Authors: Tim O'Rourke
Maybe Piranha Bay wasn’t as bad as the pictures that it conjured in her mind. Perhaps it was a sleepy little coastal town like the ones she had left behind in Cornwall? Regardless of that, there would be people there and they would be able to help her.
Rolling up the map, Anna took it with her as she investigated the rest of the Railroad Station. To the right of the counter she saw a doorway that she hadn
’t noticed at first. Opening the door, Anna was surprised to find a wooden staircase on the other side that led down into the dark. Reaching behind the counter, she took the box of matches and three of the candles. Lighting one, she held it out before her and stepped into the gloom.
The stairs creaked beneath her blistered feet and the flame licked to and fro casting long, orange shadows along the walls beside her. At the bottom she found herself in a large open room full of bunk beds. Some of them were covered with coarse looking blankets, but others had the bedclothes thrown back as if whoever had occupied them had left in a hurry. Anna passed amongst the rows of beds and noticed that beside each one was a small wooden locker. She guessed that this place was where weary travellers had taken rest from the searing heat of the desert.
‘Is anybody here?’ Anna called out again, but apart from the sound of a breeze whistling into the room through a large, circular grate in the far wall, there was silence.
Placing the map on one of the bunks, she pulled open one of the lockers and inside found a folded pair of blue trousers. She pulled them out and held them against her. They were a bit too long and seemed to be made of some rough, woven cotton. Anna pulled them over her legs and rolled up the ends of the trousers. She tucked her nightdress into the waistband and fastened them.
Clutching the map to her chest, she meandered amongst the rest of the beds until she saw something that made her smile. She crossed the room to a small wooden cot sat nestled between two of the bunks. Inside the cot she found a small, soft child’s toy. Anna plucked the Mickey Mouse from the tangled bedding. It felt soft against her cheek and had that ‘baby’ smell. Sitting on the edge of one of the bunks, she cradled the child’s toy like a baby in her arms. Anna’s eyes began to moisten, spilling tears onto her cheeks.
‘What happened here?’ she whispered, the Mickey Mouse grinning back at her.
‘Where is
here?
’ she asked the toy.
Then noticing
a pair of boots tucked under the bed opposite, Anna placed the Mickey Mouse back into the cot, and pulled the boots from under the bed. She held the soles against her feet and they looked a pretty good match. Pulling them over her feet, Anna fastened the leather straps that ran up the side of each boot. She stood and sighed. They felt soft around her feet and cushioned her blistered toes.
Pacing up and down to get used to her new boots, Anna heard movement from above. Folding the map and placing it along with the candles and matches into her trouser pockets, she went back to the foot of the stairs. At the bottom
, she blew out the candle and began to climb.
The noise seemed to be coming from outside and it sounded as if someone were moving about. She stopped at the top of the stairs. Listening, she could hear the murmur of voices.
‘People!’
she cheered, pushing open the Railroad Station door. ‘
And they might be able to help me!
Rushing
out into the twilight of the desert, Anna froze.
‘My dear little An
na,’ Fandel grinned, striding towards her.
Chapter 33
Zach
and his two companions approached the walls of the Prison of Eternal Despair. It loomed above them in large slabs of grey stone. At each corner stood a search turret that twisted like a corkscrew into the night sky. At the top of each one, fires burnt, flooding the grounds with light. From the walls high above, human-shaped cages were hung. Each one an iron tomb, some containing the skeletal remains of prisoners long since eaten by crows and baked in the scorching hot sun of the desert. Several of the cages twisted to and fro, but they weren’t caught in any sudden gust of wind – it was the frantic prisoners inside them that made them spin as they shooed away the giant crows that circled them with pointed beaks.
‘Nooooo!’
a prisoner cried out into the night.
‘Pleeeease!’
he wailed as one of the crows plucked an eye from the prisoners face. The crow squawked in triumph as it swallowed its prise and swept away, circling and coming back for more.
From their hiding place behind a mound of rocks
, Zach, William and Neanna looked at the huge iron gates that led into the prison. Outside, masked guards patrolled up and down. Each one of them carried a bow and a sling full of long feathered arrows. The guards armour glimmered in the torchlight from above. As Zach spied on them, he noticed that their arms were unnatural looking, their fingertips brushing the ground as they patrolled back and forth.
‘What are they?’ Zach whispered.
‘They’re the Norsori,’ William said. ‘A race of creatures who sold their souls to Throat, to save themselves from a life of damnation.’
‘In return for running the prison,’ Neanna said, ‘Throat lets the Norsori live with their families within its walls. But they are never to leave.’
‘But that makes them prisoners too,’ Zach said.
‘Maybe they prefer a life of captivity to death,’ William barked.
