The Moon Stealers and The Children of the Light (19 page)

‘Edgar?’ muttered Joe, unable to believe what had just
happened in front of his eyes. He stared down on Edgar’s body that now rested
amongst the stones near the edge of the lake. He waited, hoping to see a sign
that the Knight was still alive. But, inside, he knew there was no way that anyone
could survive falling from such a height. A numb feeling was building up inside
him, mixed with a tightness in his stomach that made him feel sick.

He turned to Max, ‘what do we do now?’

‘We have to carry on,’ Max replied with a salty tear
stinging his eyes. ‘Edgar led us here, now it's up to us to finish it.’

Joe nervously glanced up the side of the mountain,
checking for other creatures.

‘Do you think there will be more?’

‘Maybe, but like Edgar said, there is less food here,
so if we’re lucky we might not see any more. But, I think we should be
prepared, just in case.’ Max reached inside the small rucksack and pulled out
Joe’s sword and passed it to him. He slipped the Green Huntsmen’s bow, together
with a quiver full of arrows, over his shoulder then discarded the bag on the
ledge.

'Come on,' said Max. He held on to Joe's wrist and
began leading him down the rest of the mountain. After stepping down a couple
more ledges, they suddenly became aware of a windy sound coming from above
them. Another creature dived through the mist that swirled at the top of the
mountain towards them, twisting away at the very last minute and forcing the
boys up against the rock face. Watching the creature sweep round ready to
attack them again, they quickly took the next few ledges at a jump. The lower
down the mountain they went, the more it began to level out allowing them to
run along a wider, more worn path.

The creature arced back towards them.

With a firmer footing, Joe and Max sprinted along the
smooth rock towards the motionless water at the edge of
Lake
Idwal
. The black shadow of the creature circled above them,
watching and waiting for the moment to strike. Joe continued running while Max
skidded to a halt. He slipped the bow off his shoulder and pulled an arrow. He
took aim at the creature, moving his bow in time as he traced the movements of
the Moon Stealer above them. Max released the arrow, but the creature twisted easily
away, changed direction before sweeping down towards them. By then Joe had
approached Edgar’s lifeless body. Suddenly, he noticed a small movement in
Edgar’s face. Joe took a short intake of breath as hope exploded through his
body. The grey hairs of Edgar’s beard flickered once again above his blue lips,
but Joe quickly realised that it was caused by the breeze that was being
funnelled between the mountains and not by the old knight breathing. Edgar’s
eyes seemed dull and cloudy, and fixed on an imaginary point somewhere above
him.

Joe reached his hand out to Edgar.

'No!' shouted Max, running towards him. 'What ever you
do, don’t touch the creature’s blood!' He could see the Moon Stealer he had
shot at, skimming across the surface of the lake. It was heading straight
towards them once again. He notched another arrow into his bow as he drew up
beside Joe; he stood dead still, his eye level with the shaft of wood watching
the creature draw nearer and nearer. Joe looked up from Edgar's body and pulled
his sword out ready to defend their position. But the creature didn’t flinch,
its body weightlessly glided above the water, a trailing wing tip occasionally
cutting through the surface of the water slicing a line across the lake.

Max waited until the creature was closer. He knew that
he was not a skilled archer and would not have enough power to shoot an arrow
over a long distance and for it to be on target. But, the nearer the creature
came, the easier a target it became. However, the nearer it got, the more it also
put the two boys in danger.

Max waited.

He could see the moonlight reflected on the blackened
skin.

'Max?' Joe glanced at Max, wondering when he was going
to release the arrow. He nervously raised the sword towards the creature, but
it wasn’t a particularly long sword and would only be useful in close combat.

