it, clear side facing Maisey. For a second it seemed to have little effect then with a jolt she asked, ‘What happened?’
‘You might say that your past thoughts and fears caught up with you. I used the mirror to stop them from dragging you down. See, they’re gone.’ Looking around the room which was now empty, she saw that he was right. ‘Nothing more than sinister shadows created in despair,’ said Noil. ‘These rooms have held your fears, either imagined or real and you have to pass through them to rid them from your life. Remember your goal? To find the Rock.’
‘He passed the mirror back to Maisey and settled back into her pocket with a sigh of relief.
Following the path the doctor had taken, they continued their journey though now the trail had reverted to a tunnellike passage that wound ever steeper. With barely enough light to see, the dampness was replaced by humidity that made progress difficult.
‘Let’s rest,’ said Maisey.
‘I’ve been here before and it’s not a good place to stop. Soon we should come out into a cavern that is cool. It’s not much further,’ said Noil.
Tiredness dragged heavily on Maisey but Noil urged her on. He leapt down from her pocket and rushed ahead, urging her on faster but she felt helpless to comply. Her legs grew heavier and her mood was confusing. She felt herself sink into a lethargy that was all consuming, its roots based around Noil’s seeming lack of sympathy to what she was going through. As he ran ahead then back, she felt an overwhelming irritation and self-pity until she could contain it no longer and stopped to lean against the rock wall.
‘I’m too tired!’ she snapped. ‘I don’t care. I’m gonna rest and that’s that!’
To her surprise though, Noil merely shook his head in disgust. ‘You do, but I’m going on ahead.’ With that, he turned and hurried off around a bend in the tunnel, leaving Maisey alone with her thoughts.
How dare he? Doesn’t he realise what I’ve been through?
She couldn’t understand his attitude and gave up trying, turning her thoughts to all the worry that she had gone through over her mother’s illness.
After a time Maisey couldn’t hear the echo of Noil’s steps any longer and she rose and decided to move on. She’d shown him that she wasn’t to be pushed around and now she hoped that he would stop it. She looked about her with a little caution as she rounded the bend, remembering Noil’s agitation, but here it was beautiful.
To her right was the continuing tunnel and to the left a light-filled illuminated path that gave promise of the rest spot that Noil had spoken of, so here she paused. Vines grew down the wall to the side of it, beneath which was written something. Maisey cleared away the crawling moss and other offshoots to read ‘Ms Dé’.
Upon entering this passage Maisey felt her feet cushioned by something. In fact the entire tunnel was encased in silken threads, woven expertly around to form a beautiful archway and as she progressed further in, she felt safe and secure. She could see that ahead was a room and as she approached it a shrill voice called to her.
‘Come in my dear. I’ve been expecting you.’
The speaker was a little sweet-faced woman with jet black hair flecked here and there with grey. She sat spinning slowly and contentedly pausing now to beckon the girl to enter and be seated beside her.
Entranced, Maisey moved to her side. ‘What are you doing?’ she asked.
‘Spinning,’ came the reply. ‘Sit down and tell me all about yourself.’
Maisey did as she was told but a part of her wondered at her own meekness, her willingness to comply. Yet as she sunk down into the silken folds of a white beanbag, another part of her felt compelled to unburden herself. She began. The lady said little, content to listen, occasionally nodding while her fingers worked expertly over the thread. Maisey’s eyes rested on the wheel and the whirring had a hypnotic effect on her as she poured out her fears. It was a relief to tell someone, someone who was sympathetic, and she felt herself slipping further into the soft silk that now rose all around her.
With a start Maisey opened her eyes and wondered where she was. She was lying down encased in something and a great feeling of claustrophobia washed over her. Slowly she remembered Ms Dé and their conversation, the spinning wheel and now this!
Panic seized her as she struggled to free her arms from the tight folds of silken thread that cocooned her. Wriggling around she finally managed to free one arm. She used it to pull herself up and around to where she could see the lady herself, still spinning much farther away down a narrow tunnel of silk. Terror threatened to overcome her as she grappled with her bonds but she could barely move them and she felt that if the old lady kept spinning, she would suffocate.
Stay calm. Remember your gifts. It was Rendal’s voice as he guided her but as she thought of the gifts she had she knew that the only one she could reach was the mirror, so now she used her free hand to pull it awkwardly out of her pocket. She stared long and hard at her reflection but nothing changed. She moved it around to reflect the light from the opening ahead. And then she saw it. What could only have come from her worst nightmare. She had to stop herself from crying out. To cry out would have been to startle the insect. What she had recognised as the lady now appeared through the mirror as a huge black spider, the bulbous black sheen of the lower body pumping out silken web while the long hairy legs wove them into a pod that would soon encase her. Maisey tore her gaze away in shock, unwilling to lay eyes on what was one of her worst fears; spiders. But one this large was more than she could comprehend and she felt that she may faint from terror.
Look again! came Rendal’s voice but the girl thought that if she did, she would surely pass out or scream. You must confront this, he continued you must look past the terror and see the truth for once.
Slowly she calmed herself and when she again felt able, held the mirror up with a trembling hand to gaze upon the spider. A shudder ran through her but she heard his voice. Look past the fear.
And she did. For as she let her eyes travel past the weaving hulk down to where the thread pumped out, its silk spun and turned and glistened wetly. With the rhythm, Maisey’s attention was absorbed and her own bitter words played back at her. Within their echo she felt and saw that most of it was illusion for in fact, most of her fears had not materialised. Just illusive lies she had woven in her mind to encase and entrap her in self pity.
With that realisation she found herself standing back outside the den. She wanted only to run but something made her wipe away the rest of the vines that sat around the nameplate and she saw what she had missed on her arrival: Ms Dé Lusion.
With new haste she made her way along the right-hand tunnel to find Noil. Rounding the bend she looked about her in delight. Before her was a cavern out of which leapt a cool spring that bubbled into a small pond. A shaft in the cavern’s ceiling let in a single beam of sunlight. Noil leapt up from a flat rock and plunged headfirst into the pool. Maisey waited for him to come up for air. Finally he bobbed up. ‘Come on chicken,’ he called while swimming backstroke around the fountain. She smiled at him. The less said about her stupidity the better. Besides, the smile he returned her, spoke volumes about the extent of his understanding. Somehow he knew what she had been through and was big enough not to chide her.
She stepped sedately down into the water while Noil jeered at her timidity.
‘I don’t want to make a wave
