by Adam Blade
“I was so scared,” said Elenna, hugging Tom tight. “I thought we were going to be killed.”
“Me, too,” gasped Tom. His legs felt wobbly and he leaned against Storm for support.
“You’re freezing,” said Elenna.
Tom saw that Elenna was shivering, too, and her face was pale. This wasn’t the time to show weakness. He had to be strong. “I’m all right,” he said. “I’ll warm up once we get moving.”
Elenna nodded. “Good idea. Let’s get to safer ground and then make camp.”
The four of them hiked cautiously toward the outcropping of rock Tom had spotted earlier. The rain had stopped, but the ground was still thick with mud. Each step took great effort as they made their way up.
By the time they reached the rocks, the sun had set. The air had grown colder and it was too dark to see. Guided only by starlight, Tom and Elenna found a cave in the rock wall.
“Let’s make camp in here,” Tom suggested. He could tell from the look on Elenna’s face that she was scared.
“What if there’s another mudslide?” she asked. “We could be trapped inside.”
Tom had considered the same thing himself, but he knew they didn’t have a choice. It was too cold and dangerous to spend the night without some shelter. They would have to take their chances.
The four of them entered the cave. It smelled damp and echoed with their footsteps. Silver eyed the place suspiciously and sniffed around. Satisfied, he padded over to Elenna and curled up next to her. As Tom laid out his bedroll, he wished they could have a warm fire. He could feel his stomach growling with hunger, but that would have to wait. Before he could suggest they build a fire or cook some dinner, he was overcome with exhaustion and fell asleep.
CHAPTER FOUR
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAINS
TOM AND ELENNA AWOKE LATE AS THE SUN shone brightly into the mouth of the cave. Every muscle in Tom’s body ached. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he looked around at the cave walls. It had been too dark — and he had been too tired — to notice them the night before.
On the walls were drawings made with ancient charcoal. They seemed to be telling a story. Tom recognized what looked like jagged mountains, and simple pictures of men with spears and clubs. On another wall were the same mountains and what looked like an enormous hand. Tom took the key from around his neck and looked back at the drawings on the cave wall. This key had freed Ferno and Sepron — would it free Cypher as well?
As Tom was studying the cave drawings, Elenna woke up. “What are they?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” said Tom. “But it looks like someone knew about the giant long ago.”
“It’s late. We should get moving,” Elenna said, gathering up her bedroll.
“All right,” Tom agreed, tearing his eyes away from the cave’s walls. He took hold of Storm’s reins and followed Elenna to the mouth of the cave.
They stood blinking in the sunlight. The mudslide had left a thick scar on the landscape, blocking the main trail. To get around it, they would have to follow the muddy scar down into the next valley. Then it was a long climb back up to the other side of the trail. Tom and Elenna walked beside Storm with Silver bounding at their heels.
When they reached the top, they found themselves looking upon a range of mountains stretching toward the horizon.
Elenna gasped. “That’s amazing!” Tom led the way down a path in the shadow of the mountains. The hill was steep, with a cliff on one side. There were lots of loose pebbles and Tom had to pick his way carefully. One wrong step and it would be a very long fall.
Tom looked at his map. Then he looked around. “This is strange,” he said. “We should have reached Colton by now. But it’s nowhere to be seen.”
“Maybe we’ll see something from the top of this hill,” said Elenna, pointing at the gentle slope in front of them.
They climbed carefully, their feet slipping and sliding in the silt and rubble. Then, suddenly, a loud crack rang out from beneath Storm’s hooves. Tom put a hand on Storm’s neck and they all froze.
“What was that?” Tom asked, crouching down. He quickly cleared away some of the dust. His hands scraped against something — it was a piece of slate, neatly overlapped by others surrounding it.
“Roof tiles,” he said, realizing where they were. “Elenna — we’re standing on a roof!”
“Then, this isn’t a hill at all!” Elenna said. She looked up at the mountainside and the bare face of rock covered in angry cracks. “This is a house that’s been buried by a rockslide. It could collapse any minute!”
