It didn’t take long for everyone to fall asleep. Jack sat with Doug, occasionally talking quietly listening to the deep slow breathing of his friends.
‘It’s time,’ Doug said. Jack nodded. They had been there for him, helped him, argued with him and he was about to abandon them. They would be safer without him and the burden of finding Sophie, but he still felt terrible.
‘Right,’ Jack said, in a voice that was not even close to his own.
‘Are you sure this is what you want?’ Doug asked. Jack nodded again; mute. The skin felt tight on the back of his head and his stomach felt loose and warm. So, this is what betrayal feels like, Jack thought.
Doug closed his eyes. There was a feeling of pressure and a thin film appeared between Jack and Doug, and the rest of the bubble tunnel. Jack saw Cali turn over and her eyes were wide open. He watched, his heart heavy, as she leapt up and shouted something. He couldn’t hear her. They were completely separate now. She ran to the rapidly thickening wall of water between them and he could see her tears through the barrier. Her fists pummelled the wall, which was at least six feet thick now. She was making enough noise to wake the others and Jack could see blurry shapes moving around, Cali was the only one who was clear but soon she too blurred and faded away.
Chapter 13: Brayden’s Folly
Instead of taking Jack and the Keeper all the way Doug stopped a few feet below the surface. A deep silence followed. He appeared to be struggling to say something but in the end all he managed was ‘Good luck.’
‘Thanks,’ Jack said.
‘Is there any other service that I may do for you? I will come. I will stand with you,’ Doug said. His big blue eyes were dark, riotous, and they shone from within. Despite the ravages the journey had wrought Doug’s eyes hadn’t changed.
Jack shook his head. He still couldn’t speak. Doug nodded. He touched his forefinger to his head, his heart and then lowered it, palm up to Jack who returned the gesture, a film of tears making Doug appear blurry. Doug closed his eyes; a sheet of water appeared between them. It was the same glass-like barrier as Jack had seen in the doorways of the Water Elementals settlement. He watched Doug as he and the Keeper rose gently to the surface.
They emerged less than two feet from a glacier. The wind ripped at Jack’s cloak and his face became numb almost immediately but Doug kept the water firm beneath them as they walked to the ice. Jack turned and looked back down before he stepped onto the glacier, lifting a hand in a final gesture of farewell to Doug. Doug waved and then slowly descended, disappearing from sight.
Although Jack was exhausted, he knew he would have to put a few miles behind him before he could think about taking shelter. Cali would insist that Doug take them to the surface immediately, the others too, and Jack didn’t know how much pressure Doug could withstand. Jack decided that if he kept the highest peak, Mount Eberus, in front of him he would be heading approximately the right way. There was no time to use a compass - he needed to move. He couldn’t risk the others finding him. It was dark, bitterly cold and the Keeper would not or could not communicate. The only thing that kept him going that first lonely walk was the thought that it would soon be over. In this moment of darkness and despair his meeting with the Black Prince could not come soon enough. All too soon fatigue overtook him and he was forced to stop. There was nowhere to go in the featureless landscape for shelter, so he simply lay down on the hard packed snow.The cloak protected him for a while as he looked up at the Southern lights dancing in the sky. Soon though Jack began to feel the cold seeping through his body and into his bones, not even Leofwen’s cloak could keep the sharp Antarctic weather at bay forever. He had no hope of sleeping in the relentless wind and freezing temperatures.
Then something incredible happened. Snow was flying through the air and a hole was opening up next to him, deeper and deeper, wider and wider until eventually a large chamber had been hollowed out. Jack half crawled half rolled into it. It was still freezing but there was no wind and Jack was no longer exposed. He felt a warm body brush past his and remembered that he was with the Keeper and she was his guardian – she had created the ice chamber to protect him.
‘Thank you,’ he whispered as he felt her body curl around his, the warmth from her coat easing the cold and making him feel almost human. Jack gladly tumbled into sleep.
