“Lord Siegfried Gaerfyrd,” said Hamlech quietly to Teleri as he inspected the logbook. “He is on the twenty-seventh floor in crystal twelve thousand five hundred and eighty-two.”

  “Very well,” said Teleri, not wanting to say anything else to the guard. “Please, lead the way.”

  She tapped Friedrich with her foot and he leapt back onto her belt, having sorely needed to rest his arms while Hamlech was distracted and busy scouring the book for Friedrich’s father.

  Hamlech led the way through the corridors. Along the way, the trio passed several guards. A couple of them glanced at Teleri who walked with her hood and mask covering most of her face, but to be seen walking so casually with a guard? There must have been no problem for them to concern themselves with. Teleri did, however, notice that the demons’ gazes lingered longer than those of the human and elven guards. She suspected that it was not because they were mistrustful of her, although they certainly were, but because they did not trust the human guards as much as they trusted their own.

  “Guard Hamlech!” barked a gruff voice from behind and the guard froze. Teleri stopped too and turned around.

  Hamlech spun and offered a salute. “Yes, sir!” he said to the bearded man approaching.

  “You are not supposed to be on this floor,” said the man. “Where do you think you are going?”

  Hamlech’s face turned pale, and he looked very nervous. “I…I…I was asked by Zergru’mal to bring this Alaurian upstairs, Captain. He did not tell me why, but he said she was to be escorted there, and he would follow shortly after.”

  “Zergru’mal?” spat the man. “You know as well as I do that you should not be taking orders from him. What is the meaning of this?” He looked to Teleri. “Who are you? Who are you here to see?”

  “My name is Blackjack,” the elf replied. “Who I am here to see is none of your business, but I assure you that it is a matter of great importance.”

  The captain’s face twisted into an ugly frown. “I will take the matter up with Zergru’mal himself. In the meantime, you are to wait here until I return.”

  As the captain marched past, a small fox dropped to the ground and transformed into a minotaur. Before the captain could turn around, a burly arm wrapped around his neck and a large palm covered his mouth. He wrenched and struggled, but it was of no use, the minotaur was overpowering him effortlessly. With a tug, the man’s neck was snapped and he fell limp in Friedrich’s arms.

  “Where?” he grunted, exercising great effort to force the minotaur to speak.

  Hamlech looked around, whimpering manically. He ran to a door and opened it and gestured to throw the body inside. Friedrich shoved the guard captain in amongst a couple of buckets and mops before slamming it closed. He turned back into his human form and sighed.

  “I did not relish that, Hamlech, but it had to be done,” he said. “We keep moving.”

  “R-r-right,” said Hamlech, looking away and continuing ahead with Teleri beside him. His cover may have been blown with the guard, but any others who passed would see him so he grabbed hold of Teleri’s belt once again and tucked his tail in.

  A few minutes later, after a tiring climb, Hamlech muttered that they were on the twenty-seventh floor. Rather than continue around in a circle, he opened a door to the right that led closer to the centre of the tower. A purple light shone from within, surprising Teleri. The source was a large crystal; several crystals in fact. They were lining the core of the tower, embedded in pedestals. Inscribed on each of the pedestals was a runic number.

  “This is the stasis?” she asked Hamlech.

  The guard nodded. "Crystalised prisons where the prisoners remain completely aware of everything before them, but unable to move a muscle.”

  “This truly is barbaric,” muttered Teleri. “Have you no shame?”

  Hamlech said nothing and walked around the tube-like corridor with the crystals on his left. There surely had to be hundreds of crystals like this on each floor. Teleri wondered who was trapped within these, being able to only see vague shadows within, so cloudy were the purple stones.

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  Friedrich hopped down and returned to human form. He followed along behind Hamlech and Teleri, looking at the numbers as he walked. He could not read them and that made him uneasy. Fearing the worst, he placed his hand on his sword, ready to draw it and strike at a moment’s notice should Hamlech decide now was the time to betray him.

  “This is the one,” said Hamlech, stopping before one of the crystals. “Twelve thousand five hundred and eighty-two; the stasis crystal of Siegfried Gaerfyrd.”

  “We are waiting,” said Teleri, looking at the guard pointedly.

  “Right,” said Hamlech with a sigh. He raised his hands to the crystal and began to chant.

  A swirling light emerged from his palms, enveloping his fingers and moving up his forearms. His chanting increased in volume and a beam of light burst from his hands and into the crystal, making the solid surface ripple like it was liquid. It started slowly at first and then radiated outwards. Hamlech became lost in a trance-like state as his chanting continued.

