Aztec warriors approaching from their left. A moment later the tunnel reverberated with a terrible rending and tearing accompanied by the beast's human laughter as it attacked the warriors.
By the time Bearskin brought them to a halt, the beast no longer followed. Resting his hands on his knees, Veitch filled his searing lungs, but Bearskin was already pacing around, sniffing the air.
'We are nearly there. Yes, I think we are!' he exclaimed. He set off again, and after a few more minutes they proceeded down a short stretch of tunnel that ended in roof-fall. Crouched at the foot of the rubble, hugging her knees and whimpering, was Rachel. Her tear-stained face was streaked with dust and her clothes were dirty. She cried out as Bearskin approached her.
'Let me,' Veitch said.
Her blinking eyes recognised on some level that they were the same species, but the fear held her in thrall for several moments.
'You,' she said weakly. 'I saw you… when I first arrived in this… in this…' She gulped a mouthful of air. 'Awful place.' Breaking into wracking sobs, she collapsed into Veitch's arms.
He held her tightly until her crying subsided. 'Yeah, this place can be a nightmare until you realise how it works. But we'll soon get you back on your feet.'
'Home,' she said. 'Take me home. Please.'
'First thing, we need to get you out of these tunnels. Can you walk?'
Nodding, she appeared to see the Labyrinth for the first time. 'I don't know how I got here. It's all a blur since I last saw you.'
Helping her to her feet, he briefly introduced her to the others, though she shied away from Bearskin and Shadow John and refused even to look at them.
'Understandable,' Bearskin said. 'Fragile Creatures find it difficult to adjust to the wonders of the Far Lands, if they ever do.'
'I do not understand how she got here,' Shavi whispered to Veitch once they were back in the tunnels. 'Only those with the Pendragon Spirit can cross to the Otherworld without paying a price, and she cannot be a Sister of Dragons.'
'That's something we can work out later, if we actually get out of this hole,' Veitch said.
Whimpering intermittently, Rachel stumbled along close to Veitch, occasionally reaching out to touch his arm for comfort. He was moved by how quickly she had placed her faith in him.
Following Bearskin's nose, they cautiously retraced their steps, senses attuned for the approach of the Labyrinth's guardian. At the junction of the two tunnels, the half-eaten remains of the Aztec warriors were scattered. Once the nest was far behind them, their spirits eased a little, but the beast's occasional echoing growls still troubled them and sent Rachel into paroxysms of sobs.
It felt as if they had walked miles when Bearskin announced, 'We near the exit. This is the most dangerous time of all.'
The words had barely left his lips when he pitched forwards to the ground, unconscious.
Shadow John let out a cry of alarm. 'Something rushed by me!' He whirled round and round, but his torch revealed nothing.
Veitch prised Rachel's fingers from his wrist and drew his sword. A moment passed as they all waited tensely, and then the staccato laughter rolled out of the dark only feet ahead of them. Shadow John held Rachel tightly against him to prevent her from fleeing back along the tunnels.
'Right, you bastard,' Veitch growled, raising his sword above his shoulder, 'let's see what you've got.'
Veitch only glimpsed a flash of the beast as it erupted from the dark into the tiny, flickering circle of torchlight: a human face, distorted across a broad head, slanting silver eyes, and then the long, lean body of a jungle cat ending in a thrashing, sinuous tail tipped with sharp quills. As it bore down on him, the mouth wrenched open to reveal three rows of snapping teeth.
'The Manticore!' Shadow John cried.
A weight crashed into Veitch's midriff as he prepared to swing his sword, slamming him into the wall and then down onto the flags, winded. It was not the Manticore, for the beast passed over him a second later, turning fluidly mid-leap to rake him with its enormous claws. Instinctively, Veitch rolled out of the way as the creature crashed to the flags, so close he could feel its hot, meaty breath on his cheek.
Disoriented, Veitch heard Shavi shouting, but his words were drowned out by the sound of Rachel's screaming. Scrambling to his feet, he had a split second to search for whatever had knocked him down before the Manticore leaped again. His legs went out from under him before he could even raise his sword. Through his shock, he just heard the last of Shavi shouting, '… something else here!' and then the Manticore pinned him down. The distorted human face pressed close, made worse for the lack of any intelligence in the wild eyes. Deep in its throat, the laughter rumbled and then it tore its jaws wide.
Veitch's vision was filled by the rows of teeth. Suddenly the Manticore convulsed and turned on Shadow John, whose fingers were hooked into cruel claws. The Manticore's side had been raked open.
Stepping in front of Shadow John, Veitch said, 'Thanks for the help, mate, but stay back. Protect the girl.'
'I see it!' Shavi called.
Veitch only had a brief impression of Shavi wrestling on the floor with something he couldn't see before he was surrounded by the Manticore's snapping jaws and rending claws. Rolling to one side, he let the sword dance instinctively, the flames painting a sizzling blue mandala in the dark.
The Manticore's laughter turned to shrieks, and it fell to the floor in a frenzy. Veitch hacked until it was dead.
Shavi continued to roll around the floor, welts and scratches mysteriously appearing across his face and hands. Shaking the daze from his head, Bearskin lifted Shavi with one hand and with the other wrenched out whatever invisible thing was clutched in Shavi's grasp. One snap of his wrist brought the struggle to an end. In his hand materialised a lifeless thing that resembled a small ape.
'The queen of the Court of Endless Horizons needs a lesson in fairness, ' Bearskin growled. 'Two beasts instead of the one she told her contestants they faced. And invisible to boot.'
Attempting to staunch his wounds, Shavi said, 'So, this eye does have its uses.'
Veitch clapped an arm around his friend's shoulders. 'Good bit of teamwork there, pal.'
'Just like the old days.'
Rachel's cries ebbed away, and she looked on Veitch with the wonder only reserved for a true saviour. As he helped her to her feet, she asked with breathless respect, 'Who are you?'
'South London's finest, darlin',' he replied.
Within fifteen minutes they were out of the Labyrinth. The city was still gripped by the darkness and the intermittent screams had not diminished, but now there was a new element: a slow drum-beat rolling out across the rooftops. It felt like a call to ceremony, but there was something in the quality of it that left them all inexplicably chilled.
9
After long moments of circling with not a hint of prey, the bird swooped down from the grey sky to land on a slab of granite jutting from the white slopes. The bitter wind ruffled the bird's feathers and whipped up a whirlwind of recently fallen snowflakes that was the only sign of movement on the lonely wastes.
From the niche in the rocks where he had waited with inordinate patience for the better part of half an hour, Miller made a desperate lunge. His fingers almost closed on the bird before it took frenzied flight amidst the high- pitched koo-koo-koo call that Miller had come to know so well during the last few weeks.
It had been there! His fingertips had brushed the grey feathers! And now it was gone.
He collapsed onto the granite slab, sobbing silently, his frozen fingers blue, his eyebrows and hair encrusted with snow. Miller allowed himself one moment to wallow in the despair of his failure, and then he picked himself up, brushed the snow from his trousers and trudged back up the hard-packed track to the cave. It lay on the leeward side of the mountain, protected from the worst knives of the wind, the interior contracting into a tight tunnel before
