Aidan stood still, barely able to raise his sword a foot off the ground. It was all too clear now why no one who entered Falon’s Labyrinth ever returned. The maze wasn’t just difficult—it was alive! Falon, the largest and craftiest mortiwraith to ever live, had learned to make the coils of her tremendous serpentine body appear as stone and form the walls of the maze. Anyone who wandered in and became lost was doomed, for Falon was everywhere.
Towering over Aidan ominously, Falon prepared to strike. The monstrous beast’s haunting yellow eyes flashed, and she lunged forward. Aidan feebly held up the sword called Fury. In those bleak moments before death, Aidan’s mind raced. He wondered if he would die quickly, injected with Falon’s lethal poison, or would he feel her dagger-filled jaws close around him, piercing his flesh in a hundred places at once? Aidan closed his eyes.
“I have a question for you, young one,” said Falon, her steamy, reeking breath washing over Aidan. Opening his eyes, and glad to still be alive, Aidan saw that Falon’s enormous head was just a few feet in front of him. He backed up reflexively and found a mighty clawed hand behind him.
“The sword you carry . . . ,” she continued. “Tell me, where did you get it, hmmm? The truth, boy, for Falon knows if you lie. . . .”
Aidan came to his senses, and he remembered the favor the Captain had told him about. It was his only chance.
“This sword was given to me by Captain Valithor, the Captain of the Knights of Alleble and Sentinel of the King,” Aidan announced.
Falon’s eyes flashed, and her huge lips curled into a snarl. “I know the name Valithor! But he would not give up his blade to such as you!”
“Captain Valithor was killed,” Aidan’s voice cracked. “Shot with a poisoned arrow, deadly poison from one of your kind. He, he took the wound that was meant for me. Before he died, he gave me his sword and—”
“Lies!” Falon bellowed, slamming a clawed foot to the ground with a thunderous echo.
Aidan knew it was now or never—Falon was losing her temper!
“The Captain told me that you owe him a favor,” Aidan pleaded. He slowly lowered Fury to the ground in front of the creature’s great head.
“Captain Valithor said that a long time ago, he saved one of your wraithlings from some Paragor Knights who were trying to steal all of its poison. Captain Valithor said if I showed you his sword,” Aidan swallowed hard, “that you would give that favor to me!”
Falon’s demeanor changed instantly. The muscles, which tensed and rippled all over her snakelike body, relaxed. The fierce glow in her eyes paled, and her open mouth, drooling with hunger, closed with a wet snap. She crossed her two front legs and rested her chin on them.
“He and I alone know that story,” she said softly. “Had it not been for good Sir Valithor, those greedy Paragor rats would have drained my baby’s blood till there was nothing left of her. You see, our poison is not in our glands or stored in the hollows of our fangs. The poison is our blood. The servants of Paragor have nearly wiped my race from this land—and for what? So they could use our poison for their own dark purposes. One day, I will forget my fear of the sun and moon, and I will go to Paragory. In that day, I will satisfy my growing hunger for vengeance from Paragor and his brood.
“It saddens me that you speak the truth, for then the Captain has passed from this world. I owe him not only the life of my child but the preservation of my race. So I will honor him by granting you the favor. What is it you wish?”
“I just want to get through to the other side of the Black Crescent,” Aidan replied. “The Paragor Knights have taken some friends of mine, and that is where they will camp—I think.”
“Yesss . . . they camp there often.” Falon nodded, her enormous, shrublike black eyebrows wrinkling and her lips curling in an exasperated sneer. “I’ve watched them, many times from my caves, longing for them to camp close enough for me to get at them. Oh, . . . what sweet revenge that would be!”
“Why don’t you just go out after them?” Aidan asked.
“Nay, young one . . . ,” Falon replied, shaking her head. “We mortiwraiths are cave dwellers. Longer than a few moments under the sun or the moon, and something happens to our blood. The poison within, the very life-bringing essence of it changes. And it becomes toxic to our own bodies. I would fall dead before I could exact a just price for what they have done to my kind. But,” Falon said, inhaling deeply, “if ever they venture too close on a moonless night, I will come for them. And were they to dare to enter my caves, and travel into my maze, that would be a little different . . . hmmm? Then, they would know the wrath of Falon!”
It was quiet for a moment and Aidan had an idea. It was something, perhaps, but not all the pieces were there yet.
“Confirm something for me, young one . . . ,” Falon said. “Was it the Paragor Knights who killed good Sir Valithor?”
Aidan nodded and stared at the ground. “Yes . . . they were trying to kill me, and Captain Valithor stepped in front of the arrow.
He saved my life.”
