Lyla shuddered as a blind face nudged hers and tried to push its purple tongue up her nose. She jerked her head back and watched a second Goch snap off Chad's hand while a third mangled Lyla's knee. She closed her eyes and tried not to inhale their stink as she heard them stomp on her brother and cousins. No matter what she saw, she did not let go of Swift or Celeste's hands.
After the Goch, came the sword-swinging, flame warriors followed by a raging fire that burnt the entire pit from floor to ceiling. Although the fire felt real, the children knew it wasn't, because after the flames had run up their arms and set their hair ablaze, they could still feel the fingers of the others clasping theirs.
Finally the fire died down and they were checking with each other to see that they weren't burnt when the pit turned into a forest of slithering, hissing snake trees. They slid up to the children and wound themselves around their rigid bodies, squeezing and cracking their ribs and tugging at their clasped hands trying to break their circle.
After the snake trees came the Bulgogi.
`Close your eyes,' Lyla siad, as an huge bat-winged Bulgogi flew so close that its hairy body brushed against her face. Its talons dug into her arms and legs and that all-too-familiar long, bird-like face thrust its beak at her.
Swift had never seen a Bulgogi before so, thinking that Lyla was about to be eaten, he panicked and tried to drag his hands free, but Lyla and Lem hung on so tightly that their nails dug into his skin.
After the Bulgogi there was a lull while the lantern was held over the pit again, and an unrecognisable High Enchanter glared down at them. His hair was thin and white, his face as grey as a mudman, and his eyes as hollow and red-rimmed as a ghoul. `Tell me where the talismans are and you can go free,' he croaked.
They shook their heads.
In an instant the pit filled with a snow-cold wind that whirled around freezing their ears, noses and feet, making their teeth chatter and their bodies shiver. Above the wind they heard the sound of scratching as thousands of rats raced into the pit. Behind them, swaying as if tied at the bottom of the Belem River, floated tall white-swaddled figures.
The rats attacked the children's frozen ankles, ran up their bodies to bite their frostbitten faces, and galloped along their ice-covered arms to gnaw at their stiff fingers. Swift and Celeste, who hated rats more than anything, screamed and screamed.
After the snow, the swaying bodies and the rats there was a strange, eerie silence until the pit began to fill with water.
`Is it real?' yelled Lem, as it sloshed around his knees.
`I don't know but whatever you do, don't break the circle,' Lyla said.
`How can we swim, if we don't?'
`If we break the circle, the High Enchanter wins.'
Swift began to struggle. `There are giant octopi in the water.'
`They're not real,' Celeste said, hoping with all her heart that they weren't.
The children held their breath as the water washed over their heads and five giant cephalopods stretched out their sucker-covered tendrils and dragged each one of them through their gaping rubber-lipped mouths into their huge body sacks.
Even though they felt like they were suffocating the five held each other's hands as two luminous serpents, one red and one green, swam towards them through the inky gloom.
The serpents tore the octopi to shreds and then savaged the children until, as each watched, there was nothing left. And still they clung to each other and didn't break the circle. Sure enough, after the octopi vanished they found their clothing to be as dry as when they'd fallen into the pit.
`There is something odd going on,' whispered Lyla.
`You think?' Lem snarled.
`No, I mean if the High Enchanter's magic is so strong, why send nightmares to scare us instead of real monsters that would really hurt us?'
`Because he can't,' whispered Celeste.
The lantern reappeared above them and an age-cracked voice demanded. `Now will you tell me where the talismans are?'
The High Enchanter now resembled a corpse-like skull, and his body was so shrunken and bent that he looked no taller than Chad.
The five tightened their grips and shook their heads.
The lantern disappeared as a Blue Mist slid across the pit floor winding itself around their legs, waists and necks until they were coughing. Next came thousands of squeaking bats, then flocks of sharp-beaked eagles to peck at their eyes. But none of these nightmares were as frightening as the earlier ones.
`I think his elixir is wearing off,' whispered Lem.
`Good,' whispered Chad. `My hands have pins and needles and my leg hurts.'
After the eagles they waited for the next nightmare. Nothing happened.
