Legend of the Three Moons

by Patricia Bernard

  The children waited for the mudmen to rush them, but there was no movement and no recognition that they, and the twelve eagles that had followed them into the courtyard, were there. It was as if the mudmen had been turned to dry mud statues.

  `Head for the entrance while Lem and I shut the gates so the mud won't get in,' whispered Lyla.

  This time, as if not wanting to close, the gates squealed loud enough to be heard in Belem, but still not loud enough to rouse the transfixed mudmen. The moment the gates were closed Lem and Lyla sprinted for the arched entrance, arriving just as Swift and Celeste pushed open its enormous doors.

  Beyond them, was a spacious marble-floored gallery with huge flying buttresses supporting a ceiling so high, that the gargoyles decorating the buttresses disappeared into a gloomy darkness. The gallery's floor was thick with dust, bat droppings, and candle wax that had dripped from the candelabras placed in alcoves along its length. Between the candelabras, crouched human-animal statues, their onyx eyes glittering as if they were alive inside their carved-stone bodies and waiting to pounce.

  From the end of the gallery came a cacophony of voices that made the children raise their eyebrows at each other as they crept towards them.

  After passing twenty candelabras and twenty staring statues they reached two doors. The one on the left swung open easily and once the five and Nutty were inside, closed on its own; just as easily.

  Celeste glanced nervously at it, and at the two stiff at-attention mudmen guarding a staircase that curled up the tower's walls. This staircase was so narrow that only one person could go up or down it at a time. It also had no banister, so should a person slip - perhaps while reaching for any of the crystal bottles and jars, silver boxes, goats' bladders, or jugs of floating worms, fish, toads and frogs that filled the wall-to-ceiling shelves - they would fall.

  In the middle of the round floor, lit by the sun shining through rows of archer-slits in the tower walls, stood an enormous table. One end was covered in embalming jars full of odd-shaped creatures that might have been lizards, frogs, bats or spiders, or combinations of all. The other end was covered in saws and knives and instruments used for grinding, heating and dissecting.

  `But no swinging cages,' mouthed Lem.

  The tower door opposite was harder to open and they all had to push. This tower also contained rows of archer slits, a curved staircase, two motionless mudmen and floor to ceiling shelves. These shelves contained leather-bound and gold-edged books, wax-sealed parchments and gigantic tomes that looked as if they'd need two or more men to lift them.

  In the centre of its round floor stood a ring of desks piled high with books and documents. Many of the books were open or marked with bird feathers or dried birds' feet, and the pages contained strange mathematical equations that even Lem, who was good at equations, couldn't understand.

  `There must be millions of books here,' gasped Celeste.

  `But, again, no swinging cage,' said Swift.

  Back in the gallery, amongst the statues and candelabras and with the voices of the invisible people sounding very close, they searched for the two remaining tower doors and found them at the far end of the gallery.

  They pushed one open and were almost deafened by a chorus of birdcalls. This tower had no staircase or mudmen guards. Instead it had a multitude of cages hanging at different heights all the way up to its steeple. To reach the cages there were ropes zig-zagging and criss-crossing from wall to wall all the way to the top. Engraved on each cage's rim was a name. Chad read out the name on the cages nearest to him. `Jaakeen Muskmouse, Jila on Steem-'

  `Jila on Stim,' corrected a gruff male voice. `Village blacksmith, before I angered the High Enchanter.'

  `Lilith Gardenrock from Airebis,' called a black-feathered night parrot from above Swift's head. `Before I couldn't pay my taxes.

  `Patrice Marcel from Idnob,' piped up a kingfisher. `Before I refused to be a Raider.'

  `Elsie Leftfoot from M'dgassy Royal Palace,' called a pippin-song bird. `Have you come to free us?'

  `Free us! Free us!' chorused the birds, their voices becoming so loud that Lyla had to hush them in fear of the High Enchanter hearing the ruckus.

  The silence that followed was absolute until a yellow-headed whistler with Daisy Lilyfield engraved on her cage, twittered, `He won't hear us. He's in his tower trying out a new elixir. It only lasts for four hours but it will make him younger than the other elixirs.'

