Quest for the Sun Gem

by Belinda Murrell

  On the fifth day, as their food supplies dwindled, Ethan slipped off at dusk with his bow and arrows to track rabbits. Lily and Roana hated seeing the small lifeless bodies he carried back, but they were so hungry they knew it was necessary. Ethan skinned and prepared his catches expertly out of sight of the camp.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Ethan assured them. ‘I only brought back what we can eat in the next couple of days. These will make a fantastic stew with a few herbs thrown in.’

  They kept their direction by keeping the rising sun to their back in the morning and the setting sun in front of them after noon. On the ninth day, they noticed that it was harder to avoid the villages. On the eleventh day, they passed a marker stone pointing to Tira.

  ‘We should reach Tira tomorrow,’ cried Roana, her eyes shining with suppressed excitement.

  A rabbit bounded across the road in front of them, a streak of grey fur, with its white tail bobbing. Aisha was off in a flash, chasing the rabbit into the undergrowth.

  ‘There goes Aisha!’ laughed Ethan. ‘We won’t see her for a while.’

  The four rode on, chatting companionably.

  ‘What’s Tira like?’ asked Lily.

  ‘Oh, it is truly beautiful,’ began Roana enthusiastically. ‘The sight of the sun setting behind the white spires of Tira is one of the loveliest views in Tiregian.’

  ‘Heading for Tira, are we, laddie?’ growled a deep voice menacingly. Two large men with thick, wild beards, dressed in rough patched clothes, stepped out from behind the bushes. One lunged out and grabbed Ethan’s reins, while the other grabbed Lily menacingly by the arm, almost dragging her from the saddle.

  Ethan reached instinctively for his bow, slung across his shoulders, but the ferocious look on the bandits’ faces and the sudden glint of steel knives stopped him immediately.

  ‘Wise move, laddie. You don’t want me to hurt lassie ’ere, do you?’ growled the bandit, holding his knife threateningly to Lily’s throat.

  Ethan shook his head slowly, his head whirring. He berated himself for being so careless, so unprepared. What was the good of having his bow when it was too late to use it?

  The bandits laughed in triumph. It was really too easy.

  ‘Well, I don’t think the kiddies will be seeing Tira tomorrow, do you, Duglass? It’s a long way on foot from ’ere, laddie, and that’s the only way you’ll be reaching it now. Looks like you young ’uns have been helping yourselves to your master’s stables. These ’orses are far too good for the likes of you.’

  ‘Oi, look, Ross. This young lad ’ere’s even riding a foine lady’s sidesaddle,’ Duglass cried. They both guffawed loudly at this joke, Ross spraying Lily with spittle.

  ‘Now, you laddies, jump down from those ’orses cos you really don’t want us to ’urt the pretty little lass, do you?’ Duglass said menacingly.

  Lily glanced at Ethan, her face white and drawn. She turned to the highwaymen, tucking her little kitten protectively inside her pocket.

  ‘Oh please – don’t hurt me, sir,’ Lily squealed piteously. ‘Of course you can have the horses, we won’t cause any trouble, will we, boys?’ She turned pleadingly to the others.

  ‘Yes, take the horses,’ agreed Ethan quickly, raising his hands in a gesture of submission.

  Roana glanced in derision from Lily cowering on Nutmeg to Ethan preparing to dismount from Toffee. She opened her mouth to protest vehemently but a warning glance from Ethan silenced her. She nodded curtly. Her fingers itched to find her own silver hunting bow and arrows stowed on the right of her saddle.

  ‘Come on then, down you come, my luvly,’ growled Ross to Lily, releasing her wrist. Lily crouched over the saddle, apparently overcome with panic. She fumbled quickly in her saddle pack.

  Then with a sudden lunge, Lily swooped up and threw a jar of pinkish liquid into the bandit’s face. She had surreptitiously removed it from her saddle bag while she was hunched over.

  Ross’s reaction was extraordinary. He started screaming and scrabbled at his eyes, frantically wiping away the liquid streaming from his eyes, nose and mouth. Staggering back and forth as if completely blinded, he made no attempt to recapture Lily.

  The other bandit was distracted by the sudden commotion and twisted to see what was happening. In one continuous graceful movement, Ethan whipped his bow off his shoulder, pulled an arrow from his quiver, nocked the arrow, and fired. The arrow pinged through the air and buried itself in Duglass’s right shoulder.

