In the Shadow of Mountains: The Lost Girls

Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Scent of Danger

  The minibus was gone. Soo-Kai stared through the trees at the place where it had been. She stood up in the stirrups on her horse and took in quick, sharp breaths through her nose. There was no one near. She sat back on the horse again, and urged it forward.

  Even though there was no one nearby, there was still a strong scent in the air. Soo-Kai could pick out the genetic code of each of the girls she had met. There were other genetic traces here too. The girls that had been taken away, their teacher, and the men and the Knights who had pursued them. All of them could be picked out individually.

  Soo-Kai circled the area, moving in a wide arc, beyond the limits that the men and the horses had taken. If the girl had escaped, her trail would extend beyond theirs.

  As she moved through the trees, Soo-Kai wondered at the extent those in the castle went to to hide what had happened. There were no bodies, no wreckage, nothing. And they had left quickly.

  She found a trail, the scent fading, but still clear. She recognised it instantly. It was the girl Kai-Tai had found. The dark skinned girl, Bern-E. Soo-Kai moved on, urging the horse to move faster.

  Soo-Kai seemed calm, but her mind was far from calm. Instead it reeled from the revelation that had taken place earlier. It was a constant to and fro that she had been used to all her life under the Purpose.

  Atlantians! Their scent is unmistakable!

  Two of them. Siblings. My mother knew, yet she made no remark.

  This is not a slight on her integrity! What more is there to say? Atlantians, alive! There is only one conclusion! We were deceived!

  But why do they exist alongside others who are more similar to the Terrans the Navak have interbred with here?

  This is irrelevant!

  It is not irrelevant. The Atlantians exist alongside them, among them. There has to be a reason for this. Maybe the Terrans true homeworld is Atlantis?

  The voice in her mind grew even angrier.

  You avoid the truth! The only thing that counts is that we were deceived!

  Soo-Kai gave in.

  But by who?

  By those who had knowledge of the Portal protocols! By those who had access to a Class One Network Hub!

  There was only one answer to that.

  Then we deceived ourselves.

  For what purpose?

  There is only one Purpose.

  Silence in her mind. Silence, but remaining conflict.

  To hide the Atlantians required knowledge and access to the Ring Network, the transportation system invented by the Tun-Sho-Lok that linked all the known civilisations together at one time. But only the Androktones possessed such knowledge and access. It was during the original wars, when the Tun-Sho-Lok had perished and only the Androktones controlled the Ring Network system. It had to be one of them. But there had to be a reason that did not conflict with the Purpose. And there could only be one logical reason.

  They were saved for us!

  Then someone knew that this would happen.

  The Tun-Sho-Lok provided for all eventualities.

  Not all.

  Then what is the solution to this riddle?

  It does not matter if my mother cannot gain access to the ship.

  Soo-Kai thought about Kai-Tai and the other Androktones. Their scent was far away and fading. They would be closer to the castle, watching and waiting. She didn’t envy them. Their mission was fruitless. With the garrison fully strengthened, and the Outsider Androktone waiting for them –strangely enough– inside, there was nothing they could do. The time that the Nakora Tabek would be close was limited. In another day it would be gone. And the power it possessed to activate the Ring Network Portal would be gone with it.

  Gone for another twenty-eight years.

  In a way, Soo-Kai was glad. She had no wish to see her mother or the other Androktones killed for no purpose. But if they had escaped, it would have been as if they were dead. She would never see them again. The status quo was familiar, even though it was not always safe.

  Her chain of thought hurt her mind.

  To pursue the Purpose is your destiny! To hope for failure is incorrect!

  Not for now.

  Soo-Kai easily shook off the ache that tried to form in her head. There was a reason for her confidence and it brought on the usual response.

  Your bond is not immortal! You will return to the Purpose when he is dead and the bond is broken!

  Maybe. But until then, I choose my own path.

  And is your path with your mother, or your bond?

  Either choice brings pain. I take the safer path; the one that follows the Purpose, the one where I am most content and at peace, the one that brings joy to my bond.

  And Kai-Tai?

  I enjoyed our time together. Maybe it can be repeated.

  And if she escapes?

  Then there will be more pain.

