The Magic Lands (37 page)

Stepping through the gap in the
rock, emerging from the murky cave into bright daylight, he was
greeted by the sight of a gentle tide, splashing against a golden
beach. The waves foamed before moving away, only to come back once
again to leave their mark, the eternal motion of the sea beckoning
him forward. Moving swiftly, risking injury on the sharp rocks
protecting the cave entrance, Tom leapt onto the soft sand,
tumbling over as he landed. He just lay there for a moment before
jumping to his feet and walking closer to the water.

This is a
dream
his mind insisted, but he didn't want to listen.
It felt real to him and that was all that mattered. He breathed
deeply of the salt air and holding out his arms wide as if to
embrace the sea, he closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of the wind
on his face and the sound of the breakers.

After a while Tom began to
amble along the beach, attempting to stay just out of the incoming
tides reach, playfully dodging the surf. It was then that he
noticed a man standing beside the water's edge, a few hundred yards
ahead of him, apparently staring aimlessly out to sea. There were
no ships or boats to be seen, nothing but the rolling waves.

Tom made towards him and he
noted subconsciously that he felt no sense of apprehension, despite
the fact that, until now, everything he had encountered in this
alien realm had made him uneasy and wary.

"Hello!" Tom called, drawing
closer and turning slowly, the man regarded him with a friendly
smile.

"Oh, hello Tom, I'm glad you
were able to come," he said in a voice that Tom immediately
liked.

As he looked at the man, Tom
became certain that he had seen him before but though the face was
very familiar, he just couldn't quite place it.

"Aren't you going to ask how I
know your name?" the stranger questioned, an infectious amusement
shining in his eyes, bringing a smile to Tom's own face.

"No," he answered, still
grinning, "I'm used to things like that now. And anyway, I'm pretty
sure this is a dream."

Nodding, the man pointed back
along the beach, indicating the direction from which Tom had come.
"You've come a long way," he reflected, his expression now more
sombre.

"Not really, just from that
cave over there in the rocks," Tom replied with a shrug, waving a
hand half-heartedly to show what he meant.

"There are distances beyond
measure," the man stated, his gaze now fixed upon Tom.

"Do I know you?" the boy
questioned, still trying to place where he had seen the man's face
before but failing to make the connection. The stranger didn’t
answer, returning his gaze to the increasingly choppy waters. "I'm
sure I do," Tom maintained, searching his mind for the memory, "but
I can't quite remember where I've seen you before."

The man continued to look out
at the rising waves, the wind in his face, ruffling his long, dark
hair. "A storm is coming," he said softly.

“
Who are you?” Tom asked,
unsure why the question felt so important to him.

"I’m your friend, Tom. There is
a bond between us that can never be broken. Remember this, in your
time of need. Remember that whoever has faith can never lose, for
he will have no need to compete for love." He turned back and
smiled gently.

Tom looked deeply into the
man's eyes and felt himself swept away, as if the tide had come
suddenly crashing up onto the shore to take him back with it into
the depths of the sea.

Please don't make me wake up. I
don't want this dream to end.

"Time to continue our journey,"
came the voice of Elrin Jinn close beside him, intruding into his
slumber and reluctantly Tom opened his eyes.

"I had a wonderful dream," the
boy said with such emotion that his companion looked at him
carefully, before speaking again.

"Dreams mean a great deal in
these lands," Jinn said in earnest. "Are you fully awake now?"

"Yes," Tom confirmed, getting
to his feet, "but I just wish I could have had more time. There
were so many things I wanted to ask."

"Can't we rest for a while?"
asked Jack as they passed quickly through a copse of overhanging
trees. "We've been walking for ages. Surely we've lost them by
now."

"As you wish," responded the
badger, halting immediately, “but as for those who pursue us, they
will not give us up so easily."

They made themselves
comfortable beneath a large elm, a huge tree that towered above the
smaller ash and hawthorn that made up the coppice, and leaning
heavily against the massive trunk Jack stretched and yawned. "I’m
so tired," he muttered. "Do you know where we are?"

