There was no need. The beast of the Isle had retreated from the peak during the battle with the Sister of the West and was only now sliding back onto the ledge before the cave.
It roared as they escaped, but could not reach them in time to harm them. The last they saw of it, it was disappearing into the cavern, the den of its ancestors and part of its domain again at last. It had forgotten them already.
‘You were right, Lief,’ Jasmine shouted against the rushing of the wind as they soared over the scarlet island and on across the channel. ‘The beast was not Ava. Ava is there—outside her shop! But what is she doing?’
Lief looked past Jasmine’s shoulder. In the distance he could see Ava’s feathered cloak flapping in the wind as she hurried towards the back of the shop building. Ava was carrying a large bag over one arm, and dragging three packs behind her.
‘The wretch!’ roared Barda. ‘She has sensed we escaped the Isle! She is fleeing, and taking our packs with her! She has a good boat hidden in the shed behind the house, you may depend upon it. See? The door is standing open!’
Lief could not answer. He had just seen something that Barda had not. Directly in front of them, anchored just beyond the tip of the point, was The Lady Luck.
Lief felt something deep within him tremble. At the same moment he realised with dread that the dragon was losing height. It was panting with exhaustion.
‘Just a little further, Veritas!’ he urged.
‘I—will—try,’ the dragon gasped. But even as it spoke, it sank lower.
The ragged shape of the ship grew larger. Lief shut his eyes and held his breath as they passed over it.
He felt the dragon drop further. He felt spray on his face. Then there was a hard jolt.
Lief opened his eyes on dry land. Dizzy with relief, he slid from the dragon’s neck.
His companions had scrambled down before him. Both were running towards Ava, shouting at her to stop.
Lief was seized by a terrible sense of foreboding.
‘Barda! Jasmine! No!’ he called. But they did not hear him. He glanced at Veritas and knew that the dragon could not help him. It lay where it had fallen, eyes tightly closed.
Lief began to run. In horror he saw Jasmine reach Ava and catch at her arm. He saw Ava swing around. He saw the glint of steel.
And in seconds Jasmine was off the ground, a bony arm around her neck, the point of a knife pressed to her throat.
The movement had been all too familiar. With sick terror Lief saw the feathered hood fall back.
The face revealed was powdered dead white to the lips. Long brown hair whipped in the wind. But the black silk band no longer covered the eyes.
And those blazing, hollow eyes were the eyes of Laughing Jack.
‘Keep back, or the girl dies!’ he snarled.
Lief and Barda stopped in their tracks.
Filli darted from beneath Jasmine’s collar and bit the man’s wrist. At the same moment the point of Kree’s sharp beak struck his head.
But Laughing Jack did not flinch. Perhaps he had not even noticed the attacks. For now Lief could see the heavy sweat of panic that was dissolving the powder on his face and causing the dye to run from his hair.
The man was terrified. And this made him more dangerous than ever.
‘Let her go, Jack!’ Lief shouted. ‘Let her go, and we will let you go, to run and hide where you will!’
From the boat house came the sound of horses rearing and neighing shrilly.
Jasmine cried out and began to struggle. The bony arm tightened around her throat, and blood ran from beneath the point of the knife.
‘Let her go, Laughing Jack!’ Lief shouted again, willing Jasmine to keep still. ‘You have no time to waste here with us. Your evil master ordered you here to make doubly certain we would die before we even set foot on the Isle of the Dead. You came, despite your fear of this coast, because you had failed him in the north and you had to win back his favour.’
Laughing Jack’s eyes burned, but he said nothing.
Lief pressed on. ‘But now you have failed the Shadow Lord yet again. The Sister of the West is destroyed, and soon he will know it. If he finds you, nothing can save you!’
The hollow eyes suddenly widened, and Lief’s stomach turned over as he saw flickering within them a spark of hope.
‘I have a bargain for you, king,’ Laughing Jack snarled. ‘The life of your little comrade for the Belt of Deltora—the one thing that may save me yet.’
Lief hesitated. Then he bowed his head as if in defeat and unfastened the Belt. He placed it on the ground and stepped back.
‘Very well,’ he muttered. ‘Take it. Only let Jasmine go.’
His heart sank as Laughing Jack shook his head.
‘Oh no,’ the man sneered. ‘Do you think I am a fool to be taken in by that trick? I know I cannot touch that cursed Belt without harm.’
He took a step back, pulling Jasmine with him. With his free hand he felt behind him, into the boat house. Finding what he was looking for, he jerked viciously.
With a clatter of hooves the four black horses came slowly into view, dragging the heavy wagon behind them. Jack cursed them and heaved again at the bridle of the one closest to him until the wagon was fully out of the shed.
Dragging Jasmine to the back of the wagon, he flung open the door. He pulled out what looked like a bundle of rags and threw it to the ground at his feet.
The bundle moaned. In horror Lief saw that it was a thin woman, cruelly bound and shivering with cold. Her face was powdered to a deathly paleness. Her tangled hair was brown. Her sightless eyes were gleaming white.
‘My worthless sister, Ava,’ snarled Laughing Jack. ‘It was because of her that I was ordered to come here, and make sure my brother Tom knew of it. My master knew Tom would get word to you, and try to help you through Ava. Tom has always felt responsible for my doings, however he pretends otherwise.’
He gave a sneering laugh.
‘Tom played into my hands to perfection! What use was Ava’s famous gift when she felt my approach? She could not protect herself from me. And so I took her place. Dressed in her loathsome garments, I waited for you to come to me. In her name I gave you the advice that should by rights have sent you to your deaths!’
‘But your plan failed, Jack,’ whispered the woman on the ground. ‘I saw it would be so. I warned you—’
Laughing Jack silenced her with a vicious kick. He had not taken his eyes from Lief, and now his mouth stretched into the familiar death’s head grin.
‘I kept Ava alive in case she could be of use to me,’ he said. ‘And now, it seems, she can. Put the Belt around her waist. She will carry it—until I reach a place where I can dispose of her, and rid myself of two nuisances at the one time and earn back my master’s favour.’
‘Beware, brother,’ muttered Ava, her white eyes gleaming. ‘The path you are treading leads to ruin. I see death and decay around you.’
‘Indeed?’ sneered Laughing Jack. ‘Save your party tricks for those who they impress, my dear sister.’
Lief felt deathly chill. He glanced at Barda’s face, set hard as iron. He looked into Jasmine’s eyes, bright as green fire. Then he met Laughing Jack’s hollow glare.
‘You cannot win, James Gant,’ he said softly.
Laughing Jack flinched. ‘Do not call me by that name,’ he snarled.
‘That was the name you used when you tried this trick before, long ago,’ Lief went on, still in that same soft, level tone. ‘Remember what happened then, and know this. I will no more give you the Belt of Deltora than Red Han would put out the Bone Point Light. And Jasmine will not ask me to betray my people, any more than Verity would ask her father to betray his trust.’