The Angel's Command (38 page)

Ben saw Maguda's attitude change at the sight—she was enjoying it, extracting pleasure from the dreadful scene. Her tongue, snakelike, licked withered lips as she cackled, “He is truly the spawn of hellfire!”

Ben hated calling up the visions, but if it would gain freedom for him and his friends, there was no alternative. Pain pounded his temples, lancing like a blade into his mind. He gave no rein to his thoughts, pouring the whole horrific experience out into Maguda's ruthless, staring orbs. Mutiny, murder, quarrels, fights, all that had taken place on the high seas aboard the
Flying Dutchman
on that unspeakable voyage!

Maguda Razan shuddered with delight—she was like a wayward child, giggling, simpering, her wrinkled tattooed face twitching as she received new sights. Wickedness, evil, strife and suffering were her very life's blood—she revelled in unspeakable vileness. Now Ben had lost control of his thoughts, his brain felt as if it were at the bursting point. The cave seemed to sway and rock around him as the wild kaleidoscope of that long-ago, ill-fated voyage spewed forth unchecked.

Maguda's laughter echoed and re-echoed, building in its intensity.

Then . . .

Thunder and lightning crashed through the maelstrom of sound, silencing everything! Through the green light of St. Elmo's fire, exactly as it had happened all those years before, the angel of heaven descended! Maguda Razan went rigid. She gave out one unearthly shriek and fell stone-dead upon the litter. The sight of a being who radiated so much purity and beauty had stopped the heart of one who represented darkness and evil!

Ben's head slumped forward to rest upon his drawn-up knees. He felt drained but cleansed by the peacefulness and calm that surrounded him. Footsteps came pounding up the corridor outside, and the door burst open. Ligran and Rawth, with a crowd of henchmen, rushed in, followed by Gizal, the blind crone.

Unable to restrain himself, Ligran strode to the litter and prodded at the stiff form stretched upon it. He recoiled instantly, his voice shrill with disbelief. “She's dead . . . Maguda's dead?”

Rawth grabbed his sword and turned upon Ben, shouting, “You killed her!”

He swung the blade at the boy, but Gizal's staff struck his wrist, deflecting the swing. “Fools! Stay still until I find out what happened here!”

The henchmen stepped aside as Gizal tap-tapped her way to the litter. She ran her hands over the body of Maguda, placing her fingers over the nose and mouth to check for breath. Taking a long pin from her hair, Gizal touched it to the pupil of Maguda's eye—there was no feeling of movement. Gizal nodded. “She is dead!”

The men in the cave gave a simultaneous gasp of shock. The blind woman pushed her way through to Ben, laying about at the dumbfounded men with her stick. “Make way, move!” Ben sat quite still and closed his eyes, trying to hide the revulsion he felt at being pawed over by the witch-like hag. Forcing wide his jaws, she sniffed at his open mouth. He winced as she tugged his hair, searching through it, her fingernails scratching as she probed around his ears. Then Gizal leaned upon his shoulder, bending him forward. Ben tried to hold his breath when her rancid-smelling garments enveloped his face whilst she inspected the cords that bound his hands behind his back.

Satisfied, the blind woman stood up. “There be no marks or blood upon Maguda, yet she lies dead. This boy could not have slain her by mortal means—he is bound tight and could not have undone or retied the cord.”

Ligran struck his fist against a powder keg. “But how—?”

Gizal silenced him by holding up a hand. “Hearken to me. Only in two ways could yon lad have taken Maguda's life: with his mouth or with his eyes. Either he could have spat poison at her or uttered some powerful spell, though I think not. Rawth, do ye recall when this one and his friends were first brought in front of thy sister? She had thee knock him down, saying she did not want him looking at her, eh?”

Rawth stroked his beard. “Aye, that was as you say!”

Gizal placed a hand upon Rawth's arm. “Bind his eyes. Ye can gag him, too, for safety's sake. Have him taken back to the cells.”

Before Ben could protest, his mouth and eyes were bound with filthy strips of rag; then the henchmen picked him up and carried him off, leaving Gizal alone with the two Razan brothers.

