Escape from Labyrinth (Book I)
Three chapter preview of Book I of the High Realm Trilogy. A family-friendly trilogy of books for both adults and child readers.
An audio reading of the first four chapters of this book can be enjoyed here.
The book can be purchased on Amazon stores here.
Chapter One
AN UNEXPECTED PORTAL
It was a warm, sunny summer’s day in the village of Tolheath; a perfect day and one might have thought it would be a time to play ball games with friends, climb trees and get up to boyish mischief.
But not according to Sam’s parents. They had told him to go to Tolheath Village Library and take out a book for the summer, read it and write a lengthy review on it and give it to his tutor to read. So boring.
Sam didn’t think it was fair. His parents couldn’t read and spent most of their days working on the farm. Why had they asked their friend and neighbour, Jeremy, to teach him? Reading, writing and advanced mathematics clearly weren’t necessary for growing up.
Besides, he thought, walking up the country path, I already know how to write reviews of books! So why do I need to keep writing these reviews? If only I could do something exciting and actually important!
Sam wished he was sixteen-years old rather than twelve because then he would be able to make his own decisions. But for now he’d have to do what his parents said.
He looked towards the hills in the distance, he saw the boring local church on the foremost boring hill where everyone gathered to worship the World Maker who had allowed such a boring village to exist, the tired old bell was ringing.
Sam wanted to do something that was fun, something exciting. He wanted to go out into the world and go on some adventure. Perhaps he could try becoming Sir Wulf’s squire since he lived nearby and then he would get to have fun and do important things?
Anything would be better than writing book reviews! He thought as he approached the library. I wish I could go on some journey or adventure.
The library was a lovely building, made of dark-red stone from a local quarry, like all the houses in the village. The front of the building was impeccably clean and the sides were covered with green ivy which politely avoided smothering the clean white windows and shutters.
The library was only twenty years old and had been built after the king of High Realm had decreed that all villages in the kingdom should have easy access to books, especially books of learning. Only fifty years ago, such a decree would have been impossible to enact but the advent of printing machines had allowed for the mass production of books and Sam was lucky to benefit from both the king’s decree and the recent innovation of printing.
Sam entered through the library’s bright red door and was greeted by the cheery librarian Edith. She was one of the seven people in Tolheath who could read and that included Sam.
“Hello Samuel,” she said happily.
Sam almost cringed. Everyone seemed to think Sam was short for Samuel which it wasn’t. His parents had just named him Sam but Edith was so lovely and kind that he didn’t say anything.
“Hello Edith,” he said.
“Have you come to collect another book?” she asked, closing the romance novel she was reading.
“Yes,’ he said, “have any new ones come in?”
The library didn’t have a large collection of books it had to be said. There were a couple of books on animals (but they were written in a language that Sam couldn’t read) and some weird ones with lengthy titles placed in the Philosophy Section but they had really long words and seemed to be just about people giving their opinion on things. Boring!
Then there was the Fictional Section. Over the past two years Sam had read all of the interesting books in that section and he didn’t want to pick up something really long and lengthy as it would take more time to write a report on it.
“Yes,” said Edith, “we have just had a new batch in recently. Most of them are academic works but there is one fictional book. It’s the blue one, I’ve put it on the novel shelf.”
“Thanks,” said Sam.
He made his way towards the novel shelf and began searching for it. He found it very quickly. The spine of the book held its title: Labyrinth. It looked to be a short book, it was rather thin and not very tall.
Brilliant! Sam thought taking it off the wooden shelf, I’m sure it will be a quick read. Very easy to finish and write a report on.
He lifted it and opened the pages.
Strange, he thought, there is no chapter list.
He flicked through the pages but there was no writing at all. There weren’t even pictures, all the pages were blank.
There must be a mistake, Sam thought.
As Sam turned his head towards the counter to ask Edith why the book was blank, he felt a glow on his face from below.
He looked down and saw that the book no longer had blank pages. They had strange symbols on them which Sam did not recognize. They were golden and they were shining brightly and the paper itself was emitting a fuzzy light!
Sam probably should have felt scared and dropped the book. In fact, if he had done so at that moment, perhaps he would have been spared from the great adventure he was unwillingly pulled into. But instead of feeling fear, Sam only felt curiosity and looked at the book in silence, transfixed by the symbols which appeared to be spinning and twirling across the paper. He’d never seen a book do this before and it was fascinating to watch.
He heard Edith say something but her voice was cut off abruptly and Sam had the sensation that he was somewhere else. He looked up from the glowing book and shrieked in shock.
He was somewhere else! The library and its wooden shelves, rich red walls, musty books and big windows letting in golden sunbeams were replaced with cold grey walls which were illuminated by a strange, dim, bluey-grey light.
The book slipped from Sam’s hands and he felt his head start spinning as he twirled around, trying to take in his new surroundings. But he couldn’t, it was too much! He couldn’t tell the shape of the room, where the light was coming from, how many exits and entrances there were and where the walls and ceiling met.
Sam’s brain was simply overloaded with too much new information and far too quickly. He stumbled backwards and fell onto the floor. His breathing was out of control and his heart was pounding furiously. He was starting to feel scared and sick all at once. Then he saw the book lying right next to him.
He snatched it off the ground and opened it again.
The shining golden symbols were gone but the paper was still glowing softly, although Sam was aware that the light was dimming. In this foreign and dark place, the book was the only source of familiarity and warm light so Sam held it close and looked at it for comfort.
After doing so for a few minutes, he’d calmed down significantly and was able to look around the room. It was square, made of grey stone, completely enclosed apart from one passageway ahead of him. He still couldn’t figure out where the strange light was coming from though.
Where am I? He thought, looking around the room again.
He looked down at the book on his lap, it had now stopped glowing and looked like a normal book.
But it can’t be normal, Sam thought looking at the book, it must be magical.
Sam didn’t know much about magic but his parents, friends, neighbours and tutor had told him enough about it. Those with the ability and the talent could learn to use magic for many things, including creating portals and teleporting objects or people. It made sense to him that someone had enchanted the book so that anyone who opened it would be teleported to this room.
Although there was an alternate explanation.
“I must be dreaming,” Sam said aloud.
