They stretched, wriggled their fingers, shook their arms and legs, and waited for the the High Enchanter to come back for his next round of torture. But nothing happened.
Celeste nudged Lyla with her elbow. `Time to fly.' Time to fly, Lyla told herself.
She pushed back her hair, stretched out her arms and focused on the rim of the pit, willing herself to leave the ground, to float upwards, to soar like a bird. She willed and willed but still her feet remained rooted to the floor. So she tried again this time repeating the Bird of Paradise's words over and over in her head.
She wasn't sure when her heels lifted and her toes followed. And she wasn't sure she was really flying, rather than imagining it, until she felt the air pass through her outstretched fingers. Too frightened to look down in case she fell, she didn't see the amazement on the faces of her brothers and cousins as she rose above their heads.
She landed - filled with her own amazement - beside a fallen candelabra back in the tower room. She looked around for the High Enchanter and found a withered old man, with a bald head lolling on his hollow chest, with his claw-like fingers still clutching the Bird of Paradise's cage. He was asleep on the throne.
Lyla searched for something to lower into the pit but there was nothing; not a rug, carpet or curtain. She dropped to her knees by the pit and whispered down to the others. `There is nothing to lower down. I'll have to fly you out.'
With more determination than confidence in her new-found ability, she stood at the edge of the pit, raised her arms and willed herself to fly again. This time she floated down to the others. `Swift first,' she whispered, `then Chad.'
Swift weighed less than the Gochmaster she'd carried, and Chad weighed about the same, so flying back up with them wasn't too difficult. Celeste, and then Lem with the unconscious Nutty, were a lot heavier.
Each time she willed herself to fly, she wondered if she would be strong enough. Each time she was. But afterwards her arms and shoulders ached and her head hurt from concentrating so hard.
The children found their bags and swords where the mudmen had dropped them. So, while Lyla crept across the tower's floor to the throne, Lem held Nutty's mouth open and Celeste dripped what was left of the Wind Horse Riders cough syrup into the pup's mouth.
Lyla knelt in front of the sleeping High Enchanter and carefully lifted the golden cage's latch. The Bird of Paradise soundlessly stepped out onto Lyla's hand, then nodded toward the High Enchanter. Linked around his bony wrists was the amethyst's chain. With trembling fingers and thumping heart Lyla undid the chain and eased it and the amethyst free. With the Bird of Paradise still on her arm, she crept back to the others. She was placing the necklace around the golden bird's neck when Nutty gave a weak wag of his tail.
`The High Enchanter will not sleep for much longer,' warned the Bird of Paradise. `When he awakes he will send his mudmen after us.'
`Right,' Lem said. `Let's find that tunnel.'
After leaving the fire's glow, the staircase was so dark that, by the time they'd reached its last few steps, they had to feel their way with their hands and feet.
Lem calculated that they were well below the pit's floor, so he tied his shirt around Nutty's neck and asked the wobbly-legged pup to find the tunnel's entrance.
With his nose to the damp ground Nutty set off with Lem holding the makeshift lead, Celeste holding Lem's shoulder, Chad holding onto Celeste, Swift clutching Chad's shirt and Lyla, with the Bird of Paradise, holding onto Swift.
The tunnel was two-people wide and its walls were covered in something damp and sticky. It had a high ceiling so at least they didn't bump their heads, which Celeste decided was lucky because, given the squeaking and rustling of bats nesting overhead, she was sure she knew just what it was that was oozing down the walls and making their boots stick to the ground.
They'd been feeling their way along the tunnel for what felt like forever when, from behind them, they heard the distant slap, slap of bare feet, followed by a tremendous roar that was so forceful it pushed them to their knees.
They scrambled up and ran on through the darkness with one hand on the sticky wall and one stretched out in front, so as not to bump into anything. The roar turned into a demented howl that sent panicking bats flying into their faces. Some latched onto Lyla and Lem's long hair, but they managed to pull the bats free and kept right on running.
They were bumping into each other in the dark too, but ran as fast as they could on the sticky floor, to get away from the pursuing mudmen.
Finally the tunnel began to slope upwards, but so steeply that they were soon slipping backwards with every second step. Celeste was imagining sliding into the arms of a mudman, when Lem shouted that he'd found the door but that it was locked.
Celeste clambered up beside him, unwound Splash from her wrist and held him up to the keyhole. In slithered the little green snake and moments later there were three clicks.
The mudmen's footsteps were so close behind them now that they all expected to be grabbed and dragged back.
Splash wriggled out again and, as soon as Lem pushed open the door, they crowded through and found themselves at the foot of a sandstone pinnacle - in the middle of a screaming, raging sandstorm.
