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<title>The Shadowmaster - Chapter 31</title>
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<h1>31</h1>
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<p>
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The Dark Tower reached into the red sky. The closer they got, the more the heartstone shuddered. With every step, Jack was overwhelmed by a feeling of
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oppression.
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</p>
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<p>
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It stood, bleak as a tombstone. Around it, purple clouds swirled, and from high ledges, bat-winged things swooped and shrieked.
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</p>
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<p>
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"It is waiting," Jonathan Flint said, "because it knows the heartstone is near."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Then maybe we should take it as far away from here as we can," Kerry said.
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</p>
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<p>
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"No," Jack countered. "The Book said we had a chance to defeat it. <em>With staff, book and heart, prevail.</em> We've faced so much we can't give up now."
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</p>
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<p>
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His father gave him a measuring look, true pride shone in his eyes. "Perhaps not much of a chance," he said. "But a chance all the same. Remember those
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petrified heroes, turned to stone by its dead eyes, long ago. As I was. I fought it and beat it back, again and again, and each time it came out to do
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battle it was stronger. It has the strength of all the souls it has stolen. "It will use everything it has against us."
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</p>
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<p>
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When they finally reached the great bastion, standing in its shadow, Jack saw that the walls were not as featureless as they had appeared. Their surface
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was intricately carved with thousands of human skulls, row upon row, blindly leering at all who approached.
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</p>
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<p>
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Kerry stretched out his hand to touch one of the carvings and then jerked back with a cry of alarm as the skull's gaping mouth suddenly snapped shut.
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</p>
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<p>
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Corriwen's hands were shaking. She clasped Rionna's hand, feeling a powerful sense of dread swell inside her.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I feel its foulness," she said. "Like death. Like disease."
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</p>
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<p>
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"There's no way in," Jack said, scanning the walls.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Good," Kerry muttered. "Whatever's in there should stay there."
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</p>
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<p>
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"But I must find a way," Jonathan Flint said. He strode towards the wall, and stabbed his long spear into a hanging jaw. The skull rolled out onto the
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ground at their feet, jaw opening and closing as if trying to speak.
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</p>
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<p>
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For a moment nothing moved and then, without warning that part of the wall collapsed in a roar of skull grinding on skull. Jonathan Flint turned fast and
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swept them away from an avalanche of bone.
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</p>
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<p>
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A white dust took several minutes to clear. Corriwen and Rionna kept their arms over their mouths and noses so as not to breathe any of it in. Before them
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was a gap that cut through the skull wall.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I think a way has been opened for us," Jack's father said. He bent down and looked at them all. "I have to go in there, but you should wait here."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack shook his head, though his heart was pounding. "No. If you're going, so am I. We've come this far."
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</p>
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<p>
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Kerry stood with him, shoulder to shoulder m.
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</p>
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<p>
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"And I go with Jack," he said. "Always have, always will."
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</p>
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<p>
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"And I too," Corriwen declared. Rionna said nothing. She held tight to Corriwen's hand and nodded silently.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jonathan Flint took in a slow breath, turned, and walked into the fissure that led inside.
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</p>
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<p>
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Beyond the wall, nothing felt right. Jack felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and shivers ran down his back. Kerry's face was pale he
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looked as though he might faint. Corriwen muttered under her breath and Jack knew she was trying to ward off evil with a chant from Temair. This place
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reeked of rot and decay. All around them, they could hear a low moaning, the sound of a thousand people in despair, but they walked on. Jonathan Flint led
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the way, with the great spear on his shoulder, ready for battle. Kerry had loaded his sling and held the short-sword in one hand.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>Four is one... </em>
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Jack repeated the words from the Book to himself. <em>And now five. </em>They had to stay together, because whatever waited for them, waited with foul
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intent. And it wouldn't wait long.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack concentrated<em> </em>his thoughts on his mother, whose face he could not even recall. <em>Please let her be alive</em>, he whispered. His father
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clamped a hand on his shoulder. Despite his fear, despite the apprehension that clenched his stomach, that one touch gave him strength.
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</p>
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<p>
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"You have grown to be the man I always hoped," Jonathan Flint said in a soft voice. "If I don't get the chance later, you should know that now."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack nodded, but he was too tense, too scared, to feel anything at all.
