Ilse Of Illusion

2 - Warnings

Little knowing the trouble that was brewing in Del—more trouble than even Josef suspected—Lief was paddling as fast as he could towards the land ahead.

The island was shimmering in the distance. Bright pink and yellow weed grew thickly in the shallows that surrounded it. Several times Lief thought he glimpsed movement on the shore, but it was difficult to be sure.

‘I can see small buildings, I think,’ said Jasmine, squinting into the rainbow haze. ‘Not like the houses of the Plumes, though. Much simpler dwellings, shaped like cones. Of course, they could be rocks …’

‘Indeed they could, and probably are,’ Barda growled. ‘If the map is accurate, and our course has been straight, this land is not Auron, but the small island to its east. The one marked with a cross.’

‘We should keep our wits about us, in any case,’ said Jasmine. ‘Remember what Clef and Azan said.’

Lief remembered only too well. The people of Plume had given their part of the Pirran Pipe gladly. But they had warned the companions that the people of Auron would not do the same with the Pipe’s stem.

The Plumes had nothing but hatred for their ancient enemies. They wanted to attack Auron and take the second part of the Pipe by force. Their anger had flared when Lief disagreed.

The Plume leader, the Piper, Nols, had frowned. And the young Plumes, Clef and Azan in particular, had argued violently.

‘The people of Auron will use their magic against you without pity!’ Clef cried. ‘To enter their territory unprotected would be madness! They are as savage as the monsters they breed in their seas.’

‘The Aurons breed monsters?’ Barda exclaimed disbelievingly.

‘Indeed! There are many old tales of it,’ Clef insisted. ‘We have long believed that The Fear, the beast you killed, was sent by the Aurons to prey upon us.’

Azan nodded agreement. ‘And they will never give up their part of the Pirran Pipe. Never, while they live. What is more, they will take our part of the Pipe from you, and keep it for themselves!’

‘No. It will be safe with us,’ said Lief steadily.

‘Your promises are useless,’ cried Azan. ‘Once the Aurons see you in one of our boats, they will slay you as viciously as they would slay three defenceless Plumes.’

‘We are not defenceless!’ Jasmine snapped. ‘And how do you know what the Aurons would do? The way between your sea and theirs has only now been opened after hundreds of years. Their feelings about you may have changed.’

‘Why should they?’ Clef asked shortly. ‘Our feelings about them have not changed.’

The arguments had continued for days, but at last the companions had been allowed to leave alone. Plume was far behind them now. Their memories of their friends’ warnings had not faded, however. If anything, they had grown stronger.

Lost in his thoughts, Lief jumped as Jasmine jerked back with a hiss, reaching for her dagger.

‘What is it?’ Barda demanded urgently.

Jasmine pointed. Lief and Barda craned forward, and at last saw what her sharper eyes had seen before them.

A ragged shadow was surging towards them, just below the surface of the gleaming water.

Lief’s heart hammered in his chest as he threw down his paddle and drew his sword. The thing streaking towards them was large—large enough to upset the boat. It was closing in with amazing speed, changing shape as it came, great arms spreading …

A small, sleek head broke the surface. Then there was another, and another. The next moment, all the companions were laughing with relief.

The shadow they had so feared was not a single beast at all, but a group of small, plump creatures with tiny eyes and long whiskers. The little animals frolicked around the boat, playfully butting one another and making tiny chittering sounds.

They were covered with smooth, silvery-grey fur and had fin-like paddles instead of arms and legs. They seemed to breathe air, but were as at home in the water as any fish.

‘The island ahead might be their breeding ground,’ said Barda, picking up his paddle again. ‘Ah, I long to stretch my legs. I am cramped to death in this boat.’

He looked around. ‘Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or has the light dimmed a little?’ he asked.

Jasmine lifted her head from her delighted study of the animals. ‘I had not noticed, but you are right!’ she said, in tones of surprise. ‘It is as if a cloud has passed over the sun. But there are no clouds here.’

‘The Plumes did warn us that their magic could not light the caverns all the way to Auron,’ said Lief.

He felt a chill as the words left his lips. He had assumed that where the Plumes’ magic failed, the Aurons’ magic would take over.

But what if he had been wrong? What if the light failed altogether?

They moved forward once more. The little grey creatures accompanied them for a time, but as the boat neared land and finally crossed the broad band of pink and yellow weed, they dropped back. The next time Lief looked behind him, they had disappeared.

The island certainly did not look inviting. It was bare and bleak, its barren clay riddled with holes like a pock-marked face.

The gleaming mud of the narrow shore was rippled with ridges created by the tide. Beyond the shore, on slightly higher ground, were straggling groups of the lumpy, cone-shaped objects Jasmine had seen from afar. They seemed to be made of dried mud, but were surely not big enough to be dwellings.

There was no sign of life at all.