`There isn't time for Splash to lock the door again,' Lem shouted as he slammed it shut behind them. `We'll have to hide.'
`Let me go now,' the Bird of Paradise said to Lyla. `I will meet the five of you, with the other talismans, in two nights time beside moon dial at the royal palace.'
`In two nights time,' promised Lyla, as the golden bird took flight.
The children began running as the first of the mudmen pushed open the tunnel door.
`We can't reach M'dgassy in two nights!' exclaimed Celeste, holding her cape over her head as she helped Chad to run faster. `You'll have to take the talismans and fly after her, Lyla.'
Lyla was about to remind her that the Bird of Paradise had said all of them, when an arrow zinged by her ear.
`We have to stop and fight!' Lem shouted.
Lyla shook her head. `There's too many of them. And they're surrounding us.'
As the mudmen, with their creeping lope and their small bows and tiny arrows, began closing in on them and the children figured things couldn't get any worse, they did. Through the howling wind and whirling sand they heard the booming of a Goch.
`Swords ready,' yelled Lem.
With their backs to each other, they circled to keep watch on the mudmen and squint at the lumbering Goch that was heading straight for them.
To their utter astonishment the Goch passed them by and smashed its long neck into the three closest mudmen. As they shattered into nothing, the Goch slammed another four mudmen, then another three.
`Ly-la, Ly-la! Where are you?' a guttural voice called out through the spiralling sand.
`It's Gochmaster,' gasped Lyla. `Over here Gochmaster, over here!'
The Goch swung round, dropped to its knees beside them and the Gochmaster stretched out his long arms.
`Climb up Ly-la,' he called, clasping her hand.
`Everyone, up on the Goch,' she shouted into the noisy wind. `Before the mudmen drag us under the sand.'
`Or shoot us,' muttered Celeste. She held her breath against the Goch's smell, climbed onto its back and then helped haul the boys and Nutty up.
The Gochmaster made sure they were all hanging on to each other, and then his Goch heaved itself to its feet. With jolting steps, it galloped away from the army of mudmen who were still pouring out through the tunnel door.
`When the sun rises we will be safe,' shouted the Gochmaster. `The Goch and the Gochmasters are the only creatures becamed by the High Enchanter that can survive sunlight.' Then he grinned. `I am happy I found you again, friend Ly-la.'
Lyla grinned back. `I'm happy you found me too, friend Gochmaster. Would you ask your Goch to stop at the place where the river disappears into the sand?'
The Gochmaster nodded.
`And do you know the fastest way to M'dgassy?'
The Gochmaster nodded again. `It is along the Forty Bend Road that edges the Boiling Desert and bypasses Babylon Forest.'
`Good,' Chad said. `I don't ever want to go there again.'
A few minutes later the Goch knelt beside the spot where the river disappeared into the sand. It was unrecognisable.
Lem slid off its back and counted twenty steps to the north. He searched for the large stone he'd used to mark the spot where he'd buried the casket. It wasn't there. He returned to the others with a sinking heart and told them the sand had covered everything.
`I was sure it was a safe place, and that I could find it again. But it's gone, I'm so sorry.' Lem's voice broke as he held back his tears of disappointment. `All that trouble and danger we went through, and our hard work was for nothing. The talismen are gone.'
His four companions were speechless as Lem's disappointment swept over them.
`What is he looking for, Ly-la?' asked the Gochmaster.
`A silver casket about this big,' Lyla widened her hands to show its size. `But the Boiling Desert has swallowed it up.'
`My Goch will find it. Tell the boy to climb back on.'
As soon as Lem was settled behind Swift, the Goch rocked back to its feet and, with its head close to the sand, began searching.
In the same moment that the morning sun broke the horizon and the pursuing mudmen disintegrated and returned to the sand, the Goch made a triumphant boom.
The long-necked creature swung its blind head back and nudged Lyla with the casket it held in its mouth.
The children cheered, the Gochmaster laughed and the Goch boomed again as he raced off across the sand.
It took them all morning to reach the deserted desert village of Fez, where the Forty Bends Road began or finished.
Lyla stared sadly at the ruined mud houses and broken mud walls and asked the Gochmaster how long the village had been empty.
The Gochmaster shrugged. `There have been no Fezians for as long as I have been becamed. Raiders say it is haunted.'
As they left deserted Fez, Lyla pointed to five crows perched on a skeletal tree. Both the tree and the crows looked exactly like a tree and five crows they had passed hours earlier on the edge of the Boiling Desert. `Do you think they're the same crows?'
`Unlikely,' Lem yawned.
