Stealth the Ghost Panther (3 page)

T
OM SET OFF AT A RUN, SPEEDING ALONG THE
path that wound down the side of the volcano.
I don't need the golden leg armor anymore
, he thought.
Running downhill, I can go as fast as I dare!

Storm cantered ahead, his hooves throwing up spurts of black volcanic dust, while Elenna and Silver raced alongside each other, hard on Tom's heels. Tom loved the feeling of the wind as it whipped his hair back from his face.
This would be fun
, he said to himself,
if we weren't on such a serious Quest.

Tom slowed his pace to a jog as they reached the foot of the volcano and headed through the woods.
Now he took the lead, weaving his way through the trees toward the tunnels.

At last Tom and his friends halted, panting, by the mouth of the biggest tunnel. Inside, Tom could see a passageway leading into blackness.

“It's dark,” Tom began. “How are we going to —”

He was interrupted by a shout coming from the direction of the village. “Greetings!”

Tom turned to see a group of villagers hurrying toward them. In the lead was Raymond, who had helped guide his people to safety when the volcano was about to erupt. Just behind him was the young boy, Owen, and his mother, Nesta. Owen was still fair-haired and skinny, but much taller than when Tom and Elenna saw him last.

“It's Tom and Elenna!” Raymond exclaimed, throwing his arms around Tom. “What are you doing in these parts?”

“I hope there's no more trouble with Epos,” Nesta said as she embraced Elenna.

“No, Epos protects the kingdom now,” Tom replied quietly, remembering how the magnificent flame bird had helped him and Elenna in their Quest against Blaze the Ice Dragon. He clapped Owen on the shoulder. “It's good to see you again!”

But even as he spoke, Tom thought that the villagers didn't seem quite as friendly as he remembered them. He had felt a shiver pass through his body as Raymond hugged him. Somehow Owen's mischievous face seemed to have turned cold, and there was a dark glint in Nesta's eyes as she released Elenna. Her sleeves were rolled up, as if she had been working in the kitchen, and there was a long red scratch down one of her arms.

Nesta laughed as she spotted Tom looking at the scratch. “That's nothing!” she assured him, hurriedly rolling her sleeves down. “I got it picking gooseberries. Those thorns!”

“You're welcome to stay with us,” Raymond invited them. “We'll never forget what you did for Stonewin.”

“Thank you, but we can't stay,” Tom replied. He didn't want to share all the details of their Quest, in case word of the Ghost Beasts sent the villagers into a panic. “We have to get back to the city as quickly as we can, so we thought we would go through the tunnels.”

“Do you have any candles we could use?” Elenna asked.

“We can do better than that,” Raymond told her. “If you come back to the village with us, we'll give you some lamps.”

Tom and Elenna exchanged a glance.

“Time's slipping away,” Tom muttered into his friend's ear. “We ought to set out as soon as we can.”

“We don't seem to have much of a choice,” Elenna replied. She pointed to where Owen and
the other village children were already clustered around Silver, patting him and running their hands through his thick fur, while one of the adult villagers had taken Storm by the bridle and was leading him away. “Besides, if we don't go to the village, we'll have to
make
torches somehow.”

Tom nodded. “And that might take longer than fetching the lamps.” He turned to Raymond. “Thanks. We'll come with you, but only to pick up the lamps. It's already late afternoon, and we really need to be on our way.”

“Of course!” Raymond smiled as he glanced around at the other villagers. “We'll do everything we can to help.”

Another shiver passed through Tom as he saw the jubilant looks some of the villagers were sharing.
Could they be
that
happy we're coming to visit?

Raymond led the way along a path that wound
through the woods and joined the main street of the village. At the far end was a sturdy hut built of logs. Through the window, Tom could see shelves full of supplies. There were boxes of candles and a row of lamps hanging from the roof.

Raymond flung open the door. “Go in,” he said, gesturing to Tom and Elenna. “Take whatever you want.”

Tom stepped inside the store, followed by Elenna. He still felt uneasy. He wanted to find what they needed and get out of the village as quickly as they could.

He took several boxes of candles from one of the shelves, shoving the candles into his pockets, while Elenna lifted two of the lamps down from their hooks and carefully filled them with oil from an earthenware jar.

“That should be enough —” Tom began, breaking off at a sharp bang behind him. When
he spun around, he saw that the door had slammed shut.

Tom's uneasiness flared into alarm. He ran across to the door and tugged on the handle. But the door wouldn't move.

“It's locked!” Tom exclaimed.

