"No, Will, you don't know where it's been. Just throw it away," Jem advised as he carefully scrutinised the candy bar that Will had found. "And besides, do you really want to eat strange candy you pick up in a vampire den?"
Will pulled a face at his parabatai. "I'm hungry after all our demon fighting tonight. Anyway, it's just candy. What could go wrong?" Jem began muttering darkly about projectile vomit, bloody diarrhoea and never-ending stomach cramps. Will clapped him on the back. "You worry too much, mate. If it tastes off, I'll spit it out. It'll be fine, I'm sure."
Without another word, Will unwrapped the candy bar and took a bite. It was delicious – smooth chocolate full of cream and bits of crunchy nuts and biscuit. He chewed vigorously as he followed Jem back to the Institute.
Now that his hunger was eased, Will had no trouble going to sleep once he divested himself of his weapons and stripped off his gear. His room felt exceptionally cosy with the fire burning low in the grate and the comforting weight of his quilts covering him as he snuggled down in bed.
Suddenly, he heard a sound. He sat up like a shot and scanned the room. Everything seemed normal and there was nothing that would explain the sound. He gave the shadowy corners an extra hard scrutiny before deciding that it was probably his imagination. He had only just begun to relax when he heard it again. It sounded like a groan and the rattling of wood. His eyes darted to the windows, currently covered by heavy drapes.
He leaped out of bed, grabbed a dagger that was on the floor and flung back the drapes. A bright light blinded him for a moment. When his eyes adjusted, he saw the head of a golden dragon just outside. It was glowing and it was looking at him expectantly.
Will did not hesitate to open his window and step onto the ledge. From there, it was one short leap and he was on the dragon, seated comfortably just behind its head. The dragon was enormous, practically as big as the Institute. Will just laughed as the dragon took off, heading straight up like an arrow towards the moon.
The beam of moonlight was like a path that the dragon followed without hesitation. Will reveled in the feeling of soaring high above the world. He loved the speed of it and the chill bite of the night air that he felt through his thin night clothes.
The dragon approached the moon and landed with a huge thump, causing Will to tumble off its back and roll some distance on the ground. The wind got knocked from his lungs and his right arm ached, but Will just laughed and picked himself up. Looking around, he found himself in a garden or a woodland clearing. The only light came from the glowing dragon that had now curled up at the far end of the clearing. There were statues ringing the area, but Will could not identify who they were of.
He started forward to take a closer look when one of the figures suddenly moved. It was not a statue but a man; a boy, really. He looked strangely familiar and had hair like silver that seemed to shift with the light.
"Jem?" Will asked. Was his parabatai here? That would have been the most wonderful thing, he thought.
But the figure shook his head. "I am not Jem," he said. "I was not expecting you, Will Herondale. But now that you are here, I suppose you'll have to do."
Will felt offended – no one should just make do where he was concerned. "Do what?" he asked.
Not-Jem explained: "My task is to guard the fissure, stop the demons from crossing over and keep the world safe. But this has become an impossible task that is beyond my strength. So I sent the dragon for aid. It returned with you." The boy came closer and examined Will thoroughly. "You are a Shadowhunter," he stated, as though only just realising this fact but was unsurprised by it. "You'll do."
"I'll do it!" Will declared with a surge of determination. "Demons don't scare me. I eat demons for breakfast. And lunch. And sometimes supper…" he trailed off as his train of thought departed without him. But it didn't matter; he remembered the main issue. "Point me in the direction of some demons and fear no more. I will take care of them."
Not-Jem smiled. "It's not so simple. These creatures can play with your mind as well as your body. You have to be careful."
Will insisted that he was more than equal to the task, whereupon Not-Jem led him away from the clearing and into a cave. Once they entered the cave, the earth began to shake violently. Will was flung against the walls, ceiling and floor and could not find his footing. Not-Jem took hold of his arm and kept him steady as they walked on.
At length, the earth stopped moving and they arrived in a huge cavern. In the flickering light of torches hung at various points, Will saw a hall carved out of the rock, with ancient staglamites and staglacites forming ghostly white pillars that seemed to hold up the ceiling. Will was impressed and strode forward to see more.
"Be careful. Here is where they do their work," Not-Jem warned. "We have to go through the hall." Though he spoke softly, his voice echoed through the cavern.
