Emily Rodda - Shadowgate

Everywhere, masked people were shaking their fists, shouting and wailing. Lief glimpsed a wolf face, a rat face, the face of a ginger cat, and several bird heads.

A grinning, hairy mask with small black eyes twitched into view. It belonged to a ragged boy who had wormed his way through the legs of the crowd to stare at the prisoners.

The face was full of cunning. Lief knew that he had seen something like it before, but could not think where. He only knew that he distrusted it.

Among the trees that surrounded the clearing stood many wooden wagons. Washing lines strung with clothes sagged between them. Big grey horses with plaited manes gazed curiously at the shouting people.

Suddenly the crowd parted to reveal a wagon standing all by itself in a bright circle of light created by dozens of lanterns.

In front of the wagon, seated in an huge chair with gold-painted arms, was an enormous woman.

Somehow Lief knew that this was Bess.

She was vast—at least twice as large as the pig-man. Her billowing purple skirts were like silken tents. Her fringed, embroidered shawls were as large as bed sheets. Her great arms jangled with bracelets as big as the wheels of a small cart.

And her head was the head of a vast brown owl.

Lief only had time for a single, startled glance before he was thrown forward. He fell heavily, face down, in the dust at the owl-woman’s feet. Jasmine and Barda thudded to the ground beside him.

‘Whar as Otto ?’ he heard a deep voice demand hoarsely.

‘Otto as dad, Bess!’ Lief heard the fox-woman cry out. ‘Tay kalled am!’

Why, they are not really speaking a different language at all! Lief thought. ‘It just sounds different. They use an ‘a’ sound in place of ‘e’, ‘i’ ‘o’ and ‘u’ in all words except names. And they use ‘t’ instead of ‘th’. The owl-woman said, ‘Where is Otto?’ The fox-woman answered, ‘Otto is dead, Bess! They killed him!’

The stretcher bearing the lifeless body of the pig-man was carried into the circle of light. The panting bearers put the stretcher down and backed away.

Bess looked down at the body. Her great fists clenched.

‘Gat tam ap!’ she growled. ‘Lat may say tayar aglay fasas!’ She drew a long, narrow knife from the silken folds of her skirt.

‘Lief! She is going to cut our throats!’ Barda muttered, as the crowd’s noise rose. ‘Tell her who you are. Show her the Belt. It is our only chance…’

His voice trailed off as he was hauled to his feet. At the same moment, Lief himself was jerked upward.

His legs would not hold him. Head bowed, he sagged between his captors.

Tell her who you are. Show her the Belt… It is our only chance .

Slowly, Lief looked up.

The owl-woman gasped, and her hand flew to her heart.

‘Bede!’ she shrieked. ‘Bede, ma san!’ She threw the knife aside and began struggling to rise from her chair.

Dead silence had fallen in the clearing. Lief stood gaping. What had she said?

Bede, my son!

Tears pouring from her eyes, Bess held out her arms to him.

Someone pushed him from behind and he stumbled forward. The owl-woman seized him. Suddenly he was being crushed in her powerful arms, pressed to her heaving chest.

Gold bracelets dug hard into his spine. He was suffocating in a tangle of silken shawls that smelled strongly of spices, smoke and over-ripe fruit. In panic he struggled to free himself, but the mighty arms clasping him were like steel bands.

‘Bess!’ The harsh voice of the eagle-man seemed to be coming from far away. ‘Stap! Ha as nat Bede! Ha cannat ba Bede!’

Lief felt the huge arms quiver. Then, slowly, they began to loosen. Gasping for breath, he threw himself backwards, and tumbled to the ground.

When at last he looked up, Bess was lying back in her chair, panting. Her eyes were closed. The eagle-man stood beside her, his hand on her shoulder.

‘Confess!’ he shouted at Lief, Barda and Jasmine. ‘Confess to our leader that you have been sent here to spy upon us and destroy us! Confess that you are servants of the evil tyrant, King Lief of Del!’

Lief’s heart lurched.

‘We are travellers from Broome!’ Jasmine’s clear voice cried out. ‘My uncle’s name is Berry. My brother and I are Lewin and Jay. We have done nothing wrong!’

‘Lies!’ the eagle-man roared. ‘You broke into our secret field. Then you killed the one who went to find you. We caught you in the act!’

‘No!’ shouted Jasmine. ‘A thing of darkness killed your friend. We saw it!’

The eagle-man laughed scornfully.

Bess’s eyes opened. But she did not look at the eagle-man, or at Jasmine. Instead, she looked at Lief.

‘Is this true?’ she asked, almost gently.

Lief met her gaze squarely. He knew that he had to make the most of her softened mood. He had to convince her.

‘It is true,’ he said. ‘The thing was hiding in the ditch. It caught hold of Otto around the neck, and he died. We did not harm him, I swear it!’

‘Ha lays, Bess!’ hissed the eagle-man. ‘Tay ar spays!’

‘We are not spies!’ Lief exclaimed furiously, without thinking.

There was a murmur in the crowd. The eagle-man drew back with a hiss.

‘Then how do you know our tongue, bareface?’ he spat.

Cursing himself for his foolishness, Lief spoke directly to Bess, forcing himself to keep his voice level.

‘I used my ears,’ he said. ‘Your tongue sounded strange to me at first, but soon I found I could understand it.’

And perhaps the great topaz I wear beneath my clothes helped me, he added to himself. The topaz that sharpens the mind. The topaz that has been so powerful ever since the golden dragon came back to life.

But Bess had leaned forward, her eyes shining.

‘Of course!’ she breathed. ‘It comes naturally to you. Now I see—’

She broke off, and shook her head. ‘Ay mast nat bay hastay,’ she murmured to herself. ‘Ay mast bay shar…’

She raised her voice. ‘Lock them in Otto’s wagon,’ she ordered, gesturing at the prisoners. ‘I will examine his body. Then I will decide what is to be done.’

4 – A Surprising Offer

The companions were thrown into a nearby wagon, locked in, and left in thick darkness which smelled strongly of sweat and damp fur.

As soon as their captors’ footsteps had died away, there was a cautious squawk from outside. Keeping out of sight, Kree had followed them.

‘He says they took the key,’ Jasmine whispered. ‘He cannot help us.’

Quickly they began feeling around, looking for a weapon, or a way of escape. They found nothing but a wooden trunk full of animal skins and a mattress covered with a stinking fur rug. They could discover no gaps or loose boards anywhere.

At last they gave up. None of them felt like sitting on the mattress. They sat on the floor, resting their backs against the wall.

‘Bess may well decide that we are innocent,’ said Jasmine, stroking Filli to comfort him. ‘She wants Lief, at least, to live.’

Lief squirmed, remembering Bess’s crushing embrace.

‘Bess may want us to live, but that fellow in the eagle mask is thirsting for our blood,’ Barda said.

‘If they knew who we really are, things would be even worse,’ Lief muttered. ‘It sounded as if they would be only too glad to kill Lief the tyrant.’

He had tried to keep his voice level, but the bitterness he felt as he said the last words was very clear.

‘They must be mad to call you a tyrant!’ Jasmine exclaimed. ‘Or… perhaps they are allies of the guardian of the north! Clearly they are sorcerers. The moths prove that—and so does the thing in the ditch.’