Luna hissed. I blinked. The heat was messing with my eyes. I could swear that I saw the shadow under the snake-shaped rock tower coil and uncoil by itself.
“Run,” Luna ordered under her breath, but I for one, couldn’t move.
I blinked, hard. There it was again. This time, the shadow under the caiman-like rock raised up from the ground on all fours. Energy coursed through my veins. I snatched up my pack to run when something hit my legs, hard, throwing me down.
I spun around and the shadow of the monkey-shaped rock I was under dragged me backward by my ankles toward a mouth full of teeth like claws.
“Luna!” Esme screamed as the caiman-shadow 175crawled heavily toward her, crushing the sand under its weight.
How did a shadow have weight? Or a life of its own? This wasn’t the time for answers. The monkey-shadow loomed over me; teeth bared. I grabbed my pack and slammed it into the dark mass again and again, until it let me go and backed away, growling.
Meanwhile, the giant bulging, frog-shadow had come to life with a belch and was hopping heavily in our direction.
I tried to run but couldn’t leave the others.
Adri wrestled with the snake-shadow that was wrapping itself around him like a massive live boa constrictor. The caiman-shadow had Luna and Esme cornered between a spiky cactus and pile of rocks.
Soon, we’d all be trapped.
As I tried to figure out what to do next, Luna raised her hands to shoulder height, palms facing outward. What was she going to do? Direct traffic?
She closed her eyes and a blinding light burst from her hands. In the face of that light, the dark shapes shrieked and pulled away, including the giant shadow-monkey that had been creeping back toward me.
Then we did what we’d learned to do best … Run. 176
I’d forgotten about Luna’s gift. Now, it was saving our lives.
“Follow … arrow … on … wristband!” Luna reminded us, as we sprinted away from the stretching shadows.
At least, if there was a door out of here, we’d be headed in the right direction.
Fear gave us a second wind. I ran like I’d never been tired.
I looked over my shoulder to see that the huge snake, caiman, monkey and frog shadows were still chasing us: stretching out from the rock statues that cast them.
I saw a glimmer of hope. If we could run far enough away from the sources of the shadows, maybe we could get away from the shadow-creatures themselves. It seemed like they were already close to their limit, getting thinner the longer they grew.
The desert rolled out in front of us like a rescue raft. We picked up speed. Soon we were out of the shadows’ reach.
I sucked in air and the sudden sea-breeze, grateful to be alive.
“What …?” Luna gasped, letting the light in her 177hands go out.
“What were those things?” Esme asked what we were all wondering, but none of us knew the answer.
Given that the Council still hadn’t sent any instructions, I wondered if they’d just sent us here to kill us. We huddled together, shaken, but still moving; afraid to stop in one place for too long. I glanced at my wristband and looked around. The arrow had led us closer to a long line of low cliffs that went down to the sea.
The coastline next to us was grey, rocky, and pitted from years, maybe even centuries of sea spray. The surf crashed up onto the rocks, leaving behind saltwater pools. White crystals of salt covered the rocks where seawater had evaporated.
“Keep moving!” Adri rushed ahead of us, in the direction of the arrows on our wristbands.
He was on high alert, looking everywhere for signs of danger. I tried to catch up with him, but he was moving too fast for my wobbly knees.
Luna and Esme took up the rear.
“You okay Es?” I heard Luna check in.
It hit me again that for all their squabbles, Luna and Esme were like sisters. I looked at Adri’s lonely 178back marching in front of us. I missed my friend and would do whatever it took to get him back, but he didn’t even look back to check on us.
Suddenly, there was a loud clicking sound overhead, followed by a “Yap, yap, yap!” like a mechanical dog. I looked up. A warawara bird flew above us. I knew from Da that they looked like hawks, with a slicked-back pomade of black feathers on top of their heads and bodies, an orange, vulture-like face, round golden eyes with black pupils, and a sharp, curved white beak above their black and white spotted chests. They had black bodies, with bands of white on their powerful wings and tails.
“What was that?” Esme trembled.
Warawara, or caracara as they were sometimes called, were birds that hunted small animals like lizards, mice and crabs, and scavenged dead or dying ones. Even though we looked and even felt half-dead, I tried to convince myself that we were way too big to be in danger.
“It’s okay,” I assured the others, “they don’t hunt people. We’re good.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I realised how wrong I was. On the ground ahead of us was the 179warawara bird’s shadow. In a second, the dark form rose up and began flapping silently toward us.
“Luna!” I shouted.
She was already on it, blasting light from her hands toward the shadow-creature. It fled long enough for us to run, but the warawara kept following us overhead and so did its shadow, shrieking in pursuit.
We ran around a bend in the coastline. What was that up ahead?
Adri and Luna shouted, “The door!”