Will turned back to make a remark but did not see the boy. He shrugged and decided to continue on his way, after some quick thoughts about the rudeness of his companion. He heard whispers around him but the words were just out of his hearing. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw the shadows move. "Hello!" he bellowed.
"Hello… lo… lo… oh… oh…" the echo moaned in reply.
Will took a few more steps forward. Then, a shadow rushed towards him. Will drew his dagger and slashed. He felt the shadow brush over him, as though tattered robes were thrown over his head. He was knocked off balance, but he continued to lash out with the dagger, simultaneously kicking hard with both feet and struggling not to be pinned down. More shadows surrounded him. They engulfed him completely in darkness until Will no longer knew whether he was hitting anything more than the air. The darkness pressed down suffocatingly. A sharp pain lanced through his brain.
He saw the Silent City. He was at the Speaking Stars where the Brothers held their councils or gathered to collectively treat a patient. The Soul Sword hung above him, like a finger pointing from the heavens. "Will, can you hear me?" Jem's voice sounded so far away. "Will, fight it!" The ceiling began revolving, like a children's top spinning round an axle that was the Soul Sword. The spinning helped. It felt good.
The shadows lifted. The darkness was once again lit by the flickering torch light. Will looked around, expecting to see torn robes, blood or body parts from the things he had been fighting. But there was nothing but dust. He had reached the end of the hall unscathed. "Hah!" he crowed. "Take that, demons!"
Not-Jem reappeared. "That was just a start," he said. "There's more you must face. In there." He pointed to a smaller cave.
"If the demons in there are like the ones I just faced, then this will be a piece of cake," Will declared. "Incidentally, I could do with some cake about now. Do you have any?"
The other boy shook his head with such Jem-like disapproval that Will momentarily forgot that he was not Jem. "You must go in and battle the demons. I'll come back in the morning. If you can hold them off until then, I can do the rest."
"Sounds fair," Will agreed. After all, what was one night of battle in exchange for saving the world from demons. He drew his dagger again and entered the small cave.
It seemed like demons were dripping off the walls. Every inch of the cave was covered in clamouring, slavering, grinning fiends, which were now all observing Will's entrance with predatory glee.
"Come on then!" Will roared and assumed a fighting stance. "Who's first?"
An octopus-like demon extended its sucker-covered tentacles from the ceiling. Venom dripped from every one of its openings and stung when it touched Will's skin, like drops of boiling water. "If you've messed up my hair, you'll be very sorry," Will warned as he felt moisture on his head. His left forearm suddenly exploded in pain. Will looked down and saw black lines like a rune.
"Why isn't it working?" Jem sounded worried. "He looks like he's in so much pain." He was no longer at the Speaking Stars but in a small stone room. He saw vertical bars at one end of the room. He was in a cell? Two Silent Brothers leaned over him, their steles lifted.
A demon that looked like a slime-covered skeleton rushed forward with arms outstretched. Will dispatched it in four moves. Then, a large troll-like demon with too many mouths took its place. Will darted round, jabbing it with his dagger like an annoying wasp. A serpent-like demon with spines wound itself round Will's legs. He made short work of that and hacked it to pieces.
Strangling vines roped around his body and neck. No, it was another demon with long and twisted appendages like a deadly tree. Will did not want to lose his dagger – his only weapon – but he knew what he had to do. He threw the dagger right at the creature's heart. He knew he had hit it when the vines fell away.
Blood. The cell stank with blood. The floor was sticky with it. Someone was yelling. There was so much movement and chaos. It was like a dance, only with blood flowing off the dancers and pooling at their feet. Puddles of it. What would it be like to splash in it?
More demons attacked, but Will was fearless. He would rip them apart with his bare hands if he had to. But they kept a safe distance from him and snickered. He taunted them. "Scared eh? That'll teach you to crawl out of your hell holes to torment the earth." Some rushed at him again. He grappled with these in hand-to-hand combat. It was glorious. He had never really used his full strength when he learnt to fight like this in the training room. He craved more. He flew about the room hacking and slashing and fighting until the cave swam in guts and ichor, and his fists and hands were bloodied. The pain was invigorating. He had never felt so alive.
