‘I had hoped we could settle this like gentlemen,’ smiled Laughing Jack. ‘I dislike crude violence. But you have forced my hand, lighthouse keeper. You have refused to perform the small service I asked of you in payment of your debt. So I will take what is my due—the thing you hold most dear.’
‘No,’ whispered Red Han. ‘No—I beg you!’
Laughing Jack smiled cruelly. ‘Then put out the Light,’ he said.
‘What!’ cried Verity in horror. ‘Father! No!’
Red Han’s face was drawn with anguish. His voice trembled as he spoke.
‘I will never put out the Light. I swore to defend it, whatever the cost. And so it must be.’
Laughing Jack’s lip curled. ‘Indeed!’ he spat. ‘Then your daughter will pay the price.’
‘I am willing to pay it,’ the girl whispered. ‘I would rather die than—’
Her voice broke off in a choking sob as the bony arm tightened around her neck.
‘From your tower you will have a good view of my ship, Red Han,’ Laughing Jack said softly, easing the door open. ‘Keep watch. Know that your daughter’s suffering is on your own head. When you have seen enough, and the Light goes out, Verity will be returned—in what condition, is up to you.’
With that, he slipped through the door and slammed it after him. His footsteps rang on the stairs as he ran downwards.
Sick with rage and pity, Lief watched as Red Han sprang to the door with an anguished cry. Han twisted the knob, but the door would not open.
So Laughing Jack had some powers of sorcery, even then, Lief thought. Not enough to break the spell set on the Light by the people of Tora. But enough for this.
Red Han kicked the heavy wood, and beat on it with his fists. The door shuddered, but held firm.
‘Verity!’ he groaned. Great tears were rolling down his cheeks. His fists had begun to bleed, but still he struck the door with all his strength.
‘No more!’ Lief heard Bruna wail.
And suddenly, the vision of Red Han trembled and was gone.
Stunned, the companions looked around. The table was again bare and empty, and the benches stood primly upright. Bruna’s quiet sobbing was the only sound.
‘So now we know why the Bone Point Light went out,’ Barda said heavily.
‘No!’ Jasmine was shaking her head. ‘Red Han was strong. And so was his daughter. Neither of them would have given in.’
‘Yet the Light did go out,’ said Lief. ‘And the food ships ceased to come, just as the Enemy planned.’
‘Let us leave here,’ Ailsa begged. ‘Ah, I was wrong to say that dreams cannot harm you. I am very sore in my heart.’
Barda led the way across the room and flung open the second door. As they had expected, another spiral staircase was revealed.
‘So I have seen Laughing Jack for myself after all,’ he muttered, as they began to climb. ‘He is a nasty piece of work, and no mistake.’
He frowned. ‘I am sure I have heard the name The Lady Luck before, long ago. I cannot think where, but no doubt it will come to me.’
‘It is strange to think that once Laughing Jack was the captain of a ship,’ said Jasmine thoughtfully.
‘Very strange.’ Barda shook his head. ‘In my experience, people who work by or on the sea rarely move away from it. Yet Laughing Jack seems to have forsaken the coast for the inland.’
‘Perhaps he hates the memory of his wickedness here,’ Ailsa suggested quietly from behind them. ‘Perhaps he fled out of shame.’
‘No,’ said Jasmine shortly. ‘He has no shame. More likely he had to give up his ship because his crew mutinied and ran away from his cruelty. If only the poor beasts he forces to draw his wagon could do the same!’
Lief was behind her, so he could not see her face. But he could hear the pain in her voice.
Briefly he wondered at it. Jasmine’s years surviving alone in the Forests of Silence had taught her that life was often cruel. When she could not change a thing, she normally accepted it and moved on, her mind fixed firmly on the future. Yet plainly the memory of Laughing Jack’s horses still stabbed her like a knife.
They reached a landing with two open doors leading into small bed chambers. They passed the rooms quickly and continued to climb.
Soon they reached another landing. It was very dark. Barda moved onto it cautiously. Jasmine, and then Lief, followed.
They could hear the sound of wind whistling around the lighthouse. Straight ahead of them was a red-painted door bearing a large sign.
The Light chamber,’ Lief muttered. ‘We cannot go that way.’
He and Barda lifted their lanterns high. The flickering light revealed another door, set into the curved stone of the outside wall.
Barda strode to the door, pushed it open and staggered back as a blast of cold wind hit him in the face. Both of the lanterns blew out. The Kin cried out in panic and pushed forward onto the landing, pressing Lief against the red-painted door.
Lief’s skin began to tingle unpleasantly. The wood of the door was warm, and it seemed to be vibrating, as if swarms of bees were crawling on the other side.
The magic of Tora protects me…
He tried to push himself away from the door, but he could not move. He felt the Belt of Deltora warming at his waist. And suddenly his mind was filled by a picture of the great amethyst, glowing purple like a great thundercloud pierced by lightning.
I am Adin’s heir, he thought suddenly. I wear the Belt of Deltora. Could that be why fate brought me here? Could it be that I can open the door?
He put his hand to the doorknob and twisted sharply. The knob turned. Eagerly he pushed. The door… began to open!
His cry of triumph was cut short as a hot jolt of pain shot through his hand, his arm, his shoulder. Smoke gushed from the crack in the door, hissing like steam.
Lief’s face was burning. He felt as if his hair was crackling. He heard an agonised groan, and realised that the sound had come from him.
The air was filled with hissing smoke. And from the smoke loomed faces, twisted with rage. The face of Red Han—other faces he did not know.
The mouths were gaping wide, shouting. Words were roaring in his ears. ‘Get out! Get out! Get out!’
Other voices were screaming, and calling his name—Jasmine’s voice, Ailsa’s, Prin’s.
He felt himself being pulled away from the door. The searing pain abruptly stopped. But the angry faces were pursuing him, writhing in the smoke.
‘They are coming after us!’ Ailsa shrieked. ‘Oh, make haste! Make haste!’
And suddenly cold wind and spray were beating on Lief’s face. There was dull light, and the sound of crashing waves. He realised that he had been dragged out onto the viewing platform.
The clouds were boiling and rumbling. The wind was howling. Lightning was cracking the sky.
A door slammed behind him.
‘Young fool!’ roared Barda’s voice.
Lief felt hard hands seize and lift him. Suddenly he was wrapped in warmth, and through his confusion realised that he was in Prin’s pouch. He was being rolled and jolted as Prin climbed the railing. The wind was howling like a lost soul.
‘It is too wild!’ Bruna screamed. ‘We cannot fly in this!’
‘We must!’ Ailsa cried. ‘Oh, they are coming—under the door! Make haste!’
‘Go, Prin!’ Barda shouted. ‘Go now!’
Then Lief’s stomach lurched as Prin launched herself into the air and was instantly swept away.
5 – The Cruel Sea
Beneath them, the surface of the grey sea heaved like the skin of a vast, angry beast. Above them, dark clouds boiled and tumbled. The Kin struggled against the wind, their great wings beating mightily. But it was hopeless. Every moment the gale was sweeping them further away from land.
Tossed helplessly in Prin’s pouch, Lief watched in bewildered dismay as the slim white shape of the lighthouse grew smaller behind them.