By the time they reached the oasis with its impressive internal lake and its crystal clear water, the minotaurs were already inside. Rachel had to calm her nerves. She still felt jumpy despite Candervas' repeated reassurance that they were no longer in danger.
'How did they get in?' she said. 'I thought you said this place was secure.'
'It is secure. Only those with the required artefacts can enter.'
Rachel regarded the minotaurs with a mixture of awe and dread. There was no doubting their impressive physical presence but she didn't know how much she should trust them. Her memories were fragmented, hand-me down glimpses from a thousand other lives.
'King Kuerolong Longhorn,' Candervas said in a loud, formal tone. 'To what do we owe this pleasure?'
Kuerolong leapt several metres, landing with a thud on a rock nearby. Rachel took a step back, trying not to look as startled as she felt. He was even bigger close up. She couldn't help staring at his thick black fur and rippling muscles. His broad chest was wider than any man's could ever be and his arms were thicker than her thighs.
'Lord Candervas,' Kuerolong said in a deep, gravelly voice. 'We were hoping you would be here.'
'And here I am.'
Druro ambled up an inclined path until he was standing beside Kuerolong with a blank expression. He looked like a doll beside the minotaur's hulking form, but the old man seemed more comfortable than he had back in the towers. There was a solid look about him as though he had been cast from granite, and the look in his eyes told her she had been right all along. There was something odd about Druro.
'Where's my daughter?' she said.
'She was last seen at Los Verion, but you should call me Ranno here.'
'Ranno?'
'It's my true name.'
Rachel frowned, wondering what he was talking about. She didn't much care what he wanted to be called. Was he having some kind of mid-life crisis? He was a little old for that. She just wanted to find her daughter and hold her in her arms.
'Is she okay?' she said.
'She's in good health - as far as I know.'
'As far as you know? She took you with her when she left the towers. You should be with her now? Why did you leave her?'
Rachel stepped forwards, grabbing Ranno by his close-fitting jacket. It was difficult to get a grip on it. The material was so smooth like a second skin. She couldn't find any seams or collars. After a couple of attempts, she gave up and shoved him in the chest instead.
'Calm yourself,' Candervas said behind her. 'He will answer your questions, all in good time.'
'Why didn't you stop her?'
'Would you be stopped if you got something into your mind?'
'That's not the point.'
'Your daughter would have come to the Blasted Lands with or without me.'
Rachel pushed him away from her. He was just a stupid old man, even if she knew in her heart that what he was saying was true. Lisa had a stubborn streak as wide as her own. There was nothing he could have done to stop her leaving the Orange Zone, but that didn't make her feel any better about it.
'Calm yourself,' Candervas said again. 'Your anger is misplaced.'
Kuerolong laughed beside her, his deep booming voice carrying far across the oasis. Rachel didn't know what he was laughing about, and she didn't much care. She just wanted to find Lisa. She would shake Ranno by the ears if she thought it might help find her.
Ranno stared back with a blank expression. Rachel glared back at him. She wasn't happy about it.
'This is Kuerolong Longhorn, King of the minotaurs,' Ranno said, gesturing to the imposing figure beside him.
Kuerolong had stopped laughing now. His big black eyes stared down at her with more than a little understanding. A short wet, snout dominated his huge bull's head, sniffing the air around him.
'Your daughter has caused much trouble,' he said in a deep, booming voice. 'She'll bring war upon us all.'
Rachel folded her arms beneath her breasts. 'I think you'll find the lords are more than capable of bringing war upon themselves. They don't need help from me or my daughter to destroy everything around them.'
'Who is your daughter?' Candervas said with curiosity sparkling in his eyes.
Rachel didn't answer but Ranno answered in her stead. 'She's a sky lord. She challenged Malkor with a mind song.'
Candervas stared at Rachel, his mouth hanging open as his lower lip quivered. 'Is this true? Is this the friend you sought?'
'It's true,' Rachel said. 'She meant no harm by it. She was undergoing the quickening. The song was more of an expression of growing pains than an actual challenge. She doesn't know anything about the war lords. She doesn't realise how much danger she's in.'
Candervas nodded. 'To challenge Lord Malkor is to bring ruin on us all.'
'It's not her fault! Blame Malkor if he you must find somebody to blame. He's the one who ruined this land.'
'I wasn't blaming anyone.'
Rachel stared at the surreal beauty all around her. A tall waterfall poured down into the clear crystal waters of the lake, creating a cloud of mist around it. It smelt like a forest even though they were still inside the Ark.
'Are you okay?' Candervas said.
Rachel nodded. 'It seems like you all know each other. Am I the only stranger here?'
Candervas nodded. 'We've shared this world for a long time.'
'I'll bet you have. Tell me about Los Verion. What is it?'
Ranno turned to face her with unblinking eyes. He didn't seem to be offended by the way she had treated him. 'They call it the forgotten city,' he said. 'It lies to the north of here.'
'There are cities in the Blasted Lands? I thought everyone was dead?'
