Trials of Death

THE AQUATIC Maze was man-made, built with a low ceiling and watertight walls. There were four doors in and out of it, one in each of its four external walls. From the centre, where I would be left, it normally took five or six minutes to find your way out, assuming you didn’t get lost.

But in the Trial, you had to drag around a heavy rock – half your weight – which slowed you down. With the rock, eight or nine minutes was good going.

But as well as the rock, there was the water to contend with. As soon as the Trial commenced, the maze started to fill with water, which was pumped in via hoses from underground streams. The water slowed you down even more, and navigating the maze usually took about a quarter of an hour. If it took longer, you were in serious trouble — because the maze filled to the top in seventeen minutes exactly.

“It’s vital not to panic,” Vanez said. We were down in one of the practice mazes, a smaller replica of the Aquatic Maze. The route wasn’t the same – the walls of the Aquatic Maze could be moved around, so the maze was different each time – but it served as a good learning experience. “Most who fail in the Maze do so because they panic,” he went on. “It can be frightening when the water rises and the going gets slower and tougher. You have to fight that fear and concentrate on the route. If you let the water distract you, you’ll lose your bearings — and then you’re finished.”

We spent the early part of the night walking through the maze, over and over, Vanez teaching me how to make a map inside my head. “Each wall of the maze looks the same,” he said, “but they aren’t. There are identifying marks — a discoloured stone, a jagged bit of floor, a crack. You must note these small differences and build your map from them. That way, if you find yourself in a passage where you’ve already been, you’ll recognize it and can immediately start looking for a new way out, wasting no time in the process.”

I spent hours learning how to make mental maps of the maze. It was a lot harder than it sounds. The first few passages were easy to remember – a chipped stone in the top left corner of one, a moss-covered stone in the floor of the next, a knobbly stone in the ceiling of the one after that – but the further on I got, the more I had to remember, and the more confusing it became. I had to find something new in every corridor, because if I used a mark which was similar to one I’d committed to memory already, I’d get the two confused and would wind up chasing my tail around.

“You’re not concentrating!” Vanez snapped when I came to a standstill for the seventh or eighth time in quick succession.

“I’m trying,” I grumbled, “but it’s hard.”

“Trying isn’t good enough,” he barked. “You have to tune out all other thoughts. Forget the Trials and the water and what will happen if you fail. Forget about dinner and breakfast and whatever else is distracting you. Think only about the maze. It must fill your thoughts completely, or you’re doomed.”

It wasn’t easy, but I gave it my best shot, and within an hour had improved considerably. Vanez was right — cutting off all other trains of thought was the solution. It was boring, wandering through a maze for hours on end, but that boredom was what I had to learn to appreciate. In the Aquatic Maze, excitement could confuse and kill me.

Once my map-making skills were up to scratch, Vanez wrapped a long rope round my waist and attached a rock to the other end. “This rock is only a quarter of your weight,” he said. “We’ll try you with a heavier rock later, but I don’t want to tire you out too much ahead of the Trial. We’ll get you accustomed to this one first, move up to a rock that’s a third your weight, then try you on the real thing for a short spell, to give you a taste of how it feels.”

The rock wasn’t especially heavy – as a half-vampire, I was much stronger than a human – but it was a nuisance. Apart from slowing me down, it also had a nasty habit of catching on corners or in cracks, which meant I had to stop and free it. “It’s important to stop the instant you feel it snagging,” Vanez said. “Your natural instinct will be to tug on the rope and free it quickly, but more often than not that worsens the situation, and you wind up taking even longer to sort it out. Seconds are vital in the maze. It’s better to act methodically and lose four or five seconds freeing yourself, than act hastily and lose ten or twenty.”

There were ways to stop the rock and rope from snagging so much. When I came to corners or bends, I had to seize the rope and pull the rock in close to me — that way it was less likely to get stuck. And it was helpful to give the rope a shake every few seconds — that kept it loose. “But you have to do these things automatically,” Vanez said. “You must do them without pausing to think. Your brain should be fully occupied with mapping the maze. Everything else must be done by instinct.”

