Legend of the Three Moons

by Patricia Bernard

  Lyla thanked Dulcinella, took a deep breath and pushed open the tavern door. She swaggered over to the tavern keeper, placed four coins on the counter and, in a low voice, asked if she could hear Crystalzee sing.

  The tavern keeper snatched up the coins, carried a bowl of seawater over to Crystalzee and roughly pulled her into a sitting position. He dipped his finger into the water and placed a drop of it onto her lips.

  The woman's large pansy-brown eyes, so like Clarissa's, snapped open. She shrugged off the tavern keeper's hands and leant over the bowl to breath in the saltiness of the water.

  Then Cristalzee began to sing. The honey-sweet melody was so beautiful that the Raiders stopped talking or bickering, and all eyes turned towards her as she sang of her lost love, her distant island home and her beautiful sea.

  Lyla placed the parchment in Dulcinella's soup bowl, and held the bowl out to catch the tears running down Cristalzee's face as they dropped from her chin. No one stopped her or questioned her - all eyes were closed as they listened. And when Lyla left the tavern she saw tears running down its stone walls.

  Back in Dulcinella's cookhouse she divided the powder between two drawstring leather pouches. She handed one to Dulcinella and asked if she knew the building where the Whale Islanders were imprisoned?'

  `Yes.'

  `This is the favour which is part of our bargain. Go to the barred window and give this pouch to a boy called Chii and explain what the powder does. But first, before the Bulgogi are freed, tell me how to reach the spring cleft.'

  `Go west to the spiked palisade. Behind it is the Western Battalion's camp. Go through the camp until you reach the trees that block out the stench of the Goch enclosures. No matter what happens - a Bulgogi or a Raider attack - do not go inside a Goch enclosure. And you must run all the way.'

  `Is it safe inside the spring cleft?'

  `I don't know. I have never seen it.'

  17

  Baatar and the Bulgogi

  It took Lyla half an hour to reach the palisade, a minute to melt the metal poles, fifteeen minutes to creep through the empty Western Battalion's camp, and another ten to jog through the trees that blocked out the smell of the Goch. She didn't like the trees. They were dark and foreboding and she kept wondering if they would change as the snake trees had, or attack her as the Babylon pines had attacked Swift and Chad.

  She was sneaking past the Goch enclosures when a high-pitched screech made her look up. Silhouetted against the gold-rimmed moon was a huge winged monster hovering over the Goch cages. Remembering how Dulcinella had said that the Bulgogi ate everything alive or dead, she belted around the base of Table Mountain in search of a place to hide. Breathless and with a stitch in her side she was already ankle deep in the spring pool at the base of the cleft before she realised she'd found it. She splashed through it and ducked behind a shoulder-high waterfall, just as a large swooping body blocked out the moonlight.

  The hairy-bellied Bulgogi circled overhead but was unable to spot Lyla in her hiding place. Eventually, spying movement amongst the trees it flew off. Lyla counted to a thousand before poking her head out. The night was full of panic-filled booming and the hoarse shouts of the Gochmasters trying to calm their Goch.

  `Imagine having to do that every time a Bulgogi flew over,' she muttered, turning to examine the cliff wall and the spring cleft.

  They both looked impossible to scale - unless she was a fly. Then she remembered Edith's peppermint root. She opened the packet and put three pieces of root into her mouth.

  `Make me as light as a feather,' she told it as she chewed the spicy hot mint. `Or so light that I can cling to the cliff like a bat or a spider.' Then she felt for her first foothold.

  The cleft was wet and the cliff sheer. Her foot slipped twice, making her heart lurch, as she was sure she'd fall into the pool. Instead she simply floated down to her last foothold. It was an odd, scary feeling and not at all comforting.

  Higher up, the cleft widened and was so smooth there was nothing to grip, so she had to climb out onto the cliff face. She did so as if she weighed nothing.

  She wished her own magical gift worked as well. Dream-flying might be able to tell her about the future, but it couldn't get her to the top of a cliff the way real flying could. It wasn't like she believed she'd ever really be able to fly. Even in her dreams, when she'd flown effortlessly over the beach and M'dgassy Royal Palace and that horrible Babylon Forest, she had always been waiting to fall. Always sure that she would fall in the end.

