dark. That was the Julian I knew.
We carried on down the narrow corridor, trying to find our way to a larger entrance or opening that would lead us upward and into the main belly of the castle. We paused often, hearing the sounds of the kitchen—pots banging and gruff-voiced chefs yelling at each other.
Eventually we came to the door that we’d entered through, and on the left the corridor started to widen and become better lit.
“This way.” I beckoned to Julian.
“What about here?” He was looking right, pointing to a large, empty room that was filled with pieces of broken furniture and looked a bit like a junk yard. “There’s a door at the end of it,” Julian whispered, “we might find stairs.”
I nodded. It would be better to stick to the empty rooms and back staircases if we could, lessening our chances of being seen.
“Good idea,” I whispered back.
We stepped forward into the room and then walked along next to the wall, avoiding the piles of furniture, till we reached the doorway.
It wasn’t locked, and we pulled it ajar, both wincing as it creaked loudly on its hinges.
It opened into another hallway—this one dark, and almost as narrow as the way we’d just come. We stepped out and closed the door behind us.
“Wish I had my phone or a torch,” Julian breathed. I agreed. I really could have done with one of those survival packs from the summer camp about now.
We carried on, heading in the direction that we thought would lead to the main part of the castle. Soon we heard footsteps and the general clatter and noise of people. We ducked into an archway, but stepped out again when we realized it was coming from above our heads.
The further down we went, the better lit the corridor became, with burning torches every few feet. We also started to see sentries—castle workers in the brown uniform of servants, or those like Ash, wearing kitchen clothes.
We kept having to duck into archways, waiting until they passed, or turn in the other direction completely. I could almost hear Julian’s heartbeat racing as we scurried our way around the maze of the castle—mine was the same. But each time the threat passed, we carried on regardless. I wouldn’t stop till I found Hazel.
Soon we were totally lost.
“I think we’re going in circles,” I hissed at Julian. “This passage looks familiar.”
“They all look familiar—I hate this castle,” he fumed, kicking the stone walls.
“Let’s just keep going. Look out for stairs, we need to get higher—Tejus’s room was right at the top.”
“Yeah,” Julian replied, and stormed ahead.
Not long after, we peered around another archway and found a stone staircase which led toward a glow of light.
“Finally.” I let out a sigh of relief. I looked up and saw that there were only about fifty steps, but they led to another door at the top, from which the glow was emanating. “I think this will lead us to the main part of the castle,” I said.
“Okay, but we need to be careful.”
We climbed the staircase as quietly as possible. I peered around the door, but moved back swiftly when I saw a group of important-looking sentries standing in a huddle right by the entrance.
I motioned to Julian to remain silent and eased the door back toward me. I leaned my head against the frame, trying to hear what was being said.
From what I could gather, most of the sentries were there to see the sick emperor—but he wasn’t seeing them. The crowd was made up of those who had been denied entry, and they grumbled about their misfortune.
I leaned in closer, hoping to see through the crack in the door. I could see two richly-dressed nobles walking down the hall, and they stopped uncomfortably near to where Julian and I stood.
“… the entity might take advantage,” uttered one of the nobles—a female who had an unattractively pinched mouth and wore her hair in a tight bun.
“The emperor is ill, not dead,” her companion replied. “There’s still time to…”
“They’re not intact,” she hissed back at him, “one stone is missing.”
Her companion appeared shocked.
“W-what? One stone missing? Who could have—”
The female looked around. “Not here,” she chastised him, nudging her head further along the hall.
They quickly swept out of view.
I hadn’t understood a word they’d said to one another—I didn’t know what stone they meant, or what wasn’t ‘intact’.
I looked over at Julian.
“It’s too dangerous this way,” he whispered.
He was right—there were too many sentries gathered. We’d have to go back the way we came and find another route.
We traveled back along the passageway we’d just come, and soon we could hear the same pots and pans banging that we’d come across earlier.
“Dammit,” I swore, “we’re back by the kitchens—this place is impossible!”
We turned a corner, and slammed straight into a large, looming figure.
“What are you two doing?”
It was Ash. I heaved a sigh of relief, which rapidly turned into a groan of frustration. Now we’d never get to Hazel.
“Trying to get to Hazel. She’s in the castle somewhere—I just want her to know we’re all right!” I reasoned.
“No way. Back to the room. Your sister’s not going to help me if you’re not kept safe,” Ash thundered.
“Fine,” I huffed. He had us both by the upper arm, so there wasn’t much we could do anyway. I thought about correcting him on Ruby not being my sister, but I quickly thought better of it, and hoped Julian wouldn’t say anything. It was pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain that Ash was interested in Ruby—and if he thought I was her kid brother, that would probably work in my favor.
I could see Ash’s room at the end of the hallway, and realized that this was my last chance if I wanted something done—Ruby would keep us under lock and key after this escapade.
“Listen, Ash, please,” I begged, “let me at least give you a note to leave for Hazel—she’s with Tejus.”
He laughed at me. “No way—a note? No one’s supposed to know that you’re here. It’ll be a bit of a giveaway if anyone else but Hazel finds it.”
“Okay.” I thought for a moment. “What about a thing, a clue—something only she’ll understand?” It was what Jenus had done—we could do the same, only I couldn’t think of anything I had to give away.
Ash was silent. I could tell he was thinking about it.
“Like what?” he replied eventually.
“Like… my shirt—my shirt! We could just put my shirt somewhere she could see?”
I was wearing my “Gamez Rotz Your Brainz” t-shirt under the clothing the sentries had given me—I’d hated the weird silk-like fabric on my skin, so had kept it on. Hazel would definitely recognize it.
“Hell, okay—give me the shirt.” Ash sighed.
He let go of m
y arm and I removed the sentry shirt and then the smelly t-shirt beneath. Yeah, Hazel would definitely recognize it.
Ash took the item from me and shoved it in his back pocket. I still didn’t know how much I trusted the guy, but it was the only chance I had—and I did trust that he’d do right by Ruby. That had to mean something.
Ash pushed us both toward the door.
“I better leave you to it—there’s food in there, and some extra blankets. I’ll be back later.”
He stood back, blocking the entire hallway, watching to make sure we went inside. I sighed and looked at Julian. He grimaced and opened the door.
Ruby was sitting on the bed, white as a sheet with tear marks down her face. I felt guilty, really guilty, but even so, I felt we’d done the right thing.
“Oh, my God! You’re safe.” She rushed toward us, enveloping us both in a massive hug. Ruby drew back, and then her expression changed. “I could kill the both of you! You scared me half to death!” she exclaimed. “You’re lucky I’m too exhausted to scream at you—but trust me, you will get an earful. You’ve both been so irresponsible.”
“I was getting a message to Hazel—I want her to know we’re all right,” I replied. “Ash is going to send my t-shirt upstairs to Tejus’s quarters. Now she’ll know we’re okay.”
Ruby huffed and puffed a bit more, but I knew she was half-glad we’d done it.
She fetched some still-hot porridge from the corner of the room, and two loaves of bread. “Eat. And then we need to get some proper rest.”
The porridge was surprisingly good, and sweetened with honey… or something that tasted like honey. I finished my bowl, and then the loaf of bread, relishing the warm, glowing feeling that the food gave my stomach. I curled up on one of the blankets that Ash had brought us—it was thin, but I was so tired I didn’t think any of us minded the cold stone floor beneath us.
Ruby kissed me goodnight on the forehead, and I felt a pang of missing Hazel and my parents. I shoved it aside and closed my eyes to sleep.