  Duglass screamed in agony and dropped his knife, his arm temporarily useless. He turned to defend himself, trying to scoop up the knife with his left hand. His face was totally disbelieving. Duglass had expected the children to be a meek and easy target. Ethan kicked his heels into Toffee’s sides, causing her to lunge and prance.

  Ethan nocked another arrow, aiming carefully at the bandit but not firing. Duglass hurriedly dropped the knife again.

  Lily gave a piercing whistle that reverberated around the clearing. Moments later a streak of red-gold lightning came hurtling through the forest.

  ‘Attack, Aisha!’ screamed Ethan. Aisha obligingly leapt into the fray, dodging the prancing hooves of frightened horses. She jumped up at Duglass and sank her teeth into his left arm, shaking him like a sack and all the while growling ferociously.

  The bandit howled in pain and confusion. Ross ran to his aid, his red eyes still streaming with tears, trying to grab Toffee’s reins and beat off the ferocious dog. Saxon pulled out a stout cudgel he had tied to his pack and thwacked that down across Ross’s shoulders, causing him to stagger and fall, knocking over his accomplice. Aisha was on top of both of them in a flash, growling and nipping.

  The two bandits screamed for mercy.

  ‘Call off your mongrel, it’s gonna kill us,’ screamed Duglass.

  ‘Come on, let’s go,’ yelled Ethan, kicking Toffee into a gallop. The others followed quickly, kicking up clods of mud over the unfortunate highwaymen. The two men’s screams followed them down the forest track. Lily turned to see Aisha still biting and shaking the robbers like rats. She gave a shrill whistle.

  Aisha looked up with ears pricked and started padding after the horses. She paused reluctantly and looked back longingly at Ross and Duglass as if keen to take just one more bite of the attackers. The bandits cowered into each other in terror.

  ‘Come on, Aisha!’ Lily roared. Aisha obeyed immediately and bounded down the track, tongue lolling out in delight.

  Ethan paused and turned in the saddle. ‘Sorry, me laddies, but we’ve changed our minds about the luvly ’orses, it’s a bit far to walk to Tira,’ he shouted in a very polite voice, imitating perfectly the rough accents of his attackers. ‘Surely you’ll understand. Have a luvly day, now, won’t you?’

  The two highwaymen cursed loudly, scowling after the escaping horses as they rubbed their wounds. Their easy prey had just made complete fools of them.

  The four children laughed in relieved, nervous excitement. They all waved cheekily at the disconsolate highwaymen, as they galloped out of the clearing.

  When they were far enough away from the ambush, Ethan slowed down to stow his bow safely over his shoulder again.

  ‘So Lily, what was that you threw at the highwayman?’ Saxon asked Lily curiously.

  ‘Well, it was a little potion I brewed up at Saira’s house,’ Lily laughed. ‘I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I steeped some red chillies and peppers in alcohol. Chillies can really burn, especially eyes! But he should be all right – eventually!’

  The others laughed appreciatively. Roana looked at Lily with new respect.

  ‘That was clever,’ she murmured.

  Lily smiled.

  ‘Thanks,’ she replied.

  The next morning dawned grey and drizzling. Everything was wet – the packs, the saddles, the supplies. Ethan unstrung the bows and stowed the flax bowstrings inside his clothes to try to keep them dry.

  Animals and children all huddled together trying to keep warm, as they ate a
sparing breakfast of soggy oat and fruit biscuits. The kitten, Charcoal, wriggled deep under Lily’s cloak trying to stay dry. Aisha stared mournfully up at Lily, her eyebrows raised beseechingly – she hated the rain.

  ‘Nothing for it, Aisha, but to hit the road,’ Lily murmured sympathetically. ‘Let’s find those caverns under Tira – at least they should be dry!’

  Hoods up and cloaks wrapped tightly around them, they saddled up and rode on miserably. Mud splashed up from the track. Water dripped from the trees and branches, trickling down everyone’s necks and backs.

  For a few hours they rode on in silence. There was no cheerful whistling or singing today. Even Aisha had lost her usual zest for smells and trails, plodding along miserably in the mud, her tail between her legs. They left the forest for the open plains, where the rain was heavier and they were completely unprotected.

