He was debating whether to walk around the tower, to look for another entrance, when a slit in the door suddenly slid back, making him flinch. He was caught off guard to see, staring back at him at eye level, two yellow, piercing eyes, as inhuman eyes as he had ever seen, staring right through his soul. It instilled a chill in him.

Merk stared back, not knowing what to say in the tense silence.

“What is it that you wish here?” the voice finally came, a deep, hollow voice which set him on edge.

At first, Merk did not know how to respond. Finally, he replied:

“I wish to enter. I wish to become a Watcher. To serve Escalon.”

The eyes stared back, unflinching, expressionless, and Merk thought the creature would never respond. Finally, though, a response came, its voice rumbling:

“Only the worthy may enter here,” it replied.

Merk reddened.

“And what makes you think I’m unworthy?” he demanded.

“In what way can you prove that you are?”

The slit slid shut as quickly as it had opened, and with that, the doors were completely sealed again.

Merk stared back in the silence, baffled. He reached up with his dagger hilt and slammed the door again and again. The hollow sound echoed, ringing in his ears, filling the desolate countryside.

But no matter how long and how hard he banged, the slit did not open again.

“Let me in!” Merk shrieked, a cry filled with despair, rising to the heavens, as he leaned back in agony and realized that those doors might not ever, ever open again

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Duncan braced himself as the enormous red shark—thirty feet long—leapt out of the river and came down, jaws wide open, right for him. He knew that in a moment it would land in his boat, smashing it to pieces and tearing him apart. Worse, all around him a school of these sharks leapt through the air, aiming for his men and their rafts on all sides.

Duncan reacted instinctively, as he always did in battle. He drew his sword and prepared to meet his foe head on. He would die with nobility, and if he could distract this creature, have it focus only on him, then he might be able to save the other men on his raft.

“JUMP!” Duncan commanded his other men in his fiercest voice. The other soldiers on his raft did as he commanded, leaping overboard, none needing any prodding as the massive shark came their way.