Megrin - the real Megrin - wiped her brow on her sleeve, resting for a moment whilst the remaining murderous apparitions crumbled to dust and were gone as if they had never been. Whether they had been real, or conjured illusions, even Megrin could not tell. But she knew that whatever they were, they had only served as a distraction to keep her here; to separate her from Jack Flint and the stone talisman that he carried.
The boy was her main concern - him and his friends. But it was Jack Flint who was particularly important because of what he carried. The Journeyman's heartstone.
Megrin closed her eyes and let her senses reach out, through stone and timber. In her mind she kept the image of a deep and secret chamber, hidden in wreaths of enchantment that proved too strong a barrier to her own powers.
That, she was sure, was where she would find the power that brought the shadows to Uaine. The power that was now using her brother's form for its own malevolent purpose.
Megrin strode forward, using her staff for balance over the tumbled masonry, feet kicking up little puffs of dust, the last remnants of the imps or devils that had been summoned to hold her. She reached the place where the foot of the staircase had been.
There was nothing here now. Even Bodron's guttural laugh could no longer be heard.
Her mind was unable to locate any of her young friends, which meant one of two things. Either they were not inside Bodron's Keep, or that they were and they had been taken to somewhere beyond her reach.
Beyond an arched doorway, a corridor forked left and right. She chose the left hand path. It descended into shadows. She felt her heart trip faster as she walked down.
***
The sword slipped from Jack's fingers and sent up sparks when it clanged on the flagstones.
"Kerry!" Jack cried.
He leapt up and grabbed Kerry by the front of his tunic, bunching the material in his fists as he dragged him forward. His face was red and his voice tight with emotion as he shook him back and forth.
"Where the hell have you been?"
Kerry's jaw dropped in amazement. But before he could say a word, Jack pulled him close, threw his arms around him and squeezed him in such a bear hug he felt his ears pop;.
"Jeez man," Jack said, right in his ear. "We thought you were a goner!"
Relief surged through Jack. The thought of losing Kerry, his best friend since childhood had defied description.
"I very nearly was, believe me," Kerry began. But now Corriwen had her arms around his neck and squeezed him even tighter. Tears ran unashamedly down her cheeks.
"Hang on, hang on. Let me breathe." Kerry tried to pull back, laughing and gasping at the same time. Jack loosened his grip and released him. Even in the dark, he could see Kerry was blushing deep red.
"How did you get here?" Jack wanted to know. "And who's the girl?"
"And where is here?" Corriwen butted in. She looked around at walls hung with shredded tapestries. "We were in Megrin's place and she…she changed into…"
"I know. We saw you. Me and Rionna. We came to help."
"You and who?"
Kerry turned. Rionna had backed into a corner where she was hidden in shadows.
"Rionna…come here and meet Jack and Corrie." He reached for her and gently drew her forward into the light.
Jack stared at Rionna. This elfin girl had come between him and the shadowed monster, blinding it with light. She had given him his chance.
"Rionna, this is Jack Flint and Corriwen Redthorn. My best friends. Guys, this is Rionna, and if it wasn't for her, you'd be mincemeat by now. Me too. She knew what to do. She's brilliant.
"Slow down," Jack said. "Back up. Who is she? Where's she from?"
Kerry was too excited to stop. "We jumped into the water and we came to help you."
"Yeah sure," Jack said. "Kerry Malone jumped in water? Not in a million years."
"Well, Rionna pulled me, actually. But honest, that's how we got here. Rionna's got this place. It's magic. Really beautiful." He put an arm round her shoulder and drew her closer. "Isn't that right?"
The girl nodded slowly.
"But who is she?" Corriwen asked, "And how did you find her?"
"She's Bodron's daughter."
"Bodron's daughter?" Jack shrank back, his mind running into overdrive. Was this another trick? Another illusion? Would she suddenly change into something else? His hand automatically went to his sword and fumbled with the empty scabbard.
The girl's face went slack with dismay.
"How could you bring her? Look at everything he's done. You don't even know if she's real! She could be a trick, just like Megrin was."
Rionna tried to shrink back into the shadows again, but Kerry held her wrist.
