Hidden Valley

Will has become obsessed with bitter memories of his parents, dead at Xax's hands. Despite Kalem's warning that he must concentrate on his Quest, Will can not leave aside fruitless thoughts of revenge. Kreel has a new plan for subjugating Kale. He is beginning to form a Youth Brigade - "education" the children of the carious regions and villages to form a spy network. One of these is Lucien, a boy of around Vara's age, whose home - the Hidden Valley - is knows to Will of old. The valley can only be reached through a narrow gorge, over which hangs a vast rock known as the Sentinel. Legend has it that the Sentinel protects the valley; whoever moves it will die. Will believes the Hidden Valley will prove a safe heaven for his exhausted group - but in there people are strangely altered. Leon discovers Kreel has contaminated the water supply with the powerful hypnotic substance - the "waking sleep" - and in so doing has created a class of willing slaves. He can brew an antidote, but he feels that there is no time for this - amongst such zombies they are all in great danger, and should move on immediately. Will feels a loyalty to the villagers who treated him so kindly as a child, and insists they be save - but Xax, drawn physically to Will by the strength of his rage, is already on his way to the valley, with a phalanx of Warriors behind. At Will's insistence, the antidote is brewed and administered, and the villagers come to their sensed in time to defend their home. Aruna and Leon push the Sentinel from its resting place and close the only entrance to the Valley in front of Xax and his troops. Lucien, shocked by the role he has played in the subjugation of his people, abandons his role of spy. The Youth Brigade is dissolved. In the rock slide caused by the Sentinel's fall, Will has been grievously wounded. It was his idea to move the stone, and he must die. Kalem appears to the band and tells them that in order for Will to survive, they must forgive him for allowing his own passions to lead them into such danger. They agree. Will is restored in time to help the villagers escape from Xax. Will learns his lesson: bitter thoughts of the past will blur his judgment, and compromise the Quest for the Crystal Arrow.