Jack Shian and the Destiny Stone (21 page)

Marco and Luka had talked of the power of the map; and the justice of Gosol. But they weren't here. Papa Legba? No sign of him …

Jack looked down. His father lay, motionless.

Oh no: not again.

It came to Jack in a flash.

Who had tried to steer them away from the Blue Men of the Minch? Who had followed them all the way from Ilanbeg to Lyosach?

“Our brother will help to guide you …” “Our brother John will be watching you, from a distance …”

The eagle!
He has the power of Gosol … He came when the Urisk was beating Caskill …

Jack concentrated hard. Despite the cold, sweat broke out on his forehead.

We really –
really
– need some help here.

With a crash, the far wall imploded. Light flooded the room as the great bird flew in.

 

Jack shielded his eyes from the sudden brightness – but the shock to his system was nothing compared to the distress of the Boabans. Screaming and covering their eyes from the unaccustomed light, they made for the dark corridor behind them.

“It’s
lumos
!” screeched Hema.

Jack risked a peek to see where his father was, but it was the young girl and Ashray who came into sight.

“This way!” squeaked the Ashray.

She and the girl stood by the shattered masonry, and indicated for the prisoners to join them.

The eagle, which had perched on the rubble, now flew into the dining room and dropped a tatty leather volume in front of Jack. Then it wheeled round with a raucous squawk, grabbed the inert bodies of Phineas, Ossian and Kedge, and made for the hole in the wall.

Jack picked the leather book up, and saw the faint lettering on the cover.

Gosol
.

He felt a pulsing in his pocket …

Tamlina’s ring!

Quickly he took it out. His jaw dropped as he saw the three spiral arms becoming bold once more.

“The ring’s charging – I can feel it!” He slipped it on his finger.

“Iain! Gilmore!” called Enda. “Try your sceptres!”

“It works!” cried Iain Dubh exuberantly, pulling his sceptre out. Levelling it, he let fly with a volley of hexes that had the Boabans, still blinded by the light, cowering further back into doorways and recesses.

“Everyone! Make for the hole!” ordered Enda, as he joined Iain in firing holding hexes at the Boabans.

“Don’t just stun them!” shouted Cal. “If they’re spared, they’ll come after us!”

“Fenrig!” shouted Morrigan. “Don’t let them kill us!”

Fenrig looked over at his half-sister. Unlike the Boabans she had not been overcome by the sudden brightness, and now she knelt and implored her brother.

Fenrig was torn. His eyes fixed on his sister as he edged back to the hole in the wall.

“Mor,” he began.

“Fenrig, get out,” urged Jack, clasping the leather volume to his chest, and running for the hole.

The eagle, still clutching the three bodies, now flew off a short distance, and perched on a mound twenty yards away. The light in the dining hall had faded, and Jack found himself stumbling in the near-darkness. Enda, Finbogie and Cal had shouldered Murkle and the Twa Tams, and with the other prisoners they were now climbing over the rubble to get out. They emerged into a freezing sulphurous quagmire; once they were out, the swamp gas started to burn their eyes.

“We have to get off this island!” choked Armina. “Who can show us the way?” She gave a yelp as she stepped into an icy pool.

“Make for the eagle!” shouted Ishona.

As Jack neared the hole in the wall, he could see Fenrig sitting there, looking back at Morrigan. Alone, she looked around in vain: those of her comrades who hadn’t been stunned had all fled into the darker recesses of Fractals’ Seer. Morrigan withdrew her wand, and attempted to level it at the escaping prisoners; but Iain Dubh had seen her, and his hex caught her arm. Dropping the wand, she cursed loudly.

“Cal’s right: we have to destroy this place!” shouted Iain Dubh.

“Fenrig!” urged Jack.

The young Brashat, sitting on broken masonry, seemed frozen to the spot.

“They were going to kill us all, Fenrig!”

“No. Mor wouldn’t kill me.”

“Fenrig, she’s half Boaban. They were going to bleed all of us: it’s how they live.”

Fenrig was unable to move, even as his sister got to her feet and edged forward, her eyes narrowed. Jack grabbed Fenrig’s shoulder, and pulled him roughly over the rubble.

“Get away!” shouted Enda. “We’re taking this place down!”