  Lyla moved closer to the yellow-headed whistler's cage. `What happens after three or four hours?'

  `He becomes old again and he sends his mudmen to take more of our blood, and to fetch more eagle eggs to make a new elixir.'

  `That's why I only have one foot,' croaked a magpie goose. `One of his spells calls for the webbed foot of a goose.'

  `Soon he'll find a spell that will keep him young forever,' sighed a soft-voiced finch. `Then we'll hang here until we die and I am only fourteen summers old. Please set us free before the mudmen wake up.'

  `What do you mean - wake up?' asked Chad.

  `When the sun's rays no longer shine through the archer-slits the mudmen wake up. But if you set us free we can escape before then. You should escape too. If you don't and they catch you, the High Enchanter will change you into birds like us.'

  `Or worse,' added the magpie goose. `He'll turn you into a painting.'

  `We can't escape,' said Lem, glancing worriedly at the others. `The bridge is covered in mud. We have to wait until the tide goes out.'

  `That won't be until tomorrow middle day,' said the magpie goose. `You'll be caught by then.'

  `Or you could use the tunnel under the lake,' whispered Elsie Leftfoot. `I escaped down it once but it ended in a locked door,' she gave a birdlike sigh. `And a bird can't open a locked door.'

  `Do you think it will be locked now?' asked Chad

  The pretty bird shrugged her wings.

  `Where does the tunnel start?' asked Celeste.

  `From beneath the High Enchanter's tower.'

  The five looked at each other, then Lyla asked, `I don't suppose you know where the High Enchanter keeps a princess locked in a golden cage?'

  `If you mean Princess Elle,' interrupted the night parrot, `it's the highest cage in the tower. The High Enchanter speaks to her every day but she never answers. She's afraid he'll capture her voice the way he has captured the voices and images of all the other Ifraa royals.'

  Lyla stared up into the steeple's high interior. `How does the High Enchanter reach the Princess's cage?'

  `He walks along the ropes. It's easy, even the mudmen can do it. If you do it, you could open our cages as you go by and then we can fly through the archer slits to freedom.'

  `But you would still be a night parrot,' said Swift. `And there are hundreds of fierce eagles outside that will attack you.'

  `Better to take a chance and live free as a night parrot even for a day, than die here in captivity.'

  Lyla looked questioningly at the others. Lem and Celeste shrugged while Chad and Swift nodded.

  `All right. Celeste, Lem and I will open the higher cages. Swift will open the lower ones and Chad and Nutty will guard the door.'

  Grabbing hold of the rope above her head Lyla stepped onto a lower rope and began tightrope walking along it, switching to a higher one and then another as she reached them. Celeste and Lem followed and they all balanced, wobbled, and sometimes slipped to hang by their hands until their feet found the lower rope. On each level, they opened the cages as they passed.

  Lyla had just reached the upper reaches of the steeple and was edging towards the golden cage when Nutty started barking. She looked down and saw that Chad was being pushed forward as the door he was sitting against was forced open by two mudmen.

  A young man wearing a gold crown and a long black cape entered the tower. With a flick of his ringed fingers the ropes the children were balancing on began to unravel from the metal rings that kept them taut. As the ropes slackened, Celeste snatched at a cage
and Lem and Swift slid down the chains of two others. Swinging, sliding and dropping from cage to cage, they reached the floor where they were caught by more mudmen.

  When her ropes loosened Lyla grabbed for the golden cage. Hanging from it she spoke quickly to the Bird of Paradise inside it. `Princess Elle. I'm Princess Lyla and I need your amethyst talisman so I can break the High Enchanter's spell. But I need it now as this chain is going to break any second.'

  The beautiful bird shook her golden-feathered head and the amethyst necklace hanging around her feathered neck swung back and forth. `It is not a good time for you to have my talisman,' she answered. `And you will not fall if you are determined above all else to fly. I know this because it was I who taught my sisters, Ona and Hail, the flying spell they gave as a gift to you. Now, hurry and set me free so we can meet at the M'dgassy moon dial on the night of the next eclipse.'

  Lyla was opening the cage door when the High Enchanter flicked his fingers and it snapped shut on her fingers, jamming them painfully.

