Lyla waited until there were no more bear grunts, wolf whines, wings fluttering or guard's footsteps marching around the platform, then she placed a pinch of the metal-melting powder onto one of the cage's bars. Two more pinches and she and the Gochmaster were free.
Lyla went first and the reluctant Gochmaster tiptoed behind as they made their way up the southern entrance staircase into The Grand Gert. Four lanterns lit up the huge empty gert, sending elongated shadows dancing across the tapestry-covered walls and the golden curtain hanging behind General Tulga's throne.
`Stay behind the drums,' she whispered, then she crept towards the curtain and drew it aside. Sprawled across an enormous couch was the General, still wearing his brocade robe, gold mask, talons and studded boots. Draped over him was the eagle feather, wolf and bear skin cape.
Between Lyla and the black eagle's golden pedestal slept the two black bears.
She held her breath and slipped past the bears, hesitating once with her heart thumping like a drum when one let out a loud snore. On reaching the other side of the couch she saw movement, and froze.
So did whoever or whatever was looking at her. Lyla took a tentative step. So did whoever or whatever. Wishing again that she still had her dagger she edged forward...
And almost crashed into a mirror. Seeing her own frightened face reflected in its surface, she held her breath - and almost laughed at herself - while the disturbed general rolled over. The chained eagle was forced to hop from the pedestal to the couch-head, and the skin and feather cape slipped to the floor.
Lyla moved silently around the mirror to the couch-head.
`Father, I have a powder that can release your wings but I have no dagger to cut through the leather leash to free you. Will I look for the general's sword?'
`There is no time. The Blue Mist is coming. Break the chains and take the talisman. Hurry!'
Lyla sprinkled the powder, and the gold links around the bird's wings dissolved so fast that she just caught the chains before they hit the floor. The general sighed as they clinked together and one of the bears placed its snout in his master's hand.
`Sleep Odiin,' Tulga muttered. `Tomorrow you will feast on messenger and Gochmaster.'
Lyla waited until he settled back into sleep, then the eagle spread its wings so she could pluck out its bluest feather. She turned to make her escape but found the very tall, black-furred Odiin blocking her way. In his huge paws was the general's cape. The bear seemed to be offering it to Lyla.
`Take it,' said her father's voice. `Odiin is no more a bear than I am an eagle, and while you have the cape General Tulga cannot change into a bear, wolf or eagle to hunt you down.'
`Thank you,' Lyla thought to her father, and smiled at Odiin. She clutched the cape and the blue feather, sped across the room, out through the curtain and across the gert to the shivering Gochmaster.
`We have to go. Now,' she whispered.
The cliff edge was a long way away for someone not used to walking and Gochmasters seldom walked. With his strength flagging the Gochmaster stumbled past the Raiders' gerts, the penned animals and the horse stables, all the time fearing his smell would alert them. Finally, as they neared the whispering grass, he sunk to the ground. `I can go no further.'
Grabbing his long arms Lyla hauled him to his feet. `You have to. The Blue Mist is coming. I'll help you to the cliff edge. After that...'
Lyla didn't want to think about after that. Not if the Blue Mist followed them into the cleft or hurled them over the cliff. Now would be a good time to really be able to fly, she thought, as she stuffed the remaining peppermint root into her mouth.
The Blue Mist caught up with them as she was lowering the Gochmaster over the cliff to his first foothold. Part of the mist wound itself around the Gochmaster's wrists, while wispy tendrils, like long blue fingers, wound around her ankle and the General's cape.
`No!' she yelled, pushing the cape over the cliff. It dropped out of sight. She kicked at the Blue Mist which disintegrated then formed again, this time winding around her neck to choke her.
Lyla teetered on the cliff edge and then, still holding on to the Gochmaster, she fell.
The Blue Mist stretched itself into a thin ribbon in its attempt to catch her and the shrieking Gochmaster. But the Blue Mist was unable to leave Table Mountain and they had already fallen out of reach.