“It was a noble sacrifice,” Falon replied.
“I wish it had been me,” said Aidan, thinking of the Captain and his grandfather back home.
“Nonsense!” shouted Falon, slamming a clawed fist to the ground.
“Wishing yourself dead isn’t going to help the living! You said you have friends who were captured by the Knights of Paragory?”
“Yes, but—”
“And,” Falon interrupted, “you said you need to get to the other side of these caverns so that you can save your friends, right?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then, young one, I suggest we leave soon, for the sun has set.
When it rises again, the Paragor Knights will march toward their black kingdom.”
“I guess you’re right,” Aidan replied. “Though I still have no idea what I’m going to do once I get there. What good is one person against an army?”
“You are a servant of Alleble, aren’t you?” Falon asked, staring intently at Aidan.
“Yes, I am,” Aidan answered, the meaning of Falon’s question becoming clear. Fresh hope surged in his heart. “I am a servant of Alleble, and I am never alone!”
“That’s the spirit, young one!”
“Aidan, my name is Aidan.”
“Then, young Aidan, I shall hold Fury, and you climb onto my back,” Falon said, smiling and extending an arm like a ramp for Aidan. “It is a long journey to the Black Crescent . . . a journey full of winding caverns and hidden pitfalls. It will be faster and far safer for you to ride.”
Aidan carefully clambered up. He examined the creature a little differently now that he wasn’t afraid of being eaten. The morti-wraith was scaled in layers like a dragon, but each scale was different and beautiful in its own way. Some were deep purple or blue like the luminous stalactites from the cavern’s roof. Others were the dark green of the cavern floor. But all had embedded stones and precious gems. Aidan supposed the color and the gems had rubbed off as Falon traveled through the tunnels beneath the mountains.
As he climbed to her neck and sat down, he thought that Falon was a beautiful creature—though nevertheless fearsome in a pinch.
“Hold on to my hair, young Aidan,” warned Falon. “I know every twist and turn of these caverns, so I tend to navigate them rather swiftly!”
Aidan gripped a couple of the thick cords of the creature’s dark purple hair. He felt like he always did before a ride blasted off at the amusement park.
In moments, Falon began trotting along, increasing speed as she went. Aidan looked back and watched almost in a trance as Falon’s numerous legs rose and fell rhythmically like pistons all along her lengthy body. How many legs does she have? he wondered.
The eerie blue light continued wherever Falon turned, and Aidan saw the openings to innumerable tunnels and caverns. And he knew there was no way he’d have ever made it through without Falon.
Her speed increased more and more, until she began to make turns, banking hard left and right. Struggling for a better grip, Aidan held on to Falon’s ropelike locks for dear life as the air whipped by him. The muscles in Aidan’s forearms burned with pain, and he screamed when his entire body went airborne as Falon dove low into underground valleys. When Falon leveled out each time, Aidan slammed into the back of her neck.
Unlike any roller coaster Aidan had ever ridden, Falon’s ride seemed to last forever. Up, down, hard left, jerk right—all the while zooming at breakneck speed. He tried to look backward and sideways, but everything was now a blur of various shades of purple, blue, black, and green.
If this ride didn’t end soon, Aidan thought, he would surely fall off and be lost forever in these puzzling caverns.
Eventually, the air whistled a little less in Aidan’s ears, and he sensed that Falon was slowing down. When she finally came to an abrupt stop, Aidan slid off her neck, down one of her front legs, and plowed facefirst into the mossy tunnel floor. He sat up and clutched at his forearms—they burned as if thrust into a furnace.
“Well, young Aidan,” Falon said, breathing in heavy huffs and handing him Fury, “not bad for an old mortiwraith, hmmm?”
Aidan had to laugh in spite of the pain. “Yes, that was quite fast.” He chuckled. “You just about bounced me off three or four times!”
“Well, young Aidan, I am glad you survived, for I guess you have much to do,” said Falon, pointing with one clawed hand to the wide paths ahead. “Come this way, for these passages you see before you open into the caves of the Black Crescent.”
Aidan followed Falon up the middle path. He had to walk to the side of her never-ending body as she half slithered, half crawled up the path.
“Falon, how many sets of legs do you have, anyway?” he asked.
“Many . . . ,” she replied with an amused snort. “Mortiwraiths grow a new pair of limbs every five years, and as you can see . . . I’ve been around for quite some time.”
The path wound onward and upward a short distance until, finally, the blue light of the caverns began to fade and was replaced by the subtle gray of night. The path ended, and an incredibly vast opening was before them. It was an opening to the plains of the Black Crescent. Aidan looked out, and he could see where the mountains got their name. The moonlit black peaks curled left and right before tapering off toward the horizon.
