And with that final word, the surging, fading crowd around him simply vanished, the flickering colours and shapes draining away into the grass like the phantoms they were.
Auris screamed—a scream of pure anguish that chilled Lief’s blood.
‘What has happened?’ Barda roared over the cracking of the thunder. ‘The people! Where have they gone?’
‘They never were,’ Lief shouted back, his stomach churning with horror. ‘They … were part of the illusion. He is alone here. Who knows how long —’
‘One by one the last of them failed me and died,’ cried Auris. ‘But I kept the faith! Alone I kept Pirra alive, harnessing the magic of thousands to keep its beauty perfect. Then you came. Spies and traitors! Saying what must never be said, speaking of things that must never be admitted—’
There was a flash of dazzling light and an ear-splitting crash. A jagged black crack opened in the sky, zig-zagging down to the trembling horizon like a bolt of lightning.
Auris shrieked and fell to the ground at the base of the statue. Desperately he stretched out his arms to it, his bony fingers clawing the air.
The split groaned and widened as the magic trapped for so long within the dome began escaping with rushing fury. Brilliant rainbow light could be seen through the gap as the cavern walls outside exploded into life, and colours dimmed for centuries gleamed.
Lief, Barda and Jasmine threw themselves to the ground, gripping the earth desperately as the force howled around them, tearing at the rags of trees, the faded tatters of flowers, grass, distant purple hills …
Then, suddenly, there was utter silence. But it was not the peaceful or exhausted silence of an ending. It was heavy and tense, as though everything was holding its breath. Waiting …
Cautiously, his skin prickling, Lief raised his head. The vision of Pirra had been swept away. Only the huge glass statue remained, rising into thick, still air which seemed to have been drained of colour. Auris lay face down at the statue’s base, the tips of his fingers just touching the knife-like folds of the robe where they met the ground.
Everything was bathed in a weird half-light. The hills on the horizon had disappeared. Great branching clumps of fungus, tall and thick as ancient trees, hunched where trees once stood. Tiny ferns and mosses covered the clay and clustered along the banks of a deep and silent stream.
In the distance, the jagged tear in the fabric of the dome was now a gaping wound. At the top, it shone with rainbow light. But lower down it was deepest black.
That is strange, Lief thought slowly.
‘Lief!’
Startled, Lief turned to see Barda scrambling to his feet and backing away to stand with his back to the nearest clump of fungus. Barda’s eyes were fixed on the tear in the dome. Jasmine, too, was jumping up, reaching for her dagger.
‘What—?’ Lief began. Then he saw their faces change, and heard, behind him, a distant scratching, tearing sound.
He spun around. And realised why no light had been visible through the lower part of the hole in the dome. Something had been pressing against it. Something huge and black that was now ripping its way through the gap, leg by spiny leg.
Arach!
16 - Terror
With a low growl, the Arach forced itself fully through the gap in the dome. It rose on its back legs, huge, dwarfing the towering clumps of fungus that dotted the horizon.
It lurched forward abruptly, and to his horror Lief saw that another Arach was pushing through the gap behind it. Rainbows shone briefly through a tangle of black legs and a bloated body. Then the second Arach was through the hole, which was quickly blocked by a third.
‘They are escaping from the light!’ exclaimed Jasmine.
Of course! Lief thought. The Arach came from caves. They live and breed in dimness. They cannot bear bright light. Now that the caverns are lit by magic once more, the dome is the only place left for them to hide.
For the dome had not been brightened by the rainbow brilliance that shone behind the tear in its fabric.
It was as though the half-light that hung above the island stifled the brighter light, and prevented it from entering.
Five Arach now loomed on the horizon. And more were coming. The first arrivals had begun moving forward. Their massive bodies swaying on their long, spiny legs, they were feeling their way, moving awkwardly on the unfamiliar, solid ground.
‘They are coming this way,’ Jasmine exclaimed. ‘Perhaps the statue attracts them. Or perhaps they can smell prey.’
‘That is not a pleasant thought,’ said Barda grimly. He looked thoughtfully at his sword. Large and heavy as it was, it seemed as small as a needle compared to the approaching beasts.
‘We cannot fight them, Barda,’ Lief muttered. ‘Any more than we could fight the Sand Beasts in the Shifting Sands, or the Glus in the Maze of the Beast. We would not last a moment!’
‘What else are we to do but stand and fight?’ Jasmine hissed furiously. ‘You have seen them run, Lief. They would catch us in an instant if we tried to flee! Are we just to lie down and wait for them to eat us?’
‘We must hide,’ said Lief. ‘The light is poor. We must hide and hope they pass us by so that we can creep away.’
‘Hide?’ Jasmine exclaimed, looking around at the low ferns, the sparse clumps of fungus. ‘There is nowhere to hide!’
Lief pulled off his cloak. ‘There is,’ he said. ‘Just as there was, not long ago, in the River Broad when an Ak-Baba was overhead. Just as there was in the Shifting Sands when Grey Guards were approaching. Have you forgotten so soon?’
Jasmine’s green eyes flashed. ‘I have forgotten nothing,’ she said abruptly. ‘I thought you had, however.’
Lief stared at her, hurt and confused. He could not understand her meaning.
Barda cleared his throat. ‘If we are to hide, we should do so at once,’ he said. ‘The creatures are moving slowly, but their strides are huge. They will be upon us very soon. What of Auris?’
Lief tore his eyes away from Jasmine’s and glanced over to where Auris lay beside the statue. He thrust the cloak into Barda’s hands. ‘You and Jasmine take cover,’ he said. ‘If he still lives, I will fetch him.’
‘Keep low! Take care!’ Jasmine called softly after him as he began to run.
Obediently, Lief lowered his head. At least she cares whether I live or die, he thought. But why did she say that, about my forgetting our quest for the Belt? How could I ever forget?
Auris was rigidly still, and his eyes were closed. But as Lief drew near enough to the statue to feel its strange, radiating warmth on his skin, he realised that the last of the dome-dwellers was not dead, or even unconscious.
Auris was chanting under his breath—so softly and rapidly that Lief could not catch the words.
‘Auris,’ Lief urged, touching his arm. ‘Auris—come with me. There is danger here.’
Auris screwed his eyes more tightly shut, but made no other sign that he had heard. He did not lift his head, or move his fingers from the hem of the statue’s robe. Did not stop, for a moment, his frenzied whispering.
Lief glanced nervously at the approaching Arach. The creatures were closer now. There were at least ten of them, crawling in a wedge-shaped pack with the first, and largest, in the lead.
‘Auris!’ he said sharply. He tried to pull the Piper away from the statue, but the thin fingers immediately clutched at the razor-sharp glass and gripped it tightly. Blood ran in streams into the ground, but still the whispering voice did not pause.
Lief bent closer, straining to hear.
‘Thespellmustholdthespellmustholdthespell …’
One phrase, endlessly repeated.
‘Lief!’ Barda and Jasmine were beckoning urgently from behind the fungus where they had taken cover. Lief could hardly see them. As always, his cloak had taken on the colour of its surroundings. It was disguising them perfectly.