Through the Tiger's Eye (29 page)

‘Close, but not so close. One person, I think, but we still have some time. Pablo, you take the children in the other room to the tunnel now, and wait. We’ll see if the guards have the keys for these chains.’

Pablo vanished and Lucy and Carlos checked the pockets of the sleeping guards. Nothing. They undid the guards’ shirts. Nothing.

‘We’ll have to smash the frame,’ said Carlos.

‘It will make so much noise!’

‘We have no choice.’

That vibration was getting closer. Lucy looked frantically at the chain on Ricardo’s neck. It was only a tiny padlock and tiny chain. Surely if she just twisted . . .

‘That hurts!’ said Ricardo, way too loudly.

That’s when Lucy felt the vibration intensify. Feet, running. A few seconds later she heard the front door of the house creak open and footsteps pound up the hallway. Carlos and Rahel shrank behind the door and Lucy was left with one hand on her little brother’s chain. Ricardo raised his plastic sword in defiance as the Ponytail Zombie lurched into the room, a ghastly smile on his face. But when his bloodshot eyes swept over Lucy he took two steps back, an involuntary hand going to his throat. He made a choking sound.

Incredibly, he turned to run, but Carlos and Rahel leaped from behind the door and pushed him. Already off balance, he stumbled and fell, hitting his head with a sharp crack on the door frame. He groaned once and was quiet.

Rahel bent over him.

‘He’s still breathing.’

‘Check him for the keys,’ hissed Carlos.

Rahel searched.

‘He does not have any.’

‘What are we going to do?’ Lucy was distraught.

‘I’m going to check the other guards,’ said Carlos. Rahel darted outside after him but was back in seconds.

‘Someone else is coming. We must hurry!’

Lucy stared at the lock on Ricardo’s neck as though concentration alone would be enough to break the lock. It wasn’t, and those feet were getting closer. With a last desperate look at Ricardo, Lucy breathed: ‘We have to hide. Don’t tell them anything’.

Lucy ran down the hall after Rahel. As she reached the verandah she registered the smell of cigarette smoke. Too late, she knew something was wrong. Like a slow-motion movie, she watched Rahel trip over an outstretched leg and tumble down the stairs. Then a brown-shirted figure turned and tackled Lucy, throwing her after her friend.

Lying breathless in the dust, Lucy felt heavy footsteps, and she rolled over instinctively to see what was coming. A bright torch flashed on, and the Commander loomed over her.

He took a leisurely drag on his cigarette before speaking to Rahel, but not in English. Lucy risked a glance at Rahel. Whatever he’d said had made her white with fury. She clenched her fists and tried to scramble up but the Commander crunched his heavy boot down on her wrist. Rahel cried out in anger and pain.

‘Leave her alone!’ Lucy screamed and jumped up. She wasn’t quick enough. The Commander’s gun was trained on her before she could take a step. He stared at her curiously. In the light from the blazing firepit, his scar shone silver.

‘Ahh, another visitor,’ he said in English. ‘My idiot militia speak of a girl ghost, but I do not believe in ghosts. I believe in foreigners who visit without being asked and cause trouble. This is what you were looking for, no?’

He opened his shirt and Lucy saw a chain with a set of tiny keys around his neck.

‘If you want the other little visitor, then you will have to talk to me first. I will look forward to that tomorrow in Telares City.’

As he stepped towards her, something seemed to catch his eye. He looked sharply at Lucy, then lunged and ripped the key to the dragon chest from around her neck.

‘So, you came to steal a key and you have had one stolen instead,’ he gloated.

He didn’t gloat for long. A furious, growling mini-tornado leapt from the undergrowth and wiped the smile from the Commander’s face. T-Tongue sank his teeth into a uniformed ankle. The Commander kicked him off, but T-Tongue came back for more. Inspired and suddenly free, Rahel launched herself, just like the Tiger-cat in one of its furies, at the Commander’s head. She clung to him, scratching and clawing. He dropped the torch, threw her violently to the ground and with T-Tongue clinging valiantly to his calf, drew back a boot to kick her.

