Jack Shian and the Destiny Stone (20 page)

“Where's she gone?” demanded Phineas.

“To the exanguine room,” replied the Ashray. “They're busy with your friends.”

“Let's get the others out, and then we can tackle them,” shouted Ossian.

“Where are the other swords?” pleaded Enda. “We'll each need one.”

“This way,” said the Ashray. “I'll show you.”

She handed the Gusog feather to Jack, and led Enda and Ossian back along the corridor.

While Phineas went to release the other prisoners, Jack approached Iain Dubh and presented him with the feather.

“Um, it's not gold; but the Ashray says this is it.”

Iain Dubh cradled the feather, stroking it gently. His eyes sparkled.

“First the flag, then this. We're blessed.” He tucked the feather in his waistband.

“We've yet to get out of here,” noted Cal solemnly.

As Phineas returned with the other prisoners, Enda and Ossian arrived with the swords. Within a minute all the prisoners were assembled, swords in hand.

“Where's Morrigan?” demanded Fenrig.

“She wasn't in with us,” replied Ishona softly, eyeing the Gusog feather. “She's with them.”

“That's a lie!”

“There's one way to find out,” replied Jack. “Where's this exanguine room?”

“We'll go through the big hall,” said the Ashray. “That's the quickest way.”

“Thank you for helping us,” replied Phineas. “And you, too.” He stopped, and looked at the young girl, who had remained silent throughout. A puzzled look came over his brow, as the young girl half-smiled up at him.

“The haemostat bandage worked really well,” Jack informed Gilmore proudly.

“Well then, at least something works in this godforsaken place,” said the tailor.

“Come on,” urged Enda. “We haven't time to waste!” He set off along the corridor.

“We're taking them with us.” Jack indicated the Ashray and the girl as he caught up with Enda. “They helped us escape, and I promised. The girl doesn't speak,” he added.

“We have to get ourselves out too,” said Enda grimly. “I don't like the sound of the exanguine room.”

The narrow corridors, lit only by occasional wall-mounted staves, seemed to double back on themselves. In the gloom the escaped prisoners found they were bumping into each other. They eventually emerged through a doorway into the dining hall. The fire had gone out, but the two wall staves still burned. Even in the dim light the remains of the banquet were still evident.

“One more scoop for good luck,” grinned Ossian as he approached a goblet.

“I wouldn't,” said the Ashray quietly.

Ossian took no notice, and tipped the contents down his throat. The liquid quickly found its way out again, in a great frothing fountain as Ossian struggled to get it clear.

“It's vinegar!” he exclaimed.

“Things don't last long here.” The Ashray indicated the food.

Jack went over and prodded the remains of a pie. It crumbled like ash; in fact, it looked like ash.

“This place is cursed,” he muttered.

“But you must admit, we throw one helluva party!”

Morrigan stood in the doorway, framed by a light behind her. She wore a long robe similar to Hema's, and sported the same type of elbow-length glove.

The prisoners readied their swords – except Fenrig. The young Brashat seemed torn.

“Mor, tell them it's all right,” he pleaded. “Tell them you'll help us get out of here.”

Morrigan eyed her brother.

“We're staying here, Fen. Until dad gets away from that hellhole these people put him in.”

She withdrew a wand from her robe.

“Morrigan,” implored Ossian, lowering his sword, and advancing. “It's me. You can't do this.”

Morrigan's wand levelled in an instant, and the hex caught Ossian full in the chest, flinging him backwards. He lay still.

Sanguina appeared at Morrigan's shoulder.

“I hope you're being hospitable to our guests,” she croaked in a loud stage whisper. “Or shall we just show them what we do to vermin?”

Holding her wand in her right hand, she entered the hall, dragging what looked like a grey sack behind her. In the gloom the prisoners backed away, swords at the ready.

“It's all right: the good news is they don't want to kill us,” muttered Enda.

“What's the bad news?” hissed Jack.

“Ye'll find that out if ye let them win.”

Contemptuously, Sanguina flung the sack at the retreating prisoners, and it slithered over the icy floor. Only it wasn't a sack. In the dim light, Jack made out a sunken face.

