Legend of the Three Moons

by Patricia Bernard

  `Yes,' Celeste said, and swung open the cage door.

  Snow leapt and caught the boy's raised arm in his jaws. Dach's stick fell to the ground and the younger boys ran away, leaving the chief bully alone in the yard.

  Dach kicked out at Snow. `Make it let me go!'

  `Or what? You'll hit me with your stick?' jeered Celeste. `And stop kicking him, before he bites your arm off.'

  Wishing she had Lem's gift of speaking to animals, Celeste placed her hand on the leopard's head. `Let him go, Snow.'

  The snow leopard shook his head and Dach's arm with it, as he recognised her voice and gentle tone, if not her words, and opened his mouth.

  Dach backed away and glared at them. `Only witches travel with night monsters. Wait until I tell everyone, they'll hunt you and your monster down.' Then, fearing that Snow might attack again, he sprinted for the gate.

  Swift lay on the long grass staring up at the gold-rimmed moon. Since being caught by the singing women he'd spent the whole day carrying water and food to the villagers and the statue pullers. Now he was so tired he could hardly keep awake, but he knew he must. The villagers had returned to their homes, the sculptors to their cliff huts, and the statue pullers and the water boys were bedded down beside him on the west side of the crater. Soon they would be asleep and he could escape. If only he wasn't so tired. His eyes had just drooped shut when he felt something wet slide across his cheek.

  It was Nutty's tongue. Swift stood up slowly so as not to alert the water boys, and followed the pup up the crater's side to where Lem and Chad were hiding. Lem pulled him down into the grass and then told Nutty to go and find Lyla and Celeste.

  Swift wriggled in between his brother and Chad. `How did Nutty get here?'

  `He swam ashore with Snow,' whispered Chad.

  Swift's eyes lit up. `Snow's on the island? Where is he? Where's Lyla, Celeste and Splash?'

  `Calm down. Someone will hear you,' warned Lem. `We think Splash is still on the boat and we don't know where Snow is now.'

  Ten minutes later Nutty, followed by a familiar figure with flyaway black hair and someone else, who didn't look like Celeste, crept up the crater's side.

  `Who's with you?' hissed Lem.

  `Chii,' said Lyla.

  `Chii who? And where's Celeste?'

  Lyla bit her lip to control her irritation at Lem's bossy tone, and to give herself time to think of how to tell them about Celeste. `Let's move away so we won't be heard,' she whispered.

  When they were far enough away to speak safely she told them about Celeste's disappearance, how she'd searched for her, and how she'd seen the women capturing them off the boat.

  `So I came looking for you and found Chii. He thinks the Merpeople have Celeste and he can talk to them and help get her back. He also thinks something odd is happening under the ground.'

  Four pairs of eyes turned to Chii.

  `What do you mean, odd?' demanded Lem, who after being dragged off their boat and forced to haul a statue across a crater, wasn't too keen on Whale Islanders.

  `The last time the Syrene Volcano vomited up stones and fire, the island's stomach rumbled first. Tonight, I heard it rumble again.'

  `I haven't heard anything,' snapped Lem. But as he spoke they all felt the ground tremble.

  `Like that!' whispered Chii. `You must leave the island now.'

  `We can't go without my sister,' argued Chad.

  `And our boat is wrecked,' added Swift.

  Chii shook his silver head. `It is mended now and moored on the far side of the jetty. Only…'

  `Only what?' demanded Lem.

  Chii's silver eyes grew large with fear. `The island is safe during the day while the statues are awake, but at night when they sleep, night monsters roam the hills. This is why we never leave our homes, or the crater, after dark.'

  `Sleeping statues and night monsters? You must be joking,' scoffed Lem.

  Lyla jabbed him in the ribs, then asked Chii what a night monster looked like.

  `I have never seen one. I have only heard their screeches and the flapping of their wings, and the noise they make when they land on our houses and make the roofs collapse.'

  `Sounds real to me,' she told the others.

  `Well I'm not afraid of night monsters,' argued Chad. `I just want to find Celeste.'

  `We all do,' said Lyla. `So if we hear any night monsters coming, we'll hide.'

  Chii looked even more scared. `There is nowhere to hide.'