Only they weren't actually falling.
Lyla was astounded they weren't droppng like stones, and even the Gochmaster had stopped panicking. While he had been shocked into silence, Lyla was simply amazed.
Although she wasn't flying the way she did in her dreams she was, nonetheless, flying. She was doing what birds did when they floated on an up-wind. She was gliding down on an air current that took the two of them over sleeping Ulaan Town and Ulaan camp and into the Shambala River Gorge.
She was starting to worry about where they would land, when a bigger problem presented itself. Screaming Bulgogi - five of the hairy-bellied creatures were hanging from the swinging bridge.
Just as she saw them, they spied her and the dangling Gochmaster. Their teeth clashed, their wings stretched to full width with a snap, and one by one they dived straight at them.
With her heart pounding Lyla held out her left arm in an attempt to fly, really fly this time, before a Bulgogi sank its claws into her shoulders or snapped her in half with its horrible beak. But she and the Gochmaster continued to fall.
With the river racing up to meet them she barely had time to ask the Gochmaster, `Can you swim?' before a low-swooping Bulgogi caught hold of her hair and all three hit the water with a mighty splash.
As they sank into the river's depths the Bulgogi let go of Lyla and struggled upwards but its heavy wings and hairy body weighed it down and it was dragged away by the current. Lyla saw it swirl by as she fought to loosen the Gochmaster's grip around her neck.
Long bubbling trails of air left her body as, kicking and struggling, she reached the surface and gulped in air. Overhead the other four Bulgogi flew across the surface of the river, raking it with their extended talons.
Lyla heaved the limp Gochmaster up beside her and allowed the current to push them towards a distant reed-filled bend where the water was shallower. Twice, with her hand over the Gochmaster's mouth so he wouldn't breathe in any water, she let them sink out of sight as a Bulgogi flew too close; and twice she dragged the limp Gochmaster back to the surface, hoping that he was still breathing.
When they finally reached the bend, Lyla pulled the waterlogged Gochmaster in amongst the matted reeds, snapped off two dry stems and stuck one in his mouth and one in her own. Then she pushed him below the muddy water and held him there, while she hung onto the reeds breathing through the stem. Above them the Bulgogi screamed and searched, and screamed again in frustration at not being able to find them.
Lyla was tired and frustrated. If only dawn would come, she thought. If only the Bulgogi would go away. If only the Gochmaster hasn't drowned.
Hours passed before the sky turned the palest of oyster pink and the last Bulgogi flew back to their cages.
Shivering with cold Lyla dragged the Gochmaster up onto the bank where she began pressing on his ribs to force any water out of his lungs. `Press, breathe, count, press, breathe, count,' she muttered, fighting back her tears.
`Don't be stupid,' she scolded herself out loud. `He isn't real. He's not a person. He was becamed.'
But it made no difference. She did not want the ugly little Gochmaster, who had defied General Tulga because he loved his Goch, to die.
With a cough and a grunt the Gochmaster opened his bulging eyes. She was so relieved she wanted to hug him. Instead she growled at him. `You should know how to swim. You almost drowned.'
Sitting up he flexed his long arms, wriggled his feet and grinned at her. `But I didn't. You saved me, Raider messenger. You saved me twice. Once from General Tulga and once from the river. I am your servant forever.'
Lyla sat back on her heels. `Thank you, but I don't want a servant forever. I just want to find my brothers and cousins.'
She felt inside her jacket to check that she had the blue feather talisman. It was wet but still there.
`I'm going to follow the river until I reach the Boiling Desert. The field where your Goch is should be on the way. Do you wish to accompany me?'
`I will go with you, Raider Messenger. I am your servant forever.'
During their day's walk they saw no one nor did they pass a farm or village so, apart from the Gochmaster walking too slowly and both of them being hungry, there was nothing to do but talk.
Lyla told the Gochmaster about the Forest, her brothers and cousins and how she wasn't a Raider messenger and that she wasn't a boy; that she was a girl called Lyla.
