The Corin Chronicles Volume I: The Light and the Dark (39 page)

The speed of the serpent’s charge increased, and within a few seconds it was upon them again. This time it went directly for Rumin, who was right on the edge. As the giant creature emerged from the sea, Rumin furiously tried to thrust his fork into the open mouth of the animal, but his efforts were in vain. The creature grasped both his legs in its jaws and pulled, dragging him into the water. Kasa immediately ran to the position Rumin had occupied and fired arrow after arrow into the serpent, trying to halt it. They could only watch helplessly as the creature swam back into the sea with their friend and comrade. As Rumin’s screams faded into the distance, the rest of the party slumped to their knees in horror and despair.

“We are all going to die,” screamed Mikael. “We will all be killed, just like Rumin.”

“Get a hold of yourself, soldier,” barked Topenga. “We have to continue believing, and you giving up will not bring Rumin back. Let us do this for him.”

“We need to go for its eyes first and disorient it,” said Prince Ramon, getting back on his feet. “Only then can we kill it.”

“But how are we going to get near it again without being in immediate danger?” asked Kasa, checking his quiver of arrows.

“We need to bring it directly to us, and then we can strike,” replied Topenga. He felt a surge of energy flowing through him.

“And how exactly are we going to do that?” asked Mikael. His eyes were rolled backward, as he looked high up into the sky.

“We have hurt it now,” replied the prince. “It is bleeding quite badly. All we need to do is leave a spear deep inside, making it struggle to get it out, and that will be our opportunity.”

“You have the bow and arrows, Kasa,” said Topenga. “The responsibility falls on you. You must blind the creature.”

Kasa nodded, nocking an arrow to his bowstring.

“All right then,” said Ramon. He peered at every corner of the boat before kneeling beside Kasa. “Once we have the spear inside the beast, you will have but a few shots. Make them count.”

“But what do we do once we blind it?” asked Mikael frantically.

“I will go down there and kill it,” said Prince Ramon. A look of ruthlessness crept into his eyes.

As they waited for the serpent to return, the gatekeeper continued rowing furiously for the shore.

“Perhaps it will not come back,” said Kasa nervously. “Perhaps we can make it to shore.” The others did not respond, for just a few seconds later, the serpent’s tail returned to full view. This time it charged toward them with added ferocity. Topenga moved forward to the position previously occupied by Rumin and took aim with his spear.

“You need to aim for the lower back, Topenga,” said Prince Ramon, “so it will lose its bearings.” He squeezed harder and harder on the handle of his sword.

The creature continued to gain, but Topenga held firm. Upon hearing the loud shout from his prince, he threw his spear with all his might at the emerging beast. The men’s eyes followed the flight of the spear as it sailed across the water, piercing the spine of the serpent just above its lower back. They rejoiced at the accuracy of Topenga’s throw. The beast immediately went into a fit of spasms, splashing in the water as it tried to dislodge the spear.

With the creature in complete disarray, Ramon motioned Kasa to take aim. The first arrow sailed from the bow and plunged deep into the serpent’s left eye. But as the struggling beast thrashed about in the water, he could not get a clear aim at the remaining eye, and each arrow he fired landed in the water instead. Anxiety grew as the beast got closer to their boat, albeit in some confusion.

“Hurry up, Kasa,” shouted Topenga. “We do not have that many arrows left.”

“Let him concentrate,” said the prince, waiting for a clear shot from Kasa before going in for the kill.

Kasa took aim, held it, and let an arrow fly. A mighty scream rose from the giant serpent, as the arrow penetrated its right eye, completely blinding the beast. Immediately, Prince Ramon jumped directly on top of the serpent’s back and repeatedly stabbed with his sword, until the thrashing and screaming finally slowed, then ceased. The lifeless body of the creature floated near the boat, and the rest of the party pulled Ramon back on board.

The prince immediately slumped to his knees, with the rest of his team joining him.

5.8

T
HE
D
ESERTS OF THE
D
ARK
W
ORLD

E
merging from the boat onto the shores of the Dark World brought a fog of emotion upon the four warriors. They felt immensely proud that they had managed to do what none before them could. And yet they reeled in sorrow at the loss of their friend. Each of them had left the royal city of Tustodes knowing this could be a one-way journey, but it was a journey they had to take. Now, having finally left the Light World behind them, they stood on the edge of the river, silent and still, watching as the gatekeeper slowly rowed away.

“I cannot believe Rumin is gone,” said Kasa. He tried to stop the tears from rolling down his face. “Just a few hours ago he was with us, and now we will never see him again.”

“I truly did not know that I could feel like this,” said Mikael, also walking along with his head down. “Even if our mission succeeds, Rumin will never know a restored Corin, or know what it is like to visit Earth. If only we could have done something, anything, that could have saved him.”

“There is nothing we could have done,” interrupted Prince Ramon in a quiet and trembling voice. “This mission could very well be our last. But it may also be our finest hour. I lost a bit of my heart when the serpent took Rumin into the water, but we have to continue for him. We have to go as far as we can before thinking of what awaits us back at home.”

“So assuming we do make it through,” asked Mikael. “What happens when we are ready to go back?”

“There is no going back,” said Topenga suddenly. “Not this way at least.” Like his compatriots, his head remained fixed toward the sea.

“What do you mean?” Mikael exchanged quick glances with Topenga and Ramon.

Topenga did not reply but continued looking straight ahead, as the gatekeeper drifted farther and farther away.

“What does he mean, my lord?” asked Mikael again. His attention now rested solely in the direction of the prince.

