Sentari: ICE (22 page)

After nearly twelve months, the room was organised. He looked at what he had achieved and was very happy with himself. Then his eyes moved to the book sitting on the cabinet. He was almost drawn to it. He took the book over to the giant pile of keys he had made and began to try each key in the hole.

One by one, he inserted each key and one after another, they failed. There were literally thousands of keys in the pile. It would take him another twelve months to try all of them.

Suddenly, the ice surrounding Plantus shattered and exploded around the room. Plantus came bursting out, opened his mouth and roared out so loudly that the walls of the room shook. Noah covered his ears and winced in pain. Plantus shook off the last of the ice and looked down at Noah. “Hello, my boy. It gladdens me to see you’re still here,” said Plantus. He looked around the room and was very impressed with Noah’s work. “I have not seen this place so clean since the day it was made. I owe you a debt of gratitude.”

“You owe me nothing,” said Noah.

“I see you have found the Dragon’s Tale,” said Plantus.

“I’m very sorry. I should not have tried to look,” said Noah.

“Nonsense. You would not be human, if you weren’t curious,” said Plantus.

Noah placed the book on the floor. Plantus swung his mighty tail around and inserted the end of it into the key hole. With just a quick twist, the hands of the metal dragons released and the book sprung open. Noah lifted the book from the ground nervously. He opened it and, to his surprise, saw there were only three pages, all of which were empty. “I don’t understand,” said Noah.

“The book is an ancient dragon book for binding. You write what you desire on the first page. The book will write the price on the second page and, if you agree, you sign the third page,” replied Plantus. “But, be warned. The magic that this book contains is very powerful. It will hold you to your word.”

Noah sat down on a nearby chair and stared at the book, contemplating what to do. Plantus looked around at his newly organised home. “I must say, I really am very impressed with your work. I could use someone like you,” said Plantus. Noah took little notice as he contemplated his wish.

“Do you have a pen?” asked Noah. “Never mind,” he continued, knowing full well where everything was in the place. Noah opened the draw of a dresser and took an old pen out. The pen was carved from the tusks of an elephant, the tip made from the finest steel Sentari had to offer. Noah dipped the pen in a small pot of ink. “Remember, be very specific,” said Plantus, as Noah put the ink to paper.

Noah wrote his wish, then looked up at Plantus. “Now what?” asked Noah.

“Close the book and put it down on the table,” said Plantus.

Noah did as he was instructed and the hands of the metal dragons locked in place once again. “Now, we wait. Once the book opens itself you will have your price. Now, if you excuse me, I have some things that need taking care of,” continued Plantus.

Plantus raised his huge head and looked up at the roof. He opened his mouth. Flame roared out and shattered a hole in the roof. The flame burst through the water above, creating a tunnel to the surface. Plantus flew up the tunnel at tremendous speed. Once he reached the surface, he turned around and, in one swift breath of ice, he froze the roof of the building again. As he flew away, the water from the ocean crashed back down onto the roof with an almighty bang.

Noah looked back at the book. It remained unmoved. He sat down on the floor and stared intently at it. Hours passed and the book did not move. He did not budge. His mind was fully occupied with the thought of making his desires a reality. He wondered what it would be like. He tried to imagine the feeling of satisfaction when the task was completed and, just when his mind began to wander with infinite possibilities, the book sprung open. Noah leapt to his feet and ran over to it. He gently opened the book. On the first page was what he had written. It read simply:

“Destroy all the people of Angel Island.”

Noah turned to the next page nervously. In the middle of the page, in beautifully crafted handwriting was:

“Your price is to serve the magic of Plantus until the day you die.”

Noah looked at the proposal. He could not believe how small a price he had to pay to have the revenge he sought so dearly. He would gladly live his life in servitude. Noah turned the page over. In the middle of the page was a single dotted line with his name below it. He took the pen and dipped it in ink. He took a deep breath, then carefully signed his name on the dotted line.

The book suddenly snapped shut and the metal dragons’ hands locked together. Noah stepped back from the book and contemplated what he had done.

