Legend of the Three Moons (25 page)

The contortionist, who was the image of Plus One, somersaulted backwards into the grand gert wearing a tight pink costume and holding a bundle of hoops. Smiling at everyone she twisted herself into the most abnormal shapes, did double somersaults in mid-air, and gyrated the hoops around her wrists, ankles, neck and waist until their colours blended. The audience applauded happily until they saw General Tulga's thunderous frown, then their clapping petered out.

`Messenger! Kneel so that Quattro can balance on your back,' he shouted, the beer slurring his words.

A Raider dragged Lyla over and pushed her to her knees. With a quick flip, Quattro balanced on Lyla's shoulders.

`Plus One and your sisters are looking for you,' Lyla whispered.

Quattro somersaulted over Lyla's head, then flipped back up to balance on one hand on her head. `I cannot escape.'

`What are you saying?' General Tulga demanded.

`I am telling the messenger where I will put my feet, General.'

`Don't! You have spoilt the entertainment. Leave me before I find someone or some animal for you to fight. A snake perhaps, you could coil around each other until it crushed you.'

This idea so pleased him that his frown was replaced by an evil grin that made Quattro stumble out of the gert in fear. The General then waved his taloned fingers at the twenty-four drummers and, as the drumming commenced, the guests rose from their cushions and headed for the gert's exits.

Four Raiders dragged Lyla and the Gochmaster away.

`What will happen now?' Lyla asked one of them as he pushed her roughly down the southern steps.

`The General will sleep. You will practise your famous fighting moves, and I will wager my coin on the eagle and the bear,' he said, shoving her under the great gert's platform.

Back in the cage the Gochmaster caught hold of Lyla's hands. `Thank you. Thank you for not shooting me. Tomorrow, if we fight each other, I will let you win.'

Lyla pulled her hands free. `We are not going to fight anything tomorrow. We're going to escape.'

Lyla waited until there were no more bear grunts, wolf whines, wings fluttering or guard's footsteps marching around the platform, then she placed a pinch of the metal-melting powder onto one of the cage's bars. Two more pinches and she and the Gochmaster were free.

Lyla went first and the reluctant Gochmaster tiptoed behind as they made their way up the southern entrance staircase into The Grand Gert. Four lanterns lit up the huge empty gert, sending elongated shadows dancing across the tapestry-covered walls and the golden curtain hanging behind General Tulga's throne.

`Stay behind the drums,' she whispered, then she crept towards the curtain and drew it aside. Sprawled across an enormous couch was the General, still wearing his brocade robe, gold mask, talons and studded boots. Draped over him was the eagle feather, wolf and bear skin cape.

Between Lyla and the black eagle's golden pedestal slept the two black bears.

She held her breath and slipped past the bears, hesitating once with her heart thumping like a drum when one let out a loud snore. On reaching the other side of the couch she saw movement, and froze.

So did whoever or whatever was looking at her. Lyla took a tentative step. So did whoever or whatever. Wishing again that she still had her dagger she edged forward...

And almost crashed into a mirror. Seeing her own frightened face reflected in its surface, she held her breath - and almost laughed at herself - while the disturbed general rolled over. The chained eagle was forced to hop from the pedestal to the couch-head, and the skin and feather cape slipped to the floor.

Lyla moved silently around the mirror to the couch-head.

`Father, I have a powder that can release your wings but I have no dagger to cut through the leather leash to free you. Will I look for the general's sword?'

`
There is no time. The Blue Mist is coming. Break the chains and take the talisman. Hurry
!'

Lyla sprinkled the powder, and the gold links around the bird's wings dissolved so fast that she just caught the chains before they hit the floor. The general sighed as they clinked together and one of the bears placed its snout in his master's hand.

`Sleep Odiin,' Tulga muttered. `Tomorrow you will feast on messenger and Gochmaster.'

Lyla waited until he settled back into sleep, then the eagle spread its wings so she could pluck out its bluest feather. She turned to make her escape but found the very tall, black-furred Odiin blocking her way. In his huge paws was the general's cape. The bear seemed to be offering it to Lyla.

