Chapter Forty-Two
The Dragon
Soo-Kai was running along the wall towards the North Tower with Rolf and the girls in tow. She was doing her best to keep them away from the worst of the fighting. But then she saw Kai-Tai fall under L’Roth’s blow. She screamed and ran straight for her mother, un-caring of those who stood in her way. Rolf and the girls had to run as fast as they could to keep up with her, but it was all over by the time they reached Kai-Tai and the Prince.
Prince Harold bounded up the steps of the North Tower and stood with his arms raised, shouting at the top of his voice.
“Lord L’Roth is slain! His claim to the throne dies with him! Lay down your arms now and you will be pardoned! I, Prince Harold, command it!”
All around the courtyard, the fighting slowly stopped. Men stared at the Prince, and those who had rode with him cheered and raised their swords, while those who had stood with L’Roth quietly lowered their heads and one by one they dropped their swords.
Soo-Kai reached Kai-Tai to find her in the arms of Bernice. She knelt down beside them and quickly took her mother from the girl, holding her tightly but gently.
“Speak, my mother!” she begged. “Tell me your wound is slight and that you will recover!”
Kai-Tai reached up with her hand and pulled sharply on Soo-Kai’s pigtail. “You speak like a Navak,” she said almost angrily, but with pain in her voice. “You fuss over me like a Navak fusses over her children. Your concern for me fills me with despair.”
“Why should I be ashamed to worry?” Soo-Kai replied, almost as angry. “You are my mother! I feared for your life!”
“I am an Androktone, as are you!” Kai-Tai snapped. “How long must I wait before your bond ends and I can have the true Soo-Kai at my side once more?”
“Maybe you should think more of your own bond rather than placing criticism on mine. I am not the one lying injured.”
“I am not bonded!” Kai-Tai blurted out, trying to push free of Soo-Kai’s grip and then wincing with the pain her movement caused her.
“Then why place your back before the sword of an enemy?” Soo-Kai pointed out.
“Because I am a fool! Only Bern-E saved my bond. She struck at Le-Roth. It was as if you were by my side.”
“You deny the bond then praise the incorrect. What other defects have you gained in this short time?”
“You say you are my seed and that there is no shame in your worry, and yet you stab me with your words!”
Soo-Kai relented. “How deep is the wound?”
Kai-Tai sighed. “It is deep, but it will not kill me. I close the arteries and ignore the pain. Help me to stand.”
While Soo-Kai and Rolf helped Kai-Tai to her feet, Vanessa and Bernice were having their usual arguments.
“You stupid cow!” Vanessa was saying, slapping and shaking her sister. “You could have got killed!”
“It’s okay! I’m fine! It’s alright, Van!” Bernice said, refusing to be bullied this time, and pushing her sister away. Vanessa stared at her for a moment, surprised by her sister’s unexpected determination. Then she hugged her.
Satisfied that the fighting was over, Prince Harold came down the steps and went up to Kai-Tai. He took her head in his hands and spoke softly to her.
“You would have willingly given your life for mine. I will not forget this. The more time I spend with you, the more I find I am loathe to part with you. I owe you much. Ask for anything, and if it is within my power, I shall grant it.”
“I ask only that you keep your bargain with me. Break the bond you commenced. Leave me on the morrow.”
Prince Harold stared at her. “It pains me to agree, but I will not deny you what you wish.” He let go of her and moved away.
A voice shouted a warning. Everyone in the courtyard turned and stared. It was L’Barr. He was still standing by the open grating with his men, watching as more men and children came pouring out of the opening and ran wildly in all directions. And right at the end came Sir Morgan, Anne, Prince Carl and Jai-Soo.
L’Barr grabbed the Prince just as Prince Harold called out his brother’s name. Prince Harold would have ran forward, but he saw L’Barr and his brother both waving at him furiously, and then they, too, ran.
“What strange antics is this?” Prince Harold asked.
Soo-Kai was staring with round eyes at the open grating. “She comes for us,” she breathed.
There was a deep rumble and the ground trembled beneath them. Then from out of the grating burst Gil-Yan. She shot out of the opening like a huge worm, her skin shining in the light from the twin moons. And as she emerged, her body swelled and her front legs split from her sides and grew fingers and claws. Both clawed feet slammed down on the ground on either side of her, supporting her as she heaved more of her bulk from the opening. As more of her body emerged, she slowly changed from the sinuous worm to a fatter and squat shape. Her back legs took form and her tail finally slipped out of the opening and waved lazily in the air behind her.
Gil-Yan sat on her haunches, big, heavy, and as large as the towers in the walls. She stared at them all malevolently. And when she spoke, her voice was deep and resonant.
“I am the Gest Hroyer, a clone of the Tun-Sho-Lok. Feel my wrath.”
With a roar, she pounced on them, and once brave men ran in panic before her, dropping their swords as they fled. Like a cat penned in with the mice, she snapped and clawed at her victims, devouring them and mutilating them in a wild frenzy. And those she didn’t eat, she trampled and squashed in her rage, slamming her huge clawed feet down on them and raking them into bloody mush.
There was no resistance mere mortal men could provide, nor the efforts of Destroyers that could stop her. Gil-Yan’s great bulk gave her the advantage over all. Only Nan-Po showed any fight, firing arrow after arrow from her position on the wall, until, finally, Gil-Yan turned and lashed at her with her tail, knocking stones from the ramparts and hurling Nan-Po over the wall.
Soo-Kai looked around desperately for some means of escape, seeing only a sight that brought more anguish. By the gatehouse she could see Craig and the rest of the girls, summoned by the noise and the turmoil. Now they stood in plain view, staring at Gil-Yan in shock. If the Outsider saw them, she would consume them all.
