After hacking their way through another hundred yards or so of dense forest undergrowth, they came to another lawn avenue, also about twenty five yards wide and a hundred yards long. At one end was the statue of a soldier wearing a plumed steel helm, chain mail and armour swinging his sword at a stone wolf that was attacking him while fending off another with a large shield. There seemed to be no point to the statue, no reason for its being there except possibly as a mere decorative artifact, and after puzzling over it for a while they left it and went on.

     "I wonder who cuts the grass." said Thomas as they re-entered the forest.

     "Probably the same person who puts daft questions into the heads of daft wizards." answered Shaun.

     "I only asked," said Thomas in a hurt tone of voice, staring at the ground in a sulk.

     A few minutes later they came to a large clearing in the forest, about two or three hundred yards across. Most of it was filled by a lake of clear water that sparkled in the sunlight. Lily pads and flowers floated in it, a few ducks and a couple of swans swam about on it, and shoals of silver fish swam about in it. Swarms of little flies buzzed around their heads, and a dragonfly flitted around just above the surface of the water, its silvery blue wings catching the sunlight as it flew. It might have been any beautiful lake in any temperate woodland clearing in the world if it hadn't been for what stood on the island in the middle.

      The island was about a hundred and fifty yards across and was covered by a newly cut lawn. In the middle of it was a beautiful building that appeared to be made entirely of emerald. It was triangular, each wall about seventy five yards long and five yards high, and it had a flat roof. Their hearts raced with excitement. This must be it! they thought. The Emerald Oracle itself!

      They circled the lake, looking for a way to get across to the island, and soon saw a wide marble bridge that had until then been hidden behind the building, its single span arching high above the water but without any safety rail to protect a careless crosser from a nasty fall. All they had to do was cross the bridge and walk up the path to the door in the emerald wall. Thomas was convinced that once they were through that door they would have made it. All they had to do was get past the Oracle's last guardian.

      It lay curled up in the middle of the wide bridge, apparently asleep. It was a large reptilian creature, as large as two bull elephants, one standing behind the other, with a long muscular tail that dangled over the side, its tip twitching lazily to and fro. At the other end of the massive body were five heads on long, serpentine necks. Its central head was the largest, about the size of a horse's head but fearsomely carnivorous, with long sharp teeth and long, forward pointing horns. The heads on either side were smaller, about the size of the heads of large dogs but equally ferocious looking, and the outermost heads were like those of large snakes with bright yellow, lidless eyes and tongues that flickered in and out even in its sleep.

      "A pentagron," said Thomas, fearfully. "They were thought to have become extinct about two million years ago."

      "How much do you know about it?" asked Shaun.

      "Only what I read in a book in Lexandria's library," replied the wizard. "About a hundred years ago, the trogs of Malegost dug up an almost complete skeleton in one of their mines. It's a lithoderm, the same family to which dragons, basilisks and slenns belong. No-one knows if they have any special magical abilities or breath weapons, but the outermost snake heads have hollow fangs which probably means they have a poisonous bite, so watch out."

      "Maybe it's only an illusion, like the rocks," suggested Matthew hopefully.

      "Jerry?" prompted Thomas.

      Jerry took a few steps closer to get a better look. He squinted at it and studied it carefully for a long minute. "I can't tell for certain, but I think it's real."

      "Terrific," said Shaun. "Okay, what do we do? Fight it?"

      "Why don't we just swim across the lake?" asked Lirenna.

      "I doubt it'll be that easy," said the woodsman. He walked up to the edge of the water and looked suspiciously at the shoals of silver fish. Taking a strip of dried meat from his backpack, he dropped it into the water. One of the fish swam lazily up to it and prodded it with its nose, as if smelling it, then opened its mouth, revealing rows of tiny, razor sharp teeth. It took a delicate bite, but then more fish began moving in and there suddenly erupted a wild flurry of activity. A moment later the meat was gone. "Thought so," he said grimly.

      "Maybe we can just tiptoe past without waking it up," suggested Matthew.

      "Maybe," agreed Shaun. "You go first and we'll follow." Matthew politely declined.

      "Alright, looks like we'll have to fight it," said Shaun with a sigh of resignation. "If we hit it hard while it's asleep, maybe we'll be able to kill it before it wakes up. Have you wizards got a really powerful spell that might be any good?"

      Jerry and Thomas looked at Lirenna, who reluctantly produced the scroll from Vantarestin. "There's a few good ones here," she said, "but I was hoping to keep them."

      "You'll get more," promised Thomas. "We should only need to use one, anyway. One good lightning bolt will kill almost anything."

     “A guy in our town was struck by lightning once,” said Matthew. “It burned all the hair from his head and knocked him down but he made a full recovery. That thing’s a lot bigger than a man.”

