CHAPTER TWO
1085 Words
CHAPTER TWO
Roubar found himself rejoining his friends when he was shoved in the back of a large metal-clad truck. All of the prisoners were bound and blind-folded. He did not struggle when he too was blind-folded. He knew that as well as being impenetrable, the location of Ultricon was also a secret. It was somewhere in Asperia, but no one really knew where. He intended to attempt to count the time it took to get there to give himself a clue. But then he noticed an unusual smell and began to start breathing in something strange. He felt drowsy and fell asleep under the influence of the gas he was breathing in, ruining his plan to work out where the prison was.
His next memory was of waking up wearing a dirty grey prison uniform with his friends around him in a large octagonal room. A large Troglodyte guard prodded each prisoner in turn with a large stick. On either side of the room there were entrances covered with heavy steel portcullises. One led to a long tunnel up and the other a long tunnel down. The portcullis covering the tunnel going down suddenly began vibrating into life. It then raised slowly. Roubar could see several figures in the distance approaching from the tunnel beyond the portcullis.
“Wake up! Me take you to processing!” growled the guard. Roubar held his breath. Troglodytes made perfect guards as their smell alone acted as a great personal defence device. Their skin was permanently slimy. While not overly tall, they were invariably fat with very broad shoulders and large three-fingered hands with razor-like nails. Through the open portcullis more Troglodytes appeared. He felt himself being pushed with Krolith and Hilary towards one of the newly arrived Troglodytes.
“Take them to Block C,” said the guard to the Troglodytes who had just arrived.
Hilary, Roubar and Krolith were escorted down the tunnel by their new Troglodyte guard and could see the rest of the party being split into small groups and taken down behind them. The tunnel forked into eight different paths, each with a block name signed above the door. They were hauled down the tunnel with Block C emblazoned above it and saw their comrades being hauled down different tunnels. Roubar worried that he would never see Kolan, Madeleine, Malcolm or Trelio ever again.
Casper, like his brother Malcolm, hated being confined underground. But his Retacan supporters had fled underground and he had joined them. Stephanie, full of the evil power of the Pentagram Council, had defeated him out in the open and he was forced to descend down into the caves under the castle in Ithaca. This was the last bastion left with Dark Elves surrounding the city and very close to obliterating the remains of Casper’s Retacan crusaders. He was amazed they were still loyal to him given that he felt no loyalty to them. He was too lazy to form his own army and by ingratiating himself with them it had been easy.
As he was ushered further down into the caves under the castle he could hear fighting behind him. His entourage of crusaders and Ogres pushed him to move faster than he was comfortable in such a confined space.
“Do you know what is down here?” asked Casper.
“No idea, but the Ogres reckon it connects up somewhere with the Goblin Realm,” said a harassed-looking human crusader next to Casper.
“Why on earth are we going to the Goblin Realm?”
“There is nothing for us on the surface except death, since your fellow bird started helping the enemy,” said the crusader.
Casper thought how things had changed. He barely noticed he had entered a large very ornate chamber. The walls were covered in what looked like gems; the Ogres broke away and started trying to prise them off. On one wall was an image of two figures and an inscription in a language Casper could not make out. Between the picture of the two figures was a perfectly carved hexagonal recess. Casper suddenly had a thought.
“Guard, pass me my treasures,” shouted Casper.
A crusader handed a sack to Casper’s beak. Being a Magpie was not great for storage; Casper had toyed with getting a tailored outfit with pockets, but being clothed was considered deeply taboo for Magpies. So he used his lackeys to carry bags around for him. Most of them did not consider his treasures that special. They mostly consisted of shiny metal objects, usually of steel or iron rather than gold. Privately the Ogres had looked through Casper’s items and already picked off anything that in their eyes was vaguely valuable.
Emptying the contents of the bag on the floor, Casper looked for one item. It was a hexagonal steel object which he knew was magical from bitter experience.
After he had first acquired it in his home world, he showed it to Malcolm and Stephanie. Once they had all touched it at the same time they were flung into the world of Minaturia, so he knew it had magical powers. But in all Casper’s experiments with it since he had been unable to get it to do anything.
Looking at the small hexagonal hole in the wall, the object would fit it perfectly. He asked his human crusader companion to place the object in the hole. He followed Casper’s order without enthusiasm and inserted it perfectly. Nothing happened.
Casper then touched the object with his beak and felt strange: this time something magical was happening. He thought of his predicament and his need for reinforcements. Suddenly he was flung back from the wall.
When he recovered he saw everyone moving away from one side of the hall. Three enormous birds, larger even than Casper, had appeared. He recognised them as the Hayland Valley Crows, the most dangerous birds he knew in the old world.
“What, what are we doing here?” said Stukley, the first of the birds to get a bearing on things.
“You have been sent here to help me,” said Casper.
“We don’t answer to Magpies!” said Euge, another of the crows.
“You will in this world!” shouted Casper, using his magical abilities to pin each of the birds to the wall. He had no idea if they possessed magical powers in this world, but he guessed they’d have no idea how to use them yet if they did.
“How are you doing that?” gasped Euge.
“Will you help me? You can help me rule this world: you will be rewarded!” said Casper, appealing with the carrot as well as the stick.
“I am sure we can come to an arrangement,” grunted Stukley.
With that Casper released the trio, Euge, Stukley and Mutkro upon this new world.
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