Excerpt
<...He raced up the stairs, gasping for breath in the hot, oppressive
air. Two levels, three levels…He stepped on to the next flight of
stairs, but just as he was turning away from the passageway that led
off that landing, he caught a glimpse of red.
“Hang on!” He called up to Raya ahead of him.
It wasn’t just that flash of red that stopped him in his tracks,
but a sudden, familiar rush of warmth and strength flooding through
him. He took a few steps along the corridor and for the briefest
moment he saw it; standing ahead of him in the tunnel, a magnificent
red lion.
“This way!” He didn’t know what the red lion
was - his guide, like the fox and Brock, or something else entirely.
What he was sure of though was that they were meant to follow it.
The ground beneath his feet shook again; a long, rumbling, rolling
shake that rippled through the walls of the tunnel, and now too he
could hear something deeper than the crackling, popping sparks…a
roaring, rushing sound like a great wave bearing down on them. He
began to run, no longer focused on what might lie ahead, no longer
alert for Baarashes, just running as hard as his feet could carry
him.
On and on…the tunnel seemed to go on forever, but no matter how
fast he ran, he could hear the rushing sound growing louder and
louder. The passageway came to a sudden end. He looked frantically
around, gasping panicked lungfuls of air. This couldn’t be right!
They were in a small cave, far smaller than the cavern of Aub and the
Sath, in the middle of which burned the blue-red flames of a Baal
Fire. And that was it. No way out. Solid black walls. And whatever
was making the rushing, roaring sound was closing in on them rapidly
along the passageway down which they had just run. Trapped.
Where had his lion gone? How could it have led him to this dead end?
“Help!” He yelled at the top of his voice.
“Help!” He had no idea who he thought might hear, but still he
screamed the word with every last bit of his strength. The Baal Fire
flickered and its blue flame turned red, just for a split second…
Owen could have laughed aloud with joy.
“Come on!” he called to his friends, took a
deep breath and leapt straight into the heart of the fire.
“Ahh…” He let out an enormous, shuddering
sigh of relief as the cool fresh air hit him. Down he spun,
spiralling along the tunnel. He caught a brief glimpse of a familiar,
sun-dappled forest glade, a dolphin spinning high above foamy,
white-crested waves, snow-capped mountain peaks and a horse galloping
towards him beneath a sky filled with rainbows…the Gateway tunnel!
Down and down. More
windows flew past - a silvery sand beach, circling round a bay of
deepest indigo blue, an aurox grazing in an orchard of heavily laden
fruit trees. He caught the scent of roses, as a flower garden passed
by. But...a small niggle of alarm began to grow. Why wasn’t he out
yet? He had never spent this long in a Gateway tunnel before. A
memory floated up – Tamus’ memory. You had to know where you were
heading for. That was right wasn’t it? When you step back into the
Gateway, you must hold your destination clear in your mind…because
there was more than one Gateway entrance in Owen’s world. And if
you didn’t know where you were going…
OK. Owen tried to stay calm. Tamus must know. He must be able to find
a Fire Gateway in his world. The Temple…No! Owen pushed away the
memory of the Temple of the Azoth…just in time, as a dark, murky,
watery blur flashed by him. The Temple was gone – long gone, lost
deep beneath the sea.
But without Tamus, what hope did he have of finding a way out?
Fire…fire…he tried desperately to think, as he slid on down the
tunnel. Fire… An image came into his head; one that he wanted
instantly to block out - the volcano and those eyes that had haunted
him in Iceland. But then something made him stop. Iceland…his dream
of the white eagle and the red lion…>
