The Angel's Command

by Brian Jacques

  “I come from Andorra, high in these mountains, between France and Spain. I knew neither mother nor father, the only life I had was that of a tavern drudge, even as a very young girl. The owner said that gypsies left me on his doorstep one night. The townsfolk were scared of me, they said I was a mountain giant. I was big, you see. Though I was only young, I was taller, broader and stronger than anybody. By the time I was ten, all the local boys had given up teasing me, because I had beaten most of them soundly for their cruel taunts and jibes. My life was not a happy one. I slept in the stables, with donkeys and mules for company. Then the day came—I must have been nearly twenty years of age. One evening in the tavern, the mayor’s brother, a fat pompous lout who had been drinking overmuch, began making sport of me. I ignored him, which made his mood turn nasty. As I passed by with a trayful of food and drink he stuck out his foot, and I tripped and fell heavily—meat, ale, dishes and tankards were everywhere. The owner came running across the room and started beating me for my clumsiness. Well, I got up and laid them both out with a blow apiece, the tavern owner and the mayor’s brother. The guards and constables were sent for. I fought them, but they were too many for me, and I was dragged off and thrown in prison. It was more a kind of outhouse than a real dungeon. While the mayor and the citizens’ committee were meeting to plan some dreadful punishment for my crimes, I broke through the roof, which was only thatch and old timber, and escaped!”

  Dominic, his parchment and charcoals before him, was drawing Arnela as she sat talking to them. He chuckled. “You’ve certainly led an adventurous life, my friend. What happened after that?”

  Arnela stared at her strong, weather-tanned hands. “I ran away and went to live among these mountains and the forests below, knowing the townsfolk wouldn’t dare follow me into Razan territory. Nobody except outlaws dwell in this region.”

  Karay sat with her chin cupped in both hands, her eyes shining with admiration for the brave goatherd. “But weren’t you afraid of the Razan?”

  The big woman scoffed. “They knew I was a fugitive from the law. Their menfolk didn’t bother me, but several of the Razan women tried to intimidate me. Hah! I sent them on their way nursing bruises and broken limbs, I can tell you. Especially the ones who tried to steal my goats. The Razan tend to leave me alone these days, and that’s the way I like it!”

  Picking the baby goat up tenderly, Arnela laid it gently on a stack of dried grass. “I think I’ll call that one Morpheus, he’s done little else but sleep since he was born. Dominic, you mentioned Adamo before. Let me tell you, I know him.”

  Ben was immediately curious. “Tell us about him, please.”

  The big woman nodded her head and sighed. “Several times over the years I saw the boy, always being hauled back to the Razan caves after trying to escape. My heart warmed to him at first sight, because he was big like me, and strong, too. You only had to look at him and you knew even from behind that it was Adamo, a mountain of a young man!

  “Anyhow, let me tell you. One night, about a month ago, it began to storm and rain. So, I went out to the cliffs to gather my goats in here, out of the weather. That was when I saw him—he was hiding in the rocks like a hunted animal, hungry and soaked to the skin. I brought him into this very cave, dried him and gave him food. At first I thought he was a mute because he sat by my fire half the night without saying a single word, just gazing at me with those beautiful brown eyes of his. But gradually I got him to talk. Adamo did not know who his mother or father were, but he could remember a big house where he thought he may once have lived or stayed. He could recall a kindly old gentleman and a nice old lady, but that was all. One thing he was sure of, though, he didn’t belong with the Razan—their mountain caves were a prison to him. The old one, Maguda Razan, kept telling Adamo that she was his grandmother and the only kin he had living in the world. Poor Adamo, he begged her to let him go free, but Maguda refused. His hatred of being made to live in the company of robbers and murderers drove him to try to escape. He never got far—Razan men hunted him down and brought him back to the caves. Adamo was normally a quiet, lonely boy, but after he was first recaptured he refused to speak with any Razan, particularly Maguda. Many times as he grew he tried to escape and break away over the years. Each time he was brought back. Maguda threatened him with all manner of horrible things, but this did not stop Adamo.