Soo-Kai turned as L’Barr and Prince Carl finally reached them. The two Princes hugged one another while Anne dived into the arms of Vanessa and the other girls, happy at last to have found some more of her charges alive and well. But any joy was short-lived.
Gil-Yan’s roars grew louder and she came closer as she ate her way across the castle courtyard. She had reached the stables, and the horses ran in panic as she smashed her way through it and snapped at them as they ran before her. Her great jaws seized one and she held it aloft, its legs pawing at the air until her teeth sliced and crushed it.
Jai-Soo stood beside Soo-Kai and stared with the rest, while L’Barr’s remaining men glanced around eagerly for somewhere to flee.
“What must we do?” Prince Harold demanded of his brother as they all cowered on the steps of the North Tower.
“She is a Destroyer, this alone I know!” was Carl’s reply.
Kai-Tai pulled at the cloak of Prince Harold. “Find her other self!” she shouted. “Look to the West Tower where my sisters can smell her! Find her! Kill her! She must dwell within!”
They all looked. The other Destroyers were still congregated around the West Tower. Apparently unaffected by the scenes in the courtyard around them, they constantly ran in and out of the open door, almost bumping into one another in their hurry.
Bernice remembered seeing them there before, when everyone else was fighting. And she remembered what Soo-Kai had told them about the Outsider, how she could only be killed if her other self was killed. Now she realised what the Destroyers were doing there.
“They’re searching for her, but they can’t find her,” she said.
Once enemies, now united under a c
ommon fear, it was Sir Morgan who gave them all a glimmer of survival. “She dwells in hidden quarters under the West Tower. Look for the fifth torch from the door. Pull it and the way down to her quarters will be opened.”
Prince Harold didn’t need to be told twice. “Run! Run for the tower!”
In a mad dash they all ran for the West Tower. Prince Harold and Rolf carried Kai-Tai by the arms and shoulders while L’Barr and one of his men carried her by her legs. Jai-Soo ran at their back watching as Gil-Yan ate or killed everyone left in the courtyard.
Gil-Yan had finished with the horses, and now she concentrated on the human survivors who had so far escaped her. All of the men scattered and ran about as Gil-Yan leapt back and forth, pouncing on one after another and devouring them. The children from the dungeons fared no better. Like the men, they ran in different directions, French, English, all of them running in mad panic, and all of them, one after another, fell to Gil-Yan’s claws.
By the gatehouse, Craig could stand it no longer. In a rush of blood, he suddenly ran out, waving his arms and shouting.
“This way! This way! Come on! Run this way! Over here!”
Amy watched him, stunned for a moment. But then she ran out too, and Sophia and Karen quickly followed her. They all ran forward from the gatehouse waving their arms and shouting at the men and the children.
The men took no notice of them, running in terror, their heads turned as Gil-Yan chased and pounced on them. But two of the children did notice, and they reacted instantly.
Right in among the children who ran were Linda and Paula, and they quickly recognised their school friends and ran towards them. The rest of the children soon followed, more by instinct than by anything else. They all ran as fast as they could, desperate to reach the safety of the gatehouse where Craig and the girls were easily seen as they jumped up and down, waving their arms and shouting. Jemma had joined them, and now even Rowena came out to wave with the rest, urging the fleeing children to run faster. But with all the waving and shouting it wasn’t long before Gil-Yan saw them too.
With the last of the men captured from the courtyard still stuck in her teeth, Gil-Yan bounded after the fleeing children, quickly overtaking them. She sprang among them and clawed and snapped at one after another in a wild frenzy, even Linda falling to her claws. Gil-Yan was determined to devour them all, and there was nothing that Craig and the girls could do but look on in horror.
Jai-Soo was almost at the West Tower when she saw what was happening and turned back. She ran straight towards Gil-Yan, shouting at the top of her voice in the Destroyer language, and waving her sword. Gil-Yan spun round, her claws tearing up the soil. Lowering her head, she charged at Jai-Soo, her mouth gaping wide. Jai-Soo changed direction and ran for the South Tower. She ran as fast as she could, with Gil-Yan gaining on her every step. They both reached the tower at the same instant. Jai-Soo shot through the open doorway while Gil-Yan just ploughed into it, smashing the stone-work and caving in the walls.
Behind her, Paula fell into the arms of Craig and Sophia. She was completely exhausted. Only two of the French boys had survived with her. Craig, Amy, Jemma and Sophia quickly dragged all three survivors back to the gatehouse with Karen and Rowena running alongside, mobbing Paula with questions.
“Where are the others?” Rowena asked her.
“Where’s Christine and Debbie?” Karen asked.
“They’re all dead,” Paula managed to gasp. “All of them…that monster ate them all…Christine didn’t even run…”
Craig turned and stared at Gil-Yan still snuffling and clawing at the base of the South Tower. It slowly began to collapse under the weight of her efforts. But even the stones landing on her back seemed not to affect her.
It was unbelievable, but it was true.
He remembered how he had doubted Soo-Kai in the forest the other night, but now there she was, a monster with a mouthful of teeth just as Soo-Kai had described her. And he had seen her devouring men and horses right before his eyes.
All around him the girls were now crying in each other’s arms, the reality of what had happened too much for them as they huddled together in the shadows under the gatehouse. The two French boys lay sprawled on the floor, their chests heaving. Both boys were so exhausted, they could hardly move. As Amy clung to him, Craig turned and stared at Sophia. Like him, she was the only one not crying, her emotions drained as his were drained. Like him, she had seen the look on Linda’s face when Gil-Yan had caught her.