The Shadowlands (5 page)

Lief felt ill. He had thought of another explanation, and he could see by Barda’s grim face that Barda had thought of it too.

The lizard’s tiny forked tongue flickered in and out for a few moments. Then, abruptly, it turned and scuttled back uphill. When it reached the invisible wall it stopped dead and fell back.

‘Yes,’ Barda said slowly. ‘That is what I feared. The spell does not stop people or creatures coming in. It only prevents them getting out.’

He, Lief and Jasmine looked at one another, the words hanging heavily between them. Then Lief began struggling to rise.

‘Stay still,’ Jasmine hissed, catching hold of his arm to hold him down. ‘You must rest. You hit your head—’

‘No!’ Lief gritted his teeth and pulled against her restraining hand.

Jasmine’s grip tightened and he fell back with a groan, his head swimming. ‘You said—you said something was coming!’ he mumbled. ‘We must—’

‘Do as you are told for once, Lief!’ said Barda grimly, drawing his sword. ‘We are as safe behind this rock as anywhere, at present. And whatever Jasmine can hear, I can still see nothing.’

The little lizard was scrabbling frantically at the invisible wall now, running along it for a short distance, then turning and running the other way. Every now and then it would raise itself and push with its front legs at the empty air, its tail thrashing frantically.

‘But—but why does the Shadow Lord not protect his border?’ asked Emlis in a high, trembling voice. ‘He has many of your people! Does he not fear that an army—or a small group such as yours—might cross the mountains and invade his territory?’

‘That is what he
hopes
for, I would say,’ muttered Barda. ‘He has left the way open, after all.’

‘But why?’ asked Emlis, his voice rising to a squeak.

The lizard fell back, exhausted. Instantly, an orange, spiny beetle-like creature sprang from a crack in the clay
just behind it. In the blink of an eye the orange creature had seized the lizard, bitten off its head, and dragged the still twitching carcase back under the earth.

‘Does that answer your question?’ asked Barda dryly.

Emlis stared at him, open-mouthed.

Lief turned his face to the rock, his stomach churning. Then he saw it. A mark had been scratched laboriously into the rock’s hard surface. He stared, hardly able to believe his eyes.

‘The sign of the Resistance!’ he breathed, tracing the mark with his fingers. His heart was pounding.

Another Deltoran had sheltered here. A Deltoran who had somehow escaped from captivity and made for the mountains, only to find the way to freedom barred. A Deltoran who had used, perhaps, his or her last strength not to weep and curse fate, but to scratch a message of defiance on the rock.

The despairing confusion that had clouded Lief’s mind ever since arriving in this dread place seemed suddenly to lift. Suddenly he was able to think again.

Barda was touching the sign now. ‘It is not fresh, but it is not very old, either,’ he said slowly. ‘A year or two at most, I think.’

Lief was remembering another Resistance sign he
had seen marked on rock. It had ended a message written in blood on a cave wall in Dread Mountain.

Doom had written that message: Doom, the only Deltoran captive ever known to have escaped from the Shadowlands. And he had escaped from…

Kree gave a low, warning squawk. ‘The light is changing,’ Jasmine whispered, reaching for her dagger.

Lief and Barda looked up quickly. The low, tumbling clouds were stained with faint, sullen scarlet, and the whiteness of the plain was dimming.

‘Surely something as small as a lizard would not have sounded a border alert,’ Barda muttered. ‘Such things must happen often.’

‘It is the setting sun,’ said Lief, looking to the west, where the clouds glowed more deeply. ‘Night is falling.’

They were silent for a moment. They had been in the caverns so long that they had almost forgotten that the days in the world above were ruled by the movement of the sun.

‘Doran said sunsets were glorious to see,’ said Emlis, gazing with disappointment at the clouds. ‘Doran said they were like red and orange fire blazing in the sky.’

‘Not here, it seems,’ Barda growled.

Jasmine was peering not at the sky, but at the plain. ‘Look,’ she breathed, pointing.

The plain was coming to life. Legs scrabbling, long feelers waving, spiny orange beetles were emerging in their thousands from the cracks in the clay.

L
ief looked down. The cracks in the earth near his feet were full of movement, though so far nothing had ventured to the surface.

‘I do not like this,’ Barda said. ‘We had better move on. Those insects are small, but there are many of them, and they are meat-eaters. If they are hungry enough—’

He did not complete his sentence, but he had said enough to make everyone stand hastily.

‘Which way?’ Jasmine looked desperately left and right.

‘West,’ Lief said instantly, turning to face the dark red glow that was the setting sun.

‘Why west?’ Jasmine demanded. ‘If we are to find the Shadow Lord’s headquarters in time—’

‘What?’ Barda interrupted, staring at her in disbelief. ‘What madness is this? The Shadow Lord’s
headquarters
? Why, that is the very place that we must avoid at all costs!’

‘But—but the slaves!’ Jasmine stammered, flushing
hotly. She had betrayed herself. She had forgotten that her companions knew nothing of her plans.

She was sure that Faith was somewhere in or near the Shadow Lord’s headquarters. The little girl had been secretly using something she called ‘the crystal’ to call for help. And where could such a magical object be, except in the Shadow Lord’s main stronghold? Somehow, Jasmine had to convince her companions to seek it.

Should she admit her secret at last? Tell Lief and Barda what Faith had said?

Almost immediately she decided she could not risk it. Not here, on this windswept plain, where every gust of wind brought the scent of danger. She had kept the secret too long for that. This was no place for argument, for loss of trust, for the angry words that she knew would burst forth from her as soon as they questioned her.