Will fought for what seemed like hours until the cave was cleared. With the demons gone, he saw another opening at the back of the cave. It was another chamber, this one covered in green crystals of all shapes and sizes. Will saw so many reflections of himself as he walked through the chamber. It was like being in a kaleidoscope that contained only his image. Some of the images seemed to move independently from him, but that seemed natural to Will. He reached out to touch a crystal. It was so sharp that a bead of blood instantly formed on his fingertip.
It was not the Silent Brothers leaning over him this time, but a man with green skin and horns poking out from a shock of white hair. "It's not a spell," Ragnor Fell said. "Let him sleep it off. That might help." "But he's hurt!"
"Jem!" Will exclaimed. He ran out of the cave and into the huge hall. "Jem!" He looked around frantically.
"I've already told you, I'm not Jem," Not-Jem answered. "You look awful."
"Says the boy whose hair won't stop changing colour." Will reached out to touch it. "How do you do that? Do you have faerie blood? It's pretty." Not-Jem smiled indulgently. He led Will out through the hall and the earthquake tunnel, and back to the clearing where the golden dragon waited, still and hulking as a building.
"I think I'll rest out here for a while," Will decided. He liked the cool breeze, the sound of the wind rustling through the trees and the sight of the sky – dark, the way it was just before dawn. "Can you see the sunrise on the moon?"
Not-Jem didn't answer. Will did not wait for a response anyway but lay on his back on the dew-soaked grass. "Yes, this is very nice," he muttered as he drifted to sleep.
When Will woke, the sun was shining fully on his face. He felt refreshed, as though he had just woken from a long sleep. He frowned in bewilderment when he realised the lack of ceiling above him and the prickly grass under him. He put out his arms to push himself to a seated position and almost yelled out when pain shot through his right arm. He glared at it. It was bent at a strange angle. Various other aches and pains also began to make themselves known.
"Are you all right?"
Will spun his head round to see Jem sitting on the Institute's front steps, a few paces away. His parabatai was looking at him with concern.
"What happened? Why am I out here?" Will asked.
Jem continued to regard him warily. "Are you, you? Has it worn off?"
"Has what worn off? What are you talking about, Jem? You're not making any sense."
Jem cautiously approached. "Will you let me fix your arm, Will?"
Will stuck his right arm out at his parabatai. "And everything else, too, if it pleases you. Then perhaps you would be so kind as to explain what the hell is going on."
Jem let out a peal of relieved laughter. "You're all right," he chuckled. "I'm so glad."
As he applied healing runes, he told Will that everyone in the Institute had been woken up by a loud crash in the night and had found Will on the ground. It seemed he had fallen from his bedroom window. He was mumbling nonsense about demons and acting strangely. He did not allow anyone to touch him. Jem was afraid that the fall had injured his brain and had taken him to the Silent City.
The Silent Brothers tried to examine his mind, to no avail. They then put him in one of the cells for observation, but he became extremely agitated and violent. They tried to hold him down and treat him with runes. However, that seemed only to worsen the situation. It culminated in Will grabbing one of the Brothers' steles and stabbing and slashing him repeatedly with it.
That was when Jem turned to Ragnor Fell, worried that Will was under some sort of compulsion spell that would make him a danger to other Shadowhunters. The High Warlock examined him thoroughly, tested his blood and concluded he was under the influence of some kind of drug, possibly concealed in the candy bar he had eaten. He advised Jem to just let him be and that the effects would wear off with time.
Even though Jem was now more worried than he had been, he decided to take Ragnor's advice and take Will back to the Institute to sleep the effects of the drug away in his own bedroom.
That was the plan, but Will had not wanted to follow it. When they returned to the Institute, he had insisted on wandering around the garden then going to sleep on the grass.
"And I've been sitting here, keeping an eye on you until you woke," Jem finished. "Now, would you care to tell me what was going through your mind last night?"
Will grimaced and recounted his "adventure". Now that he was telling it in the light of day, it seemed less wonderful and more fantastic and embarrassing. How could he have even imagined that he could take on a horde of demons dressed in his night clothes and armed only with a dagger?
"You know what the moral of all this is?" Jem asked when Will was done with his tale.
"Lock my window before going to bed so I don't sleepwalk out of it again?"
Jem shook his head. "That. And also, don't eat strange candy you pick up at a vampire den."
THE END
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