by Darren Shan
There was a rustling motion off to my left and one of the turtle creatures went zooming through the air, landing amidst the alligators on the far right side. One of the dead rats was quickly hurled among the other alligators on the left of the moat. As soon as the alligators began snapping at each other and fighting for the morsels, I lowered myself into the cold, clammy water. It was filled with soggy twigs, dead insects and slime from the toad's sores. I ignored the disgusting mess and waded across to where the toad was squatting, its eyes fixed on the bickering alligators.
There were several jelly-like globes near the edge of the toad's perch. I picked up a couple, meaning to stuff them inside my shirt, but their soft shells were broken. They lost their shape and a sticky clear fluid oozed out of them.
Glancing up, I saw another of the turtles flying through the air, followed by the second dead rat. That meant Harkat only had one of the turtles held in reserve. I had to act fast. Slithering forward on to the mound, I reached for the shiny globes lying closest to the giant toad. Most were covered with pus. It was warm, with the texture of vomit, and the stench made me gag. Holding my breath, I wiped the pus away and found a globe that wasn't broken. I sifted through the shells and found another, then another. The globes were different sizes, some only five or six centimetres in diameter, some twenty centimetres. I packed loads of the globes inside my shirt, working quickly. I'd just about gathered enough when the toad's head turned and I found myself on the end of its fierce, bulging gaze.
I reacted swiftly and spun away, stumbling back towards the island across the moat. As I lunged to safety, the toad unleashed its tongue and struck me hard on my right shoulder, knocking me flat. I came up gasping, spitting out water and bits of jelly and pus. The toad lashed me with its tongue again, connected with the top of my head and sent me flying a second time. As I came up out of the water, dazed, I caught sight of several objects sliding into the moat beyond the mound. I lost all interest in the toad and its tongue. I had a far greater threat to worry about. The alligators had finished with the scraps Harkat had thrown them. Now they were coming after a fresh snack me!
CHAPTER TEN
TURNING MYback on the alligators, I scrambled for the bank. I might have made it if the toad hadn't struck me again with its tongue, this time whipping the tip of it around my throat and spinning me back towards it. The toad hadn't enough power to pull me all the way to the mound, but I landed close to it. As I sprang to my feet, gasping for breath, I spotted the first of the onrushing alligators and knew I'd never make it to the bank in time.
Standing my ground, I prepared to meet the alligator's challenge. My aim was to clamp its jaws shut and keep them closed it couldn't do much damage with its tiny front claws. But even assuming I could do that, I'd no way of dealing with the rest of the pack, which were coming fast on the lead alligator's tail.
I glimpsed Harkat splashing into the water, rushing to my aid, but the fight would be long over by the time he reached me. The first alligator homed in on me, eyes glinting cruelly, snout lifting as it bared its fangs so many! so long! so sharp! to crush me. I drew my hands apart and started bringing them together
when, on the bank to my right, a figure appeared and screeched something unintelligible while waving its arms high in the air.
There was a lightning-bright flash in the sky overhead. I instinctively covered my eyes with my hands. When I removed them a few seconds later, I saw that the alligator had missed me and run aground on the bank. The other alligators were all in a muddle, swimming around in circles and crashing into one another. On the mound, the toad had lowered its head and was croaking deeply, paying no attention to me.
I gazed from the alligators to Harkat he'd stopped in confusion then at the figure on the bank. As it lowered its arms, I saw that it was a person a woman! And as she stepped forward, out of the shadows of the trees, revealing her long straggly hair and body-wrapping ropes, I recognized her.
"Evanna?" I roared in disbelief.
"That was pretty finely timed, even by my standards," the witch grunted, coming to a halt at the edge of the moat.
"Evanna?" Harkat cried.
"Is there an echo?" the witch sniffed, then glanced around at the alligators and toad. "I've cast a temporary blinding spell on the creatures, but it won't last long. If you value your lives, get out of there, and quick!"
"But how what where " I stuttered.
"Let's talk about it on dry land," Harkat said, crossing over to join me, carefully skirting the thrashing alligators. "Did you get the globes?"
"Yes," I said, pulling one out from within my shirt. "But how did she"
"Later!" Harkat snapped, pushing me towards safety.
Suppressing my questions, I stumbled to the bank and crawled out of the mucky water of the moat. Evanna caught me by the back of my shirt and hauled me to my feet, then grabbed Harkat's robes and pulled him up too. "Come on," she said, retreating. "We'd best not be here when their sight clears. That toad has a nasty temper and might bound after us."
Harkat and I paused to consider what would happen if a toad that size leapt upon us. Then we hurried after the departing witch as fast as our weary legs could carry us.
Evanna had established her camp on a grassy isle a few hundred metres from the island of the toad. A fire was burning when we crawled out of the swamp, a vegetable stew bubbling in a pot above it. Replacement clothes were waiting for us, blue robes for Harkat, dark brown trousers and a shirt for me.
"Get out of those wet rags, get dry, and get dressed," Evanna ordered, going to check on the stew.