The prisoners struggled in the murky wasteland to join the eagle, Jack half-dragging Fenrig along with him. When they reached the eagle, it hopped forward and grabbed the leather volume from Jack’s grasp.

“John?” asked Jack.

The eagle squawked.

“The air’s clear here!” exclaimed Ishona.

“Only around the eagle,” said Jack. “He’s protecting us.”

He turned to look at the castle. In the misty gloom he could make out shapes moving in the broken wall.

“Enda! They’re escaping!”

At a signal from the Irishman, all the able-bodied prisoners levelled their sceptres at Fractals’ Seer, and shouted, “
Deleo Structor!
”

The light from a dozen hexes lit up the murky atmosphere for a few moments, and there was an almighty crash as the masonry imploded. Then it splintered, spiralling up into the sky, and was lost to sight.

“What’s happened to it?” demanded Fenrig unhappily. “My sister’s in there!”

“We had to,” said Iain Dubh impatiently. “Did ye not realise they were going to bleed all of us?”

“We must go,” squeaked the Ashray, as the eagle flew off again.

“Where’d it go?” coughed Arvin, as the suffocating sulphurous gas descended.

“Why’d he leave us?” mumbled Ossian, who, like Phineas and Kedge, had slowly come round.

“They don’t usually intervene,” said Jack. “Marco told me: they encourage people to do the right thing. Otherwise they keep out of the way.”

“Bringing that wall down wasn’t keeping out of the way.”

Jack pondered this.

“I willed him in,” he said eventually. “But now we’ve got to help ourselves.”

The young girl tugged at Jack’s arm, pulling him along a barely discernible path.

“D’you know the way?” he asked.

She nodded, and began to trot away.

“Jack’s right!” shouted Enda happily. “The eagle wouldn’t leave us without the means of getting away! Come on! Follow her!”

Ossian and Phineas, both recovered now, shouldered the Twa Tams’ bodies, while Enda picked up Murkle’s gaunt frame. In the early dawn light the escaping prisoners made their uncertain way through the boggy swampland. The sulphurous gas that rose from the ground stung their eyes, burned their lungs, and made them half-delirious. But, as Jack kept repeating to himself, the further they got away from Fractals’ Seer the better.

As he stumbled after the young girl, he pondered.

What actually happened to the castle? It’s like it was blown to … ach! What do the humans call it? … smithereens!

Jack was woken from his near reverie by a whistling sound, as a piece of jet-black stone whizzed past his ear. Flint-like, and razor sharp, it was followed by another, and another.

“Take cover!” shouted Iain Dubh.

“There is no cover!” yelled Ossian.

Indeed, the featureless swamp offered no protection against …

“What are those things?” demanded Phineas, as the dart-like stones rained in on them.

There was a circling cloud of stones now: almost silent, they whirled around, diving and swooping at the prisoners.

“Cal!” shouted Enda; but it was too late for the Nebula man. A stone had pierced his chest, and he rolled over, motionless.

Iain Dubh wriggled over to his fallen comrade and wrenched the dart from his chest.

“It’s a piece of Fractals’ Seer!” he exclaimed. “The castle’s attacking us!”

The cloud above them seemed to intensify. Gilmore tried to use his sceptre to create a force-shield, but there was no power for Shian sceptres out in the swamp.

Jack looked up as the cloud divided into two. As the larger part flew a short distance off, the other circled above, still an angry, menacing weapon.

“What’s it doing?”

The answer came as the larger cloud gathered in intensity, first swarmed up then rained down just fifty or so yards away.

“It’s Fractals’ Seer!” gasped Jack. “The castle’s re-formed!”

And as the castle settled and shook itself slightly, Jack could see a figure crawling through the swamp towards them.

“Over here!” squeaked the Ashray. “We have to go down to go up!”

In the confusion, Jack had not noticed the girl edging away, but now he could see that the Ashray was frantically helping her to dig in a small hollow. Using their bare hands, they had already created a trench in the bogland.

Taking their cue, Ossian and Jack joined in, even as a new wave of darts rained down. The trench filled with bog-water that froze and stung the hands at the same time, but Jack worked frantically.

This girl knows something!

And she did. The other prisoners quickly joined in – even Fenrig. Leaving the bodies of their dead comrades aside, they dug furiously. Bog-water splashed up as a fresh wave of darts found the trench. Eventually, the base of the trench gave way, and they all tumbled through.

