Fyre (2 page)

Hotep-Ra’s enemies have found him.

The last time they found him, Hotep-Ra was saved by the Dragon Boat, but now he knows he will have to face them alone. The Queen, however, has other ideas. From her belt she takes a tiny crossbow and loads it. And then, as Shamandrigger Saarn and Dramindonnor Naarn swoop in for what they think will be the kill, the Queen shoots the bolt.

It hits Dramindonnor just below the fourth rib on his left-hand side. He crashes to the ground, and the landing stage shudders with the force. But the
Darke
Wizard merely winces and as the blood gushes out, he
Seals
his heart. Meanwhile the Queen has reloaded her crossbow and is lining up the second bolt. Hotep-Ra panics; he knows the Queen has no idea what she is dealing with. He throws a
SafeShield
around the Queen—much to her disgust—but not before she has also shot Shamandrigger in the heart. The Warrior Wizard drops to the ground, but he too
Seals
the wound just in time.

The Wizards get to their feet, and the Queen is horrified to see they are huge—ten feet tall—and clasping the notorious
Volatile Wands
that Hotep-Ra has described to her. Like machines, in perfect time—
one-two, one-two
—they advance on the
SafeShield
. They speak one sentence between them.

“For this.”

“We will.”

“Kill you and.”

“Your descendants.”

“We will.”

“Never.”

“Forget.”

Under the assault of the
Volatile Wands
, the Queen’s
SafeShield
begins to fail. Hotep-Ra grasps his
Flyte Charm
and shoots up into the air, knowing that the Wizards will follow him.

And they do.

In these ancient days, the Art of
Flyte
is yet to be lost. But it is still unusual enough to bring the Castle below to a standstill, especially as it involves a fight between three powerful Wizards. But soon the spectators are racing for cover as
Thunderflashes
are thrown and the foundations of buildings begin to shake. The Castle people become anxious. Although many remember a time when there was no Wizard Tower or ExtraOrdinary Wizard, they have grown to like Hotep-Ra. He has been a good man and no problem has been too small for his
Magyk
to help. As they peer nervously from their windows, they become very worried. Two Wizards against one is not fair. And it looks like Hotep-Ra is getting the worst of it.

Hotep-Ra may be old and no longer strong, but he is still clever. He lures the
Darke
Wizards to the golden pyramid at the top of the Wizard Tower where he stands, delicately balanced on its very tip—a tiny silver square—concentrating all his
Magykal
power for one last chance.

To the
Darke
Wizards, Hotep-Ra looks like a wounded animal at bay. They sense victory and begin a favorite
Destruction
. They fly around the top of the pyramid, encircling Hotep-Ra in a blistering circle of
Fyre
. This, however, suits Hotep-Ra very well. He begins to chant a long and complex
Illusion Incantation
, the sound of which the roaring of the flames conveniently drowns.

But the circle of
Fyre
draws ever closer and the two
Darke
Wizards hover, waiting for the moment it will meet and finally
Hex
Hotep-Ra. Then they will have a little fun with their enemy—with the help of a spider or two.

Hotep-Ra is reaching the end of his
Incantation
. The heat of the
Fyre
is blistering; he can smell the wool of his robes singeing and he can wait no longer. To the shock of the
Darke
Wizards, Hotep-Ra shoots up through the circle of
Fyre
, trailing flames behind him. He shouts the last words of the
Illusion Incantation
and becomes
Invisible
.

The
Illusion
works perfectly. Shamandrigger Saarn and Dramindonnor Naarn stare at each other in horror—in place of his friend, each sees Hotep-Ra and draws the conclusion that Hotep-Ra has killed him. From within his
Invisibilty
, Hotep-Ra watches as, maddened with fury and grief, the
Darke
Wizards chase each other across the rooftops and head out from the Castle.

Hotep-Ra would like to leave them to their fate, but he knows he must make sure they do not return. As he flies off after the Wizards, Hotep-Ra hears a tremendous crash. He looks down to see the top of the golden pyramid buried point down in the Wizard Tower Courtyard below—the circle of
Fyre
has cut through it like a wire through butter.

Hotep-Ra tails the Warrior Wizards to Bleak Creek, where he watches them battle for a day and a night—so evenly matched that neither can gain any advantage. Finally, in a frenzy, they circle each other faster and faster, swooping low over the water until they create a deep, dark whirlpool just outside the mouth of the creek. The force of the whirlpool is so great that it drags the Wizards down with it, shrieking with rage as they go.

Hotep-Ra follows. Using the
Darke
Art of Suspension Under Water (Hotep-Ra is a Master of many
Darke
arts, although he usually chooses not to use them) he dives in after the Wizards to make an end of them. But at the bottom of the whirlpool he finds that the vortex has broken through the riverbed and entered a cavern in the
Darke
Halls
, which is an ancient refuge for all things evil. Hotep-Ra drags the Wizards from the entrance to the
Darke Halls
; the Wizards fight him all the way but desperation lends Hotep-Ra strength. With his last remnants of energy he hauls the Wizards up to the surface and, like a cork from a bottle, he emerges from the depths, dragging the
Darke
Wizards with him.

The Queen’s barge is waiting for him. She has followed him to Bleak Creek, and now the barge’s rowers are circling while the Queen stands at the prow, anxiously staring at the vortex: she knows that Hotep-Ra is somewhere beneath the water. But when he surfaces, the Queen is horrified—all she can see are the two
Darke
Wizards.

Hotep-Ra is now too weak to sustain his
Magyk
. First his
Illusion
and then his
Invisibility
slip away. Shamandrigger Saarn and Dramindonnor Naarn see each other for the first time in twenty-four hours
—
and then they see Hotep-Ra floundering beside them. For a few long seconds all three Wizards stare at one another, shocked. Clutching the
Flyte Charm
, Hotep-Ra rises up from the water. Saarn and Naarn grab on to his robes and a tangle of Wizards lands on the Queen’s barge.

