Relieving themselves of their supplies, they didn’t waste any time in finding themselves a comfortable area of ground to lie on. They had walked all night in the freezing cold, and each of them ached from head to toe.
Zach pulled the collar of his coat about his chin and blew onto his hands. Neanna wrapped herself in her cloak, and using her hands as a pillow, closed her eyes. William sat half propped against the far wall of the cave, and Zach could see his eyes glowing red like two break-lights.
‘You never did tell me how your Granddad ended up in that prison,’ Zach whispered into the dark.
‘On the day that we fled the Splinter, in his haste he placed the key to the box in his trouser pocket. It wasn’t until several days had passed that he discovered it there amongst some old coins and pieces of string.’
‘Did he get accused of stealing it?’ Zach asked, his eyes closed and fingers laced behind his head.
‘No, not as far as we know. On realising his mistake, my Granddad left the Howling Forests for the Splinter at once. But since his last visit to the tower, Throat had taken up residency. We heard that as my Granddad neared the walls of the Splinter, he was intercepted by the Radan that now patrolled its walls and they arrested him.’
‘Arrested him for what?’ Zach asked. ‘You can’t just be arrested. You have to break some kinda law first.’
‘He was accused of undertaking reconnaissance and was found guilty of being a spy.’
‘Did you go to the trial?’ Zach asked.
‘What trial?’ William said. ‘There wasn’t any trial. Now that Throat is in charge justice is swift in Endra. He was found guilty on the spot and taken to the prison of eternal despair, where he will spend the rest of his life.’
‘Not if we have anything to do with it!’ Zach said.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Ah, c’mon William-the-wolf-Weaver!’ Zach teased. ‘Don’t give up now. We’ll get your Granddad out of that prison. You just need to show a little bit of back bone.’
In the darkness William grinned at his friends fighting talk. ‘Yeah, your right,’ he barked, ‘what was I thinking of?’
They lay without speaking for a moment, and then Zach said:
‘I know I keep asking the question, but you always seem to avoid answering it.’
‘What question is that?’ William said, sleep beginning to take him.
‘How comes you saw me in that box?’
William made no reply. Zach waited for it, but all he could hear was the sound of William snoring.
Then Zach felt something beside him. Turning, he realised that Neanna had just blinked across the cave to be next to him.
‘I didn’t know you could do that in your sleep,’ he said, nervous as he felt her resting against him.
‘I wasn’t asleep,’ she whispered, snuggling-up close to him. ‘I’m too cold to sleep.’
At first Zach didn’t do anything. He didn’t know what to do. If he didn’t find Neanna so attractive it wouldn’t have been so bad – but he did and she was and he felt a kind of weird feeling in his stomach and his heart raced. Drawing a deep breath, he snuck his arm around her shoulders, and pulled her close. Zach half expected Neanna to shove him away, but instead, she nestled her head against his chest.
‘I know the answer to your question Zach,’ she said.
‘How comes?’ Zach asked.
‘When William and I spent those long nights racing across the desert in search of your doorway, I asked him why it was so important that we found you.’
‘What did he say?’
‘He said that when he looked into that box he saw Throat striding out of the wastelands, and with him he brought a shadow of death and destruction. Then he said he saw you.’
‘And what did I bring with me?’ Zach asked.
‘He said you brought hope,’ Neanna whispered, snuggling up closer to him and drifting into sleep. Zach lay awake with Neanna resting in his arms. With everything that he had been told, seen and done – he found it impossible to sleep. But it was more than that which kept him awake – it was Neanna. At sixteen he’d messed about with a few girls but nothing serious. But Neanna was different – he felt something for her. He wasn’t sure what – but he found it hard not to look at her when she was close by, to brush past her made his skin almost seem to tingle and to be holding her now, was almost suffocating. Closing his eyes, and praying that she was asleep, he kissed her gently on the side of her face. Stroking her hair, Zach slowing drifted into sleep.
After Fandel had explained the importance of the missing girl, the rotting Delf grabbed hold of an oversized bag. Covering his nose and mouth with his hanky, he watched as she shuffled about her squalid shack and gathered wall charts, star charts and astrological charts into the bag that had been fashioned from the stomach of a Bloat.
The Delf plucked potions, murky coloured concoctions and bubbling brews from the cluttered shelves that lined her dwelling and rammed these into the bag which was now bursting at the seams.
As she worked, the Delf began to chuckle.