`
Take it
,' said her father's voice. `
Odiin is no more a bear than I am an eagle, and while you have the cape General Tulga cannot change into a bear, wolf or eagle to hunt you down
.'

`Thank you,' Lyla thought to her father, and smiled at Odiin. She clutched the cape and the blue feather, sped across the room, out through the curtain and across the gert to the shivering Gochmaster.

`We have to go. Now,' she whispered.

The cliff edge was a long way away for someone not used to walking and Gochmasters seldom walked. With his strength flagging the Gochmaster stumbled past the Raiders' gerts, the penned animals and the horse stables, all the time fearing his smell would alert them. Finally, as they neared the whispering grass, he sunk to the ground. `I can go no further.'

Grabbing his long arms Lyla hauled him to his feet. `You have to. The Blue Mist is coming. I'll help you to the cliff edge. After that...'

Lyla didn't want to think about after that. Not if the Blue Mist followed them into the cleft or hurled them over the cliff. Now would be a good time to really be able to fly, she thought, as she stuffed the remaining peppermint root into her mouth.

The Blue Mist caught up with them as she was lowering the Gochmaster over the cliff to his first foothold. Part of the mist wound itself around the Gochmaster's wrists, while wispy tendrils, like long blue fingers, wound around her ankle and the General's cape.

`No!' she yelled, pushing the cape over the cliff. It dropped out of sight. She kicked at the Blue Mist which disintegrated then formed again, this time winding around her neck to choke her.

Lyla teetered on the cliff edge and then, still holding on to the Gochmaster, she fell.

The Blue Mist stretched itself into a thin ribbon in its attempt to catch her and the shrieking Gochmaster. But the Blue Mist was unable to leave Table Mountain and they had already fallen out of reach.

Only they weren't actually falling.

Lyla was astounded they weren't droppng like stones, and even the Gochmaster had stopped panicking. While he had been shocked into silence, Lyla was simply amazed.

Although she wasn't flying the way she did in her dreams she was, nonetheless, flying. She was doing what birds did when they floated on an up-wind. She was gliding down on an air current that took the two of them over sleeping Ulaan Town and Ulaan camp and into the Shambala River Gorge.

She was starting to worry about where they would land, when a bigger problem presented itself. Screaming Bulgogi - five of the hairy-bellied creatures were hanging from the swinging bridge.

Just as she saw them, they spied her and the dangling Gochmaster. Their teeth clashed, their wings stretched to full width with a snap, and one by one they dived straight at them.

With her heart pounding Lyla held out her left arm in an attempt to fly,
really
fly this time, before a Bulgogi sank its claws into her shoulders or snapped her in half with its horrible beak. But she and the Gochmaster continued to fall.

With the river racing up to meet them she barely had time to ask the Gochmaster, `Can you swim?' before a low-swooping Bulgogi caught hold of her hair and all three hit the water with a mighty splash.

As they sank into the river's depths the Bulgogi let go of Lyla and struggled upwards but its heavy wings and hairy body weighed it down and it was dragged away by the current. Lyla saw it swirl by as she fought to loosen the Gochmaster's grip around her neck.

Long bubbling trails of air left her body as, kicking and struggling, she reached the surface and gulped in air. Overhead the other four Bulgogi flew across the surface of the river, raking it with their extended talons.

Lyla heaved the limp Gochmaster up beside her and allowed the current to push them towards a distant reed-filled bend where the water was shallower. Twice, with her hand over the Gochmaster's mouth so he wouldn't breathe in any water, she let them sink out of sight as a Bulgogi flew too close; and twice she dragged the limp Gochmaster back to the surface, hoping that he was still breathing.

When they finally reached the bend, Lyla pulled the waterlogged Gochmaster in amongst the matted reeds, snapped off two dry stems and stuck one in his mouth and one in her own. Then she pushed him below the muddy water and held him there, while she hung onto the reeds breathing through the stem. Above them the Bulgogi screamed and searched, and screamed again in frustration at not being able to find them.

Lyla was tired and frustrated. If only dawn would come, she thought. If only the Bulgogi would go away. If only the Gochmaster hasn't drowned.

Hours passed before the sky turned the palest of oyster pink and the last Bulgogi flew back to their cages.