  Soo-Kai picked up another trail. She turned her horse to follow it. Yes, this was it. She urged her horse faster. The trail wound its way through the trees. For a while, two others followed it, but then they stopped and faded. The girl’s trail went on. Soo-Kai marvelled at the strength of her. She had run far in her terror.

  Soo-Kai suddenly drew her horse up and sniffed at the air. She had picked up the trace of several new scents. They were close by, but fading like the others. More aliens, male this time, their scent surrounded by those who came for them. The girls trail led straight to them.

  The girl had been unlucky. She had chosen the wrong path.

  Soo-Kai urged her horse forward again, expecting the inevitable.

  She hadn’t gone far when she crossed the girl’s trail a second time, only now she was not alone. She was with a male, alien like herself. Soo-Kai stared off through the trees. The light was beginning to fail. She sniffed at the air. Their scent was very strong, too strong. Soo-Kai drew her sword and urged her horse forward again.

  She hadn’t gone far before she stopped. She gazed around at the trees. There was much undergrowth here, clumped thickly around the bases of the trees. In the fading light, the shadows around them were dark. She stared at one clump in particular, edging her horse nearer. In the darkness of the shadows she would have seen nothing, but her eyes could also be sensitive to infrared. She concentrated, altering the structure of the retina in each eye. Slowly, the double heat source within the bush became obvious.

  “Come out!” she said sternly.

  There was slight movement within the bushes, but no one answered her.

  Soo-Kai tried again. “Aim-E! Come out!”

  This time Soo-Kai distinctly heard voices from inside the bushes.

  “She knows my name!” Amy whispered.

  She had woken at Soo-Kai’s first shout. She had been startled and scared at the sudden darkness she found herself in, but Craig had hung on to her.

  “Shush! She’ll hear you!” he whispered back.

  Soo-Kai tried one more time. “Jem-Ma sent me to find you. She told me your name. If you do not come out, I will leave you here in the dark and the cold.”

  That was it for Amy. “I’m going out,” she said, moving forward.

  “No!” Craig insisted, holding on to her. “She’s got a blinkin’ great sword! She could take your head off!”

  Soo-Kai heard him. “I will do no such thing,” she called out, and quickly replaced her sword. “I have come here to take you to those that have escaped. But I will not wait long. Come out, both of you. I will not harm you.”

  Amy looked at Craig. “Come on,” she said. “She knows we’re here anyway.”

  Craig gave in, and the two of them crawled out. “At least she’s put that sword away,” he muttered.

  Soo-Kai watched them both get to their feet. Amy was still wearing Craig’s jacket. He was taller than her, and he stood in front of her, protecting her. He spoke first.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “My name is Soo-Kai. I was expecting t
o find only the girl, but if she speaks for you, you may come also.”

  Craig looked at Amy. “Well, what do you think?” he asked her.

  Amy smiled at him. “You’re alright.” Then she prodded him in the side and added, “When you’re not scaring me!”

  Soo-Kai was getting impatient to return to Rolf and the other girls. “Aim-E, get on the horse in front of me.” She reached out her hand. Amy stepped forward and took it, and Soo-Kai pulled her up on to the horse in front of her.

  “What about me?” Craig asked.

  Soo-Kai looked down at him. “For now you must walk, but walk quickly.” She urged on her horse without waiting for his reply.

  “Charming!” Craig exclaimed, and quickly trotted after them.

  Amy looked over her shoulder at Soo-Kai. “Don’t go too fast, he can’t run as good as me.”

  “You run well,” Soo-Kai said. “I followed your trail a long distance. I am glad you are safe, but I am anxious to return to the others. My husband, Rolf is with them. They are by now at our house, waiting for us.” She looked up at the sky. It was growing darker by the minute. “I promised to be back before nightfall, but I will be late.”

  “How many got away?” Amy asked eagerly.

  “Eight.”

  Amy became down-hearted. “Only eight? Do you know who they are?”

  Soo-Kai nodded. “One is Beck-E, two are sisters whose skin is dark, Van-Es-A and Bern-E. Another is Jem-Ma, who remembered you. And the others are So-Fe-A, Kar-An, Row-E-Na and Jane.”

  Amy became thoughtful as she digested the news. She thought about the other girls, the ones that hadn’t got away. They were all her friends. After a few seconds she asked, “You don’t know what happened to our teacher, do you?”