After he'd recovered from his surprise he told her that as he was becamed he had no brothers or cousins and no name other than Gochmaster.
`Does that mean the High Enchanter could un-became you if he wanted to?' asked Lyla.
Her tactless words made the Gochmaster scowl so heavily that his eyes disappeared under his thick eyebrows and he scuffed his feet angrily.
Feeling bad about upsetting him she changed the subject and told him how, after she found her brothers and cousins, all of them would be continuing east as they had an important task to accomplish.
The Gochmaster brightened up immediately. `And my Goch and I will go with you.'
Lyla shook her head. `No, you can't. It's too dangerous.'
`My Goch is very strong.'
`But hard to hide.' She didn't add, and very smelly.
`Don't you want us to accompany you?' demanded the Gochmaster.
Faced with having to tell the cruel truth, which was that she didn't want him or his Goch to come with her, Lyla resorted to stressing how dangerous it would be.
By late afternoon when they reached an area dotted with holes, prickly-pear cacti and nettles they were both exhausted and Lyla suggested they find a safe place to sleep. With so many holes they soon found one large enough.
`Once it is middle night we must not move or the Bulgogi will get us,' warned Lyla. Then, although her stomach rumbled and she was worried that General Tulga might have found his cape and was stalking them as an eagle, wolf or bear, she fell asleep.
She awoke to find the sun streaming into the hole, a pile of peeled prickly pears beside her, and the Gochmaster sitting on the rim of the hole eating a pear. `I have found my Goch,' he announced happily.
The hole into which his Goch had fallen was so close to where they'd slept, that Lyla was amazed they hadn't smelt it or seen its grey head poking up above the nettles and cacti. It was also so deep she couldn't believe the heavy creature hadn't broken its neck. Instead it was balancing on its large, hind legs with its front legs propped against the hole's sides, swinging its blind head back and forth, overjoyed at smelling its Gochmaster.
`We will stamp down one part of the hole to make a ramp so it can walk out,' explained the Gochmaster.
`And I'll help by throwing in rocks,' said Lyla.
By middle day she had thrown in all the rocks she could find within a ten-minute walk of the hole. As she dropped in her last rock she called to the Gochmaster.
`Your Goch will be free by evening and I must be going. I wish you and your Goch good luck and hope that you are never caught by the Raiders and never un-becamed by the High Enchanter.'
`But we must go with you.You saved my life. I am your servant forever,' cried the Gochmaster, urging his Goch to climb the steep slope. But the earth was not yet firm enough and the Goch slid back.
`No, you are not my servant,' Lyla called back to him. `You're my... my friend. And friends don't put friends in danger. So you can't come with me.'
Unable to follow her, the Gochmaster's big eyes filled with tears. `But I will be lonely without you, Ly-la.'
Lyla chewed at her bottom lip. `No you won't. You have your Goch.'
Tears ran down his hairy face as he urged his Goch to try again. `I will miss you, Ly-la.'
Lyla hesitated then she took off Chii's whale tooth necklace and threw it to the Gochmaster. `This is a friendship necklace. It you wear it, it means we are friends.'
The Gochmaster put the necklace on over his head. `Thank you friend, Ly-la, I will wear it forever.'
His words and tears bothered her long after she'd left the nettle field.
Had she made the right decision? Could his Goch have been hidden? Could she have put up with its smell? Maybe, if he'd told it not to, its poisoned tongue wouldn't have hurt her. And was she so upset because she missed the ugly little Gochmaster?
Then she found the boat.
After leaving the boat Lem, Celeste, Chad and Swift splashed through what was left of the river until it became a trickle and disappeared into the sand beside an orange sandstone pinnacle.
That night they made a camp in the sand dunes, from where they could see everything but not be seen. Lying on their stomachs eating the red-shelled Sand Racer's eggs that Chad had found in the desert, they discussed what they would do if Lyla didn't return in two days.
`We'll go and find her,' said Swift, cracking an eggshell and sucking out the contents.