"She's real all right," Kerry retorted. "And don't forget, she's just saved your hide. And mine too. You should be grateful, so you should."
"But Bodron's daughter…" Jack looked from Kerry to the girl. He couldn't understand how Kerry could have been so stupid as to bring the enemy into their midst. He had trusted people before and been wrong. Jack's head was still spinning from the horror of what had happened in Megrin's cottage and now the shock of finding themselves back in Bodron's Keep.
"So what if she is his daughter?" Kerry snorted. "Megrin's her aunt isn't she? And look at me. My dad's in jail, but that doesn't make me a crook, does it?"
Before Jack could reply, Kerry went charging on.
"No buts Jack. Not this time." He put his arm around Rionna's shoulders again, and held her protectively. "She's with me. With us. We got a new friend. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here. And neither would you."
Kerry's free hand was bunched, as if he was ready to fight. "She brought the corona-light with her. That's what chased the monster away. She saved all of us."
The girl found her voice. It was soft, but very clear, almost musical.
"Bodron was my father. But he brought something into this world that infested him, sucked out the man that he was. That is what you should fear, for I have feared it all my life. But if Kerry asks, then I will help you."
She drew back behind Kerry again. Corriwen stepped forward.
"Forgive us, Rionna, Bodron's-daughter," she said. She took the girl's hands and raised them to her own cheeks.
"If you saved Kerry, then we are in your debt. And you helped us when we needed it most. The Redthorn always repay."
Rionna smiled shyly.
Kerry stared at Jack, whose hand was on the heartstone, hiding it from view. Jack finally nodded and took his hand away. The heartstone gleamed with its own deep life.
"I'm sorry, Kerry," Jack finally spoke. "For what I said. And to Rionna. My head's all screwed up and confused."
"Confused? I was scared to death. But she's the real McCoy, is Rionna. Wait till you see her place. Man, the size of the fish! And fruit that tastes like nothing on earth."
Jack picked up his sword and sheathed it. Kerry was right. The girl was not responsible for what her father had done, and now she too was an orphan as much as Corriwen Redthorn. He placed his hand on Rionna's. Her fingers trembled.
"Rionna. I'm very sorry for what I said. Any friend of Kerry's is a friend of ours. I don't know what you did or how you did it, but I'm awfully glad you did ."
She looked into his eyes.
"You are Jack, the journeyman. The heartstone-holder." She held his hand surprisingly tightly. "Come to save Uaine."
"I don't know if I can. Or if anybody can."
"If you cannot, then no-one can. I see into your heart, and it is true."
This time it was Jack's turn to blush to his roots.
Kerry stepped forward. "Okay, Jack. Enough of the smooth talk. You can't steal all the girls."
And suddenly the three friends burst into gales of laughter that was more a release of tension than anything else. Rionna just stared at them as if they had gone mad.
***
The laughter took a while to subside, and despite the circumstances, they felt strengthened by it. It was the one natural thing in this unnatural place.
They found a small chamber where Kerry had managed to light the wick of an old oil lamp. The feeble light made their faces glow in the gloom.
"So what next?" Kerry spoke, but all eyes were on Jack.
"We have two choices. Get the hell out of here - if we can even find a way out - or stay and find these Copperplates. They're the answer."
"That's no choice, Jack Flint, and you know it," Corriwen snorted. "You didn't venture alone through the faerie gate just to run away."
"No. I didn't," Jack replied.
"But it's not just the Copperplates," Kerry butted in. "It's the heartstone too. That's what Bodron wants. There's two of them, and he's already got one of them. Rionna told me."
Jack turned to Rionna. "Two heartstones? What's this about?"
"There are two heartstones," Rionna explained. "I read it in his scripts. They are they key to all worlds. My father used the Copperplates to unlock the Dark Way. With the heartstones he can throw the gates open and let the demons from below into Uaine."
"Why would he want to do that?"
"Because he is no longer my father. What came through the nether gate is now in him. It works its will through him."
"So what now?" Kerry repeated.
"I think it's going to get really dangerous. I have to let you know the options."
"We know the options, Jack," Kerry retorted. "We knew them on Temair and in Eirinn. We came with you no matter what. What's the difference here?"
