Atilla stomped his foot in anger.
‘I will not argue with fools. Cress knows what she is doing is wrong, even if you non-dwarves don’t understand. You, brother, should not be so accepting. She is supposed to be an example to all dwarves, and everyone in the Hominum Empire will see her face if she joins the mission. Imagine if the other girls follow her example?’
Othello looked at Cress and gave her a tentative smile.
‘I see nothing to complain about,’ he said.
Atilla huffed and stomped away, making his way around the arena towards Seraph, who had just noticed them and was waving happily. He was wearing a gaudy amber uniform with a scarlet sash, and was armed with a scimitar and a holstered pistol.
As Fletcher and his friends waved back, Rook strode into the centre of the Arena, etching a spell as he did so. When he completed the etching, a tremendous bang echoed around the chamber, loud enough to hurt Fletcher’s eardrums and leave a dull ringing sound in his head.
‘Now that you have all shut up, we can begin the selection. Fletcher, Isadora, Malik and Seraph, come and join me in the arena.’
19
Sweat prickled Fletcher’s back as he stepped into the arena, infusing Ignatius and Athena with a flash of his palm, for they were the only demons in the room. He could still sense both of them in his mind and, stranger still, a third connection, slowly forming between the two. Perhaps Athena and Ignatius were beginning to trust each other.
As he entered the pool of flickering torchlight, memories of the last time he had walked these sands swam to the forefront of his mind. The dangers he had faced then would be nothing compared with what was to come.
‘You have all been told why you are here,’ Rook announced, pacing back and forth along the sand. ‘There are two objectives to your mission. The first, to destroy several thousand goblin eggs before they hatch. The second, to rescue Lady Cavendish, Rufus’s mother.’
Rufus sat a little straighter in the stands as the students turned to look at him, and Fletcher could see his knuckles whiten as he gripped the hilt of his sword. The young noble had not impressed Fletcher last year, for the boy had fawned over the Forsyth twins. He hoped that Rufus would not be a liability on such a dangerous mission, especially with the added pressure of rescuing his own mother.
A flash of blue turned Fletcher’s attention back to Rook. He had produced a wyrdlight, and the ball of light was slicing back and forth through the air. As it travelled, it left a trail of azure light in its wake, etching a shape as one might with a spell.
Soon, an enormous four-sided pyramid hung in the air, with a strange web of tubes surrounding a central chamber beneath it. It spun gently, casting the room in an eerie blue glow.
‘Our intelligence suggests that the goblin eggs are located within the volcanic cave network beneath this ancient pyramid, deep in the heart of the orc jungles,’ Rook said, jabbing his finger at the web of tunnels below the pyramid. ‘Lady Cavendish is kept somewhere within too, and for good reason – it is the most secure place in the whole of Orcdom. The pyramid is their most sacred ground.’
This was all news to Fletcher, and his heart seemed to batter his ribs as his pulse quickened. He had thought they would be raiding a remote orc village, not losing themselves in the bowels of the earth.
‘The Celestial Corps will drop you as close as they can, then you will make your way there on foot. You must – and I cannot stress this enough – you must meet at midnight, at the back entrance of the pyramid, three days after the drop-off. From that point, you will have a maximum of eight hours to complete your mission – that is as long as the Corps can wait on standby, halting their patrols of Hominum’s skies. Remember, you place the people of Hominum in jeopardy with every hour you take, for if the orcs notice the open skies they will send the Wyverns to raid helpless towns.’
Fletcher gulped, imagining the destruction a single Wyvern could cause to an unprotected settlement. It was a huge risk to take.
‘The Celestial Corps will be watching through the scrying crystals and will try to arrive as soon as your mission is completed. If any team is not with the others at that point, it will have to find its own way home.’
Rook paused again, allowing the gravity of his words to sink in.