Legend of the Three Moons (29 page)

The tunnel was two-people wide and its walls were covered in something damp and sticky. It had a high ceiling so at least they didn't bump their heads, which Celeste decided was lucky because, given the squeaking and rustling of bats nesting overhead, she was sure she knew just what it was that was oozing down the walls and making their boots stick to the ground.

They'd been feeling their way along the tunnel for what felt like forever when, from behind them, they heard the distant
slap, slap
of bare feet, followed by a tremendous roar that was so forceful it pushed them to their knees.

They scrambled up and ran on through the darkness with one hand on the sticky wall and one stretched out in front, so as not to bump into anything. The roar turned into a demented howl that sent panicking bats flying into their faces. Some latched onto Lyla and Lem's long hair, but they managed to pull the bats free and kept right on running.

They were bumping into each other in the dark too, but ran as fast as they could on the sticky floor, to get away from the pursuing mudmen.

Finally the tunnel began to slope upwards, but so steeply that they were soon slipping backwards with every second step. Celeste was imagining sliding into the arms of a mudman, when Lem shouted that he'd found the door but that it was locked.

Celeste clambered up beside him, unwound Splash from her wrist and held him up to the keyhole. In slithered the little green snake and moments later there were three clicks.

The mudmen's footsteps were so close behind them now that they all expected to be grabbed and dragged back.

Splash wriggled out again and, as soon as Lem pushed open the door, they crowded through and found themselves at the foot of a sandstone pinnacle - in the middle of a screaming, raging sandstorm.

`There isn't time for Splash to lock the door again,' Lem shouted as he slammed it shut behind them. `We'll have to hide.'

`Let me go now,' the Bird of Paradise said to Lyla. `I will meet the five of you, with the other talismans, in two nights time beside moon dial at the royal palace.'

`In two nights time,' promised Lyla, as the golden bird took flight.

The children began running as the first of the mudmen pushed open the tunnel door.

`We can't reach M'dgassy in two nights!' exclaimed Celeste, holding her cape over her head as she helped Chad to run faster. `You'll have to take the talismans and fly after her, Lyla.'

Lyla was about to remind her that the Bird of Paradise had said all of them, when an arrow zinged by her ear.

`We have to stop and fight!' Lem shouted.

Lyla shook her head. `There's too many of them. And they're surrounding us.'

As the mudmen, with their creeping lope and their small bows and tiny arrows, began closing in on them and the children figured things couldn't get any worse, they did. Through the howling wind and whirling sand they heard the booming of a Goch.

`Swords ready,' yelled Lem.

With their backs to each other, they circled to keep watch on the mudmen and squint at the lumbering Goch that was heading straight for them.

To their utter astonishment the Goch passed them by and smashed its long neck into the three closest mudmen. As they shattered into nothing, the Goch slammed another four mudmen, then another three.

`Ly-la, Ly-la! Where are you?' a guttural voice called out through the spiralling sand.

`It's Gochmaster,' gasped Lyla. `Over here Gochmaster, over here!'

The Goch swung round, dropped to its knees beside them and the Gochmaster stretched out his long arms.

`Climb up Ly-la,' he called, clasping her hand.

`Everyone, up on the Goch,' she shouted into the noisy wind. `Before the mudmen drag us under the sand.'

`Or shoot us,' muttered Celeste. She held her breath against the Goch's smell, climbed onto its back and then helped haul the boys and Nutty up.

The Gochmaster made sure they were all hanging on to each other, and then his Goch heaved itself to its feet. With jolting steps, it galloped away from the army of mudmen who were still pouring out through the tunnel door.

`When the sun rises we will be safe,' shouted the Gochmaster. `The Goch and the Gochmasters are the only creatures
becamed
by the High Enchanter that can survive sunlight.' Then he grinned. `I am happy I found you again, friend Ly-la.'

Lyla grinned back. `I'm happy you found me too, friend Gochmaster. Would you ask your Goch to stop at the place where the river disappears into the sand?'

The Gochmaster nodded.

`And do you know the fastest way to M'dgassy?'

The Gochmaster nodded again. `It is along the Forty Bend Road that edges the Boiling Desert and bypasses Babylon Forest.'

`Good,' Chad said. `I don't ever want to go there again.'

A few minutes later the Goch knelt beside the spot where the river disappeared into the sand. It was unrecognisable.