  “He told me all this that night I hid him in my cave. Came the dawn, I awoke to find he had gone. Soon after, a band of Razan came here and searched the area. Ligran Razan was their leader. He’s worse than all his brothers put together, that one. A big mastiff dog he brought with him picked up Adamo’s scent, and away they went, a pack of wild animals led by a wild animal! I haven’t seen Adamo since, pray heaven and all the saints that the poor boy escaped this time. I haven’t seem them dragging him back either, so at least that’s something to keep my hopes up. Though you can never tell with the Razan—maybe they captured him and took him back by another route.”

  Ben felt enormous sympathy for Arnela. “Don’t worry, marm, when we get to their hideout we’ll find him, if he’s there. If not, we’ll scour all of France and Spain until we can return Adamo to his uncle in Veron.”

  Dominic presented her with his finished picture. “Thanks for your help, Arnela. I hope you like this, I did it for you in thanks for your help and hospitality.”

  The facemaker had portrayed Arnela in profile, sitting with the baby goat on her lap by the fire. Beauty and simplicity of heart radiated from the parchment. Every line and weather mark on the big goatherd’s ruddy features caught her kindliness and strength of humanity.

  Her voice was husky with reverence for the artist’s skill. “Dominic, I have never seen anything like this, ’tis a wondrous thing. I will keep it on my driest wall. It will always remind me of you, my good friends. Now, is there anything I can do to help you? Just ask. Anything?”

  Ned leaned his chin on Arnela’s knee and gazed up at her. “This wonderful person would come with us, I know she would. But the goats are her children—what would become of them if she left the herd to go off adventuring with us?”

  Ben caught Ned’s thought and spoke his answer aloud. “Oh, don’t trouble yourself, marm, we’ll be alright. Though I’d like you to keep watch for us on our return. We may need to get out of these mountains pretty fast.”

  Arnela stroked behind Ned’s ears. “I’ll watch night and day for a sign of you. Now you must rest, it’s safer to travel by night if you want to avoid discovery. Lie down now, children.”

  They lay warm and cosy on the dried grass, Ned with his eyes half closed, watching Arnela mending their torn cloaks with goat-hair twine and a large bone needle.

  Just before the Labrador dropped off, he heard her gathering grass and murmuring to the goats who had strayed inside. “Hush now, Ajax, and you too, Pantyro, let the young ’uns sleep. They’ve got enough to contend with, or they will have soon. Come on, now, outside, all of you, have dinner out in the fresh air. Clovis, can’t you do something about that kid of yours, I’ve never seen such bad manners. Out with you!”

  Lulled by the safety of the cave and its flickering firelit shadows, Ned sent Ben a message. “I wouldn’t mind being one of Arnela’s goats, they certainly get the best of treatment and care from her. Hmm, maybe not, though. Goats are a pretty thick lot, I’d never be able to put up with all that maaahing and baaaing, would you, mate?”

  But his thoughts fell on deaf ears. Ben, Dominic and Karay were already soundly slumbering.

  Ben had the feeling that it was evening outside when Arnela wakened them. She had bowls of vegetable soup and some bread and honey prepared for them.

  “Eat plenty now, young ’uns, it might be some time before you get another good meal. Here, I’ve fixed up your cloaks as best as I could—needlework was never my strong point. I’ve packed a little food for you, and I’ve thrown in one of my extra ropes and an ice axe, you’ll need them.”

  Having eaten, the four companio
ns went outside to take their farewells of their newfound friend. It was cold. Frost glittered on the rocks, and the sky above was a vault of dark velvet, pierced by a million pinpoints of bright starlight and a pale lemon-rind slice of moon.

  Arnela’s formidable arms encircled their shoulders. “Go now, and take all my fondest wishes with you. Stay to the right winding paths—avoid the left ones, or you’ll finish up stranded on some ledge. Lead them off, Ned, you good dog. Go on, don’t look back, and tread carefully.”

  They trudged away with Arnela’s voice fading behind them. “Come out of that water, Theseus, d’you want your hair to freeze? Narcissus, stop looking at yourself in the pool. Clovis, don’t act silly, I’ve got your kid here with me. Come on, all inside now, that means you, too, Pantyro!”

  22

  NIGHT IN THE HIGH MOUNTAINS WAS like being stranded on some strange planet. Silence reigned. In the clear air, every sound was magnified and echoed. The travellers walked gingerly onward, keeping their voices to hushed whispers lest they betray their position to anyone in the vicinity. It was hard going, all upward, and each pace had to be made carefully across the eerie expanses of white snow and ice and black pockets of shadow.