  The hills between the crater and the village were not difficult to climb, except for the need to avoid stepping on sleeping rainbow parrots in their nests hidden in the grass. But Chii was right, there was nowhere to hide; so when Chad, who was in the lead, dropped to the ground, the others dropped too.

  Coming towards them, silhouetted black against a lilac-coloured sky slunk a six-legged creature with a low-slung body, two arms and two heads.

  `Night monster,' breathed Chii.

  As the monster climbed the hill towards them, they all held their breath until... Lyla began to giggle.

  `It's Snow and Celeste!'

  Chad was first to his feet followed by Swift and Lem. Lyla hung back and waited for Chii, using him as her excuse not to rush down the hill and throw her arms around her cousin. She was so relieved to see her, but also felt guilty about leaving her in the sea; about abandoning her, the way she knew Celeste would never abandon anyone.

  Chad was still hanging off Celeste and Swift was hugging a patient Snow, while Lem asked the snow leopard what had happened, when Lyla and Chii reached them.

  `Lyla!' Celeste threw her arms around her taller cousin's neck.

  Lyla burst into tears. `What happened to your hair?' she wailed.

  Celeste ran her hand over her short spiky hair. `It's okay. I had to swap three-years' growth to get your mother's talisman.' She took the merwoman's pearl and chain off and put it around Lyla's neck.

  On their way back to the village, Celeste told them about Sekcap the king of the octopi, Prince Torenshone of the Merpeople, the merwoman, and the serpents that guarded her. She ended her story with how Queen Hail had told her that she thought about Lyla, Lem, Swift and their father every day.

  `Does our mother really have barnacles on her eyes?' whispered Lyla, while trying to imagine how horrible such a thing would feel. `Do they hurt her?'

  `She didn't say so,' whispered Celeste.

  Lem bit his lip and wished he could remember something, anything at all, about his mother. `Do the serpents hurt her the way the Enkidu hurt Prince Atric?'

  Celeste shook her head. `They can't get through the bars to reach her.'

  `But she remembers us?' said Swift. `She remembers what we look like?'

  `Definitely!'

  `I think I remember her.'

  Lem was about to say that was impossible, that Swift had been way too young, when Lyla nudged him hard in the ribs and he bit back his words.

  `She was very beautiful,' Swift added.

  The re-stealing of Bengg's boat was easy. All they had to do was creep through the sleeping village, climb aboard, untie the mooring rope, trim their new sail and turn the boat's freshly-painted prow towards the headland.

  Chii retrieved the casket for them, because no one else wanted to go into the lagoon for fear of the octopi. He also presented Lyla with his whale-tooth necklace, said farewell and swam back to the beach.

  It was only then that Lem voiced his fears.`Something bad is going to happen.'

  `Why do you always worry when things are going well?' Celeste demanded. After finding Splash under the boat's middle bench, she was feeling happier than she'd felt for days.

  `Because things aren't going well! The sky is purple. The island is shaking and the sea is too calm. I think the High Enchanter knows we have the second talisman.'

  Lyla took the tiller from a sleepy Swift. `Lem's right. The High Enchanter sent an avalanche to sink us after Lem cut out the dragon's scale. And Chii said the Whale Islanders never leave thei
r home at night, yet I can hear the women singing.'

  `So can I,' yawned Swift.

  Chad pointed to the cliffs. `And I can see them.'

  As they watched, more and more Whale Islanders appeared on the headland. Then, as the island began to rumble and groan and tear itself apart, the Islanders dived or jumped into the sea to save themselves.

  A cloud of burning coals and ash showered Bengg's boat, pumice and dead parrots rained into the sea, and streams of lava poured over the headland spilling into the water.

  `Trim the sails. Volcanic eruptions cause tidal waves!' Lem commanded.

  But, instead of being engulfed in a giant wave, the heat from the lava and steam sucked up the sea and began dragging their boat back to the island.

  `Tack against the wind,' yelled Lyla.

  Lem forced the tiller to the right but the boat continued to slide sideways towards the now completely-exposed reef.

  `We're going to smash up on the coral,' wailed Swift.

  `No you aren't,' called a musical voice. `Throw me your rope, Princess.'

  `It's Prince Torenshone,' cried Celeste. She threw the merman their rope.

