‘Besides,’ William howled, his voice bouncing off the stone cliffs that reached high above, ‘that’s the one mistake we’re counting on Throat making!’

‘What’s that?’ Zach called out, racing after his friends.

‘He’ll keep your sister in Earth. He won’t bring her into Endra. Instead of having to battle our way up to the top of the Splinter, we can slip through the front door of your uncle’s cottage!’

Chapter 29

Fandel rushed around his kitchen as he gathered as many of his potions and remedies that his pockets would hold. He peered out of the kitchen window. Throat had got him wondering if the police would soon be at his door, and he didn’t want to be around when they did. Fandel knew that he had to get Anna into Endra as soon as possible, but he wanted to take everything that he might need. After all, he didn’t know when he would be returning, but when he did, he would be ruler and then the police wouldn’t be able to touch him. He’d see to that.

Fandel thrust purple, orange, green and turquoise bottles into his coat and trouser pockets. He rammed spell books and note pads with pages of scribbled handwriting into a small lizard-skinned satchel. Scooping up the linen cloth which contained the yellow spiky tablets, he climbed the stairs two at time to Anna’s bedroom.

Throwing open the door, he rushed inside. His niece lay on her back, eyes closed and her chest rising up and down at irregular intervals. Fandel took one of the tablets from the cloth. He opened her mouth and pushed one over her tongue. Holding her jaw shut, he watched for her throat to ripple as the tablet forced its way through her body.

Content that she had swallowed it, he wrapped her in the bedding and gathered her in his arms like a pile of dirty washing. Fandel left the room and carried her downstairs. He glanced around, making sure that he had everything. Facing the fireplace, he closed his eyes and within moments he could see that fist urging him forward from the darkest corner of his mind. He moved towards it, the girl pressed against his chest. Opening his eyes, he grinned at the sight of his doorway standing open before the fireplace. With two long gawky steps, Fandel carried Anna into Endra.

Throat stood on the balcony and peered out across the desert. The moon was sinking in the distance, and he knew that by the time the moon rose again he would have the key to the box in his hands.

The thought excited him and he appeared to shake at the thought of opening the box. The spiderpedes scuttled over him as his cloak continued to fall away in powdering lumps. Throat couldn’t wait for the day when his cloak would be whole and made of the finest materials. He lusted for the day he could reveal his true self to Endra and Earth.

As quick as candlelight being snuffed out, Throat shot a hand from beneath his cloak and snatched hold of one of the spiderpedes. Holding it up to his face, he appeared to speak to it as if whispering in its ear.

‘Bring me the key,’ he hissed.

Throat opened his mouth wide as if he were going to choke. A deep retching noise escaped from his throat as he breathed a puff of black smoke over the spiderpede he held in his open palm. The insect-type thing then began to twitch like a fly that had been swatted. It rolled onto its shell and kicked its legs until they grew brittle and broke away. The spiderpede then disintegrated into a pile of dust before Throat’s eyes.

Holding his hand out over the edge of the balcony, Throat blew the spiderpedes ashes into the night. They hovered in the air like a swarm of minute bees which then began to take form. They swayed on the wind as they took on the shape of a demon with a long bony skull, deep empty eye sockets and a mouthful of shark-like teeth. The demon stretched and pulled in every direction as it took shape. Its wide mouth opened and it screamed as if in pain. Then it began to shrink and get smaller – taking the form of a small, angelic looking boy, no older than about eight years old.

The boy floated in the night sky on the other side of the balcony where Throat stood.

‘My hollow child,’ Throat rasped. ‘Go to the prison and wipe them out. Wipe them all out!’

Smiling at Throat, the boy bowed his head, before separating into a swarm of black ash again and swooping away across the desert.

The doorway crashed shut causing Fandel’s bones to rattle beneath his wrinkled skin, like a sack full of spanners. He looked down the narrow street that twisted and turned before him. Just above his head was a sign which read:

Welcome to the town of Thud

Please ride Rafter Horses with care

Kill your speed – not a citizen!

Beneath this, someone had scrawled in excrement:

Population 1

Fandel’s heart began to beat behind his thin ribcage as he thought of Thud’s sole occupant. He stalked down the main street with Anna tucked in his arms. Doors wailed on broken hinges and litter danced along the gutter in the wind. The shop windows stared back at him, like dead eyes as he made his way through town to the shack beneath the granite tree. Moonlight glittered off the broken glass from the gas lamps that had once lit the streets. Thud was silent; the only sound was his shoes clacking against the cobbled stones beneath his feet.