This made more sense than magic, Sam reasoned. After all, who would want to take anyone from his village? Nobody of any importance lived there and nobody did anything worthwhile.
“I must be dreaming,” Sam repeated, reassuring himself, “I’ll wake up soon. Nothing this exciting ever happens to me!”
So he sat there waiting for this dream of his to do something bizarre, because his dreams normally made no sense and random things tended to happen. Like that time he dreamt he was in a land of sand and he told someone next to him that they were in a desert and the person misheard him and thought he said dessert and then the desert turned into an enormous cake.
Sam might have sat there for hours waiting for something dreamlike to happen before realizing that he was not actually in a dream. However, he soon had an experience that proved to him he was not asleep in his bedroom.
While he was sitting there, he became aware of a gust of warm air hitting his back. Not nice and warm like that of a summer breeze but instead hot and moist and similar to breath. Sam did not have time to turn around and see where this sudden gust came from because he immediately felt something heavy and hairy tap his shoulder.
He shouted, jumped to his feet and turned around all at once. Freezing in terror at the sight of the creature before him.
It stood at five-feet tall and had eight, hairy, spindly legs attached to a brown bulbous body, and was looking at him with four, bright-red eyes, devoid of emotion and warmth. Below its ugly head, two, black, woolly fangs twitched.
Sam had never seen a spider this big in his life and he had never felt so terrified. Although he could feel himself sweating, he felt as cold as stone.
The spider lifted one of its limbs and suddenly Sam’s legs sprang to life. He turned and ran through the passageway ahead of him. He sensed the monstrosity scuttle after him and he ran even faster.
The passageway was long and Sam wasn’t sure that in a straight run he’d be able to outpace the creature. However, there were other passageways linked to the corridor and he turned down the first one he saw.
Sam never looked back to see if the spider was still chasing him because he could hear it. The monstrous spider not only made shuffling sounds but a horrible shrieking noise as well. So he knew that it was still chasing him as he ran down passageway after passageway. Every time he came across a new opening, he ran down it. The number of passageways seemed endless and he had no idea where he was going but his instincts told him to keep running and not stop until his legs gave out from under him.
Then he turned down another passageway and found to his dismay that it ended in a cold stone wall.
He began hitting it as if he expected it to give way but it was useless and his hands were soon in agony. He turned around, feeling weak and desperate.
The spider was standing at the opening of the passageway but it wasn’t looking at him. It was looking down the corridor ahead with its red, beady eyes. Sam froze. It hadn’t seen him yet and it was possible that it would continue down the current passageway giving him a chance to escape.
Sam stood still and prayed that the spider wouldn’t turn its head and see him.
The spider stood still for a surprising amount of time, not a muscle moving in its body or a hair on its cuticle. Finally, it turned, not to look at Sam, but instead to climb the opposite wall. It looked weird to see a spider this large climb up a wall but it did and soon it was out of sight.
A minute or two passed before Sam could accept his lucky escape and he fell to his knees shaking and shivering all over, singing praises to the World Maker in his heart. After lying on the floor for what seemed like hours recovering from running, he began to crawl up the passageway again.
He kept his eyes on the ceiling and moved cautiously. He was terrified that the spider might be up on the wall waiting for him to come out and this was really a clever ambush.
However, when Sam reached the end of his little passageway and reconnected with the one he had just left, he couldn’t see the spider. It wasn’t on the ceiling, the walls or at either end of the passageway. This confused Sam, he had clearly seen it climb the wall and go out of sight onto the ceiling.
It can’t have walked down the passageway, Sam thought, I would have heard it.
Sam wondered what he should do. He didn’t know where any of these passages led and he didn’t even know where he was. The stonework of each wall was so similar. There were no marks, signs or anything. For all he knew, he could have actually run around in a circle trying to get away from the spider.
He didn’t want to go back the way he’d came (not that he knew exactly where he had come apart from the vague direction), in case he bumped into the spider again.
As Sam stood there, he heard the sound of rock grinding against rock. He turned around and saw that the wall’s dead end, which he had been hitting just a few minutes ago, was moving. Or rather, the individual stones were moving and rearranging themselves into an open archway.
Sam’s jaw dropped. The stones had now finished moving and had formed an arched entrance into another room. It looked like the chamber he had been teleported into but it was bigger and more brightly lit (although that could have just been his imagination).
He barely thought about it before he started walking towards the entrance. He didn’t know anything about the room but it took him further away from wherever the spider was hiding and he knew he didn’t want to encounter it again.
As he stepped through the archway and into the new room, he heard the stones moving behind him again. He looked and sure enough, the doorway was turning back into a wall.
Good, Sam thought, now the spider won’t be able to follow me.
He turned and then fell backwards in horror. There standing just five feet away was the spider glaring at him with those emotionless red eyes, its fangs quivering.
Sam hadn’t heard or seen it when he had entered the room but somehow it was here! He scrambled back to the wall desperately hoping the doorway might reappear but, of course, it did not.
He wanted to cry in terror but he was struggling to move at all and he couldn’t seem to blink as he looked at the hairy monster in front of him.
Then he stopped breathing as the spider bent its legs. It was preparing to jump!
Sam’s life started to flash before his eyes; images of his village went through his mind and right now he’d have done anything to be back there and be bored. Adventure was not all it was cracked up to be.
The spider leapt through air towards him. He fell to the ground and curled up into a ball, his arms wrapped around his head and neck. Not even able to scream in terror.
He waited for the spider to land on top of him and for the inevitable bite he was destined to have by those fangs.
But nothing happened.
He waited for a minute unable to move. Then as his muscles relaxed and he mustered the courage to open his eyes, he looked.
The spider was gone.
Chapter Two
THE SPOOK IN THE JAR
Sam still had no idea where he was but he felt like he was losing his mind.
For a while he wasn’t able to figure out how the spider had disappeared. He had come to the conclusion that it was either an illusion or his imagination. Considering the magical nature of the place, he decided it had to be an illusion. He wondered whether the spider that had chased him and the one he had met in the new room were the same. He concluded that they were different spiders however, because the first spider had actually touched him and he had felt its breath on his back. So it seemed that some of the spiders in the maze were real and others fake.