The days and weeks passed. Plantus came and went, but the two did not speak of the book. Nothing changed, really. Noah went about his days serving Plantus, all the time wondering if the book was merely a fancy trick and if what he had wished for would not, in fact, come true.

One cold morning, Noah woke up feeling very different. At first, he could hear the sound of wind blowing. It got his attention because, being below the sea for so long, he had forgotten what it sounded like. He rubbed his weary morning eyes and then slowly opened them. As his eyes focused the world came into view. He was flying high in the sky on the back of Plantus. They were so high that the clouds below were but small white dots. It was freezing cold in the air, but Plantus had such strong body warmth that Noah was not cold.

“Where are we going?” asked Noah.

Plantus turned his huge head. His eyes were red like fire. “Angel Island,” replied Plantus. “To complete the agreement,” continued Plantus. Suddenly Plantus retracted his wings and they quickly dove towards the ground. Noah held on for dear life as they plummeted vertically. They passed through the clouds at great speed. They burst through the other side and, immediately below them, was Angel Island.

Plantus raised his wings and they came to a stop a few hundred metres above the ground.

“Why have we stopped?” asked Noah.

“Now, we wait,” replied Plantus. Noah looked down at his former home. The island looked so small from above. He noticed the old hall in the middle of the island. Then, it suddenly dawned on him, tonight was the annual dance.

The day quickly faded away, with Plantus and Noah floating ever so patiently above the island. Slowly, but surely, the people of Angel Island began to arrive at the hall. Finally, the sun settled behind the horizon. Plantus smiled with delight as he dropped towards the ground. He then slammed down on the grass outside the hall. The ground shook, causing the walls of the hall to shutter. The doors burst open and the people inside screamed when they saw Plantus standing in the doorway.

Noah climbed off Plantus’s back and stood in the doorway. His heart was filled with rage. “Where are they?” screamed Noah, with venom in his voice. Aiden stepped forward through the crowd with Serena behind him. Aiden stepped aside. Serena cradled a terrified, two-year-old boy. “You are going to pay for what you did to me,” said Noah. Plantus’s eyes literally lit up with fire. He smiled as he opened his mighty mouth. “You’re all going to burn,” screamed Noah.

“Wait,” said Serena. “The child is yours,” she pleaded. The small boy looked at Noah with tears in his eyes. Shocked, Noah stumbled backwards. Seeing the boy’s eyes was like seeing into his own soul. He had been consumed with so much hate for so long that he had lost himself.

“I’m sorry,” said Noah. “I should never come here,” he continued.

Noah began to walk away. Plantus let out an ear-piercing roar. “This changes nothing,” said Plantus, with an evil tone in his voice. “I told you to be very specific when you wrote in the book, but you did not. It is done and it cannot be undone,” continued Plantus.

Plantus stood up on his hind legs and stretched his wings out. The doors to the hall suddenly snapped shut. The people inside screamed with fear. They banged on the doors, but they would not open. “Plantus, please!” screamed Noah.

“It must be done,” said Plantus, as flames roared out of his mouth. Noah shielded his eyes from the heat. The flames were so great that they engulfed the entire hall. The screams of the people were drowned out by the intense roar of the fire. Noah looked on as the hall burned to the ground.

Plantus was relentless. He continued to blast fire on the hall until there was nothing left but shards of wood, ash and dust. Noah dropped to his knees and sobbed. “What have I done?” said Noah.

Plantus closed his mouth and the last of the flames died down. “I have completed my part of the agreement. Now, you must complete yours,” said Plantus.

“Why would I ever do that?” demanded Noah angrily.

“Because you have no choice,” replied Plantus. Noah was suddenly lifted from the ground, his arms and legs spread out wide. He screamed as his skin began to burn from the inside out. It blistered and bubbled as the heat radiated through his veins. Smoke began to bellow out of his mouth, nose and eyes. Then, suddenly, he dropped to the ground. He got to his feet and looked at Plantus. Noah’s eyes were cold and dead, his skin pale and white.

