The Sceptre of Samnos

The Emerald Oracle - Part 6

      After hacking their way through another hundred yards or so of dense forest undergrowth, they came to another lawn avenue, also about twenty five yards wide and a hundred yards long. At one end was the statue of a soldier wearing a plumed steel helm, chain mail and armour swinging his sword at a stone wolf that was attacking him while fending off another with a large shield. There seemed to be no point to the statue, no reason for its being there except possibly as a mere decorative artifact, and after puzzling over it for a while they left it and went on.

     "I wonder who cuts the grass." said Thomas as they re-entered the forest.

     "Probably the same person who puts daft questions into the heads of daft wizards." answered Shaun.

     "I only asked," said Thomas in a hurt tone of voice, staring at the ground in a sulk.

     A few minutes later they came to a large clearing in the forest, about two or three hundred yards across. Most of it was filled by a lake of clear water that sparkled in the sunlight. Lily pads and flowers floated in it, a few ducks and a couple of swans swam about on it, and shoals of silver fish swam about in it. Swarms of little flies buzzed around their heads, and a dragonfly flitted around just above the surface of the water, its silvery blue wings catching the sunlight as it flew. It might have been any beautiful lake in any temperate woodland clearing in the world if it hadn't been for what stood on the island in the middle.

      The island was about a hundred and fifty yards across and was covered by a newly cut lawn. In the middle of it was a beautiful building that appeared to be made entirely of emerald. It was triangular, each wall about seventy five yards long and five yards high, and it had a flat roof. Their hearts raced with excitement. This must be it! they thought. The Emerald Oracle itself!

      They circled the lake, looking for a way to get across to the island, and soon saw a wide marble bridge that had until then been hidden behind the building, its single span arching high above the water but without any safety rail to protect a careless crosser from a nasty fall. All they had to do was cross the bridge and walk up the path to the door in the emerald wall. Thomas was convinced that once they were through that door they would have made it. All they had to do was get past the Oracle's last guardian.

      It lay curled up in the middle of the wide bridge, apparently asleep. It was a large reptilian creature, as large as two bull elephants, one standing behind the other, with a long muscular tail that dangled over the side, its tip twitching lazily to and fro. At the other end of the massive body were five heads on long, serpentine necks. Its central head was the largest, about the size of a horse's head but fearsomely carnivorous, with long sharp teeth and long, forward pointing horns. The heads on either side were smaller, about the size of the heads of large dogs but equally ferocious looking, and the outermost heads were like those of large snakes with bright yellow, lidless eyes and tongues that flickered in and out even in its sleep.

      "A pentagron," said Thomas, fearfully. "They were thought to have become extinct about two million years ago."

      "How much do you know about it?" asked Shaun.

      "Only what I read in a book in Lexandria's library," replied the wizard. "About a hundred years ago, the trogs of Malegost dug up an almost complete skeleton in one of their mines. It's a lithoderm, the same family to which dragons, basilisks and slenns belong. No-one knows if they have any special magical abilities or breath weapons, but the outermost snake heads have hollow fangs which probably means they have a poisonous bite, so watch out."

      "Maybe it's only an illusion, like the rocks," suggested Matthew hopefully.

      "Jerry?" prompted Thomas.