The Lake of Souls. Darren Shan
of my personal belongings – and was astonished when Alice produced it with a flourish.
“Where’d you get it?” I gasped, fingering the soft, crinkled cover of one of the several notepads that made up the diary.
“It was part of the evidence my officers collected after you were arrested. I sneaked it out before I quit the force.”
“Did you read it?” I asked.
“No, but others did.” She smiled. “They dismissed it as the fictional work of a lunatic.”
I looked for Harkat before we left, but he was locked away in Mr Tall’s van with Mr Tiny. Mr Tall came to the door when I knocked and said the Little Person was not receiving visitors. I called out “Goodbye” but there was no reply.
I felt lousy as we cleared the camp, having said farewell to Evra, Merla and my other friends. But Harkat had been firm about his wishes, and I knew it made more sense to go to Vampire Mountain and take my rightful place in the Hall of Princes again.
Debbie was delighted to have me back, and held on tight to my hand, telling me how excited she was – and a bit scared – to be heading for Vampire Mountain. She pumped me for information – what did vampires wear, did they sleep in coffins, could they turn into bats – but I was too distracted to answer in any great detail.
We’d walked two or three kilometres when I drew to a sudden halt. I was thinking about the times Harkat had saved my life — when he’d rescued me from the jaws of a savage bear, when he’d jumped into a pit during my Trials of Initiation and killed a wild boar as it was about to gouge me to death, the way he’d fought beside me, swinging his axe with speed and skill, when we’d taken on the vampaneze.
“Darren?” Debbie asked, gazing into my eyes, worried. “What’s wrong?”
“He’s got to go back,” Alice answered for me. I stared at her and she smiled. “You can’t ignore the obligations of friendship. Harkat needs you more than we do. Go help him, and catch us up later if you can.”
“But he told me to leave,” I muttered.
“Doesn’t matter,” Alice insisted. “Your place is with him, not us.”
“No!” Debbie objected. “We can’t find our way to the Mountain alone!”
Alice pulled a map out of her rucksack. “I’m sure Darren can point us in the right direction.”
“No!” Debbie cried again, clutching me tight. “I’m afraid I’ll never see you again if you leave!”
“I must,” I sighed. “Alice is right — I have to help Harkat. I’d rather stay with you, but I’d feel like a traitor if I did.”
There were hard tears in Debbie’s eyes, but she blinked them back and nodded tensely. “OK. If that’s the way you want it.”
“It’s the way it has to be,” I said. “You’d do the same thing in my place.”
“Possibly.” She smiled weakly, then, hiding her feelings behind a businesslike façade, she grabbed the map off Alice, laid it on the ground and told me to ink in the route to Vampire Mountain.
I quickly outlined the easiest route, pointed out a couple of alternate paths in case the first was blocked, and told them how to find their way through the maze of tunnels which led up the inside of the Mountain to the Halls where the vampires lived. Then, without any long goodbyes, I kissed Debbie quickly and thrust the rucksack with my newly recovered diary into Alice’s hands. I asked her to look after it for me.
I wished both women well, then turned and raced back for camp. I tried not to dwell on all that could happen to them on their way to the Mountain, and offered up a quick prayer to the gods of the vampires as I ran, asking them to watch over the ex-Chief Inspector and the teacher I loved.
I was on the edge of the camp when I spotted Mr Tiny and Harkat in an open field. In front of the pair stood a shimmering arched doorway, unconnected to anything else. The edges of the doorway glowed red. Mr Tiny also glowed, his suit, hair and skin pulsing a dark, vibrant, crimson shade. The space within the edges of the doorway was a dull grey colour.
Mr Tiny heard me coming, looked over his shoulder and smiled like a shark. “Ah — Master Shan! I thought you might turn up.”
“Darren!” Harkat snapped furiously. “I told you not to come! I won’t take you with … me. You’ll have to–”
Mr Tiny laid a hand on the Little Person’s back and shoved him through the doorway. There was a grey flash, then Harkat disappeared. I could see the field through the grey veil of the doorway — but no sign of Harkat.
“Where’s he gone?” I shouted.
“To search for the truth.” Mr Tiny smiled, edged aside and gestured towards the glowing doorway. “Care to search with him?”
I stepped up to the doorway, gazing uneasily at the glowing red edges and the grey sheen between. “Where does this lead?” I asked.
“Another place,” Mr Tiny answered obscurely, then laid a hand on my right shoulder and looked at me intently. “If you follow Harkat, you might never return. Think seriously about this. If you go with Harkat and die, you won’t be here to face Steve Leonard when the time comes, and your absence might have terrible repercussions for vampires everywhere. Is your short, grey-skinned friend worth such an enormous risk?”
I didn’t have to think twice about that. “Yes,” I answered simply, and stepped through into unnatural, otherworldly greyness.
CHAPTER FIVE
A SUN burnt brightly in the clear sky above the wasteland, highlighting the arid earth and bare rocky hills. A coarse red dust covered much of the land, choking the dry soil. When strong winds blew, the dust rose in sheets, making breathing almost impossible. At such times I pulled on one of Harkat’s spare masks – it blocked out the worst of the grainy particles – and the two of us sought shelter and waited for calm to descend.
It had been two weeks – roughly – since Mr Tiny brought us to this desolate land and abandoned us. Two weeks crossing barren valleys and dead hills, where nothing lived except a few hardy lizards and insects, which we caught and ate whenever we could. They tasted disgusting but you can’t be choosy if you’re stranded in a desert without food or water.
Water was our main concern. Walking in the heat and dust was thirsty work, but water was in scarce supply and we didn’t have any canteens to store it in when we found the occasional pool. We’d fashioned primitive containers from the skins of lizards, but they didn’t hold much. We had to drink sparingly.
Harkat was angry with me for disobeying his wishes – he ranted at me nonstop for a few days – but his temper gradually abated. Although he hadn’t thanked me for choosing to accompany him on his quest, I knew he was secretly grateful.
A fortnight earlier, Mr Tiny followed us through the doorway, which collapsed into dust after him. There’d been a brief moment of disorientation when I stepped through, a grey cloud obscuring my vision. As the cloud cleared, I saw that I was standing in a round, shallow, lifeless valley — and although it had been day when I stepped through the doorway, here it was night, albeit an uncommonly clear night, bright with a full moon and a sky filled with twinkling star clusters.
“Where are we?” Harkat asked, his large green eyes filled with wonder.
Mr Tiny tapped his nose. “That would be telling. Now, boys,” he said, squatting and signalling us to squat beside him. He drew a simple compass in the dust at his feet, and pointed to one of the arrows. “That’s west, as you’ll see by the position of the sun tomorrow. Go in that direction until you come to the hunting grounds of a black panther.