“Okay, that’s enough!” Lynx said. “We are not going to kill Urrax.” The Scavenger’s face fell. “Nor torture him.” Matt’s face fell. “Nor perform an autopsy on him.” Archer’s face fell. “Nor throw him away.” Daniel’s face fell. “Nor use him as a bargaining chip.” James’s face fell.
“Then what do you prefer to do, Mr Pessimist?” James asked.
“I think that I finally know where your Elemental Powers are,” Lynx said.
Silence fell. Then James asked, “Where?”
Lynx looked around at the eager faces, pausing to create suspense. He opened his mouth but then closed it again. He paused some more. Then more.
“Would you just get on with it?” the Scavenger screamed.
“All right, all right, no need to get agitated,” Lynx said. “I think that your Elemental Powers are inside Urrax.”
There was a long pause as everyone thought about it, then Matt said, “How can you be sure?”
“Well, I am not totally sure. It’s just a logical guess, but I saw Urrax attacking us. I noticed that, intermittently, he was practising magic, and it was Elemental Magic. I can recognize that. I saw signs of four of the Elemental magic – the exact ones you four use. How many people are there in the Dark World who are Elementals? Very less. And how many of them travel in a group of four? I think none. So, I think, no, now I am actually sure, that Urrax has your powers hidden inside him and he is using them against us.”
“You may be right,” Matt said. “When Archer and I were captured by Aronicle, I got a chance to speak with Aronicle. Well, Aronicle was in the control of someone else, but Aronicle broke control for a short while and told me that he had transferred the powers he had taken from us into someone who controls him. It all adds up. Urrax controls Aronicle. He orders Aronicle to take our powers and give them to him, and Aronicle does that. And now Urrax is subdued, which means that his control over Aronicle is lost. Which also means that we need to go to Brentinute because that is what he said to do if we somehow subdue the person who controls him. Bingo.”
“That’s right,” Lynx said. “We need to go to Brentinute. Aronicle must be there. It’s totally logical. The Brentinute is a highly secure place, even more than Voldmir’s palace. No, I am not joking,” Lynx said, looking at everyone’s expressions. Lynx nodded at the Scavenger. “You know what I am talking about.”
The Scavenger nodded. “The only place in the Dark World better protected than Grim’s palace is the Brentinute, and while we were planning to enter Grim’s palace the only thing elevating my happiness levels was the fact that it was not the Brentinute we were breaking into.”
Lynx nodded. “The Brentinute is the Dark World’s centre for innovation and technology. It is one of the most secure places in the Dark World, and there is no way that Aronicle would be able to escape from there, nor would anyone be able to get him out. No way.”
“So, basically,” James said. “We need to infiltrate the Brentinute, take Aronicle, escape with him, and then get him to give the Elemental Powers back to us. Then we go get the Trident with the help of Insanity.”
Insanity and Lynx nodded in reply.
“It will not be easy, as I have said before,” Lynx warned. “There is only one heavily guarded entrance. Any magic is used, and they know it through magic sensors. There are traps inside the prison, which can only be disabled from the control centre. There are cameras all around. The walls are covered with spikes. So yeah, we need a hugely awesome plan for this to work.”
“But first, let’s go to your cave,” the Scavenger said to Lynx. “I am sure you have maps of the Brentinute. We need those.”
Lynx nodded and created a portal. The Scavenger dragged Urrax, and everyone jumped into the portal.
In Lynx’s cave, they all huddled around a table on which Lynx put up a large map. “Here is one entrance,” Lynx said, pointing at the bottom of the map. “It’s guarded by forty or so guards, maybe more. So first, we need to figure out how to get inside the Brentinute.”
“The walls,” Matt suggested. “We could climb the walls or something.”
“There are people there too,” Lynx said. “And, as I said, the walls are covered in spikes. We cannot use the wall at all.”
“We can use the flying chariot,” Daniel thought out aloud. “We can jump off it right into the Brentinute.”
“The guards at the walls would shoot us down.” Lynx disregarded the plan at once. “They have state-of-the-art weapons, remember. Also, look here.” He pointed to the area just inside the walls. “There are cannons here. They would mow us down like a tractor on the grass. We need something else.”
“Maybe we can use force,” the Scavenger said. “You know, like, take a chariot or something and place a full-on attack on the front gate.”
“It won’t work,” Lynx said. “We will be repelled, and we’ll all be defeated before you say ‘bad plan’.”
“How about we make a portal?” James said. “And emerge inside the Brentinute.”
“There are warding spells all around inside the Brentinute,” Lynx said. “We wouldn’t be able to make a portal at all.”
“There must be some way,” the Scavenger said.
There was silence as all of them thought about how to overcome this challenge. After a long while, James spoke. “Wait! When the Brentinute is so closed, how do the guards or other persons living inside survive? I mean, what about the water, or food and stuff.”
“Good question,” Lynx remarked. “Fortunately, I am aware of the entire process of supplies at the Brentinute. Supplies are through trucks. But each truck is thoroughly checked before it enters. They have the same, but very effective, drill for years.”
“This is our only ticket into the Brentinute,” James said in an excited voice. “I am sure of it.”
Lynx
