Estinas was woken in the middle of the night by the cheerful chiming of a bell. He had never heard it before, but knew exactly what it meant, having dreamed and prayed many times that he might live long enough to one day hear it, and he sat bolt upright on his simple cot in complete amazement and disbelief. "I'm dreaming," he muttered to himself at first. "I still feel guilty about letting those kids go down there. But what else could I have done? I am sworn not to turn away any who want to try the Maze." He tried to wake himself up, and found to his even greater surprise that he was already awake.

     "It's not a dream," he said aloud to himself. "Then that means... No, it can't be, it's just not possible. Those kids just couldn't have..." The chiming continued, however, getting louder and even more cheerful, wiping away his disbelief. He leapt out of bed, not bothering to get dressed, and ran out of his room and down the corridor in his nightshirt. Arriving at the grand display hall, he burst in and saw the six young travelers standing on the far side of the invisible barrier, the cleric holding the Sceptre in her hands.

     "It's true!" he shouted in pure joy and delight. "They made it! They actually, Gods bless ‘em, made it!" He ran over to join them, the invisible barrier dividing the room dissolving as he reached it, and they looked up as he arrived. "You made it!" he gasped breathlessly. "Thank the Gods, you made it!"

     "Yes," said Diana. "With the help of the Gods, we have succeeded." She held the Sceptre lightly in one hand. By all rights, a solid gold sceptre that big should have required two strong men to lift, but it felt as if it were made of light wood.

     "I want to see the sky!" said Lirenna urgently. "Please, I need to see the sky again!"

     "Yes, of course," said Estinas. "Follow me."

     He led them out of the hall, down a couple of corridors and to a high cave thirty feet above ground level from which they could see the landscape spread out below them. It was near midnight but Derro, the red sun, was high in the sky, and the land was further lit by the three quarters full largest moon and three large comets. As they watched, Kronos, the smallest moon, rose above the western horizon and sped upwards into the sky.

     The six travelers looked out in relief and gratitude. "I never thought I'd see the sky again," breathed Lirenna, tears in her eyes. "A couple of times down there, I thought I was going to go mad."

     "I think we all did," said Thomas, putting a gentle hand around her shoulders. "I know I came close. Never mind, it's all over now."

     "Not quite," said Estinas. "There are about a hundred Shadowsoldiers out there somewhere, all looking for you. You'll have to get past them somehow. Luckily they're spread out pretty thinly, but you're bound to run into some of them. Now that you have claimed the Sceptre, you are responsible for its protection until you hand it over to a Captain of Samnos. If you are killed or captured, they will take the Sceptre deep within the Shadow, beyond all hope of rescue. So long as the Sceptre has only you six young people to guard it, and a hundred Shadowsoldiers searching for you, the world is in its greatest peril."

     “Maybe we should have gone to the Samnians first,” said Matthew. “A whole country ruled by the church of Samnos, right here on our doorstep. We could have come here with a whole army to keep it safe.”

     “They could not have come,” said the priest, though. “The laws of the Church of Samnos would not have allowed it. Those seeking the Sceptre must do so with no help from the priesthood, with the sole exception of myself.”

     Shaun, looking tired, sat down on the rocky floor of the cave, closed his eyes and rubbed his temples with his hands. Diana knelt down next to him. "Shaun, are you all right?" she asked anxiously.

     "Just a little dizzy," he said. "I'll be all right in a minute."

     "What happened?" asked Estinas.

     Thomas told him of their confrontation with the ghost at the Maze's exit and how it had attacked the woodsman. "Ah yes," said Estinas, gravely. "Their life draining attacks are terrible. He will recover in time, although it may take weeks, maybe months. If you don't want to wait that long, one of the senior priests in Samnia may be able to heal him instantly, if you show him the Sceptre."

     "What did it do to him?" asked Diana.

     "It drained off some of his life energy," said the priest. "If it had succeeded in taking all of it, he would have turned into another spirit, like him, but weaker and under his control, and no doubt his first act in his new form would have been to do the same to the rest of you."

     Shaun shuddered and rose to his feet again. "Well thank the Gods it didn't come to that," he said. "Thank the Gods, my little brother here, and Zebulon, who made the sword that saved me."

☆☆☆

     The six travelers spent the next day with Estinas in the luxurious resting areas, recovering from their ordeal, before deciding to leave. Shaun's strength recovered a little, although it would be a long time before it returned completely, and the next morning he announced that he was ready to travel once more. Estinas rounded up their horses, which had spent the past few days wandering around the valley grazing peacefully, and they thanked him warmly for everything he'd done for them.

     "What will you do now?" asked Diana as they stood beside their horses, ready to depart.

     "Stay here, of course," he replied. "The Sceptre can only be used three times, and after that it will be returned here by an emissary of Samnos. When that happens, I will still be needed to watch over it and greet those who come looking for it, until I retire and Samnos sends a replacement for me."

     "Well, look after yourself, then," said the cleric. "May the Gods favour you and grant you long life and happiness." She then kissed the old priest on the cheek, Lirenna did the same, and the four men shook his hand solemnly.

     "Goodbye," said Estinas as they then saddled up. "May your enemies be scattered and destroyed, and your names live on in legend for the rest of time."

     The travelers waved goodbye for the last time. Then they climbed into their saddles and rode off down the narrow valley away from the Thunderberg while Estinas waved back at them. He stood and watched for several minutes, until the six travelers disappeared from sight behind a spur of rock, before turning and walking slowly back into the cave.

☆☆☆

     The horses were strong and fast and made good time. Diana had the Sceptre strapped to the side of her horse, the golden griffin on its top protruding eighteen inches in front of its neck. It gleamed brightly in the morning sunlight and they realised with some alarm that it must be visible from miles away.

     "Perhaps we can cover it up a bit," suggested Jerry. "We could wrap one of our sleeping blankets around it."

     They tried, but the blanket disintegrated and turned to shriveled up threads of dust within a few minutes. "It doesn't seem to want to be covered up," observed Diana, her brow furrowed in puzzlement.

     "Perhaps it's got a kind of mind of its own,” suggested Shaun, “and is too proud to be smuggled out in secrecy.” He reached out a hand towards it, eager to touch the legendary object, but didn’t quite dare. Popular folklore had it that the Sceptre would kill any unworthy person who touched it and he wasn’t sure that he qualified.

     "Yes, that's it, I know it is," agreed Diana. "After all, just think. This object has been in some of the worst, most desperate wars in history, from way back before any of the humanoid races even existed. Of course it has pride! We should have realised."

     "Makes things a bit more difficult for us, though," said Matthew.

     "I suppose it just assumes that we can defend it, no matter what," said Thomas. "After all, that was the whole point of the Maze, wasn't it? To make sure that only someone capable of defending it and holding onto it can claim it. That spectre was right. We did cheat by using the Eye of Millandar."

     "No," said Diana. "You can't cheat the Gods. Samnos could easily have prevented the Eye from working if He'd objected to it. The fact that we were able to solve the Maze proves that He considered us worthy."

     "Or that the situation is so desperate and the Sceptre so badly needed that He was willing to lower His standards a little," said Thomas.

     Diana had no answer to that, making him wish he hadn't said it.