Sleep brought with it dreams more powerful than any he’d had before and clearer. The sinuous figures were once more dancing around flickering orange flame, whirling and diving and swooping and gliding until Jack was dizzy. The dancers became a blur their hair glistening in the light and then he saw her again, blonde hair gleaming, flowing and swaying, rippling to the rhythm of the dance. She span to face him and he reached out to her. He knew that if he could just grasp her arm or her shoulder the spell would be broken. As he stretched towards her he looked into her eyes and screamed – her face was completely blank, her eyes dead. Jack woke himself with a loud shout.
He didn’t know what time it was. The dark was constant, weighing on Jack’s mind like a dead-weight. Still, he set off minutes after waking to try to erase the memory of the dream. He didn’t get far. Though the Keeper walked in front forming a slipstream, Jack’s energy was soon sapped.
‘This can’t have been what Gordy planned,’ Jack whispered to himself.
‘Would you like to hear my riddle?’ the Keeper asked. Jack nodded.
‘Yes,’ he croaked. He had to know Gordy’s plan - Jack wouldn’t make it much further walking; there had to be another way. The Keeper dug another deep hole with a small opening. She and Jack went inside and settled on the floor, Jack ripped open some supplies and wrapped himself tightly in his cloak.
‘You know the rules. Listen:
My colour is golden though body I lack
No front, no sides, no head, no back
I fill the smallest space, consume the largest hall
Yet vanish in the moment a voice to me will call
Not power or influence inflict the smallest pain
Yet shattered, lost, broken when you call my name.’
The wind dropped. It still shrilled past the opening of the snow chamber but it was gentler now. If there was any other sound Jack couldn’t hear it.
‘Is that it?’ he asked. The Keeper remained silent. The quietness, the stillness of Antarctica blanketed any sound, Jack felt as if he were in a vacuum. He had never felt so alone. He didn’t know the answer to the riddle and now it seemed to mock him. His mother had always told him that silence was golden but Jack was sure that it was white and cold and never ending.
And suddenly the answer was there, so clear and so right that Jack could have laughed aloud. He had been thinking about and cursing the answer.
‘Silence,’ Jack said quietly, his voice rang eerily through the icy chamber.
‘That is correct,’ the Keeper said in her low and beautiful voice ‘what is your question?’
‘How can I enter the Black Prince’s headquarters without being caught?’ he asked and held his breath waiting for another cryptic answer.
‘Fly,’ the Keeper said. Jack, who hadn’t been expecting a simple response, gaped.
‘Fly? How am I supposed to fly?’ he asked. Jack knew what she was going to say – would you like to hear my riddle? To his astonishment, she didn’t.
‘You may fly on my back,’ she said smiling peacefully. Jack stared. How had he not thought of this before? The Keeper could fly and he and the others had walked for what felt like hundreds of miles.
‘You could have suggested it before,’ Jack said not sure whether he felt angry or relived.
‘You did not ask me,’ she replied.
‘You’re supposed to be on my side,’ Jack said, feeling every ache and pain that he’d received on the long journey, thinking of everything the others had been through. The Keeper said nothing. ‘How come you’re so talkative all of a sudden?’ Jack asked suspiciously.
‘No others are present and you have answered my riddle,�
�� she replied. ‘I can answer no questions unless you answer another riddle though I can give you any help that you require.’
‘Any help?’ Jack asked. The Keeper lowered her head.
‘I cannot give you answers,’ she said. Jack nodded. He thought he understood.
‘I need something to eat, something hot and then we’ll go,’ Jack said his voice shaking, with fear or anticipation he didn’t know. He set up the electric cooker and made himself some rice. He was half way through his meagre meal when the Keeper got up and walked to the entrance of the chamber.
‘What is it?’ Jack asked.
‘Brayden,’ the Sphinx said.
‘What?’
‘The young male gnome,’ she said.
‘Brayden? Just Brayden?’ Jack asked.
‘Yes,’ she said. Jack ran to the entrance, looking out into the bitter, deadly snow and saw Brayden struggling against the wind. He started out but the Keeper pushed him back.
‘If he must come then I will fetch him,’ she said.