  “She was taken by those from the castle.”

  Soo-Kai’s answer made Amy tearful. She stared ahead, thinking about her teacher, and the hours Anne Jenkins had spent coaching her.

  Beside them, Craig was finding it hard going. “Slow down, will you!” he called out. “I’m dying here!”

  Soo-Kai looked down at him. “If they catch you, you will be dead.”

  “If that’s supposed to make me run faster, it’s not working!” Craig gasped.

  Soo-Kai stopped the horse. Craig fell to his knees, gasping for breath. “Thank you,” he blurted out.

  Amy looked back at Soo-Kai. “We could swap, you know,” she suggested. “I can run fast, I don’t mind.”

  Soo-Kai didn’t answer. She was staring back the way they had came. It was now dark, and there was a slight breeze rustling the branches of the trees nearby.

  Amy stared at Soo-Kai’s expression. There was something about it that worried her. “What is it?” she asked.

  Soo-Kai didn’t reply. She stood up in the stirrups and took quick breaths, turning her head from side to side. The more she sniffed, the more distressed she looked.

  “It cannot be,” she whispered to herself, taking another sniff. “But it is true…she is out of the castle. I can smell her. The wind brings her scent to me. She comes.”

  Amy looked at her. “Who comes?”

  Soo-Kai sat back in the saddle and turned to look at Amy. She didn’t say anything. Instead she looked down at Craig, and then she looked back at Amy again. Her expression gave away her intent. Amy saw it and just knew.

  “Don’t do it!” Amy said straight away. “If you do I’ll jump off!”

  Soo-Kai looked distraught. “But you do not understand! If I can smell her, she will soon be able to smell us! If she catches us, she will eat us! We must flee!”

  Amy stared at Soo-Kai, her eyes big and round. “Eat us?” she repeated.

  Craig got to his feet. “What are you two babbling on about? Who’s going to eat us?”

  Soo-Kai leaned towards him. “Is there anything from your time that scares you?”

  “Bay City Rollers fans,” Craig suggested with a smile.

  “Are they very large, very angry, and have mouths filled with teeth as long as your forearm?”

  Craig stared at her, all his humour dissipated. “Now that you mention it, no,” he muttered.

  Amy looked around at the darkened forest. “I’m getting scared! Get on the horse, Craig! Quick!”

  Craig grabbed the saddle, but Soo-Kai held him back.

  “The horse cannot carry three!” she protested.

  Amy pulled at her waistcoat. “You can’t leave him! Not if this thing’s coming!”

  There was a loud crack. It made Amy jump. It was followed by the sound of horses neighing somewhere in the forest.

  They all stared into the darkness behind them, but there was nothing to be seen. Only trees and shadows. Soo-Kai stood up in the stirrups again and took several swift breaths through her nose, her head raised.

  “She has our scent,” she whispered. “She comes, but she is not alone. Those from the castle come with her.”

  Craig looked up at Soo-Kai. “Then what are we waiting for?” he demanded.

  Soo-Kai hesitated briefly. There was nothing else she could do. She grabbed hold of Craig and helped him up. He sat astride the horse behind her and Amy, wrapping his arms eagerly around the both of them. The horse stamped its feet and snorted under the extra weight. Soo-Kai urged it on.

  At first the horse merely trotted forward. Soo-Kai urged it to go faster, but with the three of them now on its back, it was reluctant to do more than canter.

  Craig kept looking over his shoulder. He couldn’t see a thing, but his voice still sounded anxious when he spoke to Soo-Kai.

  “Can’t you get this horse to go any faster?”

  “Only if you jump off,” was Soo-Kai’s blunt reply.

  Amy looked back at Craig in alarm. “Don’t you dare!” she shouted at him.

  Craig had no intention of jumping off. He only wished he could see something.

  Then they heard it.

  It was a deep, guttural growl. It rumbled through the darkness like a physical presence. It was so deep; they felt it vibrating their rib-cages.

  The hair on the back of Craig’s neck stood up. He stared into the darkness behind them in amazement. “What is this place? Jurassic Fucking Park?”

  Soo-Kai also looked back. To Craig and Amy, the forest was all in darkness, but with her eyes now sensitive to infra-red, Soo-Kai could see what they couldn’t. Behind them were men on horses, and with them, a cage wagon. Soo-Kai realised the truth as soon as she saw the large heat source in the wagon.