  Nothing happened for a moment. The boat continued to slide landwards, then suddenly the rope tightened and their boat turned away from the island.

  The children cheered when they saw hundreds of Merpeople swimming amongst the pumice and dead birds. With their long hair floating amongst the debris, and their bejewelled tails flashing through the ash-covered waves, the Merpeople towed the boat out to sea. Eventually, when all that could be seen of Whale Island was a black cloud, Prince Torenshone returned to the boat and handed the rope to Celeste.

  `Thank you,' Celeste called after him as, with a flick of his tail and a flash of its new orange tail-jewel, Prince Torenshone and his Merpeople disappeared beneath the waves.

  Morning arrived as they set a course south with the coastline on their left. Everyone was finally starting to relax when a faint but strange sound put them on alert again. Chad searched and found a singed and barely-alive rainbow parrot lying beneath the tiller bench. He wrapped it carefully in his sock to keep it warm, then he and Swift curled up in the bottom of the boat to talk about what name to give it.

  Gathered around the tiller, Lem, Celeste and Lyla discussed what had happened on Whale Island.

  `Do you think the villagers got away in time?' asked Lyla, fingering Chii's whale tooth necklace.

  Celeste answered her quickly. `Prince Torenshone told me that whenever the Raiders threaten the Whale Islanders, they hid in the Merpeople's caves. I think Chii will be fine.'

  Two days later the children dropped anchor in Pebble Cove and waded ashore with an excited pup and a very wet snow leopard.

  13

  Hangwoman Hannah

  Their return trek to Wartstoe Village took time as the children hid when other travellers came along. They rested in the shadows while Snow hunted for groundhogs for his and Nutty's dinner. Reaching the outskirts of the village, they slept in the burnt-out barn again.

  This time Snow was on guard while Nutty went exploring. The pup returned with a woeful story. Wartstoe Inn was full of six-fingered Belemites and Mussel Cove fishermen but no farmers, as the Raiders had taken them to be soldiers.

  That night, after they'd circled the silent village and reached the crossroads of Belem Road and Marsh Pond Lane, they saw four bodies swinging from the hanging tree. Their green-skinned faces, gaping eye holes and broken-toothed mouths were so frightening that the children raced into the mist-filled lane without thinking of what they would do if they collided with Edith's spirit dogs.

  `Shouldn't we hide Snow in case she doesn't want him,' Swift panted, as they reached the cemetery wall. `Because if she doesn't, I do.'

  `No, you don't,' argued Lem. `It would be cruel to force Snow to keep going when he's so old.'

  `But I love him.'

  Lyla put her arm around Swift's shoulders. `What if he got sick? Wouldn't he be better here with Edith?'

  `Probably,' pouted Swift. `But I still love him and he loves me.'

  Lem shrugged. `How do you kn-'

  `Lem!' Lyla glared at her brother.

  Suddenly the silence of the night was shattered by people shouting and Edith's dogs barking. Snarling and roaring, Snow jumped in front of the children while Nutty rushed ahead to see what was happening. When he returned he told Lem that there was a gang of very old and very young villagers with torches, sticks and pitchforks trying to break down the cemetery gate.

  `They're shouting about how Edith is a witch and that it's because of her they are starving. They say she should be burned. The leaders are Petrie Wartstoe and his son, Isaac.'

  `They probably think Edith has treasure hidden in her cottage,' cried Lem, already running towards the cemetery. `We have to save her from a lynch mob.'

  Lyla ran beside him. `How? Our weapons were taken by the Whale Islanders.'

  `How many people are there?' panted Chad, catching up.

  `Nutty says about twenty.'

  On reaching the cemetery the five, led by Nutty and followed by Snow, crept along its wall until they could see the gate. In front of it, dancing and yelling, were a crowd of village youths, old men and women and a few drunken travellers, all being riled up by Petrie and Isaac Wartstoe.

  On the cemetery-side of the gates, Edith's one-eared, tailless dogs were going crazy trying to get out at them.

  `So,' whispered Swift, his hand around Snow's neck. `Anyone got a plan?'

  Lem nodded. `Snow says he should go first because the villagers might never have seen a snow leopard before. He can frighten them.'

  Swift's arm tightened around Snow.

