Legend of the Three Moons (28 page)

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 tucked 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.

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.

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.