Into The Mist (Land of Elyon) (10 page)

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which their way of speaking and ours were connected. And so you must imagine a man such as Mister Clawson finding one of these places and bringing a wild animal into his midst -- understanding that animal, if only for a brief time -- and then finding a way of keeping the animal under his control. If you can imagine these things, then you are very near to understanding Thorn.

"Children are different," Thorn told us as Thomas pulled on a chain and let it go so that it hung perfectly still behind us as we drifted past. "They don't bring harm in the same way adults do. I don't know why, but a child wandering in the forest kills no magic and does no damage. But that doesn't mean a pack of wolves wouldn't want to tear you to bits. The untamed regions are just that -- untamed -- and dinner is dinner."

I didn't want to think about being devoured by wild animals, so I tried to think of something different to ask Thorn. The next chain was coming near and it was mine to take hold of. Grabbing it, I asked: "How did you come to be with Mister Clawson?"

Thorn appeared to gaze back into a past she had trouble remembering.

"My family used to come from the mountain to the Great Ravine and hunt during a certain time of the year. There was a cave near our hunting

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ground that my mother told me to stay away from. She caught me near there once and punished me severely. It made me angry -- the way she got so upset and wouldn't trust me -- so I went back the next day when she was hunting and I ventured inside the cave."

There was a moment of silence when I thought she wouldn't go on, but it passed. "Mister Clawson was in the cave, hiding in the dark. It was my first time in the hunting grounds at the Great Ravine and I wasn't very big then. I clawed and clawed at him, trying to get away, but I failed."

"And now he keeps you in that room with the candles?" asked Thomas sadly.

"Sometimes he sends me back through the mouth of the cave to get something for him, but yes, mostly I stay in the room with the candles."

"Why don't you escape? Why not just leave and never come back?"

Evidently these were hard questions for Thorn to answer, for she turned her head to the side and wouldn't look at us.

"The two of you won't survive in the wild without me to protect you. He only sends me out with children such as you, because he knows I won't let you perish. Without me you might already be dead. And when we reach the wild, there is no hope for you but to stay with me."

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It was suddenly clear to me that Thorn was the closest thing to a friend Thomas and I could have dreamed of. A two-hundred-pound beast with claws as long as my toes was our guide and our shield! And she'd been lost as a cub herself. She knew the sorrow of being young and alone. She would never let that happen to me or Thomas.

"Thank you, Thorn," I said, releasing the chain and stepping out of the way for Thomas to take his turn. "We've needed a friend for a long time." I knelt down before the great cat and all my fear of her was gone. There was a sonlike feeling in its place, as though she were our mother and we were her cubs, and nothing in the world would let her fail in defending us against the wild world outside.

"How did Mister Clawson come to be in the cave?" asked Thomas.

"He found the iron door -- a door no animal can open on its own -- and he followed the same path we now travel. He's someone who lives in the realms of dark magic, and when you live there, certain forces are apt to find you and drag you away."

"What do you mean?" asked Thomas, pulling on the chain and releasing it softly.

"I mean Mister Clawson dabbled in dark magic in dark places, and eventually that choice led here, to the Lake of Fire. It's here that Abaddon lives, deep beneath the world."

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The sound of that name -- Abaddon -- had a curious feel to it. I whispered it to myself -- Abaddon -- and it felt as though I were calling some dark spirit of power closer to us. The name tingled on my lips and I wished I hadn't spoken it.

"There is good magic -- the kind of Elyon -- and evil magic -- the kind of Abaddon," continued Thorn. "There can't be one without the other. The room you were pulled into, the iron door, the Lake of Fire -- these are all within the realm of dark magic, and together they are a secret passage to the untamed places of the world."

"Pulled into?" I asked.

Thorn explained that it was Mister Clawson who had pulled us into the room with only one door. His arm came through the stones and took hold of us, and we went right through to the other side.

