We had to press on and find a way through to the plain on the other side. I just hoped that Mam and the others had survived the maenad attack. If they had, they'd continue on towards Meteora and that's where we'd find them.
Chapter 12
LAMIAS
Eventually we reached a fork in the path. Both tracks led roughly eastwards towards the plain, but which one should we take?
'Which path, Alice?' I asked.
She sniffed each in turn. 'Ain't much choice,' she said with a frown. 'Neither one's safe. A dangerous place, this.'
'What sort of danger?'
'Lamias. Lots of 'em . . .'
Lamias lurked in mountain passes such as this, preying on travellers. The thought of them made me very nervous indeed – I remembered what Mab said she'd scryed: Alice being killed by a feral lamia on the journey towards the Ord. I was torn between telling her about it and keeping it quiet. But why tell her? I asked myself. She was alert to the danger from lamias anyway, and knowing would only make her more worried.
But I was still fearful that Mab would be proved right.
'Perhaps we should stay here for a while, Alice,' I suggested, looking up at the sky, which was already brightening. 'The sun will be up soon. It can't be much more than half an hour or so before dawn.'
Lamias couldn't stand sunlight – we'd be safe then – but Alice shook her head. 'Reckon they'll have sniffed us out already. They'll know we're here, Tom. Stay in one spot and they'll come at us from all sides – they might arrive before the sun comes up. Best keep moving.'
What she said made sense, so, on impulse, I chose the left-hand path. It rose steeply for a while before descending towards a small valley where sheer cliffs reared up towards the sky on both sides. Even when the sun came up, this area would remain in shadow. As we scrambled down, the pale moon was lost to view and I began to grow nervous. To our right was the dark entrance to a small cave. Then I began to notice the feathers scattered around us.
I'd seen that before back in the County. It was a sign that feral lamia witches were close. When human prey wasn't available, they made do with smaller creatures such as mice and birds, using dark magic to place them in thrall while they ripped them to pieces and drank their blood.
Soon, to our horror, we saw more signs of danger: a second cave, fragments of dead birds – their wings, beaks, heads and legs – littering the blood-stained rocks outside it. But I noticed that the remains were old, not fresh kills.
'We've taken the wrong track, Alice! We need to go back!'
'Either that or move forward a lot faster!' she argued, but it was already too late . . .
We heard a chilling hiss and turned to find something big scuttling along the rocky path behind us. It was a feral lamia. The creature, at least one and a half times the length of my own body, was crouched on four thin limbs with large splayed hands, each elongated finger ending in a sharp, deadly talon. Long greasy hair hung down onto the scaled back and across the face too. What I could see of its features told me that the situation couldn't be worse. This was not the bloated face of a lamia witch that had recently fed, making it sluggish and less aggressive. No, it was gaunt, cadaverous, its heavily lidded eyes wide open and showing a ravenous hunger.
I turned, stepped in front of Alice and raised my staff – lamias didn't like rowan wood. I drove it hard and fast towards its head. There was a dull thud as the end made contact and the creature backed away, hissing angrily.
I followed, jabbing at it again and again. It was then that I heard another angry hiss from behind: I turned to see a second lamia advancing towards Alice. Almost immediately a third scuttled up onto a large boulder to our right.
Rowan wood wouldn't be sufficient now, so I pressed the recess near the top of my staff and, with a sharp click, the retractable blade emerged from the end.
'Keep very close behind me, Alice!' I cried. If I could force the lamia back to where the path widened, we could race past it and make our escape.
Wasting no time, I drove my staff hard at the lamia ahead of me. My aim was true and the blade pierced its right shoulder, sending up a spray of black blood. It screamed and retreated, so I advanced again, stabbing quickly, keeping it at bay, trying to maintain my concentration. Lamias are incredibly fast and this slow retreat could at any moment turn into a rapid frenzied attack. The lamia could be on me in a second, its talons pinning me down, ravenous teeth biting into my flesh. So I had to focus and await my chance to drive my blade through its heart. Step by step, I continued to advance. Concentrate! I told myself. Watch! Focus! Get ready for the first hint of a surge towards me.
There was a sudden scream from behind. Alice! I risked a quick glance over my shoulder. She was nowhere to be seen! Turning away from the wounded lamia, I began to run back along the track in the direction of that scream. There was no sign of her and I halted on the path. Had I gone too far? I wondered.
Desperate, with my heart hammering with fear for Alice, I quickly retraced my steps until I came to a cleft in the rock. There were feathers and bird fragments on the ground in front of it. Had she been dragged inside? A shout from within confirmed that she had, but her voice sounded distant and somehow muffled. I eased myself through the gap and moved forward into the increasing gloom. I came to another cave, far smaller than the others – just a dark hole descending steeply into the ground.
Suddenly I saw Alice looking back towards me. Her eyes locked with mine and I saw her fear, pain and desperation. The lamia's jaws were gripping her right shoulder and there was blood at her throat. It was dragging her downwards, head first, deeper into its lair. The last thing I saw was Alice's left ankle and pointy shoe disappearing from view. It happened so quickly: before I could even move she was gone.
I rushed over to the opening, threw down my staff, fell to my knees and thrust my left hand downwards in a desperate attempt to grasp Alice's ankle. But she'd already been dragged down too far. I reached into my pockets for the candle stub and my tinderbox. I'd need some light to follow her down into the darkness. There was a lump in my throat. The lamia's teeth were in deep and it might already be starting to drain her blood, I thought. It was exactly what Mab had predicted. And she'd said that Alice would die down there in the darkness. The witch would suck her blood until her heart stopped.
I heard a scrabbling noise from below. I was probably already too late. Frantic with fear for Alice, I suddenly remembered the dark wish that Grimalkin had given me. It was wrong to use it – it meant invoking the dark. But what choice did I have? How could I stand back and let Alice die when I had the power to save her? Tears welled in my eyes and my throat began to constrict with emotion. I couldn't imagine life without Alice. I had to do it.