Rona Jaffe - Mazes and Monsters

“Okay,” he said. “But you have to do the same for me.”

“I have to study now,” she said. “Not everybody’s a genius like you.” She smiled at him. “Thanks for the coffee break.”

“Anytime.” He went back to his room humming a little tune. She wanted him to be her friend after college; it wasn’t just a part of his fantasy of all of them doing great things together. It was real. Neither of them would ever let the other one betray their potential.

Life after college seemed so far away he almost couldn’t imagine it. Kate telling him he was halfway through college was like telling someone he was middle-aged. He was entering the second half of his Sophomore year; he wasn’t “halfway through college.” Exams were coming soon, and of course he would get his usual A’s, and then they would start the game — his game. That was the only thing that seemed real at all.

It was the first night of the new game in the caverns. The four of them went there in Kate’s car. Since people were always rushing in and out of the dorms, no one paid any attention to them and their duffel bags of equipment, which they put into the trunk. They had thrown the dice in Jay Jay’s room to see what they could take with them, and whatever they needed Jay Jay seemed to have ready. They each had a real sword — which was actually a hunting knife in a sheath — and they had lanterns, coins, amulets, food, and costumes. Kate, as Glacia, had her chain-mail armor, to be put on when they got to the deserted area near the caverns. Robbie, as Pardieu, had his rough brown cloak. Daniel, who was to be Nimble the Charlatan, was already dressed in a black turtleneck sweater and slacks; he looked like a cat burglar. It was not in the spirit of a medieval game, but he refused to have anything to do with the black leotard Jay Jay had bought for him. Jay Jay told him he’d change his mind as soon as he found out how the rough, damp passages they might have to crawl through would mess up his clothes, and took the leotard along.

They hid the red Rabbit in a small clump of trees near the entrance to the caverns. Kate and Robbie dressed, and then the four of them tramped together over the hard, bare ground to the chained opening. They paused. “This is the secret kingdom of the evil Voracians,” Jay Jay said. “Somewhere within dwells Ak-Oga, the most fiendish monster of them all. He has lived in the depths of this lair for more ages than Humans or Sprites or Dwarfs can know. As great and awesome as is his wickedness, so is the greatness and awesomeness of his treasure. Shall you enter?”

“Yes,” they said.

They took a last look at the black sky overhead, filled with bright stars, and then they ducked under the chain, entered the caverns, and lit their kerosine lamps.

Kate’s heart turned over. This place was such a blend of all the fantasies she had invented, and reality, that for a moment she almost felt she was losing her grip on what was real and what was not. Except for the lights of their lanterns, the blackness was so vast and absolute that she was not sure she would have the courage to go another step. It was worse than the darkness of the laundry room when that man was trying to kill her, because in the laundry room she had some idea of where things were. But here all was new. The lamplight touched the shiny, black walls with the glitter of gold. Ancient stalactites and stalagmites like stone icicles … the faraway drip of unseen water … the musty smell of evil … but worst of all, that darkness. In that darkness you could lose your sense of direction and wander in circles until you lost consciousness. She was terrified. She drew a deep breath and said nothing.

Now Jay Jay moved lightly to a corner of the small vaulted room and lit a large battery-powered lantern, the kind used at campsites, which he had put there before they came. It gave the room a reassuring glow, but equally important it made it possible for him to read his Challenge Module, see the throw of the dice, and for all of them to be able to chart the maze with their pencils and graph paper, and mark wherever they were at any given time.

They were looking around in awe. Kate glanced at Daniel and Robbie. She couldn’t tell if they were afraid or not. Daniel looked fascinated and Robbie transfixed. She didn’t want to be the only one who was scared to death, and if she was, she certainly didn’t want them to know it. She tightened her hand on her sword as if it could give her some protection.

There was no need to sit in their customary circle to ask the Maze Controller where they were— they were there. “Which way shall we go?” Daniel asked the group.

“Right,” Kate said. “To the water.” She tried to will herself deeper into the game, to become Glacia, no longer Kate. Glacia wouldn’t be afraid. A part of her was thinking that the sound of water perhaps led to a hidden pool, and that Jay Jay would want them to see this, and so he would have put inducements in that other chamber; perhaps some charm or treasure. The other part was trying to block out Jay Jay, and to make this game, which was real, as real as the imaginary one they had played in the dorm. She felt that separating the real from the fantasy was a way of keeping her sanity, but if she didn’t let herself get into the game it wouldn’t be any fun.

Glacia … I am Glacia … why do I always hold back? I’m always afraid, pretending I’m not, doing things to test myself. I am Glacia, and I have sworn to seek out the evil monster Ak-Oga, and seize the treasure. Glacia turned right with the others and walked with very gingerly steps toward the sound of the dripping water. They went through a narrow tunnel and then came out upon a large room with a black pool at one end. It was breathtaking. There was something eternal about this place. She felt she had dreamed that bottomless black pool a thousand times. She felt the danger singing through her blood, and the mystery, the fantasy, the sheer beauty of something that was at the same time so menacing. She shone her lantern around the corners of the room, and screamed.

A human skeleton lay propped against the wall, lying in an attitude of exhausted despair. It wasn’t the remains of one of the students who had vanished so long ago; those bones had been found. It was someone else. Oh, God … it could be them!

Glacia the Fighter never screamed in fear.

“Alas,” Pardieu said sadly. “Who can that be? Some wanderer, perhaps, on a mission such as ours.”

“Be careful,” Nimble the Charlatan warned. “It could be a trick. Sometimes these skeletons have powers.”

Just as he spoke the empty eye sockets of the skull glittered with a mad light, all greenish and skittering. The dice clicked softly on the stones. “What do you choose to do?” the Maze Controller asked, his voice coming disembodied from the shadows of the black room.

“Is it evil?” Nimble asked.

“No.”

“Is it helpful, then?” Pardieu asked.

“Perhaps.”

Glacia remembered another adventure from a long time ago. “We will have to touch it,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady and calm. “The glittering eyes may show us a clue if we turn the head.”

“I am afraid to disturb the bones of those who rest in peace,” Pardieu said in his kind, reverent tones. “It is a sacrilege.”

“I am not afraid,” Glacia said. She strode to the skeleton and touched the head with the tips of her fingers. Her stomach churned. Slowly, slowly, she moved the skull to either side, hoping there might be some magic to open a trap door or show up invisible writing. Nothing.

Then suddenly, as if it were on wires, the entire skeleton rose swiftly in the air and flew away into the dark above her. “Ahhh …” The sound came from her own throat and from her companions: awe, terror, fascination, a gasp sharpening into a shriek.