  They had been going for two hours or more when Karay’s breath plumed out like steam as she whispered to Dominic, “Hadn’t we better rest awhile and catch our breath?”

  Ben heard her and called a halt. He chose a spot in the deep shadows of a crag to one side of the path. No sooner had they installed themselves there than voices were heard.

  Ned’s ears rose as he contacted Ben. “Sounds like two men. Good job we got in here out of the way.”

  It was the fat rogue Cutpurse and a weaselly-looking older fellow called Abrit. They shuffled by within twenty feet of where the friends were hiding. Cutpurse stopped, leaning on a staff he was using as a crutch, and scanned the ground suspiciously. “Look, there’s tracks here!” There was obviously no love lost between the two men, for Abrit treated Cutpurse as if he were a half-wit. It showed in his voice. “Of course there’s tracks, lard gut, they’re the tracks we made on the way up. Look, there’s the dog’s paw prints out in front. Come on, stop slowin’ me down or we’ll never find Rouge an’ Domba, or the dog. Now what’s the matter?”

  Cutpurse lowered himself painfully and sat down on the snow. “My ankle’s killin’ me, it’s agony to walk any further. Listen, why don’t we find someplace where we can lay up for the night? Then tomorrow we can catch up with the rest an’ tell ’em there was no sign of Rouge, Domba or Gurz. We’re just killin’ ourselves, blunderin’ round in the dark!”

  Abrit scoffed at the idea. “Hah! Alright, we’ll do that. But when we get back, I ain’t sayin’ nothin’. You tell Ligran Razan you couldn’t find ’em. How does that sound to ye, eh?”

  Cutpurse pouted childishly and nursed his injured ankle. “That Ligran’s got it in for me—he’d slay me as soon as look at me. Cruel, that’s what it is. Sendin’ a man out on a search with a broken foot. Huh, just wants t’be rid of me, Ligran does!”

  Abrit nodded. “Me too. I’ve never got on well with Ligran. So, all the more reason for findin’ Rouge an’ Domba. We’ll be savin’ our own lives by doin’ the job. On your feet, fatty!”

  Cutpurse began to rise. Then a thought occurred to him. “I think we’re goin’ the wrong way. Look, there’s only tracks goin’ upward. Where’s the tracks Rouge an’ Domba left when they came down? I can’t see any.”

  Abrit scratched his head. “Y’could be right there. They must’ve been searchin’ on another path. Maybe over the side of the icefield yonder. We’d best go an’ take a look!”

  Ben breathed a silent sigh of relief as they watched the two robbers hobbling off over the wide, lumpy icefield, which sloped away to their left. Karay whispered. “Thank goodness our trail was mixed up with the tracks of the others.”

  The two robbers were about a third of the way into the icefield when Ben turned to Karay. “Do you feel rested enough to carry on now?”

  The girl began making her way forward indignantly, muttering to herself, “Of course I am! It wasn’t just me who needed a rest, you two were panting worse than Ned!”

  To prove her point she dashed out of cover, accidentally stepping on an ice-covered bit of rock. Her feet left the ground, and she thudded backward. An involuntary cry came from her as she fell flat on her back. “Yeek!”

  The sound echoed sharply out into the surrounding peaks.

  Out on the icefield, Cutpurse and Abrit halted abruptly. Cutpurse waved his staff triumphantly. “They’re the ones Ligran wants—come on, let’s get ’em!”

  Abrit shouldered his companion to one side. “Out o’ my way, ye fool, I’ll stop ’em!” Pulling a musket from his belt he fired a shot across the cliffside at the girl lying on the ground. The report echoed like thunder.

  Ben blinked as the musket ball pinged off the rock behind him. The two robbers were scrambling across the icefield toward them, shouting at them to halt. Then the noise started: a dull muffled sound from above, building up into one massive rumble, growing louder by the second.

  Krrrraaaaaawwwwwk!

  Dominic dived out and dragged Karay by her feet back under the shelter of the rock. Then he pulled Ben as deep into the shadow as possible. Ned galloped to his master’s side.

  Dominic’s voice was almost lost in the unearthly roar. “Avalanche! Avalanche!”