Shivering with cold Lyla dragged the Gochmaster up onto the bank where she began pressing on his ribs to force any water out of his lungs. `Press, breathe, count, press, breathe, count,' she muttered, fighting back her tears.

`Don't be stupid,' she scolded herself out loud. `He isn't real. He's not a person. He was
becamed.
'

But it made no difference. She did not want the ugly little Gochmaster, who had defied General Tulga because he loved his Goch, to die.

With a cough and a grunt the Gochmaster opened his bulging eyes. She was so relieved she wanted to hug him. Instead she growled at him. `You should know how to swim. You almost drowned.'

Sitting up he flexed his long arms, wriggled his feet and grinned at her. `But I didn't. You saved me, Raider messenger. You saved me twice. Once from General Tulga and once from the river. I am your servant forever.'

Lyla sat back on her heels. `Thank you, but I don't want a servant forever. I just want to find my brothers and cousins.'

She felt inside her jacket to check that she had the blue feather talisman. It was wet but still there.

`I'm going to follow the river until I reach the Boiling Desert. The field where your Goch is should be on the way. Do you wish to accompany me?'

`I will go with you, Raider Messenger. I am your servant forever.'

During their day's walk they saw no one nor did they pass a farm or village so, apart from the Gochmaster walking too slowly and both of them being hungry, there was nothing to do but talk.

Lyla told the Gochmaster about the Forest, her brothers and cousins and how she wasn't a Raider messenger and that she wasn't a boy; that she was a girl called Lyla.

After he'd recovered from his surprise he told her that as he was
becamed
he had no brothers or cousins and no name other than Gochmaster.

`Does that mean the High Enchanter could
un-became
you if he wanted to?' asked Lyla.

Her tactless words made the Gochmaster scowl so heavily that his eyes disappeared under his thick eyebrows and he scuffed his feet angrily.

Feeling bad about upsetting him she changed the subject and told him how, after she found her brothers and cousins, all of them would be continuing east as they had an important task to accomplish.

The Gochmaster brightened up immediately. `And my Goch and I will go with you.'

Lyla shook her head. `No, you can't. It's too dangerous.'

`My Goch is very strong.'

`But hard to hide.' She didn't add, and very smelly.

`Don't you want us to accompany you?' demanded the Gochmaster.

Faced with having to tell the cruel truth, which was that she didn't want him or his Goch to come with her, Lyla resorted to stressing how dangerous it would be.

By late afternoon when they reached an area dotted with holes, prickly-pear cacti and nettles they were both exhausted and Lyla suggested they find a safe place to sleep. With so many holes they soon found one large enough.

`Once it is middle night we must not move or the Bulgogi will get us,' warned Lyla. Then, although her stomach rumbled and she was worried that General Tulga might have found his cape and was stalking them as an eagle, wolf or bear, she fell asleep.

She awoke to find the sun streaming into the hole, a pile of peeled prickly pears beside her, and the Gochmaster sitting on the rim of the hole eating a pear. `I have found my Goch,' he announced happily.

The hole into which his Goch had fallen was so close to where they'd slept, that Lyla was amazed they hadn't smelt it or seen its grey head poking up above the nettles and cacti. It was also so deep she couldn't believe the heavy creature hadn't broken its neck. Instead it was balancing on its large, hind legs with its front legs propped against the hole's sides, swinging its blind head back and forth, overjoyed at smelling its Gochmaster.

`We will stamp down one part of the hole to make a ramp so it can walk out,' explained the Gochmaster.

`And I'll help by throwing in rocks,' said Lyla.

By middle day she had thrown in all the rocks she could find within a ten-minute walk of the hole. As she dropped in her last rock she called to the Gochmaster.

`Your Goch will be free by evening and I must be going. I wish you and your Goch good luck and hope that you are never caught by the Raiders and never un-becamed by the High Enchanter.'

`But we must go with you.You saved my life. I am your servant forever,' cried the Gochmaster, urging his Goch to climb the steep slope. But the earth was not yet firm enough and the Goch slid back.

`No, you are not my servant,' Lyla called back to him. `You're my... my friend. And friends don't put friends in danger. So you can't come with me.'