The Claimjumpers on the first carpet climbed to a high altitude, wanting to be unseen from the ground, urged the carpet to its maximum speed and were soon skimming just above a layer of wispy haze, the freezing, high altitude winds whipping their hair back and stinging their faces.

     They were soon over the sea again, following the chain of islands out away from the safety and security of the shoreline. Thomas had a hastily drawn map of the Lonely Isles gripped tightly in his hands, copied from a world atlas at Redhill, and he crossed each island off with a piece of charcoal as they passed over it. It was indeed fortunate that the island of the Emerald Oracle was part of an island chain, mused the wizard as he watched the jagged, black, wave dashed rocks passing by below them. If the island had been in the middle of the ocean, even without its curtain of invisibility, they might have searched for days and never found it. The Oracle had positioned itself well, he realised. It wanted to be found, even if only by people of courage and determination. It mustn’t be too easy, of course, but it must at least be possible.

     They saw sailing ships beneath them as well, only visible as tiny squares of sail from this altitude but numerous enough for them to realise that the Fourth Shadowwar had not yet had much of an impact this far south. Thomas was willing to bet that there were people living on those islands down there who hadn’t even heard of the war, who had no way of knowing that things were any different now than they’d ever been. He imagined hoary old sailors setting out in their tiny, barnacle-encrusted fishing boats. Hanging out nets, pulling them in full of wriggling fish. Shading their eyes with rope calloused hands to watch the weather and eventually returning home to where their wives and families were waiting anxiously on the quayside to welcome them. Going through all the little routines of life week after week, month after month, year after year, and all the time not a single thought of war or violence entering their heads. None of them having the slightest inkling of how close the whole world was to a disaster beyond their comprehension. So far as they were concerned, Thomas suspected, they’d been following this way of life ever since the beginning of time and would carry on living the same way for the rest of eternity. It was incomprehensible, literally unthinkable, that anything might happen to change things, and Thomas found himself envying them bitterly.

     An hour after leaving the shoreline, the unmistakable outline of Greenwing Island appeared ahead of them, bringing back vivid memories of their first visit, just over a year before. “Here we are,” said Shaun, shouting to be heard above the rushing of the wind. “Still remember the way?”

     “Yes,” shouted back Thomas. “Position yourself above the central mountain, head in the direction of Arn and keep going. Simple.” It had been the mad woman of Andor who’d given them those instructions, after they’d narrowly escaped being turned into her dinner, and Jerry had paid for the information with seven years of his life. You bet he remembered! He looked over at Diana, and she reached over and squeezed his hand. She remembered as well.

     They circled around Greenwing Island’s central peak while Thomas consulted his map and picked out the smaller island of Arn, and then they flew off towards it. A few minutes later they passed Arn and Thomas and Diana kept watch behind to make sure they were still going in the right direction, with Greenwing Mountain directly behind the highest point of the smaller island. Below them, they saw the narrow channel through the jagged black rocks that they’d navigated so carefully and fearfully on their first visit, visible from this altitude only as spots and patches of leaping surf almost lost in the immensity of the sapphire blue ocean. Those rocks had been such an obstacle last time that they’d almost been forced to turn back, unaware of how close they were to their objective, but now they flew above them as freely and easily as a soaring seagull. It made Thomas’s heart soar as well at the very thought of it.

     Suddenly he stiffened, though, staring at something behind them, and shaded his eyes with his hand to get a better view. “What is it?” asked the cleric, seeing the change in his formerly buoyant mood.

     “I thought I saw something behind us,” said the wizard, squinting as the brightness of the sky dazzled him. “Something following us.”

     Diana looked as well, pulling her long, chestnut coloured hair out of her eyes so she could see. Looking ahead was one thing, with her hair streaming out behind her like the tail of a comet, but now that she was looking back the way they’d came her hair was streaming out ahead of her, obscuring her vision. She gathered it all up, clicking her tongue in annoyance, and held it out of her way while she shaded her eyes with her other hand. “I can’t see anything,” she said after a moment. “Perhaps it was just one of those greenwing gulls or something.”

     “Yeah, probably,” agreed the wizard, although a little doubtfully. He continued searching the sky, but whatever it had been was gone now, or perhaps had dropped back a bit having realised they’d crept too close. I’m getting paranoid in my old age, the wizard told himself with a wry grin, and he put the matter out of his mind.