Lem slid off its back and counted twenty steps to the north. He searched for the large stone he'd used to mark the spot where he'd buried the casket. It wasn't there. He returned to the others with a sinking heart and told them the sand had covered everything.

`I was sure it was a safe place, and that I could find it again. But it's gone, I'm so sorry.' Lem's voice broke as he held back his tears of disappointment. `All that trouble and danger we went through, and our hard work was for nothing. The talismen are gone.'

His four companions were speechless as Lem's disappointment swept over them.

`What is he looking for, Ly-la?' asked the Gochmaster.

`A silver casket about this big,' Lyla widened her hands to show its size. `But the Boiling Desert has swallowed it up.'

`My Goch will find it. Tell the boy to climb back on.'

As soon as Lem was settled behind Swift, the Goch rocked back to its feet and, with its head close to the sand, began searching.

In the same moment that the morning sun broke the horizon and the pursuing mudmen disintegrated and returned to the sand, the Goch made a triumphant boom.

The long-necked creature swung its blind head back and nudged Lyla with the casket it held in its mouth.

The children cheered, the Gochmaster laughed and the Goch boomed again as he raced off across the sand.

 

It took them all morning to reach the deserted desert village of Fez, where the Forty Bends Road began or finished.

Lyla stared sadly at the ruined mud houses and broken mud walls and asked the Gochmaster how long the village had been empty.

The Gochmaster shrugged. `There have been no Fezians for as long as I have been becamed. Raiders say it is haunted.'

As they left deserted Fez, Lyla pointed to five crows perched on a skeletal tree. Both the tree and the crows looked exactly like a tree and five crows they had passed hours earlier on the edge of the Boiling Desert. `Do you think they're the same crows?'

`Unlikely,' Lem yawned.

They were all exhausted, and the rocking of the Goch had made them sleepy, so Lem tied his tunic around Swift to make sure his brother didn't fall off.

Lyla rested her head on the Gochmaster's shoulder and was soon fast asleep - and dreaming. She was flying over the Wind Horse Hills and below her marched battalion after battalion of uniformed Raiders. They were accompanied by hundreds of Goch and followed by at least fifty Bulgogi wagons. Lyla knew they were heading towards M'dgassy Royal Palace. She decided to count the battalions when a blinding flash forced her eyes to close. When she opened them again, everyone below had disappeared.

Lyla awoke with a jolt and discovered they were again passing a skeletal tree with five crows. `Are you awake, Swift?'

`Mmm.'

`Could you ask that tree how much further it is to M'dgassy? And ask it if those crows are the same crows we saw before?'

The Goch moved as close to the tree as it could and Swift leant out to touch a branch. `The tree says we will reach the Acirfa-M'dgassy border by nightfall and, yes, the crows are the same. They are called Watchers. The High Enchanter sees through their eyes, so he knows where we are.'

This unwelcome news made the Gochmaster urge his Goch to go faster. They reached the red-stone border markers of Ifraa by late afternoon. `Tomorrow morning we will be past Babylon Forest,' he announced.

`Not we,' Lyla told him. `You cannot come with us, Gochmaster.'

The Gochmaster frowned so hard that his thick eyebrows met in the middle, then he held up Chii's whale tooth necklace. `You gave me this because I am your friend. How can you leave me behind again?'

At his accusing tone Lyla's eyes filled with tears. `It's because I am your friend that I have to,' she argued. `If you come with us I'm afraid you'll disappear, like everyone in my dream. But I promise, if the three moons' eclipse breaks the High Enchanter's five enchantments, I will find you and your Goch no matter where you are. But for now you must go as far south as you can go to escape.'

The Gochmaster's eyes grew watery and he sniffed into his sleeve. `I thought when we met again that you would give me a name.'

Lyla looked surprised.

`Like you have a name, Ly-la.'

`Gochy sounds good,' suggested Swift with a smile.

He decided he liked the Gochmaster as much as he liked Edith and San Jaagiin.

`Gochwarrior is better,' said Chad.

`Sssshhh,' hushed Lyla. `I have the perfect name. It is Gochman the Hero. Gochman to your friends. Do you like it?'

`Gochman the Hero. Gochman to my friends,' repeated the Gochmaster, then smiled a wide toothy smile. `Yes, yes, I like it, Now a name for my Goch.'

