Martyn Vaughan - The Cave of Shadows

Jon stood still. It all sounded so reasonable. It could easily have happened, just the way Jon11 was describing it.

‘It could have happened,’ he said hesitantly. His head was beginning to spin again. Nothing stood still; nothing was certain. Everything was dissolving into a flux of madness.

Jon11 looked sharply at Shana. ‘And you? Do you believe in things you can’t see, can’t touch but somehow they know what you’re doing and can punish you for your innermost thoughts?’

She looked helplessly at her housemate. ‘It does seem – unlikely.’

‘Good.’ Jon11 looked and sounded pleased with his evening’s work. ‘Now that we’ve got that out of the way perhaps I can get you two to work with me so we can finally get things done around here. So let’s hear no more about Mr. Bogeyman – or should I call him “Lord Korok”?’

Shana was already standing but she suddenly seemed to grow taller as every muscle in her lithe body instantly went iron rigid.

‘Korok? Lord Korok?’ she yelled, in a voice that shook the rafters.

Both Jons were startled and after a moment’s stunned silence Jon11 said, almost meekly, ‘That’s the name they’ve given him.’

She looked at the other Jon almost accusingly.

‘Why didn’t you tell me about him?’ she demanded.

‘I thought I had.’

She began to pace back and forth in front of the bemused Jons.

‘Lord Korok, Lord Korok,’ they heard her mutter to herself, ‘Akraz, Zarka. The prison in the hills. The fatal scimitar.’

Suddenly she turned on Jon11, blue-grey eyes blazing. ‘Get out you fool, get out! Whatever the Lord Korok is, he’s no daydream, no fantasy. Get out!’

The departure of their uninvited guest had done nothing to restore equanimity to Jon and Shana. If anything, it had heightened their discomposure; the feeling of crawling unease that lurked behind every thought.

Realising that in the apparent excitement at learning about each other as persons that they might have overlooked vital elements in their past experiences, they went over those experiences in great detail. It seemed to Jon that he stood there in the cave as Shana writhed on the floor, desperately getting closer and closer to the weapon that might save her. Shana stood shoulder to shoulder with Jon as he strove against the champions of the Lords of the Sands.

There were differences in their experiences: Shana had merely been told of Korok’s existence while Jon had somehow had the notion buried in the depths of his mind.

Both agreed that the entity known by that name was held in great respect, not to say awe, by the others who knew of him. Jon11 must be wrong to claim that he was simply an abstract figurehead chosen by the Council to frighten the populace into submission. Somehow, someway, there must be a reality behind that name; a great and terrible reality that turned men into whimpering slaves.

Jon recalled that when he had heard the great voice it had not overtly stated that it was Korok who had been speaking, but who else could it have been? Only someone who had the power to terrify men could have produced tones such as he had heard.

Impasse. They stopped their talking and gazed at each other helplessly. They had determined beyond all reasonable doubt that there was a Korok and he was a terrible danger to them but, worse than that, a danger that could not be outfaced; a danger beyond the reach of the sword.

‘What can we do?’ Shana eventually said.

Jon shook his head. ‘I don’t know.’

To leave the hill must be the most obvious course of action but Korok’s reach was not confined to this immediate vicinity, for the Lords of the Sands had known of him and feared him; Akraz had spoken of him with humble respect. And Jon was reminded that Korok seemed to have a personal interest in him. No, flight was not the answer.

Eventually they both stood up as if controlled by one impulse and put their arms around each other’s shoulders.

Eyes nearly on the same level stared into each other.

‘We’ll find a way out of this,’ was Jon’s eventual comment.

Shana gave a welcome smile that restored her features to the way they had looked when Jon had first seen them.

‘Yes we will,’ she said and kissed him.

It was not a long kiss but to Jon it was as if he was suddenly swimming in a warm sea of achingly pleasurable wonder.

He leaned forward to renew the experience but Shana had turned away, not having noticed his state of excitement.

She had picked up the implement with the padded ends.

‘What is this?’

Jon confessed his ignorance.

‘Jarz was going to show it to me but as he doesn’t appear to like me any more it looks like I’ll never know.’

Shana turned it over and over in her strong hands.

‘It looks like – yes it does!’

She had placed the padded ends of the implement over her ears and pushed the flexible band down so it had disappeared into her riotous locks.

Immediately she staggered and Jon was forced to catch her to prevent her crashing to the floor.

‘What is it?’ he demanded anxiously.

She tore the thing off her head.

‘I don’t know. For a moment I seemed to see pictures in my head. Things that looked as real as this room but then they were gone.’

He sat her down and then looked dubiously down at the object as he held it at arm’s length.

‘Perhaps I should try it.’

Very slowly and carefully he lowered it upon his head as he had seen Shana do and sat down next to her. He remained stock-still for an increasingly worrying length of time, eventually forcing Shana to vigorously shake his arm.

‘Jon! Jon! What is it? What are you seeing?’

He took it off and placed it on the table next to them.

‘I didn’t see much. For a moment there were people and then just blackness.’

‘Blackness. Just blackness?’ This didn’t seem particularly interesting , she thought.

Jon did not look at her but just sat there, slowly rubbing his chin.

‘Well, not entirely black. In different places there were little lights, little unblinking lights.’

Shana sat up straighter. ‘Little lights, so small that you couldn’t see any detail in them – as if they were just incredibly small points?’

‘Yes – I suppose that’s the best way of describing what I saw. But nothing was happening. Just blackness and the little lights.’

But Shana was no longer listening. This was one of her dreams and now Jon had seen it.

This must be significant; it must be part of the answer to the dilemma that they had found themselves embedded in. Any small increase in their understanding might be enough to spring the jaws of their trap and let them out into a world of sanity.

Shana picked up the device and put it back in the alcove from whence it had been taken.

‘Jon, it’s very late. We must rest. We don’t know what we will have to face tomorrow. But,’ and here she glanced back into the alcove, ‘that thing is part of the answer we are looking for. But we can’t take it any further now. But tomorrow…’

And they slept.

As the new period of light came into existence Jon and Shana reviewed their situation. No great insights had come to them during the period of darkness; there had been no astounding dream that had explained all the mysteries and contradictions that swirled around them.

They were just as they had been before.

But they could not shed the unsettling revelations that had come to them.

As they ate their breakfast Jon moodily considered the fact that although he still felt hungry before the meal and felt energised after it, the simple act of eating was now a mystery. Whereas before there had just been a simple act, now there was – mystery.