‘Don’t know. Let’s go.’
Graham took off. Pod hurried after him. The bird flew ahead, now soaring up for a better vantage point, now circling round behind.
‘It following us,’ he reported.
‘What’s following us?’
‘Can’t tell. Too sneaky.’
Pod stopped. ‘What kind of thing, Graham?’ he demanded.
Graham screeched at him. He had no better answer to give.
Pod suddenly had the horrible feeling that letting Blossom go off on her own had been a big mistake. ‘We have to find Blossom!’
‘I knew it!’ Annalie crowed. Sure enough, in the deepest, greenest part of the ruins, a little spring emerged from the ground and made a pool; a stream trickled away from it and lost itself among rocks and thick underbrush. Annalie scooped the water into her mouth. ‘It’s good,’ she said.
‘Shouldn’t you be boiling it first, or filtering it?’ Essie asked.
‘You can,’ Annalie said, scooping up more water thirstily.
Essie shrugged and joined her. They both drank until their stomachs were full.
‘Lots of aquifers got salty when the ocean rose,’ Annalie said, wiping her mouth. ‘Lucky this one’s still okay.’
‘Did you hear that?’ Essie said suddenly.
‘What?’
‘It all just went super-quiet.’
It had all just gone super-quiet. The birds had stopped. The insects had stopped. The wind moaned briefly, and then that stopped too.
In the silence, a twig snapped.
Then the undergrowth stirred and something stepped out. It was a dog, medium-sized, lean and red-brown, the colour of the desert. It stared at them, hard-eyed.
Instinctively, Annalie and Essie drew closer together. ‘I don’t think that dog looks very friendly,’ Essie whispered.
The dog lifted its snout and let out a spiral-ling, howling call.
Another howl came in answer. Then another.
‘If you can find a sharp stick, grab one,’ Annalie muttered.
Cautiously, they reached for whatever was around them. Annalie found a rock; Essie’s hand closed around a stick. They got slowly to their feet.
The dog curled its lip and snarled at them.
They began to back away from the waterhole, one step at a time.
The dog howled again; something prompted Essie to turn round. A second huge dog leapt at her. Letting out a cry, she fended it off with the stick just in time, and it twisted away from her with a squeal.
‘Run!’ Essie cried.
Blossom walked down the wide colonnade of the temple.
The cool stone columns rose up on either side of her, and her feet echoed faintly on the stone paving. It was very quiet; all she could hear was the gentle shush of the wind moving through the trees.
She walked right up to the foot of the statue and gazed up at the fierce, kind, savage, beautiful face of the lady.
Lucky Lady, she thought, forming the words very clearly and distinctly in her mind.Please help me. Me and my brother. Keep us safe from danger and find us somewhere good to live. She paused, then thought, Preferably not by the sea.
She placed her offering carefully on a wave-shaped niche. Oh, and could you please help the others, too, she added, a little grudgingly.
She stood there a moment longer, and the air about her seemed to thicken and become charged, almost magical. She felt something stirring inside her. Was it really happening? Was this the touch of the Lucky Lady?
A shout rang out: ‘Blossom, behind you!’
It was Pod’s voice. She spun round and saw a lean reddish-black dog, all fangs and hungry eyes, stalking towards her up the colonnade. She froze.
Graham, screeching angrily, swooped down on the dog, claws outstretched, raking at its face. The dog was momentarily distracted and Pod yelled: ‘Blossom! This way! Run!’
Pod was holding out his hand to her, scared but brave. Jolted from her trance, she ran to him. They leapt from the temple and began to run through the trees, the dog coming after them.
‘Where are the others?’ she asked, panting.
‘Hopefully waiting for us somewhere safe,’ Pod said.
Essie and Annalie scrambled up a tree. It was not a very tall tree and it was swaying beneath their weight.
‘What is up with this place?’ Essie gasped. ‘Killer whales, wild dogs…’
The two wild dogs arrived at the base of the tree and began to pace back and forth, looking up at them, hungry, cunning, patient. As they perched there, a third appeared out of the trees.
‘Do you think they’ll get sick of it and go away?’ Essie asked.
‘Nope,’ Annalie said.
Graham came circling out of the sky and looped around their heads.
‘Graham, thank goodness!’ Annalie said. ‘You’ve got to warn Will—’
‘Graham knows. Graham going.’
‘Tell him to bring rocks!’ Essie called after him.
Down below, one of the dogs had stiffened and turned away from the clearing, looking back into the trees, his ears flat. He barked once and the other dogs came to join him.
‘They’ve seen something,’ Annalie said.
‘It could be Pod.’
‘Or Blossom,’ Annalie said, and shouted a warning. ‘Look out! There are wild dogs! Run!’
A yell split the air, but it was not the sound of someone running away. Pod and Blossom burst from the undergrowth, yelling like banshees. To Annalie’s utter amazement, they were brandishing huge branches tipped with flaming leaves. They ran at the dogs, swinging their branches ferociously. The flames crackled and spat, the smoke swirled; the dogs snarled at them but together Pod and Blossom drove them back towards the trees.
Seizing their chance, Essie and Annalie tumbled down from the tree. ‘This way! Come on!’ Essie called.
Pod took one last swipe at the dogs and began to run. Blossom, who had found an appetite for the work, had to be dragged away. Then all four of them were off, running headlong for the edge of the trees.
‘Are they following us?’ Annalie said.
Pod glanced back; the dogs were still coming after them, but as he looked, they all seemed to obey some signal and vanished from the path into the trees.
‘Uh-oh,’ he said. ‘I think they’re going to try and cut us off.’
They kept running helter