     “Natural lightning comes in all shapes and sizes,” said Thomas, though. “The lightning spell is designed to kill. If someone aims one at you, only magical defences will save you. It’ll take that thing down no problem.” The woodsman nodded, deciding to take his word for it.

    Their attempt to creep up on the creature failed, however. The lidless snake eyes saw them coming, even though it was still asleep, and it tasted their scent with its flickering tongues. They were still a good fifty yards from it when it gave a snort of irritation and climbed to its feet, glaring at them with all ten eyes. They froze in place, expecting it to charge, but it just stood there on its four massive elephantine legs, its muscular tail thrashing back and forth behind it, giving them a look that said, plain as words, if you think you're crossing this bridge, you're very much mistaken. Shaun and Matthew drew their swords and everyone turned to look at the demi shae.

      She sighed in resignation as she unrolled the scroll and glanced at the ornate lettering. “Okay,” She said. “Everyone prepare yourselves.” Her lips moved silently as she rehearsed the tongue twisting syllables in her mind, trying to decide on the correct pronunciation. She'd only get one chance at this. If she got it wrong, the spell would be used up anyway and they would have lost it.

     The creature fixed its attention on her as if it knew that she posed the greatest threat. It moved forward, but came to a jerking stop as if it had come to the end of an invisible leash. It pulled at its restraints, the muscles bulging under its scaly skin. Could it possibly break free? “Lenny,” said Thomas nervously. “If you're going to do this...”

     Lirenna nodded and gave a heavy sigh. Staring at the words any longer would accomplish nothing. Either she spoke them correctly, or she didn't. She wouldn’t know until she tried. She waited a couple more moments longer, therefore, glancing down at the scroll one last time, and then she spoke the magic words.

      The words on the scroll flared a dazzling blue white as the magic imprisoned in the ink and parchment by the great wizard Zebulon was released, manifesting itself as a bolt of lightning that streaked towards the monster. The creature was hit squarely in the chest, its scream of pain drowned out by the instantaneous clap of thunder that left their ears ringing and their heads spinning. Shaun and Matthew leapt forward with swords raised to finish it off, but it wasn’t necessary. The creature was dead, thrown backwards by the force of the spell, smoke curling from the burning hole in its chest. Thomas was struck by a strange sense of anticlimax, as if he was disappointed that it had been so easy. There was something almost obscene about being able to kill such a magnificent creature so easily.

      While Lirenna grieved over the loss of the spell and looked wistfully at the blank space on the paper where it had been, the others examined the body. "I think you might be right about the animals coming back to life," said Jerry. "If everyone who comes here has to kill this creature to cross the bridge, how else could it still be alive when we get here?"

      Thomas nodded soberly. "In which case we'd better get across quickly. We might only have a few minutes."

      They hurried across the bridge to the island, the island within an island, thought Thomas with amusement, and gathered before the door of the emerald building. This is it, thought Thomas. We're almost there. All we've got to do is go through this door and we've made it. A few minutes later, he would mentally kick himself for being so optimistic.

      The door opened easily with a push, and on the other side was a large room with doors in the left and right hand walls. They entered in puzzlement. "Looks like we've got a little way to go yet, chaps," said Shaun in disappointment. "Well, which way shall we go? Left or right?"

      "Let's toss for it," said Matthew, producing a copper coin. "Heads we go left, tails we go right." He tossed in into the air and they all watched as it fell to the ground. "Tails," said Matthew. "We go right. Okay?"

      "Why not?" said Shaun. "It's as good a way of deciding as any."

      They opened the door to the right. On the other side was a corridor that ran all the way to the corner of the building before turning left. Both walls, ceiling and floor were made of solid, seamless emerald that was translucent to the depth of the first few inches but opaque beyond that. It glowed with a soft green light, illuminating the corridor. It was as though the entire building had been carved from a single huge emerald.

      "Oh no," said Lirenna hopelessly. "It's a maze, that's what it is. The entire interior of the building is a maze. I can never solve mazes!"

      "Let's try the other door," said Shaun. "Maybe it'll be easier."

      It wasn't. Beyond the other door was another corridor, identical to the first, that ran all the way to the corner before turning right. "It's symmetrical, at least to begin with," said Shaun. "I suggest that someone draws a map as we go, otherwise we're likely to get lost."

     “Have you got any paper?” asked the tiny nome. The woodsman shook his head. “Neither have I, and if you think I'm going to scribble on my spellbook, you're very much mistaken. The maze can't be very big, I don't think there’s much chance of us getting lost.”

     “And the most important thing we learned at the University was how to remember things,” added Thomas. “We'll just commit the maze to memory as we go.” Jerry and Lirenna nodded their agreement.

     “Okay then,” said Shaun. “If you say so. Unless anyone has any objections, then, I’ll take the lead.” The others were happy for him to do so, and so he led the way through the door and out along the corridor.