But it wasn’t only some of the spiders which were fake. Several times, Sam approached doors that had appeared in the walls and when he had tried to walk through them, his face hit a wall. Now he made sure to feel first with his hands to avoid any possible bruises.
Because he could not trust his eyes to tell him what was real or not, Sam felt particularly vulnerable. Thoughts such as “what if one of the real spiders is disguised as a wall” or “what if I mistake a real spider for a fake one” kept popping into his mind and he had to do his best to ignore them and push onward.
However, although he knew his goal, leave this strange maze and get back home to Tolheath, he had no idea whether he was getting closer to escaping or not. Every passageway, every doorway, even the individual stones themselves looked the same. The same dim, bluey light lit all the featureless rooms and passages and he could not tell the passing of time. He had no idea how long he had been there, it might have been a day or just a few hours.
All he knew was that resting was too dangerous and although he felt tired, he certainly did not feel like sleeping. With giant spiders wandering the passages, he could not afford to let his guard down.
This constant need to look out for danger was taking its toll on him though. The whole thing was made infinitely worse by the size of the passages. Every hallway was uniform in shape and size, the ceilings remained six-feet tall and the width of the passages was always five feet. Every passageway looked exactly the same as the previous one. Sam felt heavy from the claustrophobia and had to control his breathing carefully.
The longer he spent searching the maze of passages, the more he trembled, shook and felt like breaking down in tears. While stopping to cry had the potential to relieve some tension, Sam was intelligent for his age and knew that, if he did, he would be crippled by emotion and unable to continue moving for a long time, leaving him an easy meal for roaming giant spiders.
Sam had something to distract himself though from the claustrophobia and even the imminent danger he was in and that was the maze itself. He knew there had to be some kind of pattern. Nobody made mazes without a way to get out, he reasoned, if he could figure out the pattern, he would be able to escape and go home to Tolheath.
At first, he had no idea how to keep track of all the archways he had walked through or all the passages he had come down, until he found a sharp stone lying on the floor.
Sam’s attention had been caught by it immediately because it was the only separate piece of anything in the entire maze. All the passageways were clean of rubble and debris and yet, by good fortune, he’d found something on the floor that was not part of the maze but separate, individual and independent. Like him, it was a lonely and abandoned stranger in an eerily uniform construction.
But it wasn’t only because of the strange connection Sam had with the stone that he picked it up. It was also because of its usefulness as a marker. When Sam passed through an archway, he made sure to scratch a number on either side and when he went down a new passage, he would mark an arrow on one of the stones pointing to an archway he had come through with the number scratched above it.
He had gone through three doors and marked them all and although he still didn’t know where the way out was, he knew where he was in the maze and that made him feel better about his predicament. Marking the walls with the stone, he learnt new things about the maze. The first was that the archways would reappear at different times allowing him to go back into old areas he had already come from. The second was that every single passageway either ended in a doorway, a room or a dead-end and any dead-end or room could have an archway magically appear in it.
Despite wandering through different archways for what must have been hours, Sam did not come across any giant spiders again, real or fake, but the fear of meeting one was rooted in the back of his mind and every new passageway, archway and room was entered with tension.
It was as he was going back from a room he had dubbed “David” -he had started naming the chambers so he wouldn’t confuse them with the numbered doorways- that he saw the stones at the end of one of the passageways start to form an archway. He watched until the archway was complete and saw that it led to another chamber not just any chamber however, but one with a pedestal inside it.
Maybe there is something on it to help me get out of here! Sam thought, his whole being filled with hope.
He ran to the archway, scratched a number “4” on one of the stones and marched through it. After scratching another “4” on the other side, he turned to look at the pedestal in the middle of the new room.
It was curious, the pedestal had nothing on it but a black glass jar and next to it, a messy pile of cloths lying on the floor. Sam looked around the room before inching closer to the centre of it. There were no other passages in this room, the archway behind him had to be the only entrance into the chamber, at least for now.
The glass jar resembled a jam jar stuffed with sticky black jam and Sam paid little attention to it. He was more interested in the pile of cloths on the floor; the maze wasn’t cold but it wasn’t warm either and extra clothes could be useful. He was surprised to find that the pile of cloths actually was a pile of clothes. But…
“Oh no,” he groaned picking up one of the articles of clothing.
It was a dark purple dress with a couple of yellow stars stitched on it. Not only was it for a girl but it was also too small for him to wear. He looked on the ground, the only other two pieces of clothing were a small pair of bright pink mittens and a dark blue shoulder cape with a hood.
None of these would fit him except the cape so he decided to put it on. But as he picked it up…
“Hello.”
Sam leapt around and dropped the cape when he heard the voice.
“Hey you’re real!” it was the voice of a girl. “You have to be! You’re touching my clothes!”
He looked around the room but he couldn’t see anyone, girl or otherwise.
“Where are you?” he asked, confused.
“I’m in the jar.”
Sam turned to look at the jar on the pedestal. He noticed now that it wasn’t actually coloured black but contained what looked like swirling black smoke. Then in the smoke of the jar, two white glowing orbs appeared and looked up at him like a pair of eyes.
He looked at them; the eyes in the jar completely emotionless.
“Hey,” the jar said.
Then it was as if Sam had been struck by lightning. He yelled, fell onto the floor and scrambled backwards until he was touching the wall; his eyes fixated on the jar and its contents with a terrified curiosity.
He knew what was in the jar, his mother had told him stories about these spirits…
“Spook!” he stammered.
“What? Wait. No! I’m not a spook!” the shadows in the jar said.
“Oh yes you are!” Sam said. “You’re the perfect example of one! Dark and shadowy!”
Those two white orbs were unblinking and seemed to be staring into Sam’s soul and the more he looked at them, the more frightened he became.
“I’m not a spook!” the shadows replied, a tone of desperation in the voice.
“Just what a spook would say!” Sam said.
“Please listen,” the voice pleaded, “I’ve been trapped here for… I don’t know how long! Please, I’m not a spook, I don’t want to hurt you and it is really cramped in here. Please let me out.”