“It’s useless,” I groaned, sinking to the floor. “It’d take months to get ready for this. I haven’t a hope in hell.”

“Of course you have!” Vanez roared. Squatting beside me, he poked me in the ribs. “Feel that?” he asked, jabbing a sharp finger into the soft flesh of my belly.

“Ow!” I slapped his hand away. “Quit it!”

“It’s sharp?” he asked, jabbing me again. “It hurts?”

“Yes!”

He grunted, jabbed me one more time, then stood. “Imagine how much sharper the stakes in the Hall of Death are,” he said.

Sighing miserably, I hauled myself to my feet and wiped sweat from my brow. Picking up the rope, I gave it a shake, then started back through the maze, dragging the rock and mapping out the walls, as Vanez had taught me.

Finally we broke for a meal and met up with Mr Crepsley and Harkat in the Hall of Khledon Lurt. I wasn’t hungry – I felt too nervous to eat – but Vanez insisted I wolf my food down — he said I’d need every last bit of energy when it came to the Trial.

“How is he progressing?” Mr Crepsley asked. He’d wanted to watch me train, but Vanez had told him he’d be in the way.

“Remarkably well,” Vanez said, chewing on the bones of a skewered rat. “To be honest, though I slapped on a brave face when the Trial was picked, I thought he’d be – excuse the pun – out of his depth. The Aquatic Maze isn’t one of the more brutal Trials, but it’s one you need a lot of time to prepare for. But he’s a quick learner. We’ve still got a lot to cram in – we haven’t tried him in water yet – but I’m a lot more hopeful now than I was a handful of hours ago.”

Harkat had brought Madam Octa – Mr Crepsley’s spider – to the Hall with him and was feeding her breadcrumbs soaked in bat broth. He’d agreed to take care of her while I was concentrating on my Trials. Moving away from the vampires, I struck up a conversation with the Little Person. “Managing her OK?” I asked.

“Yes. She is … easy to … take care of.”

“Just don’t let her out of her cage,” I warned. “She looks cute, but her bite is lethal.”

“I know. I have … often watched … you and her … when you … were on stage … at the Cirque … Du Freak.”

Harkat’s speech was improving – he slurred his words a lot less now – but he still had to take long pauses for breath in the middle of sentences.

“Do you think … you will … be ready … for Trial?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Right now, the Trial’s the last thing on my mind — I’m not even sure I’m going to get through the training! Vanez is working me hard. I suppose he has to, but I feel exhausted. I could slide under the table and sleep for a week.”

“I have been … listening to … vampires talk,” Harkat said. “Many are … betting on you.”

“Oh?” I sat up, taking an interest. “What sort of odds are they giving me?”

“They do not … have actual … odds. They bet … clothes and … pieces of … jewellery. Most vampires … are betting … against you. Kurda and Gavner … and Arra … are accepting … most of the … bets. They … believe in you.”

“That’s good to hear,” I smiled. “What about Mr Crepsley?”

Harkat shook his head. “He said … he does not … bet. Especially not … on children.”

“That’s the sort of thing the dry old buzzard would say,” I huffed, trying not to sound disappointed.

“But I … heard him talking … to Seba Nile,” Harkat added. “He said … that if you … failed, he would … eat his cape.”

I laughed, delighted.

“What are you two talking about?” Mr Crepsley asked.

“Nothing,” I said, grinning up at him.

When we’d finished eating, Vanez and me headed back for the maze, where we practised with heavier rocks and in water. The next few hours were some of the most arduous of my life, and by the time he called it a night and sent me to my cell to rest, I was so tired that I collapsed halfway there and had to be carted back to my hammock by a couple of sympathetic guards.

CHAPTER FOUR

I WAS so stiff when I woke that I thought I wouldn’t be able to make it to the maze, never mind find my way out of it! But after a couple of minutes of walking around, I worked off the stiffness and felt as fit as ever. I realized Vanez had pushed me exactly the right amount, and made a note not to doubt his tactics in future.

I was hungry but Vanez had told me not to eat anything when I woke — if things were tight, a few extra pounds could mean the difference between living and dying.