  Powdered snow, hard snow, sheets and columns of ice mixed with rocks, scree, shale and boulders came thundering down as a huge wedge of the mountain, disturbed by the gunshot, toppled down onto the icefield.

  Cutpurse and Abrit died where they stood and were swept away by nature’s irresistible force.

  Ben, Ned, Karay and Dominic, bundled together in the rock’s shadow, hugged one another tightly. A monstrous single wall of ice scrunched by, halting with an immense grating crack between the overhanging rock top and the path they had intended to follow. Everything went black, dark as an underground dungeon. Their eardrums reverberated with the thudding, solid waterfall of snow that pounded outside against rock and ice.

  This was followed by a silence so complete that it made a ringing sound inside their heads. As rapidly as it had started, the avalanche was over.

  Ben’s voice sounded muffled as he spoke the words that came to him from Ned. “Is anyone hurt, are we all here?”

  Their arms were still around one another as Karay and Dominic replied out of the stygian darkness.

  “I bruised my shoulder when I slipped, but I’m still alive.”

  “More than we can say for those Razan villains, I suppose.”

  Ben shuddered at the thought of the two men’s fate. “Nothing can have lived out there. ’Twas like the end of the world. Ned feels nice and warm, though.”

  The black Labrador licked Ben’s hand. “That’s the sweat of pure panic. I think they call it the heat of the moment.”

  The boy hugged his dog closer. “All we can do now is wait for daylight. Maybe the sun will reflect through all this, and we’ll be able to judge our position.”

  Surprisingly, it was not as cold as they had expected. Their breath and body heat combined to keep the temperature above freezing in the dungeon of snow and ice.

  Throughout the remainder of the night, the four friends slept fitfully. Ben was half in and half out of sleep when the dog’s thoughts cut in on him. “Phew, it’s getting a bit muggy in here, but I can see your face now, mate. Can you see me?”

  Ben opened his eyes to a blurred grey gloom. “Aye, I can see you, mate, though it’s getting a bit difficult to breathe. It must be near dawn outside.”

  Dominic opened his eyes. “Any food? I’m famished!”

  Karay’s voice came from over Ned’s shoulder. “Me too!”

  Ned, with the limited room allowed to him, dug in the snow, which was almost knee high. Ben heard his thoughts. “I’ve found Dominic’s facemaker satchel, anything in here?”

  Dominic pulled the satchel f
ree of the snow. “Thank you, Ned. Let’s see what’s left in here.”

  They watched as he loosed the straps and rummaged about. “A hard piece of cheese, stale heel of a loaf . . . Aha, what’s this? Wine, nearly a flask of it. I’d forgotten about that!”

  Karay sat up as best as she could. “I’m glad you did! Now share it out, quick, before I die of hunger!”

  Dominic smiled. “Oh, what’s your hurry, you’ll live. Now eat slowly and don’t talk for a while, or we may use up all the air in here. Proper daylight can’t be too far off.”

  Nibbling and sipping, they bided their time. Gradually the greyness was replaced with a golden glow that began permeating their snowy prison. Ned wagged his tail. “Looks like a nice sunny day!”

  Ben pushed the offending tail away. “It might if I could see properly. Keep your tail still, mate!”

  He felt around until he unearthed Arnela’s ice axe. Ben poked it forward and tapped gently. “Feels like a solid block of ice trapping us in here. What d’you think, Dom?”

  The facemaker took the axe from Ben, reversing it until he was holding the metal head. He probed over his shoulder with the butt of the shaft, pushing at a space above him. Loose snow showered down on them.

  Karay encouraged him. “That’s the way, give it a good hard shove!”

  Dominic shook his head, murmuring as he probed. “Gently does it, don’t want to bring the whole lot down on us.” He pushed further with the haft until it slid forward easily, then withdrew it.

  A golden circle of light shone down, centering between Ned’s ears. The air began freshening immediately. Ben laughed. “Well done, sir. You’ve saved our lives!”

  They took turns. Working carefully, each one widened the hole, waggling the ice axe and pulling down chunks of ice and frozen snow. As water droplets came down, Ned held out his tongue and caught a few.

  Karay knotted the rope about her waist and stood in a crouch. “I’m the slimmest and lightest, so I’ll go first. You men, take one of my feet each and give me a good boost.”