“What so you can haunt my dreams?!” Sam asked accusingly. His mother had told him about two twins whose dreams had been haunted by a spook. They had such terrible nightmares that the two twins decided never to sleep again and after two weeks of no sleep, they died from exhaustion. Sam knew he had to sleep at some point and that would be difficult enough without a spook hovering over him.
“I can’t haunt anyone’s dreams!” the shadows replied, “I can only inhabit clothes! Please set me free.”
“No,” said Sam, “you’re an evil spook and you can stay in there!”
Sam turned, deciding he’d had enough of the room and headed towards archway No 4. However, the archway was gone and the only thing on that wall was the number he had scratched into the stonework.
“No please don’t leave!” the voice cried, Sam could have sworn he heard fear and desperation in that voice and it touched his heart a little. But he shook his head violently and removed all thoughts of helping the spirit from his mind.
It’s acting, he thought, don’t be fooled. It is an evil thing and is probably using a girl’s voice to try and trick me into helping it.
“What would it take to persuade you I’m not a spook?” the shadows in the jar asked suddenly.
Sam didn’t turn to look at the jar on the pedestal but kept his eyes fixed on the wall where the archway would eventually reappear. In truth, he didn’t know. At the moment, the spook was seemingly trapped in a jar and couldn’t do anything, if (and that was a big “if” in his mind) the spook wasn’t actually a spook, he would only be able to find out if he opened the jar and so risk being haunted.
“If you don’t try haunting me when I open the jar,” he said, “that would prove to me you’re not a spook.”
“Does this mean you will let me out?” the shadows asked hopefully, “because I can’t haunt you! Even if I could, I wouldn’t!”
“I didn’t say that,” Sam replied.
There was silence as Sam had nothing more to say and the spook was clearly trying to figure out what else to say to convince him to free it.
“Well,” said the shadows, “if you won’t free me. Could you please take me with you? You don’t have to open this jar, I won’t even try escaping, I promise. Please, I just want to see my mum and dad again. Please take me with you. I won’t even speak if you don’t want me to. Please.”
Sam was about to laugh at this suggestion but as he thought about it, he decided it might not be a bad idea. If the shadows were a spook, then the jar was clearly able to keep it contained, otherwise, it would have charged at him. So touching the jar shouldn’t be dangerous, he reasoned. And Sam had a clear reason to take the jar, although he didn’t want to admit it, the sense of loneliness he felt in this place was wearing him down and having a companion, however evil, would make him feel less lonely.
He was about to turn around and ask another question before finally making up his mind, when something moved out of the corner of his eye. He looked towards the movement and saw that in the top right corner of the room, next to the ceiling, the stones were moving aside to form a dark entrance.
A large one.
Sam watched with interest which quickly turned into horror as he saw crawling out of it, a giant spider!
He shouted in terror and swung his head around, looking for an exit. But still no archway had appeared or reappeared. He was trapped!
The spider still standing on the wall, turned its head and looked at him with its red eyes. Sam stepped back as the creature began creeping its way down the wall towards the floor.
“Oh World Maker help me,” he managed to pray as he stumbled backwards into the pedestal.
“Free me!” the shadows yelled.
He glanced at the jar now wobbling on the pedestal from where he had brushed against it.
“I can help!” the shadows said as the spider crawled towards them in a patient manner, its fangs clicking and snapping together.
Sam grabbed the jar and tried unscrewing the lid. His dread of spooks suddenly gone and replaced with the fear of death by giant spider. The spider was getting closer and closer, not wasting any energy as it closed in on its prey. As hard as Sam tried, he could not get the metal lid off the jar, his hands were too sweaty.
He kept retreating backwards, his eyes always on the huge spider and then in desperation and panic he lifted the jar above his head and threw it as hard as he could onto the floor in front of him.
He never saw the jar shatter because as soon as it made contact with the floor, the shadows flew up into the air past his face and towards the pedestal. From there they flowed into the clothes on the ground. The clothes then began to rise about half a foot off the ground and rearrange themselves into a human-like form. The dress with sleeves rose off the ground first and then the shoulder cape came down on top of it, the hood lifted up. The mittens, however, didn’t attach themselves to the sleeves of the dress but floated about half an inch or so away from the ends of the sleeves. From behind and at a distance, it would be easy to mistake the floating clothes for a girl dressed up for cold weather but for the fact that the dress was floating less than half a foot from the ground and the shadowy, vaporous tendrils which were visible underneath the petticoat skirt.
The spider had stopped moving when it saw the jar shatter on the floor and was now eyeing the floating clothes and was preparing to leap at them. Then a sleeve with a mitten hovering at the end, rose, pointing at the spider.
What happened next, Sam almost had difficulty believing. A flash of lightning flew out of the mitten and struck the spider in the face causing the arachnid to fall on its back.
The creature was still alive, shrieking in pain and rolling across the floor, its legs flailing everywhere. Sam knew intuitively that it would be back on its feet shortly and he had to get out of there fast. As he thought this, he heard the sound of stones moving behind him. He turned and saw an archway forming in what was once a solid stone wall.
“Come on!” he yelled running through the archway.
The spook (although Sam was now certain it wasn’t a spook) turned to look at him. The hood was filled with a pure darkness, except for the two bright white orbs which had to be its eyes. It blinked and then floated towards him and followed him through the archway.
They ran down the passageway, although Sam knew they were safe, because the archway was too small for a spider that big to fit through, he didn’t stop running until he had turned around a corner.
“I think we’re safe now,” he said, halting at a dead-end.
He turned to look at the shadowy form now inhabiting the clothes, which was looking at him. The face was unreadable of course. Then Sam could have sworn he saw the orbs grow bigger and brighter before the form flew towards him at speed.
Sam thought for a second that he had made a terrible mistake and he was about to be haunted or possessed, but a moment later he realized that the shadowy thing was hugging him.
“Thank you!” she said. “Thank you so much!”
Sam didn’t know what to do, he’d never received a hug from anyone like this. Awkwardly, he decided it would only be polite to hug back. It was very strange, it was like hugging a soft, flexible balloon. He felt that if he hugged the dress too hard, he’d squeeze the shadow out of the clothes.
Meanwhile, the shadowy creature kept thanking him.
