Before either William or Neanna had a chance to say another word, Zach came crawling back towards them. Smiling from ear-to-ear he said, ‘Now listen. I have a plan!’
Blinking away from her friends, Neanna headed towards the Norsori that guarded the gates to the prison. When she was just feet from them, Neanna reappeared and stood before the Norsori, her arms rigid against her slender frame.
Spotting her amongst the shadows and in a blink of an eye, one of the guards armed his bow and aimed an arrow at her.
‘Who goes there?’ he demanded.
Neanna remained silent and still.
‘Tell me your business at these gates or I will shoot!’ the Norsori Guard ordered from behind his iron mask.
Remaining silent, Neanna stared at him.
‘I will shoot,’ he warned again, pulling back on his bow. The other guards heard his shouting and came running over. Seeing the girl standing before them, they armed themselves.
As soon as the Norsori guards left their posts, William placed one of the inferno berries into his catapult and aimed high. Easing the crossbows from their holsters, Zach looked at his friend and grinned.
‘Ready?’ Zach asked.
‘This had better work!’ William said.
‘Trust me!’ Zach said. ‘Now fire!’
Pulling back on the cartilage and closing his eyes, William released the inferno berry. It cut through the night sky and thudded into the ground next to the prison wall.
At the very same moment William had released the berry, the Norsori guard released the arrow at Neanna. It sliced through the air towards her, and just as it was about to rip into her flesh, Neanna blinked. The arrow cut through the space she had left and thrust itself into the chest of the Norsori Guard that had been standing behind her. Screaming in agony, the Guard grabbed at the end of the arrow protruding from him, then fell to the ground.
Before the Norsori Guards had a chance to react, the air was filled with an ear-splitting sound. A green shockwave sliced through the prison wall, causing part of it to explode open in a shower of brick and dust as the inferno berry detonated.
Neanna blinked, appearing behind two of the guards as they looked to see what had happened further along the prison wall. Seizing her chance, she slammed both of their heads together. Their metal headgear clanged and they wobbled, before collapsing in a heap on the ground. Seeing this, another of the Norsori fired off a shot from his bow just as Neanna blinked away again, leaving the arrow to ram into the eye-socket of un-expecting guard.
Within moments, a warning bell began to sound from within the prison walls as mayhem erupted. The two remaining Norsori Guards fled their post and raced towards the smoky opening in the wall.
Seeing this, Zach hissed, ‘now’s our chance. Go!’
With hearts racing, they sprang from their hiding place, and joined Neanna in the shadows by the main gates of the prison.
‘Are you okay?’ Zach asked her.
‘Fine,’ she smiled, as if she hadn’t been responsible for starting the chaos that now engulfed them.
Turning to William, Zach said, ‘you know what to do next!’
Cupping his long hands around his mouth, William roared at the top of his voice through the gate.
‘We need reinforcements out here! We have them but if you don’t hurry they might get away!’
The sound of running feet could be heard from the other side of the huge gates. A deafening wailing sound followed as the gates were forced open from inside the prison.
‘See you in a while,’ Zach said to Neanna, leaning forward and kissing her on the cheek.
‘Good luck!’ Neanna said, her face blushing pink. But Zach was gone, with William bounding behind him.
Pulling her cloak tight, Neanna hid in the shadows of the prison gates as they opened. She watched from the darkness as a horde of Norsori guards raced out and looked all about them.
‘What’s happening?’ one of them asked.
‘I’m not sure. I think we are under attack!’ said another.
‘Look, there’s a huge hole!’ shouted one of them, turning to face the ruined wall.
While the guards stood distracted, Neanna blinked from the shadows and stepped unseen into the prison.
Zach raced towards a small iron door set in the prison wall, which he had noticed when he had crawled away from his friends earlier. Crouching in the shadows, Zach and William waited for Neanna to open it from the other side. Williams’s eyes burnt an angry crimson from behind his spectacles.
‘What’s taking her so long?’ William barked.
‘Give her time,’ Zach said.
Running through a small stone covered area, Neanna turned right along the wall towards the door that Zach had pointed out to her.
‘Hey!’ Someone shouted. ‘Stop!’
Spinning round, Neanna spotted one of the Norsori rushing towards her with arrow drawn.
‘Who me?’ she said.
‘Yeah, you!’ the guard snapped, lumbering towards her.
Reaching behind her, Neanna drew her catapult. The Guard looked at it and smiled.