“It's Murkle!” shrieked Armina. “They've bled him!” She bent down and examined the body. When she looked up, her eyes had narrowed.

“Witch bitch!” She leapt at Sanguina, and swiped at her legs with her sword.

The Boaban Shee soared and swerved, avoiding the steel blade, and firing off hexes as fast as she could. In seconds, the hall was full of Boaban Shee, fighting in pairs as the prisoners slashed at flailing legs with swords.

“Take cover!” Jack shoved the Ashray and the girl to the side of the hall.

“You too, Jack!” shouted Phineas. “You and Fenrig can use the bandages!”

But Jack ignored his father's command, and he jumped into the fray. Seeing Sanguina and another Boaban advance on Iain Dubh, Jack skipped behind them and sliced with his sword.

“
Ungula!
”

Sanguina's right hoof flew with such force that it hit the side wall. She spun round, cursing and shrieking, and levelled her wand at Jack.

As she opened her mouth to utter a hex, a blade appeared through her chest. Fergus stood behind her, a look of satisfaction on his face as he gripped his sword. Sanguina stopped, her eyes wide open with surprise. Then she grabbed the sticking-out blade, and pulled it further forward. Fergus, taken by surprise, was dragged into her back, his hand seemingly stuck to the sword handle.

“It has to be her feet!” shouted Iain Dubh.

The warning came too late. Sanguina turned her head and spat at Fergus.

“You're going to get a Tula facial!”

She reached over her shoulder with her wand, and cried out, “
Cædo-vis!
”

The hex hit Fergus full in the face, and he fell back, a hideous crater where his eyes and nose should have been. Sanguina, never once taking her eyes off Jack, pushed the blade back through her body, and it toppled onto the floor behind her, clattering as it fell.

“I'll pay you for that!” she spat, and thrust her wand forward again.

Jack dodged the first hex, but he could see that this strategy would not last long. And when the next hex hit him on the right hand, his sword flew.

He looked around frantically. The room was filled with contests: Boabans firing hexes, and prisoners slicing and parrying with swords; but no one was free to help Jack. He backed away as Sanguina hopped forward, cackling evilly, clearly enjoying the prospect of impending execution.

There was a blur behind Sanguina as a small figure rolled over the icy floor. Jack just had time to see the young girl grasp his sword.

“
Ungula!
”

Sanguina's body shot into the air as leg and hoof parted company. Then, as her body crumpled to the floor, a spine-tingling moan filled the room.

Jack looked in astonishment at the girl.

She spoke!

“You spoke.” Even as he said the words, they sounded strange.

The girl was wasting no time. She sprang into the fray, hacking, parrying hexes, slashing. Displaying skills that Jack had taken weeks to master back on Ilanbeg.

The Boabans were vicious, even courageous; but they were outnumbered. And while several hexes had found their mark, leaving prisoners apparently lifeless on the frozen floor, they could not defeat more than a dozen wielding swords. Boaban bodies too began to litter the floor, their oozing stumps protruding from long green cloaks. The floor was so cold that the sticky red fluid had little chance to spread: it chilled instantly, forming tacky patches.

Swordless, Jack tried to avoid the hexes that flew around. Then, stepping in one of the blood patches, he slid unceremoniously forward. As he landed, he saw Ossian's blue-cold face next to his own.

That's my big cousin!

Jack's blue eye burned fiercely. He grabbed Trog's knife from his calf, and hacked madly at a Boaban who was trying to hex Armina. Both hoofs came off, spraying Jack's face with blood. Wiping his face, he saw that there were just two Boabans left – and Morrigan.

“Give up!” roared Phineas. “And you may live. You can never hope to take all of us!”

“Ye haven't seen yer other friends,” sneered Hema. Icily calm, she backed away, tugging at Morrigan's sleeve. “Show them, daughter.”

Daughter?!

Morrigan clicked her fingers, and three bodies floated through the doorway into the hall; accompanied by Malicia.

“Ye think ye can really defeat us?” sneered Hema.

Jack stared with disbelief.

But I took Malicia's feet … hoofs … off. She's supposed to be dead.

