Ligran raised the sword and struck. It sheared off a dark ringlet of the girl’s hair. Karay did not flinch. Ligran let his sword fall and laughed. “I like a maid who has spirit. We’ll see how much you have left when Maguda’s finished questioning you. You’ve heard of Maguda Razanshe’s my sister.”
Karay laughed in Ligran’s face. “If all her brothers are as ugly as you, I feel sorry for her!”
The blade quivered a moment in Ligran’s grip; his eyes narrowed savagely. Then he turned away and rapped out orders. “Take their rope an’ tie them together, hands an’ necks! If we hurry we’ll arrive back just after the two I sent ahead with the bear. Use your clubs an’ beat them if they try to lag behind!”
Tied together with Arnela’s rope looping their hands to their necks, the three friends shuffled forward. Ben spoke out of the side of his mouth to Dominic, who was behind him. “Well, at least we won’t get lost on our way to the Razan hideout.”
A cudgel cracked sharply against his shin. A lanky, scar-faced villain waggled the weapon in Ben’s face. “Shut your mouth, boy, or I’ll break your leg. That goes for you other two. You’re prisoners now, so march!”
23
HUDDLED forlornly on the floor of the big cave, the bear uttered a piteous moan. Razan men and women formed a circle around the animal, watching it curiously. The two who had been sent ahead with it held the neck chains slackly, averting their eyes when Maguda spoke. The matriarch of all the Razan leaned forward slightly. Her huge hypnotic eyes pinpointing on the wretched animal, she croaked venomously, “Ye’ll dance before I’m through with ye. Guards, take this thing out of my sight. Away to the dungeons with it!”
Men hauled on the chains, forcing the bear into an upright position. It made a mournful noise as the spikes inside its iron collar dug into its neck fur. They were dragging the bear away, when Rawth, the eldest of Maguda’s brothers, entered the cavern and approached his sister.
The hypnotic eyes swivelled in his direction. “Thou hast come to tell me that our brother Ligran approaches, this I already know.”
Rawth shrugged uneasily. “He brings captives, two boys and a girl, but no black dog is with them.”
Maguda hissed like an angry snake. “Ssssstupid men! Would that I had the strength in my limbs that mine eyes possess. It is I who would have captured all four. Bad omens portend misfortune if the dog is not in my grasp. Bring the prisoners straight here to me when they arrive. Go now, help thy brother!”
Ben stumbled in deep snow, and a guard poked him in the back with the butt of Arnela’s ice axe. The boy straightened and struggled on uphill, his mind worried by lack of communication with Ned.
Dominic whispered furtively, as if privileged to his friend’s thoughts. “Wonder where Ned is. Not like him to run off.”
Karay overheard him and replied shortly, “If I was as fast as a dog, I’d have made a run for it, too. What was he supposed to dowait around to be captured, or shot?”
One of the guards pushed the girl roughly. “Shut your mouth!”
Ben spoke aloud to distract the robber’s attention from her. “Ned’s more use to us running free. He’ll help usmark my word, he’s no ordinary dog.”
Ligran Razan turned and pointed his sword at Ben. “One more word from you, lad, an’ I’ll chop your tongue off!”
Ben decided it was wiser to keep silent from then on. The Razan leader looked like a villain who would take delight in carrying out his threats. Cruelty and a volatile temper were stamped all over Ligran’s coarse features. So Ben held his silence, even as the mouth of the cave came in view. He wanted to shout out to his companions about the red and black figures he could see, scrawled in primitive fashion on the wall outside the cave entrance: men hunting boar, just as Edouard had seen before passing out after his accident. Edouard had said that he would know where the Razan stronghold was if he could find the place where the men were hunting wild boar. Ben was puzzled, but he noted the position of the ancient artwork as he was shoved into the passages branching into the caves.
Lanterns guttered feebly in the dank rock tunnels, which seemed to twist and turn endlessly. Sometimes they would pass side chambersRazan clan members stared out at them across fires that had blackened and sooted the walls of these miserable hovels where they lived like animals. Water seeped down the rocks of the passages, and a foul odour of communal living, damp, and leftover garbage hung on the still air. Karay noted that nowhere was there sight or presence of children. Then they were in a longer passage, more straight and broad than the ones they had travelled. It even had rush mats and animal skins laid on its smooth floor.
Without warning they were thrust into the lair of Maguda Razan. The friends were startled by the horrific sight: a vast natural cavern with a ceiling so high that it was lost amidst the thick clouds of noxious smoke that snaked upwards in spiralling columns of all hues, from sulphurous yellow and oily green to muddy crimson and acrid blue, mingling in a turgid browny-black mass overall. The smoke columns issued from fires at the bases of monolithic figures, some freestanding but most carved into the living rock of the cavern wallsstrange monsters and forgotten deities frightening to look upon, some animal, some human; many half animal and half human with extra limbs. Monstrous forms with horns, fangs and evil leering faces. And there, seated on her throne at the top of a circular-stepped rostrum, was the spider at the centre of this web of unholiness. Maguda Razan!
Her eyes swept over them briefly, then settled on Ligran. Ben saw his throat bob nervously as he swallowed.
Maguda spat out a single word at him. “Fool!”
Ligran stared at his feet, not daring to look her in the eyes. He tried to sound commanding yet respectful. “A harsh word, sister. I lost four good men taking these prisoners for you. The dog was just an ordinary dog that ran off like a frightened rabbit. We couldn’t risk a shot at it, for fear of starting an avalanche, so we just … brought these three …” His voice trailed off into silence.
Maguda snarled at him, “I wanted that dogthe omens told me it was a bad thing for us to let it live. Thou art a fool, brother Ligran. Look at me!”
Ligran reluctantly let his gaze rise. His legs were trembling. A long, curved and blackened fingernail pointed at him.
Maguda spoke. “Thou art a fool. Say it!”
Ligran’s lips moved automatically as he repeated the words: “I am a fool.”
Maguda sat back, and her hand waved at Ligran dismissively. “Count thyself lucky thou art my brother. Begone to thy cave.” Ligran slunk away wordlessly.
Ben felt Karay, who was standing close to him, give an involuntary shudder. Maguda was pointing at her. “Pretty girl, what were ye doing up in my mountains?”
Ben whispered fiercely, “Don’t look at her eyes, Karay!”
“Silence!” Maguda shouted. “Rawth, I do not want yonder boy looking at me, attend to him!”
The eldest brother moved swiftly, dealing the boy a blow that laid him senseless upon the floor. Dominic and Karay were overpowered by Maguda’s guards as they leapt forward to help Ben.
An evil chuckle came from the throne. “I’m told thou art a sweet singer. Sing for me, girl.”
Karay’s voice dripped loathing as she struggled between two burly Razan robbers. “I’d never dream of singing for a wicked old hag like you. Never!”
Maguda Razan’s smile was a hideous thing to see. “Sooner or later thou wilt sing for me, just like a little bird. Aye, a songbird. I’ll have a cage made for thee. ‘Twill hang in this caveye shall wear a gown of feathers and sing for me each day. A song of why ye came here. Ah, do not think I don’t know. Ye came on a wasted journey, though, for the one ye seek is no longer here. Oh, don’t look shocked, child, Maguda Razan knows and sees all.”