15
The Masks
There was a brief instant where, in my dazed state, I managed to convince myself that somehow, despite the bands on my forearms and the weakness of my will, the spell had worked. A power animal was coming to me. Okay, so it was running along the ground, which meant it wasn’t a falcon, but still …
The fantasy was soon shattered. Not even the most ardent self-deception will let your brain miss the heavy footsteps of men approaching for long.
My first thought was that it would be Ra’fan and Ra’dir, but there was no way Ra’meth would risk having his family connected to a direct attack on the House of Ke. Three men were coming, obscured by the shadows of the trees. Their dark travelling clothes gave no clue as to who they were or even what country they might be from. As they crept forward I could make out the masks covering their faces. Black-and-red lacquer, shaped like grinning monsters, with assorted fangs and horns and tusks adorning their features. Mahdek, I thought, suddenly unable to breathe. They used to wear masks like these when performing their vile demonic rituals. I scrambled to my feet. They’ve come back. The Mahdek have come back.
‘You’ll stay away if you know what’s good for you!’ I shouted, trying to speak in the commanding tones of my father. The words sounded a lot more threatening in my head than they did carried into the night air on my trembling, high-pitched voice. ‘I have dark and terrible magics!’ I added, which managed to sound even more ridiculous. Ancestors, I thought, if you have to send the Mahdek to torment me, couldn’t you at least give me something clever to say? I looked over at Shalla for help but she was still lost in her spell, oblivious to the danger.
The men in their masks crept closer and my memory conjured up the shiny, metallic ink drawings on the old scrolls that the masters would sometimes pull out to frighten us. Terrifying images that would haunt our nightmares. ‘Who among you would fight the ancient enemy?’ Master Osia’phest would demand when we acted above ourselves. ‘Which of you would face the Mahdek wizard wearing his ritual death mask?’
Not me, that’s for sure.
The tallest of the three men stepped forward. His mask had two pairs of curved horns, one red, one black, on either side of his temples. ‘Take him,’ he said to the others.
A wide-set man whose mask had a third eye in the middle ran for me so quickly that in my rush to get away I backed into a tree. My head slammed against the hard bark and floating yellow lights filled my vision. My attacker would have got his arms around me were it not for my knees having already buckled, dropping me low to the forest floor where I scrambled around the tree.
Just as I got my feet under me I felt him grab at the back of my shirt. But now fear was replaced by something else: desperation. Desperation is a lot like fear only more useful. The big man spun me around and slammed me into the tree, but as he reached for me a second time I pulled out the metal card Ferius had given me the night before and slashed out with it, slicing the skin of his palm. His scream prompted me to attack again, this time at the other hand. I caught him on the wrist and the razor-sharp edge sent blood spitting into the air as he fell backwards out of the way.
A third man, this one with long, curved tusks extending up from the lower half of his mask, started towards me. I had a brief moment in which I could have escaped, but I hesitated. Even if I got away, then what? I was too far from town to get help. If my mother was scrying to watch over Shalla, then she and my father would be on their way already. But they wouldn’t get here in time to save my sister if I ran.
Not knowing what else to do, I braced myself against the tree behind me and kicked out at the second attacker. Too soon, damn it. He was still too far, so when my foot connected with his stomach it barely brushed him. In desperation I threw the card at his face. No, idiot! Not the face. Despite my poor throw the card lodged itself in the forehead of his mask and I heard him yelp in surprise. But it didn’t bite deep enough to wound him. Had I thrown it at any other part of his body I might have cut him, slowed him down. Instead he grabbed me by the neck with both hands, his grip so strong that I was instantly unable to breathe. ‘Nasty little bastard,’ he said, his voice a deep, guttural growl. He took one hand away and used it to pull the card out of his mask. ‘Let’s see how you like getting cut.’
‘Don’t,’ the leader said, the horns on his mask glinting in the light of my small fire as he came forward. ‘Bind him.’
Tusks shoved me back, hitting my head hard against the tree trunk a second time to stun me. At first I assumed they’d cast a binding spell on me, but instead the man unwound a length of rope from his waist and used it to tie me to the tree. It struck me as odd that none of these men had attempted to use a spell. I thought the Mahdek were supposed to be dark wizards. Focus, damn it! ‘Shalla!’ I shouted. ‘Wake up! You’ve got to wake up!’
The leader pushed Tusks out of the way and stood only inches away from me, as if he wanted me to see every inch of his hideous mask. ‘Scream all you want. She’s lost in her little spell, waiting for her darling power animal to come to her.’
‘My mother is scrying for us!’ I said. ‘My father will come for us when he—’
‘Of course they’re coming. Maybe they can even see us now.’ He looked up at the sky. ‘Can you see me, mighty Ke’heops? Do you know what I’m going to do to your precious child? Come on. Send down a bolt of lightning to strike me!’ He turned back to me and laughed. ‘You see? Even if they are watching, they’re still too far away.’
‘Who are you? Why are you doing this?’ I said, my voice pleading.
Horns ignored me and went back into the trees for a moment, returning with a large brown sack in his hand. ‘Make sure he’s properly tied. He’s a slippery one.’ Tusks walked behind the tree and checked the ropes, tightening them even more and making me groan at the pain in my wrists.
‘He’s not going anywhere,’ Tusks said.
The leader nodded and reached into the sack. What was in there? I had visions of wickedly curved knives or vials of poison. The sack wriggled a bit and I thought, Snake – he’s brought a snake that’s going to bite me and fill my veins with its venom. But when the man’s hand came out of the sack it wasn’t holding a knife or poison or a snake. It was holding a small white animal, its patchy fur revealing red, oozing sores. Its eyes were wet and blurry as if it couldn’t see properly. It was a dog. A sick animal barely holding on to life.
The leader set the diseased animal down on the forest floor a little ways from Shalla and immediately it began to stumble slowly, awkwardly, painfully towards her. That was when I understood what they were going to do to my sister. That was when I really screamed.