“Look,” said Tom, pointing over to a shape farther up the hill. It was the top of an archway, the gateway to the mountain trade routes. “I think there’s a whole street buried under this rubble!”
“Come on, let’s get down quickly before we crash right through this roof.” Treading as lightly as they could, Tom and Elenna led Storm and Silver back down the slope.
Using the roof and archway as marker points, they worked out roughly where the street must have been. They made their way over the rocks and rubble until they found a part of town built into the hillside. The rockslide hadn’t buried these buildings. The houses were grand and tall with wooden fronts, and the streets were neatly paved with cobblestones. Tom looked around him and whistled.
“Looks like a nice part of town,” said Elenna. There weren’t any houses like this in Tom’s village. But the place was deserted. “I hope everyone got to safety.”
Suddenly, Silver looked toward the mountains, sniffing the air. He growled uneasily and started stalking back the way they had come. “What’s wrong, boy?” Elenna took hold of his collar, but he strained against her grip. Silver never disobeyed Elenna. She frowned and pointed down the street. “We’re going this way.” She looked at Tom. “What’s wrong with him?”
But as she spoke, shouts and the sounds of a commotion came from somewhere close by.
Tom looked at her. “Silver must have sensed trouble.”
“Stop, thieves!” someone shouted. Tom jumped onto Storm and Elenna leaped up behind him. He drew his sword out of one of Storm’s saddlebags and pressed his heels against the horse’s sides. Storm didn’t need telling twice. He bolted off along the cobbled street toward the sounds of trouble.
“Silver isn’t following us!” Elenna cried. She pointed after the wolf, who was running in the opposite direction.
“We’ll go back for him later,” Tom told her. Storm thundered over the cobblestones, making it difficult for them to hold on. “Right now, someone needs our help.”
They turned into a narrow back alley. Three men with bulging pockets and sacks slung over their shoulders were blocking the way. “Whoa, Storm.” Tom eased his horse to a standstill. “What’s happening here?”
The tallest man noticed Tom’s sword and smiled. “Well, well, a bold, little knight.”
An old man came puffing and panting around the corner, pointing a finger at the three men. “Don’t let them pass!” he cried, leaning heavily against the wall of a house as he caught his breath. “They’re stealing food from the houses!”
“What else can we do?” snapped a small, tubby man, shifting the heavy sack on his shoulder. “We have families to feed.”
“This month’s supplies never came — you know that!” said the tall, thin man next to him. “We need something to eat.”
“But those things are not yours to take, Randall!” said the old man sternly. He turned to the short man. “Michael, put them back and take shelter with the others.” The three men looked at one another. Their expressions hardened.
“No, Belco, we have to get away!” cried Michael. “How long before the next rockslide flattens the rest of town, too?”
Tom looked at these men. They didn’t look like robbers. He saw the desperation in their faces. Thanks to Malvel and the chaos he was causing, good people had to steal just to survive.
Randall bunched his fists and turned to look at Tom. “Get out o
f our way, boy,” he said. “Or you’ll live to regret it!”
CHAPTER FIVE
BURIED ALIVE
TOM JUMPED DOWN FROM THE HORSE, TENSING himself for a fight. Elenna stood beside him, readying her bow.
A sudden growling made Tom turn. It was Silver! The wolf bared his teeth as he stalked toward Randall and the others, his fur bristling. Even Tom felt a moment of awe when he saw Silver’s glistening fangs.
“A wolf!” cried Belco. “It must have come down from the mountains.”
Silver crept toward the men, narrowing his eyes and growling deep in his throat. Randall’s eyes grew wide with fear, then he fled with the others, the stolen belongings scattering behind them as they ran.
Belco leaned against a broken wall.
“Good, erm, dog,” he whispered to Silver. But Tom could hear the tremble in the man’s voice.
