Emily Rodda - Cavern Of Fear

Then he found something else. Caught between two pages was a small black feather.

Kree! Lief imagined the great black bird sitting on the book as Jasmine read. He imagined Kree fluttering back as Jasmine closed the book hurriedly, on Josef’s approach. And a feather falling, to be trapped between the pages.

He read the story on the open double page with a growing sense of dread.

Lief sat for a moment, deep in thought. Then he heard a sound from the door. Doom and Barda were striding towards him, grim-faced. He knew what they had come to tell him before they spoke.

‘Jasmine has gone, hasn’t she?’ he asked dully.

They looked surprised, but did not ask how he knew.

‘Her bed has not been slept in.’ Barda rubbed his forehead angrily. ‘She slipped away yesterday, no doubt, while I was asleep. I should have expected this! By now she will be in the Forests. And alone!’

Lief shook his head. ‘Not alone,’ he replied. ‘If I am right, Glock is with her. And they have not gone to the Forests, but to the Os-Mine Hills. I believe—I am sure—that Jasmine thinks she has found a secret way to the Shadowlands. Underground.’

10 - Pursuit

Marilen shivered and wrapped her cloak more closely around her. It was not yet dawn, but Lief knew that she was shuddering not with cold, but with anxiety she was trying desperately to disguise.

‘Do not fear, Marilen,’ he said gently. ‘You need do nothing but wait. Doom is staying here, to prepare for a journey. He will watch over you. And Barda and I will soon return.’

He hoped that she would not ask him where he was going. Even in Tora, she might have heard the evil stories of the Os-Mine Hills. He smothered a sigh of relief as she nodded silently.

‘I had not planned to leave you so soon,’ Lief went on carefully. ‘But I do not think that Jasmine will return for anyone but me, for I am the one who offended her.’

‘I do understand, Lief,’ Marilen said in a low voice. ‘And you must not think I am a coward, who will always panic as soon as you leave her sight.’

Torn between fury at Jasmine’s stubbornness, and a terrible fear for her safety, Lief was impatient to be gone. But there was one thing left to ask.

‘Very few people know that we returned with Doom last night, Marilen,’ he said. ‘Most think we are still in Tora. It is safest if they continue in this belief for now. Will you remain out of sight while I am gone? Mother will see to your meals.’

Marilen raised her eyes to meet his anxious gaze. ‘Do not worry about me, Lief,’ she said quietly. ‘I will occupy myself in the library.’

Lief smiled, hiding his doubts. He had not remembered the library. But he could not bring himself to forbid it to Marilen.

As he left her, he told himself that all would be well. The guards would not allow Marilen to stray into the forbidden hallway. And Josef could surely be trusted to keep her presence secret.

What of Ranesh? Doubts stirred again, but Lief forced them out of his mind, and hurried down the stairs.

He was approaching the kitchen, where he had arranged to meet Barda, when he heard a muffled scream. He quickened his pace and as he threw open the door a startling sight met his eyes.

Barda had Jinks by the collar, and was shaking him. Jinks, wearing a red nightshirt, his mouth smeared with jam, was howling, trying to kick the big man’s legs.

‘You knew they had gone, you miserable worm!’ Barda was thundering. ‘Yet you said nothing !’

‘Am I Glock’s keeper?’ screeched Jinks. ‘He is old enough and ugly enough to look after himself. And as for that green-eyed minx he went with—’

His voice broke off in a high-pitched squeal as Barda jerked him upward, nearly strangling him.

‘Barda, put him down!’ Lief begged. ‘He will wake the whole palace!’

Barda swung around, hauling Jinks with him. Jinks’ eyes widened. ‘I did not know you were home, your majesty!’ he spluttered. ‘Call off your bear, I beg you. He has gone wild!’

‘I can go wilder yet, Jinks,’ growled Barda. ‘Do not tempt me. Would you care to explain to “your majesty” why you were stealing food while the rest of us tighten our belts and eat only our fair share?’

‘I am in delicate health,’ Jinks whimpered. ‘I need frequent small, tasty morsels to keep body and soul together.’

‘Indeed?’ said Lief coldly.

‘I found him guzzling jam,’ said Barda, looking at Jinks with contempt. ‘To get himself out of trouble, he accused Glock and Jasmine of being traitors.’

‘It was very wrong of them to set out for the Shadowlands when your majesty has forbidden it,’ whined Jinks to Lief. ‘Why, torn as I was between loyalty to them and loyalty to your majesty, it is no wonder that I became dizzy, and needed a taste of sweetness.’

Barda snorted. Lief moved closer to Jinks. ‘Glock and Jasmine are free to go where they wish,’ he said. ‘We are simply concerned for their safety. Do you know the way they have taken?’

‘They did not take the trouble to inform me,’ Jinks snapped, forgetting that he was supposed to be ill.

His face creased into a furious scowl. ‘That animal Glock cares nothing for anyone else’s comfort! My fighting spider lost to his in our last contest, and is mad for revenge. She kept me awake all night, beating at her cage. That is why I needed—’

‘Jinks!’ Lief began in exasperation. But Barda’s voice, tight with excitement, drowned him out.

‘Glock took his spider with him, then?’ he snapped.

‘Yes,’ said Jinks sullenly. ‘And what if he is away for weeks? Or never returns at all? What am I—?’

He squeaked as Barda began to haul him towards the door. ‘Where are we going?’ he cried in panic. ‘Not the dungeons, surely? It was just a few spoonfuls of jam! Your majesty! Stop him! Have mercy!’

‘Be silent!’ growled Barda. ‘I am not taking you to the dungeons, you fool. You are going to dress and put your spider on its chain. Then you are coming with us.’

The journey to the Os-Mine Hills was the strangest Lief had ever made.

Barda held the whining Jinks on the saddle in front of him. Jinks held the end of a long, fine chain. And at the other end of the chain, scurrying in front of the horses, was a huge, spotted brown spider called Fury.

‘Fighting spiders cannot stand defeat,’ Barda explained to Lief as they rode. ‘A losing spider will not rest until it has tracked the victor and forced it to fight again. Fury will follow Glock’s spider’s scent to the end of the earth, given the chance. She is our best hope of finding Glock—and Jasmine—quickly.’

It was soon clear that Lief had been right in believing that Jasmine was aiming for the Os-Mine Hills. Without hesitation, Fury was leading them, towards those ragged peaks regarded with dread by all in Del.

She moved so fast that the horses, picking their way over the rough ground, could hardly keep up with her. When she was forced to stop, she fought furiously to continue.

At night she beat ceaselessly against the sides of the cage in which Jinks kept her while he slept. Not that Jinks, or either of his companions, could sleep. It was truly astonishing that a single spider, however large, could make such a din.

The second day brought them to the first low, rocky ridges of the Os-Mine Hills. The way was even more difficult for the horses now, and Fury strained on her chain as the pace of her followers slowed.