  After an hour of climbing, her arms and legs began to ache. She was so high that she dared not look down for fear of becoming dizzy and falling.

  Then the unwelcome sound of flapping wings and an upsurge of air told her that the Bulgogi was back. In an instant she squashed into a crevice that only seconds before she would have thought was too narrow. She squeezed in as far back as she could go and drew her dagger.

  The three moons' light was blotted out a second before a scaly limb with sharp curved talons slid into the crevice searching for her. Lyla knew that if it reached her it could hook her out, so she stabbed it.

  With a shriek the Bulgogi snatched back its claw but then, with beating wings to stay aloft, it began furiously scratching at the cliff face.

  When the scaly limb inched towards her again, Lyla severed a claw but, even with blood spurting from the wound, the creature continued to attack her.

  Minutes later Lyla heard a second, then a third screech as two more Bulgogi joined the attack.

  Certain that three together would be able to dig her out, Lyla stabbed at each claw that reached inside, until the claws withdrew and a large baleful and unblinking yellow eye peered in at her. A moment later the eye was gone and a long, thin beak full of pointed teeth began probing the space inside. But the Bulgogi's head was too wide, and its snapping beak couldn't quite reach her.

  `Get away!' Lyla yelled, thrusting her dagger into its beak. The Bulgogi withdrew its head so fast it took her dagger with it.

  Again all three Bulgogi viciously attacked the cliff. The noise of their scratching claws and flapping wings against the rock was deafening. Suddenly, there was silence.

  The quiet was actually scarier than the flapping and scratching because Lyla had no idea what they were doing. Were they just hanging there waiting for her to poke her head out? Were they perched above the crack, ready to pounce?

  After a long wait she crawled forward and, knowing what she was about to do was perilous, took a deep breath and peeked out. She smiled with relief. The beautiful dawn sky was streaked with pink. There wasn't a Bulgogi in sight.

  Lyla scrambled out of the crevice and climbed the rest of the cliff with less fear than before. She finally crawled over its upper edge and collapsed, with shaking arms and legs, into the long grass.

  When she eventually raised her head to see where she was, her mouth fell open in surprise. The entire plateau of Table Mountain was covered in thousands of yellow felt gerts. Between the gerts were compounds of goats, sheep and horse stables.

  In the centre of the flat mountain plain stood a huge platform supporting an enormous orange tent, with four broad avenues, running north, south, east and west. Each avenue was flanked by hundreds of flagpoles, each ending at a staircase leading up to one of the gert's four entrances.

  Worried that the grass she was lying on might be whispering grass, Lyla jumped to her feet and raced to the nearest horse path, where she waited with her back to a small gert. She wished that she still had her dagger. But as it seemed no one had seen her, she brushed down her messenger's uniform, straightened her cap and set off for General Tulga's grand gert.

  The yellow uniformed Raiders that she passed took no notice of her. They were too busy with their morning tasks of wrestling, sword and double-headed axe fighting, spear throwing, or archery while galloping at top speed, to notice her.

  Once again she wondered why, apart from the Bulgogi attack, it had all been so easy. Even her plan to find the talis
man was easy. All she needed to do was to get close enough to the chained eagle to ask it where its talisman was, find the talisman, then escape down the spring cleft before anyone realised she wasn't a Raider's messenger. And, even if she was questioned, she had San Jaagiin's message to Master Wan-rast.

  Lyla walked between the flagpoles of the Northern Avenue until she reached a crowd of Yellow Raiders who were staring up at a cage hanging from the beams of the platform. Inside the cage was a python, its head raised to ward off a pair of attacking hawks.

  `Twenty coins on the snake,' shouted one.

  `Don't waste your coin,' argued another. `The snake kills by crushing. The hawks will peck out its eyes first.'

  Lyla moved away in disgust, wishing she could speak to animals like Lem could, so she could warn the snake to hide its head.

  She stepped back onto someone's boot, and a heavy hand landed on her shoulder. `Where are you going, messenger?'

