Caitlin nodded thoughtfully. 'I'm sorry we've brought the… Lament-Brood to your home. We don't intend to stay long-'
'You cannot stay any longer.'
'All right. Then we'll leave now, if we can find a way past the Lament-Brood.'
Lugh shook his head. 'We cannot risk the Lament- Brood punishing us. We shall present you to them.'
His meaning dawned on Caitlin slowly, and with horror.
'Make your peace with your fellow Fragile Creatures, Sister of Dragons. You will be delivered to the Lament- Brood shortly.' Caitlin related everything she had learned from Lugh to Matt, Mahalia and Carlton in the privacy of her room.
'The bastards,' Matt said. 'They invite us in, give us hospitality and then toss us to the wolves.'
'They can't be trusted,' Caitlin replied. 'That was one of the big lessons in the old myths and legends I remember.'
'We definitely can't get out the front,' Matt said. 'The Whisperers look as if they're busy expanding their forces. They took over some people like they did with that hermit and tried to storm the walls. They're probably transforming everyone who comes up the road to the main gate.'
'They're not the only problem,' Caitlin said. She told them about the knight with the boar's-head helmet. 'I don't know if he's with them or what, but he's definitely after me, and he's here, inside the walls already.' She massaged her forehead; her skull throbbed fit to burst. 'Why is everyone after me? What's going on?'
Matt gave her shoulder a squeeze. 'Are you going to be OK?'
She shook her head, glad of his support. 'We've just got to find a way out of here.'
Mahalia had been cleaning under her fingernails with a knife. 'I think I know somebody who might be able to help.' 'This way! This way! You're back!' Jack's excited calls unnerved Mahalia, for their approach had been uncommonly quiet to avoid detection, yet he had known the four of them were on their way long before they came anywhere near his door. When Mahalia peered between the bars, he was straining at the chains in anticipation. 'Who's with you?'
'Friends.' Mahalia found herself excited by Jack's thrill, and that puzzled her.
'You're going to get me out?'
'Depends. Do you know another way out of this place?'
Thoughts flickered across his crystal eyes. 'You can't go through the gates,' he surmised. 'Then yes, there is another way. An escape tunnel under the mountainside.'
'You're not just making this up so we'll set you free?' Mahalia said threateningly.
'No, I swear. I always make sure I know another way out of a situation. I didn't want to go back, but they caught me before I made it to the tunnel.'
Mahalia turned to Caitlin and Matt. 'What do you think?'
'It's not as if we've got any other options,' Matt said. He examined the padlock. It was old and rusted; the cell didn't appear to have had much use in recent times. He advised the others to stand back, then gave it kick after kick until the metal catch eventually disintegrated.
Matt led the way in. 'We'd better not hang around,' he said. Matt pulled the black hood off Jack's head, revealing the strong, honest face of a youth of about seventeen. His blond hair only emphasised the eerie intensity of his eyes.
'Thank you,' he said.
'You're not free yet.' Matt examined the many chains that swathed his upper body before dismissing them with a curse. 'We'll have to work on those later. But we should be able to get you off the wall — those fixings look as weak as the padlock.' Matt set about straining to pull them free, with Jack offering his own weight to assist. After much sweating and pulling, both wall-chains shattered.
'They really kidnapped you from our world?' Caitlin asked.
'I don't know who my father was, but my mother travelled around the country in a group of old vehicles with several others. She's dead now.'
'I'm sorry-' Caitlin began.
But Mahalia interjected, 'If you were taken as a baby, how do you know about your mother?'
'When I was on the run, I found myself at a watchtower that hangs between the worlds. I thought it might be the safest place to hide, which it was for a while. But it's a very strange place where you can see all that has happened, and probably all that will, and that's where I saw my mother. I wasn't taken long ago by your terms — three or four years — but this place does strange things to you.'
'You look like a teenager,' Mahalia noted curiously.
'I feel much older.'
Cautiously, they ventured back out into the corridor. 'Which way?' Matt asked.
'I think, if you agree, that we should collect some weapons for you,' Jack said hesitantly. 'There's a store not far from here, and we should be able to get rid of the rest of these chains there.'
They agreed, and Jack led the way deeper into the bowels of the building. Just as they came to the arms store, a strangely neglected open door to a vaulted chamber that stretched as far as the eye could see, they heard activity some distance away in the palace.
'I think they're looking for us,' Caitlin said.
'You'd have thought,' Matt said, 'that once Lugh told you he was going to hand you over to the Whisperers, they'd have imprisoned you straight away.'
'I wondered about that, but I think he's crippled by arrogance,' Caitlin said. 'They're all so convinced that nothing is a threat to their superiority that they never bother to act until the last moment.'
'Look at these.' Mahalia was dazzled by the array of weapons, not just swords and bows and spears, but also eccentric oddities such as portable brass cannon and blades that formed a fan.
'You should just take something simple that's easy to carry,' Jack suggested. 'Some of these things are too dangerous to take with us.'
'You seem to know a lot,' Matt said suspiciously.
'I do.' Jack turned to him deferentially. 'I've always kept my eyes and ears open. I wanted to learn as much as I could — anything that might help me get out of this place.'
'You could be of great use to us, Jack,' Caitlin said.
'I'd rather just go home,' he replied wistfully.
She shook her head, and the sadness she revealed was honest. 'I'm sorry, I can't allow that. Not until we've found a cure for the plague that's loose in our world. You wouldn't want to return if you could help save us all, would you?'
'I suppose not.' He flashed a glance at Mahalia, who met his eyes for a moment before looking away.
'Well, well.' Matt was grinning, arms crossed.
'What?' Caitlin said.
'I see leadership potential. You're clearly getting better. What next — you're going to be ordering us into battle?'
'Don't be sarcastic.'
'I'm not. We need someone to take charge, and I'm a sucker for that dominatrix thing.' He winked at her, then turned before she could respond, moving amongst the stacks of weapons, testing axes for weight and crossbows for portability, before opting for a bow and arrows, a scimitar in a scabbard and two short daggers that he secreted about his person. Caitlin immediately chose a longbow and a double-quiver of arrows, which she slung easily over her shoulder.
'You know how to use that?' Matt asked.
'I was very good at archery when I was at university,' she said. 'Not Robin Hood standard, but I can hit a target.'
Matt looked impressed. 'There you go again. Lights and bushels and all that.'
'How about you?' Caitlin asked.
Matt shrugged. 'I did some historical battle re- enactments at university. See — the Halls of Academe still have their uses.'
Mahalia found a box of rusted, blood-stained weapons and removed a short sword that looked sickeningly brutal, one edge razor sharp and the other serrated; two curling prongs arced from the tip. She made a few gentle sweeps and was pleased with the feel of it.