To Jack it seemed as if they fell forever.
They all fell together. If they screamed, none heard it as they were rolled dizzily inside a dark tornado.
Jack's last memory was a wide circle of light that raced away from him at astonishing speed until it was just a dot which vanished in an instant and then there was nothing to see.
Faster and faster they spun, clinging desperately to one another, down and down and down. The darkness was heavy, so heavy that it pressed down on them. The air grew thick so that it was almost impossible to breathe. Jack felt his consciousness fade.
Some time later, maybe a long time later, he awoke, still holding Corriwen's hand, still falling, but now they were descending fast on a steep slope as smooth as glass. It took Jack a little while to realise that he was awake, and not in the middle of some nightmare, and when he realised that they were sliding, he tried to dig his heels in to slow his momentum.
Nothing happened. He stabbed down with the sword-blade, holding it like an ice-axe. Its point sent out a blaze of sparks as it cut a furrow in the surface, slowing them just a little.
As they slid further the glassy surface became grainy, like fine sand. Jack forced the blade in harder and gradually their speed diminished as the slope began to level out.
Eventually they ground to a halt, surrounded by the dust kicked up by their passage. Here, everything was silent. Some distance away, in the direction they had been travelling, Jack could make out a deep, ominous red glow. It was the only light he could see.
Gingerly, he got to his feet and sheathed the sword. He helped Corriwen up, feeling as if his whole body was covered in bruises. Kerry rolled over and he and Rionna managed to stand. Every footstep sent up a cloud of fine dust that smelt of old cinders.
"What happened?" Kerry asked groggily.
"The ground opened," Corriwen said. "It sucked us down."
"All I remember is Jack up on the stone, and everything flashing around him."
"The Copperplates," Rionna said. Jack nodded.
"They came for me and the Book swallowed them. I don't know how."
"And you killed that…that demon," Rionna said.
"I don't know if you can kill something like that," Jack said. "But I had to do something. I think I just distracted it, and Megrin did the rest."
Corriwen touched him on the shoulder. "But you faced it, Jack. I saw you. You were the Journeyman for certain."
Before Jack could respond, Kerry piped up. "I'm not even going to ask where we are, but I don't like it already. It stinks."
"At least we're alive," Corriwen said.
"Don't be so sure," Kerry mumbled, breaking into a fit of coughing as the dust rasped his throat.
"We fell a long way into the pit," Rionna said. "This must be the nether-lands, the realm of the night-shades. I read my father's old scripts. This seems to fit."
"I think Bodron used the Copperplates to open the Dark Way. Megrin says its like a wormhole between here and Uaine. The Book stopped them." He patted the satchel. "It's got power of its own."
"So can it get us out of here?"
"I don't know," Jack said honestly. He believed Rionna's explanation, but he still wasn't sure of exactly where they were. In his heart he was sure he had led them to the end of the road, and the end of his quest. Bodron had already told him he had destroyed his father. Now, thanks to him they were all at the bottom of a fathomless pit.
It had all been for nothing. That realisation settled on him like a dead weight.
"Brilliant," Kerry said with weary sarcasm. He began to lead the way down the slope, slip-sliding over shards of what looked like fire-blackened pottery, until they got near the base where the red glow was brighter.
"Aw jeez!"
Kerry picked up something, held it up, and Jack realised that they had been sliding down neither shale nor pottery shards. In his hand Kerry held a skull fragment, the forehead and two empty sockets. They were at the bottom of a vast hill of crushed and broken bones.
Jack shuddered. There was no way any of them wanted to climb back up that slope. He was about to lead them forward towards the red glow when a high-pitched noise from far above stopped him in his tracks. They all looked up into the darkness. The sound grew louder and higher, like a siren. Something sparked brightly as it fell towards them. Jack pulled Corriwen aside. Kerry snatched at Rionna, but she held her ground as the mysterious light plunged towards her.
At the last second she raised both hands and caught Megrin's staff.
Faint blue fire still rippled along its length. Its light reflected in her wide eyes.
Corriwen said. "She must have dropped it."
"Maybe she closed the gate with it," Rionna said. She planted the staff between her feet. "Perhaps the sun now shines in Uaine."
"That's all very well," Kerry snorted. "But it sure isn't shining down here."