Harkat and I stared from the witch, to the fire, to the clothes.
"This probably sounds like a stupid question," I said, "but have you been expecting us?"
"Of course," Evanna said. "I've been here for the past week. I guessed you wouldn't arrive that soon, but I didn't want to risk missing you."
"How did you know we were coming?" Harkat asked.
"Please," Evanna sighed. "You know of my magical powers and my ability to predict future events. Don't trouble me with unnecessary questions."
"So tell us why you're here," I encouraged her. "And why you rescued us. As I recall, you've always said you couldn't get involved in our battles."
"Not in your fight with the vampaneze," Evanna said. "When it comes to alligators and toads, I have a free hand. Now why don't you change out of your damp clothes and eat some of this delicious stew before you pester me with more of your dratted questions?"
Since it was uncomfortable standing therewet and hungry, we did as the witch advised. After a quick meal, as we were licking our fingers clean, I asked Evanna if she could tell us where we were. "No," she said.
"Could you transport Darren back home?" Harkat asked.
"I'm going nowhere!" I objected immediately.
"You just narrowly survived being swallowed by alligators," Harkat grunted. "I won't let you risk your life any"
"This is a pointless argument," Evanna interrupted. "I don't have the power to transport either of you back."
"Butyou were able to come here," Harkat argued. "You must be able to return."
"Things aren't as simple as they seem," Evanna said. "I can't explain it without revealing facts which I must keep secret. All I'll say is that I didn't get here the way you did, and I can't open a gateway between the reality you know and this one. Only Desmond Tiny can."
There was no point in quizzing her further the witch, like Mr Tiny, couldn't be drawn on certain issues so we dropped it. "Can you tell us anything about the quest we're on?" I asked instead. "Where we have to go next or what we must do?"
"I can tell you that I am to act as your guide on the next stretch of your adventure," Evanna said. "That's why I intervened since I'm part of your quest, I can play an active role in it, at least for a while."
"You're coming with us?" I whooped, delighted at the thought of having someone to show us the way.
"Yes," Evanna smiled, "but only for a short time. I
will be with you for ten, maybe eleven days. After that you're on your own." Rising, she started away from us. "You may rest now," she said. "Nothing will disturb your slumber here. I'll return in the afternoon and we'll set off."
"For where?" Harkat asked. But if the witch heard, she didn't bother to respond, and seconds later she was gone. Since there was nothing else we could do, Harkat and I made rough beds on the grass, lay down and slept.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
AFTER BREAKFAST, Evanna guided us out of the swamp and south across more hard, barren land. It wasn't as lifeless as the desert we'd crossed, but very little grew on the reddish soil, and the animals were tough-skinned and bony.
Over the days and nights that followed, we slyly probed the witch for clues about where we were, who Harkat had been, what the gelatinous globes were for, and what lay ahead. We slid the questions into ordinary conversations, hoping to catch Evanna off guard. But she was sharp as a snake and never let anything slip.
Despite her annoying reluctance to reveal anything of our circumstances, she was a welcome travelling companion. She arranged the sleeping quarters every night she could set up a camp within seconds and told us what we could and couldn't eat (many of the animals and plants were poisonous or indigestible). She also spun tales and sung songs to amuse us during the long, harsh hours of walking.
I asked her several times how the War of the Scars was going, and what Vancha March and the other Princes and Generals were up to. She only shook her head at such questions and said this was not the time for her to comment.
We often discussed Mr Crepsley. Evanna had known the vampire long before I did and was able to tell me what he'd been like as a younger man. I felt sad talking about my lost friend, but it was a warm sort of sadness, not like the cold misery I experienced in the early weeks after he'd died. One night, when Harkat was asleep and snoring loudly (Evanna had confirmed what he'd already suspected he could breathe the air here so he'd dispensed with his mask), I asked Evanna if it was possible to communicate with Mr Crepsley. "Mr Tiny has the power to speak with the dead," I said. "Can you?"
"Yes," she said, "but we can only speak to those whose spirits remain trapped on Earth after they die. Most peoples souls move on though nobody knows for sure where they go, not even my father."
"So you can't get in touch with Mr Crepsley?" I asked.
"Thankfully, no," she smiled. "Larten has left the realm of the physical for ever. I like to think he is with Arra Sails and his other loved ones in Paradise, awaiting the rest of his friends."
Arra Sails was a female vampire. She and Mr Crepsley had been "married" once. She died when a vampire traitor Kurda Smahlt sneaked a band of vampaneze into Vampire Mountain. Thinking about Arra and Kurda set me to pondering the past, and I asked Evanna if there'd been any way to avoid the bloody War of the Scars. "If Kurda had told us about the Lord of the Vampaneze, would it have made a difference? Or what if he'd become a Prince, taken control of the Stone of Blood and forced the Generals to submit to the vampaneze? Would Mr Crepsley be alive? And Arra? And all the others who've died in the war?"