Noah had been transformed, into the Shadow.

***

Four thousand years later, Angel Island still existed, but all the trees and vegetation had been replaced with ice and snow. The Shadow stood in the middle of the island, staring at the ice below as he had done since that fateful day. He still paid the price of his mistake. Plantus may have been long gone, but as long as his magic endured, the Shadow had to serve it. He could never die.

“Sometimes we are the worst at deciding what is best for us.”

Locked In

Snow fell outside Antastus’s lair. It was so heavy that the peaks that surrounded his home were obscured from sight. The room was empty. The icicles that drooped down over the space that had once held a glass window had grown large; it had been a while since anyone had been there.

The air was thin at that altitude and, with nothing to seal the window, it was very exposed to the elements. A strange humming noise began to reverberate around the lair. It was coming from the disc in the centre of the room. The disc grew warm and the ice around it cracked and melted.

Hotter and hotter the disc became, so hot, in fact, that the ice turned into a rushing torrent of water and started pouring out the doorway. The steel pole in the middle of the disc glowed bright red. Then, suddenly, Te’oma, Ariana and Julius appeared out of nowhere, holding onto the pole for dear life. The heat instantly subsided and the room turned cold again, despite having been cleared of ice.

“Alright, what just happened?” asked Ariana as she let go of the pole. Julius looked around at the markings on the walls. They were Intari, but the dialect was difficult to read

“Where are we?” asked Te’oma.

Julius looked up at the markings above the doorway. They read, “Intari Prison - Wardens Chambers”.

“Prison?” said Julius.

“What do you mean, prison?” asked Ariana. “And how the hell did we get here?”

“The pads are transportation devices. We have come a long way,” said Julius, as he walked around the room looking at the inscriptions.

Te’oma watched as Ariana grabbed Julius by the shoulders and faced him toward her. She looked him in the eyes. “Julius,” she said impatiently, “what is going on? How did you know what to do?”

“There’s something about my life I haven’t told you – either of you,” replied Julius.

“Well, I think now would be a good time,” said Ariana.

Julius walked around the room and started translating all the markings on the walls that he could read. Over the next half an hour, he told the whole story of his life, from being raised in the Intari all the way through to waking up in the isolation chamber. Te’oma was gobsmacked. He could not believe Julius had had a whole other life, but what he found even more interesting was Ariana’s face as it slowly turned a shade of red. Her eyes were wide open, with a little twitch appearing above her eye.

“And that’s everything that has happened up until now,” said Julius. Ariana and Te’oma stared at him with wonder. “Well, do you have any questions?” asked Julius.

The twitch in Ariana’s eye grew stronger until she could not contain it anymore. “You’re telling me, all this time, we could have been hopping around the world on these pads instead of walking vast distances?” said Ariana.

“It doesn’t work like that. These pads haven’t been used in generations. I think the only reason they worked was because Drake was using his power to run them,” said Julius. Te’oma could tell by the look on Ariana’s face that she was not overly happy with that answer.

“What happened to Jade?” asked Te’oma.

“Te’oma,” said Ariana, as she punched him in the arm, “you can’t ask him that.”

“No. It’s a fair question, and the truth is I really don’t know,” said Julius.

“Maybe she’s still alive,” said Te’oma.

“It’s been eight hundred years. I think it’s safe to say she’s long gone,” said Julius, with sadness in his voice.

Ariana took Te’oma by the hand, squeezed it tight and gave him a look of disapproval – a look that every man who’s had a long-term girlfriend would easily recognise.

Julius walked over to the large hole in the wall. Just at that moment, the clouds cleared ever so slightly, enough to show just how far up they were. “I think we might have a problem,” said Julius.

Ariana and Te’oma peered out the window and gasped at the height. “You said this place was a prison,” said Ariana. “Did anyone ever escape?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” said Julius.

“That’s ok. We can just go out the same way we came in, right?” asked Ariana.

“Like I said, I don’t think I can work these pads without Drake,” said Julius.

