Chapter 13

Fracture

Diana staggered back against the table, her hand to her mouth, as she looked down at the prone form of the Cavalier.

What had she just done?

She wasn't sure what she felt worse about, hitting him or almost kissing him! She had almost kissed Eric! Her mind was reeling from the shock. What in heaven's name was she thinking! Kissing Eric…?

There was the sudden sound of running from out the door, but Diana didn't move, too surprised and confused to give it the thought it deserved. Abruptly the door burst open.

'Eric, come on! The Orcs have brought Tang and…'

Diana looked up, blinking. Hank was there in the doorway, staring at her.

He looked down at his unconscious brother, then up questioningly at the Acrobat.

'He just…' she stuttered. 'He tried… I…'

The cruellest smile crossed Hank's face, stabbing into Diana. Hank had never looked like that before, so downright nasty.

'I…' she tried again.

But Hank made a gesture with his hand and suddenly there was something coiling round her neck, cutting off her air. Her fingers scrabbled at her neck, but there was nothing there to pull away. His hand seemed to glow red with magic.

'What are you doing in here with him?' Hank spat. The cruel expression was gone, but he looked at her without mercy.

Diana could only make little choking sounds, here eyes filling with tears of pain. She tried to turn around or move somehow, but she couldn't. She seemed to be frozen in place.

Hank took a few steps forward.

'I don't really need to ask,' said Hank. 'Do I?'

He leered at her, letting his eyes roam down her body, lingering on the curves. Then he gave a soft chuckle.

'You thought he'd been an easy target, that I would be too clever to fall for your tricks. Your little red-hair friend wasn't as good at it as you though. The chase was too boring. It was far, far to easy with her to be of any interest to me.'

He took another step forward.

'But you,' he said. 'You would be much more of a challenge to tame.'

'I…'

'I will make sure that my Father let's me keep you,' he said, licking his lips. 'And Eric won't care one way or the other.'

Diana vainly tried to struggle free of the magic's grip, her heart filled with a terrible cold fear of what Hank was going to do.

'I-I…'

There was a sudden swish of movement behind Hank, Diana had barely even registered it before Hank swayed and his eyes rolled up. Then he pitched forward, landing on the floor just beside Eric.

The magic around her dissipated, and Diana dropped to the floor, gasping for breath, rubbing her bruised throat.

A second later, there was a blur of magic and she looked up. Sheila was standing there, holding one of the metal weapons from the wall, and expression of horror and revulsion on her face.

The two girls looked at each other then down at the two boys lying on the floor. Diana pushed the fear and the disgust away.

This was their chance! They had both Eric and Hank in the one place. Presto and the others were close by. The Crystal was here somewhere. She could be afraid later. Right now there were others things to worry about, because now they really were running out of time!

'We've gotta get going!' said Diana breathlessly.

To her intense relief, Sheila gave a small nod.

They looked down at the two unconscious boys, knowing that there was no way in hell they would be able to move them on their own.

'How…?' started Sheila, but there was more noise outside the door, and they both looked up. Sheila reached for the hood of her Cloak, and Diana for her Javelin.

An Orc appeared at the door, and another, and another, and another.

Diana braced herself to fight but just as she raised her arm one of them spoke.

'Sheila!' it cried joyfully.

'Bobby? Bobby?'

The Orc nodded, bounding forward to embrace her.

Though Diana was wary, she saw the other two Orcs grin in an unnaturally friendly way.

'Presto? Ray?' she asked. The grins grew wider. 'Thank goodness!'

'Thank goodness yourself,' said Orc-Ray. 'You really got us out of a jam back there!'

'Thank goodness,' repeated Diana, rubbing her head.

Joseph suddenly appeared at the doorway, his face creased with concern. His curved Sword was drawn and he looked ready to take on everyone in the room with one swipe!

'What the Hell's going on, ' he demanded, pointing his sword at the Orcs.

'Hey, it's nice to see you too, Mueller!' said Ray.

'Raymond?' said Joseph in disbelief, looking from one Orc to another. 'How the Hell did you manage that?'

How had they managed that? Diana looked to the Orc that should be Presto intending to ask, but she suddenly realised what was wrong with this situation. She had three missing friends, but there were four Orcs in the room.

As she opened her mouth to say something, the extra Orc waved its hand and there was a faint shimmer of the air.

The Orc disguises fell away before her eyes. Bobby, Presto Ray and… Varla!

Diana stared at the newcomer, but suddenly everything seemed to make sense. It was Varla, different clothes, different hairstyle, but it was still the Illusionist!

A grin spread over her face. So that was how they had managed to get in!

Diana wasn't watching properly, but even so, she noticed the odd, confused look that Joseph gave Varla. But at the time, she had other things to worry about.

'Varla?' squeaked Sheila happily. 'How did you find the others?'

'She found us,' explained Ray, looking very slightly embarrassed. 'It's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you it sometime.'

'We've got more urgent things to worry about,' said Diana.

'And then some!' said Ray.

'Well, Tang's gone!' added Joseph. 'That damn thing vanished the moment our backs were turned!'

'Don't worry about him,' Ray was saying, waving his Staff at Joseph in an authoritative manner. 'He's good at looking after himself. Bet he could knock their socks off if he felt like it, as there's a lot more to that little dragon that there looks. He'll be fine.'

'That's all very well,' said Joseph, 'but I wasn't worried about him! This whole place will be in uproar in a few minutes. They are going to want those two to hunt for Tang!' he pointed at the ground were Hank and Eric lay.