Mr Crepsley and Vanez fetched me when it was time. Both were clad in their finest clothes, Mr Crepsley resplendent in bright red robes, Vanez less flamboyant in a dull brown tunic and trousers.

“Ready?” Vanez asked. I nodded. “Hungry?”

“Starving!”

“Good,” he smiled. “I’ll treat you to the finest meal of your life after the Trial. Think about that if you get into trouble — it helps to have something to look forward to.”

We wound our way down through the torch-lit tunnels to the Aquatic Maze, Vanez walking in front of me, Mr Crepsley and Harkat just behind. Vanez carried a purple flag, the sign that he was escorting a vampire to Trial. Most of the vampires we passed made a strange gesture when they saw me coming: they put the tip of their right-hand middle finger to their forehead, placed the tips of the fingers to either side of it on their eyelids, and spread their thumb and little finger out wide to the sides.

“Why are they doing that?” I asked Vanez.

“It’s a customary gesture,” he explained. “We call it the death’s touch sign. It means, ‘Even in death, may you be triumphant’.”

“I’d rather they just said, ‘Good luck’,” I muttered.

“That doesn’t have quite the same resonance,” Vanez chuckled. “We believe that the gods of the vampires respect those who die nobly. They bless us when a vampire meets death proudly, and curse us when one dies meekly or poorly.”

“So they want me to die well for their own sakes,” I said sarcastically.

“For the sake of the clan,” Vanez corrected me seriously. “A vampire of good standing always puts the good of the clan before his own wellbeing. Even in death. The hand gesture is to remind you of that.”

The Aquatic Maze was built in the pit of a large cavern. From the top it looked like a long square box. Around the sides of the pit were forty or fifty vampires, the most the cave could hold. Among them were Gavner and Kurda, Seba Nile and Arra Sails — and Mika Ver Leth, the Vampire Prince who’d sentenced me to the Trials.

Mika summoned us over, nodded gravely to Vanez and Mr Crepsley, then fixed his icy gaze on me. He was dressed in his customary black outfit and looked even sterner than Mr Crepsley. “You have prepared for the Trial?” he asked.

“I have.”

“You know what lies ahead of you?”

“I do.”

“Except for the four exits, there is no escape from the maze,” he said. “Should you fail this Trial, you will not have to face the Hall of Death.”

“I’d rather the stakes to drowning,” I grunted.

“Most vampires would,” he agreed. “But you need not worry — it is still water, not running.”

I frowned. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Still water cannot trap a vampire’s soul,” he explained.

“Oh, that old myth,” I laughed. Many vampires believed that if you died in a river or stream, your soul remained trapped forever by the flowing water. “That doesn’t bother me. It’s the drowning I’m not fond of!”

“Either way, I wish you luck,” Mika said.

“No you don’t,” I sniffed.

“Darren!” Mr Crepsley hissed.

“It’s all right,” Mika silenced him with a wave of his hand. “Let the boy speak his piece.”

“You made me take the Trials,” I said. “You don’t think I’m good enough to be a vampire. You’ll be happy if I fail, because it’ll prove you were right.”

“Your assistant has a low opinion of me, Larten,” Mika remarked.

“He is young, Mika. He does not know his place.”

“Don’t apologize for him. The young should speak their thoughts.” He addressed me directly again. “You are right in one thing only, Darren Shan — I don’t think you have what it takes to make it as a vampire. As for the rest of what you say…” He shook his head. “No vampire takes pleasure in seeing another fail. I sincerely hope you prove me wrong. We need vampires of good standing, now more than ever. I will raise a glass of blood to your name should you complete the Trials, and willingly admit in public that I misjudged you.”

“Oh,” I said, bemused. “In that case, I guess I’m sorry for what I said. No hard feelings?”

The black-haired, eagle-eyed Prince smiled tightly. “No hard feelings.” Then he clapped his hands loudly, barked sharply: “May the gods bless you with the luck of the vampires!” — and the Trial commenced.

