Vanderdecken appeared. Lank, salt-crusted hair framed the Dutchman's accursed visage,
bloodless lips bared from stained tombstone-like teeth, his eyes glittered insanely. Laughing
madly, he paced the deck of the doomed vessel, hurling oaths and threats at all about him.
Ben saw Maguda's attitude change at the sight—she was enjoying it, extracting pleasure from
the dreadful scene. Her tongue, snakelike, licked withered lips as she cackled, "He is truly the
spawn of hellfire!"
Ben hated calling up the visions, but if it would gain freedom for him and his friends, there
was no alternative. Pain pounded his temples, lancing like a blade into his mind. He gave no
rein to his thoughts, pouring the whole horrific experience out into Maguda's ruthless, staring
orbs. Mutiny, murder, quarrels, fights, all that had taken place on the high seas aboard the
Flying Dutchman on that unspeakable voyage!
Maguda Razan shuddered with delight—she was like a wayward child, giggling, simpering,
her wrinkled tattooed face twitching as she received new sights. Wickedness, evil, strife and
suffering were her very life's blood—she revelled in unspeakable vileness. Now Ben had lost
control of his thoughts, his brain felt as if it were at the bursting point. The cave seemed to
sway and rock around him as the wild kaleidoscope of that long-ago, ill-fated voyage spewed
forth unchecked.
Maguda's laughter echoed and re-echoed, building in its intensity.
Then ...
Thunder and lightning crashed through the maelstrom of sound, silencing everything! Through
the green light of St. Elmo's fire, exactly as it had happened all those years before, the angel
of heaven descended! Maguda Razan went rigid. She gave out one unearthly shriek and fell
stone-dead upon the litter. The sight of a being who radiated so much purity and beauty had
stopped the heart of one who represented darkness and evil!
Ben's head slumped forward to rest upon his drawn-up knees. He felt drained but cleansed by
the peacefulness and calm that surrounded him. Footsteps came pounding up the corridor
outside, and the door burst open. Ligran and Rawth, with a crowd of henchmen, rushed in,
followed by Gizal, the blind crone.
Unable to restrain himself, Ligran strode to the litter and prodded at the stiff form stretched
upon it. He recoiled instantly, his voice shrill with disbelief. "She's dead ... Maguda's dead?"
Rawth grabbed his sword and turned upon Ben, shouting, "You killed her!"
He swung the blade at the boy, but Gizal's staff struck his wrist, deflecting the swing. "Fools!
Stay still until I find out what happened here!"
The henchmen stepped aside as Gizal tap-tapped her way to the litter. She ran her hands over
the body of Maguda, placing her fingers over the nose and mouth to check for breath. Taking
a long pin from her hair, Gizal touched it to the pupil of Maguda's eye—there was no feeling
of movement. Gizal nodded. "She is dead!"
The men in the cave gave a simultaneous gasp of shock. The blind woman pushed her way
through to Ben, laying about at the dumbfounded men with her stick. "Make way, move!" Ben
sat quite still and closed his eyes, trying to hide the revulsion he felt at being pawed over by
the witchlike hag. Forcing wide his jaws, she sniffed at his open mouth. He winced as she
tugged his hair, searching through it, her fingernails scratching as she probed around his ears.
Then Gizal leaned upon his shoulder, bending him forward. Ben tried to hold his breath when
her rancid-smelling garments enveloped his face whilst she inspected the cords that bound his
hands behind his back.
Satisfied, the blind woman stood up. "There be no marks or blood upon Maguda, yet she lies
dead. This boy could not have slain her by mortal means—he is bound tight and could not
have undone or retied the cord."
Ligran struck his fist against a powder keg. "But how—?"
Gizal silenced him by holding up a hand. "Hearken to me. Only in two ways could yon lad
have taken Maguda's life: with his mouth or with his eyes. Either he could have spat poison at
her or uttered some powerful spell, though I think not. Rawth, do ye recall when this one and
his friends were first brought in front of thy sister? She had thee knock him down, saying she
did not want him looking at her, eh?"
Rawth stroked his beard. "Aye, that was as you say!"
Gizal placed a hand upon Rawth's arm. "Bind his eyes. Ye can gag him, too, for safety's sake.
Have him taken back to the cells."
Before Ben could protest, his mouth and eyes were bound with filthy strips of rag; then the
henchmen picked him up and carried him off, leaving Gizal alone with the two Razan
brothers.
Ligran, the more hot tempered of the pair, paced the cave, shaking his head angrily. "That
lad's a danger to us all, Gizal. You should've let Rawth slay him. Here, I'll go and do the job
myself!"
The blind woman's staff blocked Ligran's way as she lowered her voice, warning him, "Don't
let anger rule thy thinking, Ligran. If the lad did kill Maguda with his eyes, he must be even
more powerful than she was. Thy sister ruled through fear. Without one as strong as she, our
people would soon leave here and go their own ways, am I not right, Rawth?"
The elder Razan nodded. "True, old one, but if the lad is as powerful as you think, how can
we bend him to our service?"
Ligran began warming to the idea. He smiled wickedly. "Through his two young friends—
they are as close as brothers and sister. The boy would not wish them hurt, would he?"
Gizal's staff touched Ligran's shoulder. "Now thou art showing good sense. Leave me to think
now. First we will have a great ceremony to impress our people. Maguda must be installed in
a suitable tomb before our new leader is made known to the Razan. That will be after the
spirit of Maguda appears to us three and names the boy as her successor."
Rawth was puzzled for a moment. "Will she?"
Ligran grinned. "She already has. Brother, did you hear her?"
Rawth caught on then and laughed. "Oh, aye, I heard her. Pity all the Razan couldn't, eh?"
Gizal squeezed Rawth's arm reassuringly. "Fear not, they will! At the right time. There be
plenty of hidden places, and the great cavern carries lots of echoes. Leave it to old Gizal!"
Having hatched their plan, the three departed from the armoury cave, leaving behind them the
rigid corpse of the once all-powerful Maguda Razan. What Gizal, Ligran and Rawth had
missed was the lesson their former leader had learned at the cost of her life: a surety that
Good will triumph over Evil, always!
26
IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON OF THE FOLLOWING day. Arnela and Ned crouched behind
a jumble of ice-sheened rocks. The ground in front of them was solidified soil, shale and
patches of snow in a small escarpment, backed by the pristine white mountain peak.
Arnela pointed, whispering to the dog, "See there, Ned, that's the one and only entrance to the
Razan caves. Just inside the rift, straight ahead." The black Labrador focussed his gaze on the
shadowed hole in the solid rock face, listening to the big goatherd woman. "Those red marks
by the entrance, they look like old bloodstains from this distance. But they're ancient pictures
of cave dwellers hunting wild boar. I saw them once, some years ago, when I tracked some