They were all exhausted, and the rocking of the Goch had made them sleepy, so Lem tied his tunic around Swift to make sure his brother didn't fall off.
Lyla rested her head on the Gochmaster's shoulder and was soon fast asleep - and dreaming. She was flying over the Wind Horse Hills and below her marched battalion after battalion of uniformed Raiders. They were accompanied by hundreds of Goch and followed by at least fifty Bulgogi wagons. Lyla knew they were heading towards M'dgassy Royal Palace. She decided to count the battalions when a blinding flash forced her eyes to close. When she opened them again, everyone below had disappeared.
Lyla awoke with a jolt and discovered they were again passing a skeletal tree with five crows. `Are you awake, Swift?'
`Mmm.'
`Could you ask that tree how much further it is to M'dgassy? And ask it if those crows are the same crows we saw before?'
The Goch moved as close to the tree as it could and Swift leant out to touch a branch. `The tree says we will reach the Acirfa-M'dgassy border by nightfall and, yes, the crows are the same. They are called Watchers. The High Enchanter sees through their eyes, so he knows where we are.'
This unwelcome news made the Gochmaster urge his Goch to go faster. They reached the red-stone border markers of Ifraa by late afternoon. `Tomorrow morning we will be past Babylon Forest,' he announced.
`Not we,' Lyla told him. `You cannot come with us, Gochmaster.'
The Gochmaster frowned so hard that his thick eyebrows met in the middle, then he held up Chii's whale tooth necklace. `You gave me this because I am your friend. How can you leave me behind again?'
At his accusing tone Lyla's eyes filled with tears. `It's because I am your friend that I have to,' she argued. `If you come with us I'm afraid you'll disappear, like everyone in my dream. But I promise, if the three moons' eclipse breaks the High Enchanter's five enchantments, I will find you and your Goch no matter where you are. But for now you must go as far south as you can go to escape.'
The Gochmaster's eyes grew watery and he sniffed into his sleeve. `I thought when we met again that you would give me a name.'
Lyla looked surprised.
`Like you have a name, Ly-la.'
`Gochy sounds good,' suggested Swift with a smile.
He decided he liked the Gochmaster as much as he liked Edith and San Jaagiin.
`Gochwarrior is better,' said Chad.
`Sssshhh,' hushed Lyla. `I have the perfect name. It is Gochman the Hero. Gochman to your friends. Do you like it?'
`Gochman the Hero. Gochman to my friends,' repeated the Gochmaster, then smiled a wide toothy smile. `Yes, yes, I like it, Now a name for my Goch.'
The five looked at each other while they tried to think of one.
`Something that means big,' suggested Celeste.
`And brave,' suggested Chad.
`Finder,' said Lem. `Because he found the casket.'
`Finder,' repeated Gochman, patting his Goch's neck. `Your name is Finder. I like it.'
After they all promised, several times, to find him and his Goch after the eclipse, the five watched as Gochman and Finder turned south.
The children sprinted through the red-stone border markers and into Acirfa. Behind them the High Enchanter's crows flew off.
`Come on,' Lem said. `The sooner we get out of Ifraa, the better.'
`How will we know the way to M'dgassey if the sun isn't shining?' asked Swift.
`We'll follow the Ooms,' said Lyla, pointing to the high and circlular pile of stones on a distant hill.
They reached the first Oom in good time, then headed for the next and so on until it became too dark to see. A brisk breeze had also turned to a strong cold wind.
`We'll hollow out a space in this Oom and after we're inside we'll block the entrance with the stones,' said Lyla. `Celeste and I will keep first watch, then Lem and Swift. Chad can sleep through. Is your leg hurting, Chad?'
`No,' he said, but they all knew that he was being brave.
While the others slept curled up in the crowded space, Celeste and Lyla whispered about how they didn't think they'd reach the Royal Palace in time.
Lyla was about to admit that she missed Gochman already when a familiar sound made her grab Celeste's arm instead. The scary flapping noise was followed by the ear-splitting screech of a Bulgogi that had come to rest on their Oom's flagpole.
More screeching, all around the Oom and off into the night, woke the boys. Lyla put a warning finger to her lips so they all sat, with Nutty alert beside them, as still as Whale Island statues.
Outside, packs of Bulgogi flew back and forth over the Wind Horse Rider's hills for hours, snapping off the flagpoles and tearing the Ooms' blue flags to shreds.
The children remained silent until finally, just before morning, the Bulgogi flew back to Ulaan. Lyla sighed and stretched her legs, and Celeste let out the sob she'd kept bottled up all night.
