Quest for the Sun Gem (11 page)

The second guard turned and lunged at Lily, grabbing for her arm. Marnie barrelled into him, knocking him off course. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a silver whistle, which he blew shrilly. A distant pounding of footsteps could be
heard from the port deck, over the roar of the prisoners from both cells.

Willem looked up at his children beseechingly. ‘Go. Go. Please go,’ he yelled.

Ethan glanced at Lily. She nodded. One of the guards was at the back of the cell, holding back the group of loudly protesting courtiers and royalty. The other was blowing loudly on his whistle, struggling to take the dagger from Marnie on his back. Willem ran to distract the second guard, while Ethan and Lily lunged for the open door.

They had nearly reached the ladder when the thud of running footsteps became a loud thunder. Lily tugged at Ethan’s shoulder and they slipped into the shadows behind the barrels at the foot of the ladder, huddling into their black cloaks. A stream of booted legs pounded down the ladder and across the hold towards the cells.

When the last boot had thundered down the corridor, the two children clambered up towards the dim starlight above.

‘Stop there,’ yelled a voice behind them, but they kept on scrambling.

A dagger whistled past their legs, juddering into the timber wall. But still they climbed. A youthful-looking guard leapt for their ankles,
recklessly waving his cutlass. He caught hold of Lily’s foot and stabbed viciously at her leg, just as her body disappeared through the manhole.

Lily cast off her cloak and it dropped back down the hole, entangling her attacker’s face and sword arm. She kicked herself free and kept running as blood streamed down her leg, slicking the deck with its sticky redness.

Wordlessly they both ran towards the bow as fast as they could, panting for breath, their hearts thudding. In a matter of seconds they could hear the sounds of pursuit – yells, footfalls, the clatter of arrows being drawn and curses as they missed their mark. Their pursuers carried lanterns, which lit up the deck in a fiery glow.

At the bow they paused, looking over the side. Down below bobbed their borrowed boat with the anxious white faces of Roana and Saxon staring up from the gloom.

‘Jump in the water,’ yelled Saxon. ‘We’ll fish you out.’

Lily hesitated, staring down at the black fathomless depths of the ocean below, then glanced back at the fearsome guards in pursuit.

Ethan grabbed her hand. ‘Come on, Lily, we’ll jump together,’ he urged.

‘Watch out for the girl,’ yelled a soldier behind them. ‘Lord Lazlac doesn’t want
her
killed. Just stop them getting away.’

There was an ominous twang, then the sound of arrows flying through the air.

Ethan and Lily both leapt out into the thin, cold air, arms and legs flailing.

Lily felt her whole body jerk, then a burning, agonising pain just below her shoulder. Ethan cried out as an arrow buried itself deep in his left arm. And then they were falling, screaming, into the dark sea.

Just before their bodies hit the rock-hard surface of the water, a sight more terrifying than they had ever imagined rose to meet them. In the light from the soldiers’ lanterns they could see something moving. A giant tentacle curled up above them. It was sickly grey, with smudges of purple, covered in large crater-like suckers.

The tentacle groped blindly into the air, stretching and reaching. Another tentacle followed, towering above them. Ethan could hear screams of surprise from the ship above him.

An Octomon! The fabled monster that could crush the bellies of great ships. The sea monster that
made salty old seamen whimper in their beds.

Ethan and Lily hit the water with a smash that knocked all the breath from their bodies. Immediately the water foamed with eight long, writhing tentacles. Ethan started to swim for the boat, shouting to Lily to swim too. The water boiled and churned.

Ethan threw off the heavy black woollen cloak that was dragging him under. He could feel the sharp pain of the arrow in his arm but fear of the Octomon drove him on faster.

Lily started to swim clumsily after him, paddling on her side, her left arm virtually useless. Blood swirled in the water around her.

Lily felt a flicker of cold on her belly as something brushed against her. She swam faster. The brush turned to a loving caress, then an embrace. Lily kicked her legs out behind her. She was not moving anywhere.

The hug became stronger, then started to tug. One of the thick Octomon tentacles was wrapped around her waist and dragging her under. Lily screamed as her mouth filled with bitter sea water, burning her throat and nose.

Ethan paused when he heard Lily’s scream and turned around. She was gone.

He turned back and forth, searching the water desperately with his arms, legs, hands and eyes.

‘Lily,’ he screamed. ‘Lily!’

He felt something with his hands. Something cold and wet.

He grabbed at it. It grabbed back.