No, Jasmine thought. I have played a lone hand this far. I must continue doing so until the time is right.

‘The slaves must be scattered all over this cursed land!’ Barda was growling. ‘Why do you think—?’

‘Wait!’ Lief suddenly looked rapidly from side to side. ‘Where is Emlis?’

Shocked, Jasmine and Barda swung around. Emlis was no longer behind them. He had disappeared.

‘But—but he was
here
! Standing beside the rock!’ spluttered Barda.

‘Well he is here no longer,’ Lief said grimly. ‘He must have wandered away while we were arguing.’

It was growing darker by the moment. Quickly they
separated and, calling in low voices, searched the immediate area. But Emlis was nowhere to be found.

They came together again at the large boulder, all of them fearful and angry.

‘I cannot believe this!’ Barda ground his teeth in fury. ‘What game does the young fool think he is playing?’

‘We will have to go on without him,’ Jasmine snapped, burning with impatience. ‘There is no time to waste. And those insects are massing in their millions!’

Lief squinted over the plain. The clay, darkened by the setting sun, was now the same colour as the beetles. The insects would have been perfectly camouflaged except that they were so many. The ground seethed with them, rippling like water driven by the tide.

The ripples seemed particularly large at one spot, beside the nearest crater. It was as though waves were breaking over a large rock lying there.

My mind is still half in the secret sea, Lief thought. Then, suddenly, he leaned forward, peering intently through the gloom. Why would the beetles crowd so closely together just at that place? It was almost as if…

Hideous understanding shot through him like a thunderbolt. He shouted and sprang forward.

He could hear Jasmine and Barda chasing him, hissing to him to stop, as he ran out onto the plain, crushing dozens of beetles with every thud of his flying feet. But there was no time, no time to stop, to explain. No time to tell them why his stomach was heaving, his heart was racing…

In moments he had reached the heaving mass of beetles by the crater and was plunging his arms into its midst. Then, panting and shuddering, he was hauling the limp, bleeding body of Emlis from the ground.

Exclaiming with horror, Barda and Jasmine began beating the clinging insects from Emlis’s shredded garments, and tearing them from the raw, bloody flesh beneath. Around their feet, thousands of beetles scuttled in panic, fighting one another for space as they squeezed back into the cracks in the clay.

Emlis was groaning feebly, trying to speak.

‘How did this happen?’ shouted Barda. ‘Was he so mad as to walk out—’

The words dried in his throat. His eyes bulged. As he raised his sword, Lief and Jasmine swung around to look at what he had seen.

Shapes were rising out of the crater—ragged, shambling shapes with bared teeth and glowing eyes. Clawed hands reached for them. Low growls and piercing howls rose in a terrifying chorus of baffled anger.

Half carrying, half dragging Emlis, Lief turned and stumbled back towards the hills, beetles scattering before him. Barda and Jasmine backed after him, their weapons held in front of them to fend off the ghastly creatures crawling in ever greater numbers from the crater.

The creatures were like humans—yet hideously changed. Some were covered in hair, with fangs and tusks protruding from their gaping mouths. Some had shrunken limbs, long tails and scaly skin. Others had
humped backs covered in gleaming shell, twisted, insect-like legs and spiny fins for arms. Roaring and howling, they began to spread out, encircling the fleeing companions like a pack of animals closing in on prey.

Lief, Barda and Jasmine reached the rock marked with the sign of the Resistance and, speechless with horror, turned to fight. The creatures were coming at them from all sides. There would be no escape.

Then, suddenly, a shiver seemed to run through the savage horde and it stopped dead. There was a long, low rumbling like distant thunder and at the same moment the dim light brightened.

Instinctively, Lief looked up, and a cold shiver ran down his spine. Instead of the rising moon, which he had expected to see, another shape was forming in the sky. Huge and menacing it shone like cold white fire against the greyness of the clouds.

Moaning and whimpering, the creatures were falling to the ground, covering their eyes.

‘Now! Run!’ hissed Barda, heaving Emlis over his shoulder.

Together they left the cover of the rock, broke through the ring of creatures cringing on the ground and
began to run along the line of the hills, towards the west.

After only a few moments, they heard the sounds of pounding feet behind them and a terrible chorus of baying, grunting and howling. The creatures had recovered from their fear at the rising of the mark of the Shadow Lord, and were in hot pursuit.

Not daring to look back, the companions raced on, swerving around boulders, stumbling over the rough ground, buffeted by the relentless wind that gusted across the plain. Then they saw, not far ahead, something barring their way. A long, rocky outcrop jutted out into the plain, gleaming in the terrible light from the sky.

‘Over the top!’ Barda panted. ‘We—cannot risk—going around it. Must not let them—get in front of us!’

They reached the barrier and leaped upward, scrambling to the top and sliding down the other side.

Lief tumbled to the hard ground, jarring his shoulder painfully. As Jasmine landed beside him, he jumped to his feet and reached up to Barda, to take Emlis’s weight. Then he heard Jasmine shriek his name. He swung around, clutching Emlis in his arms, and saw something that made his blood run cold.

Not far ahead of them was another outcrop, higher than the one they had just climbed. And from its shadow, something was emerging—something huge and dome-shaped that gleamed with the same dull sheen as the rocks. Its vast body rippled and bulged horribly as it moved, as though the thick, smooth skin clothed flesh that was nothing more than quivering jelly.