The clouds quickly rolled over again. The wind blasted in, forcing the snow to come through the window horizontally. “Well, we can’t stay in here. That’s for sure,” said Julius, before turning and walking through a doorway on the other side of the room.

Te’oma stared out the window. For some reason, the cold blasting through it seemed to have no effect on him. He almost seemed to enjoy its touch. “Are you coming?” asked Ariana. Te’oma snapped out of his trance, as Ariana walked away.

The hallway leading out of the room was almost pitch black. At the end of it was a staircase that seemed to lead down into utter darkness. Julius waited at the top of the stairs. “I can’t see anything. I don’t even know if the stairs are still there,” said Julius.

Suddenly, Te’oma was consumed with thoughts of raging fire, so much so that he could see the fire with his waking eyes. Ariana and Julius could not see anything. The fire burned his skin. He screamed in agony, then fell down. He grabbed at the wall and, as he did, all the lights in the hallway came on. Like water dripping down the side of a wall, the lights came on, one by one, down the stairs.

Te’oma sat on the floor, shell-shocked. Ariana quickly dropped to his side. Panicked, she placed her hand on his face. “Are you ok?” she asked, concerned. Te’oma’s speech was slurred and muddled. She could not understand what he was saying. Ariana put both her hands on his cheeks and looked him in the eyes. “Te’oma?” she said. The fire faded around him until all he could see was Ariana’s brown eyes.

Te’oma wavered momentarily, then struggled to get to his feet. Ariana and Julius looked extremely worried. “I’m ok,” said Te’oma, sensing their feelings. Ariana wrapped her arms around Te’oma and pulled him close. Te’oma was surprised; it was completely unlike her.

They walked down the stairs and as they did, the stairs lit up and warmed their feet. “That’s incredible,” said Ariana. The gentle warmth radiated through them, drying their shoes and thawing out their freezing bones.

“I have never seen anything like this,” said Julius. They smiled as they walked down the stairway.

When they reached the end of the stairwell, they slid open the door before them and stepped into a pitch-black room. They could not see anything, but the echo of the falling raindrops told them that the room was enormous. Directly in front of them, a small platform lit up. The three walked forward onto the platform. It had no edges, only a ring of dull light around it. The door slid shut behind them and the platform moved forwards. As it did, the lights around it grew brighter and the rest of the room came into view.

Te’oma looked over the far side of the platform and saw a drop of at least a hundred metres. The enormous cavern seemed to have been carved out of the middle of the mountain. Part way down the cavern, a small doorway lit up. The platform descended towards it.

Above the door was an inscription, but it was different to the others above. It seemed more recent, as though it had been put there long after the door was made. “What does it say?” asked Te’oma. The three stepped off the platform onto the ledge in front of the door. As they did, the light in the platform faded and it fell down into the cavern below, smashing onto the ground. “Wow, that was lucky,” said Te’oma.

Julius looked up at the inscription above the door. “We are the last Intari, here we sleep,” said Julius. He looked at the door and rushed to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. He put his hand on a small touch panel next to the door. The touch panel turned red.

“What’s the problem?” asked Ariana.

“The door is locked. It’s not letting me in,” said Julius, frustrated. He waved his hand over the panel. Time and time again he tried, but nothing happened.

“Let me try,” said Ariana. Julius rolled his eyes at Ariana and stepped aside.

As Ariana and Julius were distracted by the touch panel, Te’oma put his hands on the door and pushed it with all his might. The strong, thick doors slowly moved, Te’oma let go of the door, just as Ariana and Julius looked up.

“It worked,” said Ariana. Julius looked confused. The touch panel was still lit up red, yet the door was open.

The three stepped through the doorway. The lights in the roof slowly turned on. The room was huge, seemingly stretching on forever. Lying all throughout the room, were isolation chambers. The chambers were laid out in rows of four, stretching on for as far as the eye could see.

Julius walked over to one of the chambers. The sight of them made him shudder. He peered through the glass to see the face of an old man. He did not recognise him. He quickly moved across the chambers, looking into each one, trying desperately to see if Jade was one of the people there. “There must be thousands of them,” said Ariana.