I was blindfolded, placed on a stretcher and carried into the heart of the maze by four guards — so I couldn’t memorize the way. Once inside, I was set down and the blindfold was removed. I found myself in a narrow corridor, about a metre and a half wide, less than two metres high. My size would work in my favour in this Trial — tall vampires had to stoop, which made the going even harder.

“You are ready?” one of the guards asked.

“I’m ready,” I said, glancing around the corridor to find my first marker. I spotted a whitish stone in the wall to my left and made a note of it, starting my mental map-making process.

“You must stay here till the water pours,” the guard said. “That’s the signal for the start of the Trial. Nobody can check on you once we leave, so there’s nothing to prevent you cheating, apart from your conscience.”

“I won’t cheat,” I snapped. “I’ll wait for the water.”

“I’m sure you will,” the vampire smiled apologetically. “I had to say it anyway — tradition.”

The four guards gathered up the stretcher and left. They were all wearing extra soft shoes, so their footsteps made no noise.

Small candles were set in glass bulbs in the roof of the maze, so I’d have plenty of light to see by, even when the water rose high.

My nerves gnawed at me while I was waiting for the water to gush. A cowardly voice inside my head niggled at me to make an early beginning. Nobody would ever know. Better to live with a little shame than die because of stupid pride.

I ignored the voice — I’d never be able to look Mr Crepsley, Gavner or the others in the eye if I cheated.

Finally there was a gurgling sound and water bubbled up out of a nearby pipe. Breathing a sigh of relief, I hurried for the end of the corridor, dragging my rock behind me, shaking the rope at regular intervals, as Vanez had taught me.

I made good time to start with. The water barely hindered me and there were plenty of striking stones to identify the different corridors by. I didn’t panic when I came to a dead end or worked my way back to a corridor I’d already visited, just stuck my head down and kept walking, taking a new route.

The going got tough after five or six minutes. The water was up above my knees. Each step was an endeavour. The rock now felt like it weighed a tonne. I was having trouble breathing and my muscles ached, especially those in my legs and back.

Still I didn’t panic. Vanez had prepared me for this. I had to accept the water, not fight it. I let my pace drop. The mistake many vampires made was to try walking quickly — they exhausted themselves early and never got anywhere near the end.

Another couple of minutes passed. I was growing anxious. There was no way to tell how close or far from the finish I was. I could be a single turn away from an exit door without knowing it — or nowhere near one. At least I’d recognize an exit if I saw it — a huge white X was painted on all four doors and a large black button was at the centre of the X. All I had to do was press that button and the door would open, the water would flood out, and I’d be safe.

The trouble was finding it. The water was up to my chest by this stage and the rock was getting heavier all the time. I’d stopped shaking the rope – it was too much of an effort – and could feel it drifting along behind me, threatening to stick between my legs. That happened sometimes — vampires got knotted up in the rope and came to a standstill, drowning where they stood.

I was turning a corner when the rock snagged on something. I gave the rope a pull, trying to free it — to no avail. Taking a deep breath, I dived down to see what was wrong. I found the rock had jammed against a large crack in a wall. It only took a few seconds to prise it loose, but when I sprang up, I suddenly realized that my mind was a blank. Had I been in this tunnel before? I looked for a familiar sign but couldn’t spot any. There was a yellow stone high up in one of the walls, and I thought I’d passed it earlier, but I didn’t know for sure.

I was lost!

I lurched to the end of the corridor, then up another, desperately trying to establish my position. Panic flooded my system. I kept thinking, “I’m going to drown! I’m going to drown!” I could have passed a dozen markers and not recognized any of them, I was so stressed out.

The water was up to my chin. It splashed into my mouth. Sputtering, I slapped at the water, as though that would make it go away. I stumbled and fell. Came up spitting water and gasping. Terrified, I started to scream…

…and that stopped me. The sound of my roars snapped me back to my senses. I remembered Vanez’s advice, stood perfectly still, shut my eyes and refused to budge until I had the panic under control. I concentrated on the thought of the feast that awaited me. Fresh meat, wild roots and fruit. A bottle of human blood to perk me up. Dessert — mountain berries, hot and juicy.