`What time do you think it is?' whispered Lyla.
`If his elixir only lasts about four hours then it's still night,' whispered Celeste.
`That means the causeway will still be covered with mud and the mudmen will still be awake. Has anyone got any ideas about getting out of here?'
They stared up at the rim of the pit and Lem calculated that even if they stood on each other's shoulders like the Oopla Sisters Plus One, they still couldn't reach it.
`Lyla could fly,' suggested Swift. `Then she could find something to let down for us to climb up.'
Lyla chewed her bottom lip. `I've tried flying and it didn't work.'
`You could try again,' Celeste urged.
I could, Lyla agreed silently. Especially as Princess Elle said I could fly, if I wanted to above all else. And I do want to fly above all else. But what if I fall? What if my gift is sand reading and not flying? She shook her shoulders to stop herself from thinking such thoughts. Of course she could fly. It was her magic gift given to her by Queen Ona and Queen Hail.
`Lyla, can we let go each other's hands now?' asked Swift.
With her eyes on the pit's edge, Lyla said they could.
20
The Wind Horse Riders
They stretched, wriggled their fingers, shook their arms and legs, and waited for the the High Enchanter to come back for his next round of torture. But nothing happened.
Celeste nudged Lyla with her elbow. `Time to fly.' Time to fly, Lyla told herself.
She pushed back her hair, stretched out her arms and focused on the rim of the pit, willing herself to leave the ground, to float upwards, to soar like a bird. She willed and willed but still her feet remained rooted to the floor. So she tried again this time repeating the Bird of Paradise's words over and over in her head.
She wasn't sure when her heels lifted and her toes followed. And she wasn't sure she was really flying, rather than imagining it, until she felt the air pass through her outstretched fingers. Too frightened to look down in case she fell, she didn't see the amazement on the faces of her brothers and cousins as she rose above their heads.
She landed - filled with her own amazement - beside a fallen candelabra back in the tower room. She looked around for the High Enchanter and found a withered old man, with a bald head lolling on his hollow chest, with his claw-like fingers still clutching the Bird of Paradise's cage. He was asleep on the throne.
Lyla searched for something to lower into the pit but there was nothing; not a rug, carpet or curtain. She dropped to her knees by the pit and whispered down to the others. `There is nothing to lower down. I'll have to fly you out.'
With more determination than confidence in her new-found ability, she stood at the edge of the pit, raised her arms and willed herself to fly again. This time she floated down to the others. `Swift first,' she whispered, `then Chad.'
Swift weighed less than the Gochmaster she'd carried, and Chad weighed about the same, so flying back up with them wasn't too difficult. Celeste, and then Lem with the unconscious Nutty, were a lot heavier.
Each time she willed herself to fly, she wondered if she would be strong enough. Each time she was. But afterwards her arms and shoulders ached and her head hurt from concentrating so hard.
The children found
their bags and swords where the mudmen had dropped them. So, while Lyla crept across the tower's floor to the throne, Lem held Nutty's mouth open and Celeste dripped what was left of the Wind Horse Riders cough syrup into the pup's mouth.
Lyla knelt in front of the sleeping High Enchanter and carefully lifted the golden cage's latch. The Bird of Paradise soundlessly stepped out onto Lyla's hand, then nodded toward the High Enchanter. Linked around his bony wrists was the amethyst's chain. With trembling fingers and thumping heart Lyla undid the chain and eased it and the amethyst free. With the Bird of Paradise still on her arm, she crept back to the others. She was placing the necklace around the golden bird's neck when Nutty gave a weak wag of his tail.
`The High Enchanter will not sleep for much longer,' warned the Bird of Paradise. `When he awakes he will send his mudmen after us.'
`Right,' Lem said. `Let's find that tunnel.'
After leaving the fire's glow, the staircase was so dark that, by the time they'd reached its last few steps, they had to feel their way with their hands and feet.
Lem calculated that they were well below the pit's floor, so he tied his shirt around Nutty's neck and asked the wobbly-legged pup to find the tunnel's entrance.
