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  They had been following the spider for about half an hour when Belle stopped, held up her hand, and closed her eyes.

  “I’m starting to wonder how this spider measures distance….. not far obviously doesn’t mean the same to him as it means to me,” Leah whispered to Raff as they waited.

  Raff slumped to the ground. “Tell me about it!” He rifled through his backpack, and sighed happily as he pulled out an apple. He then proceeded to devour it as if he hadn’t eaten in a week.

  Leah took a swig from her water bottle. “How’s the leg?”

  “Yeah, not too bad,” he said, between munches.

  Belle opened her eyes, and shuddered. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to having a spider inside my head.” She groaned, and flopped down beside them.

  “So, apparently the entrance to the vault is just up ahead. We need to take the left fork, and our friend will be waiting when we come back out. Lucky us!” She rolled her eyes and shuddered again.

  They finished their meagre meal, and headed off towards where the spider had been standing earlier. They arrived at the place where it had told them to turn left, thankful they hadn’t been forced to try and choose the correct turn. Leah wondered where the other two would have led them, then decided she was probably better off never knowing.

  It wasn’t long before a faint glow appeared in the distance. Goosebumps prickled along Leah’s skin, whether from fear or excitement, she wasn’t sure.

  The tunnel ended, and set into the rock in front of them was a massive glowing door. It looked a lot like the portal they had stepped into in Naissance, only bigger.

  Raff stared at the door, a frown on his face. “Well, I guess we’re about to discover whether we’ve proved ourselves worthy or not. Only one way to find out…” And then he stepped through the doorway, and vanished.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  - The Amulet -

  Belle and Leah stared at the doorway. How were they supposed to know whether he was still alive, or been vaporised, as he stepped through the door?

  They jumped as a carrot-topped head popped back through the doorway. “Hurry up you pair, I found it!” He winked, and his head vanished back inside the door again.

  The girls looked at each other and grinned. They stepped through the door together, heard a popping sound, and were on the other side. Leah blinked, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the brightly lit room.

  Raff sat on a chair behind a large wooden desk, frowning as he carefully turned the fragile pages of a large leather-bound book.

  Belle rushed over to have a look. “How’d you find it so fast?”

  “I didn’t have to look far. It was sitting right here on the desk when I walked in.” He scratched his head with one hand, turning the pages with the other. “However, we do have a problem. The whole thing is written in another language! I’ve found a drawing, but I’m not sure it’s going to be much help.”

  He turned back a couple of pages, and showed them the drawing. “See how the three people here are each holding a piece of the amulet, but in this next drawing, they’re holding hands and looking at the three pieces merged together and glowing. So how did they do it?”

  Belle and Raff continued to leaf through the book, hoping to find more drawings, while Leah sat on the ground and pulled out the circlet. She remembered back to the night when it had communicated its sadness to her, and what Zolinda had said about all metals retaining memories. She rubbed her thumb along the grooves as she’d done the last time she’d felt its emotions, but this time she felt nothing.

  She tried to remember what she’d been thinking when she’d felt the circlet’s emotions last time. She’d been wondering what had been removed. Well, she knew that now, so maybe she needed to ask a different question. Or maybe ask a different piece?

  “Hey guys, can you bring your amulet pieces over? I have an idea.”

  “Sure, what’s up?” Raff and Belle joined her on the ground.

  Leah told them about her idea, and they agreed it was worth a shot. She placed the blade over the grooves in the circlet, and held the stone in place while she concentrated. She wondered what could possibly have happened to enable someone to separate the pieces, and was hit by a wave of pain. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, determined not to break the connection like she had last time.

  She stood in a room where the complete amulet lay on an old wooden desk. She knew she’d never been in the room before, yet it seemed familiar. Beside her stood an angry looking man, yelling at the three figures standing in front of the desk with dazed expressions on their faces.

  Across the room stood a tall oval mirror, suspended inside a free-standing solid timber frame, along with a desk that had intricately carved scrollwork on the front. No wonder it seemed familiar; she was in the room Serena had described in her diary! The kitsune, Sardon, stood right beside her in his elven form. She was inside a memory from the amulet!

  “It’s not working!” the man yelled. “You have to merge your minds, become as one. It’s the only way it will work!”

  The eyes of the three figures appeared out of focus, as if they were in some kind of trance. They formed a circle, closed their eyes, and joined their hands together in front of them, beads of sweat appearing on their foreheads. A thin translucent green cord began to coalesce above their joined hands. It bound their hands together, and then split into three separate threads which snaked their way upwards towards the bowed heads of the three figures.

  The amulet on the desk began to emit a soft glow, and Sardon immediately picked up a tool from the desk. He worked at the casing of the stone in the centre of the blade until the stone came loose. He held it up in front of his eyes triumphantly.

  The three figures had slumped to the floor. Their vacant stares told Leah they were dead.

  Not a trace of remorse or compassion showed on Sardon’s face as he looked dispassionately at the dead bodies on the floor. “How inconvenient. Now I’ll have to find three more mindless idiots to separate the other two pieces.”

  Leah opened her eyes, and was back sitting on the ground in the vault. She was shaking, her stomach churning at what she had just learned. Belle and Raff were staring at her, their eyes full of concern.

