Not willing to expose themselves on the wide, empty grasslands yet with the dragon around, they stayed just inside the jungle and followed it westwards, following the directions given in the book they'd brought from Connistantol, and after another two days they saw a narrow, steep sided valley opening up in the mountains where a high, rugged mountainous ridge ran parallel to the main range. The entrance to the valley was narrow, no more than half a mile wide where the spur curved back towards the main range, and in fact was partly connected to it by a saddle shaped ridge several hundred feet high with a rocky crest.

     Behind it, though, the valley deepened and widened, with a lush, fertile floor ten miles wide and fifty miles long. There in the valley, the fortress had been able to grow enough food to support itself indefinitely under siege, and the fortress itself, guarding the only entrance to the valley, ensured that the farmers who grew the food were as safe in their fields as if they'd been in the fortress itself. In effect, the fortress and the valley together formed a single, impregnable unit that had never fallen to an enemy, despite once having been cut off and besieged for over twenty five years.

     So strong had the fortress been, despite its relatively small size, that when the Agglemonian Empire had been in retreat, pulling back its borders so that its gradually waning military strength could still defend what was left, it had maintained a complete garrison in Sen Camaris, enabling a small pocket of civilization to survive in the surrounding area, despite the alarming spread of anarchy and chaos all around. When, a few decades later, the Empire had been torn apart by civil war and split into two smaller empires, Sen Camaris had been cut off completely and had survived for another few centuries as the principal fortress of a small, completely independent and self sufficient kingdom covering an area of nearly five thousand square miles and with a population of nearly two hundred thousand. It was rumoured that the descendants of those people still lived in the valley, and in a few small, isolated towns and villages between the jungle and the mountains, but the fortress itself had long since been abandoned and sealed up.

     They got as close to it as possible, until they were separated from it by only a couple of miles of open grassland, and then they paused at the edge of the forest, staring nervously up into the clear blue sky. "What do you think?" asked Thomas.

     "We could cover the distance in about ten minutes at a full run," said Shaun. "But if the dragon shows up when we're half way across, we're history."

     They searched the sky again, straining their eyes for any sign of a dark, batlike shape. "It's probably hiding up there in those mountains," said Diana. "Keeping an eye on the grasslands so that it'll spot us the moment we step out of cover."

     "Maybe not," said Jerry. "It might still be up north, looking for us in the forest."

     They stood there a few minutes longer, uncertain what to do, until Petronax spoke. "Well, we can't stand here all day," he said. "Either we take a risk and go across, or we go home. We're not doing any good at all just hanging around here."

     "I'll go alone," said Drake. "If the dragon appears and kills me while I'm crossing, the rest of you'll know it's here and can make a decision based on that knowledge. If I make it across, though, you follow, two at a time. I'll head a couple of hundred yards that way first, so I don't give away your position." He didn't wait for the others to argue but set off along the edge of the forest until he reached a place where a small copse stood alone twenty yards or so from the treeline. Then, after one last look up into the sky, he leapt out into the open and ran for the foothills opposite.

     The others waited anxiously as he sped away, expecting the giant reptile to dive down out of the sky at any moment and destroy him with a blast of flame, but minute after minute went by without the monster putting in an appearance and, after a run that seemed to take forever, to their vast relief, the priest reached the scrubby foothills of the mountain ridge and concealed himself among a clump of tangly shrubs.

     "He made it!" cried Jerry joyfully, clapping his hands together. "The dragon's not here!"

     "Don't underestimate the cunning and intelligence of dragons," warned Petronax, however. "It probably wants to get all of us, and doesn't want to scare us off. It's probably watching everything. It's watching where we're gathering on the other side and waiting 'till we're all over there. Then it'll show up and get us all."

     "We'll go across one at a time, then," said Thomas, "and we'll all head for a different spot on the other side. That way, if it suddenly shows up, some of us'll have a chance to get away. I'll go next." So saying, the wizard left the forest and headed out across the prairie.

     The crossing seemed to take forever, but soon he was hiding in a small copse of trees, a couple of hundred yards from Drake's hiding place, panting with relief. Petronax went across next, followed by the others one at a time with Shaun bringing up the rear, and when they were all on the other side they gradually and carefully crept together to assemble under the cover of a clump of greenery beside the road leading into the valley.

     "I don't understand it," said Thomas in confusion. "This was a perfect place for the creature to ambush us! Where in the name of Hell is it?"

     "Maybe it's like Jerry said," said Lirenna. "Maybe it's still looking for us up north."

     "Or maybe it's waiting for us in the castle's courtyard," suggested Matthew.

     "Let's not question our luck," said Drake. "Let's get up to the fortress before it shows up."

