Legend of the Three Moons (11 page)

`I too am royal,' replied the wolf. `I am Lord Shamash of the Royal Pack of Ice Wolves.'

Lem bowed. `Pleased to meet you, Lord Shamash.'

The wolf's neck ruffle softened at Lem's respectful words. `And I you, Prince Lem. Tell me about this song you sing.'

`The three moons sang it to me during their last eclipse. It tells of five journeys to find a mocked dragon, a caged merwoman, a poisoned tree, a chained eagle and a cage that swings. This is the first journey. My task is to find an ice dragon, who may or may not be my mother or father.'

`The ice dragon is a male dragon,' said the wolf. He touched his cold nose to Lem's hand.

`Which means he could be my father, uncle or just a dragon,' answered Lem, unconsciously scratching the wolf's ears the way he scratched Nutty's. `Whichever or whatever, I must find it and save it if I can.'

`The High Enchanter will not allow it,' said another wolf's voice in Lem's head.

`And the Enkidu will break him in half,' said a third voice.

Spinning round Lem came face to face with three younger wolves.

`Even so,' he told them, hoping they were as friendly as Lord Shamash, `you wouldn't leave one of your pack to be enchanted forever, would you? What if it was your father?'

`Lord Shamash is our father,' said the largest of the three young wolves. `And you are right. We would not leave him or any of our pack to freeze forever.'

Lord Shamash nodded at his three, powerful sons then examined the yellow-haired boy standing before him. With his long arms and legs, he didn't look strong. Yet he had reached Tartik Island, had passed the High Enchanter's guardian sea lions, and had climbed the glacier. Perhaps, as well as understanding wolves, he had other magical talents.

`But the Enkidu will eat him alive,' said the youngest wolf.

`I will fight them,' said Lem, wondering whether Enkidu was the wolf word for Goch. `I have magic to protect me.'

`How strong is this magic?' asked Lord Shamash. He leant against Lem again so the boy could ruffle his neck fur as well as his ears.

Lem had no idea how strong Edith's snapdragon buds were. They might not even be magical. They might just be dried flower buds.

Seeing his hesitation, Lord Shamash nodded wisely. `Once we too had strong magic. Once we were invincible. We did the High Enchanter's bidding. We protected his lands and we followed him everywhere. One day he ordered us to live on this ice mountain to guard a giant dragon that he'd buried here. This we did willingly while he found others to do his capturing and killing.

`One night, during a three moons' eclipse, the ice around the dragon's head melted enough for its left eye to open and for tears to fall from it. The tears made a stream and when we drank from it the High Enchanter's spell over us was broken.

`When the High Enchanter discovered we were no longer his slaves, he caused the ice mountain to break away from Ifraa and to float as far west as possible without falling off the edge of the known world. He also
becamed
the bald-headed Enkidu to mock the dragon and to punish us. Now the dragon bleeds daily and, from a pack of one hundred wolves, we are now only ten. That is how powerful the High Enchanter's magic is. Is your magic that powerful?'

Lem's eyes filled with doubt. `Probably not.'

`I thought as much. Wait here while the pack meets and decides if we will help you.'

Left alone, Lem lit another torch and practised his sword thrusts. He wondered what he would do if the wolves didn't return. What if his torches ran out and he couldn't find the red string? What if the ice dragon was his father and he couldn't find him? Couldn't save him? Couldn't find the talisman? Or what if he was lost inside the mountain forever?

He was lighting his last torch when the pack of ten returned, each one jostling the other to get a closer look at the boy who was challenging the High Enchanter.

`We will help you,' said Lord Shamash. `But there are more than fifty Enkidu and we are only ten, so we will have to entice each Enkidu into the labyrinth. To do this we need bait. Will you be the bait?'

Feeling positive that he did not want to be the bait Lem asked what the bait had to do.

`Make the Enkidu chase you so we can lead them to the labyrinth's pits.'

`Who runs the fastest? The Enkidu or you?'

`We run the fastest. But some of the older more magical Enkidu can throw up ice walls to stop us. That is when you will use your magic.'

The tunnel that Lord Shamash led him into wound around the mountain as if circling its core. Side tunnels fanned outwards towards the glacier or inwards towards a pitch-black void. Light filtered in through the glacier's cracks and from somewhere up ahead there came a loud booming and the crashing of bodies hitting ice.