The movement I thought I saw must have been a trick of the light, Lief told himself.

And yet he felt danger. The silence, broken only by the soft lapping of water on mud, seemed heavy with menace.

Jasmine was also uneasy.

‘I do not like this place,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Filli and Kree do not like it either. I do not think we should land after all.’

‘I see nothing to fear,’ Barda said irritably. He moved his cramped legs restlessly and the toe of his boot overturned Flash’s cage. Flash woke, and at once began leaping and plunging, beating against the cage bars.

‘Now see what you have done, Barda!’ Jasmine scolded. ‘Now Fury will wake as well, and we will have no peace.’

‘Fury had better not wake, or it will be the worse for her,’ growled Barda. ‘I am a patient man, but my patience is being sorely tested at present.’

Lief did not want to set foot on the island. But he wanted a quarrel even less. ‘Let us land, just for a few minutes,’ he suggested. ‘We need not stray far from the water.’

Jasmine glowered at him. ‘My injured arm is paining me,’ Lief murmured, taking refuge in a small white lie. ‘I would be grateful if you could paddle in my place for a time, Jasmine. And it will be safer to change seats on dry land.’

‘Why did you not say so before, Lief?’ Jasmine demanded. ‘Of course we will land, then.’

How tactful I am becoming, Lief said grimly to himself, as he and Barda began paddling once more. I am learning the ways of the palace all too well.

This thought made his mind fly again to home. How he longed to know what was happening there! Had Marilen had word from her father? Was she safe and well?

I cannot know these things! he told himself impatiently. It is useless to fret, and probably needless. As long as no-one knows Marilen is in the palace, or who she is, she will be safe.

He looked up, frowning, and caught Jasmine’s eye. He made himself smile, but the grin must have looked forced, for she did not smile back.

Jasmine knows me too well, Lief thought. She senses that my mind is full of things she knows nothing about, and it annoys her. But this is one secret I cannot tell—to anyone.

Looking at Jasmine’s closed face, an immense feeling of loneliness swept over him. He wished with all his heart that the easy companionship they had once shared would return. But he knew that while he had to guard his tongue and his thoughts, this could not be.

In time, I hope, Jasmine and Barda will know all, and surely then they will forgive me for my silence, he thought. Surely they will understand that it was not that I did not trust them. I would trust them both with my life!

They reached the shore and together pulled the boat out of the water. Flash was still raging in his cage, and they decided to leave him where he was. Fury had not yet woken, and for this they were grateful.

Barda stretched his limbs with relief. ‘Ah, it is good to be on land again—even such miserable land as this!’ He looked around, then began to stride towards the cone-like shapes they had seen from the boat.

‘Do not go too far!’ Jasmine called after him.

‘Do not fear,’ Barda shouted back, his temper much improved by freedom from the boat. ‘I simply want to look at these cones. They interest me.’

He had only moved a few more paces, however, when he stopped dead. Silently, without turning around, he beckoned. Lief and Jasmine hurried to his side.

‘There,’ Barda breathed, pointing.

Movement could be seen inside the holes that scarred the bare earth around the cones. As the companions watched, heads began to poke cautiously from the holes—smooth, round heads with huge, blinking eyes and two short, slim tubes where nose and mouth should be.

‘What are they?’ whispered Lief, fascinated.

‘Some sort of worm, or grub, by the look of things,’ Barda answered, peering at the holes. ‘Ah, yes! They have decided we are safe. They are coming out of hiding.’

Sure enough, the creatures were all slowly easing their way out of their holes. As Barda had guessed, they looked like giant caterpillars, with long, pale bodies divided into plump segments, and six stubby legs that scrabbled in the mud as they crept along.

Filli chattered nervously and Kree squawked.

‘They do not look dangerous,’ said Jasmine. But she felt for her dagger all the same.

‘This may be where the legend of the Auron monsters came from,’ Barda murmured. ‘Perhaps the Aurons breed these things for food. They are fat enough. And standing upright they would be as tall as Nols, at least.’

As he said this, the creatures nearest to them did in fact raise their bodies from the ground and stand balanced on their back legs. Their front and middle legs waggled comically in the air, their huge eyes blinked short-sightedly.

‘We had better leave them to their island,’ said Lief. ‘We seem to be disturbing them.’

He glanced over his shoulder to see how far away the boat was, and received a shock. More of the giant grubs were rearing up behind him. Their bodies glistened with wet mud. Fresh, oozing holes in the rippled shore showed how they had approached without being seen.

‘Barda! Jasmine!’ Lief whispered, reaching for his sword.

A grub leaned slightly forward. A jet of bright yellow mist hissed from the tube just below its eyes.

Lief jerked backwards, but too late. The mist was already in his eyes and nose, stinging and burning.

He heard himself crying out in shock and pain, felt himself staggering. There was a moment of flashing, spinning colour.

Then, there was nothing.