  Teleri waved a hand in front of his face and the guard did not blink. “Hamlech?” she asked.

  “Are you worried?” Friedrich asked.

  “I have been worried since we departed from Corobath,” said Teleri. “We have been fortunate so far not to attract much unwanted attention. The guards here are laxer than I expected.”

  “Do you think it’s because the island is already so remote that nobody would dare approach?”

  “Perhaps, but I think it would be unwise to let our guards down, Friedrich.”

  Friedrich nodded. “I hadn’t planned on doing so. Do you hear anything approaching the door?”

  “Which one?” asked Teleri. “There are many doors leading from the outside into this room and I can hear footsteps walking past many of them.”

  Hamlech’s chanting grew louder and the rippling surface of the crystal now covered the entire front side. It looked as though Hamlech was now moving deeper into the crystal to release Friedrich’s father.

  The young man stood by and watched with bated breath, longing for his quest to finally be over. Everything he had been working towards had led up to this moment. Should someone who was not his father emerge from the crystal, he would let Darkan take over and lay waste to every guard in this damned tower. He had not gone through all of his trials, his struggles, for this to all be for nought.

  He clenched his fists and bit his lip as he watched the magic of Hamlech’s ritual penetrate the crystal. The passing minutes felt like hours and he was expecting to be interrupted at any second, but nobody intruded upon them. Friedrich thought about the others who were sentenced here alongside his father; his own people who had remained loyal, but he knew only a handful of names and could not risk being caught to save them. The feeling weighed heavily on him and he was not sure what to tell his father. One day, he would find a way to grant their freedom too, but his family was his first priority.

  At last, Hamlech’s magic petered away and he snapped back to consciousness. “It is done,” he said as he stared at the crystal.

  He reached inside, clasped hands with the shadow within, and then pulled. Friedrich could feel his eyes watering as a pair of hands emerged with Hamlech’s. The arms followed and then a slumped head of auburn flopped forwards. Friedrich’s heart skipped a beat. The hair was the same shade as his own and the man’s beard was one he had seen before countless times. He remembered how it felt when the man had kissed his cheeks as a child.

  He had to hold himself back from crying out for his father, so overcome with emotion as he was. Teleri interlocked her fingers with his and squeezed his hand as Friedrich sniffed, trying desperately not to break.

  Lord Siegfried Gaerfyrd fell from the crystal and Hamlech caught him, standing him up. Friedrich’s father shivered as Hamlech held onto him, keeping him from collapsing. Once he remembered how to support his own neck, he looked up.

  “It is you,” said Lord Gaerfyrd, his hoarse voice barely above a whisper. “You have grown so much…”

  With a wince, Friedrich drew his sword and plunged the tip of the blade into Hamlech’s shoulder. The guard cried out in pain as his muscle was pierced but Friedrich quickly retracted it as his father staggered back upon witnessing his son’s attack.

  “Frie—”

  “It is time to get you back to the mainland to collect our payment, Gaerfyrd,” said Teleri, sensing that Friedrich’s father was about to say his name aloud.

  Friedrich kneeled beside Hamlech. “Thank you,” he said, “and I am sorry for putting you through this.”

  Hamlech grunted and spat on the ground. “You have damned me,” he said. “I will be caught…but you knew that from the start, didn’t you?”

  Friedrich looked him in the eyes. “I truly am sorry, Hamlech.”

  He arose and put his arm around his father, helping him move along the corridor. He did not say a word, even though he very much wanted to. The less talking he had to do until he reached the boat, the better.

  There came a rustling of cloth from behind and Teleri darted behind Friedrich to cover him. Unwilling to let her get hurt, he released his father and spun her around, taking the flying dagger in her place. He felt the cold steel piercing the back of his neck as the metal pressed on a vertebra. He heard a whoosh and a pained groan as one of Teleri’s arrows pierced Hamlech’s throat.

  Friedrich’s father grabbed his shoulders. “What am I supposed to do?” he asked in a panic, holding back on uttering his son’s name. Even after his torturous imprisonment, he was quick-witted enough to realise Friedrich had orchestrated a ruse to free him.

  With an agonised grunt, Friedrich reached up, pulled the dagger from his neck, and then dropped to his knees. As his vision turned white, he mustered up his last ounce of willpower and his form shifted. He shrunk down with his weapons and armour vanishing as golden fur grew from his body and a swishing tail sprouted from where his tailbone had been. The pain he had felt was gone; the wound from the dagger was gone.