‘What’s so funny?’ Fandel asked her.
‘This!’
‘What?’ Fandel snapped, his patience wearing thin like a sheet of melting ice.
‘That you came back to me.’
‘Not out of choice. I was told to bring the girl to you!’
‘But you didn’t bring her did you?’ the Delf said, turning to look at him with her yellow eyes. ‘You lost her, but instead of searching for her you came to me.’
Fandel gagged at the sight of the maggots that dribbled from her nostrils.
‘You need me,’ she grinned. ‘You need me and don’t forget it my dear Fandel.’
The Delf gathered the last of her items, and brushing past Fandel, she went to the door of her shack. Grabbing a large leash and collar from a hook, she stepped outside. Fandel followed her to find that the sun was just rising above the derelict streets of Thud.
The Delf hobbled beneath the twisted branches of the granite tree as she dragged her bag by her feet. She huffed and puffed, and the sounds of her continuous farting and belching made Fandel feel nauseous.
‘Where are you going?’ Fandel asked, watching her disappear behind the trunk of the tree.
‘Questions, questions!’ she tutted. ‘Be patient will you!’
Curious as to what she was up to, Fandel followed her, and found her huge backside sticking up out of a hole that disappeared between the knotted roots of the tree. Fandel watched as she struggled with something that lurked deep within the hole.
‘Come to mummy,’ she said, coaxing something from beneath the ground. ‘C’mon Max,’ she cooed.
‘Who’s Max?’ Fandel asked.
Crawling back out of the hole, she looked at Fandel and said, ‘he’s my pet dog. He doesn’t like being disturbed halfway through his hibernation. It makes him irritable and grumpy.’
‘Perhaps we should leave him then?’ Fandel said. ‘We don’t have time to waste while you look for your pet poodle.’
‘I know what will bring him to the surface,’ the Delf said, as she screwed up her face and sneezed a gooey lump of snotty-maggots into her hands. She then knelt before the hole with her hands cupped and whispered.
‘Max. Look what mummy has for you!’ Glancing back over her shoulder, she grinned at Fandel and said, ‘he can’t resist these!’
The earth beneath Fandel’s feet began to shudder and a deep howling sound came from the hole. He watched as a giant snout shot from the darkness. It opened and a great big slobbering tongue began to lap up the maggots from the Delf’s hands.
Fandel’s stomach somersaulted at the sight.
‘You are disgusting,’ he told the Delf.
Looking over her shoulder at him, the Delf said, ‘you love it.’ Grinning she winked at Fandel.
The tongue licked her fingers clean as she got up and moved away from the roots of the tree. Earth and mud began to crumble away from the edges of the hole as the snout forced its way out of the ground to reveal a huge head. This was followed by two massive three toed paws, and then the rest of the Delf’s pet scrambled from beneath the roots of the granite tree.
It was about the size of a full grown lion. Its head was similar to that of a grizzly bear and was framed with a black shaggy-looking mane. The beast’s snout was long and pointed, and its mouth was rammed with rows of vicious looking teeth. The Delf went to it and lost her hands in its wild mane. In a show of affection, she nuzzled her face against the animal and it licked the side of her head with its long, grey, drooling tongue.
‘Mummy’s sorry to have woken her baby,’ the Delf cooed. ‘But we have work to do.’ Pointing in the direction of Fandel, she continued. ‘That silly man over there has gone and lost a naughty girl and now we’ve got to find her.’
Max turned to look at Fandel as if he had understood every word that she had said. He glared at Fandel, rolling back his fleshy lips and snarling.
‘There, there,’ the Delf hushed. ‘Take no notice of the nasty man.’
Clutching her bag under one arm, she hoisted herself onto the creature’s back and tied the collar and leash she had brought from her shack around its neck.
‘C’mon,’ she urged Fandel.
‘What? You expect me to ride that thing with you?’ Fandel asked.
‘Do you want to find this girl or not?’
‘Yes, but…’
‘It’s up to you Fandel Black,’ she spat. ‘You can either stand there quaking in your boots or go and tell Throat that you’ve lost the girl.’
Fandel cringed at the thought of returning to Throat and having to explain what had happened. So he tip-toed towards the animal. When he was within touching distance of its dark brown fur, Max snapped his head round to look at Fandel. A rumbling sound came from deep within his throat as he howled and gnashed his teeth.
‘It’s going to bite me!’ Fandel said.