  Roana pointed out a blur in the distance. ‘There it is,’ she exclaimed in excitement. ‘Tira!’

  Through the drizzly mists of the plain, the white spires of Tira could be seen, soaring into the grey sullen sky.

  ‘No gorgeous sunset today, Roana,’ remarked Lily, huddled into her cloak.

  ‘All right, now remember – if we are stopped we are simply villagers hoping to find work in Tira,’ Ethan reminded them. ‘Where should we be heading, Roana?’

  ‘Tira is built on an island,’ Roana explained. ‘Sheer cliffs rise straight from the sea, soaring high into the air. The River Bryn gushes down a chasm on either side of the island. There are three bridges built across the chasm – one to the north, east and west. The gates are locked at dusk, and opened at dawn.

  ‘The bridges are always heavily guarded and I imagine the Sedahs will have them guarded too. We are approaching from the east. The entrance to the cavern is at the base of the cliffs on the southeastern side, near where the river meets the sea. We need to approach Tira unseen, climb down the sheer cliffs, cross the River Bryn, then find the entrance on the other side.’

  The others breathed deeply, absorbing all this information.

  ‘We also need to find somewhere to hide the horses and their saddles safely,’ Lily added. ‘We don’t know how long we will be so we need somewhere with plenty of food and water.’

  ‘And somewhere where they hopefully won’t be stolen, so we can find them when we come back,’ Saxon said.

  ‘Right,’ Ethan agreed. ‘So horses first. Any ideas, Roana?’

  Roana thought quietly for a few minutes, her brow furrowed in concentration.

  ‘It is not ideal but I cannot think of anything better. There is a small wood quite close by, with a little stream that runs through it. I often ride there in the mornings. There is a clearing by the stream that should have plenty of grass for the horses, at least for a couple of days. The horses could be hobbled and perhaps we could hide the saddles somewhere protected.’

  ‘Well, I guess that will have to do,’ agreed Ethan.

  So the horses were carefully hobbled and the saddles and tack stowed under a fallen log. Hoisting their packs, bows and quivers on their backs, they set off on foot through the interminable rain.

  The approach to the city of Tira was uncomfortable, wet and painstakingly slow. To avoid detection from the city walls they had to climb down to the sea quite some way from the city and climb around the base of the cliffs. The rocks were slick with spray and often crumbling away, so it was a dangerous and exhausting scramble, up, down, over, round and down again.

  Aisha had to be hauled and pushed up a couple of steep scrambles.

  The sea was dark grey, whipped into white crests by the wind. Low black clouds scudded across the horizon. Down on the beach, their feet sank into the deep soft sand, making their breath pant with the exertion. Piles of shaggy brown seaweed lay along the tide line, smelling pungently of brine. Small shells crunched under their feet. Stinging sand whipped their faces. Aisha went crazy, snapping at the waves and bounding through the water with high, springy leaps.

  ‘Look,’ cried Lily, pointing past the breaking surf.

  A triangular grey fin surged through the water. The fin disappeared, then a sleek grey body leapt from the water, falling back with a splash.

  ‘A dolphin,’ called Ethan.

  ‘I feel that’s a lucky omen,’ Lily smiled. ‘Dolphins must definitely be our lucky animals now.’

  ‘Good – we need all the luck we can get,’ replied Saxon brusquely.

  The dolphin swam along beside them a few metres offshore, until they reached the cliffs at the mouth of the river. Then it caught a wave in towards the shore, flicking off just as the waves crashed towards the beach. It leapt out of the water and was gone.

  The children watched it disappear, then turned to face the churning surge of river water roaring down to meet the sea.

  ‘The River Bryn,’ said Roana.

  The others could hardly hear her over the relentless noise of water crashing, thundering and pounding on cliffs, rocks and sand.

  As they rounded the base of the cliffs coming into the river chasm they had to climb high up the cliff face to avoid the water. By this time it was nearly dusk, yet even in the falling light they could all see how wild, powerful, wide and dangerous was the chasm they still had to cross.

  The wind on the cliff howled around them, threatening to toss them all into the sea.

  ‘At least in this weather no-one is likely to see or hear us,’ joked Lily, her teeth chattering with cold and nerves.