The eye of the creature shone back at Max, daring him
to release the shot. Every moment Max waited he felt more and more nervous. He
held his breath and listened to the pulse in his head getting faster and faster
whilst the moisture on his fingers increased. The taut string bit into the
flesh of his finger tips making it feel tighter than ever. With some hesitation
he opened the fingers of his left hand and immediately felt a breath of air
pass over his right hand as the feathers on the arrow flew above it, cutting
through the air towards the creature. Almost as soon as Max had released the
arrow he saw it clip the side of the creature, knocking it off its path, but
not causing it any serious damage.

Whilst Max began notching up another arrow in his bow,
the creature skirted in a wide arc around them and was now approaching from the
opposite direction. Joe reached down to the ground and began picking up some
rocks and throwing them towards the Moon Stealer. One managed to hit the
target, but all that seemed to do was inflame the creature more. It began
circling the pair, making them move round with it, then it began diving in
towards them, before suddenly changing direction so that Max never had chance
to get a good aim. He released two more arrows which sailed harmlessly into the
night sky.

A dark cloud began to pass over the moon, casting a black
shadow over the mountains. It was now almost impossible for the boys to know
which direction the creature was coming from. Suddenly Joe heard a gentle
whistling sound coming from one side, as if the air around them was being
rapidly split by something as it approached. He stuck his sword into the air
and began swinging it blindly above him. He felt the jolt of something hitting
the blade. From the guttural breathe he heard, Joe knew he had wounded the
creature.

Both of the boys twisted round, following the sound
above them and hoping the cloud would soon pass so they could see the creature
once again. But it didn’t. They remained in darkness, standing side by side,
straining their ears as they tried desperately to listen for clues as to the
whereabouts of the creature.

From the ground Max noticed that a gentle silver light
had begun to pulsate from around Edgar's body. He leant down and carefully lifted
the White Knight's coat, looking for the source of the light. The darkness was
suddenly shattered by a light coming from Ethera, Edgar's sword. Fragments of
light shone out from the exposed parts of the sword which was still embedded
inside the creature. Under his breathe Max apologised to Edgar as he removed
the dead knight's gloved fingers from the hilt of the sword. Then, he placed
his own hands around the handle and pulled it from the body of the Moon
Stealer. It slid out easily, releasing the vacuum it had created inside the
moist flesh of the creature.

Standing beside Joe once again they both raised their
swords ready for the next approach from the creature. Ethera emitted a
pulsating light almost in time with Max's heartbeat, enabling them to see better
in the darkness. The attack came from the side. The two boys only just noticed
the change in the air as the creature swept over their heads and knocked them
to the ground with a strong beat of its wings. Before they knew what was
happening, the creature had landed and was about to pounce on top of Max. He
swung Ethera in a wide arc, forcing the creature to keep its distance, whilst
he lifted himself off the floor and moved back to Joe.

'Blow into the Silver Bough!' Max instructed Joe. 'We
need to get into Avalon before more creatures arrive.' He lunged at the
creature as it made a sudden dash forward to snap at their ankles. As he did,
the creature turned and swiped at Max, glancing his arm with its wing and
catching a claw in the material of Max’s coat and pulling him off balance.

Ethera clattered to the ground.

Max was lying on the floor, his bow beneath his back
and Ethera out of reach. As the cloud thinned in the sky above him, Max watched
in what seemed like slow motion as the creature stood to its full height,
towering above him. Moonlight shone onto the creature. Max knew what was about
to happen and in that moment of finality, the adrenaline pumped fiercely around
his body, heightening all of his senses. He could see every fold and crease in
the thick leathery skin of the creature. He could smell, and almost taste, the
acidic stench that came from its hideous mouth as it released a scream from
deep inside its throat. Max closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see the end. His
ears picked up on the slightest sound, the howl of wind as it blew over a
mountain peak in the distance, the grinding of loose rocks beneath him, then
suddenly the hissing sound of something flying through the air above him
followed by a dull thud and something heavy falling to the ground.

Max opened his eyes. Where the creature had stood only
seconds before, was now empty space. Slumped on the ground was the creature,
with an elaborately carved sword handle protruding from its eye.