That’s when Lucy felt a rumble begin in her feet – no, not in her feet, in the very earth itself. She felt thunder boil up in every cell, making her very bones tremble. A storm gathered in her chest in a mighty coil. In the instant of silence just before she unleashed a roar of pure fury, Lucy saw that the Commander had stopped in mid-kick, his foot still swung back. He was staring appalled at Lucy, as though mesmerised with fear. Her eyes bored into his. He was transfixed, unable to move, held captive by some force Lucy couldn’t see, let alone control. Then a mighty roar erupted from her throat and he jerked into action again, aiming his gun.

Too late – the storm was upon him. But the fury that descended on the Commander came from an unexpected direction.

The tiger struck so fast, Lucy was aware only of blinding speed and power, and then the Commander was face-down in the dirt, screaming in fear and pain, his back a bleeding mess of fabric and flesh. Golden eyes held Lucy’s for a long second, before the beast gathered itself in a sinuous crouch and leapt with muscular grace into the darkness. The Commander’s fists clenched and unclenched as he tried to rise, then he lay still.

And Lucy could
taste
the tiger’s fury.

In the blistering silence, a clear voice spoke from the shadows.

‘That is one tiger who will not be a blanket for your bed!’

Sarong Lady stepped from the shadows, an ancient curved sword in her hand. She held its lethal tip to the Commander’s neck.

‘I promise you, if the man-eater had not attacked first, you would have been bleeding from my claws. Never would I let you hurt my own niece!’

‘Larissa?’ Rahel breathed.

‘Greetings, Rahel. I told you I would help you.’

Lucy had her own family to think about. She ran to the Commander. The tiger’s claws had torn the chain from around his neck. She grabbed the tiny keys from the dust and ran back inside the mermaid house, T-Tongue faithfully at her heels.

Ricardo sat with his head bowed. When he looked up she could see he had been crying. He must have thought she would not come back. T-Tongue launched himself at him, taking full advantage of Ricardo’s prisoner status.

‘What happened?’ he asked, as Lucy unlocked his collar. ‘I heard something roar!’

‘The tiger clawed the Commander and Sarong Lady is Rahel’s auntie.’

‘Huh?’

‘Really, she’s Rahel’s auntie. She must be a rebel. And you’re going to love this – she’s got a sword! Help me get these kids free.’

They unlocked the children’s chains and the little Telarians stood shivering, as though afraid to move.

‘We have to chain these guys up,’ said Lucy, pointing at the sleeping guards. It looked as though they would sleep for days, but Lucy didn’t want to take any chances. Then she remembered the Ponytail Zombie. He was gone!

‘Hurry. We have to get out of here!’ she urged Ricardo. ‘The Ponytail Zombie is somewhere around here! And the drugs didn’t seem to work on him.’

They slipped the neck chains around the ankles of the guards and beckoned to the Telarian children to follow, but they just huddled closer together.

‘They’re too scared. They don’t know us. We need Rahel,’ Lucy said.

Lucy and Ricardo ran outside. Sarong Lady still held her sword to the Commander’s neck.

‘Cool sword!’ said Ricardo, ‘I’ve got one too,’ he said helpfully, brandishing his own.

But Sarong Lady was not listening. At a distinctive birdcall she laughed and whistled in return. In that instant, she took her attention and her sword off the bleeding soldier on the ground. It was the break the Commander needed. He stumbled to his feet, catching Sarong Lady by surprise, and pushed her violently to the ground. Then he staggered with surprising speed into the jungle in the direction of the village, a hand clutched to his blood-soaked shoulder.

Shadows jumped from the trees, some brandishing the same old-fashioned swords as Sarong Lady, some carrying simple axes. They chased the injured Commander, but Sarong Lady jumped to her feet and called them back with a sharp Telarian order.

‘He will not get far,’ she said reassuringly, seeing Lucy’s concern.

‘Not without these,’ said Carlos, appearing from nowhere. He swung a cluster of spark plugs triumphantly in the air, freshly liberated from the Commander’s truck.

Everyone grinned admiringly.

‘And without this,’ said Sarong Lady, picking up a mobile phone from the ground, ‘he is lost. I believe there may be some interesting numbers in here. Let’s see . . .’ She pressed a series of buttons with an expert hand.

