64. Castle of Shadows

"Well, I don't know what I expected, but this is definitely not it." Citar grunted as he put his hands on his hips and measured the building by tilting his head left and right.

"Yes! And now what?" Achilleus also joined.

"We're going in, aren't we?" Benkó's voice was heard.

"But where?" Suk grabbed his chin.

"At the gate where you enter a palace." Razvan smiled. "Let's go." The leader of the team started, but as soon as he reached the gate, as if he had appeared out of nowhere, a figure dressed up to his chin in weapons appeared.

"What do you want?!" He snapped at the boys in a deep vibrating voice.

"We want to ask the daimon king for help." Razvan said calmly, but the creature just looked at them suspiciously.

"One person must stay out." Came the harsh answer, and the team looked at each other, and Razvan sighed with a grimace.

"It still hasn't changed." He shook his head.

"What hasn't changed?" Rahul narrowed his eyes.

"They say that the palace..." The boy nodded towards the building. "It has five gates, someone must stay outside at each door. Thus, whoever wants to go to the daimon king must go with six others. I guess that's why almost no one among the average ghosts saw him." He scratched his neck.

"But who should stay out?" Citar swallowed.

"Well, Teveli is excluded, he has to go in the most. Apart from him, there are eight of us together with grandpa. Based on the numbers, we should easily get in." Benkó thought aloud.

"Let's draw lots." Achilleus offered as he began rummaging in his small bag and then took out a handful of sticks. "Whoever pulls the smallest one stays out." He smiled, but it seemed that his smile was not sincere. "Tev, can you hold it so that we can all draw?" He asked the question and when the boy nodded he handed him the sticks. Each member of the team pulled out a stick one by one, then opened their palms and began to measure the sticks together.

"What?" Citar asked surprised when he saw who the shortest stick belonged to.

"I guess I'm out of luck today." Razvan sighed. "Go inside, I don't think you can go the wrong way." He put his hands on his hips. "I'll wait for you here." He said defiantly.

"But..." Teveli began.

"No buts! Let's not waste our time. Tev's life is at stake! Head in, that's a command!" He raised his voice a little, which made the team members flinch. "Don't worry, Etele will protect you." He said before the guard opened the door and ushered the team in.

"You stay out." The guard looked seriously at the boy in red.

"I know." Razvan nodded. "Maybe I'll look around the market until then. It's been a long time since I seen it." He thought as he looked towards the unloaders.

And the other members of the Athamana nervously moved further and further away from the entrance in a straight corridor. Soon they were in front of another door, but they didn't have time to decide which of them should stay outside. The guard here simply pointed at Wandi and said 'That boy stays out here!'. And so the team moves on without another person, down the seemingly never-ending corridor.

At the next gate, now carved from white wood, the team decided who would stay out with a game of pebbles, rags, and blades. It's true that Rahul had no idea what this game was until the hegins shown him the hand gestures that replaced the objects, when the chüvigh boy hit himself in the head and remarked 'Oh, rock, paper, scissors! That I know what is!' Thanks to the game, fate at this gate decided that Achilleus would stay out.

"Should we do a counting-out rhyme?" Benkó asked with a big sigh in front of the next gate. In the meantime, he put his hands on his hips, because he was starting to get really tired of these damn gates. "There are four of us, it's easy." He said, but he made a face like someone who has eaten something horrible and is trying hard not to let his mother see that he would rather throw up the food.

"I'll count." Etele offered, then took a deep breath and began the rhyme. "One bone, two bones, three, and four.

Brother Táltos, where are you go?

I curse grass, I curse trees,

In clear water the future I see.

You and me. Me and you.

Get out on the field!" He pointed at each of them again and again, and at the end of the rhyme, his hand stopped at Benkó.

"What rhyme is this?" The boy frowned and blinked hugely. As a matter of fact, he was not the only one who looked strangely at Rahul's ghost relative because of his strange rhyme, but he was the only one who dared to voice his incomprehension.

"I learned this as a child!" Etele stuck out his tongue. "If you don't like it, say something else." He put his hands on his hips and even pulled up his nose, which made his face so humorous that the boys all giggled.

"This also served it's purpose." The child pushed out the answer with great difficulty, so in the end the rest of the team went on without Benkó to the next gate, where the guard pointed to Citar and announced that 'The youngest will stay outside'. So only four people entered the room where green lights were floating around, on the far side of it was a platform with a blue flower curtain in front of them. The flowers were the same as those that grew everywhere outside, but here they fell like a light curtain in front of the figure sitting on the platform, only the bottom of his green dress was visible from under the sea of flowers. Transparents floated around everywhere, silent and unconcerned with the strangers. And on the steps of the platform a male figure was sitting on the left side...



"Fragrant ass-face! You here?!" Etele asked shocked.

"What?!" The Athamanas looked in shock at the man dressed in black, whose hair was pinned with orchids, and at Etele with their mouths open.

"General Orchidea." Etele rolled his eyes, as if this was the most natural thing and he didn't understand why the children were surprised.

"Who?" Suk snarled and asked the question that crossed the minds of every Athamana present.

"Don't they tell you stories? Why do you think everyone is afraid of a certain táltos of Athira's troops?" The ghost pointed at himself with both hands.

"They were afraid of me, not of you, Svihák!" The daimon spoke seriously and put his hand on his raised knee.

"Oh, Octavian! Did you have to now?" Etele whined and even slapped his hands on his hips, like an offended child who was caught lying about finding a real pearl instead of a pebble. Completely forgetting that he should hold back now, because he is not just anywhere, but in front of the great daimon king.

"Ok... What?" Now Rahul blinked.

"That'll be enough." A pleasantly ringing male voice suddenly filled the room. "It's rare that so many people get to me. My dear guests, how can Qing Xinxi, the daimon king, be at your service?" The owner of the voice asked the question from behind the flower curtain.

"We... Um..." Suk started, but the word immediately stuck in him when he felt Teveli move next to him. "Tev!" He turned nervously towards his friend, whose eyes widened at this very moment and collapsed into the arms of the Zovárd boy.