Ligran, the more hot tempered of the pair, paced the cave, shaking his head angrily. “That lad's a danger to us all, Gizal. You should've let Rawth slay him. Here, I'll go and do the job myself!”

The blind woman's staff blocked Ligran's way as she lowered her voice, warning him, “Don't let anger rule thy thinking, Ligran. If the lad did kill Maguda with his eyes, he must be even more powerful than she was. Thy sister ruled through fear. Without one as strong as she, our people would soon leave here and go their own ways, am I not right, Rawth?”

The elder Razan nodded. “True, old one, but if the lad is as powerful as you think, how can we bend him to our service?”

Ligran began warming to the idea. He smiled wickedly. “Through his two young friends—they are as close as brothers and sister. The boy would not wish them hurt, would he?”

Gizal's staff touched Ligran's shoulder. “Now thou art showing good sense. Leave me to think now. First we will have a great ceremony to impress our people. Maguda must be installed in a suitable tomb before our new leader is made known to the Razan. That will be after the spirit of Maguda appears to us three and names the boy as her successor.”

Rawth was puzzled for a moment. “Will she?”

Ligran grinned. “She already has. Brother, did you hear her?”

Rawth caught on then and laughed. “Oh, aye, I heard her. Pity all the Razan couldn't, eh?”

Gizal squeezed Rawth's arm reassuringly. “Fear not, they will! At the right time. There be plenty of hidden places, and the great cavern carries lots of echoes. Leave it to old Gizal!”

Having hatched their plan, the three departed from the armoury cave, leaving behind them the rigid corpse of the once all-powerful Maguda Razan. What Gizal, Ligran and Rawth had missed was the lesson their former leader had learned at the cost of her life: a surety that Good will triumph over Evil, always!

26

IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON OF THE FOLLOWING day. Arnela and Ned crouched behind a jumble of ice-sheened rocks. The ground in front of them was solidified soil, shale and patches of snow in a small escarpment, backed by the pristine white mountain peak.

Arnela pointed, whispering to the dog, “See there, Ned, that's the one and only entrance to the Razan caves. Just inside the rift, straight ahead.” The black Labrador focussed his gaze on the shadowed hole in the solid rock face, listening to the big goatherd woman. “Those red marks by the entrance, they look like old bloodstains from this distance. But they're ancient pictures of cave dwellers hunting wild boar. I saw them once, some years ago, when I tracked some Razan villains here. Our friends will be imprisoned somewhere inside. Where, I'm not sure. I'll wager there are many caves and passages inside. We'll worry about that when we come to it. Our first job is to get inside. I'm sure there must be guards at the entrance. Let's hide here and watch until we get a chance. Right?”

Ned snuggled down, nodding his head to show he understood.

 
After Ben was bundled roughly back into the cell, he lay still, listening to the henchmen locking the barred door and pacing off down the passage. Then he went to work. Still bound, his eyes taped, the boy rolled about until he bumped the rough, rocky wall. Backing onto it, he wriggled along until his tightly bound hands encountered a small ridge. Then he began sawing at the cord, rubbing it back and forth along the stone protuberance. It was slow, painful work, and his hands were cold, swollen and numb from the tightly lashed cord.

“Ben, are you there, mate? It's me, Ned! I'm with Arnela, watching the main entrance. As soon as we can sneak in we'll try to rescue you. How are Karay and Dominic? Are they with you?”

Relief flooded through Ben as he replied, “Good old Ned. I knew you'd come. And you've brought help, too! Great! Listen, pal, I'm a bit tied up at the moment, so I'll make it brief. I'm locked in a cell, somewhere below the big main cavern. I think our friends might be here, if those Razan returned me to the same cell. I know that sounds a bit odd, but I'm bound, gagged and blindfolded. I'm working on getting free. As soon as I know where I am for sure, I'll keep contacting you. So you and Arnela be extra careful, you'll be no use to us if you get captured. These Razan are no fools—they know the inside of this mountain very well. I'll speak to you later, take care now, d'you hear me?”