‘What’s the difference!’ Zach said with a grim smile.
‘Their leader is believed to be a ruthless tyrant by the name of Marshall Goth,’ Neanna explained. ‘It was he that struck the deal with Throat.’
Zach stared at her, then back at the prison. ‘So how do we get in?’
Neanna looked at William, who in turn looked at
Zach.
‘Well?’ Zach asked.
‘Well, What?’ William said.
‘What do we do next?’
‘I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go along!’ William grinned, flashing his uneven teeth.
‘Great!’ Zach sigh
ed. He stared at the Guards who continued to march up and down.
‘We need a diversion. If we could just get the guards away from the front gates,’ Zach said, getting onto his hands and knees and crawling away from them.
‘Where ya going?’ William called after him.
‘Back in a minute!’
‘What’s got into him all of a sudden?’ William wondered aloud.
Frowning, Neanna said, ‘I think that dream scared him. He’s desperate to save his sister.’
‘Or perhaps it’s something else?’ William said, combing the hair beneath his chin with his long fingers.
‘Like what?’
‘Perhaps I was right about him after all? Perhaps he is the great leader I saw him to be!’
Before either William or Neanna had a chance to say another word, Zach came crawling back towards them. Smiling from ear-to-ear he said, ‘Now listen. I have a plan!’
Blinking
away from her friends, Neanna headed towards the Norsori that guarded the gates to the prison. When she was just feet from them, Neanna reappeared and stood before the Norsori, her arms rigid against her slender frame.
Spott
ing her amongst the shadows and in a blink of an eye, one of the guards armed his bow and aimed an arrow at her.
‘Who goes there?’ he demanded.
Neanna remained silent and still.
‘Tell me your business at these gates or I will shoot!’ the Norsori Guard ordered from behind his iron mask.
Remaining silent, Neanna stared at him.
‘I will shoot,’ he warned again, pulling back on his bow. The other guards heard his shouting and came running over. Seeing the girl standing before them
, they armed themselves.
As soon as the Norsori guards left their posts, William placed one of the inferno berries into his catapult and aimed high. Easing the
crossbows from their holsters, Zach looked at his friend and grinned.
‘Ready?’ Zach asked.
‘This had better work!’ William said.
‘Trust me!’ Zach said. ‘Now fire!’
Pulling back on the cartilage and closing his eyes, William released the inferno berry. It cut through the night sky and thudded into the ground next to the prison wall.
At the very same moment William had released the berry, the Norsori guard released the arrow at Neanna. It sliced through the air towards her, and just as it was about to rip into her flesh, Neanna
blinked
. The arrow cut through the space she had left and thrust itself into the chest of the Norsori Guard that had been standing behind her. Screaming in agony, the Guard grabbed at the end of the arrow protruding from him, then fell to the ground.
Before the Norsori Guards had a chance to react, the air was filled with an ear-splitting sound. A green shockwave sliced through the prison wall, causing part of it to explode open in a shower of brick and dust as the inferno berry detonated.
Neanna
blinked
, appearing behind two of the guards as they looked to see what had happened further along the prison wall. Seizing her chance, she slammed both of their heads together. Their metal headgear clanged and they wobbled, before collapsing in a heap on the ground. Seeing this, another of the Norsori fired off a shot from his bow just as Neanna
blinked
away again, leaving the arrow to ram into the eye-socket of un-expecting guard.
Within moments
, a warning bell began to sound from within the prison walls as mayhem erupted. The two remaining Norsori Guards fled their post and raced towards the smoky opening in the wall.
Seeing this, Zach hissed, ‘n
ow’s our chance. Go!’
With hearts racing, they sprang from their hiding place, and
joined Neanna in the shadows by the main gates of the prison.
‘
Are you okay?’ Zach asked her.
‘Fine,’ she smiled, as if she hadn’t been responsible for starting the chaos that now engulfed them.
Turning to William, Zach said, ‘you know what to do next!’
Cupping his long hands around his mouth, William roared at the top of his voice through the gate.
‘We need reinforcements out here! We have them but if you don’t hurry they might get away!’
The sound of running feet could be heard from the other side of the huge gates. A deafening wail
ing sound followed as the gates were forced open from inside the prison.
‘See you in a while,’ Zach said to Neanna, leaning forward and kissing her on the cheek.
‘Good luck!’ Neanna said, her face blushing pink. But Zach was gone, with William bounding behind him.
Pulling her cloak tight, Neanna hid in the shadows of the prison gates as they opened. She watched from the darkness as a horde of Norsori guards raced out and looked all about them.
‘What’s happening?’ one of them asked.
‘I’m not sure. I think we are under attack!’ said another.