Mo did not reply at once,
seeming preoccupied with thoughts of his own but just as Jack was
about to ask his question again, the animal spoke.

"This region is known as Gravis
and though it holds many pleasures for the eye, it is not a place
much frequented by Men."

Another involuntary yawn
escaped Jack and he felt his eyes becoming heavy. As he began to
let his mind slip away into sleep, he heard Mo's voice saying,
"remember that sleep is not always restful."

But the words became distant as
Jack flew through a cloudless sky, his arms outstretched as if he
were an aeroplane or a giant bird. He wished that Tom was there
with him, sharing such an amazing and wonderful experience, but he
knew that his friend was lost and there didn't appear to be much
hope of finding him, not in the boundless fields and forests
through which they travelled. He continued to fly, time and space
no longer having any meaning for him, a sense of absolute freedom
filling him with joy. Maybe things would be all right after
all.

Looking down at the far-off
landscape below Jack saw a meadow crowded with wild flowers,
creating patterns of colour across the surface of the world.

Jack swooped lower, drawing
closer to them and touching the ground once more he stood very
still, not wanting to move and crush the delicate blooms. He
wondered how he could possibly make his way out of the field
without destroying hundreds of them, for already beneath his feet
where he had come to rest, he could feel the broken bodies of the
flowers he had already slaughtered.

In his head he could hear
them screaming.
MURDERER!
MURDERER!

"But I didn't mean to," Jack
called aloud, hoping they would understand and forgive him. "I had
no choice."

There is
always a choice
the flowers seemed to cry inside his
mind.

"No!" he shouted, "I wasn't in
control. Something brought me here. It just happened, I don't know
why."

But it gave you a thrill,
didn't it? It felt good to kill, to have the power of life and
death? Admit it, at least to yourself. At last you feel truly
alive, don’t you? At last you have found your place in the scheme
of things. You have found your calling.

The voice inside Jack's head
was no longer that of the flowers he had killed. This was another
voice, insidious and cold.

"No!" Jack bellowed, "I'm not
like the Wolf! I've never wanted to hurt anyone." A hideous
laughter began and grew louder and louder, seeming to violate his
mind and though he covered his ears with his hands it echoed on,
overwhelming him. "Please…leave me alone," Jack managed to beg,
dropping to his knees, barely able to hear himself above the
hateful sound.

Do you really want to be
alone?

The laughter had ceased
abruptly and now the voice was softer, compassionate.

I know that all you really want
is to be loved, and I will give you that and more. But even love
must be earned. You must wait for me, for the hunt is not over yet.
Be patient just a short while longer and then all of your pain will
be soothed away. You will never have to be alone again. This I
promise.

Jack hung his head so that his
face almost touched the flowers, the voice still whispering in his
mind, fading very slowly to leave him weak and dazed. He closed his
eyes. "It's only a dream…a bad dream. When I wake up, it will all
be over."

Opening his eyes, he was
relieved to see the big black and white face of Mo but the

badger only stared at him with
a grim expression of horror and fear. And scattered all about his
feet coloured petals covered the ground.

As they wandered through the
labyrinth of The Underland, Tom still reflected upon his dream
finding it difficult to concentrate, his thoughts drifting back as
he trailed behind his unfaltering guide.

At Jinn's direction he had
collected several rough chunks of rock from the chamber where they
had rested, each piece approximately the right size for use with
the catapult. They now rattled together inside his pocket and
although he was reluctant about using the thing, he knew it would
be an effective weapon if they were attacked again.

An image of the bird he had
killed rose up out of his subconscious and stubbornly refused to go
away, expanding until it seemed to fill every corner of his mind.
He gritted his teeth and tried to shake off the memory and focus
all of his attention on the figure of Elrin Jinn now several yards
ahead, but it was no use. He could not push it aside so easily.

How many times do I have to say
I'm sorry? How long will I have to keep paying for one mistake?