The five looked at each other while they tried to think of one.

`Something that means big,' suggested Celeste.

`And brave,' suggested Chad.

`Finder,' said Lem. `Because he found the casket.'

`Finder,' repeated Gochman, patting his Goch's neck. `Your name is Finder. I like it.'

After they all promised, several times, to find him and his Goch after the eclipse, the five watched as Gochman and Finder turned south.

The children sprinted through the red-stone border markers and into Acirfa. Behind them the High Enchanter's crows flew off.

`Come on,' Lem said. `The sooner we get out of Ifraa, the better.'

`How will we know the way to M'dgassey if the sun isn't shining?' asked Swift.

`We'll follow the Ooms,' said Lyla, pointing to the high and circlular pile of stones on a distant hill.

They reached the first Oom in good time, then headed for the next and so on until it became too dark to see. A brisk breeze had also turned to a strong cold wind.

`We'll hollow out a space in this Oom and after we're inside we'll block the entrance with the stones,' said Lyla. `Celeste and I will keep first watch, then Lem and Swift. Chad can sleep through. Is your leg hurting, Chad?'

`No,' he said, but they all knew that he was being brave.

While the others slept curled up in the crowded space, Celeste and Lyla whispered about how they didn't think they'd reach the Royal Palace in time.

Lyla was about to admit that she missed Gochman already when a familiar sound made her grab Celeste's arm instead. The scary flapping noise was followed by the ear-splitting screech of a Bulgogi that had come to rest on their Oom's flagpole.

More screeching, all around the Oom and off into the night, woke the boys. Lyla put a warning finger to her lips so they all sat, with Nutty alert beside them, as still as Whale Island statues.

Outside, packs of Bulgogi flew back and forth over the Wind Horse Rider's hills for hours, snapping off the flagpoles and tearing the Ooms' blue flags to shreds.

The children remained silent until finally, just before morning, the Bulgogi flew back to Ulaan. Lyla sighed and stretched her legs, and Celeste let out the sob she'd kept bottled up all night.

`Do you think the Watcher crows told the High Enchanter where we were going?' Lem asked

`Probably,' said Lyla. Then they pushed at the rock barricade so they could get out of the Oom. And, not a moment too soon. As they all tumbled out onto the grass, the hillside began to tremble and the Oom collapsed.

`Was it an earthquake?' Swift's question ended in a whisper when the ground-shaking stopped.

`I don't think it was,' Celeste said, looking at the long grass of the Wind Horse hills that had been blown flat overnight, and the morning sun that was having a hard time shining through the charcoal-grey clouds.

`Maybe it's-' Chad stopped, as the ground rumbled again. This time it was accompanied by the sound of horses - lots of horses - approaching them over the rise at a canter.

`Raiders!' cried Celeste.

With nowhere to run, and no time to grab their weapons, the children simply stood their ground, waiting for - nothing.

The grass and dust in front of them was kicked up as the cantering noise slowed to hoof stomping and the jingle of bridles. But there were no horses, no riders. There was nothing but the sound of jingling halter bells and snorting horses.

`Who's there?' Lyla demanded.

The answer came from the empty air in front of her.

`We have been tasked by Princess Elle to take you to M'dgassy Royal Palace. But to prove you are who we seek, you must tell me why you wish to go there.'

Lyla was about to tell him when she stopped herself. What if he was an invisible creature
becamed
by the High Enchanter? `Show yourself first.'

They heard a chuckle then the breeze that had been blowing ever since they'd heard the galloping began to blow harder. It blew Lyla and Lem's hair over their grubby faces, and all five of them were forced to close their eyes. When they opened them again they saw their first ever Wind Horse Riders.

Dressed in white leather jerkins, riding trews, capes and boots, the thirty or so Wind Horse Riders were both men and women. All had Tartik Island ice-blue eyes, and all wore their hair long, the men to their shoulders, the women to their waists. Across their chests and backs were slung silver bows and quivers covered in wind-writing runes, and from their belts hung ornate silver scabbards.

Their Wind Horses were magnificent, with hides as white as summer clouds, curling white manes and tails that would have swept the ground but for the silver ornaments that held them up. They tossed their fine heads and stamped their silver-painted hooves impatiently while their riders calmed them in a whispered horse language.