T
OM AND
E
LENNA RAN TO THE WINDOW, BUT
it was too small to climb through. Outside, the villagers were crowding around, laughing. Nesta rolled up her sleeve and waved her scarred arm in front of Tom and Elenna.

“Gooseberries!” she cried. “Were you really such fools as to believe that? The three-tailed Beast gave me this wound, and I'm proud of it!”

“You won't defeat
this
Beast!” Owen added, rolling up his own sleeve to show a long scratch from elbow to wrist.

Tom glanced at Elenna. Her eyes were wide
with alarm. “
Three
tails?” she whispered. “What Beast are they talking about?”

Gathering around Nesta, Raymond and the other villagers were showing off their own scratches from the Beast.

“That's what was wrong!” Tom exclaimed, punching at the windowsill in frustration. “I knew there was something. The whole village has been changed!”

One by one, the villagers began to move off, turning their backs and leaving Tom and Elenna in their prison. A man grabbed Storm's bridle and tried to lead him away. The black stallion reared up, his forehooves striking the air as he let out a furious neigh. Silver darted forward, nipping at the man's heels. With a roar of rage, he let go of the bridle. Storm turned and fled down the street in a thunder of hooves, with Silver racing alongside, back toward the tunnels.

“Silver! Silver!” Elenna cried out.

“It's all right.” Tom put a hand on her shoulder. “They'll wait for us in the woods. They'd never leave us, but they have more sense than to stay with these evil villagers.”

Elenna nodded, though she still looked upset. “At least we don't have to worry about them,” she said.

“We need to find out what's going on,” Tom decided. “I still have one last power from the golden armor. I can use my magical sight from the golden helmet to look for some clues.”

He dragged a wooden box over to the window and scrambled up onto it to give himself the best possible view.
The Beast must have left some traces when he visited the village
, he told himself as he peered down the street.
There might be something to help me track him down.

He let his magical gaze travel down the street, examining the shops and houses.

“What can you see?” Elenna asked anxiously.

“Nothing yet,” Tom replied. “I don't think — No, wait! What's that?”

He fixed his gaze on a spot beyond the last houses of the village, where the cobbled street gave way to a path of beaten earth. In the earth were huge paw prints leading back toward the tunnels.

Tom felt the blood drain from his face as he turned to Elenna. “Paw prints,” he murmured hoarsely. “Huge, like a massive cat's.”

Elenna frowned. “I don't understand.”

“Don't you see?” Tom jumped down from the box and stood next to her, pointing out the window. Inwardly, he cursed himself for not piecing the evidence together sooner. “The villagers of Stonewin would never usually behave like this. Nesta said that a Beast with three tails made the claw mark on her arm. And all the others have claw marks, too.”

“And there are giant paw prints on the ground!” Elenna exclaimed, suddenly grasping what Tom meant.

“Yes. The Beast that made the marks is the last Ghost Beast. Stealth has attacked the village!”

Elenna nodded slowly. “So that is his evil magic — to turn good people bad!”

Tom looked out the window again, up to the slopes of the volcano. “Do you remember what Malvel said after we defeated Blaze the Ice Dragon? He promised that our next Quest would see evil come home to roost.”

“And he really meant it!” Elenna clenched her fists.

“He's kept his promise,” Tom agreed. He felt sick with worry for his friends in the city, and for the family he had left behind in Errinel. “Malvel is inflicting the worst thing he possibly could on Avantia. He's trying to turn everyone evil!”

“We've got to get out of here,” Elenna said.

“And there's no time to waste.” Tom strode back to the door and wrenched the handle again. “Stealth is in the city. What if he has already turned King Hugo and Wizard Aduro evil?”

The lock wouldn't give way to his desperate tugging. Elenna took an arrow out of her quiver and pulled the head off the shaft.

“Maybe I can force the lock,” she said as she poked the arrow's point into the keyhole.

Tom watched her for a moment, but she wasn't having any success. The arrowhead was too big to get far enough inside the lock, and the point kept slipping out.

Forcing back panic, Tom began grabbing things from the shelves, tossing aside rolls of linen, jars of nails, and bags of wheat as he searched for something that would help him open the door. Looking at all the useless supplies, his frustration boiled over.

“There's nothing here that will help!”

Elenna straightened up, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes. “It's no good,” she announced.

Tom glanced around frantically. Panic tingled in his belly. He forced himself to take a deep breath. He had to stay calm.
There must be
some
way out of here
, he told himself.
And I'm going to find it!