Getting out of the maze was a lot easier than getting in had been. With all the illusions gone and the traps deactivated, it took them just ten minutes to find their way back to the entrance room. Out of curiosity they tried the other corridor, the one that had been guarded by the animated suits of armour. The suits were still there, but remained motionless as they tiptoed past. As they had suspected, all the branches of the corridor led to dead ends, and they left in disgust.

     They emerged from the emerald maze to find the pentagron still lying dead in the water below the bridge. As they crossed over, however, the creature was enveloped by a cloud of glowing green mist, and as they gathered on the far side it stirred and came back to life, bellowing a warning to them with its largest head as it climbed up the bank and took its place back on the bridge. Diana was pleased that they had done no lasting harm to a creature that was, after all, only doing its job.

     A few moments later they passed the place where they'd fought the wolves, and they found that all signs of the battle, including the bodies of the dead wolves, had vanished, confirming Thomas's theory. They heard them howling a short distance away, however, and hurried back to the building containing the stair shaft, even though they were sure, or at least fairly sure, that they wouldn't attack.

     As they reached the lawn surrounding the shaft building, Shaun looked up at the yellow sun suspiciously. "What time would you say it was?" he asked.

     "I don't know," said Matthew. "About midday, I suppose."

     "It was mid morning when we entered the maze," said Shaun. "We can't have been in there for only a couple of hours. It seems more like days. I was expecting to see the sun setting as we came out."

     "The sun did set while we were in there," said Lirenna. "We spent a whole day and a night in the maze. Believe me. We shae folk have a much better sense of the passage of time than you humans."

     "A whole day and a night?" cried Thomas in amazement. "No wonder I feel so whacked out! I thought it was just the stress of the maze!"

     It took them the rest of the day to cautiously descend the two thousand four hundred steps back to the base of the island. They checked that their boat was still where they'd left it, but the light was fading and they decided to wait until the next morning to leave the island. They made camp for the night in the foot of the stair shaft, therefore, where they were protected from the elements and fairly comfortable, although Lirenna couldn't look at the tall stairwell spiraling above her without shivering at the memory of how close she'd come to death during the climb up. She fingered the autumnleaf ring on her finger, shivering at the thought that she owed her life to the gallantry of Jerry and Thomas, who'd let her have their only magical artifact, and she let her warm feelings of gratitude towards them lull her to sleep.

     The next morning, it was heavily overcast and a light rain was falling. Scraps of seaweed left high above the tideline told that there'd been a fairly strong storm during the night, but their boat was still where they'd left it and after giving it a quick check over they pushed it out to sea and set sail away from the island. They watched with relief and a strong feeling of accomplishment as it shrank behind them, and when they were a couple of hundred yards away from the shore it shimmered and vanished as they passed through the curtain of invisibility. The first major landmark of their quest had been accomplished. Now they could set out for the Sceptre itself.

     At first they were completely without any landmarks. The island of the Oracle was invisible, Arn was still out of sight over the horizon and the suns were hidden behind an impenetrable veil of clouds, and so they simply set off in what they hoped was the right direction and hoped for the best. They knew they were in trouble when an island appeared on the horizon ahead of them.

     "That isn't Arn," said Lirenna, squinting her eyes as she stared at it.

     "Are you sure?" asked Jerry. "They all look the same to me."

     "Take it from me," said the demi shae. "My eyes are better than yours. That isn't Arn."

     "She's right!" said Matthew. "Look, rocks over there! We didn't see any rocks that big on the way in."

     "Get us back to the island, quick!" shouted Shaun, and he and Diana struggled to turn the boat. "If we're lucky, we can land there again and wait for the sky to clear. Then we can follow the suns back to Arn."

     "Fine," said Matthew. "Which way is it?"

     "Back the way we came, of course! Oh no!"

     "Exactly," said Matthew. "Which way is that? I think we're lost."

     "Head for that island," said Lirenna. "There's just a chance that it might be inhabited."

     "Right!" said Shaun, but before they could get the small boat pointed in the right direction there was an awful grinding noise from under them. Three planks of the hull were torn open by a jagged black rock, and water flooded in. "We're sinking!" screamed Jerry. "Do something!"