  “They use her like a hound! Caged in one of the wagons! She has our scent, and she leads them to us!”

  “Who the Hell is ‘she’?” Craig demanded.

  “The Outsider!” Soo-Kai almost snarled at him.

  It was at that moment that their horse picked up the scent. It wasn’t sure what it was that was in the wagon that pursued them, but it didn’t like it. Its ears went back and its nostrils flared. It practically leapt forward. It went at the gallop, its direction its own. The three of them hung on as the trees rushed by in the dark.

  The sound of the pursuing horses grew louder, and with it came the rumbling, creaking noise of the wagon. They could all hear it clearly.

  Soo-Kai tried to direct the horse between trees that grew closer together. It was difficult, as the horse wanted to take a more direct route away from the wagon and the creature it contained. But Soo-Kai stuck to her task, and bit by bit, the horse obeyed. It wasn’t long before they heard the effect.

  From behind them came another deep growl, but this time it was more pitiful than before. The trees were delaying the progress of the wagon, slowing it down, and its occupant knew.

  The horse galloped on, going faster than ever. The sound of the horses and the creaking wagon became more distant, and slowly they became fainter and fainter. Even the rumbling growl of the creature began to fade away.

  It wasn’t long after that when the horse began to slow. Then suddenly, it staggered and almost fe
ll. It came to an abrupt halt, its head down and its muscles twitching. Soo-Kai urged it on again, but it was no use.

  Amy looked around in terror at the dark. “Why won’t it go?” she asked Soo-Kai.

  “Its heart is finished,” Soo-Kai replied. She turned to Craig and told him, “Get off.”

  “Why me?” he replied, tightening his grip. “And what about them chasing us?”

  “We have gained much ground on them. I chose a path through the forest where the trees grew too close together for the wagon to pass through. They must go around while we can go forward. But this will not delay them long, and there are those with them on horses who may still pursue us. Our horse is finished, so we must all dismount and continue on foot. And we will have to move quickly if we are still to evade them. Now obey me and get off.”

  Soo-Kai’s words made Amy relax, and it was only then that she realised how tightly Craig was holding on to her, and that his hand was inside her blouse on her stomach. Even now, his fingers were working their way down under the waistband of her skirt.

  Amy pulled and smacked at Craig’s hand. “Don’t you ever give up?” she said, looking over Soo-Kai’s shoulder at him.

  “Not while I’m breathing!” he replied with a grin. His other hand was around Soo-Kai’s waist, and he tightened his grip as he rested his head on her back.

  Soo-Kai lost patience with him. She broke his grip and pushed him off the horse. He cried out as he fell, and grunted when he hit the ground.

  “That hurt!” he complained as he sat on the grass rubbing his back.

  Soo-Kai ignored him. She got off the horse then helped Amy down beside her.

  As Soo-Kai unfastened and removed the saddle, Amy saw the horse properly for the first time. It was covered in lather and sweat, and it was breathing hard. It looked very distressed. “Oh, the poor thing!” she said.

  Craig looked up at her in astonishment. “Never mind about the horse, what about me?”

  Amy turned and stood over him. “If it wasn’t for this horse, we’d all have been eaten!”

  “Yeah! For all we know it could have been a big truck!” Craig replied scornfully. “Where do you think we are?”

  Amy stared at him. The possible answers to his question had scared her. “I don’t know,” was all she could say.

  Soo-Kai smacked the horse on the rump and it snorted and trotted slowly away. It disappeared quickly in the shadows. Amy watched it go.

  “Will he be alright?” she asked Soo-Kai.

  “Yes. By morning he will have returned to the castle where he belongs.”

  Craig got up, dusting off his jeans. “And where will we be?” he asked. “The Holiday Inn?”

  Soo-Kai stared at him. “You will be here, on Ellerkan, a world very far away from your own.”

  Amy looked alarmed, but Craig still wasn’t impressed. “Is this where I say, ‘Beam me up Scotty?’” he said in William Shatner’s voice.

  Soo-Kai looked very stern. “I do not understand your words, but I recognise the contempt in your voice. Be warned, on this world your life is worth no more than that of the horse we just rode. And it is worth even less to me. I came here only for the girl, and if you cause me any more problems or delay, I will kill you. Do you understand me?”

