The Seventh Daughter (17 page)

Night came down over Ynis Maw like a black lid. There were no stars, no hint or gleam of light, save for the sad amber glow that beamed like trapped yellow moonlight from between the iron bands that enwrapped Oberon's prison.

None of them could bear the thought of leaving the King alone there for another grim night of sleepless, petrified banishment. There was little comfort in the cave, but they made the best of it, Edric and Cordelia curling up to sleep on the shale floor while Tania took first watch. She huddled in her cloak at the cave mouth, her back to the cold stone, her eyes aching as she peered into the nothingness that lay beyond the amber glow. Bleak thoughts filled her mind. They had no black amber to melt the Isenmort bonds—no metal to destroy the Amber Prison. How were they to set Oberon free when they couldn't even touch the shining sphere?

A faint pattering sound brought her out of her brooding thoughts.

Patter, patter, patter
. Like distant running feet.

She thought of the half-mad creatures that Cordelia had seen—the banished people. Were they out there in the night? Were they closing in on them?

The pattering grew louder, and a heavy drop of rain splashed on Tania's hand. Dark dots began to stain the gray stone beyond the cave mouth. Darts of rain lit up like jewels as they cut down through the amber light. Tania drew herself a little deeper into the cave as the rain began to fall more persistently. Soon, the rock was slick with running water, the rain pelting down with a hiss that was like snakes and lizards.

Thunder growled and forks of lightning cracked the night open, making brief hectic silhouettes of the surrounding hills. The storm clouds were emptying themselves over Ynis Maw. They were in for a restless night.

 

Tania awoke to a sky full of grim, ruddy-colored clouds. It was as if the sky had rusted over from the rain; the grisly light made the black rocks look like bloody bones thrusting up out of pools of gore. She was still huddled in the cave mouth, stiff and aching. She got to her feet, wrapping herself in her cloak and stepping out of the cave. The rocks around her shone wetly red and dark red water splashed underfoot. She looked around, remembering the banished folk and wondering what their lives must be like on this terrible barren hunk of rock.

“And they won't ever die,” she murmured.
“They'll be here forever.” The immortality of the Faerie folk could be a curse as well as a miracle.

Her mouth was dry. She reached for the water bag that hung at her waist. It was limp and empty. She needed something to drink, but she couldn't bring herself to fill her bottle from the bloodred rain pools that had formed overnight.

She walked a little way off, searching for a less tainted water source. A small pool had formed under the lip of an overhanging rock. The water was dark and still, but not bloodred. She knelt, taking the stopper from her bottle to scoop up some water. As she bent over the pool she saw her own reflection gazing darkly up at her.

“Is that really me?” she whispered. The hair was draggled and unkempt, the face pale, the hollow eyes full of sadness. It was the face of someone who had witnessed horrors—the face of someone who had come to a place of utter despair.

And then it was as if the universe stumbled for a moment—as if time had stuttered.

“Tania?”

She stared into the pool. The face had changed. It was her face but not her face. The lips moved again and a voice spoke in her head.

“Tania, it's me.”

“Titania?” Tania said breathlessly, leaning closer to the water.

“I've been trying to reach you for days,” Titania said from the surface of the pool. “Where are you?”

“We're on Ynis Maw,” Tania replied. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, we are all safe and well. Eden's spell is keeping us hidden.”

Misery filled Tania's voice. “Everything's gone wrong,” she said, the words thick in her throat. “We've come all the way here, but now…”

“I know, I know,” said the soothing voice. “Do not worry, Tania. I have spoken with Hopie. She told me everything that happened.”

Tania rubbed tears from her eyes. “A lot more has happened since we left her.”

“You can tell me about it when you get back,” Titania said. “But now you have to listen to me, Tania. I'm going to tell you a great secret. Probably the greatest secret in Faerie. I did not dare to tell it to you before now, in case something went wrong and you fell into the hands of the enemy.” There was a brief pause, then: “The black amber mine is on Ynis Maw.”

Tania stared down into the rippling face of her mother.
“Wha-at?”