“The wolf won’t hurt you,” Tom told Belco. “He’s with us. Are you all right?”
“I’ll be okay in a minute,” gasped Belco, getting his breath back. “I am the Mayor of Colton. Welcome to my town,” he said. A loud crashing echoed through the back alley. There were screams in the distance.
“Another rockslide!” Belco cried out wearily.
Elenna jumped down from Storm. “Hurry!” she said. “I’ll catch up with you.”
“Come on!” Tom called out to Belco. He helped the old man onto Storm, then jumped up in front of him. There was no time to lose! Tom kicked his heels into Storm’s side and they cantered down the alley.
As they turned onto a larger road, Tom brought Storm to a stop. A group of townspeople stood before a crushed home. From inside, they could hear muffled cries for help.
“What happened?” Belco asked someone in the crowd.
“The house collapsed!” said the villager. “Randall, Michael, and Edward are trapped inside.”
“Serves them right,” said another. “I hear they’ve been stealing food from the houses.”
“Aye, they ought to be left in there to die!” called out a man in the crowd. Others murmured in agreement.
Tom listened as the angry crowd drowned out the cries for help from the trapped men. He had to do something.
“No!” he yelled. The crowd quieted down and everyone turned to look at him. “We must save these men. It is our duty as citizens of Avantia to help those in need.” Tom walked over to the crushed house.
There was a huge pile of stones. Tom could see the rafters of the house poking out at sharp angles between some of the rocks. There was a loud groan as the frame of the house buckled under the weight. They would have to hurry and free the men before the house collapsed further.
“Help me!” came a muffled voice from inside.
“Don’t worry!” Tom shouted. “We’re going to get you out!”
A sudden screech of anger echoed down from the mountains like a gust of icy wind.
“What was that?” gasped Belco. Tom could guess.
Cypher! he said to himself.
Belco looked away, his face deathly white as another fearful howl tore through the stormy sky.
CHAPTER SIX
DANGER ON THE MOUNTAIN
TOM’S HEART JUMPED AT THE SOUND OF HEAVY footsteps clattering on the cobbles. Eight men stepped toward him. Tom gripped his sword.
“My name is Griffin. We’re here to help,” the biggest one said. Relief swept over Tom. Then, turning toward the house, he began to think of how to free Randall and his friends.
“We need to know where the door is so we can remove the rocks from in front of it!” Tom yelled to Randall and the others trapped inside. “Can you bang on it for us?”
A faint thumping started up.
The men wasted no time. They braced their shoulders against the rocks and started to heave them out of the way, but some of the rocks were huge. Even when they used wooden poles as levers, some of the stones were impossible to shift.
Griffin looked up grimly, his hair wet with sweat. “It will take all night to clear this.”
“The house could collapse before then!” Tom said desperately. He thought hard. There had to be some other way.
Tom remembered something he had learned in his uncle’s blacksmith shop: Everything has a breaking point. One day, his uncle had demonstrated this by shattering a sheet of metal with the soft tap of a hammer. His uncle explained that it was just a matter of finding a point of weakness, and then applying pressure to it.
Tom studied the largest boulder closely. He didn’t know what he was looking for until he saw it — a small line near the bottom. It wasn’t a crack. It was a line where two different layers of rock met.
Tom pulled his sword out of its scabbard and held it up in front of him. Crouching down, he cocked his sword back, keeping his eyes focused on this small line. With all his strength, Tom swung the sword, striking just to the left of the crack. The impact sent painful vibrations up his arms, but nothing happened to the rock. Tom took aim again and swung the sword even harder.
This time, it hit the mark. There was a sharp cracking sound and the rock crumbled into pieces. Tom could hear gasps of shock from the men behind him.
“What is that sword made of?” someone asked.
“Never mind that,” said Tom, examining the next boulder for its weak spot. “We should clear this rubble.”
Griffin and the others scrambled to drag away the smaller pieces of rock. Tom kept bringing his sword down in ringing blows against the massive boulders. The muscles in his arms were soon trembling with the effort, but he couldn’t stop. Not while people were still trapped in the house.