  “Are you okay?” Belle asked softly. “We were starting to get really worried. You’ve been shaking and mumbling for the last ten minutes. Do you want to tell us what happened? It’s okay if you’re not up to it yet.”

  She reached into Leah’s backpack, and pulled out her friend’s water bottle. Leah gulped down the last of it, her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth from the horror she had witnessed. She dreaded having to tell Belle and Raff what she’d seen.

  Tears leaked from her eyes, and trailed down her face uncontrolled. She could just not tell them what she’d seen; make up some story that sounded plausible? But she knew the decision wasn’t hers alone to make, they deserved to know the truth. Whatever path they chose to follow, it needed to be the result of an informed decision, made by all three of them.

  Leah related everything she had seen in Sardon’s room, watching the fear, understanding, and finally horror, flicker in their eyes. Raff was the first to break the silence, jumping up and running back to the desk.

  “I didn’t find any drawings of the three collapsed or dead after the amulet was created. Surely there would be one, if what you’ve described happened to them?” He turned the pages as quickly as he could without damaging the fragile paper, unable to hide his shaking hands.

  Belle frowned. “Exactly! And the three you watched were destroying the amulet, which is a lot different to restoring it?”

  Leah could hear the desperation in their voices, and hoped they’d find something to prove that what she’d seen wouldn’t happen to them.

  “I absolutely agree with what you’re both saying. And I so hope you’re right. But, I think we’re going to have to make a decision based on the information we have, which is that we don’t know what will happen! I al
so think we need to make a decision while we’re still inside this vault, with just the three of us here, and no-one telling us what we should or shouldn’t do. And we need to all agree, if we decide to do it. No majority rules, if one of us is against trying, then we don’t try. What do you think?”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  - When Three Become One -

  Raff stopped rifling through the book and flopped back down on the ground next to Leah. He knew she was right, they needed to make their decision knowing they could die if they tried to merge their minds. He scratched his head, surprised he was even considering still doing it. Less than a month ago, the Raff who had grown up in Naissance and longed for adventure would have laughed and walked away. And he’d have told them they were insane for even considering doing something so stupid.

  “Y’know, it’s funny. I was just thinking how insane we must be, to even consider still trying to do the mind merge when we know it might kill us. But I guess it comes down to weighing up our options. Here’s how I see it. Option a) we don’t do it, and Tyranius keeps trying to kill us; option b) we do it, and the mind merge kills us; or option c) we do it, it doesn’t kill us, and we somehow work out how to use the amulet to get rid of Tyranius before he kills us!”

  Belle groaned. “Can’t there be an option d)? Something like…and then all the problems magically disappeared and they all lived happily ever after?”

  Leah sighed. “I’m with Belle; I want option d) too.”

  “Well, I vote we eat. I think better with a full stomach.” Raff chuckled as he saw the girls rolling their eyes.

  Belle sunk her head into her hands. “How can you even think about eating? I’m sure anything I tried to eat right now would totally stick in my throat.” Raff just shrugged and pulled out his last apple. His mind always worked better on a full stomach.

  They sat in silence for a while, the only sound coming from Raff munching on his apple. He wondered if the girls knew that deep down he was absolutely petrified. He didn’t want to have to make a decision about whether he died today, or any other day. They were only fourteen! Fourteen-year-olds shouldn’t have to make decisions about things like this.

  Belle lifted her head, silent tears streaming down her face. “Okay, here are my thoughts. I think it is so unfair that we have the responsibility of making this decision. We could just take the book, and the amulet pieces, back to the Oracle and ask him to have the words translated. But what if the book says we have to die to merge the amulet? No-one would ever expect us or force us to do it, so we’d still have to make the decision. And if we choose not to do this, how many more children with mixed blood who step out of the portal will die? Somebody wrote this prophecy a long time ago and whether we like it or not, we’re the ones who are supposed to try to make it come true. And what about Madame Persimmons? She lost everything trying to keep us safe, and we don’t even know if she’s still alive.”

  Belle paused, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. “So I guess what I’m trying to say is… I’m prepared to try.” She put her head back in her hands, and burst into tears.

  Raff and Leah just looked at each other. Raff hadn’t even considered the impact their decision would have on anyone else besides themselves. He had listed what he considered the available options, as if the three of them would be the only ones affected by their choice. How many thousands, or even tens of thousands, of kids their age had died, by order of the kitsune Guardians?

  Leah finally spoke. “Belle, you are amazing. I’m ashamed to admit, I’d never even considered how many kids have been killed, for no other reason than because they had mixed-blood. I’ve been sitting here, railing against the fact I have to make such a hard decision when I’m only fourteen, but all those kids were only fourteen too, and they were killed simply because they might one day be a threat to the Guardians. And you’re right about Madame Persimmons too. She knew Tyranius would come looking for us eventually, and that he would take his anger out on her, but she still put our safety before her own. So… I’m ready to try too.”