  Then the cage's golden chain broke.

  Lyla fell towards the tower floor, crashing through the empty cages, but still clutching the golden cage with the Bird of Paradise inside.

  `Fly,' Princess Elle said. `Fly!'

  `Fly, fly, fly!' Lyla told herself,while flinging one arm out and trying to will her body to swoop upwards away from the High Enchanter. But she kept on falling until with a jolt she stopped, and hovered a hand's span above the stone floor.

  Two mudmen stood her up and pushed her in front of the High Enchanter. A third mudman pried the cage from her fingers.

  The High Enchanter was as tall as General Tulga but much younger, which Lyla knew was impossible. His nose was straight and his face haughty and aristocratic. His large eyes were a beautiful grey and his shoulder-length hair glowed a warm chestnut brown. If it hadn't been for his tight thin-lipped mouth and his fingernails digging into her shoulder, she would have thought him very handsome. Instead she thought him very dangerous.

  He pushed his face into hers and spoke in a voice so sharp it seemed to cut the air in front of her. `Your five gifts are stronger than I thought, but not as strong as the protection spell those foolish Queens put on your Forest. I have tried to break that spell each three-moon eclipse for ten years and then one of you broke it for me.'

  He smiled triumphantly over Lyla's head at Lem, who squirmed at the thought. His fingers dug deeper until Lyla felt as if he were cracking her bones. `Where are the talismans?'

  Her black eyes glared back into his grey ones. `Somewhere you'll never find them!'

  He shoved her so hard that she fell against the wall then he swung round and grabbed the front of Chad's shirt and dragged him up off the floor. `If you tell me,' he wheedled, `I will mend your leg in an instant.'

  Chad stared silently and defiantly at him, so the High Enchanter dropped him on his wounded leg.

  He moved on to Swift, lifting the boy by his ears while taunting him. `Tell me tree-talker, where are the talismans? Tell me before I have your ears cut off and nailed to a tree, so you can listen to it forever.'

  Swift shivered at the thought and stared down at his dangling feet, so the High Enchanter threw him at two mudmen who caught and held him.

  The High Enchanter turned on Celeste and, snatching what was left of her hair between his thumb and finger, he tugged at it sharply to emphasise each word he uttered. `Tell me water girl, how did you convince Prince Torenshone to help you? It wasn't only your gift of hair. What was it? And where is the pearl talisman you stole from me?'

  Although he was hurting her head, Celeste argued, `I didn't steal it. Your two serpents exchanged it for two jewels. It's now hidden where you'll never find it.'

  The High Enchanter flung her aside and grabbed Lem's blonde ponytail. `Where is the dragon scale talisman, animal-talker? Where is it? If you don't tell me I will use your dog in a spell or elixir. You've seen how I becamed the Goch and the Bulgogi. They were once lizards and bats. Imagine what sort of monster I can make of your precious dog.'

  Nutty snarled and attacked the High Enchanter's boots. The High Enchanter snapped his fingers and the pup fell unconscious at Lem's feet.

  Without taking his eyes off Nutty's limp body, Lem shook his head.

  The furious High Enchanter pushed Lem so hard he crashed into Swift and they both fell over.

  Seeing that none of them would talk, the High Enchanter ordered his mudmen to bring the children, the pup and the Bird of Paradise to his tower. `Drag them if you have to!'

  `And you will tell me all I want to know,' he shouted at Lyla, `or you and your brothers and cousins will spend the rest of your short and miserable lives in my pit.'

  `Pit?' mouthed Chad to Swift as the mudmen heaved them to their feet.

  The High Enchanter flung the fourth tower door open with such force that it slammed against an inner wall. Frightened voices within hushed each other into silence as he strode into his tower. However, when the children were shoved in behind him there was no one else there at all.

  Candle-filled chandeliers lit the round room and shone on the rows of life-size portraits of royals that covered its walls. On each side of an enormous fireplace were two staircases, one curving through the ceiling and one curving through the floor. In front of the fire stood a large iron throne, and a table covered in platters of steaming food and goblets of thirst-quenching liquids.