`She wrote that we were to go on after five nights,' Chad reminded him.
`She'll be here,' insisted Lem.
`Yes she will,' agreed Celeste, feeding Splash part of her yoke. `Lyla always does what she says she'll do.'
That afternoon Nutty warned them that there was a wagon pulled by two oxen coming along the riverbed.
Brushing away their footprints and the broken eggshells, the four hid in the dunes. The wagon, laden down with cages, baskets and three broad-shouldered men, finally came into view and stopped at the spot where the river disappeared into the sand. Two of the men unpacked the cages and baskets, tied them to one of the oxen then, with loud promises to be back soon, led the heavily-laden animal into the desert.
Nutty and Lem followed.
After finding their abandoned boat, Lyla jogged non-stop until she saw the wagon with its driver curled up asleep underneath it. A second later she heard the peep-peep of a piper bird, which was Celeste's secret call, and spied a hand with a snake bracelet waving above a sand dune.
They met on the other side where Celeste pulled Lyla down out of sight and hugged her. Swift launched himself at his sister, squeezing her so tightly he almost cracked her ribs.
`Did you find the eagle?' asked Chad, patting her on the head, as it was the only part of her he could reach. `Is it our father? Did you get the talisman?
Lyla nodded three times then she withdrew the blue feather from inside her jacket and handed it to him.
`Tell us everything,' urged Celeste. `You can tell Lem later. He and Nutty are stalking two of the men from the wagon.'
So they lay on their stomachs with their heads together and Lyla told them about Ulaan camp and town, Chii and the stone and metal-melting powder, Baatar and the great gert, General Tulga, the Blue Mist, and her new friend the Gochmaster.
When she finished, Celeste asked if the Gochmaster was really her friend and if she had really given him Chii's necklace.
`Yes he's my friend. And yes I gave him Chii's necklace, because I felt so bad about leaving him. But he couldn't come with us could he? I mean this is the most dangerous journey of all of them, isn't it?'
When they didn't answer, she added, `I'm sure Chii won't mind. If he is still alive after diving off Tsal Peninsula.' Then she bit her lip at the idea that he might not be.
Then Swift asked Lyla the question they'd all been wondering about. `Lyla, when you wrote in the sand for us to meet you here, and that the swinging birdcage in the Three Moons' Song is in the High Enchanter's Fortress of Storms... How did you know that?'
`I asked the Gaabi Desert sand that San Jaagiin gave me.'
Swift's eyes widened. `You talked to sand and it talked back?'
Lyla giggled. `I don't talk to it. I write a question in it and an answer appears. Chad saw me do it in Sebastian Ull's cottage in Mussel Cove. Only I asked him not to tell anyone because I didn't want to be a sand reader. But somehow San Jaagiin knew I was.'
`So you can fly and you're a sand reader,' said Celeste.
Lyla shrugged. `I don't know about the flying. When I floated off Table Mountain it was because of Edith's peppermint roots. And when I dream-fly it's a warning about something that is going to happen in the future. But real flying? I don't think so, because I've tried and my feet won't leave the ground.'
`Have you any of the peppermint roots left?' asked Swift.
`No.'
`Any stone and metal-eating dust?'
`A bit.'
`Any Gaabi Desert sand?'
`No. It was spilt.'
`What about this sand?' He pointed to the sand they were lying on. `Can you ask it if we will find the swinging bird cage?'
Lyla wrote the question in the dune sand. But it didn't hum the way the Gaabi Desert sand did, and no answer appeared.
The two hunters returned at sunset with their ox, carrying two baskets of eagle eggs, four nets containing twelve young eagles and two nets full of squawking eagle chicks.
Lem and Nutty arrived at their dune camp a few minutes later. After giving his sister a hug, he demanded Lyla tell him everything. She said she would, once he told them what he'd seen.
`The hunters use meat to lure the young eagles down from the pinnacles, and they tie poles together to make one long pole to hook down the hanging nests that contain the eggs and chicks.'