  Raff groaned. “Oh great, how did I know it would come down to me to make the final decision? Look, I don’t want to die either, and my gut tells me we’re not going to. If this prophecy really is about us, how is anyone going to find the amulet if we die in here? We have to survive this for the prophecy to come true. So let’s just get it over with and try, okay?”

  He sat on his hands to try to stop them shaking and looked over at Leah. “Right. So how does this mind merge thing work anyway?”

  Leah looked dumbfounded. “Ummm, I have no idea. I only know it’s what Sardon told the three they had to do. They just stood in a circle, with their hands all joined, and concentrated, and this weird green cord of light did the rest.”

  Raff burst out laughing. “Seriously? After all this, we don’t even know how to do it?”

  He knew it wasn’t really funny, that he was probably just hysterical, but he couldn’t stop laughing. At least Belle was smiling again, which was probably largely due to the fact that he was rolling around on the floor, holding his aching stomach as he laughed.

  Leah chewed on her lip. “Okay, surely it can’t be that hard. When I use my Gift, I have to concentrate, and sort-of reach right down inside myself to find the place where it’s stored. Is that what you guys do?”

  Belle nodded. “Yep, same here. So, it’s probably our Gifts we have to merge, as well as our minds. When I communicate with animals, I have to reach out and actually touch their mind, so I know how to do that.”

  Raff nodded as well. “When I use mine, I have to, like, shape the weapon I choose with my mind before I use it. So maybe if I try to shape the green cord of light thing, and then send it out to you guys, it might work?”

  Leah sighed. “Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out. Are we ready?” Raff could see the fear threatening to dissolve the determination in her eyes.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” Raff muttered as they scrambled to their feet. They arranged the amulet pieces together on the floor, in the centre of the small circle they’d formed.

  Belle cleared her throat as they joined their hands in front of them. “Just in case we don’t survive this, I just wanna tell you guys you’re the best friends I could ever have dreamed of having. I’m so glad I met you before… anyway, thanks.” They all squeezed each other’s hands and closed their eyes.

  Raff reached down inside himself, and found the place he was looking for. He formed a picture in his mind of the cord Leah had described, then tried to stretch it so it would be long enough. When he thought it felt about right, he pictured Leah and Belle’s faces and sent the cord out.

  As one, Leah and Belle screamed and pulled their hands away. He opened his eyes to see them both rubbing their foreheads, and giving him death stares.

  “What? Too much?” He could feel the heat rising in his face.

  Belle chuckled. “It felt like someone threw a bucket of cold water in my face!”

  “Yep, that’s a good way of describing it.” Leah's eyes softened.

  And then she frowned again. “Wait, I’m sure the rope thingy started from their hands. Raff, maybe you could just send the rope to your fingers and we’ll try to grab onto it with our minds? Belle, what do you think?”

  “Yep, definitely sounds like a better plan. That way our minds are all connected through the rope, so it acts as a type of conduit.”

  “Whatever that means,” Raff mumbled, shaking his head.

  “Are we ready?” Belle looked nervously at both of them as they nodded.

  They joined their hands together again, and closed their eyes. Raff reached down into that place again, shaping the cord the same as before. He sent it to his fingers, feeling them start to tingle as the cord reached them and leaked outwards.

  He felt a soft tug on the cord, and then another. He continued to slowly release more of the cord, feeling it wrap itself around their joined hands. Suddenly, it felt like he was being sucked into a vort
ex, his mind bucking and screaming for release, and then his mind slammed into something hard, and everything went black.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  - Spider Games -

  Belle opened her eyes, confused by her totally unfamiliar surroundings. Where was she? This definitely wasn’t her room. Then the memories came flooding back. She was in the vault. And she was alive! She sat up, instantly regretting it as she held her head to stop the room from spinning.

  Leah and Raff were lying on the ground to each side of her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw they were both breathing… They’d survived! Raff’s gut feeling had been right, and she didn’t know whether she wanted to laugh, or cry, or scream, with relief.

  “So did it work?” She jumped at the sound of Raff’s voice. She hadn’t realised he was awake.

  In her excitement over their survival, she’d forgotten all about the amulet. She spied the end of the blade, covered in dirt, at Leah’s feet. She reached out to brush the dirt off, and let out a whoop when she realised the three pieces were back together again.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Raff chuckled as he sat up, and grabbed his head like she’d done. A pained grin appeared on his face. “So, from the way my head is hurting, I’m gonna assume we’re still alive?”

  The sound of soft moans, coming from where Leah lay, told them she was now conscious as well.

  “Are we seriously still alive? Because if we are, I’m going to kill whoever trampled on my head while I was conked out?” She sat up slowly, and spied the amulet in Belle’s hand. “Woah, did we seriously do that?”

  “We sure did! Turns out Raff’s gut feeling was right. So now we just need to think of a plan to get out of here. Without letting the spider out. Any suggestions?”

  They all looked at each other. Belle hadn’t really expected to hear a solution. Her head still ached from the mind merge, so she knew theirs must too.

  She sighed. “Okay. Well I guess the most important thing is to get the amulet back to the Oracle, and find out what happens next. I’ll keep tapping into the spider’s thoughts as we go, and maybe come up with an idea we can use. We still have a long walk back to the waterfall, who knows what could change between now and then?”