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“What do you think?” I ask Dervish and Shark.
“Will we have to fight?” Shark asks Lord Loss.
“Oh yes,” Lord Loss says with relish.
“Can we die?” Dervish frowns. “I mean, if we don’t have actual bodies...”
“Although I’ll separate your souls from your bodies, you will retain your current forms when you enter the Board,” Lord Loss explains. “If you are killed during the game, your makeshift bodies will dissolve and I will gain control of your souls.”
Shark shrugs. “I don’t quite get all that, but I’m still with you.”
“Me too,” Dervish says.
I smile at them, then face Lord Loss. “OK. We’ll do it. But I want your word that —”
I get no further. Lord Loss barks a quick spell. Webs drop from the ceiling and ensnare us. We start to struggle, but then the webs go up in flames. I feel a stinging sensation. My body seems to melt away. I try to scream. A red veil passes over my eyes. Then the castle, demons and world around me blink out of existence.
AMAZEING
DARKNESS. Silence. I’m crouched over, hands covering my head, trying to protect my face from the sizzling webs. Then I realize I’m not on fire. There’s no pain. I relax my hands and sit up, brushing cobweb ash from my cheeks.
I can’t see. Total blackness. I reach out with my hands but don’t touch anything. “Hello?” I call, then wait for Shark or Dervish to respond.
No answer.
I get to my feet, stretch my hands out and start walking. I count steps inside my head. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty. Fifty. A hundred. On my hundred and thirtieth step, my left hand brushes something soft and sticky. I pause and explore with my fingers. It’s a wall of webs. When I try ripping through the webs, they resist.
“Dervish!” I shout. “Shark!”
No answers. No echoes. Only silence.
Walking, keeping one hand on the webby wall. I come to another wall after several minutes, blocking the way ahead. I turn right and follow the new wall. Only get twelve paces before striking another wall. So I’m either in a very long, narrow room, or some sort of alley. Hand on the wall, I start back in the direction I came, trying hard not to panic.
After sixty-two paces there’s a left turn. A long walk after that, the wall curving slightly. Then I come to the mouth of another room or alley. I head down it, left hand staying in touch with the wall. After twenty-two paces, I come to another turning. I start to follow it around to the left, then pause. I’ve had an idea.
Lowering my hand, I shuffle twelve paces across to the right and find the wall opposite. I continue straight ahead, right hand feeling the way. After thirty-six paces I come to a halt. Turn left. Walk ahead. Ten paces... twelve... twenty.
I stop, smiling ever so slightly. I know where I am now. In a maze.
A few seconds later, the smile fades — there’s no telling how large this maze is, or where the exit might be. Or even if there is an exit. I guess there’s only one way to find out. Keeping a hand on the wall, I start ahead again, further into the pitch-black demonic maze.
I’m mapping the maze inside my head. I must have been here for hours. Trying to remember all the twists and turns I’ve taken, the paces between them. Focusing on numbers helps me not worry so much about the darkness, the silence, being all alone with no idea of where...
The darkness.
I come to a stunned stop, only now realizing why I find the darkness so unsettling. It’s total darkness — there aren’t any patches of light! For the first time in my life I’m experiencing darkness as other people understand it. The lights I’ve grown up with — which I used to create windows between worlds in this universe — have disappeared.
A terrifying thought strikes like a missile — maybe I’m blind! Perhaps that’s why the darkness is absolute. Maybe Lord Loss burnt my eyes out of their sockets and it’s actually bright as day in here.
My heart thumps fast. My legs go weak. A life of blackness, lost in a maze, no friends to turn to for help.... Maybe that’s what Lord Loss meant when he said I had to find and name the demon thief. Perhaps that’s why he was smirking. He knew that, blind, I wouldn’t have any way of identifying Cadaver. He’s tricked me! Robbed me of my sight! Stranded me in this maze of eternal darkness!
I moan aloud, losing hope, the map of the maze disintegrating inside my head. I should have listened to Beranabus. What made me think I could strike a fair deal with a demon? I feel hysteria bubble up within me. Madness digs its claws into my brain, dragging its way to the surface.
Magic, a voice inside me whispers. Use magic to create light. Then you’ll find out if you’re blind or not.
“I don’t know how to do that,” I whimper.
This is a good time to learn, the voice says dryly.