Something slimy and strong wound around his waist and down his warm body. Ethan struggled and fought. It was like a cable of steel, squeezing the breath from him. The tentacle pulled him slowly under the surface. Ethan took a deep breath before he went under, thinking furiously.

He stopped fighting against the relentless squeeze. His dagger! He grasped the hilt from his belt, took aim and stabbed.

The Octomon jerked and flung its injured tentacle up into the air, slightly loosening its grip. Ethan took large lungfuls of air, saturating his blood with oxygen, and stabbed again.

This time the Octomon flung up its other tentacle, tightly clutching Lily. She breathed deeply and thankfully. She saw Ethan stabbing violently with his dagger as the tentacle that held him plunged toward the sea again.

Lily found her own dagger. She started frantically stabbing the grey and mauve vice that held her, as
the tentacle descended once more deep into the icy sea.

She could hear muffled screaming. It wasn’t her own voice. It was Roana screaming from the boat.

The sea chopped and churned as the sea monster wrestled with its prey. Thick black ooze welled from the wounds on the creature’s flesh. In its struggles it lifted them high in the air, then plunged again. Still the creature did not release its vice-like grip.

Above them, on the ship, a band of guards laughed on the deck. ‘That’s the end of them – tasty fish food,’ chortled one. The others collapsed with mirth.

Roana and Saxon rowed out into the maelstrom, then used the oars to beat the tentacles they could reach. Saxon tried to use his sword but couldn’t reach close enough. Roana fashioned two extended bayonets by lashing swords to the end of the oars. They thrust these vigorously at the sea monster. The water swirled with oily black blood.

A cacophony of jeering noise erupted on the ship’s deck as the guards spied the futile rescue attempt.

‘I think our fishy friend is still hungry,’ shouted a guard, raising his bow and arrow. ‘Let’s give him some sweet hot pudding.’ The others chuckled at the joke.

Another guard dipped his arrow head in a sticky barrel of tar on the deck, lit it in the lantern and sent the flaming arrow soaring over the churning whirlpool below. Soon a score of flaming arrows spun through the night, illuminating the mayhem.

Roana and Saxon now had to fight flying flames as well as the hideous sea creature. They stamped out spot fires with their boots, while still lunging with oar bayonets.

The sea monster, stabbed repeatedly and now dazzled by shooting fire arrows, dived deep under the water and headed out to sea, taking its precious prey with it. Roana and Saxon set off in pursuit, rowing with all their strength. Yet their speed was no match for the sea creature’s power. Soon there was no sign of the Octomon, of Lily, or of Ethan.

Eventually Roana and Saxon stopped rowing and leant panting on their oars, as they desperately searched the black waves for a glimpse of their friends.

Roana collapsed in the bottom of the boat, sobbing. Saxon stared down into the black depths of the ocean uncomprehendingly. There was nothing to show that Ethan and Lily had ever existed.

Saxon’s shocked reverie was shattered by a loud
explosion from the ship behind them. A roar of flame leapt into the air, followed by an ominous whistling sound. A massive black ball roared through the air, skimming the side of the boat with a sickening splintering sound, but landing harmlessly in the water a couple of metres away.

The boat rocked wildly, water sloshing over the side and saturating Roana. A loud cheer came from the ship. ‘We got ’em. No, a little to the right. Try again,’ came the muffled shouts.

Saxon grabbed the oars and started to row strongly. ‘Quickly, Roana, get up and help me,’ he screamed. Roana obediently clambered up onto the middle shelf seat and took an oar.

Another cannon ball flew through the air and smashed the tip of the boat’s bow before sinking into the sea. A volley of boos came from the ship behind them.

‘Missed ’em. Fire again!’

‘Shall we man the rowboats and give chase, sir?’ asked the enthusiastic young guard who had stabbed Lily.

‘Not on your life, young ’un,’ laughed his superior. ‘Not with that hungry Octomon cruising the water for something to eat. No, those squirts won’t get very far before the monster comes looking
for his dessert. Let him enjoy the sport, then he won’t be troubling
us
.’

Another cannon ball blasted the air, falling only a metre behind the small rowboat. Again the boat rocked like a bucking bronco. The noise was deafening. Water swirled around their shins, and the boat seemed heavier and slower with every stroke.

Roana and Saxon rowed for their very lives, Roana’s muscles screaming in pain, struggling to reach the hidden smuggler’s cove and the safety of their secret cave. At last, they found the narrow crack in the cliff wall and steered into it.