  Not trusting her voice to sound like a boy's she pointed to the southern side of the Grand Gert.

  The Yellow Raider looked at her suspiciously. `Why are you going there? The wolves are not fighting today.'

  Lyla lowered her voice. `I have a message for Master Wan-rast, General Tulga's bird trainer.'

  The Raider nodded his head in recognition of the bird trainer's name. `Master Wan-rast's eagles are beside the wolf and bear cages. But now is not a good time to visit, as he'll be preening General Tulga's golden eagle to win tomorrow's fight.

  `And as you know if the eagle doesn't win, Master Wan-rast's skull will end up with the other bird and animal masters, and the Whale Islanders,' the Raider smiled, and gestured upwards.

  Lyla's eyes followed the line of his pointing hand to...

  Hanging from the Grand Gert's flagpoles were bunches of human skulls clacking together in the wind.

  `We call them skull trees,' he chuckled. `Our General has a great liking for their fruit.'

  The awful fight between the hawks and the snake was over, the hawks had won, so the crowd was on the move to a second cage.

  Lyla slipped away and hurried around the platform to the southern staircase. The space beneath the platform was crowded with cages full of wolves and bears, alongside which sat a worried-looking man grooming an enormous golden eagle. The eagle wore a silver leather mask and silver metal claw-shields attached to its talons. It looked incredibly fierce.

  The man looked up. `Why are you standing there, messenger?'

  `I was overcome by the beauty of your eagle.'

  The man smiled his approval at the compliment. `She is beautiful. Not even a fully-grown wolf can beat her. But to ask her to fight two black bears with thorns embedded into their paws to make them twice as angry, is too much. And all because those Whale Islanders escaped. The general is angered beyond belief. So if my lovely bird doesn't win tomorrow, both our heads will end up swinging from a flagpole.'

  `That's so wrong, and very cruel!' burst out Lyla.

  `True,' said a deep resonant voice behind her. `But only a disloyal fool wishing to take the bears' place would say so.'

  The fear in the bird master's eyes told Lyla just who it was standing behind her. She swung around.

  General Tulga was so tall that his head almost touched the platform's rafters, and his shoulders were as broad as those of the mountain bears rearing up in their cages behind him. His hawkish-nosed face was handsome with black eyebrows arched over deep-set golden-brown eyes. His long moustache and shoulder-length hair were braided with golden threads that matched his threaded jerkin and gold-studded kilt. Over one shoulder he wore a cape of bear and wolf pelts decorated with eagle feathers, and from his belt swung a gold-hilted sword in a golden scabbard.

  Aware of her scrutiny, he stepped from the shadow into sunlight that lit up the beautiful blue-black eagle perched on his gloved wrist.

  The eagle's beak and talons were painted gold. Around its wings and chest hung a fine web of gold chains. Its right leg was attached to a leather leash that was fastened to a bracelet of gold, inset with precious stones, worn on the general's left wrist.

  Master Wan-rast was visibly terrified by the General, but Lyla was much too busy listening to the eagle's thoughts to be afraid.

  `Yes, child. I am King Tefan, your father.'

  `Why are you speaking with Master Wan-rast, my bird master?' asked General Tulga in a deceptively soft voice.

  Lyla dragged her gaze from the eagle, her father, and bowed low. `I am here, oh mighty General, to deliver a letter to Master Wan-rast from Master San Jaagiin of Belem.'

  The General held out his hand for the letter. After reading it he handed it to his bird trainer. `Is this San Jaagiin's handwriting?'

  Master Wan-rast nodded.

  `Send a Raider to fetch the eagle and to tell San Jaagiin that we will be keeping his messenger. The lad will take the place of the Whale Islander in tomorrow's fight.'

  The bird trainer's eyes lit up. `And the bears?'

  General Tulga stroked the black eagle's head thoughtfully until a cruel smile twisted his handsome face. `The disobedient Gochmaster will fight the bears. The winners of each fight will then fight each other. Before that, the messenger and the Gochmaster will entertain my dinner guests tonight.'

  `Doing what?' gasped Lyla, as the black eagle's words, `Be careful. Be careful,' filled her head.