The Queen knows that Hotep-Ra is too weak to win the fight. She takes off the
Magykal
gold ring he has given her to protect her from her enemies—a ring that may only be destroyed in pure Alchemical
Fyre
. “
Commit
them,” she says, handing him the ring. “Quick!”

“It is your ring,” Hotep-Ra whispers, handing the ring back to her. “You must say the
Committal
. You do remember?”

The Queen nods—of course she remembers. How could she forget something made especially for her? (It is, in fact, the only
Magyk
that the Queen does remember.)

The Queen begins to chant the
Committal
. The words roll over the
Darke
Wizards like the shadow of an eclipse; they struggle but they are too weak to fight back. Hotep-Ra listens anxiously to each word but he does not need to worry—when a Queen wishes to remember something, she remembers it. At last the Queen reaches the
Keystone
word, “Hathor.” There is a blinding flash of purple light and the Queen throws the ring into it. Darkness falls. The Queen speaks the last seven words of her
Incantation
and at the last word,
“Commit
,
”
Time itself is suspended. For seven long seconds the world stands still.

From within the blackness come two roars of anguish, like the sound of wounded beasts. A great howl of a hurricane descends on them, the screeching of the wind drowning out the screams of the Ring Wizards, and hurls the Queen and Hotep-Ra to the deck. The wind circles three times and then it is gone, leaving the Queen’s barge in tatters, the rowers prostrate with terror, and an unearthly silence, which is broken by a delicate
plink
. A gold ring with two green faces imprisoned in it tumbles to the deck and rolls into a pool of dirty water.

When Hotep-Ra returns to the Wizard Tower his old Apprentice, Talmar Ray Bell, tells him that the fallen top of the pyramid has shrunk. She does not know why.

But Hotep-Ra knows why. He knows he has narrowly escaped a most dreaded
Darke Hex
. A
Hex
that does not kill an opponent right away but reduces his size so that he becomes prey to the most terrifying creatures of all: insects. It is an ancient
Darke
pastime, to place a victim of such a
Hex
into a spider’s web and watch the result through an
Enlarging Glass
. Hotep-Ra shudders. He has a fear of spiders.

The tiny top of the golden pyramid lies on the bottom of a large pyramid-shaped crater—a sparkle of gold on the red Castle earth, still shrinking. An anxious group of Wizards are guarding it. (The reputation of the Wizard Tower has spread and it now houses thirteen Ordinary Wizards.) Talmar Ray Bell clambers down into the crater, picks up the miniature golden pyramid and gives it to Hotep-Ra.

Hotep-Ra puts a
Stop
on the
Hex
. The little pyramid sits heavy in his hand, a fiery gold, glinting in the sun. Hotep-Ra smiles. “You will be the
Keye
,” he tells the pyramid.

Once again Hotep-Ra is on the Palace landing stage, saying a sad farewell to the Queen. This time he is not alone. Talmar Ray Bell has insisted on coming with him—Hotep-Ra is so weakened by his fight with the
Darke
Wizards that Talmar fears he will not be able to make the journey on his own.

Hotep-Ra gives the Queen a farewell gift. It is a little book called
The Queen Rules
. It is bound in soft red leather with gold corners and an intricate clasp, and on it is embossed a drawing of the Dragon Boat. It is not his fault that a thousand or so years later the binding falls to pieces, the pages drop out and the
Committal
is lost. No bookbinder, not even a
Magykal
one, can make a book last forever. But memories will last, if they are handed down through the generations.

Hotep-Ra takes the Queen’s barge to the Port. There, a ship is waiting for him and they set sail. The sea is calm and the sun shines. Hotep-Ra spends most of his time on deck, storing up memories of the open air and sea breezes to tide him over the long enclosed times ahead in his final resting place—the House of Foryx.

Night falls and the ship approaches the
Enchanted
—and much feared—Isles of Syren. Hotep-Ra sees the
Lights
shining from the four cat-shaped lighthouses that surround the Isles. He waits until the ship is safely past and all but he have gone below to sleep. Then, by the light of the full moon, Hotep-Ra drops the Two-Faced Ring into the ocean. As it tumbles down through the water, moonlight glints on the gold and an ugly cowfish snaps it up.

And there begins the long journey of the Two-Faced Ring back to the Wizard Tower. Where it now lies. Waiting.

1

W
HAT
L
IES
B
ENEATH

I
n the Vaults of the
Manuscriptorium,
The
Live Plan of What Lies Beneath
was unrolled on a large table. Lit by a bright lantern that hung above the table, the large and fragile sheet of opalescent
Magykal
paper lay weighted down by standard Manuscriptorium paperweights—squares of lead backed with blue felt.
The Live Plan of What Lies Beneath
was a map of all the Ice Tunnels that ran below the Castle—apart from the section that traveled out to the Isles of Syren. As its name suggested, the
Live Plan
was a little more than just a plan.
Magykally
, it showed what was happening in the Ice Tunnels at that very moment.

Gathered around it were the new Chief Hermetic Scribe, O. Beetle Beetle; Romilly Badger, the Inspection Clerk; and Partridge, the new Scribe of Maps. If you had walked into the Vaults at that moment it would not have been clear who actually was the Chief Hermetic Scribe. Beetle’s long blue-and-gold coat of office had been banished to a nearby hook because its gold-banded sleeves scratched the delicate
Live Plan
and he was wearing his comfortable old Admiral’s jacket, which kept out the chill of the Vaults. With his dark hair flopping forward over his eyes, Beetle looked very much at home as he leaned over the
Live Plan
, concentrating hard.