‘Quickly!’ Jack replied.The Keeper took off into the snow, picked Brayden up by his scruff and ran back to the shelter, shaking her glossy coat to remove the snow.
‘Brayden? Brayden, what happened? Where are the others?’ Jack asked. Brayden shook his head without looking at Jack.
‘Taken. Taken soon after you left,’ Brayden said. Jack felt his insides tighten.
‘What do you mean taken?’
‘The Black Prince,’ Brayden said, his voice muffled by the scarf wrapped around the lower part of his face. ‘His people were waiting for us.’ His voice was anguished. Jack shrank.
‘But there was no way they could have known where we… you were,’ Jack said.
‘They knew,’ Brayden said, looking away from Jack as he removed the scarf.
‘How? How did they find you at the bottom of the ocean?’ Jack asked. Brayden shook his head.
‘We weren’t at the bottom of the ocean. It didn’t take long to persuade Doug to fetch us up. They were waiting when we got there,’ he said. Jack tried to imagine the terror he would have felt if he had surfaced to find the army of the Black Prince waiting for him. He couldn’t stop thinking of Cali and how scared she would have been.
‘How did you get away?’ Jack whispered.
‘Esther,’ Brayden said.
‘Esther?’ Jack said, sure that he had misheard.
‘She held them off long enough for me to get away,’ Brayden said.
‘But… how?’ Jack asked. The cold and exhaustion must have been affecting Jack badly because he didn’t understand how Esther could have held off an army.
‘She’s not Aloysius personal guard for nothing. She’s the best warrior we have at Five Oakes.’ Jack, astonished, could think of nothing to say. ‘Well why else would Gordy let her come with us?’ Brayden asked.
‘I don’t know … I didn’t really think about it.’
‘You didn’t think about much did you?’ Brayden said bitterly.
‘How did they find you?’ Jack asked again. Brayden looked away.
‘I don’t know,’ he said reluctantly.
‘Someone betrayed us,’ Jack whispered.
‘Someone other than you, you mean?’ Brayden asked looking at Jack with accusation clear in his expressive green eyes.
‘I didn’t betray you,’ Jack said but there was no conviction in his voice. Deep down Jack felt like he had betrayed them all.
‘We have to go and help them,’ Brayden said. He hadn’t sat down and still stood close to the entrance to the cave. Jack looked away from the gnome.
If Jack went back he would first have to find Cali and the others, who could be anywhere. If he went on, to the lair of the Black Prince, he might be able to find his sister and the others too; safe and well because Jack didn’t think the Black Prince would harm any of them while Jack was still free.
‘No,’ Jack said quietly.
‘What?’
‘We’re not going back,’ Jack said. Brayden didn’t reply immediately.
‘They did everything you asked,’ Brayden said.
‘I know,’ Jack replied.
‘They would have done anything to help you. Even Loomis,’ Brayden said.
‘I know,’ Jack repeated. There was nothing else he could say.
‘We’re just going to… leave them?’ Brayden asked. Jack looked up, straight into the gnome’s eyes, which looked much older than they had at the start of the journey.
‘No. We’re going to find the Black Prince,’ Jack said.
‘What then?’ Brayden asked.
‘We’re going to find Sophie and the others and we’re all going to escape,’ Jack said.
Going back was not an option; Brayden surely knew that as well as Jack did. He either had to go on with Jack or go back alone. Going back meant almost certain death. Brayden was lucky that he had managed to find them the first time – surely he had used some form of tracking – Jack had a feeling he would not be so successful again. The wind had picked up and if Leofwen was looking out for them now, the only reason Jack could see for the adverse weather was to disguise their whereabouts from spies of the Black Prince.
‘Have you got a plan?’ Brayden asked.
‘No,’ Jack said.
‘No?’ Brayden whispered disbelief sketched on his pale, drawn face. Jack shook his head.
‘We’ll make a plan,’ Jack said.
‘No. I’m not just going to walk into the Black Prince’s headquarters with a plan you cobbled together in five minutes,’ Brayden said stubbornly.
