The Gochmaster's eyes grew watery and he sniffed into his sleeve. `I thought when we met again that you would give me a name.'
Lyla looked surprised.
`Like you have a name, Ly-la.'
`Gochy sounds good,' suggested Swift with a smile.
He decided he liked the Gochmaster as much as he liked Edith and San Jaagiin.
`Gochwarrior is better,' said Chad.
`Sssshhh,' hushed Lyla. `I have the perfect name. It is Gochman the Hero. Gochman to your friends. Do you like it?'
`Gochman the Hero. Gochman to my friends,' repeated the Gochmaster, then smiled a wide toothy smile. `Yes, yes, I like it, Now a name for my Goch.'
The five looked at each other while they tried to think of one.
`Something that means big,' suggested Celeste.
`And brave,' suggested Chad.
`Finder,' said Lem. `Because he found the casket.'
`Finder,' repeated Gochman, patting his Goch's neck. `Your name is Finder. I like it.'
After they all promised, several times, to find him and his Goch after the eclipse, the five watched as Gochman and Finder turned south.
The children sprinted through the red-stone border markers and into Acirfa. Behind them the High Enchanter's crows flew off.
`Come on,' Lem said. `The sooner we get out of Ifraa, the better.'
`How will we know the way to M'dgassey if the sun isn't shining?' asked Swift.
`We'll follow the Ooms,' said Lyla, pointing to the high and circlular pile of stones on a distant hill.
They reached the first Oom in good time, then headed for the next and so on until it became too dark to see. A brisk breeze had also turned to a strong cold wind.
`We'll hollow out a space in this Oom and after we're inside we'll block the entrance with the stones,' said Lyla. `Celeste and I will keep first watch, then Lem and Swift. Chad can sleep through. Is your leg hurting, Chad?'
`No,' he said, but they all knew that he was being brave.
While the others slept curled up in the crowded space, Celeste and Lyla whispered about how they didn't think they'd reach the Royal Palace in time.
Lyla was about to admit that she missed Gochman already when a familiar sound made her grab Celeste's arm instead. The scary flapping noise was followed by the ear-splitting screech of a Bulgogi that had come to rest on their Oom's flagpole.
More screeching, all around the Oom and off into the night, woke the boys. Lyla put a warning finger to her lips so they all sat, with Nutty alert beside them, as still as Whale Island statues.
Outside, packs of Bulgogi flew back and forth over the Wind Horse Rider's hills for hours, snapping off the flagpoles and tearing the Ooms' blue flags to shreds.
The children remained silent until finally, just before morning, the Bulgogi flew back to Ulaan. Lyla sighed and stretched her legs, and Celeste let out the sob she'd kept bottled up all night.
`Do you think the Watcher crows told the High Enchanter where we were going?' Lem asked
`Probably,' said Lyla. Then they pushed at the rock barricade so they could get out of the Oom. And, not a moment too soon. As they all tumbled out onto the grass, the hillside began to tremble and the Oom collapsed.
`Was it an earthquake?' Swift's question ended in a whisper when the ground-shaking stopped.
`I don't think it was,' Celeste said, looking at the long grass of the Wind Horse hills that had been blown flat overnight, and the morning sun that was having a hard time shining through the charcoal-grey clouds.
`Maybe it's-' Chad stopped, as the ground rumbled again. This time it was accompanied by the sound of horses - lots of horses - approaching them over the rise at a canter.
`Raiders!' cried Celeste.
With nowhere to run, and no time to grab their weapons, the children simply stood their ground, waiting for - nothing.
The grass and dust in front of them was kicked up as the cantering noise slowed to hoof stomping and the jingle of bridles. But there were no horses, no riders. There was nothing but the sound of jingling halter bells and snorting horses.
`Who's there?' Lyla demanded.
The answer came from the empty air in front of her.
`We have been tasked by Princess Elle to take you to M'dgassy Royal Palace. But to prove you are who we seek, you must tell me why you wish to go there.'
Lyla was about to tell him when she stopped herself. What if he was an invisible creature becamed by the High Enchanter? `Show yourself first.'