     “There it is!” shouted Shaun jubilantly, and they turned to see the island of the Emerald Oracle ahead of them, just becoming visible as they penetrated the Curtain of Invisibility. Shaun banked the carpet sharply, to avoid crashing into the half mile high sheer cliffs that surrounded the circular plateau, and Diana tumbled into Thomas, the two of them almost falling off as the wizard scrabbled desperately for purchase. He managed to grab hold of one of the carpet’s trailing tassels with one hand, and prayed that it wouldn’t pull off as he grabbed Diana’s arm with the other and pulled her against him. He got a faceful of fragrant chestnut hair as the cleric grabbed hold of him, her fingers biting painfully deep into his arms even through the fabric of his jacket, but then Shaun leveled the carpet again and they breathed a sigh of relief as they flew straight and true once more.

     “I wish you’d give us some warning before you do that!” shouted the wizard, his heart hammering in his chest at the narrowness of their escape.

     “Sorry,” replied Shaun. “We came through the curtain of invisibility and the cliffs were right there, in front of us. I had to swerve quick or crash. Are you two all right?”

     “I will be when my stomach settles down,” replied Diana queasily. Her hands were still tightly clamped on the wizard’s arms and she had to concentrate hard to make them let go. She looked over the side and gulped at how far down it was. “I thought we were flying higher than the top of the cliffs,” said Thomas as the carpet slowed to a stop and rose slowly upwards.

     “We were,” replied Shaun. “I brought us down a bit. I was worried that the Curtain of Invisibility might be like a dome, and that we might fly right over it without knowing.”

     That hadn’t occurred to the wizard, and he had to admit that the soldier was right. “Well, we’ve found the island and we’re still alive,” he said. “That’s what’s important.”

     They were already nearly at the top of the cliffs, and they reached the top just a minute or two later. The carpet continued to rise until it was about a hundred feet above the forest covered plateau, then turned and heading inland. “Hey!” protested Shaun. “I didn’t tell this carpet to do that! It’s moving all by itself!”

     Thomas and Diana weren’t worried, though. “Looks like the Oracle’s in a hurry to see us,” said the wizard. “Since we’ve been here before and proven ourselves by winning through all its defences, I suppose it’s decided it can cut out the formalities.”

     A moment later they saw the shrine of the Oracle ahead of them, a triangular building that looked as though it had been carved out of a single giant emerald. A circular moat surrounded it, glittering with shoals of silvery fish, and a single bridge arched gracefully over it, guarded by a massive, five headed monster that they'd had to kill during their last visit before they could pass. The creature seemed none the worse for its experience, though, and roared a furious challenge at them as they passed over.

     The carpet came in for a soft landing on the building’s roof, close to the centre, and the teamsters got to their feet and stepped carefully onto the smooth, slippery surface. The roof was a single, unbroken surface and they stared at each other in puzzlement as they wondered what they were supposed to do next, but then an area of the roof shimmered and dissolved, revealing a flight of steps carved out of the solid emerald, leading down.

     “Looks like we get to miss the maze as well,” said Shaun as he rolled up the carpet and tucked it under his arm. “And good riddance. Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

     Thomas and Diana glanced at each other in amusement, and the three of them set off down the stairs.

☆☆☆

     “Are you sure you can still see them?” asked Arroc doubtfully, leaning forward and squinting at the bright sky ahead of them.

     “Trust me,” replied Teasel impatiently. “I can see them just fine.”

     “Well you’re the only one who can,” said the trog, looking at her suspiciously. “Maybe you’re just taking us on a mystery tour. You didn’t want us ter follow them, did you?”

     “If we get close enough for you to see them, they’ll be able to see us,” retorted the nome angrily. “If that’s what you want, then speed us up. Otherwise shut up and trust me.”

     The trog grumbled to himself and sat back again with a narrow eyed glance at Naomi, who decided to try to smooth Teasel’s ruffled feathers. “Where do you think they’re heading?” she asked.

     “They seem to be heading for Greenwing Island,” replied the nome, “but there are plenty of smaller islands between here and there. Any one of them might be their destination.”

     “Funny place for a wise old sage to live,” said Dennis doubtfully. “A craggy, storm lashed lump of rock in the middle of the ocean.”

     “A perfect place to live if he just wants to be left alone,” replied Teasel, however. “How do you think he’ll react when we suddenly turn up?”

     “Just keep an eye on the other carpet,” said Naomi impatiently. “If we lose them out here, we’ll never find them again.”