  ‘How on earth are we to cross this chasm?’ asked Roana. ‘We’ll never be able to swim it. We’d be swept out to sea and drowned in a moment!’

  ‘No, we probably couldn’t swim it – but perhaps Sax could,’ Ethan replied. ‘Sax can swim like a fish. If we tied a rope around your waist, Sax, we could haul you in if you get swept away. If you make it across the river without trouble you can tie the rope to something sturdy on the other side and we can climb across.’

  Saxon agreed that it was worth a try. He stripped off to his underclothes, shivering in the wet, cold wind. He tied one end of the rope securely around an old tree trunk and the other end around his waist, using his newly acquired fishermen’s knots.

  Ethan, Lily and Roana took the slack of the rope, ready to let it out slowly around the tree trunk. Saxon grinned impishly at the others.

  ‘So let’s go. For heaven’s sake don’t drop me, will you?’

  Saxon slithered down the cliff, using the rope as a brake to control his descent. The others took his weight and let the rope out slowly, their heels digging into the soft mud.

  The rope cut into their hands, burning the flesh, and they fought against the dead weight on the end of the rope, their muscles aching. When Saxon was halfway down Ethan slipped in the soft mud, suddenly letting the rope out a few metres. Saxon fell, bumping against the rock face, his legs scrabbling wildly for a foothold. Ethan, Lily and Roana hauled desperately on the rope and managed to stop the fall.

  Aisha whined pitifully, running back and forth along the top of the cliff, watching for Saxon.

  The descent only took a few minutes but the time stretched agonisingly with the burning on their palms and the slow trickle of rain down their necks. At last they felt the rope stop and go slack as Saxon reached the foot of the gorge. He tugged twice on the rope to let them know he was safely at the bottom.

  The slack of the rope gradually uncoiled as Saxon moved away from the base of the cliff. Peering through the rainy darkness, the others could see Saxon’s dark shadow picking over the tumbled rocks then plunging into the icy river. The rope jerked and uncoiled rapidly as Saxon’s body was buffeted downstream by the rushing water.

  Soon it was impossible to see where Saxon was, and whether he was successfully swimming across the river or simply being swept straight out to sea. The rope uncoiled to its limit and lay still and taut, stretched down into the darkness, trembling with the strain.

  There was no sound but the wind, rain and river. There was nothing to see but the white-capp
ed waves and the black shadows of rock and water.

  ‘I feel sick,’ whispered Lily. ‘We should never have let him try it.’

  ‘Let’s pull him back to this side,’ Ethan called urgently. ‘He’s safe as long as the rope holds.’

  Ethan, Lily and Roana bent to haul on the rope, pulling with all their weight. There was a huge tug from the other end in response. The rope tugged three times – the signal that Saxon had made it safely to the other side! The three friends collapsed into the mud with relief, laughing hysterically.

  ‘He made it,’ shrieked Lily, tears welling in her eyes. ‘Thank the Moon Goddess, he made it!’

  A few moments later the rope tugged again three times to signal that Saxon had secured the rope to something on the other side.

  Ethan jumped up and tested the rope. It strung taut and strong across the chasm, sloping steeply down to the other side.

  ‘You know, Lily, I think we can fly across this chasm,’ Ethan grinned.

  Roana and Lily looked at him quizzically.

  ‘Do you remember the flying slide Dadda set up for us in the barn last spring?’

  Taking off his belt, Ethan tied a long thin rope to the buckle. The belt was thrown over the thick rope that stretched across the chasm and then buckled to form a strap.

  Gripping the belt tightly with both hands, he lifted his feet off the ground and slithered towards the cliff edge. Hurriedly he braked with his feet on the ground before he slid off the cliff into thin air.

  ‘A bit of speed should make it work beautifully.’ He smiled with satisfaction. ‘Lily, take a running leap off the cliff and you should fly across the chasm like a great sea eagle. But for the Moonmother’s sake, hold on tightly!’

  Lily rubbed the pearl nestled inside her shirt for good luck. It gave her courage. She tucked Charcoal safely inside her pocket and took a deep breath.

  Lily gripped the belt with both hands, took a few steps backwards, then ran as fast as she could towards the cliff edge. Stones tumbled off the edge of the cliff and her feet kept running but there was no longer any ground beneath her. She was hurtling through space at incredible speed.