“Yer puny Shian hexes don't last here,” scoffed Malicia, hobbling into the room. “Oh, my feet may tak' a while to mend; but just look at what awaits ye!”

The three floating bodies fell to the floor.

Armina was first to them.

“It's Kedge! They've bled him too!”

Kedge gave a moan; and with good reason. Slash marks showed down his face, his neck … in fact, his entire deathly pale body.

“His friends didn't last long,” commented Morrigan coldly, looking at the Twa Tams' bodies. “Too long on the bridge, I expect. Malnourished Nebula insects.”

“You made sure we were starved!” shouted Jack. “And they were bad enough to start with!”

Slowly, the slain Boabans were starting to rise. Hobbling painfully, they joined Hema and Morrigan.

There was a stand-off for a moment while each side re-grouped. Armina placed crystals on wounded prisoners' foreheads, and Gilmore busied himself using haemostat bandages on the prisoners' open wounds.

“As ye see, ye can niver kill us!” gloated Hema triumphantly. She put her arm around Morrigan's shoulder.

Fenrig broke ranks. Having cowered by the wall while there was fighting, he now strode furiously up to his sister, and slapped her.

Startled, Morrigan thrust her wand at Fenrig's face, and was about to utter her hex.

“She called you ‘daughter'!”

The wand hovered. “Fen,” she said softly, “did you never wonder?”

“Mum's dead!”

“Yours; not mine.” Morrigan looked up at Hema, who smiled back lovingly. If a cold-hearted, callous, blood-sucking murderess can be called loving. “And you can see that
we
are all very alive!”

“Not all!” shouted Armina triumphantly. She pointed to one Boaban Shee who remained on the floor.

That's the one I got with Trog's knife …

Jack looked down at the blade he still had in his hand. What was it Marco had told him? Trog believed his knife knew what to do?

“Shian hexes may not work for long,” he said slowly, “but I bet you don't like Norse steel.”

For the very first time, a look of concern spread over Hema's face.

“There's been no Norse here for centuries,” she said, trying to sound confident.

“Well, now you've seen their steel again.”

In a flash, Jack had dived towards Malicia's legs, and he hacked at her stumps with the knife.

Taken by surprise, the mallison couldn't even scream as her stumps were reduced further. She rolled over, lifeless.

Jack scurried back to his father, and got up cautiously, holding Trog's bloodstained knife in front of him.

“We'll take you one by one if we have to. Or you can show us the way off this island.”

“Ye think one knife can take all of us?” scoffed Hema, firing a rapid hex that floored Phineas. “Ye've nine to kill, brat.”

“He's the one who killed Malevola,” smirked Morrigan.

“Then I shall leave him 'til last.”

Jack gulped. As the hoof-less Boabans began to advance, he sensed the Nebula men wilting at the thought that their swords could not finish them off. Even Enda seemed at a loss for words.

“Ye've been poor guests,” mocked Hema, growing in confidence. “Eating and drinking yer fill. But we'll live off ye for a while.”

“I'm keeping the big country boy.” Morrigan eyed Ossian's recumbent body with satisfaction.

The prisoners began to back away.

“You're not keeping any of us,” shouted Jack, as he tried to keep the panic inside him down. “We're leaving.”

… If we can. But how do we to get off Tula?

“Enda?” he said hopefully, looking at the big Irishman; but Enda's shaking head told its own story.

“The Nautilus charm won't work here, Jack. This place is cursed.”

Jack heard Ishona sobbing quietly.

“Without me to show you the way, you'd never last an hour out there,” Morrigan mocked them, glancing at the window. “Even in the daylight.”

Jack risked a look through the great window, and could make out the first glimpses of the dawn.

“Morrigan is right,” crowed Hema. “The Kildashie and their Thanatos friends burned the last of our trees, before they scurried away with the Raglan stone; now no creature can survive on Tula outside these walls. Unless of course ye know the path to the Rainbow Bridge?”

The path …
My
path …

Jack felt instinctively for the
Mapa Mundi
around his neck – nothing. He saw Hema look at him sharply.
She must think I've got it – Morrigan will have told her.
He gulped hard.

There's no
Mapa Mundi
… so who can show us our true path?