Evanna sighed deeply. "Time is like a jigsaw puzzle," she said. "Imagine a giant box full of billions of pieces of millions of puzzles that is the future. Beside it lies a huge board, partially filled with bits of the overall puzzle that is the past. Those in the present reach blindly into the box of the future every time they have a decision to make, draw a piece of the puzzle out and slot it into place on the board. Once a piece has been added, it influences the final shape and design of the puzzle, and it's useless trying to fathom what the puzzle would have looked like if a different piece had been picked." She paused. "Unless you're Desmond Tiny. He spends most of his time considering the puzzle and contemplating alternative patterns."
I thought about that for a long time before speaking again. "What you're saying is that there's no point worrying about the past, because we can't change it?"
"Basically," she nodded, then leant over, one green eye shining brightly, one brown eye gleaming dully. "A mortal can drive himself mad thinking about the nature of the universal puzzle. Concern yourself only with the problems of the present and you will get along fine."
It was an odd conversation, one I returned to often, not just that night when I was trying to sleep, but during the quieter moments of the testing weeks ahead.
Eleven days after Evanna had rescued me from the jaws of the alligator, we came to the edge of an immense lake. At first I thought it was a sea I couldn't see to the far side but when I tested the water, I found it fresh, although very bitter.
"This is where I'll leave you," Evanna said, gazing out over the dark blue water, then up into the cloud-filled sky. The weather had changed during the course of our journey clouds and rain were now the norm.
"What's the lake called?" Harkat asked, hoping like me that this was the Lake of Souls, though we both knew in our hearts that it wasn't.
"It has no name," Evanna said. "It's a relatively new formation, and the sentient beings of this planet have yet to discover it."
"You mean there are people here?" Harkat asked sharply.
"Yes," the witch replied.
"Why haven't we seen any?" I asked.
"This is a large planet," Evanna said, "but people are few. You may run into some before your adventure draws to a close, but don't get sidetracked you're here to discover the truth about Harkat, not cavort with the natives. Now, would you like a hand making a raft, or would you rather do it yourselves?"
"What will we need a raft for?" I asked.
Evanna pointed to the lake. "Three guesses, genius."
"Can't we track around it?" Harkat enquired.
"You can, but I don't advise it."
We sighed when Evanna said something like that, we knew we hadn't much of a choice. "What will we build it from?" I asked. "It's been a few days since I spotted any trees."
"We're close to the wreck of a boat," Evanna said, heading off to the left. "We can strip it bare and use the wood."
"I thought you said none of the people here had found this lake," Harkat said, but if the witch heard the query, she paid it no heed.
About a kilometre up the pebbly lake shore, we found the bleached remains of a small wooden boat. The first planks we pulled off were soggy and rotten, but there were stronger planks underneath. We stacked them in a tidy pile, sorting them by length.
"How are we going to bind them?" I asked when we were ready to begin construction. "There aren't any nails." I wiped rain from my forehead it had been drizzling steadily for the last hour.
"The builder of the boat used mud to bind the planks," Evanna said. "He had no rope or nails, and no intention of sailing the boat he merely built it to keep himself busy."
"Mud won't keep a raft together once we get out on the water," Harkat noted dubiously.
"Indeed," Evanna smirked. "That's why we are going to tie the planks tightly with ropes." The squat witch began unwrapping the ropes she kept knotted around her body.
"Do you want us to look away?" I asked.
"No need," she laughed. "I don't plan to strip myself bare!"
The witch reeled off an incredibly long line of rope, dozens of metres in length, yet the ropes around her body didn't diminish, and she was as discreetly covered when she stopped as she'd been at the outset. "There!" she grunted. "That should suffice."
We spent the rest of the day constructing the raft, Evanna acting as the designer, performing magical shortcuts when our backs were turned, making our job a lot quicker and easier than it should have been. It wasn't a large raft when finished, two and a half metres long by two wide, but we could both fit on it and lie down in comfort. Evanna wouldn't tell us how wide the lake was, but said we'd have to sail due south and sleep on the raft afew nights at least. The raft floated nicely when we tested it and although we had no sails, we fashioned oars out of leftover planks.
"You should be fine now," Evanna said. "You won't be able to light a fire, but fis
h swim close to the surface of the lake. Catch and eat them raw. And the water is unpleasant but safe to drink."
"Evanna " I began, then coughed with embarrassment.
"What is it, Darren?" the witch asked.
"The gelatinous globes," I muttered. "Will you tell us what they're for?"
"No," she said. "And that's not what you wanted to ask. Out with it, please. What's bothering you?"
"Blood," I sighed. "It's been ages since I last drank human blood. I'm feeling the side effects I've lost a lot of my sharpness and strength. If I carry on like this, I'll die. I was wondering if I could drink fromyou!"
Evanna smiled regretfully. "I would gladly let you drink from me, but I'm not human and my blood's not fit for consumption you'd feel a lot worse afterwards! But don't worry. If the fates are kind, you'll find a feeding source shortly. If they're not," she added darkly, "you'll have greater problems to worry about.
