Sam then related how he had woken up in a shed and chewed his way out of it and then followed their trail, partly by intuition and partly by eavesdropping on Urkku conversations from which he had learnt not only their supposed whereabouts but also all about the plague and the state of the Urkku world. He had come across the burnt-out dwelling of the old couple back down the hills and guessed that they had given the animals shelter.
‘Did you know that one of the leaders of the Urkku is your old master?’ asked Nab and Sam replied that he had smelt his scent from the lowlands and that following it had helped him to find the trail of the animals up to Rengoll’s Tor.
‘The Lord of the Mountain Elves met me there and told me where you had gone. He was concerned that you were on your own and worried that Dréagg would try again to capture you.’
‘I can’t remember much of that,’ said Nab, forcing his mind back. ‘I remember getting lost in a thick mist that swept down from the top of the mountain, and I can remember following some kind of light and entering the cave. Then everything seemed to go hazy and blurred until I felt my face all wet when you were licking me. I must have been under some kind of spell which you broke when you found me and I recognized you. I don’t know how the Belt of Ammdar came to be on the floor though.’
He paused and let his mind wander through many thoughts. Then he and Sam got up and started to make their way up the last stretch of mountainside to the top of the Peak of Ivett.
CHAPTER ХХIII
It was early evening by the time they clambered up over the last little stony ridge and found themselves looking out across a small plateau dotted with clumps of cotton grass and tussocks of heather. The ground was black with peat and the air was heavy with the damp smells of autumn. Not a sound could be heard except the whistle of the wind through the grasses and they seemed so high that they felt more a part of the sky than the land. This was a different world, an ageless timeless world which the Urkku had never touched, and Nab stood rooted to the spot, awestruck by the power of the place and feeling its strength surge up through his body. He looked back and saw, stretching away as far as the eye could see, a great mosaic of colour as heather, gorse, trees and boulders fell away down the mountainside to merge eventually into a patchwork pattern of fields, woods, rivers and valleys, while the evening sun bathed everything in a misty golden haze.
He looked back to the plateau and saw, in the middle, a large pool of water, around which grew reeds and rushes. On one side of it there stood an ancient wizened oak tree whose twisted branches stretched out over the pool like the protective arms of an old, old man. Nab felt himself drawn to the pool. He walked over to it slowly and looked down into its black depths. He could not see the bottom and so black was it that the still water shone like a jewel. Then as he was standing on the side, he looked up into the sky and saw that the clouds were all coming together to form one huge billowy cathedral of white, tinged at the edges with pink and gold. Majestically it floated towards the peak and then stopped overhead. At the same time the wind suddenly got up, a warm caressing wind that blew the hair back from his face and bathed his eyes gently. He looked back at the pool and saw it shimmering with a strange light almost as if it were glowing like a fire and then he saw the oak tree give a great shudder and its branches moved up and out to stretch towards the sky. Every part of the tree, from the largest bough to the smallest twig, seemed to be moving. And now the Voice of Ashgaroth came to Nab on the wind.
‘Remove the shawl,’ it told him.
Nab had worn the beautiful multi-coloured shawl in which Brock had found him wrapped as a baby for so long that he had almost forgotten he had it. Next to his skin it lay as it always had. He took off all his outer garments until he reached the Belt of Ammdar and then, gripping the two clasps firmly, he unbuckled it and placed it on the earth. Now the shawl flapped loosely about his shoulders in the wind, its colours flashing in the sun. He took it off and laid it out on the ground. Seeing it again filled Nab with memories of Silver Wood and especially of Tara; Tara who had looked after him for so long and with whom he had had so many happy times in those early days, laughing and playing on long winter nights or on warm balmy summer evenings outside the sett.
‘Now unlock the caskets on the Belt of Ammdar. Remove the Three Faradawn and scatter them over the shawl. First the Faradawn of the Woods, then the Faradawn of the Sea and finally the Faradawn of the Mountains.’
Nab did as he was asked and as the contents of the caskets fell over the shawl the wind seemed to hold them firmly down so that none blew away.
Then the Voice of Ashgaroth spoke again, high, clear and pure in the wind.
‘Now is the end. And we are only just in time, for the world of the Urkku is coming to its conclusion. They are destroying themselves. Yet as I pledged, the animals and the Eldron will be saved. You have achieved what I asked of you; you and the chosen ones from Silver Wood, and I am well pleased. Take the caskets from the Belt and fill them with water from the pool. Then sprinkle the water over the shawl and the way will be clear.’
The three metal caskets unclipped easily. Nab bent down and scooped each one in the pool till it was full and then carefully carried them back to where the shawl lay flat on the dark peaty earth. Sam sat patiently watching a few paces away at the edge of the plateau. Nab could feel his heart thumping under his chest in excitement and apprehension but there was no fear, simply a sense of satisfaction. Then very gently, his hand shaking a little, he lifted the first casket and began to sprinkle the brackish water over the brilliant colours of the shawl. Nothing happened. He picked up the second casket and sprinkled the water from that over it but again nothing happened. Now it was the last of the caskets. The water fell evenly in little droplets and then, when the last drop had fallen the shawl burst into brilliant life and gave forth a glow so bright that Nab and Sam turned away and covered their eyes to shield them from the light. In a second it had died away and cautiously Nab looked back. All the colours and patterns had come together to form a picture of the world. On it they could see all the mountains and the woods and the seas, and over all the picture were lines which shone with a pure white light; a network of lines each leading to a point on the map. Nab looked at the picture of his own country and recognized the points as the Scyttels and the lines as the Roosdyche along which they had journeyed. Unknown to Nab, at the same moment that he was staring at the picture on the summits of the Peak of Ivett, so did the lines appear over all the lands and seas of the earth yet they could be seen only by the animals and by the Eldron and they wondered at them and felt themselves drawn along the lines so that throughout the world all the animals and the Eldron began to journey together along the ancient pathways and tracks of the Roosdyche.
It was then that the world was shaken by the first blast. Beneath his feet Nab felt the mountain shudder violently and he fell over. Before he could get up another, louder, blast filled the sky and he felt himself thrown backwards by a searing blast of heat which scorched his flesh and singed his hair. Sam crawled across to him whimpering and terrified and they raised their eyes and looked out on a gigantic mushroom which billowed and grew up from the earth. Nab watched, transfixed by its awesome beauty as the brilliance of its colours burned themselves into his brain and the evening grew light again. Higher and higher it rose, growing all the time until the sun was blotted out and the sky was merely a frame around its edges. All the time Nab watched he could feel the earth quivering and shaking under him and then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the oak tree moving its branches gracefully over the pool and, tearing his eyes away from the hypnotic beauty of the great cloud, he saw the pool suddenly drain of water so that there was simply a gaping hole in the earth where it had been. But then he saw that there was a roughly hewn flight of steps down the side of the hole; steps which appeared to lead down for ever for he could see no end to them.