THE LORD OF DREAMS

Part IV

Mona and her friends are on a mission to find Motley’s missing laughter, and have just summoned Merlin to his throne.

  "It's a real pleasure to meet you, sir" Mona said humbly.

  "And you, Mona the Vampire" returned Merlin. "Your wits and guile have brought you thus far, but you will yet have to face even greater perils if you are to reach the Lord of Dreams. First, though, I have a challenge of my own for you. If you prove equal, I will arm you with the remaining magic you will need to complete this level. If not, you must carry on without it. Here, then, is the first question. Greystagg asked me to take one of her familiars, Paddock the hedgehog, for a drink of water this morning. I took Paddock somewhere where she could drink her fill, but the water came not from the sky, nor from a well, nor from ice or steam, nor from a bottle or tap. What did Paddock drink?"

They whispered amongst themselves, then Mona turned to Merlin.

  "We think it must have been dew," she said.

  "Truth accepted" Merlin smiled. "Here is the second. On Monday I planted a magic tree. On Tuesday it grew twice its height. Each day it doubled. On Sunday it was fully grown. But which day was half grown?"

They argued long and hard about this.

  "You say it if you're so sure!" Mona eventually hissed at Charley.

  "Thursday" Charley said.

  "Falsehood" Merlin replied gravely. "Saturday was the truth I sought. Here, then, is the third and final question, and you must answer it correctly to earn some magic. As the eagle is to the sparrow, so is the great bird of legend to the condor. Only his memory survives. But can you remember his name?"

Charley and Lily looked at Mona.

  "You must know this one," said Lily.

  "Yeah, c'mon, what is it?" Charley encouraged her.

  "Just let me think, Thursday Boy!" chided Mona. "Ah, I know! It is the roc."

  "Truth accepted," said Merlin, pleased. "Well done, all of you; you have earned the magic you yet need to escape the level. The name of the magic is RISE, and as it's synthetic magic, I hope you’ll have the sense to use it on a synthetic obstacle. Now, farewell; we may yet meet again."

He disappeared in another blinding flash, and Mona and her companions stepped through the right-hand door, into a room with a large joker playing card, featuring a picture of a jester's folderol.

  "Ah-ha!" exclaimed Mona. "That must be Motley's laughter."

  "I guess we'd better release it," said Lily. "Spellcasting: F-O-L-D."

The card flashed yellow for a moment and the folderol rolled across the floor towards Charley's feet. He picked it up. Mona took the playing card from her pocket and threw it to the ground. This caused Motley to appear in a flash of blue lightning.

  "Oh, it's you lot" he said glumly. "Have you found my laughter?"

  "We sure have" said Charley, handing him the folderol. Motley looked at it blankly for a second, and then a smile crept onto his lips. Within moments he was laughing uncontrollably.

  "Oh, thank you!" he laughed. "That's wonderful; now I can be a jester again."

  "Can you help us get to level three, then?" asked Mona.

  "Yes, of course" said Motley more seriously. "I owe you a great service which I will repay. Listen. The way past the blocker can be found with the word JEST. The way to level three at the moment is by the Descender, which is a spell-bound room that moves from one level to another; it's a bit like what you call a lift. It is voice-activated, which means that you must command it to move. To start it, shout Down. When you reach level three, shout Stop; it's as easy as that!"

  "How do we know when we've reached level three?" asked Mona.

  "Look at the scenery through the open windows; there will be plenty on the way down. When you see a wintry scene, the next level will be the one you want; you see, the world of Winteria is currently within level three. Be sure to watch out for its evil queen, Aesandre. Now, have you got all that?"

  "Yes" said Mona. "Thanks, Motley."

  "No, thank you!" smiled Motley, retrieving his joker card. "Bye."

With that, he disappeared in another blue flash, laughing merrily to himself. The companions continued went the arch, into a pink room with one door and a grey wall, which moved towards them and formed the face of a blocker.

  "Password!"

  "Jest!" cried Mona, and the wall slid away.

            The next room was bare apart from a very large grey door. Mona went up and tapped it.

  "This looks like the end of level two" she said. "The Descender must be behind this door. I wonder how we're supposed to open it."

  "What about that spell Merlin gave us?" Charley suggested. "He said we should use it on a synthetic obstacle, and this looks pretty synthetic to me."