I sobbed with relief.
There it was, not too far away, a rose-gold door made of rectangular panels, with gold geometric cutouts and a golden seal made of interlocking Chinese dragons carved on its free-standing frame.
Next to the door was a divi divi tree, bent in the direction of the trade winds.
There was just one problem. Both the door and the tree cast shadows.
Before our horrified eyes, the warawara’s moving shadow converged and joined with the door and tree shadows to become one giant winged shadow-creature. It swooped in our direction with a high-pitched cry. 180
“Luna?!” Adri’s voice shook.
“I see it,” she snapped.
Then, with a strained look on her face, Luna closed her eyes and turned her palms toward the shadow, pushing it back with her light.
“Door!” she groaned.
Together, Adri, Esme and I sprinted for the door. As soon as I touched one of the dragon carvings it swung open with a creak. We dashed inside and stood in the doorway, looking out.
“Luna, now!” Esme screamed.
But Luna didn’t move. It seemed to be taking all she had to keep the giant shadow-bird at bay. Her light began shrinking as the shadow’s wingspan grew to fill the sky.
Dark talons reached down toward her.
“She won’t make it,” Adri muttered.
Then he grabbed something out of his rucksack and ran back through the door to Luna’s side.
The winged shadow dove toward him, but shied back up as he flicked on the light in his hand.
“Torches!” I shouted.
Before I could get mine out, Esme was back in the fray, beaming torchlight right at the shadow, as it 181tried to grab Adri and Luna.
“Take that and that!” she yelled.
I jumped in next to her, shining my torch just in time to keep the shadow’s beak from snapping Luna’s left arm, which was hanging limp and lightless at her side.
She was running out of strength, and soon we would too … either that, or batteries. Our torches were small hand-held versions, not meant for shadow-beast battles.
As Adri tried to get Luna to safety, the shadow flicked one huge wing, sending him flying, and dashing the torch from his hand. I dove to grab the light, but it rolled out of my reach.
“Get Luna to the door!” Esme roared.
Adri was knocked out on the ground.
“I’ll get him!” Esme assured me. “Help Luna!”
The shadow was spinning like a storm now, with talons and beaks, and a loud whirring sound like the beating of many wings. I pressed toward it with my puny torchlight and grabbed Luna’s unlit hand. She held the other hand high, keeping the darkness at bay. We inched back toward the door and I pushed her in.
“Esme,” she gasped. 182
“Don’t worry, I’ve got her!” I promised, turning back.
Somehow Esme had managed to fight her way over to Adri and pick up his dropped torch. She stood over him now, like a warrior, holding the two torches high against the dark.
I pushed forward until I got to her side.
“Let’s go!” I shouted over the shadow’s wail.
“Take him!” she said, “I’ll hold it back!”
“Now!” she flashed as I hesitated; her eyes golden in the dark.
I gave Esme my torch and grabbed Adri with both hands, dragging him back toward the door. Esme brought up the rear, walking backward slowly, keeping the shadow from swallowing us whole.
One of her torches flickered. We were still some distance from the door. Adri was no easy weight to pull.
Meanwhile, Luna was barely keeping the shadow away from the door, with the fading light in one of her palms.
I thought of Adri in our past adventures: swinging toward me in the nets that had us trapped long ago, in the darkness of the Flesh-skinner’s cave. 183
“I won’t leave you,” he’d said and he hadn’t.
I couldn’t leave him now.
“Ahhhh!” I screamed as I dug down and dragged him the last few steps to the door.
Luna pulled him in. “Where’s Esme?” she shouted, staring past me.
I looked back. “She was right behind us,” I stammered.
But I couldn’t see anything in the dark.
Luna rushed forward, ready to jump back in.
“Wait!” This time I was the one grabbing her.
“Let. Me. Go!” Luna fought me.
“Come on Es,” I muttered under my breath, trying to keep Luna from running to her death. “Come on.”
There they were, the small eyes of light from Esme’s torches, getting closer as she raced toward us, chased by the roaring shadow.
Luna and I struggled just inside the doorway. I held her tight, willing Esme toward us. Luna raised one hand against the darkness, with her last little bit of light.
One of my Da’s favourite verses rose up in my mind: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” 184
It hit me. “She’s not going to make it!” I shouted.
I let Luna go. We needed to go back out and help Esme fight with the light we had left.
“Move!” Luna yelled, as we stepped out of the door, keeping her fading hand high.
The shadows opened like a giant maw … Oh no, were we too late?
Seeing us coming toward her, Esme put on a burst of speed. I didn’t know she could move that fast.
We grabbed her and launched ourselves back together. As we ran, all I could do was pray.
Just as the roaring fangs snapped down, we barrelled through the door.
With one foot, Luna slammed it shut against the dark.