They heard a chuckle then the breeze that had been blowing ever since they'd heard the galloping began to blow harder. It blew Lyla and Lem's hair over their grubby faces, and all five of them were forced to close their eyes. When they opened them again they saw their first ever Wind Horse Riders.
Dressed in white leather jerkins, riding trews, capes and boots, the thirty or so Wind Horse Riders were both men and women. All had Tartik Island ice-blue eyes, and all wore their hair long, the men to their shoulders, the women to their waists. Across their chests and backs were slung silver bows and quivers covered in wind-writing runes, and from their belts hung ornate silver scabbards.
Their Wind Horses were magnificent, with hides as white as summer clouds, curling white manes and tails that would have swept the ground but for the silver ornaments that held them up. They tossed their fine heads and stamped their silver-painted hooves impatiently while their riders calmed them in a whispered horse language.
`Allow me to introduce myself,' said the tall blonde Rider in the front. `I am Lord Orion, and these are my companions. What are your names?'
`I am Princess Lyla. This is Princess Celeste, Prince Lem, Prince Chad and Prince Swift, and we are going to M'dgassy to break the High Enchanter's enchantment over our royal parents.'
Lord Orion nodded. `Correct. But time is short. Princess Lyla and Princess Celeste will ride behind those two Lady Riders. Prince Chad and Prince Swift will ride behind those nobles, and Prince Lem and his dog will ride behind me. Hold on tightly, our horses gallop as fast as the wind and if you fall off we will be long gone before we notice.'
`How do you know Princess Elle?' asked Lem, after Lord Orion had swung him and Nutty up behind him.
`I asked for her hand in marriage during her 18th birthday celebrations. Alas she refused me.'
`She refused everyone,' Lem shouted, as the hills on either side of their Wind Horse suddenly became a green blur. `She wanted to study Extreme Magic.'
`I know that now.' Lord Orion turned and his blue eyes twinkled at Lem. `But I was eighteen then, and it broke my heart. A young man's heart is a fragile thing as you will soon discover, if a wef doesn't get you first.'
`What's a wef?'
`A mournful, homeless thing summoned from the bowels of the earth by the High Enchanter!' shouted Lord Orion, as they passed what Lem guessed was Babylon Forest. `If a wef touches you, it will freeze your heart and you will die.'
`Is there any magic that can stop them?'
Lord Orion's long blonde hair whipped across Lem's face as he shook his head. `No more than there is magic to stop the High Enchanter.'
Suddenly an enormous tremor rocked the hill they were galloping up and their Wind Horse stumbled. Righting itself, the horse sped on as a hail-filled wind bombarded them with knuckle-sized lumps of ice.
`Cover yourself and your dog with my cape. The wefs are coming!' shouted Lord Orion.
The hailstones grew larger, and the wounds they inflicted on the Wind Horses' rumps, legs and heads were awful to see. When huge cracks appeared beneath the Wind Horses' silver hooves they leapt over them, and kept on galloping.
Hidden beneath the large capes, the children clung to their Riders as the Wind Horse Clan became invisible to all but the pursuing wefs.
And those ghostlike creatures surrounded them, poking and prodding and scratching with their icicle fingernails. They stretched out their gaunt, fleshless arms and their claws raked at the Riders' exposed faces. They ripped chunks of mane and
tail from the Wind Horses and tossed the long hair into the wind like skeins of knotted silk.
Morning became afternoon and still they galloped; first west then north, with the wefs - bloody-fingered and bloody-mouthed - attacking all the way.
`Where are we?' Lyla asked.
`Far from our last Oom,' her Lady Rider called back. `Straight ahead is Mussel Cove Road, and to the right is the cliff track to Wartstoe Village. We will take Snake Tree Wood, the route to the left.'
`Is it night?' asked Lyla, recalling how the snake trees changed at night. She lifted the Lady Rider's cape to take a look and was immediately stabbed in the eye by a wef's icy finger.
`Ah, my face is frozen,' she screamed, covering her frost-burnt eye.
`Lean against my back. My warmth will help thaw you. Do not let the cold reach your heart!'
Lyla did as she was told and pressed her frozen eye against the Lady Rider's back.