Mister Clawson had very limited powers, but this one he had mastered -- to bring those he chose into his realm and put them to work on tasks of his choosing.

Thorn, I was finding, had not learned certain motherly traits in the charge of Mister Clawson. She did not wonder if something might scare us or bother us. She simply answered the questions put to her.

"The iron door is a passageway down into the

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world of darkness and out into the wild. If a man can get hold of a wild beast -- control one -- within this world of darkness, he can gain for himself a way to cross between the two worlds unharmed. If..." She paused. "If he can find those that would do his traveling for him."

"That's where we come in," Thomas suggested. Then, thinking a little more, he added, "What exactly are we getting for Mister Clawson?"

Thorn didn't answer. Changing her tone she stared past us into the glowing water.

"We come to the end of the chains."

It was dimmer on this side -- it had been getting dimmer as we went without us really noticing -- so that both Thomas and I were surprised to find the raft bumping softly against rock, wobbling back and forth on impact. I had a hold on the last chain, and when we hit the rocks, I jerked forward just enough to flip the chain up out of my hands into the air. It folded over itself, the links running back down like dripping water, clanging softly as they came.

All was still as I steadied the chain in my hand and let it go, thinking nothing of the tiny ringing noise I'd let slip over the Lake of Fire. Thorn's ears were perked and listening. She looked at us as if to say, Don't make a sound. But it was too late, for somewhere in the distance, high over our heads

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and down the length of the Lake of Fire, the noise of a thousand screaming voices came bellowing over the water.

"Run for the wall!" Thorn roared. "The bats have awakened!"

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***

CHAPTER 12

The Great Ravine

Thorn jumped from the raft first and beckoned us to follow. She was much faster than we were, and we quickly fell behind. The leathery sound of beating wings filled the air behind us, and the shrieking of the bats made me cover my ears as we ran. It was an awful, piercing sound that grew more frightening by the second.

Thorn was already to the wall, running back and forth in the faint light, searching for something.

"Here! Here it is!" she cried. "Hurry!"

Breathless and confused, we came alongside Thorn and saw she was standing before a second iron door. It was just the same as the one above that led to Mister Clawson's chamber with the candles, and it had the same square and circle symbol beneath the handle. Were we somehow tied to this dark passage? Who had put the markings on our skin and where were we being led?

"Turn the handle and open the door," Thorn instructed. She was calm in the face of great danger, but her eyes told me we'd better hurry if we

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were going to escape the Lake of Fire. Thomas was down on his knees in a flash, trying with all his might to turn the handle. I joined him, putting my hands tightly next to his, and we both tried to force the handle down. It budged slightly, then all at once gave way, the sound of iron on iron clashing through the air. This seemed to send the bats into an even greater fury, and, looking back, I could see a black cloud moving fast and low over the glowing water. Beneath the moving black cloud the Lake of Fire boiled up orange and bright.

"Open the door!" cried Thorn, her claws biting into the stone wall where iron met rock.

Thomas and I heaved on the handle of the iron door, and it creaked open with a maddening slowness. The moment a small crack appeared, Thorn attacked it with her claws, pulling the door toward us. It was scary to be so close to such a big animal doing such powerful work. She snarled violently, pitting all of her will against the iron door.

"Through the door, both of you! As fast as you can!"

Thomas fought his way through the thin opening first. The opening was barely big enough for us to shimmy through, and when it was my turn and I popped through on the other side, my pack was caught, pinning me to the door. Thomas pulled on my hands and Thorn pushed once with her claws

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from behind - knocking the bag free -- and I tumbled forward onto cold earth.

The opening wasn't big enough for Thorn, and looking back I saw that Thomas was pushing against the door, trying to get it open far enough for her to fit inside. The bats were very close, but the more frightening sound was that of whatever was making its way to the surface of the Lake of Fire. It was a horrible, deep sound that made me want to run in the opposite direction. It took all my courage to join Thomas at the iron door and push, opening our hidden space to bats and monsters I could not see.

