Logan followed Roman up into the stone belly of the castle, the sword heavy in his hand.

Roman had pulled a sword out of thin air and given it to Logan. Said he would need it. Logan had never held a sword in his life, let alone swung it at something and actually hit it.

Roman turned left to walk into what looked like the throne room but stopped, fumbled, and turned back. "Can't go that way." He said gruffly.

Logan didn't say anything but as Roman went down another corridor, he took a glance in the room.

There was nothing much to see. A risen platform with stairs going up the side. No throne to speak of. No furniture at all, really. Two great caverns for windows and apart from that the room was bare.

There was a small pile of yellow dust in the middle of the floor. Some torn fragments of a cloak lay over it.

"Your Highness!" Logan jumped and scurried after Roman.

"Shouldn't we be quieter?" Logan hissed as he caught up with Roman. "That sorcerer could be anywhere."

"You don't need to worry about Janus." Roman said, glancing over his shoulder a little. "My brother took care of him." He cleared his throat. "Come on, we need to hurry up."

Logan bit his tongue to avoid any insults slipping out. He swapped the sword from one hand to the other and walked right into Roman's back as he stopped without a warning. They'd reached a dead end.

"Is there no way out of this damn Labyrinth?!" Roman yelled, twirling round and pushing past Logan. He stormed back up the corridor.

"We'll just have to go through the throne room-"

"No way." Roman turned back around. He motioned Logan should move to the side. "You'll probably want to stand aside for this."

Logan did, pressing himself into the wall. Roman cracked his knuckles, sighed a breath up through his fringe and started running at the wall.

A ball of red light seemed to emanate from Roman's hand. Roman reached the wall, punched it and, before Logan's very eyes, it disintegrated in a flash of red.

"Ouch."

Logan stared out of the hole in the wall into the night and felt wonder turn to cold fear. He turned his head slowly to look at Roman.

"What are you?" He asked.

"Like I said," Roman rolled his shoulders back, "I'm Patton's guardian."

Logan stumbled to a stop, just short of rolling down the hill.

He and Roman were stood on a ledge over-looking Iredia. Or what had been Iredia.

Mountains of thorns reached up to the sky. Black thorns. Twisted thorns. Thorns so sharp and so large they could impale a man through the heart very easily.

Logan looked down at the shining sword in his hand and gulped.

"I don't think I can do this." He said, looking up at Roman.

But Roman was gone. All that was left was a shimmer of red sparks, dying in the moonlight.

Logan swallowed, glancing around at the dark expanse of forest, and took a step back. He overbalanced, screamed, and fell down the hill.

Amazingly, when he reached the bottom, nothing was broken. Not his glasses, not the sword, there wasn't even a tear in his clothing. And he hadn't impaled himself with the sword.

Shakily, he got to his feet and dusted himself down. He'd never been this far out this late at night.

A rustle from the forest made him jump. He held the sword out in front of him and started slowly shuffling back.

Something touched him gently in the back. Blindly, he whirled round and slashed at it with the sword.

It was a thorn. Where the sword had touched it, a white flower appeared. It shone in the moonlight, so bright and white that the centre almost looked blue.

Logan blinked. He reached out with the sword and sliced a thorn carefully.

Three flowers bloomed out of the cut. White petals fluttered to the floor like a carpet. The sharp thorn itself shrivelled away, hidden by the pillowy flower petals.

Logan glanced around him. No one was there. He had been left alone.

He looked back at the sword. "Thanks, Roman." He breathed. He stared up, up, up at the mountain of thorns. "I'm on my way."

We love being book accurate because it's a cool image. But, as always, adding our own extra little *pezzaz* to it
Bye,
Blaize