     Silence fell, each of them thinking their own sullen thoughts until the huge mountainous bulk of Greenwing Island loomed ahead of them. “They’re turning!” cried Teasel in confusion. “They’re going south.”

     “Have they seen us?” demanded Naomi.

     “I don’t think so,” said the nome, however. “I think they’re just using Greenwing as a landmark, to find their way. They must be heading for Arn. There’s nothing else out that way but rocks and open sea.”

     “Stay on their tail,” ordered the black girl eagerly. “Don’t lose them now.”

     The first carpet went straight past Arn, however, and kept on going. “What’s going on?” demanded Arroc, his suspicions aroused once more. “Where are ya taking us, ye deceitful midget?”

     “I’m just following them!” protested the nome angrily. “How am I supposed to know where they’re going?”

     “I want ter see them for myself. I’m taking us closer.”

     “They’ll see us!”

     “Only if they really are still ahead of us. I want ter see for myself.” He gave the command and the carpet surged ahead faster than ever.

     “There they are!” exclaimed Dennis a moment later, and the trog gave a grunt of satisfaction when he saw the tiny black speck ahead of them.

     “I suppose an apology is out of the question?” said Teasel in annoyance. The trog just glared at her.

     “Pull us back before they see us,” said Naomi, and the trog gave the command for the carpet to slow again. “There must be something out here,” muttered the black girl to herself. “Something that’s not shown on any map. Something known only to a handful of people.”

     “And perhaps defended against accidental discovery,” suggested Dennis uncomfortably. “I mean, fishing boats must occasionally come out this way. How come none of them’s ever stumbled across this mysterious old sage’s hiding place? Maybe something happens to them. Something bad. After all, fishing boats go missing all the time, blamed on rocks or the weather. Maybe sometimes it’s not rocks or the weather but something else.”

     The suggestion silenced them all, even Naomi, and they flew on in silence until Teasel gave a cry of alarm. “They’re gone!” she exclaimed. “They’ve vanished!”

     “What do you mean?” demanded Arroc. “You’ve lost them?”

     “I can’t see them any more!” cried the nome. “One minute they were there, the next they’d just vanished. They didn’t go away, they just... just stopped being visible.”

     “Stop the carpet,” ordered Dennis.

     The trog glared at him, but then gave the order, bringing the carpet to a halt, hovering three thousand feet above the restless sea. “Now what?” demanded Arroc gruffly.

     “Take us forward very, very slowly,” suggested the soldier. “Slower than walking speed, if you can.”

     “Do you know what it is?” asked Naomi eagerly.

     “I’ve got an idea,” replied Dennis thoughtfully. “If I’m right, we’re very, very close to our sage’s mysterious hideaway. Prepare yourselves for a surprise.”

     The carpet crept slowly forward, so slowly that the four people huddled together on it weren’t able to perceive its forward motion. Arroc began to give the command to speed it up but Dennis advised him not to, counseling patience in the face of unknown and possibly dangerous forces. Several minutes went by and the trog’s impatience grew until he was fidgeting restlessly, jostling the others who were kneeling shoulder to shoulder in the confined space. Just as he was about to order the carpet to speed up, though, they were rewarded by swirl of colours and shapes manifesting itself before them. They gasped in awe and wonder as the island of the Emerald Oracle took shape in front of them, its sheer cliff face looming a mere couple of hundred yards ahead.

     “Incredible!” breathed Naomi, her green eyes wide with jubilation. “See? I told you! This is the place!”

     “A curtain of invisibility,” said Dennis, nodding his head. “I thought so. My team came upon another invisible hideaway a couple of years ago, belonging to a grumpy old wizard. I had an idea this might be the same kind of thing.”

     “Look at those cliffs,” said Arroc, his voice hushed at the narrowness of their escape. “We’d have been splattered all over them like flies on a swatter.” He looked at the soldier with a grudging admiration. “From now on I think before I argue with you, human.”

     “Think nothing of it,” replied Dennis with a shrug. “Well, what do we do now? Do we land on top of the cliffs or at the bottom?”

     “I think the decision’s been taken out of our hands,” said Teasel, a note of alarm in her voice. “We’re going down.”

     She was right, the others saw. Crags and fissures in the cliffs were sliding upwards as they descended gently past them, and the top of the cliffs stretched further and further away. The carpet ignored every command Arroc gave it, no matter how loudly he shouted and cursed, and finally he could only give a growl of frustration and sit back with the others. They were in the power of whoever or whatever lived on this island, and could only wait helplessly to find out what fate it had in store for them.