"The difference is that I don't know how to fight this," Jack said. He was supposed to the one with the answers, but all he had were questions. "In Temair and in Eirinn, we knew what we were up against. We could see them. But how do you fight illusions? We don't even know where we are or where we have to go."
"You could ask the Book of Ways," Corriwen suggested. "It might tell us."
"I hope so, because I'm all out of ideas at the moment. We thought everything was okay until Megrin started to change into something…"
"It wasn't Megrin," Corriwen said.
"It was a demon," Rionna said. "Something conjured up from the underplace."
"It was like being in a nightmare," Jack said.
"I know. Like when I used to have nightmares about thing with scaly claws hiding under my bed. And that's what I saw sitting at that table, eating raw bloody meat. Scared the bejasus out of me."
"Will you get it back?" Rionna asked.
"Get what back?"
"Your bejasus?"
And for a second time, the three of them fell about laughing helplessly while Rionna watched them wide eyed and bewildered.
"If we go on," Jack continued, "and if we do find Megrin, then we will have to face him. Rionna's father."
"I think it would be better for him to be free of its tyranny," Rionna said. Her face was filled with sad acceptance. "One way or another."
"Consult the book," Corriwen insisted again.
Jack sat down and the others joined him. He set the Book of Ways on the floor in front of them. It opened immediately and the pages whirred in succession as if stirred by a wind, then stopped.
They waited, but the page remained blank.
"Maybe the battery died," Kerry said, trying lighten the mood.
Something dripped from above their heads. Jack caught a blur of movement.
A crimson blot appeared on the top of the page.
"What…?" Jack smelled the coppery scent of blood. As he fixed his eyes on the thick blot, it welled even thicker.
"Blood," Corriwen hissed. Kerry was looking up, trying to see where it had come from, but there was no stain on the arched ceiling.
Jack concentrated on the page. The blot became a trickle, sluggishly moving across the page and then a line of it streaked diagonally downwards, as if drawn by a sharp nail. Jack jerked back.
Another line slashed two semi-circles on the first. It was a capital B. And without pause the invisible nail scrawled one word.
BLOOD.
Then it began to scrawl faster and faster until the page was filled with bloody words in jagged letters.
Blood to drink and flesh to rend
Children suffer 'til the end
Feast on terror, feast on fright
Feast on eyes bereft of sight
Too late to flee, too late to run
The dying time has now begun
Mortal souls forever lost
The hour has come to pay the cost
"Jeez…." Kerry muttered.
"The writing's all different," Jack said aghast. "This can't be right. It's always warned us before, but that's a threat!"
And as he spoke the line of blood zig-zagged in a series of jolting lines beneath which a new line of words appeared like knife-slashed wounds
You are NOW MINE!
The Book of Ways shuddered. Acrid fumes rose up from the violent lines of verse, and two tongues of flame appeared. The page began to burn through.
The Book bucked. Its leather covers flapped up and down. before Jack could move the Book snapped shut with the force of a hammer-blow.
For a moment all went still, but it was not over. The cover slowly creaked open again. Jack held his breath as the pages whirred once more. He expected to see a charred ruin, but instead when the pages stopped, all he saw was some fine ash that blew off the page like dust, leaving a clean blank leaf. He could see no other damage at all.
Now, new words began to appear on the pages, and this time they were written in the old familiar script.
Follow terror, follow fright
Walk beyond the darkest night
Fear behind, fear before
On until the final door
Madness there holds evil sway
Horror waits for mortal prey
Find the hidden secret room
Journeyman must face his doom
Jack looked up. His face was sickly pale.
"That's the real message," he said shakily. "The other one…that was from whatever is doing all this. It's playing games with us."
"The second message is bad enough," Kerry said.
For a long time, nobody spoke. Jack closed his eyes and rubbed them slowly, as if he was very tired.
"Well, we know where to go," he finally said.
"I don't understand," Corriwen whispered.
"We just keep walking. The worse it gets, the closer we'll be."
Kerry put his hand on his friend's shoulder and gripped tight.
"All for one," he said. "We're still with you."