“Thank you, thank you,” she kept saying.
“Enough of that,” said Sam, his face growing red.
He pushed her off him and was surprised to find that despite the fact she was floating, he was about half a head taller than her.
“I’ve got to ask,” he said, “what’s your name and what are you?”
Chapter Three
THE GIRL AND THE COLOSSUS
The shadowy creature introduced herself quite well.
“My name’s Stella,” she replied, “I’m a shadow wisp. You must be a human.”
“Yes,” said Sam, “my name’s Sam.”
They shook hands.
“Nice to meet you,” said Stella, “Sam must be short for Samuel, right?”
“No,” said Sam irritated.
“Oh okay,” said Stella, not put off by his harsh tone. “How did you get here?”
Sam told his story to Stella and then asked for hers.
“I was in the woods,” she said, “collecting flowers when I came across that jar in a grove. Well, I thought, that’s something I can put my flowers in so I went to pick it up. As soon as I touched it, I was sucked out of my clothes and into the jar and teleported to the pedestal. My clothes came with me as well, luckily.”
“Do you need clothes?” Sam asked.
Stella looked at him and if she could make human facial expressions, Sam guessed she’d be looking at him with a look of surprise or indignation.
“Of course,” she said, “how else am I supposed to pick flowers and give hugs?”
Sam had to admit that in her gaseous form it would be difficult to do anything of that sort. They decided that they shouldn’t stay standing where they were for too long and they continued the search for a way out of the maze. As they followed various passageways, Sam tried asking Stella what she knew about the maze, hoping for useful information. Unfortunately, she knew even less than he did, she’d been trapped in a jar for all of her time in that room. However, she did know something about the illusions of the place.
“They can talk,” she said, “while I was in the jar, humans came into the room and I would ask them to free me. They always said they would, if I could answer this riddle or answer that question. No matter what I said, they would laugh and then they’d be gone in the blink of an eye. It was horrible but I almost enjoyed it because I was so lonely in that jar and I wanted someone to talk to.”
“Really?” Sam asked. “The illusionary spider I saw didn’t make any noise.”
“Maybe the illusions are made for different people,” said Stella, “someone could be watching us right now and deciding what illusions to make.”
Sam shivered at that thought. The idea of some wizard watching his every step and move was unnerving and chilling, it meant that whoever it was could wait until they were vulnerable and then strike unexpectedly.
“How did you know I was real?”
“Oh I didn’t at first,” Stella said, “but then I saw you picking up my clothes and none of the other illusions did that. All of them would just walk up to the jar, stand very still in front of me and ask questions. You went straight for the clothes and when I said “hello” you looked around the place not sure where I was. So I knew you had to be a real person.”
An archway appeared in front of them and Sam scratched a number “6” on one of the stones and walked through.
“Why did you scratch a mark on the stone?” Stella asked following him.
“I didn’t scratch a mark, I scratched a number,” Sam replied scratching another “6” on the other side.
“Which number?” Stella asked.
“Six,” Sam replied, “don’t you know how to read numbers?”
“No.”
“Oh,” Sam said a little surprised, “numbering the archways will help us find our way and not get lost.” He explained.
They continued down some more passageways and found a few more empty rooms and Sam named and numbered them. As they continued, he and Stella talked about numerous things (she was quite the chatterbox). From their conversations, he learnt that shadow wisps originally came from the clouds in the sky, given life by a falling star, and had settled in forests across High Realm and this was why they could shoot lightning at attackers.
“Wait, so you were clouds and then a falling star brought you to life?” Sam asked.
“Yes,” said Stella, “well it did some four hundred or so years ago. But not to me. I’m not four hundred years old.”
“And you can shoot lightning?”
“Yes. Not very often. It is quite tiring. When I get older I’ll be able to use lightning more.”
“But according to my tutor a falling star created humans as well,” said Sam, “so why can’t I shoot lightning?”
Stella was quiet for a moment.
“I don’t know,” she said, “I just know that shadow wisps can.”
After walking for what had to be hours, Sam said that he needed to sleep and Stella happily agreed to keep watch. She’d told him that shadow wisps only needed to sleep a few hours and she’d done an awful lot of sleeping in the jar to pass time. When they found a suitable corner, Sam laid his head down and quickly fell into a dreamless sleep. It wasn’t because the floor was comfortable that he fell asleep in just a few moments, it was because Sam was exhausted after running and walking for hours on end without any sort of break.
He didn’t know how long he had slept but upon waking he felt much rested and better than before. Stella was still awake and was floating around in circles, she quickly saw that he was up.
“Oh good you’re awake,” she said, “it’s so boring without someone to talk to!”
Sam felt kind of thirsty as he got to his feet and realized with some fear that he had no idea where to find food or water.
What if we die of hunger before we escape this place, he thought.
He shared his concerns with Stella but she didn’t seem very worried.
“I’m sure we’ll find something,” she said, “some food must be here, otherwise how would the spiders survive?”
Sam wondered whether the spiders survived by eating people trapped in the maze, like him and Stella, but he didn’t share this thought.
After wandering for maybe an hour in this section of the maze, an archway appeared in one of the passageways, Sam numbered it (“14”) and then they walked through it and into a new room. Immediately, they noticed something strange.
“It’s really dark in here,” Stella remarked.
She was right, the dim, blueish light that had lit all the other passages and rooms was gone. Instead, there was a reddish light coming from the ceiling and it wasn’t nearly as bright.
“It is,” said Sam bringing the sharp stone out of his trouser pocket to number the other side of the door.
He placed his hand on the wall and immediately pulled it back in surprise.
“Wait!” he exclaimed, “this is metal!”
They both looked. Excluding the stone archway, the whole wall was metal. Looking around they could tell, even in the gloom, that all the walls had a metallic shine to them. Except for the wall to their right which was still made of stone.
Towards the back of the room, they could see what looked like small pillars, they didn’t reach the ceiling and only stood about six feet tall. Intrigued by these, Sam and Stella walked towards them and began to examine them. It turned out they weren’t exactly pillars, but more like stone blocks placed on top of each other, looking down they realized they had come from the floor. Someone or something had chiselled the stones out of the floor and piled them on top of each other.