`Do you think the Watcher crows told the High Enchanter where we were going?' Lem asked
`Probably,' said Lyla. Then they pushed at the rock barricade so they could get out of the Oom. And, not a moment too soon. As they all tumbled out onto the grass, the hillside began to tremble and the Oom collapsed.
`Was it an earthquake?' Swift's question ended in a whisper when the ground-shaking stopped.
`I don't think it was,' Celeste said, looking at the long grass of the Wind Horse hills that had been blown flat overnight, and the morning sun that was having a hard time shining through the charcoal-grey clouds.
`Maybe it's-' Chad stopped, as the ground rumbled again. This time it was accompanied by the sound of horses - lots of horses - approaching them over the rise at a canter.
`Raiders!' cried Celeste.
With nowhere to run, and no time to grab their weapons, the children simply stood their ground, waiting for - nothing.
The grass and dust in front of them was kicked up as the cantering noise slowed to hoof stomping and the jingle of bridles. But there were no horses, no riders. There was nothing but the sound of jingling halter bells and snorting horses.
`Who's there?' Lyla demanded.
The answer came from the empty air in front of her.
`We have been tasked by Princess Elle to take you to M'dgassy Royal Palace. But to prove you are who we seek, you must tell me why you wish to go there.'
Lyla was about to tell him when she stopped herself. What if he was an invisible creature becamed by the High Enchanter? `Show yourself first.'
They heard a chuckle then the breeze that had been blowing ever since they'd heard the galloping began to blow harder. It blew Lyla and Lem's hair over their grubby faces, and all five of them were forced to close their eyes. When they opened them again they saw their first ever Wind Horse Riders.
Dressed in white leather jerkins, riding trews, capes and boots, the thirty or so Wind Horse Riders were both men and women. All had Tartik Island ice-blue eyes, and all wore their hair long, the men to their shoulders, the women to their waists. Across their chests and backs were slung silver bows and quivers covered in wind-writing runes, and from their belts hung ornate silver scabbards.
Their Wind Horses were magnificent, with hides as white as summer clouds, curling white manes and tails that would have swept the ground but for the silver ornaments that held them up. They tossed their fine heads and stamped their silver-painted hooves impatiently while their riders calmed them in a whispered horse language.
`Allow me to introduce myself,' said the tall blonde Rider in the front. `I am Lord Orion, and these are my companions. What are your names?'
`I am Princess Lyla. This is Princess Celeste, Prince Lem, Prince Chad and Prince Swift, and we are going to M'dgassy to break the High Enchanter's enchantment over our royal parents.'
Lord Orion nodded. `Correct. But time is short. Princess Lyla and Princess Celeste will ride behind those two Lady Riders. Prince Chad and Prince Swift will ride behind those nobles, and Prince Lem and his dog will ride behind me. Hold on tightly, our horses gallop as fast as the wind and if you fall off we will be long gone before we notice.'
`How do you know Princess Elle?' asked Lem, after Lord Orion had swung him and Nutty up behind him.
`I asked for her hand in marriage during her 18th birthday celebrations. Alas she refused me.'
`She refused everyone,' Lem shouted, as the hills on either side of their Wind Horse suddenly became a green blur. `She wanted to study Extreme Magic.'
`I know that now.' Lord Orion turned and his blue eyes twinkled at Lem. `But I was eighteen then, and it broke my heart. A young man's heart is a fragile thing as you will soon discover, if a wef doesn't get you first.'
`What's a wef?'
`A mournful, homeless thing summoned from the bowels of the earth by the High Enchanter!' shouted Lord Orion, as they passed what Lem guessed was Babylon Forest. `If a wef touches you, it will freeze your heart and you will die.'
`Is there any magic that can stop them?'
Lord Orion's long blonde hair whipped across Lem's face as he shook his head. `No more than there is magic to stop the High Enchanter.'
Suddenly an enormous tremor rocked the hill they were galloping up and their Wind Horse stumbled. Righting itself, the horse sped on as a hail-filled wind bombarded them with knuckle-sized lumps of ice.
`Cover yourself and your dog with my cape. The wefs are coming!' shouted Lord Orion.
The hailstones grew larger, and the wounds they inflicted on the Wind Horses' rumps, legs and heads were awful to see. When huge cracks appeared beneath the Wind Horses' silver hooves they leapt over them, and kept on galloping.
Hidden beneath the large capes, the children clung to their Riders as the Wind Horse Clan became invisible to all but the pursuing wefs.
And those ghostlike creatures surrounded them, poking and prodding and scratching with their icicle fingernails. They stretched out their gaunt, fleshless arms and their claws raked at the Riders' exposed faces. They ripped chunks of mane and tail from the Wind Horses and tossed the long hair into the wind like skeins of knotted silk.
