I do recommend reading the previous episodes before this one. I don't want to lose or confuse you.
The maggots were getting closer and they were getting bigger. The opaque yellow eyes now had pinpoints of black in their centres. The bodies were creased with black lines and veins were beginning to be noticeable too. They had tiny legs, like caterpillar legs and tiny stiff hairs all over their bodies. The maggots were moving inexorably closer and getting faster. Dusty dodged around them and they reared up as though they were trying to reach her and drag her down into their midst. Hunter shuddered but took an exaggerated leap over them. They reached for him too, but not as enthusiastically as they had when Dusty leaped.
Hunter looked back and his heart soared as he saw the maggots begin to stop. They seemed to be dying. Dusty pulled his arm and he looked at her, smiling.
“I hope you’re not too pleased about that, remember what maggots turn into,” Dusty said and turned from him.
The smile dropped from his face as her words sunk in and he took another glance behind him as he followed her. The maggots weren’t moving and he was thankful for that, but what would they do next?
Dusty reached the opposite wall before Hunter caught up with her and without pause she thrust the sword tip into the shimmering wall and tore it across just as she had done with the other one. She had reached higher than before and the vent was high enough to allow them to pass through the tear without stooping, therefore preventing them from being at too much of a disadvantage when they went into the unknown. Behind them, they could hear sickly wet ripping sounds and neither wanted to turn around to see what the maggots were turning into.
There seemed to still be a barrier as they moved forward, it pulled on them like a membrane as they passed it. As they went through the membrane, there was nothing but blackness surrounding them and the wet tearing sounds from the maggots became muted.
After a moment of standing where they were, with Dusty moving her sword in an arc around them to ensure that nothing was sneaking up, their eyes began to get used to the darkness. They could no longer hear any sound from the room they had been trapped in and there seemed to be nothing in this new place.
If they had thought the air was bad when they had been thrust into the shimmering room, then it was fresh and sweet compared with what they encountered now. Dusty went forward with her sword drawn and ready. Hunter stayed right behind her.
They peered into the gloom and found that they were in what appeared to be a vast empty space. Dusty didn’t want to move too far from the shimmering room that they had escaped from because through there was the only way she knew how to get home.
She knew that Hunter was close behind her because she could sense his presence, but from nowhere there was a rapid sweep of air, and she turned to find that Hunter had been pulled about ten feet away. He was standing stock-still, looking at her with puzzlement, but so was the other Hunter. There were now two of them and she sighed in exasperation.
She approached the identical Hunters and studied them both intently. Then she nodded her head and raised the sword. She brought the sword up between them both and the right hand one flinched. Dusty twisted the sword with a flick of her wrist and decapitated one of the two figures.
She nodded to Hunter and he smiled. It was not a happy smile though; it was grim and serious. He knew that she had reacted on instinct and he was glad for that, but he also knew that if she had surmised wrong, he would be a very dead Hunter.
“How did you know?” the disembodied voice asked with another annoying laugh.
“I’m not telling you my secrets. What do you take me for?” Dusty said in a tone filled with scorn.
The laughter that filled the air ranged from a delighted tinkling sound to a maniacal cackle, through to a deep rumbling belly-laugh. It could have come from many different sources but they both knew that it came from only one.
“The Prince of Lies,” Dusty said to Hunter. She didn’t bother to keep her voice low. She knew that her words could be heard, however quietly she spoke.
Another laugh, genuine and hearty exploded all around them at her words.
“You are your father’s daughter indeed, young one.”
Dusty tensed in anger at the mention of her father, the demon that had slain her mother. Hunter placed his hand on her arm to calm her.
They heard an awful and agonised cry behind them and they turned to see the shimmering room contracting and shrinking down to nothing. The sound came from the room and Dusty couldn’t make up her mind if it was the sound of the matter creaking as it shrank or if it was a living organism that was crying its protest at being snuffed out.
As the room became smaller, the creaking increased in volume and agony until the room was almost so small that they couldn’t see it. The tortured wailing ceased abruptly and the room imploded with a bright flash that made Dusty and Hunter shield their eyes.
In the moment that the bright light occurred, just before she had to shield her eyes, Dusty saw beyond the darkness that they were not in a cave; they were in unfathomable emptiness. There were no boundary walls within sight and Dusty was worried because their only way home had been removed.
“Are you going to show yourself?” Dusty asked in a calm and even tone.
“Why would he do that?” Hunter whispered.
Dusty looked at Hunter and shrugged her shoulders. “I dunno, I just thought I’d ask, see what he did.”
They were not surprised by the peal of laughter; it seemed to be the theme for the day.
Dusty sighed and sat on the ground. Hunter looked down at her and then sat beside her, his knee touching hers.
“Do you have any idea why I was brought here?” she asked Hunter.
He shook his head and said: “Not got a clue.”
“I thought it was a test of some sort, but I don’t remember you saying that you’d gone through this.”
“I haven’t. I don’t think any of my family have either. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“But it is a test, I just know it. I think that when you arrived, you threw it a little off-kilter but I’ve been tested for stamina, fearlessness, intelligence and then instinct. I hate to think what’s coming next.”
Hunter was about to respond but another shimmering thing appeared in the air just before them. They both scrambled to their feet and backed off a little. They faced it side by side, shoulder to shoulder.
The shining, flickering form began to take on a shape, the appearance of a being a little taller than they were but not so very much bigger. It began to look like a man and they were both relieved when the figure appeared to be human, though they knew it was probably nothing of the sort.
The figure was male and handsome. He had dark hair and dark eyes and a carefree attitude that Dusty was instantly attracted to. She glanced at Hunter and saw that he was glaring at the creature. She didn’t know what he could see but she understood that he disliked it. Dusty adjusted her perceptions and just to be on the safe side, she touched a finger to the Unicorn rope.
The newcomer ignored Hunter and focused on Dusty. He smiled at her but the smile faltered when she didn’t return it. He studied her with an expression of a wounded and betrayed animal and Dusty began to melt. Hunter took hold of her hand and squeezed it gently.
The newcomer’s expression changed then. He realised that Dusty wasn’t going to be so easily fooled and his form shimmered as he changed to a more usual appearance. He was still human in shape and dark-haired and dark-eyed but he was not quite so perfect or attractive – he seemed normal.
Dusty and Hunter looked at each other and grinned. They nodded once and both together said: “Loyalty.” It was their turn to laugh but they didn’t spend any time relishing their understanding. They didn’t take their attention from the newcomer, who they guessed was the instigator of these tests – the Prince of Lies as Dusty had called him earlier – the very Devil himself.