“This is strange…” said Sam walking between them.
“They seem to be in a circle surrounding that.” Stella pointed.
Sam drew his attention away from the blocks and looked to where she was pointing. Only six feet away from him was a very large, roundish, black shape in the middle of the room about ten feet tall but neither he nor Stella could tell what it was in the dim light.
Sam was about to suggest they approach it cautiously when a white, bright light lit up near the top of the shape, dazzling their eyes. When their eyes had adjusted to the piercing light they saw what looked like a bright-red, comfy armchair atop a flat, level platform on the large shape (which was made of black shiny metal). In front of the armchair was a round table made of wood which was holding a teapot and a couple of teacups; both the armchair and the table appeared to be built into the flat platform. The light was coming from a big crystal above the armchair, however, it wasn’t attached to the flat level platform but to the round metal back behind it.
All of this Sam and Stella perceived more or less subconsciously but they were consciously aware of how terrified they were upon seeing who was sitting in the armchair. Both Sam and Stella yelled in fright and instinctively clutched each other, although Sam would later say he hadn’t been scared and just grabbed Stella’s arm and shoulder to make her feel better. The occupant of the armchair was a little girl, she was perhaps the creepiest little girl they had ever seen. The cold, white light in cooperation with her long, messy, raven-black hair hid her eyes and shrouded her face in an insidious darkness. The dirty-white, sleeveless, plain dress she was wearing just added to the creepy appearance and there was the sense of the unnatural about her, despite the fact she was hugging a teddy bear with one of her arms.
However, once the girl yawned, Sam and Stella felt very embarrassed about their reaction. But in their defence this was quite a sudden appearance by the stranger and would have startled an adult even. They took their arms off each other and watched the girl start raising herself from the chair. Sam guessed she was nine or ten but she did not move like someone who was that young, there was a lack of energy and urgency to her movements and every action seemed deliberate and planned. Her hair which had appeared to be totally unkempt actually had some signs of being groomed but it was still messy and clearly needed to be acquainted with a hairbrush. Half her hair fell down in front of her face but the other half was tied with a large, white ribbon so that it fell behind her ears and back.
The girl moved some hair out of her dark brown eyes and looked at Sam and Stella. She had a pale face and large bags under her eyes; she didn’t look like she got much sleep at all.
She looked at them in a disinterested manner, then reached for a pouch which was hanging off a brown belt she was wearing around her waist. She pulled out something and then, lifting her arm back, she threw it. The thing was small but clearly metal and it flew through the air before hitting Stella on the top of her blue hood. It bounced off her and hit the floor and Sam realized it was a metal nut.
“Hey what was that for?” Stella asked indignantly.
Sam felt something hit his shoulder and he looked to see another metal nut rolling onto the floor.
“I see,” said the girl on the armchair, “you’re all real.”
She spoke very softly and quietly, neither Sam nor Stella heard her at first, until she repeated herself.
Stella picked up one of the metal nuts and tossed it at the girl before Sam could stop her. It bounced off the girl’s head.
“Stella!” Sam exclaimed.
“You’re real too!” said Stella happily, as if she hadn’t done something so impolite. “But isn’t it clear we’re real?”
“That’s what the last illusion asked,” the girl replied unfazed, “they keep coming to talk to me and try to approach me or Herbert. But whenever they get close they just walk through us. Clearly illusions.” She stood up from her armchair, putting the teddy bear down. “So I formed a hypothesis that the illusions could not actually perceive anything but sound and I asked Herbert to build those pillars. The tests were conclusive, the illusions would just walk through the pillars while real spiders would walk around them.
Quaestio: hypothesis, experimentum, inquisitio, arbitrium.”
“My current hypothesis is that whoever is responsible for these illusions has only a few illusion types which can only perform a set number of actions according to limited stimuli,” the girl continued, “I’ve been keeping an account of what each illusionary person looks like and what their answers are to certain questions. Alas the number of illusionary persons approaching us has decreased but the number of spiders fake and real has increased.”
Sam and Stella looked at each other very much confused. They had barely understood anything the girl had said, other than the bits where she had been visited by lots of illusionary people.
“Err… interesting,” Sam said, not sure how to respond.
“We’ve been making marks on archways,” Stella said, “well Sam has. Not me. I’m Stella and it’s nice to meet you.”
“I’m called Morgana,” the girl said, “I shall come down. I just need to wake up Herbert.”
Sam thought that Herbert had to be her teddy bear. But she didn’t pick it up again. Instead, she knelt on the platform and lowered her head over its edge.
“Herbert, wake up,” she whispered.
Gears turning, the sound of a giant awakening and heavy metal moving into motion were heard in the order described. The noises of a hot fire fanning itself emitted from near the floor and then there was a flash of white light blinding Sam and Stella for a couple of seconds. The light dimmed and their eyes adjusted to see a large, rectangular-shaped, angled, metal head containing a flat plane of glass that was the source of the light.
There was the sound of metal components moving and the head turned to look down on them. The head didn’t move after this but it was rising higher off the floor, in fact the platform Morgana was kneeling on (which was situated above the mechanical head) was rising too, along with the whole round metal shape. Then Sam saw it, far back, attached to the bottom of the metal body was what looked like a big metal corkscrew which was heating up the air around it, turning it fuzzy and thick. The corkscrew was lifting the entire metal behemoth off the ground for about a foot until it was hovering in the air.
Again there was the sound of metal components turning but it wasn’t the head that was moving, it was something beneath it. Then out from underneath the metal body came a dozen or so long metal arms with mining picks attached. They gleamed in the light coming from the mechanical head and Sam and Stella leapt back in fright upon seeing these deadly tools.
The metal creature was completely still and now, no longer distracted by the various moving components of the thing in front of him, Sam saw that (in spite of the platform and the fact it was hovering) it resembled a shiny, black beetle. A beetle which was ten feet tall and easily six feet wide. Both he and Stella stood there in shock.
“Help me down,” Morgana said, lowering her legs over the side of the platform, “and reheat the tea please.”
