80AD The Sudarshana (Bk4)

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONEJade Lockyer stepped into a grey-lit world of thunderous noise. It wasn’t just noise. It was a shocking, almost solid, booming that deafened and pounded the breath from her body. She flinched away. Her mare took instant exception and reared up with a whinny that was lost in the din. Only luck made Jade clench her hand in time to keep hold of the reins. The horse backed up and danced to one side, tossing her head. Her hooves slipped on the glistening black rock underfoot and she almost fell. Pulling the mare’s head down, Jade laid a hand on the long nose and gripped tightly. She yelled a command word into the animal’s ear and watched for a second to make sure she settled.

Jade took stock of her surroundings. Ahead, pale light filtered through a vast wall of water plunging past a huge opening. She seemed to be in a large, stone cavern, behind a waterfall. Her hair lifted as the white torrent pushed a damp breeze into the cave. Droplets of moisture clung to everything, making the floor slippery and the walls drip. Every breath she drew of the laden air smelled of moss and fresh water.

As soon as it was clear there was no real danger, she turned to help the others coming through the Portal behind her.

Phoenix strode through, looking every inch the barbarian warrior with wild black hair, a coarse brown shirt and iron-studded leather arm and leg guards. In one hand he held his mount’s reins, in the other he clutched Blódbál, the enchanted sword given to him by Thor. Five of the seven blood-rubies embedded in the handle of his Life-dagger, sparkled at his hip as he stepped past Jade. Smears of dried blood darkened his clothes and skin. He looked exhausted but determined - a far cry from the cocksure, careless thirteen year old boy who had awoken just two weeks ago to find himself trapped in an unfamiliar body in an unreal world.

After him came Brynn, yanking on the reins of his frightened pony. The young Breton boy had never ridden before their time in Svealand and the pony knew exactly who was boss. Looking a bit like an undersized Jedi in his stolen monk’s robe, Brynn flinched at the onslaught of sound, shook his tousled auburn head and blinked in surprise. Recovering, he sent Jade a rueful, gap-toothed grin, pointed at his stubborn beast and shrugged.

The pony dug its front feet into the rock as it strained backward, brown eyes wild with fear. Only halfway through the glimmering portal, its rump would still be sticking out, into the Alexandrian dawn in faraway Egypt. Jade hurried forward. She commanded both his pony and Phoenix’s grey stallion so they could be led aside to let Marcus through.

The handsome Roman emerged. If the roar affected him, the only sign he showed was a slight clenching of his jaw. His dark hair was trimmed much shorter than Phoenix’s shoulder-length mop and his bare, soot-smudged arms were more tanned. His once-white Roman tunic was somewhat the worse for wear after their long night fighting in the Temple of Set. Dried blood crusted a shallow cut across his chest. Although obviously weary, he walked lightly and carried himself with his usual quiet dignity. He had fisted two sets of reins in one hand and held his long-bladed Svear sword in the other. A bow and quiver of arrows were slung across one shoulder and a short dagger sheathed at one hip.

Before long, all five horses stood quite calmly, as though they couldn’t even hear the tumultuous booming that shook the chamber. In the few minutes it took for their eyes to adjust to the light, Jade noticed her friends all looked as tired as she felt. Maybe they should have stayed one more night in Alexandria. No, she dismissed the thought with regret, they had only five days to finish this Quest. They couldn’t afford to waste any time.

She and Phoenix had already been trapped as Players in this two thousand year old game-world for two weeks too long. There was no telling how much time had passed in the real world. Any day now, the real-world game would be opened to the public domain on the internet and they might be swamped with other Players. Would there be any way of telling when the game was opened to the rest of the world? Some sort of sign in the heavens? An awareness that they weren’t alone any more in a demo version? Or was this world actually real, as they’d been told back on level One in Albion? Jade glanced around the damp cave. It certainly felt real enough. In fact, she’d long since stopped even doubting it.

She sighed. At the beginning of this adventure she’d been quite hopeful that they’d be home in a few days. It had now been two weeks and things were tougher with each Level. It never seemed this hard in the books she read. They still had to finish Level Four and Five in order to get home and they were all exhausted.

Jade pressed her lips together and adjusted the hood of her cloak. Out of habit, she touched the half-amulet that hung about her neck. It was safe. The two halves had drawn her and Phoenix into this realm and she was fairly sure they’d need them to get home again – assuming they ever managed to get to Level Five and defeat Zhudai. If they didn’t, she and Phoenix could face a lifetime, trapped in this other-world of ancient violence.