“In the center of the island there is a deep crater; the mine is inside the crater. The black amber will break the Isenmort bonds from Oberon's prison, and once they are broken, I believe he will have power enough to destroy the Amber Prison from within and free himself.”

Tania's head was spinning. “You're kidding me? The mine is
here
?”

“Yes, it is,” Titania said. “I wanted to tell you days
ago when you were all here talking about the black amber, but I did not dare.” Tania remembered the Queen's reflective silence at the table back in Rafe Hawthorne's cottage; so that's what she had been thinking about. And Clorimel's strange comment suddenly made sense now:
The blood of the stones is food for the Sun
. Oberon was the Sun, and the black amber was the blood of the stones. The rowboat must have been used to ferry black amber from the mine thousands upon thousands of years ago.

“There is a problem,” the Queen continued, breaking into Tania's thoughts. “The mine has a guardian.”

“What kind of guardian?” Tania asked in a daze.

“I do not know,” Titania said. “The King put it there a very long time ago. You have to assume it will be dangerous.”

“It can't be any more dangerous than some of the things we've already dealt with,” Tania said. “Listen, I'm going to go back now and tell Edric and Cordelia about this. And then we'll find the mine and rescue the King.” She reached her hand toward the water. “Thank you,” she said softly. “Thank you so much.”

Her Faerie mother's hand reached up toward her. “I wish I could have told you sooner.”

“No, I understand.” Their fingertips met for a moment on the surface of the water and the reflection broke into expanding rings of ripples. The Queen was gone.

Tania sprang up and ran back to the cave, the red rainwater spraying high in her wake.

 

Edric and Tania lay on the rim of the cracked crater that formed the heart of the island. It had been a laborious climb up through the splinters of the black rocks, but at last they were looking down into the pit of Tasha Dhul.

They had left Cordelia with Oberon. It had been against her wishes to allow them to face danger without her, but they had convinced her that she should stay with the King. Edric's words had the greatest effect.

“The King can see us,” he had told her. “I know—I've been in an Amber Prison. Stay here with him. He'll be comforted by it.”

The sides of the crater tumbled down to an oval depression studded with holes and black-mouthed caves. There were the remains of an old trackway to the left of where they were lying. It wound down the steep slope and made its way across the floor of the gorge, ending at a great backward-leaning cavern mouth.

“I wonder what the guardian is,” Edric mused. “A person or some kind of animal?”

“I don't think Titania knows. It was put here thousands of years ago. Perhaps it's dead.”

“Do you think the King would have used a guardian that was going to die?”

“I guess not.” Tania frowned. “Can you see anything moving down there?”

“No, I can't. But that doesn't mean it's not there.”

They got to their feet and stepped over the crater's rim to begin the descent into the gorge. Loose scree slipped away under their feet and they held hands to help each other as they slipped and slithered downward, but soon they were safely on level ground. They walked cautiously along a beaten path across the valley floor. Above them heavy clouds rolled in, blotting out the sun. An unnatural darkness came over them, like twilight at noon.

“I wish we had swords,” Tania whispered.

“I wish we had a rocket launcher,” Edric responded. She looked at him and they clasped hands even more tightly.

As they came in under the high mouth of the cavern, rain was beginning to fall. The mine-workings stretched back into a darkness that was like a gaping throat. Pools of dark water gathered in pits and ruts in the ground. Walking deeper into the cavern, Tania began to notice that the overarching walls were streaked with black threads that glinted in the weak light. Behind her she could hear rain falling steadily.

Edric let go of her hand and walked off to one side, picking his way over the spreading pools of water. She followed, finding him crouched in shadows, holding a few small shards of black amber in his open palm.

He looked up at her. “This is all we'll need,” he said. “Doesn't this seem a bit too easy to you?”

“I like easy.” She crouched at his side. “I'm thirsty—do you think the water in here is fit to drink?”

“I don't see why not. It's only rainwater.”

Tania cupped her hand and scooped up some of the icy cold water. It tasted slightly odd—as if there were minerals or something in it—but it was refreshing and not unpleasant. She drank a couple more handfuls and then filled her water bottle.

