Cavern Of Fear

16 - The Fear

Stunned, Lief stared back at the shore and at the crowd gathered there. Suddenly he was seeing the land for what it was—an island.

‘The secret sea!’ he breathed. ‘We found it, and we did not know! And that island, the people—’

‘Goblins,’ growled Glock.

‘No!’ Lief exclaimed hoarsely. ‘Pirrans! The descendants of the Pirrans who followed Plume. The owners of the mouthpiece of the Pirran Pipe!’

‘I never dreamed the islands could be anywhere but in the open sea,’ gasped Barda.

‘None of us did,’ said Lief. ‘Doran disguised his map well, by drawing another, of the western sea, beneath it. Yet, if we had thought carefully about the story, we might have guessed the truth.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Jasmine demanded. ‘What truth?’ But to her annoyance neither Lief nor Barda seemed to hear her.

‘The Pirrans had no time to think,’ Lief murmured. ‘The Shadow Lord was upon them. They had to hide—disappear from his sight—at once! So they simply commanded the earth to swallow them up. And down below they found another world. A world of which even the Shadow Lord knew nothing.’

Clinging one-handed to the cage, he pulled out his copy of the map and shook it open.

‘The lines are not tide-lines,’ he said slowly. ‘They are cavern walls!’

‘And if that is so, we are—here.’ Barda pointed midway between Plume Island and a gap in the line that ran around the it. ‘And that gap is The Glimmer. Though why it has that name I do not know, for it is as black as night.’

Lief stuffed the map back into his pocket. ‘If we succeed in this, one piece of the Pirran Pipe will be ours! The Plumes will not be able to refuse us. And the way will be open for the journey to the other islands.’

‘I have no idea what you are talking about,’ said Jasmine sharply. ‘But I do know that if we do not succeed in this, we will all be dead.’

She turned to face the cave that yawned before them. The water had stilled, and now lapped peacefully against the rock wall.

‘The Fear has heard or felt the approach of the cage,’ she said. ‘It is quietly waiting for its Gift.’

‘Then it is about to get a shock,’ said Glock, grinning savagely and drawing his heavy sword.

‘It could be we who are shocked,’ said Jasmine.

Glock puffed out his chest. ‘This beast may terrify those puny goblins, but it will be no match for a Jalis warrior. I will slay it single-handed.’

‘We had better make a plan, just in case you need help,’ said Jasmine dryly. ‘Barda?’

‘The Fear expects the Gift to be caged, so will approach without fear,’ said Barda. ‘We can take it by surprise. Glock, Lief and I have swords, so we will see to the tentacles. While the beast is distracted, you, Jasmine, will attack its body from behind. Agreed?’

Lief and Jasmine glanced at one another and nodded. Glock snorted impatiently.

‘The Fear lives underground, so no doubt it hunts by touch, hearing, or even smell, rather than by sight,’ said Jasmine. ‘But we need to see. We need light.’

Lief glanced over his shoulder to the shore. Nols and Worron were still in argument. The crowd was hesitating, looking nervously towards the cave.

‘If Nols fails to convince the people to join her, there will be no light,’ he said. ‘We cannot depend upon it.’

The cave gaped before them now. As the cage lurched into its mouth, Lief felt a draught on his face—a chill, sour breath that raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

In moments, the light from outside was just a dull glow. Then there was no light at all. The cage came to rest, settling with a creak into thick, sour-smelling blackness. Shallow water lapped gently against its base.

It was very still, very quiet, very dark. And in the darkness, something stirred.

‘Ready,’ whispered Barda.

Lief held his breath. His sword hand was slippery with sweat.

There was a slithering sound, like the sound of a great snake coiling over rock. And a delicate rippling, like a giant eel writhing through water.

But the sounds seemed to be coming from all around them. They were echoing from the cavern walls and roof, echoing from every direction, so it was impossible to tell where they had begun. The darkness was alive with slithering and splashing.

The companions turned one way, then the other, jostling each other in their confusion.

‘Where is the thing?’ hissed Glock. ‘Curse this dark!’

The cage jolted as something prodded the bars on one side.

‘There!’ Barda whispered. But almost immediately there was a second jolt, this time from the other side.

‘It moves swiftly,’ Glock growled. ‘We will have to separate. I will—’

‘No!’ Jasmine’s voice was very quiet. But something in her flat, even tone sent a cold trickle of fear down Lief’s spine. He heard her take a deep breath.

‘I think—’ she began.

But she never finished what she had been about to say, for at that moment red light began to gleam from the cavern walls. And as the light grew brighter, the companions saw The Fear.

Lief heard Glock cursing under his breath, saw Jasmine’s eyes darken, felt Barda’s body stiffen, fought his own terror.

The Fear was not on one side of the cage or the other. It was not above them, or below them.

It was everywhere.

Gigantic tentacles like the twisting trunks of vast trees filled the cavern from wall to wall, from floor to roof. The cage suddenly seemed tiny—dwarfed by the great mottled coils that wound above and around it.

At the end of every tentacle wriggled bundles of slimy white threads tipped with vicious hooks. Some of these were already sliding delicately through the bars of the cage. Others were slithering like worms over the dripping cavern walls as the tentacles from which they grew writhed into position.

And on the far wall of the cavern, visible only in glimpses as the tentacles moved, was the heart of the horror. A bloated mountain of slimy, billowing flesh hulked there, overflowing from a shell so ancient, so thick and crusted, that it seemed part of the rock itself.

The creature’s tiny eyes were invisible. Its hideous hooked beak gaped greedily as its tentacles explored its domain. Perhaps it had already realised that the cage was empty. But it could sense that prey was near.

It was in no hurry. It knew there was no escape.

‘The plan!’ muttered Glock. ‘What are we to—’

Lief felt an insane urge to laugh. Plan? The plan was a joke. The plan had been based on knowledge that was so out of date as to be worse than ignorance.

That carving on the panel—how long ago had it been made? Two hundred years? Five hundred? More?

Why had they not expected this? For centuries, The Fear had been left unchallenged. It had been unseen, even by its victims. It had been known only by its terrible cries, and the waves with which it flooded the land.

And in the darkness, it had grown.

Lief became aware that Glock had crawled to his feet, and was lumbering towards the nearest coiled tentacle, his sword raised high above his head.

‘Glock! No—’ roared Barda.

But he was too late. With a savage shout, Glock brought the sword down with all his strength. The mighty blade struck the tentacle with the sound of an axe on stone—and snapped in two.