Four arms of the metal creature moved upwards to the platform which was six feet off the ground. The first two arranged themselves beneath Morgana’s feet, the picks turned sideways so they would not cut through her dirty white slippers. She stepped onto them and the arms moved gently down towards the floor and in front of Sam and Stella. The second pair of arms at the same time moved towards the table where the tray with the teapot and cups was sitting. Carefully and deliberately the picks on the arms slid underneath the tray and lifted it off the table and then carried it down beneath the body to where the corkscrew device was. Something seemed to open next to the corkscrew and the tray went up inside the metal body.
“So this… is Herbert?” Stella asked surprised.
“Yes,” said Morgana, stepping off the arms and onto the floor, “he and I have been friends a year now.”
“What exactly is he?” Sam asked as he watched the arms of the metal creature move back into position beneath its head.
“He is a colossus,” Morgana said, “a colossus specifically developed for mining. At the academy, I found him in one of the old, collapsed copper mines which I used to explore. I and some colleagues managed to bring him out and repair him.”
“Academy?” Sam asked. “What academy did you come from and how did you get here?”
“Gretel’s Academy for Gifted Orphans,” Morgana replied.
“You don’t have any parents?” Stella asked, sadly. “I’m so sorry.”
She moved closer to Morgana and hugged her. Morgana stood motionless and didn’t hug her back.
“Herbert and I were walking next to the wall of the academy and we came across a boot,” she said, looking at Sam, “when Herbert hovered over it we were teleported into a room inside this labyrinth. I still have the boot.”
Morgana patted a pouch on her belt, an action not made simple by Stella who was still hugging her.
“Naturally, we wanted to escape,” she said, “I reasoned that if we went in one direction constantly, we would come out of this labyrinth. So I asked Herbert to mine forwards and we smashed our way through the walls. Thus circumventing the puzzle of the mazes. The stones in the walls kept repairing themselves but Herbert was too fast for the enchantments. We then ended up here and as you can see the wall ahead is made of metal and is too tough for Herbert’s picks.”
“So what have you been doing here?” Stella asked, still hugging Morgana, surprised, Sam thought, that she was wasn’t being hugged back.
“There’s a door,” said Morgana, “I’m trying to figure out how the mechanism works to open it. I will admit to being distracted by the illusions and spiders. I’ve made some interesting discoveries; I shall show you.”
Morgana gently pushed Stella off her and began to walk slowly towards the edge of the room.
“Light please,” she said.
Herbert turned his head to where Morgana was walking and Sam yelled.
“Don’t worry, it’s dead,” said Morgana.
Sam looked closely and saw that the spider lying on its back wasn’t moving. It also appeared to have had its belly cut open so it had to be dead. Nevertheless, neither he nor Stella moved closer. Morgana, however, approached the thing fearlessly without a hesitant step. In fact, she was even humming softly and there was a subtle skip in her stride.
She reached into one of the several pouches on her belt and pulled out a pair of elbow-high, brown leather gloves and began putting them on.
“Herbert hit this one on the head,” she said, “while I was trying to work out the symbols on the door. Since I have never seen spiders this big, I wanted to do a dissection to see what I could learn about them.”
Morgana poked a gloved hand into the deep stomach of the hideous creature.
“As you can see here,” she said, oblivious to the fact that neither Sam nor Stella were next to her so they couldn’t see what she was pointing at, “this is where the spinnerets should be… oh and the silk glands. But both are missing, so this spider can’t make webs and this might explain why all the spiders I’ve seen have tried attacking me. They appear to be actively hunting rather than setting traps for prey.”
She began walking around to the head of the spider.
“I couldn’t find an ovary so I assumed that this was a male spider,” she said, standing next to the head of the arachnid, “however, I couldn’t find any male reproductive organs in the abdomen so I thought they might be in the pedipalps.”
Morgana picked up one of the fang-things lying on the floor next to the head.
“But there’s nothing in them as you can see,” she said, her gloved fingers pulling apart a slit that had been cut into the fang-thing, “only muscle and…”
“That’s…very…interesting….” Stella interrupted. She wasn’t looking at either Morgana or the thing in her hands and the shadows in her hood were no longer stationary but instead rippling like water after a stone has been thrown into it. “I think I’ve learnt everything I need to know about these spiders! Could you please put that thing down?”
“Isn’t it interesting though?” Morgana asked.
“Err…” Sam said, he had found it hard to pay any attention to what Morgana was saying. He had been too disgusted at the ugly sight of the dead spider to really care much for the quirks of its anatomy. Most of the words he had heard, he didn’t understand anyway. “What’s interesting about it?”
“It’s not male or female,” Morgana replied.
“Not male or female? You mean it’s not a boy or a girl?” Stella asked. “How is that possible? Everything has to be either a boy or a girl. Unless it is a tree or a rock… or something like that.”
“Hang on,” said Sam, remembering something his tutor had told him during a lesson, “some insects aren’t male or female right? Like worker ants and worker bees?”
“Technically, worker ants and bees are female but can’t reproduce,” Morgana said quietly, “this spider just isn’t either. However, I believe this spider could be a somewhat reasonable analogue to a worker ant. My hypothesis is that these spiders are part of some colony-like structure with a queen and different castes of worker spider. Perhaps there is a caste of worker spider which can spin silk.”
“You mean,” said Sam his mind flooded with images of a large ant nest he and his father had stumbled across in one of their fields, “there could be hundreds or thousands of these spiders?”
“It’s possible,” said Morgana factually.
Sam felt sick. Images of him stumbling through one of the passageways in the maze and walking into giant cobwebs filled his mind, along with pictures of hundreds of the giant spiders swarming at him.
“I also managed to take out one of the poison glands,” said Morgana bending down.
She lifted something gooey, soft, squishy and yellow off the floor. It was wet and some translucent liquid was dripping off it; the whole thing looked disgusting.
Sam felt his legs go weak and if he had any food in his stomach he would have thrown it up.
“Eeeek!” Stella cried spinning around. The shadows in her hood rippling like waves on a lake. “Put that awful thing down! I can’t stand the sight of it!”
“I don’t have an alchemy set but I have learned that the venom isn’t very powerful,” Morgana said, ignoring Stella’s exclamations, “I injected it into that spider over there.” She pointed to another dead spider about twenty feet away. “It made it sleep for about half an hour. I’m afraid I do not have a timepiece so I cannot measure time accurately.”