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</p>
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<p>
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The breach in the wall opened into a vast amphitheatre, surrounded by a maze of passages. In the centre of this arena, a dark mound rose like an ancient
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tomb. Red light flickered, the only illumination. Rasping whispers invaded Jack's thoughts in words he could not understand. Corriwen clamped her hands to
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her ears, to block out the voices, but to no avail.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack followed close behind his father, as they worked their way through the maze, with Kerry at his shoulder, keeping Corriwen and Rionna behind them. As
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they walked the whispers became a low moaning as if the walls had soaked eons of suffering and pain.
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</p>
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<p>
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The sound increased with every step and troubling images flickered across Jack's consciousness: images of blood and death; of shadowy things grinning from
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corners; of some dark beast hunched and turning to fix him with dreadful eyes.
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</p>
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<p>
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Kerry shuddered. "I'm getting awful nightmares. I think I'm going mad."
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</p>
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<p>
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"It is toying with us," Jack's father said. "Wearing us down."
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</p>
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<p>
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Corriwen clapped her hands to her eyes. "Get out of my mind…get <em>out </em>of me!"
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</p>
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<p>
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When she took her hands away, her cheeks were streaked with tears. Rionna put her arm around her shoulders. To Kerry, she seemed the least affected, and he
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knew it was because she spent her life protecting herself from dark forces.
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</p>
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<p>
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The black mound hunched in the distance as they walked from the maze into the open.
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</p>
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<p>
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Without warning, three hooded shapes came at them from nowhere, shrieking like banshees.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>Nightshades</em>
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. In an instant Jack was back at the Major's house while the living dark flowed through the rooms like a disease. <em>Shadowmasters.</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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In seconds, the spectres were amongst them. Jack felt their numbing cold as he leapt to the side, instinctively swinging his sword. He glimpsed a wavering
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shape that seemed almost insubstantial, and within it, a skeletal face. The hand that reached for him was long and bony.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Don't let them touch you!" The darkness had touched him when he first fled through the ringstones, a foul contagion that had had to be burned out of his
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flesh.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jonathan Flint's spear jabbed, once, twice, fast strikes. The spectre screamed and when Jack's father pulled the spearpoint out, it folded in upon itself,
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disintegrating to fluttering scraps.
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</p>
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<p>
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Kerry and Corriwen were twisting and turning, Kerry hitting where he could and Corriwen trying to strike with a deadly arrow. The spectres were fast, but
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the pair were faster, keeping just out of reach.
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</p>
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<p>
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Corriwen drew Jack's bow and aimed. The arrow caught the spectre in its centre, slowing it down just enough for Kerry to slash down with the short sword.
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Purple sparks ran up and down his blade and he cried out in pain. Jonathan Flint stepped in and slammed his spear deep within the writhing figure. He
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pinned it to the ground, savagely twisting the weapon until it stopped moving.
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</p>
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<p>
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The third assailant came screeching at Rionna. She raised Megrin's staff and a jolt of blue light stopped the attack in mid-flight. Jack stepped past her
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and lashed out with the great sword. When the blade sliced, he felt a shock run up his arm, followed by an icy sensation of deep cold. He pulled the blade
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out and the nightshade imploded with a hiss.
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</p>
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<p>
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As they stood together, breathing hard, the shrouded figures on the ground crumpled into tatters that swirled around as if stirred by a wind and then
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drifted away.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>That's just the start,</em>
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Jack thought to himself.
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</p>
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<p>
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His father turned to him. "It was too easy. They were here to hold us up."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack nodded. It <em>had</em> been just the start. Before he could say anything, Kerry cocked his head.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Something's coming."
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</p>
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<p>
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"I hear it, " Corriwen said. She looked around wildly. Jack heard a faint scratching noise, like insects scuttling in a cellar. They all drew together,
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trying vainly to hear where it was coming from. The noise got louder with every second.
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</p>
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<p>
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Kerry saw it first. Jack though he could see grey shadow sweeping across the tangle of passageways. The heartstone throbbed, even more powerfully than
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before. Jonathan Flint raised his arm protectively to push them behind him.
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</p>
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<p>
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Then Jack saw it was no shadow, but a tide of creatures leaping and clambering along the walls of the maze, like a swarm of rats, but much bigger, and too
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fast for rats.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I don't like this," Kerry muttered, reaching again for his sword. "There's millions of them."