Edric had stood up. He was staring intently down the great black throat of the cavern.

“What's wrong?” she asked.

“I thought I heard something.”

She stood up, tying the water bottle to her belt. “We should get out of here.”

Now she, too, heard the sound of movement in the darkness. They shrank together, staring into impenetrable nothingness.

A shape began to form at the far end of the cavern. Malevolent red eyes glinted.

“Run!” Tania shouted. She had seen those eyes before—in a nightmare.

But before they could move, the thing pounced forward into the light. It stood on four clawed feet and must have been six feet high at the shoulder. The monster had the rough-haired body and mane of a lion, but its hindquarters were bare of fur and covered in black scales. Its tail reared up, thick and segmented, lifting above its back like the tail of a scorpion, the barbed tip dripping thick yellow poison.

But the most horrible part of the monster was its face: It was the distorted and twisted face of a human being, all the more appalling because it
was
almost
human. The terrible bulging eyes burned red, the wide mouth was open, the lips drawn back to reveal jagged yellow fangs.

“A mantichore!” Edric whispered. “The guardian is a mantichore!”

Tania bent down and picked up a stone. With a fierce sweep of her arm she launched the missile at the creature. It was a good shot: The rock struck the monster on the forehead. But it didn't even seem to be aware that it had been attacked. It let out another deafening roar and gathered itself to leap.

They ran.

“Don't look back,” Edric said, gasping as they sprinted over the uneven ground.

“The black amber?” Tania said.

“I've got it in my tunic.”

They raced out of the cavern and into the hammering rain. The storm clouds seethed, as if the sky was convulsing above their heads. Tania heard the scrape and clatter of claws on stone behind them. She heard the monster's heaving breath, the thud of its feet on the ground. It sounded as if it was getting steadily closer, but she didn't dare look back for fear of tripping.

“This way!” Edric shouted, darting to one side. He was slightly ahead of her as they hit the sloping wall of the gorge. The stone was like broken black glass in the rain.

She scrambled up the rise, using hands and feet. Lightning forked across the sky. She heard the monster
bellowing. They were almost at the top now; she had no thoughts beyond reaching that sharp ridge.

“Come on!” Edric urged.

Her foot slipped on stones as sharp as knives. She fell onto one knee, crying out with the pain.

“Get up!” Edric shouted down. “It's closing in on us! I'll have to let go of you! I need both hands to get up this next bit.” His wet hand slid out of hers and he scrambled to the ridge. She got to her feet, deadly cold and soaked to the skin.

A deep snort sounded behind her. The mantichore was almost upon them.

“Tania!”

She looked up into the needling rain. Edric was crouched on the crater's edge, reaching down toward her.

This was the moment in her nightmare when Edric turned into Gabriel Drake.

Tania hesitated, not daring to take his hand. Living the nightmare.

“Tania!” He stretched down farther, his fingers spread. And then, before Tania could pull herself together, he overbalanced and fell, tumbling past her down the side of the crater.

He managed to bring himself to a halt but the mantichore was only a couple of meters below him, ploughing its way through the rain, its eyes furnace red, its bellows louder than the thunder.

Tania didn't stop to think. She had put Edric in danger; that was all that she knew. She stood up on
the steep slope, turning, catching her balance for a moment, and then jumping down. She crashed feet-first into the mantichore's head just as its jaws were about to lock on Edric's arm. Her weight knocked the monster back, but one of its claws raked across the back of her hand, drawing blood. Its great talons scrabbled on the loose stones as it slid down the hillside, still roaring, its scorpion tail thrashing. Tania hit the ground with stunning force, only just managing to grab hold of a jutting edge of rock to stop herself from plunging down in the mantichore's wake.

Edric was sprawled on the slope, his tunic torn open. He staggered to his feet, pulling her up. Together they scrambled up the last few feet to the top of the crater. Once they had reached the rim, Tania looked back into the teeming rain. The mantichore was bounding up after them again, roaring and gnashing its teeth, the fearsome tail poised to strike. Edric grabbed Tania's hand and pulled her headlong down the outside of the crater.