  The High Enchanter gestured to the table. `If you want to eat and drink, all you need do is answer my question.'

  The children didn't look at the table again.

  `What about you?' the High Enchanter prodded Lyla with a ring-covered finger, causing a jolt of pain to pierce her shoulder. `You're the eldest. Do you want to see the others hurt? What about your friend, Chii? I know where he's hiding. I can have him sent back to General Tulga. Or what of your friend the Gochmaster? I can un-became him in the blink of my eye.' He wandered slowly around the room, to show he had all the time in the world to await her decision, while he talked of all the things he could do to her and her family and friends.

  Lyla's shoulder ached and her heart felt heavy. If he hurt her brothers, cousins, Chii and the Gochmaster, would it be her fault? Probably. But she couldn't give up the talismans. Not after all they had gone through to get them.

  She was staring up at the portraits, wondering desperately how the five of them could get down the staircase and escape, when she noticed a painting of three teenage princesses.

  The princesses resembled her so much that it was like looking into a triple mirror. Then one of them moved - just a little. The princess wearing the pink pearl around her neck, mouthed some words at her. Ignoring the High Enchanter's insistent voice Lyla concentrated on what the princess was saying.

  `He cannot hurt you if you hold hands and form a circle.'

  The High Enchanter noticed where she was looking and flicked his fingers. With a combined gasp the three princesses disappeared, leaving the canvas blank.

  `They cannot help you,' he shouted, jabbing Lyla's shoulder again and filling her entire body with pain this time. `They are only painted images. Nothing can help you unless you give me what I want!'

  On and on he raged, his face contorted with anger as he threatened and jabbed at each of them, making them gasp with pain. Just as quickly he would take the pain away. He would hurt them, then promise to cure Chad's leg, bring Nutty back to life, or regrow Celeste's hair longer than before.

  Minutes stretched into what felt like hours, as they answered all his threats with shaking heads. Finally, slumping back in his throne he warned them that if they didn't tell him where the talismans were they would suffer more than they could imagine possible.

  The children were shaking their heads again when a mighty crash rocked the tower and extinguished the chandeliers. The stone floor crumbled beneath them and they hurtled into nothingness.

  `Ouch!' yelped Lem as he landed on the hard stone beside Nutty. He gathered up the limp pup and tucke
d him inside his tunic. `Where is everyone?'

  Lyla's voice came from his right. `Over here.'

  Celeste felt her way towards them and tripped over Chad. `Chad and I are here.'

  Swift crawled towards Celeste's voice. `Where are we?'

  `You are in my Pit of Nightmares, my Pit of Screams, my Pit of Fear!' snarled the High Enchanter from high above them. The glow of his lantern lit up the thick streaks of grey in his thinning chestnut hair as he leant over the pit's edge.

  Then the lantern, the High Enchanter and the pit's walls were gone, but out of the dark lumbered six white-haired Enkidu. They reared up, swung their ghastly, skull-like heads and charged.

  Lyla grabbed Swift and Celeste's hands. `The princess in the painting said we had to hold hands and form a circle. Lem, grab hold of Swift and Chad's hands.'

  `But we have to fight them!' argued Lem.

  `Do it, Lem,' Celeste shouted, gripping Chad's outstretched hand just as an Enkidu's curved claw swiped off her brother's head. For a moment Lem was so horrified at seeing Chad's head rolling across the pit's floor that he couldn't move, then with a bound he grabbed Chad and Swift's hands.

  In the same moment that the others saw an Enkidu rip off Lem's head, Lem watched a screaming Swift being mauled by a third Enkidu. If he hadn't been holding his brother's hand, he would have believed Swift was dead.

  `It's not real. It's a nightmare!' yelled Lyla, as a snarling Enkidu bared its saliva-dripping teeth and snapped off her legs, before pushing its bloody snout into Chad's terrified face.

  Suddenly the horrible nightmare was over, leaving them shaking and with no idea how long it had lasted. But, remembering how nightmares trick the sleeper into thinking they were much longer than they were, Lyla thought it might have only been a minute. Then she recalled the other thing about nightmares: they were often not over at all. This was obvious when a vile stench heralded the arrival of a stampeding herd of Goch.