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</p>
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<p>
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Creatures came streaming like ants from all around, and there was nowhere to run. They were all shapes and sizes. Some with great pale eyes and some with
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no eyes at all, or mouths in the middle of thin chests. Some had two legs, some four and some six. Some had scales and others had slimy, oozing skin. But
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they all had one purpose and that was to destroy the five people who stood facing them.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack drew his sword with one hand. His left clutched the heartstone but as soon as he touched it a clear voice spoke, deep inside his head.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>Heart of my heart…soul of my soul.</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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The words the Sky Queen had used rang in his mind. His heart thudded. The voice was clear and gentle, like the Sky Queen's, but different. He opened his
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fingers and stared at the heartstone. It rippled with light. Vibrant colours spangled under its polished surface. Despite the approaching wave of horrors,
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he couldn't draw his eyes away. The light held him.
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</p>
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<p>
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Corriwen was saying something to him, but barely heard her. The sound of the advancing creatures had faded to the background. Colours flashed in front of
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his eyes and in their midst a face began to form.
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</p>
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<p>
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It was a heart-shaped, slender face with long, spun-gold hair. As majestic as the Sky Queen had been on Tara Hill, but younger.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>You returned. My journeyman.</em>
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The voice came from deep inside him.
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</p>
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<p>
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She was <em>beautiful.</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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Her eyes were closed, as if she was in deep sleep, but her voice, clear as crystal, tugged at him. A powerful sensation of love swept over him, and in that
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moment he knew that this was his mother.
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</p>
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<p>
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With a great effort, he dragged his attention away from the vision. The repulsive swarm of contorted creatures was still pouring towards them, shrieking
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and hissing. Jonathan Flint stalked forward to meet them, spear at the ready. Jack ran after him and grabbed his wrist.
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</p>
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<p>
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"She called me!"
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</p>
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<p>
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His father stopped in his tracks. His attention had been fixed on the advancing horde, but he turned to his son. Jack gripped him tight.
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</p>
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<p>
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"My mother. She <em>called </em>me. I must find her."
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</p>
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<p>
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Before Jonathan Flint could reply, Jack pressed the great sword into his free hand.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Stay alive," he begged. "I will find her. For us."
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</p>
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<p>
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With that he spun on his heel, not waiting to see his father's reaction or risk him holding him back. He hurried towards his friends. Corriwen and Kerry
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were staring at the multitude, tense and ready to fight. Rionna watched the three of them, lit by the soft glow from Megrin's staff.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I have to go," Jack told them. "Watch his back. Don't let them get him, not now."
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</p>
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<p>
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"You can't leave us now," Kerry protested. "Where are you going?"
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</p>
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<p>
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"My mother," Jack said. "She <em>is</em> alive."
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</p>
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<p>
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"How do you know?" Corriwen kept her eyes on the advancing monsters.
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack raised the heart. "She spoke to me. I <em>saw </em>her."
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</p>
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<p>
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"Then go," Corriwen said resolutely. "Find her. End your quest."
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</p>
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<p>
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Kerry agreed. "Yeah, Jack. Don't you worry," he said, with more bravado than certainty. His voice was shaky. "The things under my bed were ten times worse.
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We'll maulicate these boogers."
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</p>
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<p>
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"We stand here," Corriwen said very seriously. "Friends to the end."
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</p>
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<p>
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Jack hugged them both hard, stepped towards Rionna who had Megrin's staff braced in both hands.
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</p>
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<p>
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"I need light," he said. Rionna closed her eyes. He heard that faint clear note and the staff suddenly blazed with its blue fire. Rionna offered the staff
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to Jack and he took it in his hand and walked towards the squat stone mound in the centre of the amphitheatre, clutching the heartstone in his other hand.
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</p>
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<p>
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When he touched it, the wall dissolved under his fingers, shrinking from his warmth.
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</p>
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<p>
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He stepped forward and time seemed to stop. Behind him the cacophony of the approaching creatures slowed to a deep rumble and faded to silence. All Jack
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could hear was the beat of his own heart. For a few seconds he was in total darkness, then Megrin's light flared bright, illuminating a small circle around
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him.
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</p>
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