In front of them galloped Lord Orion with Lem, whose heel had been jabbed by a wef. If it hadn't been for the warmth of Nutty on his thigh, the numbing cold would have travelled up and reached his heart.
Beside Lyla galloped the two nobles with Chad and Swift, and the second Lady Rider with Celeste, all three covered by white leather capes.
Behind them rode the rest of the Wind Horse Clan, wielding the silver swords as they battled the wefs.
With their view obscured by the capes, the children could only imagine their progress, but their Riders told them when they had passed through Snake Tree Forest, and when they approached Abel Penny's bridge.
As the many hooves echoed over the bridge's stone arch and then onto the dirt of the narrow path through the Royal Wood, Lyla knew they were almost home.
`Do you know where the palace moon dial is?'
`I do, and we have arrived,' replied her Lady Rider, reigning her Wind Horse to a halt beside Lord Orion.
`Quick!' shouted Lord Orion. `Run to the moon dial. The eclipse is starting. We will fight off the wefs.'
The children slid to the ground and ran towards the moon dial, as the Wind Horse Riders formed a barrier between them and the hysterical wefs.
Celeste held her hand out for Lem who, with Nutty under his arm, had to limp on his half-frozen leg. Swift was next, helping a hopping Chad. Last came Lyla with their precious casket.
As the eclipse began and the three moons slid closer together, a cold and exhausted Bird of Paradise fluttered out of the dead rose garden. Celeste scooped her up and placed her on the moon dial.
`Listen carefully,' the bird whispered. `During the eclipse, Lem must sing The Three Moons' Song while each of you place your talisman on the moon dial, in the order of the song. Then hold hands as you did in the pit. Whatever happens, do not break the circle.'
Lyla rubbed her aching eye as she opened the casket so her brothers and cousins could claim the talisman they'd rescued. Above them the three moons formed one gold and silver-circled pink disc, that illuminated the rose garden as brightly as if it was daylight.
Swift nudged Lem. `Sing.'
Lem's voice rose high and sweet above the shrieks of the wefs and the neighing of the Wind Horses.
`Three moons to save three Princesses born,
`Five journeys to save a land that's torn,
`One journey to find the dragon mocked.'
He placed the blood-red scale on the moon dial.
`One journey to find the merwoman locked.'
Celeste placed the pink pearl necklace beside the dragon's scale.
`One journey to find the poisoned tree.'
Chad and Swift together set the sapphire necklace on the moon dial beside the pearl one.
`One journey to set a chained eagle free.'
Lyla put the blue eagle feather beside the necklaces.
`Five journeymen to find the cage that swings.'
The Bird of Paradise dipped her head and the amethyst necklace slid onto the moon dial.
`Five journeys to free five Queens and Kings.'
The children held hands and formed a circle around the moon dial.
Suddenly new hands were holding theirs as Princess Elle, Queen Ona, Queen Hail, King Tefan and King Atric stood between each of them.
`Close your eyes children, and concentrate on what we sing,' the adult Royals said, and began to chant:
`Begone High Enchanter from the land of M'dgassy.
`Begone from the land of M'dgassy all servants and creatures becamed by the High Enchanter.
Begone all evil and begone all war from the land of M'dgassy as we, the Circle of Ten, build an invisible, unapproachable, unconquerable wall around M'dgassy and its subjects.
`Begone!'
As the last `begone' was shouted, and moons slid apart with the passing of the eclipse, Lyla's eye and Lem's leg became unfrozen, and Chad's thigh healed instantly.
The wefs disappeared from the rose garden and from all over M'dgassy, as did the Raiders, the Goch, their Gochmasters and the Bulgogi.
All gone, exactly as they had in Lyla's dream.
21
The Circle of Ten
The five children stared at their royal parents, and their royal parents stared back.
Lyla didn't know what to say to the beautiful Queen Hail, whose eyes showed no sign of ever being blinded by barnacles, and she felt shy in front of her handsome father, whose smile was so like Lem's. But when her mother caught hold of her hands and pulled her close to kiss her, Lyla knew that, in that moment, words weren't important.