  `Everyone has a talent,' said the General. `Mine is torturing traitors, or messengers who the whispering grass warned me should not be on my mountain, no matter what letter they carry.'

  He clicked his fingers and two obedient Raiders grabbed her and dragged her towards a cage, while he strode out from beneath the platform.

  In one corner of the cage, which stunk of bear droppings and urine, crouched the disobedient Gochmaster. By the look of his filthy hair, stained jerkin, muddy leggings and boots, he'd been there a long time.

  He didn't repulse her, as he had when she dreamt about him, especially now that she knew why he was sobbing.

  Lyla felt like crying too but instead she sat opposite him and tried to think of an escape plan. Preferably one that would work before she had to fight the golden eagle; and most definitely one that included her finding the chained black eagle's talisman.

  Entertaining the General's guests was another problem. She couldn't dance, juggle or do acrobatics and although she could sing, after seeing Dulcinella's throat, she didn't want to. Tears welled up as she realised what a mess she was in.

  `Do not cry, messenger,' whispered Master Wan-rast pushing a cup of water towards her through the bars. `Your death will be fast. Now rest. Tonight's entertainment starts at dusk.'

  Dusk. Entertainment. Fight. Talisman. The words spun round in her head as Lyla closed her tired eyes. The climb up the cliff had worn her out and soon she was asleep and dreaming. She was flying over the Shambala River Gorge again. Only this time something heavy was weighing her down. Down, down she plummeted until, with a splash, she landed in the river where whatever it was that clung to her, pulled her under as it pressed its ugly face against hers.

  Struggling and kicking, she woke up to find that the face from her dream was now bending over her. She squirmed away as the rank smell of the Gochmaster engulfed her.

  `How did you do that?' he whispered.

  `Do what?'

  `Float to the top of the cage with your arms stretched out as if you were flying.'

  `I was dreaming.'

  He shook his big, shaggy head. `No. You were flying. Then you fell down and started to kick. I had to stop you before the Raiders come to take us to The Grand Gert.'

  Lyla glanced through the bars. `What will happen when we get there?'

  The Gochmaster began to tremble all over. `He will torture us for the entertainment of his guests.'

  Lyla gulped and her heart felt as if it had slid into the toes of her boots. In a panic she searched for the jewel and packets hidden inside her jacket. Everything was still there.

  There must be a way she could use
them to escape. Master Wan-rast was obiously too afraid to take a jewel in return for helping her. The peppermint root was no use while she was in a cage, and the Gaabi Desert sand could only be used to ask a question. With so many of them filling her head, which one would she even ask?

  That left the metal-eating powder. But she could only use that half an hour before dawn to time her return to the spring cleft properly. It would have to be after the Bulgogi returned to their pits but before the Raiders woke. Assuming, of course, that she wasn't caught by the whispering grass before she even reached the cliff.

  The Gochmaster began to sob again. Lyla stared at the tears running down his hairy face and asked him what was wrong. Then she rolled her eyes, feeling a bit stupid because as far as she could see everything was wrong.

  The Gochmaster hiccupped, rubbed his knuckles into his very sad eyes and told her that he was afraid for his Goch.

  Lyla was puzzled. `Why? Does it have to fight too?'

  `No. But I have left it alone too long, and I am afraid it will die.'

  What, like us? she wanted to ask him, but didn't. `Why did you leave it alone for so long?'

  `The High Enchanter ordered that it be fed to the Bulgogi but I didn't want it to be eaten because it is my...my…' The Gochmaster looked at her helplessly as he searched for the correct word.

  `Pet? Friend? Best friend?' she prompted.

  `Yes. Pet, friend, best friend. So I told it to hide.'

  `And?' Lyla prompted, wondering where he could have hidden such a large and smelly creature.

  `When the Raiders discovered it was gone they arrested me. General Tulgawas furious because no one disobeys him; certainly not a lowly Gochmaster. But I know the true reason he ordered my Goch to be eaten and why he wants me to die fighting two bears.'

  `Why?'

  His voice dropped to a breathy whisper. `It is because of what Crystalzee sang to me.'