     They tried bailing, but it was hopeless. The boat filled rapidly, and soon the only thing keeping them afloat was the natural buoyancy of the wood. Not for long, though. Other rocks were causing even greater damage, tearing the whole bottom of the boat out, and within minutes it would be reduced to drifting wreckage.

     "Perhaps we can swim for the island," cried Shaun over the roar of the crashing waves. "It can't be more than a couple of hours away."

     "We can't swim that far," cried back Diana. "We'll drown!"

     "We'll drown anyway," pointed out Shaun. "There's nothing else we can do!"

     "I can't swim!" screamed Jerry.

     "We'll carry you," cried Shaun. "Climb onto my back."

     Fortunately, they never found out whether they could have made it. Just as they were about to abandon the boat and set off through the water, braving hidden rocks, sharks, jellyfish and fatigue, Diana gave a cry and pointed into the sky. "Look!" she cried.

     They looked. A few hundred yards away, several hundred feet up in the air, a strange flying object was gliding towards them. It was a metal disk about ten feet across, with a metal railing all around the edge on which were mounted two large crossbows on swivel mounts. Two men, one in the robes of a wizard, were standing on the disc, leaning on the railing and looking at them anxiously. The one that wasn't a wizard was loading one of the crossbows, but didn't look as though he seriously intended to use it.

     The flying disk approached and descended until it was hovering a few feet above the choppy water. The wizard leaned down and offered Lirenna his hand. "Come on dear, up you come."

     Lirenna gratefully took his hand and was pulled up, while the other man was helping Diana aboard. They then helped the men up, and Thomas saw for the first time that the disk had a third occupant. Another wizard, sitting on a high, throne like chair in the middle of the disk. His eyes were closed in concentration, and it was obviously he whose power was keeping the disk in the air.

     "Thanks," said Shaun. "Who are you?"

     "I'm Silan," said the man who wasn't a wizard and who, they saw, was wearing a naval uniform and a battleworn sword. He removed the bolt from the crossbow and returned it to a rack attached to the railing, which contained several more bolts. "This is Rogor, and the one on the throne's Quesin. Glad we were able to help."

     While he was saying this, Rogor went to stand beside Quesin. "Up, up," he said. Quesin, whose eyes never opened, frowned as he concentrated more deeply and the disk rose into the air, leaving behind the small boat slowly being smashed to pieces on the rocks.

     "We'll drop you off on Greenwing," said Silan. "Okay?"

     "Yes, that's fine," said Diana gratefully as he helped her out of her soaking wet clothes and wrapped her up in his tunic. "You're very kind, and the Gods will reward you."

     "What is this thing?" asked Matthew, staring around in fascination. The disc was iron, he saw. One of the largest iron objects he’d ever seen! “And where did you come from?"

     "Oh, we just happened to be passing," said Rogor, in between giving directions to Quesin. "As to what this thing is, I'm afraid we can't tell you. State secret." He tapped the side of his nose knowingly.

     "I know what it is," said Thomas, however. "This is one of the aerial reconnaissance platforms carried by Beltharan Imperial class warships. That means there must be a warship within a few miles of here. Right?"

     The smiles on their rescuers' faces vanished to be replaced by scowls and frowns, and Thomas mentally bit out his tongue, cursing himself violently. Me and my big mouth, he thought.

     "Better take us back to the ship," said Silan.

     Rogor nodded and gave the appropriate instructions to Quesin. "Hey!" protested Shaun. "I thought you were taking us to Greenwing Island!"

     "We can't do that now," said Silan apologetically. "Our ship's presence here is strictly top secret. Can't have civilians knowing all about us. The Captain will have to decide what's to be done with you."

     The travelers began to feel a little afraid, and they all stared at Thomas accusingly. "I'm sorry," he said lamely, feeling like a fool. "How was I to know? Anyway, the Beltharans are the good guys. They wouldn't do anything bad to us."

     "You hope," said Shaun.

     "How did you know what it was, anyway?" asked Jerry. "If it's so top secret, how did you recognise it?"

     "It's not a secret at all," said Thomas. "I went to Seaton with my dad once when I was a kid and we saw one flying around above the city. Turned out it was the Emperor’s birthday and it was giving people rides as part of the celebrations.”

     "Right," said Silan. "We just didn't expect anyone this far south to recognise it. Even if we'd known, though, what could we have done? Let you drown? Your friend's right, we are supposed to be the good guys."