But he thought he knew the
answer to that question. He would pay until he had atoned for his
sins. It was up to him to make amends.

But what can I do?

He so much wanted to be
forgiven. And yet he could not forgive himself.

"We are making progress," came
the voice of Elrin Jinn drifting back along the tunnel, the man
almost out of sight. "Soon, master, you shall see the sky
again."

Tom felt comforted by this
news, as the longer he remained underground the more dejected he
became. If he could just escape from the confines of this
subterranean maze, then maybe he would be able to find his friends
again. That at least would give him some reason to hope. But faith
was an illusive friend. He had come to realise that. If you did not
protect and nurture it then it would surely die, murdered by
doubt.

"Look there," Jinn called,
slowing and gesturing ahead of them.

Tom peered beyond the man and
saw a small, blue door at the far end of the passage. "Is that the
way out?" he asked, coming to a halt alongside his companion. "I
won't be sorry to see the back of this place." He felt heartened by
the thought of returning to the bright world above and leaving the
darkness behind, but even as he spoke a rumbling began around them
and steadily increased, growing to such an intensity that Tom was
forced to clamp his hands over his ears, his face contorted with
pain.

"Prepare..." he heard Jinn
shouting at him, but the rest of the sentence was lost amid the
uproar.

"What?" Tom yelled, unable to
see the man, his vision a blur. "What!?" he cried again, putting
out a hand to grope the air, but he never knew if Jinn made any
reply for at that moment clay and earth came crashing down around
them, most of the tunnel roof collapsing as something massive came
bursting through. It was a white, clammy thing that undulated and
coiled as it burrowed through the earth, its thick trunk oozing
with a glutinous slime that dripped onto the ground and hissed like
acid wherever it fell.

And then it was upon him,
smothering him and however hard he struggled, he could not elude
the disgusting mass of its body, a terrible pain exploding in his
left thigh, his leg buckling beneath him, sending him crashing to
the hard floor. Inside his head a cruel, hostile laughter raged,
rabid with glee, escalating in pitch until he felt he would go mad
if it did not stop, and as he writhed on the ground he felt
something heavy and soft slide over him, enveloping his body,
pinning him down.

"Help!" he screamed, his voice
muffled, his flesh on fire where the slime made contact with his
skin. He fought to get up onto his feet but he could hardly
move.

"I am here, Tom," answered a
voice, at first sounding far away, then abruptly at his ear and all
at once the laughter in his mind was replaced by a piercing shriek,
an awful cacophony of rage. "Quickly," the voice ordered him. "This
way!"

Half dragged, he was bundled
away from the writhing bulk of the monster, supported by powerful
arms that guided him toward a blue door. All around them the earth
quaked, but Tom was only dimly aware of what was taking place. Even
though the terrible screaming in his mind had ceased, his head
would not clear and his body was alive with pain.

As they passed through the door
he staggered, his vision growing dim, his strength failing. "I'm
hurt," was all he could say. He felt confused and sick, weary to
the point of sleep, and he knew that if he were alone he would not
force himself on so mercilessly, that he would lay down where he
was and rest.

"Not much further, Tom," urged
the person who was now having to almost carry him along.
"Here!"

Looking down, Tom saw a strange
hole. The rim was made of stone the same as the floor, but the
interior of the opening appeared to be metallic, the smooth surface
glinting dully as it disappeared into darkness. Lifting his head
with the last of his strength, Tom saw that it was Elrin Jinn who
was holding him and even though he saw that the man's lips moved,
he could not make out much of what was spoken.
"Shock...help...slide." These were the only fragments of speech
that he understood and they meant very little to him, but he could
see that Jinn was pointing at the hole and that in his other hand
the man held a blade dripping with black fluid. Tom made to pull
away, panicking as he recalled how his skin had burned, only to
have Jinn grip him fast, bringing the dagger in front of his face.
"It was the Wolf," the man shouted, this time his words penetrating
the fog that choked Tom's senses. "It came to kill you. But it
failed."