With his nose to the damp ground Nutty set off with Lem holding the makeshift lead, Celeste holding Lem's shoulder, Chad holding onto Celeste, Swift clutching Chad's shirt and Lyla, with the Bird of Paradise, holding onto Swift.
The tunnel was two-people wide and its walls were covered in something damp and sticky. It had a high ceiling so at least they didn't bump their heads, which Celeste decided was lucky because, given the squeaking and rustling of bats nesting overhead, she was sure she knew just what it was that was oozing down the walls and making their boots stick to the ground.
They'd been feeling their way along the tunnel for what felt like forever when, from behind them, they heard the distant slap, slap of bare feet, followed by a tremendous roar that was so forceful it pushed them to their knees.
They scrambled up and ran on through the darkness with one hand on the sticky wall and one stretched out in front, so as not to bump into anything. The roar turned into a demented howl that sent panicking bats flying into their faces. Some latched onto Lyla and Lem's long hair, but they managed to pull the bats free and kept right on running.
They were bumping into each other in the dark too, but ran as fast as they could on the sticky floor, to get away from the pursuing mudmen.
Finally the tunnel began to slope upwards, but so steeply that they were soon slipping backwards with every second step. Celeste was imagining sliding into the arms of a mudman, when Lem shouted that he'd found the door but that it was locked.
Celeste clambered up beside him, unwound Splash from her wrist and held him up to the keyhole. In slithered the little green snake and moments later there were three clicks.
The mudmen's footsteps were so close behind them now that they all expected to be grabbed and dragged back.
Splash wriggled out again and, as soon as Lem pushed open the door, they crowded through and found themselves at the foot of a sandstone pinnacle - in the middle of a screaming, raging sandstorm.
`There isn't time for Splash to lock the door again,' Lem shouted as he slammed it shut behind them. `We'll have to hide.'
`Let me go now,' the Bird of Paradise said to Lyla. `I will meet the five of you, with the other talismans, in two nights time beside moon dial at the royal palace.'
`In two nights time,' promised Lyla, as the golden bird took flight.
The children began running as the first of the mudmen pushed open the tunnel door.
`We can't reach M'dgassy in two nights!' exclaimed Celeste, holding her cape over her head as she helped Chad to run faster. `You'll have to take the talismans and fly after her, Lyla.'
Lyla was about to remind her that the Bird of Paradise had said all of them, when an arrow zinged by her ear.
`We have to stop and fight!' Lem shouted.
Lyla shook her head. `There's too many of them. And they're surrounding us.'
As the mudmen, with their creeping lope and their small bows and tiny arrows, began closing in on them and the children figured things couldn't get any worse, they did. Through the howling wind and whirling sand they heard the booming of a Goch.
`Swords ready,' yelled Lem.
With their backs to each other, they circled to keep watch on the mudmen and squint at the lumbering Goch that was heading straight for them.
To their utter astonishment the Goch passed them by and smashed its long neck into the three closest mudmen. As they shattered into nothing, the Goch slammed another four mudmen, then another three.
`Ly-la, Ly-la! Where are you?' a guttural voice called out through the spiralling sand.
`It's Gochmaster,' gasped Lyla. `Over here Gochmaster, over here!'
The Goch swung round, dropped to its knees beside them and the Gochmaster stretched out his long arms.
`Climb up Ly-la,' he called, clasping her hand.
`Everyone, up on the Goch,' she shouted into the noisy wind. `Before the mudmen drag us under the sand.'
`Or shoot us,' muttered Celeste. She held her breath against the Goch's smell, climbed onto its back and then helped haul the boys and Nutty up.
The Gochmaster made sure they were all hanging on to each other, and then his Goch heaved itself to its feet. With jolting steps, it galloped away from the army of mudmen who were still pouring out through the tunnel door.
`When the sun rises we will be safe,' shouted the Gochmaster. `The Goch and the Gochmasters are the only creatures becamed by the High Enchanter that can survive sunlight.' Then he grinned. `I am happy I found you again, friend Ly-la.'
Lyla grinned back. `I'm happy you found me too, friend Gochmaster. Would you ask your Goch to stop at the place where the river disappears into the sand?'