Lord Shamash stopped abruptly at the edge of a deep ravine. Opposite them, balanced on a narrow ledge, were two huge skull-headed, long white-haired creatures - fighting each other.

Further along the ledge, at its thinnest point, crouched a large snarling white-furred cat.

`One Enkidu has cornered the snow leopard and the other Enkidu wants it,' explained Lord Shamash.

With a roar the larger Enkidu reared up, swung a sharp-clawed paw at its opponent, and tore open its hairy shoulder. With an equally loud boom the wounded Enkidu embedded the claws of its two front paws in its attacker's neck, while raking its long exposed belly with one of its razor-sharp back-paw claws. Bellowing and booming the two wrestled back and forth with blood spraying in all directions while the snow leopard snarled and spat whenever they came too close.

Suddenly, it seemed, the scent of the wolves and the Lem's unusual smell could not be ignored as with a last bloody-clawed swipe the larger Enkidu swung round, sniffing, and glared across the ravine. It let out an ear-splitting boom.

`Now it will leap!' warned Lord Shamash. He swung around and dashed back the way they'd come, dragging Lem with him. Behind them the Enkidu jumped over the enormous gap.

Lem, his eyes wide with fear and his heart thumping, ran as fast as he could. He shouted at Lord Shamash, `If they can leap that far, won't they be able to leap out of the labyrinth's pits?'

Behind them two younger wolves stopped to confront the Enkidu with loud snarls and bared teeth.

`The pits drop below the base of the mountain,' Lord Shamash said. `Even an Enkidu cannot leap that far. They will have to find ice tunnels to bring them back up and that will take time.'

`What about the snow leopard?'

`He was marooned when the mountain became an island. He is old and tired and one day an Enkidu will eat him.'

The younger wolves rejoined them just as Lord Shamash was leading Lem into the labyrinth of pits where the ice bridges were so fragile that they cracked as they crossed them. Lumps of ice fell into the nothingness below.

Finally they reached a bridge that Lord Shamash warned could only be crossed one at a time. He volunteered to go first, in case it didn't hold. But hold it did, so Lem followed, tiptoeing as softly as he could. Next came the pack, one at a time, stepping high-pawed on the fragile ice. The last wolf was halfway across when four Enkidu lumbered out of the darkness.

`Challenge them,' Lord Shamash said to Lem.

Lem stepped forward and yelled, `Heh! Over here.'

The first Enkidu made swiping actions but did not follow the wolf onto the bridge. Impatient to catch Lem, the following three Enkidu, including the one with the torn shoulder, pushed past the first and galloped onto the bridge. They had only gone half way before its thin span broke, hurtling them into the abyss.

By the time the first Enkidu leapt the void, the pack and Lem were deep inside the labyrinth and doubling back to find more Enkidu.

Four more times Lem and the wolves successfully led groups of hairy, skull-headed creatures across bridges that collapsed beneath their weight.

During their fifth run, an older Enkidu threw up an ice wall that blocked Lem and the wolves' escape.

`Use your magic!' growled Lord Shamash.

Lem opened a packet of Edith's snapdragon buds and threw a bud at the wall. Nothing happened so he threw a handful. As the buds hit the ice it shattered, and he and the wolves leapt through - closely followed by the Enkidu.

`Turn right and follow the stream!' yelled Lord Shamash, rounding on the older Enkidu, who were so close that Lem could feel their hot breath on the back of his neck. `We will hold them.'

Lem dived into a tunnel that was so low he had to wriggle through on his stomach. Behind him came the high-pitched yelp of a wounded wolf. He hoped it wasn't Lord Shamash.

Lem crawled faster until he reached a chasm lit by the watery rays of the afternoon sun. He raced along it until he found a stream flowing from deep inside the mountain. With his back aching and his hands and feet so cold he couldn't feel them any more, he followed the stream until he stumbled into a cavern twice the size of M'dgassy's Royal Palace.

Below its icicle-filled ceiling stretched an enormous dragon. Its huge arrow-shaped head, long blue-scaled body, bent hind legs, spiked tail and gigantic crumpled wings were frozen solid to the cavern walls.

Lem ran past its wings and climbed up the blue scales of one front paw. He stepped over the deep wounds and frozen blood that covered them, and moved towards the dragon's head.

`Dragon! Dragon! I am Prince Lem of the Royal House of M'dgassy. I have come to rescue you.'