'Help us get them up,' the Acrobat said to Joseph. 'Now all we need is the Crystal.'

'Are you sure it's gonna work?' said Ray.

Diana scowled at him. This wasn't a good time to be having doubts.

'Dungeonmaster said to take them and we will.'

'You're gonna take them through a portal like that?' said Ray incredulously, pointing to the two boys. 'That doesn't sound like such a great idea to me!'

'We don't have a lot of other options. Besides, Dungeonmaster said take them to the crystal, and that's just what we're gonna do!'

'But how?' said Sheila reasonably. 'I know it's here somewhere, but we hardly have time to…'

'I know where it is,' said Varla suddenly.

Diana frowned, and opened her mouth. But Presto beat her to the question.

'How do you know?' he asked.

'You think I do not study my enemy?' she hissed. 'You think I do not know their secrets?'

But Varla wasn't looking at Presto any more, she was looking at Joseph, and Diana was sure she was missing something.

'It doesn't matter,' insisted Sheila. 'We've gotta go! These two aren't going to stay this was for long! And the real Orcs around gonna come looking for them!'

'Let's go!' said Diana.

She pulled the unconscious Eric up and Presto caught the other arm and slipped it over his shoulder. Ray and Sheila pulled up Hank, and Bobby held on to Ray's Staff, ready to help more if necessary.

Slowly and quietly they moved off, led by Varla.

They moved through the halls of the castle without seeing any Orcs. Diana knew she should be pleased, and knew she should have felt safer, now that they had the power of Varla's illusions to help hide them. But her fears were growing every second. This felt wrong in so many ways.

'What's going on,' she asked Presto, who was still struggling along at the other side of the Cavalier. 'What's Varla got to do with all of this?'

'We found her,' Presto explained breathlessly. 'She has a grudge against Venger. She was going to kill them, but we persuaded her to let us take them away instead. She can use illusions.'

Diana thought the last part was unnecessary.

'But can you trust her?' she mouthed.

Presto frowned, maybe wanting to say yes, but unable to hide from the truth.

'Don't know,' he mouthed back, shaking his head.

They travelled through the corridors of the Castle, round to the far side, away from the courtyard and all the noise. This part was virtually silent and every scraping footstep and light breath seemed to echo with unbearable volume.

They stopped for a while at a junction, then Varla led them left. A few minutes later they came to an abrupt stop. It was a dead end.

Diana looked to Presto in confusion, and the Magician looked away, his expression afraid.

'Great,' said Joseph. 'Now what!'

'Be quiet!' Varla ordered. 'Put them down and help me push.'

'What?' asked Joseph, giving her a nasty sneer.

She pointed to the wall.

'This is a secret doorway to Lord Venger's Vault.'

'It's a wall,' said Joseph.

'I'll get rid of it!' said Bobby, stepping forward and lifting his Club.

'No!' said Varla harshly. 'The mechanism is delicate. We must push.'

Doubtfully, Diana left Eric down to the ground and Presto did the same.

'How?' she asked Varla.

'There are pressure points, we must find and push them all in the correct order.'

For the next few minutes they stood by the wall, doing as Varla instructed them, and all clearly feeling as ridiculous as Diana felt.

But before there were more arguments, there was a sudden click and a grind of stone. To one side, back from the wall, a narrow door opened. Presto gave a sigh of relief, but Diana didn't share that feeling. There was something really weird going on.

Nevertheless they picked up the two boys and wriggled through the gap. The tunnel beyond was warmer than the Castle, it had a stale, dry smell that made her nose sore, and it wound round in a spiral, heading down all the time.

She sensed the fear and anticipation from the others, it seemed like they were getting closer to their goal, but still the feeling that something was going to go wrong was at the back of her mind. Could it really be this simple?

At last, the ground levelled out and they reached a large metal door. Varla stopped.

'We are here,' she said. 'This is the Vault of Lord Venger.'

Eric groaned making the first noise in a long number of minutes. Diana looked down at him. He was stirring sluggishly. Not that she didn't like having some sort of power over him, not to mention the ability to shut him up, she didn't really want to have to hit him again. It seemed unnecessarily cruel.

'Get the door open!' she hissed at Presto.

'But the Hat…'

'Just open it!'

Presto waved his hand over the Hat, mumbling something about open sesame. The Hat glowed faintly and fizzed, but nothing happened.

Presto gave an apologetic shrug.

'Let me try,' said Ray. 'I might be able to get some idea.'

He lifted up his Staff. Whatever the question was, he didn't say it out loud. He staggered.

'The door is protected by magic. And there's only one key. Venger has it.'

This was all going wrong! Diana ran her hand through her hair in despair, looking around for inspiration.

'What are we…?'

She never finished, as Bobby barged past swinging his Club, a thunderous look on his young face. The Acrobat only just had time to protect her eyes before Bobby swung at the wall beside the door.

When the dust cleared, amid much coughing, she could see inside. Much to her immense relief, she could see the Crystal of Kronos, bathing the shattered room in cold, blue light.

'Come on!' she said. They were close, so close. So wonderfully close… all they had to do was get to it and everything would be ok!

Then something moved, from behind the crystal and her heart virtually stopped in fear. There was such raw power that her skin began to prickle.

She never knew anything could be so evil. The hunched, twisted figure before them would haunt her nightmares for the rest of her life.

Venger.