A large wave picked them up and hurled them forward, the boat almost flying on the foaming spume straight towards the beach. Roana felt her stomach flip and heave. She thought she was going to be sick.

Aisha met them at the shore, whining pathetically and sniffing anxiously at the boat, as if Lily and Ethan might suddenly pop up laughing from some hidden spot.

Mechanically Roana and Saxon dragged the boat partway up the sand and crawled, shivering, into the cave.

Wordlessly Saxon passed Roana a thick black
cloak to wrap herself in. Aisha wriggled in between them, putting her head on Saxon’s lap, looking up with big sad eyes.

Roana started to cry great heaving sobs.

‘It was all for naught. We lost Ethan and Lily. We did not save anyone. We failed, we failed. It was all for naught. Ethan and Lily are gone.’

Saxon let out an anguished howl, burying his face in his large hands. Roana threw herself against him. They hugged furiously, rocking back and forth, letting the tears pour down. At last there were no more tears to cry, no more words to say, and so they fell asleep, curled up with Aisha to keep them warm.

Deep under water, lungs bursting and muscles tiring, Lily and Ethan struggled weakly in the relentless grip of the monster. Blood pounded in their ears. Their brains screamed for oxygen.

Lily felt herself lightening, slowly succumbing to the temptation to simply give up and float away in the darkness. Her dagger dropped from her fingers. She felt sad but calm.

She closed her eyes, thought of her mother and father and Ethan and Aisha and Saxon and Roana. How distraught they would be.

Then suddenly, strangely, the vice was gone. Lily opened her eyes, staring wide in the murky gloom.

A fantastic scene revealed itself.

I am dead
, she thought peacefully.
This is what death is
.

Lily closed her eyes, her lungs searing with pain. She opened them again but the vision did not disappear.

Soaring towards her through the water came a pod of strange human-like creatures. Their bodies flickered with sparkling, silvery-green scales.

Clouds of long thick tresses floated around their strange, beautiful faces, like velvety dark seaweed. Each carried a long spear, with a wicked tip of sharpened coral pointed menacingly. Merrow! Then all was blackness as Lily slipped from conciousness.

A freezing blast of oxygen shocked her into wakefulness. She was bobbing on the surface of the ocean. Another head broke the surface, then another and another, until eleven heads bobbed in the waves, two brown and nine green. She gulped and gulped, swallowing the beautiful air, sucking it deep down into her burning lungs. She looked in wonder at the strange, pale faces staring at her.

‘Lily, are you all right?’ panted Ethan.

She nodded weakly, her heart thudding. ‘You?’

‘Yes – just!’ He grinned.

Ethan turned to the sea people. He held out his hand, palm up, in a gesture of thanks and good will.

‘Thank you. Thank you,’ he called gravely. ‘You saved our lives.’

The Merrow people glanced at each other and murmured in a beautiful sing-song melody. The mellifluous voices sounded like an orchestra of rolling breakers, sighing winds and leaping fish. Lily nearly wept with joy to hear it.

One of the sea people gestured to the horizon. His hand was webbed with flaps of greeny-grey skin, almost transparent.

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but rolling black waves, and overhead the dazzling brilliance of thousands of tiny stars. Lily shivered with fear and shock. Her teeth started chattering violently.

There was no sign of land. She began to sink beneath the water, her muscles too exhausted to hold her up. A Merrow man hauled her up again and held her afloat with his cool, pale arm.

A beautiful sea girl pulled out a strange pipe from a large woven pouch around her neck.

The pipe was carved from several branches of pure white coral, engraved with strange symbols of
dancing porpoises and spouting whales. She began to play high whistling notes upon it. With a shock of recognition, Lily realised the music was very similar to the strange melody she had heard earlier in the evening while she was on watch.

A small head popped out of the Merrow girl’s pouch, enraptured by the piping. It was a bright-eyed sea baby, with spikes of green all over his head. He sucked his thumb solemnly, peering at the sodden creatures his people had rescued from the Octomon. When Lily caught his eye he smiled shyly, closing his eyes and hiding his face against his mother’s breast.

The high whistling music continued for a few minutes until more heads popped suddenly from the water with a playful splash. These heads were sleek and grey, the laughing faces of dolphins. The sea girl stopped playing and gestured quickly to Ethan and Lily, then towards the dolphins. They looked enquiringly at her. She sang soft and low.