As with the fall into the cave at the start of the Bridge, there were screams and cries; but for Jack there was a great sense of relief that they were getting away from the darts, and whatever evil was coming out of Fractals’ Seer. The air in the cave was – well, not exactly fresh; but it wasn’t poisonous, like the swamp gas above.

As the bodies landed, Jack saw the girl pick the Ashray up and hug her. Then whisper in her ear.

She
can
talk!

The Ashray scuttled up to Jack.

“She says this is the Bridge of Impossibility.”

“What?!” screeched Armina. “That’s the evil bridge that brought us to this cursed island! And only dark magycks can open it!”

“No,” said the Ashray firmly. “That’s for coming here. Leaving is different.”

“Listen,” said Ossian, “we nearly starved to death on the bridge comin’ here, and we’re even worse off now than when we arrived.”

“Ossian’s right,” said Gilmore, grimacing as water from above dripped down his neck. “The whole point of coming here was to get the Raglan stone; and now the Kildashie have taken it away. We have wasted valuable weeks.”

“But we have the Gusog feather,” said Iain Dubh.

“Your feather is not going to get us off this island!” shouted Arvin. “Whatever time-tricks it plays for you on Nebula are no use to us now! The solstice starts tonight!”

Jack looked around. This wasn’t the same cave they’d arrived in; so how could it be the Bridge of Impossibility?

“Iain Dubh,” he said, “can the Gusog slow things down and give us more time to get away?”

“Gusog doesn’t slow time,” said Ishona impatiently. “It changes
us
.”

“Then what are we to do?” demanded Gilmore. “We can’t stay in this cave for ever. We’ve no food, and that blasted swamp-water keeps dripping in.” He jumped sideways as another gush of water fell from above.

“Wait a minute,” said Jack. “If this is the Bridge of Impossibilities, then it must be opened, right?”

“By dark magycks,” said Armina ominously. “This is no place for children to be playing.”

“I don’t think this is some game!” shouted Jack angrily. “This bridge is our only way off here! We
must
open it.”

“Why don’t you use the
Mapa Mundi
to show us where to go?” demanded Finbogie.

“I … I haven’t got it.”

Armina let out a howl of dismay.

“But I can get it back,” shouted Jack, trying to be heard above the wail.

He strode up to his father and put his hand out.

Smiling, Phineas handed him the sceptre.

“There’s no power for them here without your eagle,” said Gilmore gloomily; but Jack took it firmly, and then turned to the girl.

“Where do I summon him?”

The girl pointed at a pale rock in the cave wall. Jack marched sombrely forward, and hit the rock face three times.

“Papa Legba! Papa Legba! Papa Legba!”

The air seemed to hold its breath; and in that moment of stillness, the frail old man reappeared. He limped towards Jack.

“Are ye ready?”

It was the same thin reedy voice.

“We are.”

“And how many are ye now?”

Jack did a quick headcount. “Seventeen. One was killed up in the swamp, and three more in the castle.”

“But ye’re nineteen,” continued the old man.

Jack looked round, and started.

Morrigan and Hema stood by the opposite wall, brandishing their wands.

Hema walked slowly up to Papa Legba and smiled.

“So good of you to let us have this.” She indicated the
Mapa Mundi
around Papa Legba’s neck. “My daughter fooled that Shian boy into bringing it here. Of course, you’ve met my daughter before – she opened the Bridge.”

Papa Legba’s lip curled.

“
I
open the Bridge.”

“But Papa,” continued Hema, “these pirates have attacked our castle. We gave them shelter and food, and they have done violence to our sisters. You must not allow them to escape.”

“Oh, he won’t.”

In a flash Morrigan withdrew her sword, and thrust it through the old man’s chest. As it had before, his body crumpled to the ground.

The prisoners stepped back, but Jack ran forward and crouched down. He cradled the old man’s head, then turned to look at Morrigan. The fury inside him was so great that he couldn’t even form words to spit at her.

Then the old man shivered, and Jack felt him shake his head.

He’s alive!

As the old man levered himself up to a sitting position, there was a palpable change in mood. The escaping prisoners seemed to grow a little in stature, even as Morrigan shrank back.