Sam was about to ask how Morgana managed to keep the other spider still so she could poison it but then decided he didn’t want to know. Fortunately, the conversation shifted because Herbert was bringing out the tea tray from beneath his metallic stomach.
“Oh thanks Herbert,” Morgana said, carefully putting the poison gland back on the floor, as if it were something delicate.
She walked to the tea tray that Herbert was holding. He lowered it to her like a servant offering a tray of sweets to a princess.
“Would you like any tea?” Morgana asked, taking her gloves off.
Sam didn’t know what tea was, but he could infer from the cups on the tray that it had to be a drinkable liquid and he was thirsty, having drunk nothing at all since being teleported into this maze. The mere prospect and thought of quenching his thirst made him feel much happier. He said yes as did Stella. Morgana asked Herbert to pour three cups and he lifted one of his arms which ended in what looked like a massive pair of scissors. Herbert moved one of the scissor blades in between the handle of the teapot, lifted it up and then began to pour the tea into the cups. Three more of these scissor hands then emerged from underneath his body and lifted up the cups and passed one to each of them.
The delicate china cup was hot but not too hot for Sam to hold. It contained a black liquid and it didn’t look very appetizing at all. Sam thought he would wait until it cooled down but Stella decided to drink it at once. It was a strange sight, several shadowy tendrils came out of her face and formed a funnel around the cup; then there was the sound of a loud slurp and when the tendrils left the teacup it was empty.
“I’m honestly not sure what to make of it,” said Stella.
“It’s better with milk,” replied Morgana, blowing on her tea gently and taking a small sip.
“We shouldn’t waste time,” said Sam taking a small sip from his cup. He grimaced, the stuff was bitter and horrible. But he knew he’d have to keep drinking, partly out of politeness but mostly because he was really quite thirsty. “What was the thing on this door you were talking about?”
“Over there,” said Morgana waving without energy to the wall behind her, “follow me.”
Sam and Stella did their best not to look at the dead spiders as they followed Morgana to the metal wall. Sure enough there was a massive, round, metal door so large that even the ten foot tall Herbert could have fitted through it if it were open. Next to the door was some writing and just below a strange mechanism consisting of four large dials. They were made of metal and were very wide and reminded Sam of the millstones in John’s windmill back in Tolheath. On the dials were pictures of hundreds of different animals and objects; each dial had an arrow which looked as if it could be turned by a lever underneath it.
“I believe it is a puzzle of some kind,” said Morgana, “but I can’t read the writing so I’ve been using a process of trial and error to open it.”
“You said that Herbert is a mining colossus,” Stella said, “why don’t you just make a tunnel underneath the door?”
“Already attempted,” Morgana replied, “the ground beneath the floor isn’t solid rock, it’s loose soil. Herbert would never be able to dig a tunnel big enough for himself without it collapsing.”
Sam looked closely at the writing above each dial and found he could read it perfectly.
“Why can’t you read this?” he asked Morgana. “It’s not written in a foreign language and you’ve already said you can write.”
“I can only read and write the language of inquiry,” Morgana said, “Graecum est: non legitur.”
“What does it say?” Stella asked.
Sam read out the writing above the first dial.
“I soar between water and sky. I am the fearsome dragon of the tiny but the pest of the large. It appears to be a riddle.”
“I love riddles!” Stella said. “What are the options on the dial?”
She took a few seconds to look at them and before Sam even had a chance to take in the animals properly, she was turning the lever.
“The answer is obvious,” Stella said, “it’s a dragonfly.”
As she turned the arrow so it was pointing at the symbol of the dragonfly, there was the sound of a loud clunking noise inside the metal walls.
“I’d know that sound anywhere,” said Morgana, “it’s a bolt being undone.”
“Yes!” said Sam punching the air. “Good work Stella. We might get out of here after all!”
In his mind, Sam could see the beautiful countryside outside the door, fields of tall grass and a long, white road leading home. He wasn’t the only one excited by the prospect of escape and freedom, a spirit of positivity had now infected everyone.
Sam found it difficult not to jump as he read out the riddles above the dials. Stella was speaking so fast that it was hard to hear what the answers were and she kept spinning around in circles causing her skirt to twirl in a pretty fashion. Morgana was as quiet as ever but Sam noticed that she was sipping her tea with more energy than before.
Each riddle was surprisingly easy… except for the last one.
“Could you please read it out again?” Stella asked.
Sam did so.
“I am everywhere but I am unseen. I can be seen but also cannot be seen. Everyone knows I’m here but walks through and beside me. No one adores me but everyone starts with me. It was from me, the hands of the World Maker made everything.”
“It is not an animal,” said Stella.
“Since this is the last riddle,” said Morgana, “and since we know we’ve done the last three correctly, couldn’t we just use a process of elimination to answer this one?”
“Process of what?” Stella asked.
“Do every possible answer until we get the right one,” Morgana explained.
“That would take a while,” said Stella, pointing at the dial, “there are easily a hundred answers on this one. Besides, I’m sure we can figure it out if we put our minds to it.”
They all stood looking at the dial in silent contemplation. Sam tried thinking of the possibilities. How could something be unseen and yet be everywhere? And how could you walk through something? Could it be air? No air was something, it wasn’t nothing.
Then it all clicked.
Sam looked at the words: From me, the hands of the World Maker made everything.
He walked to the dial and began looking at all the possible answers. He ignored the symbols of animals, humans and other physical objects until he found it. A blank section of the dial. Keeping his eyes on it, he took hold of the lever and began to turn the arrow towards the blank section.
“I’ve got it,” he said.
The arrow was now pointing at the empty section. The next few seconds were filled with the familiar sound of a bolt mechanism moving within the walls.
“Yes!” Stella cried.
“We’re getting out of here!” Sam said.
Then the doors began to creak and groan. Everyone stood back as the doors started to open inwards. Everyone waited with excited anticipation for the sight of the outside world.
But their hopes were dashed…
“No!” Sam yelled angrily.
He was unable to help himself, he ran to the doors, which were still opening, and began kicking them in rage.
The doors were opening to another passageway.