‘Do you think she means us to ride the dolphins?’ asked Lily in wonder.

‘I hope so. I don’t think I can stay afloat much longer,’ grinned Ethan in reply.

The two floundered over to the dolphins, helped by cold, wet Merrow arms.

Ethan and Lily clung to the slippery dorsal fins of their dolphin mounts. There was more musical conversation between their rescuers, then the sea girl played another whistling harmony on her coral pipe, and the whole pod surged off – dolphins in the middle, surrounded by a retinue of mysterious Merrow folk.

The dolphins swam fast and gracefully, surging through the water. A foaming eddy of bubbles gleamed in the starlight in their wake. This ride would be treasured by Lily and Ethan all their lives. The wind whipped through their soaking hair, revitalising their jaded spirits. Spray stung their faces.

A smile of pure joy lightened Lily’s face as she stared in awe at the stars, the sea and the mysterious creatures around her. Light-headed from loss of blood, the ocean journey was surreal and dreamlike. Ethan turned and grinned at Lily, his heart singing with wonder. Pain and horror were momentarily forgotten.

The horizon gradually darkened, until they recognised the looming shadow. Land! Soon they could see the faint glimmer of tiny red lights and smell the wonderful familiar aroma of rich loamy soil and pungent leaves.

‘Lily,’ Ethan cried to her over the waves. ‘I think that is the headland leading to Goldcoin Cove, which means our little hideout is just around the corner.’

Lily nodded, too dazed to speak.

Ethan called to the sea people and pointed over to the right. As one, the pod swerved and raced on. Riding the crest of a towering wave, they surfed through the crack in the cliff and skimmed gracefully to a halt in the foam a few metres from the water’s edge. Ethan and Lily slipped from the dolphins’ backs and staggered up onto the sand, their legs weak and rubbery.

They turned and waved to the Merrow folk. ‘Thank you so much,’ croaked Lily gratefully. The Merrow baby popped his head out of the pouch again and held his plump little starfish hand out to Lily.

Impulsively, she pulled a little string of wooden and amber beads from around her neck and held it out to the baby, stepping back into the waves. He chuckled in delight and reached for them. His mother smiled and placed the beads around his neck, where he sucked on them in delight.

‘Many, many thanks,’ agreed Ethan heartily. ‘We are in your debt forever.’

An old wrinkly sea man held up two daggers towards them.

‘Our daggers,’ Ethan cried in surprise. ‘I thought I had dropped mine.’ He stepped forward into the water to take the daggers back, but noticed a covetous glance from several of the sea folk.

‘No,’ he stopped, gesturing with his hands. ‘Please keep them – with our heartfelt gratitude.’

The sea man hesitated, then tucked the daggers away in a pouch on his back, saluting sternly.

Ethan and Lily turned to stagger up the sand when they were stopped by a singing melody. They swung around.

The Merrow girl sang to Ethan, holding something out towards him. He stepped towards her. In his hand she placed her coral pipe and gently closed her two hands around his hand.

Her hands felt cool and soft. She pointed to him, then mimed playing the pipe. She pointed to the distance, then mimed swimming towards him, and clutched his hand again.

‘I think she means that if I play the pipe, they will come to us,’ Ethan said uncertainly.

‘I think she likes you,’ Lily grinned wearily.

The Merrow girl smiled shyly, cuddling the baby closer. Then she gestured to Lily. She removed
something from her neck and held it out to Lily. Cupped in her hand was a perfect, luminous white pearl on a fine gold chain.

Lily frowned. ‘For me?’ she asked, touching her throat.

The sea girl nodded seriously. Lily took it and placed it around her neck, warming the cool pearl with her hand. It felt magical and powerful nestled against her chest.

The Merrow girl with the baby smiled again and waved.

Lily thought she heard her whisper, ‘Fare thee well …’

‘Did you hear that?’ Lily asked Ethan.

‘Hear what … the music?’ Ethan replied.

‘No. I thought … I thought she spoke …’

Silently the pod turned and slipped out of sight under water. It was as if they had never existed.

Ethan was suddenly barrelled by a rush of warm dog. Aisha leapt all over him, wild with excitement, her whole body wagging with her tail.

The sudden welcoming onslaught was too much for Lily, who staggered and fell. Ethan saw dark drips of blood on the white sand, and a flowing gush from Lily’s leg.

The sodden shoulder of her black silk shirt was
bloodied with a spreading stain, around the arrow stub. The arrow shaft had broken off during the struggles with the sea monster, leaving the deadly barb buried deep in her flesh.