Morning became afternoon and still they galloped; first west then north, with the wefs - bloody-fingered and bloody-mouthed - attacking all the way.
`Where are we?' Lyla asked.
`Far from our last Oom,' her Lady Rider called back. `Straight ahead is Mussel Cove Road, and to the right is the cliff track to Wartstoe Village. We will take Snake Tree Wood, the route to the left.'
`Is it night?' asked Lyla, recalling how the snake trees changed at night. She lifted the Lady Rider's cape to take a look and was immediately stabbed in the eye by a wef's icy finger.
`Ah, my face is frozen,' she screamed, covering her frost-burnt eye.
`Lean against my back. My warmth will help thaw you. Do not let the cold reach your heart!'
Lyla did as she was told and pressed her frozen eye against the Lady Rider's back.
In front of them galloped Lord Orion with Lem, whose heel had been jabbed by a wef. If it hadn't been for the warmth of Nutty on his thigh, the numbing cold would have travelled up and reached his heart.
Beside Lyla galloped the two nobles with Chad and Swift, and the second Lady Rider with Celeste, all three covered by white leather capes.
Behind them rode the rest of the Wind Horse Clan, wielding the silver swords as they battled the wefs.
With their view obscured by the capes, the children could only imagine their progress, but their Riders told them when they had passed through Snake Tree Forest, and when they approached Abel Penny's bridge.
As the many hooves echoed over the bridge's stone arch and then onto the dirt of the narrow path through the Royal Wood, Lyla knew they were almost home.
`Do you know where the palace moon dial is?'
`I do, and we have arrived,' replied her Lady Rider, reigning her Wind Horse to a halt beside Lord Orion.
`Quick!' shouted Lord Orion. `Run to the moon dial. The eclipse is starting. We will fight off the wefs.'
The children slid to the ground and ran towards the moon dial, as the Wind Horse Riders formed a barrier between them and the hysterical wefs.
Celeste held her hand out for Lem who, with Nutty under his arm, had to limp on his half-frozen leg. Swift was next, helping a hopping Chad. Last came Lyla with their precious casket.
As the eclipse began and the three moons slid closer together, a cold and exhausted Bird of Paradise fluttered out of the dead rose garden. Celeste scooped her up and placed her on the moon dial.
`Listen carefully,' the bird whispered. `During the eclipse, Lem must sing The Three Moons' Song while each of you place your talisman on the moon dial, in the order of the song. Then hold hands as you did in the pit. Whatever happens, do not break the circle.'
Lyla rubbed her aching eye as she opened the casket so her brothers and cousins could claim the talisman they'd rescued. Above them the three moons formed one gold and silver-circled pink disc, that illuminated the rose garden as brightly as if it was daylight.
Swift nudged Lem. `Sing.'
Lem's voice rose high and sweet above the shrieks of the wefs and the neighing of the Wind Horses.
`Three moons to save three Princesses born,
`Five journeys to save a land that's torn,
`One journey to find the dragon mocked.'
He placed the blood-red scale on the moon dial.
`One journey to find the merwoman locked.'
Celeste placed the pink pearl necklace beside the dragon's scale.
`One journey to find the poisoned tree.'
Chad and Swift together set the sapphire necklace on the moon dial beside the pearl one.
`One journey to set a chained eagle free.'
Lyla put the blue eagle feather beside the necklaces.
`Five journeymen to find the cage that swings.'
The Bird of Paradise dipped her head and the amethyst necklace slid onto the moon dial.
`Five journeys to free five Queens and Kings.'
The children held hands and formed a circle around the moon dial.
Suddenly new hands were holding theirs as Princess Elle, Queen Ona, Queen Hail, King Tefan and King Atric stood between each of them.
`Close your eyes children, and concentrate on what we sing,' the adult Royals said, and began to chant:
`Begone High Enchanter from the land of M'dgassy.
`Begone from the land of M'dgassy all servants and creatures becamed by the High Enchanter.
Begone all evil and begone all war from the land of M'dgassy as we, the Circle of Ten, build an invisible, unapproachable, unconquerable wall around M'dgassy and its subjects.
`Begone!'
As the last `begone' was shouted, and moons slid apart with the passing of the eclipse, Lyla's eye and Lem's leg became unfrozen, and Chad's thigh healed instantly.
The wefs disappeared from the rose garden and from all over M'dgassy, as did the Raiders, the Goch, their Gochmasters and the Bulgogi.
All gone, exactly as they had in Lyla's dream.