Jack said nothing. He was thinking now. The Major had told him - and it seemed like years ago now - that there were no such things as coincidences, not in serious matters anyway. All of the wise folk they had met on their adventures had agreed on that.
The fact that he carried the Heartstone and the Book of Ways had proved not to be a coincidence. The heart had saved him many times on Temair and Eirinn. The Book of Ways had always led them true…and now it had consumed the Copperplates to stem their power. He and Kerry had met Corriwen Redthorn and together they had won through in Temair and in Eirinn. Now they had met Rionna, Bodron's daughter, who had brought Kerry to save them from the nightmare illusion in Megrin's cottage.
Jack's eyes were fixed on Megrin's staff, which Rionna held in both hands. Now they had the staff, and whatever power it might have left in it.
It couldn't be a coincidence. There must, he told himself, be a purpose.
And if there was a purpose, then there was hope. Maybe there was a way out of this.
Maybe…..
***
Behind them, a vast mound of broken bones. Ahead, the eerie glow and forward was the only direction they could take. The nearer they got to it, the thicker the fumes and the hotter it became.
As they came to the edge of a red pit, Jack realised there was nowhere to go and his heart sank. It was vast, a great hole from which smoke belched and fires far below glowed like lava.
"This is it," Kerry said, looking down at the fiery pit. "Dead end."
"There must be a way out," Corriwen said, but her voice was far from certain. She looked at Jack for confirmation.
Jack drew the Book of Ways from his bag. He laid it flat on the ground and watched as it flipped open. The pages whirred and then stopped. As he had on the table-stone he caught a glint of coppery gold and then the page turned white again.
The old script began to write itself.
Far from all the worlds of man
Journeyman must venture on
Brave the fire in circles steep
Brave the dark in cavern deep
Two deadly trials must you face
Until you find the final place
To meet the doom so long foretold
Yet traveller must now be bold
Whence none returned to tell the tale
With heartstone, book and staff prevail.
Kerry, Corriwen and Rionna all looked at him, waiting for his reaction. Jack rubbed his chin, thinking. The book had confirmed one thing: Megrin's staff was here for a purpose. As he had thought, there were no coincidences.
"I don't like the none-returned part," Kerry said.
"None returned so far," Corriwen countered, with more confidence than she felt. "We've won through until now, haven't we?"
"Well, I can't see a way out of here."
Jack wasn't listening. The words were running through his head. It had told them to venture on, which meant they couldn't go back. But the last line kept repeating itself, like a mantra.
With heartstone, book and staff prevail.
There must be hope, he told himself. There must. Jack edged towards the rim of the fiery pit, holding his arm against his face to ward off the heat. He looked down.
Circles steep.
He had to rub his eyes several times before he finally saw it. A narrow trackway made its way down in a spiral. It was little more than a ledge, but it followed the sides of the pit in a corkscrew shape into the depths. And just where it began to disappear into the fumes, Jack saw what he was looking for. A dark shape in the blasted stone. A hole in the rock. A cave. An exit?
He beckoned to Kerry. Corriwen and Rionna followed and Jack showed them the ledge and the hole in the cauldron wall.
"It's a chance," he said. "I don't know how good, but it's a chance. And I believe the book."
"Me too," Kerry said. "But one slip and we're toast."
"Just don't slip," Corriwen warned him. "Or I'll not be pleased!"
"That's all the warning I need, kid," Kerry grinned. "I'd rather face fire."
"Get serious," Jack said. "That's just what we have to do. And be careful."
They picked up their gear and Jack led the descent, followed the rim until they reached the narrow path. They made their way down, pressing themselves against the rock, both for safety and to shield themselves a little from the searing updraught of heat.
The distance was further than it had appeared from above. It took more than an hour of slow progress to get down to the level of the fissure.
***
It was no natural cavern, they soon discovered. Two ancient pillars marked an entrance, or an exit. Once inside, the four of them walked until they were far enough from the direct heat to begin to cool a little. Corriwen heard the splash of water and followed the sound until she found a small pool.
All four of them got down on their knees and drank until they could drink no more. Kerry ducked his head right under until he needed to breathe and came up spluttering.
"I never tasted water as good as that in my whole life," he declared. "Even in Rionna's world."
He was getting to his feet, when a voice boomed out without warning:
"Who dares trespass?"
Kerry got such a fright, he jerked back, missed his footing and fell on his backside in the middle of the pool.