Thorn clawed mercilessly at the opening as we forced the door open far enough for her to slip through. With a final thrust of her powerful legs she broke free and tumbled in at our feet.

"They're coming! We have to close the door!" screamed Thomas. It was hard to make out his words over the roar of bats. The front assault of the black wave of flapping leather wings had reached the door, and no amount of effort would get the door closed before some of them got through. There was a straight bar of metal on this side of the iron door, long enough for two people to grab hold and pull. I held the bar on top and Thomas held it on the bottom, both of us pulling hard and fast.

Bats began to flow through the crack in the door like thick black leaves blown free in a violent

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thunderstorm. As they came through, Thorn batted them to the ground with vicious slashes. One after the other she broke their bodies until we had the door closed far enough that no more could fit through. The few bats that were missed by Thorn alighted on the ceiling, unexpectedly lost from the black cloud of the swarm and unsure what to do.

"Get it all the way closed!" growled Thorn, batting the air with her claws in search of renegade bats flying low in the cave. "It will come out of the water for a dreadful moment if it sees the door is open to the wild."

The bats were so loud crashing and slashing outside the door, all other sounds from the Lake of Fire had been drowned out. But suddenly there was a new noise, and the bats moved off as fast as they'd come. Something else - something entirely more savage and evil -- was coming for the door. It sounded slippery and heavy, a dread beast coming from the Lake of Fire, sniffing the air and smelling two boys from Madame Vickers's House on the Hill.

Seeing the terror in Thomas's face and hearing the sound of the approaching beast sent my mind reeling, and all at once I knew what to do.

"Get away from the door!" I ordered Thomas. I forced him back, took the handle firmly in both hands, and braced my feet on the wall to the right

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of the iron door. It was difficult holding such an awkward position, but I was able to force the door toward me that last few inches before feeling my hands slip free and falling back hard onto the ground of the cave. Looking up I saw Thorn slash at the handle I'd held, turning it bit by bit until she'd locked the iron door once more.

There were two or three bats circling drunkenly in the air above us, bouncing against the door as if they'd lost their way. The dirt floor of the cave was littered with dead bats, their murky blood oozing at our feet.

"We're safe for now," said Thorn. Winded, she flopped down on the floor with Thomas and me, licking the blood on her paws. It was difficult to tell if she was licking at her own wounded claws or the spilled blood of the bats she'd destroyed.

"What was that thing?" asked Thomas. "It sounded like nothing I've ever heard before."

Thorn stood, staring toward the unseen ceiling of rocks somewhere above. Her head lolled slowly from side to side, like one of the cats at the House on the Hill waiting to strike a fly out of the air. Then she leaped straight up, slashing hard, and one of the few remaining bats crashed against the wall. Thorn turned and looked at Thomas.

"I've never seen what's in the Lake of Fire, so I can only guess at how big it is, how many teeth it

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has, how black and slick its monstrous head must be. I'm just happy that door is closed and we're all on this side of it." Thorn gazed back and forth between the two of us. "You could have left me behind, but you stayed. I won't forget that."

Until then, my attention had been on Thorn, the awful sounds coming from behind the iron door, and the immense struggle to free ourselves from the Lake of Fire. But now my mind caught up to my senses, and it came as a surprise that there was still light in the cave, though the iron door was shut. From where did the light come?

"Follow me," whispered Thorn. "Stay close and silent as we make our way. You must watch my steps and do the same. Don't veer off the path or fall behind."

Thorn moved away from the iron door and quickly disappeared down a narrow path. Thomas and I quickly stood and followed. The path turned steep and treacherous, but we were delighted to find that the faint light of the cave grew stronger as we went. It was a strange sensation of going down deeper into the earth at a very steep grade and yet finding the light around us growing in intensity as we kept on. The path was cut with sharp stones that made good footings, and there were sudden twists and turns where we could take hold of the narrow walls surrounding us.