She shuddered and screwed up her nose in an effort to prevent the sting of tears. She’d started this game as an escape from her ordinary life; a way of diving into the sort of adventures she’d read about for years; a way of being something she was not. Actually being transported into the computer game had so not been part of her plan. Now she was stuck in a fantasy-world-real-world version of 80AD, somewhere deep in India, with a Quest to complete that she had no idea how to even begin.

Maybe she was just tired. She’d used a lot of energy up during the battle to save Brynn and release the Goddess Anuket in Egypt. With little sleep over the last forty-eight hours and days spent away from the forests her Elven heritage craved, she was worn out. Unfortunately, knowing why she felt miserable didn’t mean she could help feeling that way.

Ignoring Marcus’ disapproving gaze, she pulled out her herb bag. St John’s Wort for depression and some barley grass for energy. That should do the trick. Marcus might think she could handle anything without the help of her herbs but she knew better. Her half-Elven avatar needed the herbs to supplement her magic. Without them, she just wasn’t good enough to cope with this world.

Jade put the bag away and readjusted the weight of her backpack. Inside was the Hyllion Bagia – the bottomless bag that now held the Sudarshana; a silver, disc-shaped chakra weapon. Anuket had told them to return it to its rightful owner on the last night of the dying moon, so that’s what they had to do.

Regrettably, Anuket had been big on cryptic predictions but a bit short on details – like who the rightful owner was; what broken thing would it fix; what person who had done wrong would be redeemed; and whose Empire it would unite. There was no way of knowing. All Jade knew, from previous game instructions, was that the Quest had to be completed in the city of Punya-Vishaya, in India. Even that didn’t help much. Wandering about a foreign city asking for the owner of a slab of pure silver was about as smart as wearing a sign on your forehead saying “please mug me”.

No, they would have to find a more subtle way of tracing who it belonged to. Actually, first they’d have to find the city of Punya. OK, no: first they had to find a way out of this cave – if a way out even existed …

She shivered at that thought and hurried to join her friends. The shimmering Portal vanished. It was now simply three stones in the shape of a rough doorway, standing up against the cave wall.

Jade whispered a dozen little green lights into existence and floated them over her head. Using basic hand signals, the companions split up and began to search for an exit. With this illumination, it took only moments to discover that, short of going blindly through the waterfall, there appeared to be no other way out.

She, Marcus and Phoenix gathered at the white wall of water and stood, staring into it in forced silence. Phoenix tapped her on the shoulder. He pointed at the waterfall and shrugged. Next he pantomimed running and jumping, screaming, falling and dying. Then he twirled one finger in a circle around his temple. She nodded. Through a few gaps around the edge of the flow of water, she saw a river valley, far below. Too far. There was no way they or their horses would survive an excitingly-heroic jump through the cascade.

Jade scowled, pondering on the sort of sadists that must have programmed this game. Who on earth made the entrance to the fourth level of this digital world appear inside a dark, wet, exit-less cave? This was even worse than emerging into the airless offering chapel of Snefru’s Shining Pyramid in Egypt last time. At least then they’d had Thor’s hammer to help them get out of the building. Even if they still had it, the Hammer wouldn’t get them out of here.

Brynn had vanished somewhere into the darkness with his usual independence. Jade peered into the gloom, wondering where the orphaned ten year old had got to. He was better at getting himself into trouble than he was at getting out of it.

As though her thoughts had conjured him, Brynn appeared at her side. He waved a hand at her. His thin face split into a wide grin and his dark eyes sparkled with excitement. Jade sighed. He’d either found a way out or he’d found some treasure to steal. She followed his wiry figure into the depths of the cave, treading carefully on the slippery, broken floor.

There it was. Right at the very back of the cave: a tunnel. Mostly hidden by a rockfall that would have to be moved before the horses could get past, it certainly looked like the best chance to escape they’d found so far. To make sure, though, someone would have to follow it. There was no point in leading the horses into dead end.

Brynn tugged on her arm and pointed to himself then to the narrow gap at the top of the rockslide. Jade sent him a dubious look, shrugged and sent four little lights to bob around his head. Their glow cast a weird, greenish light on his eager young face.

The boy grinned and pulled a new leather sling out from under the oversized monk’s robe he still wore. He didn’t seem to regret the loss of his sword in Egypt but since he was better with a rock-sling than a blade, that wasn’t surprising. She knew he must be more upset at losing his sophisticated set of lock-picks and reminded herself to get them replaced at the first opportunity. Having someone in their team who could pick locks was handy – especially considering the number of times they seemed to end up imprisoned in this insane time-space.