Ned's answer came through to Ben. “I hear you, mate. Let's hope we can get to you before too long!”

Ben had been sawing continuously whilst sending thoughts to the dog. Finally, he pulled, and the frayed cord snapped in two pieces. Using both thumbs, Ben pushed the gag up beneath his nose and levered the blindfold up until he could see a little. Then, with his teeth, the boy tore off the pieces of cord that were knotted tight about both his wrists. His numbed hands were useless for several minutes. He squeezed back tears, gasping as the blood flowed agonisingly back into his fingers. Finally, reaching behind his head, he untied both the gag and the blindfold.

Dominic and Karay were there, sitting, leaning askew at opposite angles, their eyes wide open. Ben saw their twitching limbs and ashen faces. He knew they were still trapped within the realm of nightmare. Drugged! Ben decided to use Ned's methods of getting through to them, combined with a little addition of his own. Both the porridge and the water were still there outside the cell's bars. He filled the ladle with water, splashed it straight into Dominic's face and began slapping the boy's cheeks hard, shouting in his ear, “Come on, lazybones, rise and shine! Up you come!”

Grabbing his friend beneath both armpits, Ben hauled him upright and gave his shin a smart kick.

The facemaker winced sharply, his hands scrabbling at Ben's face as he whimpered, “Yeeeegh! Get these snakes off me, I can't stand sn—Ben?”

Hugging his friend close, Ben whispered soothingly. “There there now, hush, Dom. It was all a bad dream, the snakes are gone. Keep your mind on good and happy things. They won't bother you anymore then.”

Dominic blinked tears from his eyes and rubbed his leg. “One of them bit me, Ben, a green cobra, right here by my knee. I think I'm going to die—it stings and pains. Oooohhhh!”

Ben wiped the tears from Dominic's eyes. “That wasn't a snake, Dom, 'twas me. I gave you a good kick to wake you. Sorry about that, mate. We'd better get Karay back into the land of the living. Come on, lend a hand!”

Dominic splashed water in the girl's face. Ben slapped her cheeks and tugged sharply at her hair as he shouted, “Up and about, miss! Let's see you dancing and singing, pal!”

Karay screamed. She scratched and batted at Ben's hands as they pulled her hair. “Eeeeee! Get away, you filthy crawly things! Ugh, spiders! Uuuuggghhh!”

Ben's face was a fraction from hers. The girl's eyes were wide and pleading as she sobbed to him, “Kill the spiders, Ben. Don't let them get me. Kill them!”

It took an hour or more before Karay and Dominic were completely themselves, though they both complained of roaring headaches and some dizziness. Ben explained to them what had taken place. He told them about Maguda Razan's death but had to lie about the visions she had seen in his eyes—he attributed her death to the fact that she was very ancient and must have had a weak heart.

Karay was only half listening at that stage. She was gazing longingly at the ladle in the water pail. “Ooh, my mouth is so dry, I'd give anything for a sip of water!”

Dominic was in complete agreement with her. Ben shrugged. “Touch that water, either of you, and within an hour you'll both be fighting off snakes and spiders again, I warn you!”

Karay massaged her temples moodily. “Well, what are we supposed to do now, just sit here?”

Ben nodded. “There's little else we can do. Don't worry, though, I've got a feeling Ned might come to the rescue soon.”

Dominic stared curiously at Ben. “Is that a thought, or just a feeling, friend? Tell me.”

Ben's mysterious, clouded blue eyes met those of the facemaker, and he was smiling oddly. “A bit of both, I think.”

 
Two Razan guards who had been posted inside the tunnel entrance stepped outside to enjoy the late-afternoon sunlight. Leaning their flintlock rifles against the rock wall, they stood idly basking in the warmth. They had not been there long when a tall cloaked figure came into view, tugging a black dog on an improvised rope lead. The guards shaded their eyes against the lowering sun, but they could not see the newcomer's face, which was hidden by the overhang of the cloak's hood. The dog dug its paws in, trying to resist being led. But the big, strong-looking figure hauled it along easily and waved a friendly hand at the two guards.