Max quickly turned round. Joe was standing there
looking quite proud of himself.

'Thanks,' he said, dusting himself down and grabbing
Ethera.

Joe had already slipped the Silver Bough from his
pocket. They walked to the edge of the lake and Joe lifted the magical flute to
his lips. Like the other times that he had blown into the flute, he had no idea
what he should be playing.

As he blew into it the sounds started low. A gentle
breathy flute sound that was mellow and peaceful filled the mountain range. It
echoed and bounced off the mountains, and each time it did, the flute grew
louder as if it were commanding an orchestra of pipes. Like a field of barley
on a scorching summer’s day, the surface of the lake began to distort and move.
From the surface, delicate wisps of smoke began to rise, obscuring the view to
the other side and the mountain beyond. As Joe continued to play, heavenly
voices joined in, a chorus of beautiful faeries that smiled and beckoned them
towards the lake. As the boys looked at the water the clouds of smoke began to
part revealing a tall rock that had now appeared in the centre of the lake. The
rock was narrower where it emerged from the water than it was at the top. It
seemed an impossible island that could topple into the water at any time.
Towards the base was a small door cut into the rock and only accessible by a
series of steps leading from the water. On the top of the rock was an elaborate
looking building. It was a complicated mix of arched windows, turrets and
spires. It appeared to stand taller than the mountain that had been there only
moments before. Tufts of lush green and yellow grass hung in strands down the
side of the rock face. With eyes as wide as saucers, the two boys stared at the
entrance to Avalon, amazed by the impossible balance of the large building on
top of such a narrow base.

Joe continued to blow into the Silver Bough but the
sound had begun to get quieter. The Faeries stood in silence and watched a
simple wooden boat float effortlessly from the staircase across the surface of
the water towards them. It had no oars or engine, and no ferryman to guide it,
but the boat knew where it was going. The nearest faerie turned to the boys and
gracefully drew her hand from beneath the folds of cloth that wound round her
body. Without saying a word, she gestured to the boat that had now beached
itself on the gravel at the edge of the lake. Joe cautiously stopped blowing
into the flute and withdrew it from his lips. He wondered if the image they
were looking at would fade and disappear as soon as he stopped blowing. But it didn’t.

The Faerie gestured once again to the boat. It
certainly didn’t appear to be a boat suitable to carry anyone into a magical
world. The paint on the outside was blistered and peeling, whilst inside, the
planks of wood that bent to form the shape were worn down, leaving the rippled
grain of the wood standing proud. The two boys stepped inside, half expecting
it to sink beneath them, but it didn’t move or wobble at all. Once they had sat
on the wooden bench that crossed from one side of the boat to the other, it
gently pulled itself away from the edge of the lake and into the water. It
moved so quietly that it almost felt like they weren’t on top of the water at
all, only the small ripples in the water betrayed its presence.

The Faeries silently watched then turned towards the
crumpled remains of Sir Edgar. From inside the boat Max and Joe sat upright,
straining to see what was happening. The boat continued to drift effortlessly
towards the narrow row of steps that led to the doorway cut into the pillar of
stone. The building towered dangerously above them. On dry land the Faeries
lifted Edgar's body into the air. Every Faerie stood beneath it, each one
forming a platform with their hands and chanting a gentle song. It was a sad
song, slow and mournful, that beat in rhythm with their walking.

The boat drew up alongside the staircase. Max was the
first out, still holding Ethera in his hand. He quickly jumped up the steps and
stood within the frame of the doorway. Joe quickly followed, but both were
eager to see what was going to happen to their friend. As the song carried on
the breeze across the water towards the boys, the first row off Faeries stepped
into the lake, shortly followed by each subsequent row, gradually taking the
body of Edgar down into the water with them. Max and Joe continued to watch the
point in the water where they had last seen Edgar until the ripples settled and
the surface of the water became a mirror for the sky above it.