‘That won’t protect you!’ he screeched, releasing his shot at the girl. The arrow was upon her in an instant. Smiling, Neanna blinked forwards. The guard was still trying to workout how his arrow hadn’t cut through her, when he felt Neanna’s teeth sink into his face.
Leaving the Norsori lying on the ground and clutching the red messy pulp that had once been his face, Neanna blinked towards the doorway. Just as she reached it, two more of the Norsori stepped from the shadows and raced towards her. Beneath their masks, Neanna could see their eyes burning with hate as they took aim. Neanna blinked towards them. The guards looked at one another as the girl seemed to have vanished. By the time it had dawned upon them that they were dealing with a Slath and their chances of beating it were somewhere very close to zero, their arms were flying away from their bodies in a spray of red.
Neanna stood over them as they lay rolling in agony on the ground.
‘That was for betraying my people and the whole of Endra,’ she said, reaching down and snatching a set of keys from one of the Norsori’s tunics. Then, she removed their faces with her teeth and she was as quick as a surgeon using a scalpel.
Blocking out their cries and wiping their blood from her chin, Neanna went to the side gate.
Outside, Zach and William waited for Neanna.
‘C’mon!’ William hissed under his breath.
‘She’ll be here!’ Zach said.
Then, as if their prayers had been answered, they heard keys jangling in the lock on the other side of the door. Just to be certain it was Neanna who was coming to greet them, William held out his catapult and Zach pointed his crossbows at the door. It flew open and Neanna stood on the other side.
‘About time,’ William muttered as she let them in.
Turning in the direction of the screaming Norsori, who continued to roll about in agony on the ground, Zach said, ‘what happened to them?’
‘I don’t know,’ Neanna shrugged.
‘Let’s find my Granddad and get outta here,’ William barked and bounded away.
Keeping to the shadows with their weapons drawn, they made their way around the edge of the prison. Norsori guards rushed to the gaping hole in the wall opposite them. The warning bell rang and within the prison walls it was deafening. They followed the line of the wall until they came to a series of stone steps that spiralled down into the ground.
‘The cells are down here,’ William roared over the sound of the warning bells.
‘How can you be so sure?’ Zach shouted at him.
Grinning, William pointed to a sign nailed to the wall which read ‘Cellblocks 1 - 4’ with an arrow that pointed down into the darkness.
‘What are we waiting for?’ Neanna yelled, racing down the stairs.
Zach and William followed her into a series of tunnels lit by burning torches. Carved into the tunnel walls were the doors to the cells. Each door was made from iron bars and behind them sat the prisoners. Glancing into several of the cells, Zach learnt why it had been named the Prison of Eternal Despair. The cells were squalid looking with filthy looking mattresses on the floor, and wooden buckets in each corner to be used as a toilet. The skeletal remains of prisoners lay scattered in the tunnels and across the cell floors.
The light was poor and the place stank of sweat, urine and excrement. Rats scuttled around in the gloom and they bared their glistening teeth at anyone that dared to come too near. The prisoners lay weak and frail looking on the floor or huddled in the corners of their cells with their heads in their hands. One frail-looking inmate stood at the bars of his cell and dribbled from the corners of his mouth as he banged the cell door with a human thighbone.
‘Which way?’ Zach asked William.
‘I don’t know,’ William barked, looking all about himself. ‘We’ll have to check all of the cellblocks!’
Leaping away down the tunnel, Zach and Neanna chased after him.
‘Granddad! Granddad!’ he howled. ‘It’s me William!’
Hearing the commotion, some of the prisoners came to their cell doors, clutching at the three of them as they raced through the winding tunnels.
‘Help us!’ they begged, waving their filthy hands through the bars.
Looking into their faces, Zach could see the despair in them and in others he could see complete madness. He didn’t care what they had been convicted of – no one deserved to be treated like this.
‘Give me the keys!’ Zach shouted at Neanna, taking her by the arm.
‘Why?’ she asked.
‘Just give me the keys!’
Sensing the desperation in his voice, Neanna handed him the ring of keys that she’d taken from the Norsori. Fumbling with them in his hands, Zach thrust one of the keys into a cell lock and twisted it hard to the right. The lock gave and the cell door swung open. Pulling the key from the lock, Zach tried another. This key also opened the cell door. Taking one of the keys from the ring, he handed the rest of them to the prisoner who stood in the open cell doorway.
The prisoner looked wizened and tired, and had no hair except for a few black, matted clumps. The rest looked as if it had fallen out. Trembling, the prisoner took the keys from Zach.