  "Good thinking, Zapman!" Mona commended him. "Spellcasting: R-I-S-E."

The gate shuddered as it clanked upwards. Sure enough, the Descender was behind it. They all stepped into the lift, which was a metal platform that looked as if it could be lowered down the brick lift shaft by a chain mechanism.

  "It doesn't look very safe," said Lily doubtfully.

  "I agree, but I guess it's safe if it's powered by magic" Mona reasoned. "Don't forget to look out of all the windows, you two, and try and spot Winteria. Down!"

The Descender clanked into action and bore them downwards. Fang screeched in terror and clung to Mona's leg; he really did not like this ride! The others noticed all sorts of scenery through the arched windows; there were landscapes, seascapes, castles and dungeon chambers. At last they saw a castle on a hill which was covered with snow.

  "Stop!" they all cried at the same time.

The Descender obediently stopped at an old brown door, which creaked as it opened. The companions stepped forward, and into level three.

            The snow crunched under their feet as they trudged across a snow-covered field. Fang kept shaking it off his paws and could not understand why they became soiled again the moment he put them on the ground.

  "This must be Winteria" noted Mona.

  "Eek!" squeaked Lily, clutching at Mona and pointing ahead. "What's that?"

They could see a shape forming out of the mist ahead. The swirling snow formed an icy, transparent image of a woman's head. Her face looked cruel and malicious and she spoke in tones of haughty contempt.

  "I am Aesandre" the wind whistled in her voice. "No one is permitted in Winteria without my invitation. I know why you are here, but I warn you to leave now! This is only my image, but continue on this path and you will meet me in person. I assure you that I will not let you reach the Lord of Dreams. In fact, I won't let you leave at all..."

And with that, Aesandre was gone.

  "Oh God, what do we do?" panicked Lily.

  "Calm down" soothed Mona. "The Dungeon wouldn't let her into this challenge if there wasn't some way to defeat her. We'll just have to have our wits about us even more than before; this is level three, remember!"

They trudged on and eventually came to a portal, which took them into a cave. They were shocked to discover a large green dragon asleep beside them.

  "Do you think it's friendly?" asked Lily.

  "I think we're about to find out," said Charley.

Sure enough, the beast was waking up.            

  "Oh, hello" he yawned through bleary eyes. "Mona and friends, is it?"

  "That's right," said Mona.

  "Good" said the dragon approvingly. "My name is Smirkenorff. I understand you wish to reach the Lord of Dreams."

  "Yes" said Lily. "Can you help?"

  "You will need a spell to use against Aesandre if you're going to get through" Smirkenorff told them. "I would give you one, but Aesandre has stolen my last firestone and frozen it away somewhere. Without it, my magic is not strong enough to contest her."

  "Can we get it for you?" asked Charley.

  "If you were to acquire some appropriate magic and release the stone then I would be able to assist you" Smirkenorff went on. "I have enough power to give you a small summoning spell. Its name is BECKON. Use it only when you have the stone, or all my power will be spent. Now, I must conserve my energy. Good luck."

Smirkenorff closed his eyes again, and swept aside his tail to reveal a door.

  "Well, that's our next task clear," said Mona. "But I guess we'll need powerful magic to complete it. Come on."

The next room was large and spacious with a door at the end and a table to the right. There was another glowing M on the table.

  "Looks like Merlin's calling-card again" said Mona. "Perhaps he'll have the magic we need to release the firestone."

She touched the M and a large transparent vision of Merlin appeared to their left.

  "Congratulations, all of you!" Merlin commended them. "You have done exceedingly well to reach this point. However, you will need your wits about you even more than before if you are to survive level three and reach the Lord of Dreams. To help you cope, I will gift you three spells. None will help you directly with your task, but all are vital to your eventual success. The first spell is a minor spell which affects perception. It is called REVEAL. The second is effective in appropriate situations and is called DOOR. The third is high magic, and should be used only in desperate need. Its name is ENERGY. Now, be brave. Your path is relatively short now, but more dangerous than you might expect. If you survive all, we shall meet once again."

With that, he disappeared in a blinding flash.

  "This is getting very intense, what with all these cryptic clues," said Lily nervously. "I'm not sure I like it."

  "Neither do I" admitted Mona. "But, as I said, this is level three."

  "Then let's complete it as quickly as possible" said Charley, and he hastily led the way through the door.

