The edges of the leaves were straight, so that where they touched they fitted together like a puzzle. Where there were gaps between them, the bright green of the quicksand slime showed ominously.
Lief looked more closely and realized that the red markings on the leaves were even stranger than they had first appeared. They were numbers, letters, and symbols.
He clutched Jasmine’s arm.
“There is a pathway hidden here, I am sure of it!” he whispered in excitement. “There are stepping stones under some of those leaves.”
“But which ones?” muttered Jasmine. “We would have to be very sure. The cluster is in the middle of the quicksand. We have nothing long enough to test which leaves are solid and which are not. We would have to leap, and trust that there is no mistake.”
“The topaz, Lief,” Barda urged. “Perhaps it will help you —”
There was a muffled roar of rage from the house. They spun around just in time to see the back door burst open and crash against the wall. Someone hurtled out and began pounding across the grass towards them. Lief cried out in astonishment as he saw who it was.
It was the Ralad man!
“He is not drowned!” shouted Jasmine. “They saved him after all!” The relief in her voice made it clear that, however uncaring she had seemed, she had in fact cared, very much, about the little prisoner’s fate. Already she was drawing her dagger and rushing to help him.
For now he needed help more than ever. Jin and Jod were after him, bursting through the door, screaming with rage. Jin had caught up an axe, and Jod was holding the long pole out in front of him, savagely swinging it from side to side as he ran. With every swing, the hook at the end, still dripping with slime from its dunking in the quicksand, missed the fleeing Ralad man by a hair. Any moment it might reach its mark.
Lief drew his sword and ran forward, leaving Barda standing, swaying, by the rock. He did not spare a thought for his own danger. The Ralad man’s danger was too clear and urgent for that.
Jasmine’s darting attacks were not slowing Jin and Jod down at all. The point of her dagger seemed to bounce off their leathery skin, and they were barely glancing at her. They were spitting with fury, and plainly far more interested in killing the Ralad man than in fighting anyone else.
It was as if the very sight of him filled them with rage. As if they knew him.
The little man was closer now. Panting in terror, he was desperately waving Lief back, pointing towards the leaves on the quicksand by the big rock and then to his own legs.
Lief realized that they had been wrong in thinking that he had fallen into the quicksand. Mud and slime coated his legs to the knees, but above that he was perfectly dry and clean. Somehow he had crossed the moat — perhaps at this exact spot.
He knows this place, Lief thought. He has been here before.
Two clear pictures flew into his mind. The cruel collar around the Ralad man’s neck. The bed of moldy straw and the frayed rope in the monsters’ kitchen.
And suddenly he was sure that the Ralad man had once slept on that straw, and that the collar he wore was once attached to that rope. Not long ago, he had been a prisoner of Jin and Jod. He was too small to be worth eating, so they had made him their slave. But at last he had escaped, only to be caught by the Grey Guards.
Lief, Jasmine, and Barda had left him asleep among the sweetplum bushes. He must have awoken, found himself alone, and guessed what had happened. Or perhaps he had even been roused by the shouting, and watched their capture from the bushes.
He rang the bell and threw a heavy rock into the quicksand, to lure Jin and Jod away from the house. Then he ran around to the other side of the house and crossed the moat. He returned to this terrible place, when he could have run away to safety. Why?
There could be no reason except to try to save the friends who had saved him.
Lief was only a few steps away from the running figures now. He sprang to one side, signalling to Jasmine to do the same. His mind was racing. His plan was to wait his chance, then leap between the monsters and their victim. He doubted that he and Jasmine could do more than wound them — but that, at least, would give the little man a chance to escape.
For that was the most important thing now. Not just for the Ralad man, but for them all. The small, running man with the muddy feet was the only one who could save them. Only he could tell them the way across the quicksand. Only he could tell them which of the floating leaves were safe to tread upon, and which were not.
Lief thought of the leaves as he had seen them, their strange red markings showing clearly against the shining, pale green background. Then, suddenly, he gasped.
“But he has already told us!” he exclaimed aloud.
Startled, the Ralad man glanced in his direction and stumbled. The great curved hook caught him around the waist, stopping him short and driving all the breath from his body. Jod screamed in triumph and began to pull him in.
But at the same moment Lief’s sword came crashing down on the pole, cutting it through. Off balance and taken by surprise, Jod fell backwards, crashing into Jin. They went down in a tangle of lumpy, heaving flesh.
Jasmine sprang for them, her dagger raised.
“No, Jasmine!” shouted Lief, snatching the Ralad man from the ground and heaving him over his shoulder. “Leave them!”
He knew that now that he had discovered the secret of the stepping stones, speed would be far more likely to save them than fighting would.
Jin and Jod were clumsy, but very strong. If either Lief or Jasmine were wounded, it would be disastrous. The Ralad man was helpless, and Barda nearly so. They would both need help if they were to survive.
He began running back towards the rock, where Barda was anxiously waiting. After a moment’s hesitation, Jasmine followed, shouting after him. He ignored her until they had reached Barda’s side. Then he turned to her, panting.
“You are mad, Lief!” she cried angrily. “Now we are trapped with our backs to the quicksand! It is the worst possible place to stand and fight!”
“We are not going to stand and fight,” gasped Lief, pulling the Ralad man more firmly onto his shoulder. “We are going to cross to the other side.”
“But which leaves are we to trust?” Barda demanded. “Which mark the path?”
“None of them,” panted Lief. “The spaces between them are the path.”
He peered over Jasmine’s head and his heart thumped as he saw that Jin and Jod were already scrambling to their feet. “Jasmine, you go first!” he urged. “Then you can help Barda. I will follow with the Ralad man. Make haste! They will be upon us at any moment!”
But Barda and Jasmine just gaped at him.
“The spaces between the leaves are quicksand!” Jasmine shrilled. “You can see it. If we leap upon it we will sink and die!”
“You will not die!” Lief panted desperately. “You will die if you leap anywhere else! Do as I say! Trust me!”
“But how do you know it is safe?” mumbled Barda, rubbing his hand over his brow as he tried to clear his head.
“The Ralad man told me.”
“He has not said a word!” Jasmine protested.
“He pointed to this spot and then to his legs,” shouted Lief. “His legs are muddy to the knees. But the leaves have not been trodden down into the mud in the last hour. They are quite clean and dry.”
Still Barda and Jasmine hesitated.
Jin and Jod were coming. Jin’s green-white, bristled face was so swollen with rage that her tiny eyes had almost disappeared. Yellow tusks jutted from her open, shrieking mouth. She was rushing towards them, the axe raised high, ready to strike.
Lief knew there was only one thing he could do. He took a breath and, holding the Ralad man tightly, jumped straight for the first gap between the leaves.