58.

  The corridor had seemed like a wonderful reprieve from the nightmare of shifting platforms and endless drops into nothing. However, it quickly became chilling and altogether too silent. The Pigeon King and I didn't speak; we just walked down this seemingly endless corridor. There was nothing but red carpet, cold flagstones, and flickering candles in braziers that cast shadows everywhere. I had the unnerving sensation of being watched, but there was nothing behind or in front of us. There weren't even any doors, just empty stone walls. I chewed the inside of my cheek.

  “Hey… back there, what was that…”

  “Do not speak its name,” the Pigeon King hissed.

  “I wasn’t going to,” I muttered. “What is it?”

  “It is…” the Pigeon King began and then faltered. “Put it out of your mind, mageling, we have a great task ahead of us.”

  “Please,” I said. “That… thing has been haunting me. Every time I sleep, every time I look over my shoulder, I think it’s there.”

  “It may well be,” the Pigeon King sighed. “Mageling, this is not something we can discuss now.”

  “But…”

  “I do not know!” the Pigeon King burst out and he sounded frightened. “I have an idea, but I don’t know specifically what that… creature is.”

  “Oh,” I said crestfallen.

  “But I will tell you this mageling, that is a creature of pure darkness and malevolence. Tread your path carefully or you will lose more than your life.”

  I opened my mouth to respond.

  “Speak no more of this mageling and concentrate!” the Pigeon King said imperiously. “We are deep in the realm of nightmares, Somnix will have further traps for us!”

  I fell silent and we continued to walk down this seemingly endless corridor. I lost all sense of time. Tension eating away at my nerves. Every shadow seemed to hide a leering, eyeless face. What was the eyeless silhouette? Even the Pigeon King was afraid of it. Was he telling the truth that he didn’t know? Or was it so bad that he didn’t even want to speak about it?

  Just as the tension became unbearable, a sudden flicker in the corner of my eye caught my attention. My head spun sharply but it was just a shadow. I sighed and kept walking, then froze. Whose shadow was it? I could see mine and I could see the Pigeon King's. Who did this third shadow belong to? I turned and looked again and saw it was a bestial shape with a long snout and claws.

  "Oh crap," I said and began running, leaving the Pigeon King behind.

  "Mageling!" the Pigeon King cried, and I heard him flapping his wings behind me.

  I chanced a look over my shoulder and saw there were four shadows: one on each wall, one on the ceiling, and one on the floor, all shaped like various malformed beasts and monsters, snaking their way towards us.

  "Oh crap! Oh crap!" I repeated, putting my head down and sprinting as fast as I could. "Do the light thing!" I shouted over my shoulder to the Pigeon King.

  "What?" he cried as he caught up to me, his wings beating powerfully.

  "The light thing! The light thing you did before, with the other thing… the golden light," I babbled breathlessly.

  "I can't," the Pigeon King snapped back.

  "Why not?”

  "Because my power is severely limited here. It was already limited in your mind, and now we've gone a stage further from my physical body. Whatever power I have remaining, I need to save for battle with Somnix.”

  "Oh great, so you're just a pigeon.”

  The Pigeon King looked at me and drew himself up regally.

  "I am the Pigeon King, boy!”

  "Then do something, Your Royal Highness!" I shouted back at him. I turned and saw the shadows were almost upon us.

  It was too late.

  A shadow erupted from the floor. It was shaped like a hooded cobra but with a torso and claws. I cried out and threw myself forward. The shadow flew over me and splashed into the wall. Then a wolf shaped shadow was on me, tearing at me, its sharp claws slashing into my skin. I stumbled forward. What was I supposed to do against these things? I had no gadgets, no weapons, and no armour. I was just a half-naked, skinny boy terrified out of his mind.

  “What do we do?” I roared at the Pigeon King.

  "You're a mage!" the Pigeon King cried back. "And not only that, but we exist in your mind right now. You have power, boy! Use it!”

  The Pigeon King squawked and ducked as what looked like an octopus with spiked tentacles slashed out at him. He dodged to one side as the four shadows began melting into reality, growing out of the wall, the ceiling, and the floor, menacing us.

  I had power, I thought. What power did I have? Well, I knew some Runes, but what good would that do me? I had nothing to enchant, and besides, these things wouldn't let me sit here for 20 minutes to gather my thoughts and Craft something.