            The next room was dominated by an ugly face hewn into the rock. It was thundering a word out loud.

  "DOOM!"

  "What is that ugly brute?" winced Lily.

  "It looks like a gargoyle," said Mona. "And not a very happy one."

  "DOOM!"

  "It doesn't seem to be attacking," said Charley. "Look, there's a door over there; shall we try to escape?"

  "Sidle very carefully towards it" Mona ordered. "No sudden movements."

  "DOOM!"

They did as she said, but were all four suddenly gripped by a pang of despair.

  "DOOM!"

  "We'll never make it!" blubbed Charley.

  "DOOM!"

  "Level three's too hard!" Lily cried. "We may as well give up!"

  "DOOM!"

  "It's the gargoyle's pessimism!" cried Mona, taking a terrified and bewildered Fang into her arms. "It's draining our resolve. To the exit, quickly!"

They ran as fast as they could, but Lily was stopped short by Mona leaping on top of her. She moved her fanged mouth close to Lily's neck.

  "Help, she's going to kill me!" Lily screeched. "Charley!"

Covering his ears, Charley tried to get to her. But Fang stopped him short.

  "Fang's attacking me!" he cried. "Get off!"

Charley and Fang wrestled, and in the confusion blundered through the door. They lay there, dazed and confused. Charley knew that the gargoyle had made Fang go crazy. He stroked the cat, who purred.

  "There, there" he said. "It's over now. But we've got to save the girls!"

It was then that he noticed that there was no door where he had come in. He stared in disbelief. Then Hordriss's words came back to him:

  "The only way is onward; there is no turning back."

Meanwhile, Lily was trying to fend Mona off. She had been forced to the ground and was losing strength and energy, especially with the gargoyle still thundering its dismal message.

  "It's not working!" she cried as the fangs lunged again, then a thought came to her. "Merlin's magic! We need a powerful weapon against such a powerful opponent, so I think it's time to use that powerful spell. Spellcasting: E-N-E-R-G-Y."

Lily felt her resolve returning and wasted no time. She pushed Mona through the door, then scrambled to her feet as quickly as she could, and dived afterwards. But what a shock she got on the other side; she was in another cave, but there was no sign of Mona, Charley or Fang. She was on her own.

            Mona opened her eyes. She was lying in another stone cavern. There was no sign of Lily, Charley or Fang.

  "Oh, great!" she grumbled to herself as she got up. "That gargoyle sent us all haywire and now we've got separated."

She tried to think of a plan of action but was interrupted by a sound from the far end of the cavern. It was a short, low note which came twice.

  "It sounds like some kind of hunting horn" Mona mused. "Who or what could be blowing it?"

Her question was answered as a group of creatures rushed to meet her from the darkness. They were only about four foot tall, but carried clubs and daggers. They were dressed in brown rags, and their faces and hands were the same colour. They had small eyes and pinched faces.

  "Goblins!" Mona exclaimed. "Just like in all the fantasy stories!"

Mona knew that they were short-sighted but carnivorous and hunted in packs. She counted ten in the cave with her, but reasoned that the horn blast would have alerted others who would even now be on the way. The creatures leered at her, and one came up close at squinted at her. Reckoning her to be fair game, he beckoned the others forward. Mona kicked him in the solar plexus and he fell to the ground. The others chattered angrily at seeing their leader treated like this. They ran over, weapons raised.

  "You've chosen the wrong opponent" Mona proclaimed as they came nearer.

Her eyes glowed red and she held out her hands. The goblins screamed as the lightning leapt forward to fry them. Mona was using the weapon she referred to as her vampire bolts. She knew that not all vampires had this ability and she counted it as her most powerful weapon, although she was reluctant to use it very often as it used so much mental energy and stamina. However, it was quite sufficient to send the goblins scattering in terror.

  "Shame" Mona said to herself as she walked towards the back of the cavern. "I'd meant to keep that in reserve for Aesandre."

She found an exit and stepped through it into another cave, with a pit in the middle. She was taken aback to see a large red dragon's head sticking out of it and grinning at her.

  "Ah, good" smiled the dragon. "A tasty helping of dinner."

Dear, oh dear. Mona and her allies have become separated, and Bhal-Shebah seems to think that vampire is on the lunch menu. Don’t forget to read the thrilling continuation of this story in the next issue of The Eye Shield.