'Of course, there are cities. There are many. Most were destroyed during the Iridium Wars, laid to ruin and decay after hundreds of years of neglect. Some are dead cities, uninhabited by man. Others have sparse populations made up of people who gathered for safety after the war.
'We have to find my daughter. We have to help her.'
'We will,' Ranno said, 'but there are other problems that we must deal with first.'
'What do you mean?'
Ranno gestured to Kuerolong. 'The minotaurs have been watching Malkor for centuries. He's always been a malevolent presence in this land, but he's been relatively quiet since he killed those who stood openly against him during the Iridium Wars. He's never at peace, but we enjoyed a peace of a kind. It was a time when people could live in the shadows, free from persecution so long as they stayed out of sight. Everything changed when Lisa sang that song. She's a sky lord. They have a significant history in this land.'
'She's my daughter,' Rachel said.
Candervas muttered something under his breath, his thin grey hair lying flat against his head. 'Can there really be another sky lord - after all this time?'
Ranno glanced towards him, his thin arms hanging loose by his sides. 'It's like a challenge to Malkor. Lisa's song was a slap in the face, undermining his dominance throughout the land. Everyone heard it. He can't allow her to live after the way she openly provoked him.'
'What are you saying?! Who's side are you on?'
'He'll try to kill her. You know he will.'
Rachel shuddered, the hairs standing upright on the back of her neck. She felt so helpless. 'We have to go to her now.'
'Malkor's building an army,' Ranno said.
'I don't care about that.'
'He hopes to wipe the domed city off the face of Megarothia once and for all.'
'The domed city?'
'The Orange Zone and Cinnamon City.'
Rachel shook her head. 'Don't say that. You're just trying to confuse me. You can't know what he has in mind.'
'The minotaurs know. They've been watching him for centuries. The domed city has been a thorn in his side ever since Lord Hades created it. It's part of the land that he can't control - a safe haven for those inside.'
'What can he do about it, after all this time?'
'We don't know,' Ranno said, 'but he's building an army to destroy it. Of that we are sure.'
Rachel shook her head, turning to look at Candervas who was still standing behind her. 'The clerics,' she said. 'Is that where they were going?'
Candervas shrugged. 'Perhaps.'
'How many?' Kuerolong said.
Rachel swallowed as a lump formed in her throat. 'More than I've ever seen before. Thousands of them. It took an hour for them to pass the Ark - and they were running, driven by the crenolites.' Even the mention of them made a shudder run down her spine.
Kuerolong threw back his head and snorted loudly. Rachel didn't know that it meant, but he didn't seem very happy about it.
'It's too many,' he said, finally.
Rachel thought she saw a red glow in the back of Ranno's eyes, but when she looked again it was gone. Perhaps she had imagined it?
'Can you stop them?' Ranno said to the King.
Kuerolong stood in silence for a long time, his wide hooves crunching on the ground as he shifted his immense weight from side to side. 'I'll speak to my cousin in the south, but there are too many of them, and too few minotaurs left in this land.'
'Maybe he can delay them,' Ranno said with a sad look in his eyes. 'Maybe he can buy us some time.'
Rachel held onto her frustration. She knew they were only trying to help, but they spoke of nothing but the dangers to the Orange Zone, without any mention of her daughter. She cared deeply about the people of Cinnamon City, but they were safe inside the Dome Shield. Her daughter didn't have any such protection. She was alone in the Blasted Lands, being hunted by war lords.
'What's your part in all this?' she said, turning to Ranno.
'He's a guardian,' Candervas said from behind her, as though that was the only explanation required.
Rachel frowned in his direction, unsure of what he was talking about.
'My name is Ranno Hon-Erran,' Ranno said. 'I was Lord Hades' bodyguard during the Iridium Wars.'
Rachel rubbed her arms feeling suddenly unsure of herself. There had always been something strange about him, but now he had changed his name and he was making bold claims that made little sense to her. If they had been speaking alone she might have doubted him, but neither Candervas not Kuerolong seemed surprised by what he was saying. Wouldn't they speak up if they thought that he was lying?
Ranno was a puzzle to untangle at another time. For now she was all too aware of the peril that her daughter was facing. She had to focus before it was too late.
'Why are you here?' she said, glancing back and forth between Ranno and Kuerolong.
It was Ranno who answered. 'We're heading to The Ice Cathedral. That's where your daughter was last heading.'
'I thought you said she was at Los Verion?'
'She was but now she's moved on.'
'You never told me why you left her. You should be with her even now.'
'We were attacked by a small party of clerics. I lead them away so Lisa could escape. I doubled back, trying to find her, but she took flight and I lost her. I went to the minotaurs because I knew they could help me find her - if they so chose.'
Rachel gazed into Kuerolong's big black eyes. They were hypnotising and unblinking, full of the secrets of the land. She couldn't imagine how anyone could fight a minotaur and survive. Even without their fierce-looking halberds, they looked like a force to be reckoned with. She was just glad that they were on her side.
'How far is it to this Ice Cathedral?' she said. 'I'm coming with you.'
Ranno nodded as though he had expected nothing else. 'It's a few days from here if we travel fast. We should restock our supplies and get out of here.'