     The others agreed, and so they crept up the ridge to the castle, following the road to one side. Keeping under cover as much as possible and with every eye on the sky and the surrounding mountains. Could it be playing with us? wondered Thomas. Could it be watching us even now and holding off for some sick reason of its own? Is it going to taunt us by letting us get to within an inch of safety before attacking? The wizard could almost feel himself getting older as they crept as timidly as mice alongside the road, desperate to reach the cover of the castle walls, and he was certain he'd have grey hairs the next time he looked in a mirror.

     The fortress stood on top of the last hill on the end of the mountainous ridge, overlooking the half mile wide pass between it and the main mountain range. The pass itself was blocked by a huge, fortified wall that ran from the main fortress to a smaller fortress on the other side, but the huge pair of double gates in the middle, at the lowest point in the pass, had long since fallen into ruin, allowing free access in and out of the valley, and a pair of wheel tracks running through it showed that someone passed this way regularly, probably farmers in the valley taking their goods to a town outside to trade.

     The castle itself was small by normal standards, and minuscule by Agglemonian standards, but its location and the rough, surrounding terrain made it all but impregnable if manned by even a small force of men. It was built to the standard Agglemonian design, with a double outer wall and gatehouse surrounding an inner courtyard and a central keep, and it had numerous smaller towers, buildings and fortified positions in key places, with everything reduced from its normal size to allow it to fit onto a relatively small hilltop. In its heyday, Petronax explained, it would have had a permanent complement of around thirty men, rising to three hundred during times of siege with one hundred in the castle itself and the rest inside the wall across the pass and in the smaller fortress.

     Thomas was puzzled. "Surely it would take more than two hundred people to defend a wall half a mile long!" he said. "That's only one man every four or five yards!"

     "That's all they needed," said Petronax. "It's not really that hard to defend a wall if you design it correctly, with some of the toys and gimmicks they built into it. I'll explain it all to you later, if you like."

     "What are those poles for?" asked Matthew, indicating a dozen strong looking poles, each a hundred yards tall, that rose from the towers at the corners of the fortress' outer wall. Each was supported by a dozen thick chains reaching down to the battlements, anchoring them so securely that they hardly moved in the strong breeze that blew through them. "They're a bit large for flagpoles."

     "Dragon wires," explained the soldier. "Once, there would have been thin but strong cables strung between them, as a defence against flying monsters like dragons. The wires are long gone, unfortunately. Rusted to dust long ago. Pity. They might have been very useful if our friend turned up."

     Another few minutes took them right up to the fortress' main gates. The road up to it was choked with shrubby vegetation which must, until recently, have made it almost impassable, but a two yard wide path had been hacked and chopped through it, and the gates themselves stood ajar, the seals and locks holding them closed having been forced and broken. "They've been here," said Petronax gloomily. "The question is, are they still here, or have they already taken the Orb and left?"

     "Only one way to find out," said Drake. He cautiously went through the outer doors and crept along the ten foot passage to the inner doors, where he stopped and peered through them into the courtyard. The courtyard contained a thick carpet of waist high shrubs and grass, grown since the castle had been abandoned, but he could see across it to the central keep, a small, self contained fortress in its own right that could be defended even if the rest of the castle were taken by an enemy. Its main gate had also been forced open, and a pair of bored looking humans stood on guard. Drake crept back to the others.

     "They're still here," he said. "We'll have to kill the guards before they alert the others." He turned to Thomas and Lirenna. “Can your firebolts reach that far?”

     “Yes,” replied Thomas, “but…”

     He turned to the demi shae, who turned pale and stared back at him with wide, pleading eyes. “I can’t!” she said, backing away from the others. “I can’t kill a human being. Not again…”

     “She had to kill a man in the Overgreen Forest,” Thomas explained to the others. “She saved my life, but it tore her up. We can’t ask her to do it again.”

     “They’re Shadowsoldiers,” said Drake, not without some sympathy. “Enemies of civilisation. They want to kill all of us, all our friends and loved ones. They want to kill your entire family. Your mother and father…”

     “I know!” wailed the demi shae,” but they’re people! They’re human beings! It’s not like killing goblins or evil priests. They’ve got families, mothers and fathers…”

     “I can kill both of them,” said Thomas, gently touching her arm. “One spell for each of them…”

     “How quickly can you cast the second spell?” asked Petronax. “Fast enough to keep the second man from calling out a warning when he sees the first go down?”

     Thomas could only drop his eyes. He felt his eyes wanting to look up at Lirenna and he stopped them with an effort. She would have taken it as a request to help him with the killing and he couldn’t put that kind of pressure on her.

     “If the girl’s not willing,” said Petronax, “maybe we can sneak up to them, creep along the outer wall. Take them by surprise and cut their throats.”

     “And if they see you coming they’ll raise the alarm,” countered Drake. “We’ll find ourselves facing twenty, thirty, maybe forty Shads, including a wizard…” He turned back to Lirenna. “I’m very sorry, but it has to be firebolts. You have to do this. You know what’s at stake.”