`Did you see any parent birds?' asked Chad.
Lem shook his head. `The ox told me the hunters come every month; that the captured chicks die within a day and their feathers are sold for pillow stuffing. He said the young eagles are sold as fighting birds; and that the hunters never go near the mud lake for fear of Mudmen.'
Celeste looked up from playing with Splash. `What are Mudmen?'
`Silent moving, non-speaking High Enchanter guards made from the mud of the lake. They cannot be killed because they aren't truly alive. It's my guess they protect the Fortress of Storms and that we will see them soon enough. But for now, who will help me save the young eagles?'
Celeste and Lyla said they would, and an excited Chad and Swift nudged each other.
`Good. When the hunters are asleep we'll cut the nets and set them free. If anything goes wrong we'll meet up over there.' Lem pointed to a crooked pinnacle, outlined in scarlet by the setting sun.
`Then we'll walk to the lake,' added Lyla. `Because we are running out of time.'
When it was dark enough not to be seen, Lem dug up the casket, put the feather inside, and buried it again.
Swift and Chad set off for the crooked pinnacle, carrying everyone's bags and weapons. And Lyla, Lem and Celeste crept towards the wagon.
Cutting open the hunters' nets was easy. Unwinding the wire that they'd wound round the eagles' beaks was more difficult. Then the ox lowed a warning.
`Wake up! Someone is robbing the wagon,' yelled the driver. But he was too late.
The young eagles soared skywards and the children scattered. The hunters chased after them but, as they hadn't been walking great distances or rowing and bailing for days like the children had, they were soon puffed out and left behind.
Fifteen minutes later Celeste and Lyla met up with Chad and Swift at the crooked pinnacle. Lem ran up last.
`Nutty says the hunters turned back long ago. He also said there are other things moving around in the desert.'
Lyla turned on her heel staring at the moonlit desert. `Do these other things have weapons?'
`Arrows, darts and spears.'
They set off, creeping from pinnacle to pinnacle and watching every shadow, but when Nutty growled a low warning they all froze.
Out from behind a pinnacle stepped four strange figures. At first glance they appeared to have two heads, one on top of the other. But, as the golden moon came out from behind a cloud, the children saw that they were just very thin beings, covered in mud and carrying large round baskets on top of their huge round heads.
The moonlight also lit up their ugly empty eye holes and gap-toothed mouths, and the tiny bows and quivers worn across their shoulders. The only clothing they wore was a strip of muddy material hanging from their belts.
Despite having no actual eyes, it seemed the creatures could somehow still see because they suddenly `saw' the children. They turned together, and in complete unison dropped their baskets, unhooked their bows, grabbed darts from their quivers and aimed.
`Mudmen attack!' Lem yelled. He raised his sword and ran straight at the mudmen. The other children followed.
The first arrow hit Celeste's bag. A second arrow missed Lem, and a third pierced Chad's thigh.
Lyla slammed into the mudman who'd shot Chad and knocked him back into his basket of eagle eggs, then grabbed his bow and snapped it in half.
A second mudman's damp, slippery arms slid around her waist and his clammy hands locked behind her back. Lyla struggled but could not break his grip, nor could she stop him and the first mudman from pulling her down into the sand. As her feet and legs disappeared, she yelled for help but Lem was wrestling with the third mudman who had an arm around Swift's neck
Chad was leaning back against the nearest pinnacle, swiping his sword back and forth at the fourth.
The small bodies of the mudmen attacking Lyla were under the sand and the sand was up to her shoulders by the time Celeste stabbed at the mudmen's hands and dragged her out.
With a faint sucking sound, the two mudmen disappeared beneath the sand.
Celeste and Lyla turned to help the others and saw Swift sinking into the sand.
Celeste leapt forward and stabbed at the muddy hands that held her cousin, while Lem and Lyla pulled Swift free. With another oozing sound, the two remaining mudmen disappeared under the sand.