“He means that we do not exactly know how we are going to get back,” Ramon said. “The main thing is that we reach our destination.” His tone lacked confidence and authority.

“But this cannot be our final moment,” uttered Mikael. He placed both of his hands on top of his head. “I refuse to believe that this is it. I have so much more to do with my life.”

“Do you think that we do not dream too?” cut in the prince, trying to get his composure back. “I have left everyone behind because I believe. We have trained to be Colonoys since the day we were born. We always knew a day such as this would come, and now we owe it to ourselves to carry on. We have to be strong for Rumin. Let us not allow his death to be in vain.”

Mikael turned from the shore and walked away with his head down. It had suddenly dawned on him that this could be his last mission.

The light from the Corin moon shone through the darkness with a soft, red glow. It was a welcome sight for the warriors of Corin, compared to the endless days of perpetual brightness back in their homeland. The new experience of darkness did not deter them from the dangers that lay ahead, however, and in the sheer bleakness surrounding them, any shade of light was better than nothing at all.

They struggled in the dim light to navigate through the densely populated trees of the forest. The prince had no clear sense of direction. There were no known paths to the great desert or the Caves of Sena. From what he remembered of the few existing maps of the Dark World, copied from those made long ago, before their world was divided, the caves lay immediately north of the desert, which was just beyond the forest.

The forests of the Dark World bore many similarities to the River Crasus, in its silence and eeriness. The only sound they could hear was their own footsteps, but they were unaware of what kind of evil could be lurking behind each shadow. Although historians had always presumed that the shores were the safest part of the dark side, they refused to take any chances and moved cautiously.

“Why have the gods not given us another clue?” asked Kasa, coming to a complete halt. “They showed us the Tree of the Cosmos, and then sent us the Sword of Corin. But so far we have had no need of either. And now that we have no idea where we are, they are silent.”

Ramon stopped walking and looked around at the tress. Most still had thick, healthy-looking leaves on them, allowing only flickers of the moon’s light through. He wondered how they lived at all, in the absence of sunlight. Yet they appeared strong and tall. His eyes could not make out how high they reached, so there was no possibility of climbing to get an idea of where the desert lay. “The first thing you must remember,” he said finally, “is that the gods’ ways are a riddle to men, and both terrible and magical. Look at this forest, which has survived the millennia with no sun to warm it.” He fixed his gaze on Kasa. “Take this as your sign, and do not question or doubt the gods.”

“I think we might have to light the blue flame, my lord,” said Topenga. He also looked in every direction, trying to navigate a path. “At least with that, we will have a better idea where we are. For all we know, we might be going in the opposite direction of the desert.”

“If we light it now, we will not even get near the Cave of Napol before the Kronos devour us,” said the prince. “We need to keep moving. So long as we keep moving away from the river, the desert must lie ahead.”

Onward they went, struggling through the thick brush. Several times the undergrowth became so dense they had to turn back and find a way around. The silence slowly seeped into their psyches, and as the fatigue set in, they felt a hint of fear that the many detours had thrown them off course. But the silence came to an abrupt end when a squirrel-like sound came from the thicket behind them. It began as a low humming noise, but it soon intensified, getting louder, as if a herd of wild animals was descending upon them.

In their defensive state, they drew their weapons, waiting to see what emerged from the darkness, but as the small animals made their appearance, a brief smile graced Topenga’s face. He looked toward Ramon and sheathed his sword. “Rocalls,” he said. “In the Dark World?”

The rest of the party put their weapons away, as a number of small, furry creatures with huge ears and big, dark eyes swarmed around them in their masses.

“If I may say so, my lord,” Topenga started. “This is almost as unusual as the sight of the burning tree.”

Ramon nodded as he continued to study the creatures, occasionally stroking the ears of some as they passed by. He’d always thought of Rocalls as pets, and they were often seen in the households of the Light World. But never had he imagined they might see them in the Dark World.

“Where do you think they are going?” asked Mikael curiously.

“I could not answer that question, but we are following them,” replied the prince.

A curious look crept on Topenga’s face. “But why, my lord?” he asked. “What could we possibly achieve by following a swarm of Rocalls?”

The prince scowled and spoke loudly. “All I know is that I have seen too many strange things on this journey, and as you have rightly pointed out, this is another one of them. At this point, we are completely out of ideas on how to proceed. We must follow them.”

The men followed the animals, and although Topenga continued to doubt the logic of their actions, he accepted that they must rely on any sort of clue, no matter how seemingly insignificant. The chase continued for almost twenty minutes, leading them to different parts of the forest they had not yet visited.

As time progressed, the animals dispersed in multiple directions, making it harder to choose a path. In the midst of their frustration, the party noticed that one of the paths led to an area with no trees in sight. It seemed that the Rocalls had led them to the edge of the forest, where the wastelands of the desert awaited them.

The tiny gleam of light from the moon seemed to dim, as they approached the vast terrain of sand. They knew that only a handful of people had ever successfully crossed it. Prince Ramon carefully took out the blue torch from his bag and looked at his companions.

“This is it, my comrades,” he said. “Once I light this, we must run for our lives. We cannot stop, as once any of us are within an inch of darkness, the Kronos will strike.”

“What happens when we run out of blue flame, my lord?” asked Mikael.

“We have to hope that Topenga is right about the Cave of Napol,” said Ramon. “I am afraid that is the only hope we have. And once we step out there, there will be no coming back.” He paused to take a few deep breaths. “Are you ready?”

No response came, and the look within the eyes of his friends, even Topenga, remained that of fear. With a deep breath, he repeated the question, but his voice had now gone significantly higher.