With a surge of hope, Tom saw the door to the house slowly being revealed. He fell to his knees and used his bare hands to dig away the last of the rubble. The door creaked open. Randall, Michael, and Edward staggered out.
Belco smiled at Tom. “I don’t know where you learned to use a sword so well, but that was quick thinking, my young friend.” He clapped his hands. “Let’s get our new guests to the town hall with everyone else. Come along.”
“Thanks, but we’ll have to join you later,” Tom called, hanging back from the crowd with Elenna. “We can’t lose any more time,” he added in a low voice. “We must find Cypher and stop him before he can cause another rockslide — or kill someone.”
She nodded. “Let’s go.”
“Hey,” said Randall, who was standing with Michael and Edward. Tom and Elenna whirled around — they hadn’t heard them approach. He paused. “Not everyone would help to save a thief. Thank you. Are you sure you don’t want to take shelter in the town hall?”
“I’m sure,” Tom said, with an uneasy glance toward the mountains.
Michael stepped forward. “Are you headed up there?” he asked, alarmed.
Tom nodded solemnly.
The third man, Edward, had been silent so far. But he now looked closely at Tom. “You know, we may be thieves,” he said, “but you learn things wandering through the empty side of town.”
Tom and Elenna exchanged a glance. “Cypher,” Tom whispered.
“Yes,” said Randall. “It wasn’t always this way — - the legends say he protects us! But not now.”
“If the giant is what you’re after, boy, I’d turn around!” Michael said.
Tom shook his head. “I won’t give up,” he said.
Edward turned to Tom and Elenna. “If you’re set on it, the legends say he lives on a plain called the Place of the Eagles.” He paused, thinking. “All the short routes have been blocked. But the main trail will still take you there. It splits in five directions — always take the right. Then an hour’s hike will bring you to the plain. That is where you’ll find the Beast.”
“Thank you,” said Tom.
Tom and Elenna climbed astride Storm. With a snort, the horse cantered away, steam puffing from his nostrils. Tom was both afraid and excited as they set off on the winding trail. Looking up at the towering peaks, it was incredible to think of how small they had looked in the distance.
The colossal mountains seemed to stretch up as high as the stars, their summits lost in dark wisps of cloud.
The main path twisted and turned up the mountainside, but Storm kept his footing. Rock faces rose up to their right, and to their left cliffs dropped into nothingness. The higher they climbed, the colder the air became. It was thinner, too, and becoming more difficult to breathe.
Finally, the road leveled out onto a plain, where five more paths led in different directions. It was eerily quiet.
Tom pointed. “Randall said to take the right route….”
Elenna frowned. “Looks like Silver wants to take this trail on the left.” The wolf was edging along the first path with his head cocked to one side, as if listening to something. Then he started yapping. “What’s gotten into you, Silver?” she asked in surprise.
Silver bolted away.
“He must want us to follow him,” said Tom. “Maybe he knows where Cypher is!”
Tom urged the horse on. Storm galloped after the wolf. Tom and Elenna leaned forward to take as much of their weight off his back as possible. Storm was brave and strong, but they both knew it was hard work for him on these steep mountain paths. Elenna looked up ahead and gasped. “Silver, come back!” she yelled. “Now!”
“What is it?” asked Tom.
She pointed upward. “Look!”
Tom felt a chill go through him colder than ice. It looked like a dark cloud was rolling down the mountainside ahead of them. The ground started to shake. Tom could feel the vibrations traveling up his legs. It was like nothing he’d ever felt before — and it wasn’t good. Tom knew that was no cloud. It was a rockslide.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE COMING OF THE BEAST
FOR A SECOND, TOM HESITATED. THERE MIGHT be a chance to get out of the way, but it would mean leaving Silver behind. The wolf could always fend for himself, but before Tom could make a decision, Elenna leaped to the ground.