The chance of finding his love drove Julius on for hours. He walked up and down every aisle looking for her. Te’oma and Ariana were forced to watch on, helpless. Not knowing what Jade looked like meant they could not help.

After nearly four hours of walking Te’oma had an idea. “Why don’t we wake them all up and let her come to us,” said Te’oma.

“That’s a great idea,” said Ariana enthusiastically.

“Great. So how do we do it?” asked Julius.

“I assumed you would know,” said Te’oma.

“This is pointless. She’s not going to be here,” said Julius.

“Why not?” asked Ariana.

“Remember what the sign said? This place was a prison. Her father was a very powerful man. There’s no way she ended up here,” said Julius. Julius closed his eyes, collapsed onto one of the chambers and banged his fist on the glass panel. After a moment, he opened his eyes and, to his shock, staring back at him through the glass was Dengrid, Jade’s father.

“Over here,” called Julius, visibly shaking with fear.

Ariana looked down at Dengrid. “I’m not one to judge, but your girlfriend isn’t overly attractive,” said Ariana.

Julius half-smiled at Ariana. “That’s her father,” he said.

“Her father? Maybe we’re better off leaving them to sleep,” said Ariana.

Te’oma touched the end of the isolation chamber and a small screen lit up. “What did you do?” asked Julius. Te’oma didn’t reply. He looked down at the screen with a strange expression on his face, as if he wasn’t aware that Julius and Ariana were there. Te’oma tapped the screen like he had been using this technology for years.

“Te’oma!” snapped Ariana, demanding his attention. He continued to press the buttons. Suddenly, the chamber let out a burst of steam and the glass covering Dengrid melted. Steam continued to rise from the chamber. Te’oma stepped back, unsure of what had just happened. Julius and Ariana stared at Te’oma.

“What?” said Te’oma.

“What was that?” asked Julius.

“I don’t know,” said Te’oma, at a loss to explain his actions. He had been aware of what he had been doing, but it was like he had been on autopilot.

The steam rose high into the air and slowly cleared away. Dengrid gingerly sat up in his chamber and looked around the room, dazed. Julius stood behind him so that he was out of Dengrid’s line of vision.

“Where am I?” Dengrid asked.

“We were hoping that you could tell us,” said Te’oma.

Dengrid tried to get out of the chamber, but his weary body wouldn’t let him. He was very old and his muscles had weakened from all the years he had been in the chamber. He looked around the room. His face was riddled with confusion. He turned to see Julius staring back at him. Julius drew in a deep breath. Fortunately for Julius, Dengrid’s mind was failing and he did not recognise him.

“Where is she? Where is my Jade?” asked Dengrid. Julius stared at him momentarily.

“Was she here with you, when you came here?” asked Julius.

“I don’t even know where here is,” said Dengrid. Julius looked at Ariana and Te’oma. It was obvious that he had been locked in that chamber for so long that his mind was lost.

“This is an Intari prison,” said Te’oma. “Why were you here?”

“Prison, yes, prison,” said Dengrid. He leaned down on the edge of the isolation chamber as his memory slowly returned to him. He looked at Julius and smiled. “How is this possible? How are you here?” asked Dengrid.

“It’s a long story. The chamber began to fail and I woke up. After eight hundred years, I guess it would fail,” said Julius.

“Eight hundred years!” said Dengrid, with a gasp. “Is that how long I have slept?”

“I’m afraid so. What happened to her?” asked Julius.

“When we couldn’t get you out of that chamber, Jade was inconsolable. No matter how much time passed, she would not leave your side. She never gave up hope that she would one day be reunited with you,” said Dengrid.

Teardrops welled up in Julius’s eyes, his feelings bubbling to the surface.

“After a while she realised that the chamber was not going to open. She decided that the only way she could help you was to leave the Intari and seek help from the outside world. I fought with her for so long to keep her from going, but once she made up her mind there was no stopping her – an unfortunate trait she got from me,” said Dengrid.