‘Look, there’s a huge hole!’ shouted one of them, turning to face the ruined wall.
While the guards stood distracted, Neanna
blinked
from the shadows and stepped unseen into the prison.
Zach raced towards a small iron door set in the prison wall, which he had noticed when he had crawled away from his friends earlier. Crouching in the shadows, Zach and William waited for Neanna to open it from the other side. Williams’s eyes burnt an angry crimson from behind his spectacles.
‘What’s taking her so long?’ William barked.
‘Give her time,’ Zach said.
Running through a small stone covered area, Neanna turned right along the wall towards the door that Zach had pointed out to her.
‘Hey!’ Someone shouted.
‘Stop!’
Spinning round, Neanna spotted one of the Norsori rushing towards her with arrow drawn.
‘Who me?’ she said.
‘Yeah, you!’ the guard snapped, lumbering towards her.
Reaching behind her, Neanna drew her catapult. The Guard looked at it and smiled.
‘That
won’t protect you!’ he screeched, releasing his shot at the girl. The arrow was upon her in an instant. Smiling, Neanna
blinked
forwards. The guard was still trying to workout how his arrow hadn’t cut through her, when he felt Neanna’s teeth sink into his face.
Leaving the Norsori
lying on the ground and clutching the red messy pulp that had once been his face, Neanna
blinked
towards the doorway. Just as she reached it, two more of the Norsori stepped from the shadows and raced towards her. Beneath their masks, Neanna could see their eyes burning with hate as they took aim. Neanna
blinked
towards them. The guards looked at one another as the girl seemed to have vanished. By the time it had dawned upon them that they were dealing with a Slath and their chances of beating it were somewhere very close to zero, their arms were flying away from their bodies in a spray of red.
Neanna stood over them as they lay rolling in agony on the ground.
‘That was for betraying my people and the whole of Endra,’ she said, reaching down and snatching a set of keys from one of the Norsori’s tunics. Then, she removed their faces with her teeth and she was as quick as a surgeon using a scalpel.
Blocking out their cries
and wiping their blood from her chin, Neanna went to the side gate.
Outside, Zach and William waited for Neanna.
‘C’mon!’ William hissed under his breath.
‘She’ll be here!’ Zach said.
Then, as if their prayers had been answered, they heard keys jangling in the lock on the other side of the door. Just to be certain it was Neanna who was coming to greet
them, William held out his catapult and Zach pointed his crossbows at the door. It flew open and Neanna stood on the other side.
‘About time,’ William muttered as she let them in.
Turning in the direction of the screaming Norsori, who continued to roll about in agony on the ground, Zach said, ‘what happened to them?’
‘I don’t know,’
Neanna shrugged.
‘Let’s find my Grand
dad and get outta here,’ William barked and bounded away.
Keeping to the shadows with their weapons drawn
, they made their way around the edge of the prison. Norsori guards rushed to the gaping hole in the wall opposite them. The warning bell rang and within the prison walls it was deafening. They followed the line of the wall until they came to a series of stone steps that spiralled down into the ground.
‘The cells are down here,’ William roared over the sound of the warning bells.
‘How can you be so sure?’ Zach shouted at him.
Grinning, William pointed to a sign nailed to the wall which read
‘Cellblocks 1 - 4’
with an arrow that pointed down into the darkness.
‘What are we waiting for?’ Neanna yelled, racing down the stairs.
Zach and William followed her into a series of tunnels lit by burning torches. Carved into the tunnel walls were the doors to the cells. Each door was made from iron bars and behind them sat the prisoners. Glancing into several of the cells, Zach learnt why it had been named the Prison of Eternal Despair. The cells were squalid looking with filthy looking mattresses on the floor, and wooden buckets in each corner to be used as a toilet. The skeletal remains of prisoners lay scattered in the tunnels and across the cell floors.
The light was poor and the place stank of sweat, urine and excrement. Rats scuttled around in the
gloom and they bared their glistening teeth at anyone that dared to come too near. The prisoners lay weak and frail looking on the floor or huddled in the corners of their cells with their heads in their hands. One frail-looking inmate stood at the bars of his cell and dribbled from the corners of his mouth as he banged the cell door with a human thighbone.
‘Which way?’ Zach asked William.
‘I don’t know,’ William barked, looking all about himself. ‘We’ll have to check all of the cellblocks!’
Leaping away down the tunnel, Zach and Neanna chased after him.
‘Granddad! Granddad!’ he howled. ‘It’s me William!’
Hearing the commotion
, some of the prisoners came to their cell doors, clutching at the three of them as they raced through the winding tunnels.
‘Help us!’ they begged, waving their filthy hands through the bars.