     Lirenna stared back at him, then looked at Thomas, who looked away, still unable to meet her gaze. She looked down, swallowed, wiped away a tear, then looked up at the priest. “Alright,” she said. “I’ll do it.” Drake nodded and stepped aside, clearing the way for her.

     Thomas and Lirenna went to the inner door, and Thomas touched the demi shae’s hand. “You okay?”

     “No,” she replied, “but I’ll do it.”

     Thomas nodded. “I’ll take the one on the left. Okay?” She nodded. “Okay, let’s do it.” She looked at him again, then nodded, and together the two of them stepped out into the open.

     The guards saw them immediately, and one of them turned to the door, intending to open it and call out a warning. Thomas cast his spell, though, and two firebolts sped towards the Shadowsoldier, striking him in the middle of the back. Lirenna hesitated, though. She froze, her finger pointing at the other man, who was staring in horror at his stricken colleague as he slumped to the ground. Then he looked towards the gate and saw the two figures still standing there. One hand went instinctively to the hilt of his sword, but he made no move to grasp it. He knew he was going to die. The only safety lay on the other side of the thick, oaken doors. It might as well have been a thousand miles away.

     Across the distance separating them, his eyes met those of the demi shae and Lirenna was transfixed by them. Paralysed, as though the guard had cast a spell back at her. Thomas saw her hesitate, saw the man's mouth open to cry a warning and he moved his hand to point towards him. He would kill both men, spare Lirenna from having to do it.

    Seeing him moving, though, Lirenna felt a burst of anger. I’m not some helpless female who needs a man to fight for me! she thought. I can do this! She made herself speak the words, therefore, and two firebolts sprang from her slender finger, striking the man in the chest. His eyes closed in agony and he fell.

     The demi shae felt a sympathetic pain in her heart as she watched him twitching in pain. It seemed to take forever for him to finally lie still, and even then she could only stare at the motionless corpse as she tried to process the fact that she had taken another life. Then someone touched her shoulder and she gave a little shriek, but it was only Drake, a not unsympathetic expression on his face. “Come on,” he said.

     He led the way across the courtyard and the others followed, all except Lirenna who continued to just stand there until Thomas put a hand on her elbow and gently urged her forward. She turned her head to stare at him, and then her paralysis broke and she found herself able to follow the others.

     “Don't look,” Thomas advised her as they stepped over the corpses, and Lirenna nodded, her mouth dry. Her whole body was trembling, she realised. She got hold of herself with annoyance and forced herself to stop. “You okay?” asked Thomas. She nodded vigorously, but when Thomas reached out to take her hand she grasped hold of it and squeezed tightly.

     They pushed the doors open, carefully in case they made a sound, and crept in. In a larger castle, they would have found themselves in a large entrance hall, expensively decorated to impress visitors and with a wide, sweeping staircase leading up to the next level. In Sen Camaris, however, perched on a small hilltop and cramped for space, the entrance hall was little more than a large guardroom and the staircase was straight and narrow. The walls were bare stone, whatever hangings and tapestries that might once have covered them having presumably been taken by its last occupants when they left, and several niches and shelves stood empty. Doorways into neighbouring rooms and corridors stood open, and a light breeze blew in through the empty windows, scattering a pile of dead leaves in the far corner. A thin layer of soil covered parts of the floor, and stunted grass and weeds grew in all the places the sun reached. The soil was full of footprints, but the Shadowsoldiers had gone back and forth so much as they searched the keep that it was impossible to make any sense of them.

     They dragged the two corpses into an alcove in case they were found, although their absence from their posts would be warning enough that something was wrong. Maybe the Shadowsoldiers would waste time wondering if they'd wandered off to go exploring or something. Then the questers set off to do some exploring of their own.

     "Bit cramped in here, isn't it?" said Matthew. "How could such a small castle have been so successful? I can't believe it never fell in all the centuries it's stood here, all alone, hundreds of miles from anywhere."

     "If you had any military training, you'd see why," answered Petronax. "It's partly surrounding terrain and partly the way it was designed. The Agglemonians were experts, and their designs are still copied to this day. The main reason, though, was the Orb. Even a cowshed would be impregnable if it had an Orb of Proofing inside it, and a wizard who knew how to use it."

     "Speaking of which," interrupted Drake, "Where will we find it?"

     "The Orb generates a sphere of magical energy, so it has to be near the centre of the fortress," answered the soldier. "Also, because it's so important to the castle's defences, it'll be in a very safe place, probably in an underground chamber a few feet below the surface, with thick slabs of solid stone or concrete all around it. There'll be a single staircase leading down to it, with an entrance so well hidden that the Shads still might not have found it."

     "Right, let's have a look around then," said the priest. "Keep your eyes open for the enemy, and make as little noise as possible. Look for anything suspicious." He led the way through one of the doorways into the short corridor, and the others followed.