With a jaunty salute, Brynn clambered up the rockpile and slipped through the opening. The glow of his witchlights faded and Jade was left to wait and exchange worried looks with Marcus, when he joined her.

A little way away, Phoenix slumped against a curving rock wall. Jade glanced over and saw him push off the rock, wiping irritably at the cold water that must have dribbled down his neck. He grimaced and looked around, probably for a dry place to sit. There wasn’t one, so he slouched over to where she and Marcus waited.

She smiled wryly at him. From her point of view at least, this place was better than the endless, sand-storm ridden desert they’d been thrown into in Egypt; or the icy northern forest of Sweden. At least here she sensed the presence of forests not far away. Briefly, she longed for the cool green hills of England – modern or ancient – before dismissing the thought as pointless. They were in India – hopefully.

They had to focus on the here-and-now, not the past or the future. Getting herself and her friends through this game level was all that mattered. At least Phoenix was taking it more seriously now. He had begun this as though it was the sort of fun adventure every gamer dreamed of. Losing lives had changed him. As had Blódbál.

Jade looked down at the magic blade. Even now Phoenix’s hand was wrapped around its hilt as though it was part of his body. He caught her look and glared back, his fingers tightening as if afraid she would try to take it off him. She turned away, uneasy. Although Thor had promised Phoenix would be able to control the sword’s bloodlust, she doubted it would be simple. His impulsiveness and distrust of others was magnified by the sword’s thirst for battle. He didn’t think straight when he was under its power. She wished they could throw it away but they needed all the magical help they could get in this world. She would just have to keep a close eye on him and try to help him control his temper.

A quick look over at the tunnel entrance showed Brynn returning from his scouting mission and waving eager handsigns at them. She gathered he had found the path to be wide enough for the horses. So now all they had to do was move the rockslide that blocked it.

It took the better part of an hour to move enough small boulders to let the horses edge by. More than once, Jade wished they hadn’t returned Thor’s hammer. It had been so useful for breaking things. Now, they were forced to use pure physical labour. Phoenix, whose avatar’s strength was impressive, looked exhausted. Brynn’s face was pinched and even Marcus appeared close to the end of his endurance.

As she almost dropped yet another basalt block on her toe, Jade realised it wasn’t just physical effort making them weary. A lack of sleep and food contributed. They had spent most of the last twenty-four hours sneaking through the streets of Alexandria, fighting the priests of Set and generally causing havoc and destruction.

Things were getting ridiculous – or ridiculouser, if there was such a word. They couldn’t keep going like this or they would be too worn out to deal with whatever badguys the game threw at them. The minute they got down to open, dry land, they had to rest. She had no idea what time of day it was but it felt like a great time to sleep.

Finally, the task complete, they lead the horses up to the half-exposed entrance. Brynn tugged on Jade’s arm, pointing up. Following his finger, she shivered. Above the curved tunnel opening a hideously life-like carving was etched deep into the black basalt rock: a snake. A rearing cobra, its hood spread wide; fangs bared. It seemed so real in the shifting half-light that she almost expected it to strike down at them.

What did it mean? Was it a warning or just some sort of street-sign saying “Snake Alley”? Maybe people lived in these caves and this was their way of naming the tunnels. It was possible.

She glanced at the others and they exchanged rueful shrugs. It wasn’t like they had a choice. They either went down this tunnel or they sat here forever. At a nod from Phoenix, Jade sent five of her little witchlights floating ahead, down the tunnel.

They revealed a man-made structure slicing deep into the mountain. Chisel marks were clearly visible in the black walls. Here and there were crude carvings of snakes – poor copies of the masterpiece above the entrance; perhaps done by workers laboriously hacking out the passage. Water dripped from cracks in the roof, staining parts of the stone an ominous, rust-red. It looked as though the walls bled. Jade shivered.

As though catching her feeling of apprehension, the horses balked at the opening. She was obliged to command them again before they would walk into the darkness. Leading, Phoenix drew Blódbál and nodded to Marcus. As the group stepped into the passageway, Jade paused. Her vague anxiety deepened to a cold, heavy sense of foreboding; a feeling that some ancient, malevolent power had somehow awakened, disturbed by their presence.

Her warning cry was lost in the roar of the waterfall. Before she could do anything, the horses panicked, rearing and striking out with sharp hooves. Around them, the earth trembled. Behind them, a new rockfall tumbled down in a cloud of dust, obliterating the tunnel entrance under tonnes of stone.