“I did not like them, or their house,” hissed Jasmine. “And Filli felt the same. But I thought it was because we had grown up in the Forests, and did not know how people in the world behaved.”
“I —” Barda swallowed, and brushed his hand over his forehead. “How could I have been so blind?”
“We were all blinded by magic,” Lief whispered. “But the topaz has strengthened and cleared our minds so that we can resist the spell.”
Barda shook his head. “I thought it was strange that the Grey Guards did not search for us after they lost sight of us on the trail,” he muttered. “Now I understand it. They must have guessed where we were hiding. They knew we would at last wander to the quicksand and be caught by Jin and Jod. No wonder they laughed as they went away.”
“Jin and Jod are clumsy and slow,” said Lief. “If they were not, they would not need magic or a sleeping drug to catch their victims. We have a chance …”
“If we can find a way out.” Jasmine darted away and began searching the walls of the cell, running her fingers over the dripping stones.
Barda staggered to his feet and tried to follow, but stumbled and caught Lief’s arm to steady himself. The big man was swaying and very pale.
“It is their accursed drink,” he mumbled. “I did not take enough to put me to sleep, but it has weakened me, I fear.”
They heard Jasmine hissing their names. She was beckoning from the other side of the room. As quickly as they could, Barda and Lief hurried over to her.
She had found a door. It had been made to look like part of the wall. Only a narrow crack showed its outline. Filled with frantic hope, they pushed their fingers into the crack and tugged.
The door swung open without noise. They looked beyond it, and their hopes died.
The door did not lead to a way out, but to a storeroom piled to the roof with a tangled mass of possessions. There were clothes of every size and type, musty and stained with damp. There were rusted pieces of armor, helmets, and shields. There were swords and daggers, dull with neglect and cluttered together in a towering pile. There were two chests overflowing with jewels, and two more heaped with gold and silver coins.
The three companions stared in horror, realizing that these were the possessions of all the travelers trapped and killed by Jin and Jod in the past. No weapon had been strong enough, no fighter clever enough, to defeat them.
“The broken sign has lured many into the quicksand,” breathed Jasmine.
Lief nodded grimly. “It is a neat trap. The monsters hear the bell ring, and run down to pull out whoever has fallen in. Their victims are grateful, and also see only what Jin and Jod want them to see. So they do not fight them, but come tamely up to the house …”
“To be drugged, killed, and eaten,” said Barda, gritting his teeth. “As nearly happened to us.”
“And as still might,” Jasmine reminded him, “if we do not find a way out of here!”
And at that moment, they heard the faint clanging of the bell. Someone else had read the broken sign. Someone else was about to be caught in the quicksand trap.
For a single moment they stood, frozen. Then Lief’s mind began to work again. “Back to the fireplace!” he hissed. “Lie down! Pretend to be —”
He did not have to finish. His companions understood and were already hurrying back to their places, emptying the drugged juice from their cups and throwing themselves down on the floor.
“Doj, team erom!” they heard Jin screech from the kitchen. “Kooh eht teg!”
“Tsaef a!” gibbered her brother excitedly. “Tey peelsa srehto eht era?” There was the clatter of a lid being thrown back on a pot and the sound of running footsteps.
Like Jasmine and Barda, Lief was pretending to be unconscious when Jin came in to check on them. He did not stir when he felt her foot nudge him. But as she grunted with satisfaction and moved away he opened his eyes to slits and looked at her through his eyelashes.
She had turned and was lumbering quickly towards the door. He could only see a humped mass of sickly green-white flesh covered in black bristles, and the back of a bald head from which sprouted three stubby horns. He could not see her face, but of that he was very glad.
“Efink eht rof ydaer era yeht!” she bellowed as she left the cell, slamming the door after her. Shuddering, Lief heard her footsteps in the kitchen and the sound of another slamming door. Then there was silence. She and her brother had both left the house.
“So we are ready for the knife, are we? And now they have caught another poor wretch in their trap!” muttered Barda, clambering unsteadily to his feet and hurrying to the door with the others.
“It must be the Ralad man,” hissed Jasmine. She ran into the kitchen, with the others close behind.
Now that the spell had been broken, they saw the kitchen with new eyes. It was dark, stinking, and filthy. The stone floor was caked with ancient grime. Old bones lay scattered everywhere. In the darkest corner there was a small bed of moldy straw. By the look of the frayed rope attached to a ring on the wall above it, some sort of pet had slept there until quite recently, when it had chewed its way to freedom.
The companions only glanced at all these things. Their attention was fixed on the great pot of water bubbling under its lid on the stove, the huge pile of roughly sliced onions, and the two long, sharpened knives lying ready on the greasy table.
Lief stared, his stomach churning. Then he jumped as his ears, sharpened by fear, picked up a small, stealthy sound from deep within the house. Someone — or something — was moving.
His companions had heard it, too. “Out!” hissed Barda. “Make haste!”
They crept into the open, gasping with relief as finally they were able to breathe in fresh, clean air. They looked around cautiously.
The sweet little cottage they thought they had seen was in fact a grim, hulking square of white stones with no windows. The flower gardens were nothing but beds of onions and thistles. Rough grass stretched on all sides, leading always to the bright green band that marked the quicksand.
In the distance, they could see Jin and Jod. Shouting angrily at one another, they were digging their long pole into a patch of quicksand where something had fallen in, disturbing the green slime before sinking out of sight.
A wave of sadness swept over Lief.
“They were not in time to save him. He has gone under,” said Barda, his face showing his pain.
“Very well, then,” snapped Jasmine. “We have nothing to stay for. So why are we standing here, when at any moment they could turn and see us?”
Lief glanced at her. She returned his gaze defiantly, her lips pressed tightly together and her chin raised. Then she turned and began walking quickly around the house, out of sight.
Lief helped Barda to follow her.
The back of the house was just the same as the front, with a single door and no windows. On all sides, bare grass stretched away, ending in the same band of bright green. Beyond, there was forest. But the quicksand circled the whole of Jin and Jod’s domain like a moat.
“There must be a way across!” muttered Lief. “I cannot believe that they never leave this place.”
Jasmine was scanning the green band with narrowed eyes. Suddenly, she pointed to a slightly mottled-looking section almost opposite the house. The place was marked by a huge rock on the bank. “There!” she exclaimed, and began running.
As quickly as he could, with Barda leaning on his shoulder, Lief hurried after Jasmine. When finally they reached her, she was standing beside the rock at the edge of the quicksand. Now Lief could see what had made the green slime look mottled in this spot. In the middle of the moat floated a cluster of pale green leaves marked with red — the leaves of some swamp plant, perhaps.