Inside the Crescent was an enormous plain dotted with hills and craggly trees. Aidan’s attention was drawn to the center of the plain, for there was an immense dark mass, dotted with the light of torches and campfires. It was the army of Paragory—they were still there!
Great! Aidan thought. Now all I have to do is sneak past a thousand heavily armed soldiers, release Gwenne and the other prisoners from Mithegard, and get back out without anyone noticing.
“I’ll be back in a second,” Aidan whispered to Falon, and he ventured out of the cave. He needed to get closer to the enemy camp if there was any hope of finding out where they were keeping their prisoners. Gwenne’s life depended on his coming up with a plan of rescue, and the odds of his success were stacked heavily against him.
There were patches of tall dead grass everywhere, and Aidan crouched down as he passed through it to avoid being seen. As he did, a few tiny glimmers of light sprang to life in the grass. LANTERN SPIDERS! Aidan realized immediately. He had jostled them awake as he walked through the tall grass. They seemed to be all over the place, for every step Aidan took, the spiders’ lights blinked on.
Aidan smiled, remembering early in the journey to Mithegard how terrified he had been, thinking that the lantern spiders were torch-bearing soldiers preparing an ambush.
Man, I need to catch some of these to take home, Aidan thought. If I ever get out of here!
He wandered through the tall grass as close as he dared to the Paragor Knights’ camp. Aidan suspected they would have numerous sentries, watching for the slightest hint of an intruder. Sure enough, there were soldiers moving around in the camp. They were marching back and forth near the many tents. Aidan guessed that Gwenne and the other prisoners must be somewhere in the center tents—much more difficult for them to escape, or be rescued, for that matter.
There’s no way I’m going in and out of there, unless, Aidan thought, unless I could somehow get some of the Paragor Knights’ armor . . . Maybe Falon would have some in her treasures! Still . . . they wouldn’t just let me walk out of there with Gwenne and the others.
Aidan knew there had to be a way. The King of Alleble wouldn’t have brought him this far only to have him fail. So, Aidan looked from one end of the camp to the other. Then, he looked into the mountains and all over the plains. Could he start an avalanche? Nope, no good. The rocks would barely reach the camp. Maybe a fire . . . the tall dead grass would burn easily enough, but perhaps only enough to let the enemy know his position. Okay, so that’s not going to work, but then what?
There just didn’t seem to be much to work with: rocks, grass, a small stream that wound behind the enemy’s camp. Aidan’s eyes wandered along that tiny stream.
Strangely, it disappeared into a large dark clump of something. Trees maybe? Aidan stared at the huge mass, and he couldn’t tell if his eyes were playing tricks on him or not, but it seemed like it was moving . . . how strange. Aidan shrugged and hurried back to the caves to talk to Falon.
He sprinted through the tall grass and hurtled up the hill into the caves. Falon lay there, her eyes gleaming somehow even in nearly complete darkness. “See anything useful, hmmm, young Aidan?”
“There are guards all over the place,” Aidan replied shaking his head. “I might be able to sneak in, but I don’t know . . . there are so many!”
“I wish I could help,” Falon growled. “But even though the moon is veiled in clouds at this hour, it would be enough to finish me.”
“What is that big gray clump beyond the camp?” Aidan asked, pointing toward the horizon.
“That, young Aidan, is a massive herd of blackhorne,” Falon replied. “They graze upon the tall grasses. Mmmmm, what a feast that would be.”
“Blackhorne, huh?” Aidan replied absently, his thoughts wandering. But suddenly, he felt a peculiar prickle on his neck. In a quick, reflexive movement, he swiped at his neck repeatedly.
“Looks like you picked up a stowaway while you were out playing in the grass,” Falon laughed.
Aidan looked down at the floor of the cave, and there, skittering around, blinking frantically, was a rather large lantern spider.
“Yuck!” Aidan exclaimed. “That thing was on me?!”
In that moment, Aidan became very still. Something clicked in his mind. It was like turning the last number of a combination lock.
A memory flittered through his mind, and the pieces of the plan came together all at once.
“Falon!” Aidan nearly shouted. “I think I know how I’m going to rescue my friends! And I think you can help!”
“Tell me, young Aidan,” Falon replied, her enormous ears perking up like a bat’s wings.
After Aidan explained his plan, a wide, mischievous smile spread across Falon’s face. “Mmmm . . . sounds like a delicious plan,” she said.
“Can you bring me those items from your treasures?” Aidan asked.
“Oh, yesss indeed!” Falon replied, turning back toward the tunnels. “I will make all speed, for the night will not wait for those who tarry.”