  Amy tried to intervene. “Don’t fight, you two!” she begged, but they both ignored her.

  “I’m not scared of you,” Craig replied. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’ve lost your sword.”

  “Have I? Watch and learn.” Soo-Kai turned her back on him and reached up to her neck. She moved aside her plat so that he could see, and pulled the sword from her back.

  Craig stared open mouthed. Next to him, Amy was doing the same. As both of them stared, Soo-Kai spun round and held the blade of her sword at Craig’s throat. He stared at it in shock, his eyes wide. He went rigid. Soo-Kai spoke sternly, her voice almost a whisper.

  “If those that pursue us over-take us, it will be up to me to slay them. And if I should fall to their swords, you will soon follow. Your life depends on mine, but I will not let my life depend on yours. If you delay me again, I will kill you.”

  Amy was in tears. “Stop it you two! Stop it! Don’t kill him, Soo-Kai! It’s not his fault he doesn’t believe you! I wouldn’t have believed you either if I hadn’t seen those Knights and horses! Let him go! Please!”

  Soo-Kai withdrew her sword. “Be thankful that she speaks for you,” she said. “This is not your world, accept this to be a fact, or you will surely die. Now follow or stay, the choice is yours. We are leaving.”

  Without another word Soo-Kai took Amy’s arm and trotted away, pulling Amy along with her.

  Amy looked back, beckoning Craig to follow. “Come on!” she called to him.

  Craig breathed out with a loud whoosh. He had been holding his breath all the time that the sword was at his throat. He wiped his brow, shook his head, and then ran after them.

  The wagon rocked from side to side as its occupant writhed in anger and frustration, bellowing and roaring. The horses attached to the wagon reared up in their fright and tried to get away, causing the wagon to rock even more. The driver and brake-man hung on desperately to the reins while other men, Knights who had dismounted, stood with the horses, pulling on their bridals and trying to calm them, but all their faces were filled with as much terror as those of the horses that reared and pranced. And the horses the Knights had left tied to trees pulled and reared at their tethers in equal fear.

  Even hidden in the shadows of the night, the presence of Gil-Yan so close unnerved them all. Seeing her at the bottom of a pit was one thing, but now, with just the bars of the cage between them, this was different.

  L’Roth forced his horse nearer to the cage wagon with difficulty. “Enough of your bellowing! You panic the horses!” he roared, and struck at the cage with his sword.

  “LET ME OUT!” Gil-Yan bellowed. She stopped shaking the wagon and began to bite at the bars of the cage. Behind her, her long serrated tail poked out through the cage bars and swept back and forth, causing the driver and brake-man to jump out of its way.

  L’Roth stabbed at her large snout, causing her to snarl and bare her teeth. He ignored her anger, so great was his own. “Silence! Or as God is my witness, I’ll have this wagon dragged to the river and overturned with you inside it! Silence, I say!”

  Gil-Yan crouched down in the deepest shadow of the cage and growled, her red eyes glowing in her anger. “FOOL! IMBECILE!” she hissed at L’Roth. “YOU LET THEM ESCAPE! WE HAD THEM!”

  “We had nothing!”

  “THEY WERE IN YOUR GRASP! YOU COULD HAVE CAUGHT THEM!”

  “And left you alone with nought but two men to guard you? Ha! Then I would have been an imbecile!”

  Gil-Yan bared her teeth and hissed. “YOU THINK I LONG TO ESCAPE? I AM BONDED, WHY WOULD I RUN?”

  “I care not why you would run, I care only that you would be free! Now be still!”

  “SIR HEN-RE WILL HEAR OF YOUR DEEDS THIS NIGHT! HE WILL BE ANGRY!”

  “He would be angrier still if I returned without you! Now, enough of this! Do you still have their scent?”

  Gil-Yan moved closer to the bars again. “YES!” she said eagerly, “I COULD FOLLOW IT EVEN WITHOUT EYES TO SEE BY!”

  “Good! My men will find a wider trail through the forest, and we may still catch our quarry before morning!” L’Roth urged his horse towards the front of the wagon and shouted to his men.

  “Mount! Get this wagon moving! Hurry!”