  I looked to my right and saw a brazier with a candle in it. I leaped up, grabbed it, and pulled it from the wall, feeling it singe my hand as I did, hot wax flicking onto my arm. I threw it at the monsters. It had little effect other than making me feel quite stupid, but it provided a brief second of distraction, long enough for me to turn and begin running again.

  "Damn it!" the Pigeon King cried behind me as he flapped his wings again. "Is all you know how to do is run?"

  "I'm pretty good at it," I shouted over my shoulder as I pumped my arms like a 100-meter sprinter. "What do you want me to do?"

  "Magic!" the Pigeon King cried. "Do something, you fool!"

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  Magic, I thought to myself. Right, okay. I tried to gather my mind and piece together the Runes I could remember by heart. I knew the Explosion Rune, the Shock Rune, and the Chalk Bomb Rune. I'd done them so many times they were burned into my memory. But I had nothing to craft with, no pebbles, slingshot, or copper. But then, did I need those things?

  I felt another tendril lick at me, the spikes of the octopus thing raking across my back, almost knocking me off my feet. I stumbled, gathered myself, and kept running. What Rune did I know best? The Explosion Rune. I knew that better than the back of my hand. Then another thought occurred to me. I looked down at the Rune of Lucidity carved into the palm of my hand… would that work?

  "I need you to buy me some time!" I shouted over my shoulder at the Pigeon King.

  "Time is something we do not have," the Pigeon King said.

  "Just a minute! Get me a minute!”

  The Pigeon King growled in his throat.

  "You have one minute," he said before stopping abruptly in mid-flight, flaring his wings wide like a parachute before wheeling around and facing the demon shadows chasing us.

  I ran a few more steps until I reached another brazier. I yanked the candle from it, ignoring the pain as the candle burned me. I took a brief look at the Pigeon King and saw his talons and beak glowing with that golden light again. He was pecking and slashing at the monsters, zipping around the narrow corridor to avoid them, their large mass and size making them awkward and easy targets. He forced them back into the walls, and every time they tried to grow out again, he snapped and slashed at them.

  I quickly looked away and down at my hand. I raised my hand palm down, gritted my teeth, and then took the dripping wax to begin drawing the Explosion Rune onto the back of my hand. I gritted my teeth harder, feeling the enamel crack and pop as pain scattered my thoughts. I could hear the squawks of the Pigeon King. I pushed them out of my mind, and focused on the Explosion Rune and the effect I wanted. Doubt kept eating at the corners of my concentration. There was no way this was going to work. But it had to work! But there was no way it could.

  I snarled and forced those doubts away. I had no other option. I dripped the wax across my hand, using the other side of the candle to draw, and felt certainty starting to grow. The Rune was taking shape. Although poorly etched, the Explosion Rune consisted of just a few strong lines that intersect easily. I kept going over the lines, dripping more wax to make them thicker and more corporeal, picturing exactly what would happen next.

  And then I heard the Pigeon King scream. I looked up and saw the tentacle monster had the Pigeon King ensnared, its tentacles squeezing around him while the other monsters faded back into reality. They grew out of the walls and ceiling, their bodies gloopy masses until they took their nightmarish shapes complete with eyes, fangs, and claws. It was now or never.

  I raised my left hand and mimicked a gun with two fingers pointed directly at them.

  "Bang!"

  There was a whoosh of air from my fingertips, then a rocket of invisible power hit the wolf thing square in the face, splattering its shadow across the wall. The other three beasts turned to look at their comrade, then back at me. I grinned maniacally.

  "Bang! Bang!"

  Two more shots of invisible power flew across the corridor. One hit the tentacle thing, just where it held the Pigeon King, dropping him as its tendril turned to vapor. The second shot hit the snake right in the gut, blowing a hole through it. I whooped in delight and looked at my hand.

  "I can't believe that worked," I said, grinning stupidly.

  The Pigeon King flew into the air and zipped by me.

  "Stop congratulating yourself and move!" he shouted.

  I turned and saw the wolf thing rapidly putting itself back together and the hole in the snake disappearing.

  I groaned. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. I fired four more random shots at them, then turned and began sprinting after the Pigeon King.

