The Sceptre of Samnos

The Prince Fennerel - Part 1

     Getting out of the maze was a lot easier than getting in had been. With all the illusions gone and the traps deactivated, it took them just ten minutes to find their way back to the entrance room. Out of curiosity they tried the other corridor, the one that had been guarded by the animated suits of armour. The suits were still there, but remained motionless as they tiptoed past. As they had suspected, all the branches of the corridor led to dead ends, and they left in disgust.

     They emerged from the emerald maze to find the pentagron still lying dead in the water below the bridge. As they crossed over, however, the creature was enveloped by a cloud of glowing green mist, and as they gathered on the far side it stirred and came back to life, bellowing a warning to them with its largest head as it climbed up the bank and took its place back on the bridge. Diana was pleased that they had done no lasting harm to a creature that was, after all, only doing its job.

     A few moments later they passed the place where they'd fought the wolves, and they found that all signs of the battle, including the bodies of the dead wolves, had vanished, confirming Thomas's theory. They heard them howling a short distance away, however, and hurried back to the building containing the stair shaft, even though they were sure, or at least fairly sure, that they wouldn't attack.

     As they reached the lawn surrounding the shaft building, Shaun looked up at the yellow sun suspiciously. "What time would you say it was?" he asked.

     "I don't know," said Matthew. "About midday, I suppose."

     "It was mid morning when we entered the maze," said Shaun. "We can't have been in there for only a couple of hours. It seems more like days. I was expecting to see the sun setting as we came out."

     "The sun did set while we were in there," said Lirenna. "We spent a whole day and a night in the maze. Believe me. We shae folk have a much better sense of the passage of time than you humans."

     "A whole day and a night?" cried Thomas in amazement. "No wonder I feel so whacked out! I thought it was just the stress of the maze!"

     It took them the rest of the day to cautiously descend the two thousand four hundred steps back to the base of the island. They checked that their boat was still where they'd left it, but the light was fading and they decided to wait until the next morning to leave the island. They made camp for the night in the foot of the stair shaft, therefore, where they were protected from the elements and fairly comfortable, although Lirenna couldn't look at the tall stairwell spiraling above her without shivering at the memory of how close she'd come to death during the climb up. She fingered the autumnleaf ring on her finger, shivering at the thought that she owed her life to the gallantry of Jerry and Thomas, who'd let her have their only magical artifact, and she let her warm feelings of gratitude towards them lull her to sleep.

     The next morning, it was heavily overcast and a light rain was falling. Scraps of seaweed left high above the tideline told that there'd been a fairly strong storm during the night, but their boat was still where they'd left it and after giving it a quick check over they pushed it out to sea and set sail away from the island. They watched with relief and a strong feeling of accomplishment as it shrank behind them, and when they were a couple of hundred yards away from the shore it shimmered and vanished as they passed through the curtain of invisibility. The first major landmark of their quest had been accomplished. Now they could set out for the Sceptre itself.