  `Right,' agreed Lyla. `Everyone else - capes over our heads and arms out pretending to be giant bats like the guardians of M'dgassy Palace did to us.'

  `And if that doesn't work we will have to release Edith's dogs,' added Celeste. `I wonder why she hasn't done it already?'

  `Quick! They've broken the lock,' shouted Lem, racing towards the villagers with his cape over his head. In front of him galloped a snarling Snow, his mouth open to show what was left of his sharp, meat-tearing teeth. Nutty ran alongside pretending he was just as big.

  With Petrie and Isaac Wartstoe in front, forcing the barking dogs back with their flaming torches, the jeering, shouting crowd had reached the first row of lopsided gravestones by the time Snow reached them. Behind him, and yelling as loud as they could, Celeste, Lyla, Chad and Swift tried hard to look like giant bats.

  An elderly woman waving a broom saw Snow first, and screamed `Ghost!' She turned and burrowed into the pitchfork-carrying crowd. But, on seeing the terrifying enormous white cat, followed by a host of huge bats, the villagers scattered amongst the gravestones.

  When Snow reached the cowering Isaac Wartstoe, he reared onto his hind legs and roared. Isaac's mean little eyes bulged, his long jaw dropped and he bolted out of the cemetery. His skinny-legged father took off after him, caught and passed his son and, without looking back, sprinted off down Marsh Pond Lane.

  With Nutty and Edith's dogs backing him up, a snarling Snow herded the frightened villagers and travellers out of the cemetery. Relieved to be alive and with all their limbs intact, they took to their heels and disappeared into the surrounding countryside.

  Lem raced to the wrought iron gate and snapped shut the bolt.

  `They could come over the wall,' said Celeste, eyeing the not-high-enough wall.

  `Not with Snow on guard,' said Swift proudly.

  They ran thtough the cemetry to Edith's cottage, where a faint light shone through her curtains. Lyla knocked on the front door.

  `Go away, or I will set my dogs on you!'

  `It's us, Spear, Splash, Wolf, Tree and Arrow,' replied Celeste. `Didn't you see the villagers trying to get into the cemetery? Didn't you hear them shouting that they wanted to burn you as a witch?'

  `Of course I heard them. But how do I know you aren't them?'

  `Bec
ause no one else knows our names and because we have some of the packets of seeds that you gave us,' said Lyla.

  The door opened a crack. `How do I know you aren't Belemite shape-thieves? There be a lot of them wandering the byways of late.'

  `Because we aren't,' said Swift pushing to the front. `And because we've bought some fish for your dogs and a wonderful present for you.'

  `Not for nothing, I warrant,' grumbled the old woman, opening the door wide enough for each of them to squeeze through one at a time.

  She held up her lantern and examined them. `What a sight you be,' she chuckled nastily. `No fancy leggings and boots this time. No spears, bows and arrows or swords, just stained clothes, down-at-heel boots and chewed hair. And what be that nasty looking creature with you?'

  `It's the snow leopard that just saved you from being burned alive,' explained Swift. `He's brave and fierce and he's a present for you.'

  Edith frowned so hard that her wrinkled face resembled a bad tempered walnut. `I told you the last time you were here not to bring me any unwanted presents. He'll just be another mouth to feed and the dogs won't like him.'

  `He saved your life,' said Lyla, louder than she meant to.

  `Oh aye, he did that,' agreed the old woman, fussing about trying to find them all somewhere to sit. `Well sit, sit. Everything's a mess. I was trying to gather a few things to take with me before I escaped over the back wall.'

  `Couldn't your magic stop the attackers?' asked Swift, sitting on top of a chest.

  `I'm an oracle, not a sorcerer or wizard, Master Arrow,' she snapped.

  Once they were seated Edith told them how Petrie Wartstoe had been threatening her, demanding coin or jewels. `As if I'd have any of those,' she grumbled.

  `Then a one-legged soldier turned up searching for his wife and daughter. He frightened Petrie Wartstoe off more than once. I couldn't help him, as his family had been stolen by Raiders and taken to Ulaan, so I gave him a three-legged dog for company.

  `Now, as all seems quiet out there, I will get you some stew and then, while I continue packing, you can tell me where you've been.'

  They were on their second bowls of stew by the time they'd finished telling her about Tartik and Whale Islands.