I opened my eyes. My heart had stopped beating like a drum and the worst of the panic attack had passed. I waded slowly down the corridor, searching for a marker. If I could find one, I was sure I’d recall the rest of my mental map. I reached the end of the corridor — no markers. The next corridor was new to me as well. And the one after that. And the next.

I could feel the panic bubbling up again when I spotted a candle holder set in a pale grey circular stone — one of my markers! I stared at the candle and waited for my map to reform. For several long seconds my mind remained as terrifyingly blank as it had been — then the map fell back into place. It came to me in sections first, a piece at a time, then in a rush. I stood where I was for a few more seconds, making sure I had it clear in my head, before continuing.

The water was up to my lower lip now. The going was almost impossible. I had to proceed in sluggish jumps, lurching forward to keep my head above water, being extra careful not to bash it on the ceiling. How long before I ran out of air? Three minutes? Four? It couldn’t be much more than that. I had to find the way out — and quick!

Concentrating on the map inside my head, I tried figuring out how far away I was from the spot where I’d started. By my reckoning, I should be near one of the border walls. If I was, and the exit door was close by, I stood a chance. Otherwise the Trial was as good as over.

Turning a corner, I ran into my first stretch of border wall. I knew it immediately, because the stones were darker and rougher than the rest of the maze. There was no X printed on it, but my heart gave a joyous leap all the same. Backtracking, I banished the map from my thoughts — it was no use to me any longer — and hurried along to the next turning, searching for that elusive X.

I found four different sections of border wall, none of which contained the exit. The water was almost up to the ceiling now. I was swimming more than walking, pressing my lips to the roof to draw in air. I’d have been OK if not for the wretched rock — it dragged behind me worse than ever when I tried to swim, slowing me down to a crawl.

As I paused to draw breath, I realized it was time to make a critical decision. Vanez had discussed this with me in the practice maze. He’d hoped things wouldn’t reach this stage, but if they did, it was vital that I chose correctly.

If I continued as I was, I’d perish. I was making very little progress and in a minute or two the water would cover my face completely and I’d drown. The time had come to gamble. One last roll of the dice. If the luck of the vampires was with me, it would mean survival. If not…

I took several deep breaths, filling my lungs, then ducked under the water and dived to the floor. Picking up the rock, I turned over, so I was floating on my back, and placed the rock on my belly. Then I swam. It was awkward – streams of water forced themselves up my nose – but this was the only way to stop the rock from dragging on me.

Vampires can hold their breath longer than humans – five or six minutes, easily – but because I was on my back, I had to keep blowing air out through my nose, to stop the water going up it, so I’d have two, three minutes at most before I ran out of oxygen and drowned.

Swimming around another corner, I stared down a long corridor. I could spot the shape of what must be border wall at the end, but I was too far away to see if there was an X on it or not. I thought there might be, but that could be my mind playing tricks — Vanez had warned me about underwater mirages.

I swam up the corridor. About half-way, I realized there was no X – a long crack in the stones had fooled me – so I turned and quickly headed back the way I’d come. The weight of the rock was forcing me down. I stopped, put my feet on the floor and used them to push myself up, then straightened out and resumed swimming.

I searched in vain for another glimpse of border wall but the next two turnings both led to other corridors, not the wall. My oxygen was running out. It was getting harder and harder to move my arms and legs.

The next turn didn’t lead to border wall either, but I had no time to swim ahead and look for another turning. Summoning all of my energy, I swam down the short corridor and took the right turn at the end. That led to another short corridor. As I started down it, the rock slipped off my belly, scratching me as it fell. I yelped without thinking. Water rushed in and air rushed out.

Coughing, I struck for the ceiling to draw more air, but when I reached it, I found the water had beaten me to the punch — there was no more air to be had!

I trod water, silently cursing the fates and vampire gods. This was the end. I’d given it my best shot but it wasn’t to be. The best thing now would be to open my mouth, gulp in water and make as quick a finish of it as I could. I would have, too, except this corridor wasn’t well lit, and I didn’t like the idea of dying in darkness. So, painfully, I dived again to the floor, gathered the rock, turned over on to my back, placed the rock on my belly, and swam ahead to find somewhere brighter to die.