Quest for the Arcane Crown Yajat Sharma (most popular ebook readers .txt) 📖

Matt sat up straight. “Where are we?”

The Scavenger replied, “In the forest once again. The force field saved us, but you were all injured and hurt. I somehow summoned the chariot and threw you in. I was barely awake myself.”

“That’s all right,” James said, turning to Matt. “But why were you shouting so frantically in your sleep?”

A chill ran down Matt’s spine as he thought of the voice he had heard. He recounted his dream to them.

The Scavenger’s face turned grim. “I am sure the voice you heard was that of the Death Lord. He has the power to manipulate dreams.”

“But I felt the pain too,” Matt said, shuddering. “How’s that possible?”

“It’s possible. The Death Lord is a master of dark magic,” the Scavenger said mournfully.

“I am more worried about why he did this,” Matt wondered aloud.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” James said. “For the second riddle, you fooled him by giving him the wrong paper. He must be seeking revenge.”

“And that line, he said? ‘I sense you will be the One.’ What does that mean?”

“I think I know,” the Scavenger said. “The One means one of the four prophesied children who will be the most important. He will have the power to be able to hold the Arcane Crown.”

The Scavenger paused and looked at Matt. “I am afraid now the Death Lord will stop at nothing to destroy you.”

16

After an amazing lunch and a good sleep, Daniel was feeling refreshed. He and his friends sat around a table, discussing their next destination.

“Going by the riddle, we have managed to get the Tiger’s Hide,” the Scavenger said. “Now we just have to find the altar of Lord Arcane. We are pretty close to the third piece.”

The Scavenger put his finger to the map on the table. “Arcane built this altar using the finest stones and marbles, and I had helped. I don’t exactly know the location, but I have a fair idea of how to reach it.”

The Scavenger traced his finger over the map, stopping at a place labelled – DEMON LAND.

“This is a land full of demons. It was from the Demon Land’s King, I took the precious metals. The Demon King and Lord Arcane were great friends back then, but when the Demon King changed sides and became evil, Arcane punished him by turning him into a rat. The people of the land hated Arcane. But the interesting thing here is that that the Demon King maintained a diary, which contains the exact location of the altar. So all we need to do is go to Demon Land, find the diary, and find the location.”

“So how far is the Demon Land?” Daniel asked.

“A few hours, I think,” the Scavenger said. “We will get there by midnight.”

***

It was pitch dark in the moonless midnight except for the faint flickers of light coming from some of the houses in the village. The Scavenger and the children walked noiselessly through the roads. They had left the chariot before entering the village.

They crept stealthily.

Outside the gates of the castle, they bumped into two guards. They quickly neutralized them and hid them in the shadows of the walls. Step by step, they climbed the walls of the palace, using the holes designed in the walls as supports.

The Scavenger reached the top of the wall first. As expected, there were a few demon guards, but they were all sleepy and not alert at all. The Scavenger knocked them out in seconds. The Scavenger led the way, choosing turns and stairs assertively, as if it was all carved in his mind.

They reached a hall. Daniel could make out the shape of a big vault in front of him that had three numbers inscribed on it. It was password protected.

The Scavenger went ahead and punched in code after code on the wall, getting it wrong every time. “No other way,” he whispered. “I don’t know the password. I’ll just keep on trying.”

“It’s a three-digit code,” James said to himself. “So by the concept of permutations, there are nine multiplied by ten multiplied by ten possibilities, considering zero is not the first digit, or else it would be a two-digit number. So that’s nine hundred possibilities.”

Everyone looked at him.

James shrugged. “It’s basic maths. You can keep trying the whole day. Worst case scenario is we take eight hundred and ninety-nine tries to get the digits right -”

Suddenly the vault opened with a large creak.

“Or not…” James said as the Scavenger quickly extended his arm inside and pulled out a thin diary. Pocketing it, he ran, followed by the children.

It seemed their presence was noticed. Many guards were rushing towards the hall. Lights began to flicker on inside the palace.

Daniel tripped and fell. Grunting in pain, he quickly got up, but his fall cost them precious seconds. By then, demons and warriors had encircled them.

They were trapped.

At once, Daniel and the other children summoned their Elemental Powers, but the Scavenger halted them. Daniel was surprised to see such an act from the Scavenger, who otherwise always encouraged them to fight.

A bigger surprise awaited the children. The Scavenger announced, “We surrender!”

The demons threw magical ropes around them that restricted their magic. They pushed them along a corridor and threw them into a dirty prison.

After the guards left, the children turned to the Scavenger to protest, but the Scavenger started speaking first. “There are thousands of demons in Demon Land. If we had attacked those few, some would have escaped from there and would have alerted the whole palace. However powerful you may be, we couldn’t have fought the whole army. We would have been captured and put into prison.”

“So how is it better now?” Daniel grumbled. “We’re still in prison.”

“Yes, but they don’t know about your Elemental Powers!” the Scavenger argued.

The children nodded, impressed at the Scavenger’s foresight.

The Scavenger rubbed his hands. “Now for the plan I have.” He discussed his plan with the children.

In less than an hour, the demons