The Shadowseeker - Victor Kloss Page 0,84

it into the fog. A fireball, no bigger than a tennis ball, formed from nowhere and flew right into the stone, turning it into a black mess.

The three of them watched in stunned silence.

“Time to look for an alternate way down,” Charlie said.

But after five minutes of searching, they saw no way round without losing a substantial amount of time.

“Better we lose time than our skin, surely?” Charlie said.

“I'd rather not lose either,” Ben said. He bent down and picked up several stones. “I wonder what would happen if I did this.”

He threw three stones, a fraction of a second between them. The first one attracted a fireball, but the moment the second stone entered the fog, the fireball diverted its path and hit the second stone, leaving the first one untouched. The third stone was hit by another fireball.

“See that!” Ben said, pointing with excitement at the blue fog.

“I saw two of the three stones get burnt to a crisp,” Charlie said.

“That's right,” Ben said, grinning. “The first one didn't get hit.” He started searching for more stones and picking them up. “We can use these like submarines use counter-measures, to divert the fireballs away from us.”

“That might work,” Natalie said, and she joined Ben searching for stones.

“It's fraught with risk and has little chance of success,” Charlie said. “Which means it's a typical Ben plan.” He sighed and joined in the hunt for stones.

When their pockets were full, they started down the small cliff, approaching the blue fog slowly. Ben, who was the furthest down, stopped just a foot from the fog.

“The plateau is small,” Ben said. “We should be able to run through it in a matter of seconds. Then there is the jump – do you think you can make it, Charlie?”

The jump in question was a five-foot gap at the end of the foggy plateau, which led to another huge rock and safety.

“I should be okay,” Charlie said, his voice a little shaky. “So who goes first?”

“We go together,” Ben said, staring grimly at the blue fog. “That will confuse it more, and I doubt it can produce enough fire balls to stop all of us. I will lead, as I think the person in front will attract the most. Are you both ready?”

“No,” Charlie said, at the same time as Natalie said, “Yes.”

“On three,” Ben said. “One, two… three!”

Ben leapt off the cliff and dropped right into the blue fog. He hit the ground running. From the corner of his eye he saw the first fireball materialise and speed towards him, tinted blue from the fog. Ben threw a stone to the side of him. The fireball swerved, leaving a trail of smoke, and engulfed the stone. Even as it exploded, another fireball formed, but its target was elsewhere – Charlie or Natalie, Ben couldn't see who. The edge of the plateau was fast approaching, and Ben could see another fireball coming his way, but he didn't have time to divert it. He planted his foot firmly on the edge of the cliff and leapt. Something hot scorched his trailing leg and he gave a cry of pain. He lost momentum and only just cleared the gap, rolling and sliding on the new rock. He sat up, and was promptly knocked down again as Charlie rolled into him. He looked frazzled and wide-eyed, but unhurt.

“That wasn't so bad,” Natalie said.

Ben hadn't seen her jump the gap, but from the looks of it she had sailed across serenely, and looked unharmed.

“Yes, let's do it again, shall we?” Charlie said, getting to his feet.

Ben rubbed his left thigh as he rose. His trousers were singed and the skin was red and tender.

“Ben, are you okay?” Natalie asked, with alarm.

“I'm fine,” Ben said, grimacing. It stung badly, but he didn't want to make a scene. “Let's keep going. It's just passed 10:30am, which means we have less than two hours left.”

Ben had a nasty feeling they would be seeing more spell clouds, and less than twenty minutes later his fear was realised. With time starting to become pressing, Ben was reluctant to let the spell clouds divert their course, but occasionally it was unavoidable, as it was when they encountered a pale yellow fog that instantly turned a thrown stone to ice, or the red fog that caused another stone to explode. Despite that, they made steady progress, climbing ever downwards, until they encountered the black fog. It floated within a small passage that was squeezed between