The Gochmaster nodded.
`And do you know the fastest way to M'dgassy?'
The Gochmaster nodded again. `It is along the Forty Bend Road that edges the Boiling Desert and bypasses Babylon Forest.'
`Good,' Chad said. `I don't ever want to go there again.'
A few minutes later the Goch knelt beside the spot where the river disappeared into the sand. It was unrecognisable.
Lem slid off its back and counted twenty steps to the north. He searched for the large stone he'd used to mark the spot where he'd buried the casket. It wasn't there. He returned to the others with a sinking heart and told them the sand had covered everything.
`I was sure it was a safe place, and that I could find it again. But it's gone, I'm so sorry.' Lem's voice broke as he held back his tears of disappointment. `All that trouble and danger we went through, and our hard work was for nothing. The talismen are gone.'
His four companions were speechless as Lem's disappointment swept over them.
`What is he looking for, Ly-la?' asked the Gochmaster.
`A silver casket about this big,' Lyla widened her hands to show its size. `But the Boiling Desert has swallowed it up.'
`My Goch will find it. Tell the boy to climb back on.'
As soon as Lem was settled behind Swift, the Goch rocked back to its feet and, with its head close to the sand, began searching.
In the same moment that the morning sun broke the horizon and the pursuing mudmen disintegrated and returned to the sand, the Goch made a triumphant boom.
The long-necked creature swung its blind head back and nudged Lyla with the casket it held in its mouth.
The children cheered, the Gochmaster laughed and the Goch boomed again as he raced off across the sand.
It took them all morning to reach the deserted desert village of Fez, where the Forty Bends Road began or finished.
Lyla stared sadly at the ruined mud houses and broken mud walls and asked the Gochmaster how long the village had been empty.
The Gochmaster shrugged. `There have been no Fezians for as long as I have been becamed. Raiders say it is haunted.'<
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As they left deserted Fez, Lyla pointed to five crows perched on a skeletal tree. Both the tree and the crows looked exactly like a tree and five crows they had passed hours earlier on the edge of the Boiling Desert. `Do you think they're the same crows?'
`Unlikely,' Lem yawned.
They were all exhausted, and the rocking of the Goch had made them sleepy, so Lem tied his tunic around Swift to make sure his brother didn't fall off.
Lyla rested her head on the Gochmaster's shoulder and was soon fast asleep - and dreaming. She was flying over the Wind Horse Hills and below her marched battalion after battalion of uniformed Raiders. They were accompanied by hundreds of Goch and followed by at least fifty Bulgogi wagons. Lyla knew they were heading towards M'dgassy Royal Palace. She decided to count the battalions when a blinding flash forced her eyes to close. When she opened them again, everyone below had disappeared.
Lyla awoke with a jolt and discovered they were again passing a skeletal tree with five crows. `Are you awake, Swift?'
`Mmm.'
`Could you ask that tree how much further it is to M'dgassy? And ask it if those crows are the same crows we saw before?'
The Goch moved as close to the tree as it could and Swift leant out to touch a branch. `The tree says we will reach the Acirfa-M'dgassy border by nightfall and, yes, the crows are the same. They are called Watchers. The High Enchanter sees through their eyes, so he knows where we are.'
This unwelcome news made the Gochmaster urge his Goch to go faster. They reached the red-stone border markers of Ifraa by late afternoon. `Tomorrow morning we will be past Babylon Forest,' he announced.
`Not we,' Lyla told him. `You cannot come with us, Gochmaster.'
The Gochmaster frowned so hard that his thick eyebrows met in the middle, then he held up Chii's whale tooth necklace. `You gave me this because I am your friend. How can you leave me behind again?'
At his accusing tone Lyla's eyes filled with tears. `It's because I am your friend that I have to,' she argued. `If you come with us I'm afraid you'll disappear, like everyone in my dream. But I promise, if the three moons' eclipse breaks the High Enchanter's five enchantments, I will find you and your Goch no matter where you are. But for now you must go as far south as you can go to escape.'
Legend of the Three Moons Page 22