‘Just as I suspected. The Bull General will not enjoy his next phone call.’

Carlos looked delighted.

On a sudden hunch, Lucy stepped forward.

‘Is there anything under A, A for Adams?’

Sarong Lady looked at her curiously and checked.

‘Abero, Acullio, yes, Adams, Nigel Adams.’

‘Nigel Scar-Skull!’ Lucy and Ricardo repeated together.

‘But this is an international number,’ Sarong Lady exclaimed.

‘Well, it’s a long story,’ started Lucy, but Sarong Lady had turned abruptly to Rahel.

‘Where is Toro?’ she asked, frowning.

‘He’s close and he is safe,’ said Carlos. ‘It will not take long to get him.’

‘There are many more children inside,’ said Lucy. ‘They are very frightened.’

‘By tonight everyone will be safe in the rebel base,’ promised Sarong Lady. ‘We have planned this for many months. That is why I was sent to the village. The Commander never suspected.’

‘But you were so close and I didn’t know,’ Rahel protested. ‘I would have felt so much better if I had known you were there.’

‘No one could know. Someone would have betrayed us otherwise. But someone was helping anyway. Soella, the old woman. It was she who drugged the soldiers, yes?’

‘Yes. We must take her with us!’

‘And here is my other helper,’ said Larissa, as a familiar figure stumbled down the stairs.

‘The Ponytail Zombie?’ said Lucy, Rahel, Carlos and Ricardo together.

The Ponytail Zombie saw Sarong Lady and his face lit up. Then he saw Lucy, took a step sideways, swayed, and fell down the stairs.

‘Yes, Bernardo has been helping the rebels for months, giving us information. That was how I knew what camp you were held in.’

‘But he is drunk all the time!’ Lucy couldn’t believe Ponytail Zombie was working with rebels.

‘He may be drunk, but he is loyal,’ said Larissa. ‘And when he is not drunk, he is very useful. He tells me everything the Bulls do not want me to know.’

‘Oh,’ said Lucy.

The Ponytail Zombie sat up and stared at Lucy again, his hands creeping to his throat nervously.

‘But lately he has been worse,’ said Larissa. ‘He keeps speaking to me of a girl ghost who turned into a snake and strangled him. Perhaps he
should
stop drinking.’

45
Goodbye

Soella the Bucket Lady had done a really good job. When Larissa and the rebels dragged all the militiamen into the jungle jail and locked them in, not one of them woke up.

Then things happened so fast, Lucy felt as though she were in a dream. Larissa gathered all the Telarian prisoners together and her shadowy rebels led them into the jungle.

‘We must leave immediately,’ she told Lucy. ‘We have a truck hidden not far away. You must come with us. You will not be safe here. It will be crawling with Bull soldiers soon enough. You have helped my family and Telares. Now it is our turn to look after you.’

‘No thank you,’ said Lucy. ‘We’d better be getting home. Mum and Dad don’t really know where we are.’

Larissa looked puzzled. ‘But where is your home? There is nothing around here but tiny villages and they are all under the boot of the Bull. I do not understand.’ She looked suspiciously from Lucy to Ricardo.

Rahel jumped in.

‘I will explain later, Larissa. Lucy and Ricardo will be OK. They will get home safely. Now we must fetch Toro and the others.’

Then Lucy was running through the jungle with Carlos, Rahel and Ricardo. The Tiger-cat was waiting for them at the turnoff to the tunnel and once they were inside she would not stop purring.

Pablo and Toro could not believe the news.

‘Sarong Lady is Larissa?’ breathed Pablo wonderingly. ‘I thought she was a traitor!’

Rahel shot him a dangerous look but he did not notice.

‘And the Ponytail Zombie, he is with the rebels?’ he continued, incredulously.

‘Yes, he told them where we were. That is how Larissa found us.’

But then they had to hurry. It was hard for Rahel to convince all the new kids that it was safe to go back, but she managed eventually. The procession swayed like a blind centipede down the tunnel and into the Telarian night.

With Lucy carrying Angel, they gathered in a huddle at the jungle jail.

Carlos started to speak but started coughing instead and couldn’t stop for ages. He was getting worse.