As his brave words reverberated around the cavern Lem realised how foolish they sounded. How could a boy, no bigger than the dragon's eyeball, rescue it from so much ice? And if he did, how would he get it out of Tartik Mountain and off Tartik Island with its broken wings and wounded paws?

He stared sadly up at the dragon's horned head waiting for an answer to form in his mind, the way Lord Shamashs' words had. Then he remembered Edith's mirror. He retrieved it from his pocket, held it up to the dragon's eye and recited the words Edith had taught him: `
Ecco narcisso dragonucus attractivae!'

The dragon sighed and the air from its one ice-free nostril almost blew Lem off its paw as a rumbling voice filled his head. `You've come at last, nephew.'

Joy mixed with disappointment flooded over Lem. The ice dragon wasn't his father; he was the father of Celeste and Chad. Lem had climbed the glacier, been chased by Enkidu, crossed ice bridges that had scared him silly, and his own father was somewhere else.

But then the dragon's words filled his head and he was glad he had found him. `How are my children? How is my Queen? How is the country of M'dgassy?'

Lem held the mirror higher. `Celeste and Chad are fine and healthy. I don't know where your Queen is, and the High Enchanter has conquered M'dgassy and all of Ifraa. Which is why I need your talisman so we can rescue you.'

A huge tear dropped past him. `Rescue is impossible unless you have all five talismans. If you don't, then it is hopeless.'

Lem waved the mirror in front of the huge eye. `No. It's not hopeless! We will find all five talismans I promise. Only we don't know what to do with them when we do find them. Do you know?'

His uncle, the dragon, took so long to answer that Lem was about to prod its scaly head to see if it had gone to sleep when a torrent of words filled his head.

`Place the five talismans on the moon dial in the Royal Palace's rose garden during the next three moon eclipse. One eclipse more and I will die of cold. One talisman less and we all die. My talisman is a blood red scale growing at the base of my throat. Hurry I hear the Enkidu coming.'

Lem pocketed the mirror, slid down the dragon's paw and ducked under its head. The red scale glowed like a hand-sized drop of blood. He reached high, sliced it off with his long sword and put it in his pocket.

A moment later two Enkidu slunk sniffing and snuffling into the cavern. They did not see him but by the way they were testing the air, Lem knew they soon would. He unslung Swift's bow, slotted an arrow into its bowstring and waited.

A triumphant boom from the lead Enkidu signaled to the other that he had the scent and they both turned towards him.

Lem let loose the arrow which sped across the cavern embedding its sharp head in the Enkidu's hairless throat.

The creature's bellowing and thrashing covered Lem's dash along the dragon's frozen body to hide beneath its broken wing. His next arrow hit the other Enkidu in the neck but its thick fur saved it. Another three skull-headed creatures entered the cavern.

Outnumbered, Lem made a run for the stream and the chasm, reaching it just as its entrance was blocked by a wall of ice. He felt for the snapdragon buds in his pocket, and threw a handful at the wall which shattered.

He leapt through just as a snarling Lord Shamash bounded past him. The blue-eyed wolf attacked the lead Enkidu, giving Lem time to fit another arrow into his bow. This one pierced the Enkidu's eye causing it to stagger backwards into a second Enkidu which tripped up a third.

`Run!' Lord Shamash ordered. `Take any tunnel to the left. The Enkidu will not follow you onto the glacier. Daylight hurts their eyes. Find your friends. And keep them out of the seagull caves; they do not all have dead ends.'

`Thank you,' Lem said, and then sprinted along a narrow tunnel. Somewhere behind him he could hear the Enkidu galloping along the same tunnel. Their hollow booming and angry grunts made his heart beat so fast he thought it would burst from his heaving chest.

Then he saw the ice pyramid which had formed from the tiny specks of ice falling through a crack so high up it looked like a pin prick in the glacier above.

He skidded to a halt and began digging into the side of the pyramid. His hands were soon numb but he kept burrowing. He then rolled into the hole and scraped ice across the opening, leaving enough space to breathe through. He clutched Chad's bow and arrows, and his bag with the precious dragon's scale inside. He hoped the Enkidu wouldn't smell him, or see him through the ice, and wouldn't hear his heartbeat.

Seconds later three male Enkidu lumbered past without giving the snow pyramid a second glance. Lem stayed hidden as long as his freezing body could stand it, then he burrowed out again.