Aisha licked Lily all over her face with concern, whining anxiously. Ethan hauled her away, mouthing low words of affection.

A sudden searing pain in his arm reminded Ethan that he too had been badly wounded by an arrow. He rubbed the wound ruefully, his hand coming away smeared with blood.

A thudding agony told him that the barb was still buried there. He hauled Lily to her feet with his good arm and helped her up the beach, laying her gently on the sand outside the entrance to the little hidden cave.

He groped under the hanging curtain of creeper and found the cave mouth. Just as he was about to crawl in, he felt a sharp point of steel pressed into his jugular vein.

‘Who’s there?’ growled a ferocious voice. ‘One move and you’re dead.’

‘Saxon?’ croaked Ethan. The dagger blade dropped and Ethan was enveloped in a huge bear hug.

‘Ethan, you’re alive,’ shrieked Saxon, tears
streaking down his face. ‘We thought you were both killed. I can’t believe it.’

‘Yes, and you nearly just killed me again,’ retorted Ethan, wincing with pain.

Roana emerged from the cave rubbing her eyes in bewilderment. She screamed in shock at the sight of Ethan’s pale face, and flung her arms around his neck. Ethan flushed and stood awkwardly in the unexpected embrace. There was a babble of questions from Roana and Saxon.

‘Not now,’ Ethan cried. ‘We must help Lily. She is hurt badly.’

Saxon lit a lantern, which cast a flickering glow. Lily lay unconscious on the sand, her face deathly pale, with Aisha standing guard over her. Roana gasped in shock. Ethan felt her pulse, a slight flutter at her wrist.

‘She is bad. Very bad,’ Ethan muttered, his eyes wild with panic. ‘What shall we do? I don’t want to try to pull out the arrowhead – she might bleed to death. If we move her, we could make her worse, but we can’t stay here!’

‘There is a healer called Saira who lives in a village called Mereworth about ten kilometres from here,’ Saxon said. ‘I have been there with my father on one of our trips. I think we should go there at
once. I can run to fetch the horses, and help you carry Lily up the cliff when I get back.’

Saxon scrambled off through the darkness.

Ethan rummaged through Lily’s pack to find the stash of bandages his mother had packed what seemed like a lifetime ago. The gash in the leg was deep and still bleeding profusely.

He gently bandaged Lily’s leg with the cloth, which somehow seemed to smell of his mother – of lavender and rosemary. The familiar scents comforted him and made him feel that, somehow, everything might just turn out all right.

He did not want to risk wounding Lily further by bumping the arrow stub, so he wadded up some cloth and tucked it up under the shirt, bandaging it in place.

Lily’s bleeding was now reduced to a slow oozing. Roana clumsily copied his technique to bandage Ethan’s arm. Then they sat together in the flickering lantern light, anxiously watching the slight rise and fall of Lily’s breathing.

They did not notice the tide creeping in, lapping around the hull of the rowboat abandoned halfway down the beach. They did not notice the rowboat lift and tilt and wriggle down into the water. Nor did they notice the next wave, which caressed the bow
of the boat and beckoned it to escape on the early morning tide.

Ethan and Roana did not stir until a low whistle warned them that Saxon had returned. Together the three friends hauled, pushed, dragged and heaved Lily’s limp body up the cliff face. Aisha slipped and slid up the rocks behind them.

‘If she wasn’t dying before, we have probably killed her now,’ Saxon said grimly.

Ethan mounted Toffee, hauling Lily up in front of him, with Saxon lifting her from below.

‘Let’s hope that Mereworth wasn’t destroyed by the Sedahs and that your Saira is still there to help us,’ Ethan said, his voice cracking with emotion.

‘Mereworth is tiny, tucked out of the way. I somehow don’t think many people would find it unless they knew where to look,’ replied Saxon mysteriously.

The horses set off at a brisk walk, following Saxon’s lead on Caramel. In the rear, Nutmeg trailed behind Roana on a lead rein. Saxon hesitated once or twice in the darkness but seemed confident of his way. Silently the horses slipped through the meadows and downs.

Finally Saxon found a tiny path, which would have been easy to miss in the darkness. He led the
horses down a steep narrow track towards the coast. The cliff dropped away to nothing on the right and rose sheer above them on the left. It wound down and down until they seemed to be in a narrow hidden valley at the base of sharp cliffs.