Celeste felt equally as awkward. Ever since Babylon Forest she had imagined her mother as a dying or burnt tree. Now she found it hard to be lovingly embraced by someone so regal and lovely, after preparing herself to never see her mother again. So, unaware of the instant hurt in her mother's eyes, she pulled away. But then, out of nowhere, she remembered the small girl she'd once been, standing still while her mother lovingly brushed her long blonde hair. Celeste smiled and allowed herself to be hugged so tightly that when Chad tried to wriggle in between them he was squashed.
Lem smiled tentatively at his father and then pushed a shy Swift towards him. As King Tefan swung Swift up for a hug, his green eyes met those of his older son and their smiles broadened until they were both laughing. As Swift's feet touched the ground, Lem rushed to his father and they hugged each other with a protesting Swift caught in between.
The fathers hugged their daughters, and their nieces, and King Atric thanked Lyla for looking after Celeste and Chad. Then all the parents exclaimed over how tall and strong the youngest boys had grown.
Finally the queens embraced their long-lost sister, Princess Elle, each proclaiming that she didn't look a day older than when she'd disappeared.
Then they danced with each other and around the men and children, and they tripped over everyone's feet, and their laughter echoed joyously around the rose garden.
`Let us go home,' cried Queen Hail, swinging Swift around so his feet left the ground. `I have missed it so much. I want to see the palace, the gardens, the swan boats, everything.'
`It's a ruin,' burst out Lyla, not wanting her mother to be as disappointed as she had been when she had first seen the ruined palace. `It has holes in its roof.'
`Not any more,' smiled Queen Ona. `Follow us and see what our combined Extreme Magic can do.'
`What about Lord Orion and the Wind Horse Riders?' asked Celeste, catching hold of Princess Elle's hand.
`Without them we would not have reached the moon dial in time for the eclipse.'
`Indeed you would not,' agreed Princess Elle. `And I am remiss for having forgotten them.' She bowed her head towards Lord Orion and his Wind Horse Riders, who had formed a guard of honour for the Royal Family to pass through.
`We must thank Lord Orion,' she reminded her sisters and their husbands.
The kings bowed to Lord Orion to show their respect and their thanks. The Queens held out the skirts of their long velvet gowns and curtsied.
Princess Elle held out her long g
olden skirt too and was about to curtsy when she changed her mind. She ran over to the Lord of the Wind Horse Clan, reached up and caught his hand.
`Thank you, my Lord, thank you. You have helped rescue the Kingdom of M'dgassy.'
Lord Orion's ice-blue eyes lit up with pleasure as he and his Wind Horse clan bowed their heads to the pretty princess who, with a flushed smile, returned to her nieces.
Lyla and Celeste grinned and nudged each other.
`Don't you think Lord Orion is the most handsome Lord you've ever seen?' Celeste whispered, skipping along beside her aunt.
`Don't you think he has the most beautiful blue eyes and the loveliest golden hair?' Lyla added.
Princess Elle glanced again at Lord Orion who was watching her with a charming smile on his handsome face. `I have not seen many Lords since I was enchanted. But he is indeed beautiful of face.'
`And brave,' added Lem, dropping back to join them. `When he and you were eighteen he came to ask for your hand in marriage.'
Princess Elle looked surprised, `Did he? I don't remember.'
`You refused him and he went away broken hearted.'
`Oh dear,' Princess Elle blushed. `I shall have to apologise to him when next we meet. Which I hope will be at the Royal Banquet that will be held in honour of all those who helped battle the High Enchanter.'
`A banquet for everyone?' exclaimed Chad, who couldn't decide who he wanted to walk with the most, his father and mother who made him feel shy, or his sister and cousins and the pretty Princess Elle, so he danced in between everyone. `Do you mean Edith the Oracle, Clarissa the stilt girl, Sebastian Ull, Rosie and the Oopla Sisters Plus One?'
`Prince Torenshone and the Merpeople?' added Celeste. `Although they will only be able to come as far as the jetty.'
`San Jaagiin, Verv Roliat and my pet snow leopard, Snow?' asked Swift.
`And Chii, if he got back to Whale Island, and Dulcinella and Kendra if they escaped,' finished Lyla.
Legend of the Three Moons Page 23