‘That’s up to you Brayden; you don’t have to come,’ Jack said.
‘I didn’t say I wasn’t going to go,’ Brayden said and now he looked like just what he was – a scared, young gnome who was exhausted.
‘You need to rest and get some hot food first,’ Jack said and Brayden nodded. He got his sleeping bag from his backpack, unrolled it onto the hard packed snow floor and got into it without another word. Within minutes Jack could hear deep even breathing that told him the gnome was asleep.
Jack turned to the Keeper. She looked as serene and unruffled as ever, her liquid amber eyes regarded Jack calmly.
‘We leave in three hours,’ he said.
Jack looked out of the mouth of the tunnel. The winds were blowing furiously and snow was being whipped from the ground in massive, dense flurries. There was no way he would be able to travel on foot in this weather. But how could Leofwen know that he needed the wind to disguise his movements? The weather so far had been as close to ideal as anyone could have hoped for in the Antarctic mid-winter.
‘Do you know Leofwen?’ Jack asked the Keeper. He didn’t need to turn around to know the Keeper was watching him.
‘I know many,’ she said. Jack smiled.
‘I won’t let her down,’ Jack said. He expected no reply and got none.
Jack woke Brayden a few hours later. While the gnome packed away his bedroll Jack made a hot meal of rice and dried fish, the only food they had.
‘That going to last much longer?’ Brayden asked. Jack shrugged. He had enough for just under a week. That meant just three days for the two of them.
‘We’ll worry about that when we need to,’ Jack said, handing Brayden the larger of the two bowls. They ate quickly and once they finished Jack packed the bowls with snow to remove the last bits of food and replaced them in his bag.
‘Come on,’ he said to Brayden and climbed onto the Keeper’s back.
‘You mean we’re going on her?’ Brayden asked. He was pale and his voice was shaking.
‘Yes,’ Jack said.
‘I can’t,’ Brayden said, eyes closing as if something dreadful were about to happen.
‘You can’t stay here Brayden, get on!’ Jack said. Brayden shook his head stubbornly.
‘It was the Keeper who attacked me,’ Brayden spat. Jack sat back and stared at Brayden, shocked.
‘No. She wouldn’t attack you,’ Jack said. Brayden shook his h
ead again. He looked desperately scared.
‘Jack, I don’t know how to tell you this,’ he said.
‘What?’ Jack asked, his face turning the same shade of white as Brayden’s.
‘I don’t know what I was thinking,’ Brayden said and now he was shaking all over. ‘We’re on the brink of war Jack. Everything that I’ve ever known is in danger. All he wants is you. You and the Amulet.’
‘Brayden what are you saying?’
‘It was me. I’m the reason the Black Prince knew you were at Five Oakes. It’s me that told him you put the Amulet in your bag. I’m the reason everyone was caught.’
‘But I don’t understand… why?’ Jack asked. He couldn’t remember feeling so betrayed, even the worst times after Sophie disappeared no one had treated him like this.
‘I had to protect my people,’ Brayden said miserably. Jack knew he was lying.
‘Don’t lie! Tell me why?’ Jack shouted. Brayden shook his head miserably.
‘No,’ he said, the word was wrenched from his throat.
‘Why?’ Jack asked again. He could see Brayden’s throat working. The gnome was trying to tell Jack but couldn’t force the words. Eventually they came by themselves.
‘He took my family,’ the gnome said and now he looked straight into Jack’s eyes and Jack could see the misery and shame Brayden felt.
‘He has mine too,’ Jack said trying to feel sorry for Brayden.
‘He only has your sister, he’s taken my parents and my little brother,’ Brayden said, with the most spirit he’d shown since he’d come out of the snow.
‘You don’t think my parents went when Sophie did?’ Jack asked. Brayden’s eyes, unnaturally bright in that dark space, met Jack’s.
‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered again.
’So am I,’ Jack said.
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Well I’m not leaving you here.’
‘But… what about her?’ Brayden asked.
Elemental: Steele Stolen: Part 1 and 2 Page 16