  "Flesh magic!" The Pigeon King cried at me as I caught up to him. "Have you lost your mind, boy?”

  "But it worked!" I said to him, running and trying to keep my palm spread wide so I didn't disturb the waxed Rune.

  "Flesh magic literally uses your body as fuel," the Pigeon King said to me. "It would eat away at you and take bits every time it's used.”

  "Okay," I said, suddenly less certain. "But, technically, I don't have any flesh right now.”

  The Pigeon King thought about that for a moment and then gave a begrudging nod.

  "I suppose in this one instance it may be useful.”

  I returned his nod, feeling like that was the closest I'd ever get to a genuine compliment from the Pigeon King, before reaching over my shoulder and firing random shots into the hallway behind us.

  "We're never gonna outrun these things," I said to him.

  "No, and the fact that the only Rune you know how to use is one that blows holes in things is particularly useless," the Pigeon King said. "Considering we're fighting shadows.”

  "Yeah, I wish I knew, like, a massive ball of light charm," I said.

  "A massive ball of light charm," the Pigeon King scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Even if you knew an accelerant of some sort, we could use the flame on one of these candles to create enough light to form a barrier and stop these shadow monsters crossing them.”

  "Yeah, that would be helpful. Shame you can't do anything," I snapped back at him.

  I fired another wild shot over my shoulder and hit a brazier. The candle burst and that whole section of hallway was bathed in darkness. I watched the shadow monsters disappear and then reappear on the other side.

  A sudden spark of inspiration hit me. The Pigeon King was right: light was the answer. Enough light could bleed out shadows, but then shadows also needed light to exist.

  I skidded to a halt, the Pigeon King zipping past me and then wheeling around as he saw me stopping.

  "What are you doing, mageling?”

  "Being kind of smart," I said.

  I looked at the beasts. They were all corporeal now, all flooding down the hallway towards us. They had various holes in them from the random shots I had fired, but that hadn't slowed them down even a little bit. I looked up at the two braziers on either side of the wall and grinned, hoping this would work. I reached forward with my fingers extended.

  "Bang! Bang!" I said, and the two candles were snuffed out. I then turned around behind me. "Bang! Bang!" And snuffed out the next two candelabras, bathing myself and the Pigeon King in complete darkness.

  I stood there frozen, not even wanting to breathe, waiting for a claw or a tentacle to reach out in the darkness and end me, but there was nothing. I looked at the last patch of light before the darkness and saw the four monsters standing there, prowling at the edges, hissing and spitting.

  I then saw the snake dive into the darkness and I screwed my eyes shut, waited, but it didn't come back out. I turned around and looked down in the corridor where the light from the next set of candles reached, and the snake reappeared. I grinned like a damn fool.

  "Stupid shadow monsters need light, how ironic," I cried, pumping a triumphant fist into the air.

  I could hear the Pigeon King flapping next to me, and I heard him sigh. I could just imagine he was rolling his eyes.

  "Well done, mageling," he said begrudgingly. "The monsters cannot form in complete darkness."

  "Nope, can't have shadows when there's no light," I said, seeing the things prowling the edge of the shadows, the snake monster on the other side hissing and spitting. I decided to flip them the bird, feeling way too cocky for a guy sandwiched between beasts of nightmares.

  "So now what do you suggest we do?" the Pigeon King asked.

  "We're gonna have to finish this journey in Nighthawk mode."

  "Night what mode?" the Pigeon King said.

  I ignored him and walked to the edge of the shadows. The snake monster was hissing and spitting at me, eager to rip my flesh apart. I aimed two shots straight at the snake's face, blowing it apart and sending it scattering back into the walls before aiming at the next two sets of candelabras. This time it wasn't as cool, it took me about six shots to hit them from where I was, but eventually, I knocked the candles over and bathed us in darkness.

  "Ah, I see," the Pigeon King said. "Well, lead the way, my gunslinging follower."

  "Gunslinger," I thought. "How cool.”

  Then the smile disappeared from my face. All of my cockiness suddenly drained out of me as I looked towards the end of the corridor. There was a giant, bloodshot eye blocking our path. It swivelled madly before snapping on to us. It stared directly at me and I felt true horror as I stared back at it.