Luisa pushed the abbot into a chamber, “Don’t leave this room Abbot!” 

“Princess no, you must hide, we must….”

 She closed the door on his protests and skirted back into the corridor.

Where would they have taken Clearwater? The scougers training quarters?  That is where they know best. 

She made her way up the slope. Cataindar was silent and nearly dark, with the occasional scream or yell in the distance.

She took a deep breath.

Come on Luisa. You can do this.

 She moved along the corridors quickly.  Her pendant began to glow, softly at first, then brighter.  She had the crawling feeling in her stomach that she was heading into danger.  It was such a stifling sensation, every bone in her body was telling her to run away.  But she continued up the corridor.  It turned sharply.  She could barely breathe as she turned the corner.  She tried to beat down the fear.

The corridor ahead was nearly pitch black.

Don't be a coward Luisa!

She powered herself up the slope.

Was that movement in the distance?

Luisa strained her eyes searching the darkness at the end of the corridor.

The creature was so huge she had mistaken it in the gloom for the end of the corridor.

She watched the gigantic head turn slowly, carefully sniffing the air. It stopped, was completely motionless and then suddenly whipped around to face her.  In the distance two red pricks for eyes were staring back into Luisa’s own.

In the distance was a giant ratain. And it had seen her.

The creature let out a bellowing roar and immediately fell to all fours in a gallop towards Luisa.

She turned and started running as fast as she could back down the corridor. Once around the corner she tried every door, locked, locked, locked. Panic pulled shreds out of her, she wrenched on the fourth door - it was open!  She slammed it behind and twisted the bolt. Safe! She ran to the other side, exited out the second door and fled into the corridor, turning a hard left and dashing down the slope. 

Behind her a thundering explosion shook the ground, chunks of rock fell from the ceiling. Luisa fell to her knees, but pulled herself up and chanced a glance behind to see the ratain crash through the wall, smashing stone and masonry everywhere.  It scrambled to its feet and let out another roar, in its hand it held the giant sword from royal weapons chest.  In the gloom she could see its patchy white fur covered in blood. Luisa pounded forward, down the corridor and was almost knocked off her feet again by two of Finn’s scougers that had come to her aid.

She caught the horror in their eyes as they pushed her behind them. “Princess, run!”

Luisa watched them glance at one another, their eyes a grim mirror; their last fight.

Luisa continued to tear down the slope, turning again to see the ratain king fling a scouger to the wall and drive his sword through him with such force it went through the stone. The ratain backfisted the other catain across the corridor and leapt upon him, leaving the scouger pinned to the wall.

Every muscle told her to run back and do something to try and save them. But it was already too late! 

Luisa forced herself to turn back, the catain’s screams ringing in her ears as she continued to run down the slope towards the kitchens.

*  *  *

The abbot’s mind swam.  He could hear shouts echoing in the corridors outside.  He pulled himself up, and then sat down again. 

The end of Cataindar! Under his stewardship.

He went to pull himself up again, when he heard the door open.  It was Darcius. He was horribly burned.  Half his face a mass of burnt red skin and sinew, his fur melted away.

“Abbot.” Darcius sighed. He began to laugh a little, then almost cry, before swallowing both emotions back down.

“Well, apart from this,” Darcius gestured to his face, “things are going quite to plan.”

The abbot stared up at him.  

One of my most gifted scougers; a traitor.

“Darcius what have you done?”

“What have I done?” Darcius’ face grew dark, “No Abbot. Not now, not ever again will you lecture me. I didn’t want this to happen.  I was just going to take your place, well, kill you and take your place, that was my initial plan.”

“A scouger abbot? Ridiculous!”

Darcius, laboured to pull his bloody sword from his back, and taking a breath stepped forward and pressed pushed the tip against the abbot’s chest.

 “Not as ridiculous as a half-dead catain, in dirty rags, keeping an entire race imprisoned in the dark.” He spat the words out. His bloodshot blue eyes were filled with deadly intent. “You were done for Abbot - until your precious princess arrived.  Then the great abbot had the support of Cataindar once again. She ruined everything. Everything but the whispers.  Isn’t that what Cataindar is? But whispers deep underground? And I heard a whisper that I just could not believe, the story of a ratain, kept in the bowels of Cataindar, in a secret prison.  Not just any ratain, but the King of the Ratains.  That his sword Draig was hidden somewhere in Cataindar.

"But how could I know this was true, how could I prove it? Surely no-one would be stupid enough to keep an account of this would they? Oh no. You would. Stuck to tradition beyond all sense. Scrambling onto desperate prophecies. Imagine my surprise when I confirmed that it was the King of the Ratains that had survived.  And then I knew I had the key. 

"I am not the only one that believed this. I spoke to my catains, us, from the Drylliads. Did you forget from where I came? Forget my family? Forget the cave-in that claimed them? No - who would remember a young kitain dragging his sister’s corpse from the rubble. Well I haven’t forgotten. So many of us from the Drylliad will never forget. Garner showed me where the journal was kept.  I killed your Scribe, burnt the chamber… Garner tried to stop me.  It was a shame he had to die too.”

Darcius pressed the sword tip harder into the abbot’s chest.

The abbot’s felt his hot tears work their way down his face. The sword was painful against his ribs.

“Darcius! Please!”

“Goodbye Abbot.”

Darcius shunted forward and the abbot felt a sharp pain in his chest. He instinctively grabbed at the sword. Darcius’ mutilated face was an ugly mask of pain.

“Please…”

Darcius shut his eyes tight, his lips were trembling. The abbot felt another shunt and let out a gasp as the sword was driven deeper into him.

Darcius pulled back. The abbot pressed his paws to his chest in agony. A strain from beneath was turning his robe from white to red.

“No.” The abbot choked out the word. Darcius was looking down at him, devastation painted his face.

The abbot, could feel his own grip weaken, he was surprised to see his paws fall to the side. His robes were now drenched.

My beautiful white robes.

He thought of the princess. Her talent, she was doing so well…

I still have so much to teach her. If only I had… more time.

Darcius had covered his burnt face with his paws, his body racking with grief. The abbot choked back a final breath.

If only...

The abbot savoured his last breath of Cataindar and let it out slowly as his world went black.

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Thank you all so much for supporting this novel! Your votes and comments (and corrections) are so motivating. There are some awesome comments I can't wait to reply to - but I wanted to get this chapter up for you first!

If you want to see an image of King Groath, check out Cataindar.com :-) 

You may be wondering what is coming on Monday... so here is a teaser...

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Luisa was silent in the dark. The kitchens lacked their steam. They were deserted. Her sword was drawn and at her side. She tried to calm her hammering heart. She prayed that the Ratain would not come down into the kitchens, that perhaps it would turn and go another way. A giant shadow approaching told her that her prayers had fallen on deaf ears. She tiptoed away in the gloom through the rows of shelves filled with clay pots, plates and pans. She tucked her glowing pendant under her top and crouched low peeking though a shelf.  The Ratain’s frame filled the entrance and he sniffed the air. Nine feet tall, his white coat of fur was patchy, and his snout and barrelled chest was covered in blood. In his claws held the huge dark sword, the tip of which was touching the floor.

He slowly entered the kitchens...

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The rest of the chapter shall follow on Monday. :-)

 Have an amazing weekend everyone!

Tim