Although Anna weighed no more than a pile of bones, Fandel’s arms started to tire and his twisted spine had begun to ache as he carried her. The temperature was a little above freezing, yet a fine sheen of perspiration glimmered across his brow. Ahead, he could see a rocking chair that had been abandoned outside a derelict barber’s shop. Fandel huffed and puffed the last few steps towards the chair. Lowering Anna onto the pavement, Fandel slid into the chair to rest.

‘I’m in no rush to see the Delf again,’ he muttered to himself. ‘A couple of minutes well-earned rest won’t hurt.’

Fandel thought of the Delf and although his heart missed a beat, he hoped that he could resist her charms, if that’s what they were.

I’ll knock on the door of her shack and just dump the girl! Fandel thought to himself.

‘Yes, that’s what I’ll do. No “hellos” and no “goodbyes”. I’ll instruct the Delf to keep the girl locked away and to give her one of the tablets three times a day until I return,’ he muttered.

Without opening his eyes, he dug his hanky out of his trouser pocket and patted his moist lips. He felt feverish and anxious. He didn’t want to go back to that shack. His legs were telling him to run fast back up the main street and never return to Thud. But he couldn’t do that. Fandel knew that he had to bring the girl to the Delf – Throat had told him to do so.

Tucking his hanky back into his pocket, he gripped the arms of the rocking chair and stood up. He grimaced as he straightened and the joints in his spine gave an audible ‘popping’ sound.

He stooped down to gather up the girl, and then screamed.

‘Where has she gone?’ Fandel said, whirling round and looking up and down the street for Anna, who was no longer lying on the cobbled road.

‘I don’t believe this!’ he cried, searching underneath the rocking chair and then peering into the gutter. ‘Where can she be?’

Fandel rushed up and down the street kicking over empty rubbish bins and looking through the filthy windows of the deserted stores. His heart thundered in his chest, and this time it wasn’t at the thought of the Delf but at the thought of what Throat would do to him if he didn’t find the girl and find her quick.

‘Come back to me!’ he screamed, the tendons in his neck threatening to snap like guitar strings that had been over-tightened.

‘You can’t do this to me!’ he screeched, dropping to the ground and pounding the street with his fists.

Snivelling, Fandel crawled to his feet and ran to the shack beneath the granite tree. He banged on the door so hard that the knuckles on his right hand started to bleed. He smothered his nose and mouth with his left hand as the putrid smell of crud enveloped him.

Gagging, he banged on the door again and roared:

‘Delf, open the door! It’s Fandel Black!’

A shuffling sound came from within the shack. This was followed by the unmistakable sound of farting and belching. Fandel whipped the hanky from his pocket again and secured it around the lower half of his face.

The door swung open and she greeted him with one huge maggot infested smile.

‘My dear Fandel,’ she belched.

Fandel turned his head away at the stench which wasn’t too dissimilar to the smell of rotting eggs and decomposing fish.

‘I always knew you would return one day. Just can’t resist me eh?’ she grinned, and as she did, a sea of maggots crawled over her teeth and slid down her chin.

‘Just shut up you insane old witch!’ Fandel squealed. ‘You’ve got to help me find the girl!’

Chapter 30

Anna opened her eyes just enough so she could see through her eyelashes. Above her sat her uncle, swaying back and forth in an ancient looking rocking chair. He was mumbling to himself and his eyes were closed.

Realising that this was her chance of escape, Anna pulled the blanket about her shoulders and stood up. Her uncle Fandel moved, and she froze. She watched as he pulled a snot ridden hanky from his pocket and patted his lips with it.

Deciding to take a rest in the rocker isn’t the only mistake you’ve made recently uncle, Anna thought to herself, pushing her forefinger into her mouth and hooking out the yellow spiked tablet she had been holding in the back of her throat. Her uncle had been away far too long, and in his absence; the effect of those pills had begun to wear off. She wasn’t full of life and energy, but she had become well enough to realise she was in great danger and had to get away from him. Far away.

So, seizing her chance, Anna tiptoed backwards up the cobbled street and away from her uncle as he sat and whispered to himself in the rocker. Tossing the remains of the tablet into the gutter, she held the blanket about her shoulders and fled into the backstreets of Thud.

They reached the outskirts of the prison walls just before sunrise. William sniffed out a disused lunar bear cave and led the others inside. The cave still smelt of the creature, and the bony carcasses of its kill lay scattered around the inside of the cave. Although it didn’t smell great it was warm, but more essential – it was dark.