The white boots turned and began to move back across the room again. The newcomers were inspecting another row of emerging Guards.
Cautiously, Lief, Barda, Jasmine and Emlis began crawling forward, keeping close to the containers. Moving was a risk, but it was a risk they had to take. If they remained where they were, discovery was certain.
Fortunately, the inspectors were too interested in their work, and their conversation, to notice the tiny, shuffling sounds from the other side of the room.
‘These Perns are growing more slowly than the charts predict,’ the woman commented, as the feet reached the end of the second-last row.
‘Well, it is not my fault!’ exclaimed her companion. ‘The power was cut twice yesterday.’ His voice took on a complaining tone. ‘It is all the fault of the Conversion Project! It has taken too many materials and far too much of the master’s attention of late, in my opinion.’
Conversion Project? Lief paused, holding his breath, listening hard. The inspectors had moved forward to the next row and had started pacing slowly back towards the companions’ side of the room. It was dangerous to wait, but he had to hear this.
‘You seem to have many opinions, 3-19,’ the woman said, her soft voice hardening. ‘If I were you, I would take care.’
‘What do you mean?’ the man asked peevishly.
‘Why do you think the Conversion Project became of first importance to the master, you fool?’ snapped the woman, finally losing patience. ‘It is because the recent disaster in Deltora made him lose faith in the whole idea of Grade 3 Ols. In you and your kind, 3-19!’
Lief’s heart thudded. The being called 3-19 was a Grade 3 Ol! An example of the most perfect, the most dangerous, of the Shadow Lord’s evil shape-changers. Able to mimic humans so perfectly that they could live among them without detection.
Who—or what—was the other speaker then? He burned to see what the two looked like, but did not dare lift his head.
‘The master has begun to think that the Grade 3s were a mistake,’ the woman was continuing. ‘Too like humans. Prone to pride, curiosity, weakness and disobedience. And you, 3-19, seem to be proving his point!’
With that, she strode rapidly ahead of her companion. Lief slid forward and ducked hastily out of the side passage just in time to avoid being discovered.
He could see the crouched forms of Barda, Jasmine and Emlis a few rows ahead of him. He could also see the white-clad legs of the mysterious woman, further towards the back of the room.
With a thrill of horror, Lief saw that a corner of Emlis’s green cloak was trailing into the passage. If the woman looked ahead, looked down…
But she seemed to be in no mood to notice her surroundings. One of her feet was tapping impatiently as 3-19 hurried to join her, murmuring apologies and explanations.
‘… did not mean anything by it,’ Lief heard the Ol say. ‘I would never question the master’s judgement.’
‘I thought that was exactly what you were doing!’ snapped the woman, moving into the next row of emerging Grey Guards. ‘The Conversion Project is the way of the future, 3-19. As you will find out, very soon.’
‘Soon?’ gulped 3-19, thoroughly frightened now. ‘But I thought—’
‘All errors in the process have been corrected,’ the woman said coldly. ‘Do you see any fault in me?’
There was a moment of stunned silence.
‘I—I did not know you were one of them,’ faltered 3-19 at last.
‘Well, I am!’ snapped the woman. ‘Now! Explain to me why these Krops seem thinner than they should be.’
They were moving towards the other side of the room once more. Lief, Barda, Jasmine and Emlis slid out of hiding and began crawling forward as rapidly as they could.
In moments they had drawn almost level with the two inspectors, who by now had almost reached the end of the Krop Pod. Now was the most dangerous time. One by one the companions crossed the gap between containers. They would be in clear view of the two standing at the far end, should either of them turn.
But neither did. Glancing sideways as he scooted from shelter, Lief caught a brief glimpse of two white-clad figures, one tall, one short and slender, standing close together at the end of the container. The short one was consulting a chart. The tall one was bending to turn one of the knobs mounted on the container’s shining metal.
Then the figures were out of sight once more as Lief scuttled on after his friends, past the last few pods and across the back wall to the open door.
Keeping low, Jasmine peered cautiously through the doorway. She turned and nodded to the others, then crawled through the opening. Barda and Emlis went after her. But as Lief followed, noting that the room beyond the door was some sort of workroom, he heard the Ol speak again, very timidly.
‘The master’s plan—’
‘The master has many plans!’ interrupted the woman sharply. ‘And none of them are your concern.’
Jasmine was beckoning urgently from the other side of the room, but Lief could restrain his curiosity no longer. As soon as he could, he stood up and peered cautiously around the half-open door, back into the pod room.
The two figures had begun their inspection of the next row of Guards. The shorter one, the female, was consulting the chart. The tall one was walking behind her, glowering.
His thin, sour face was the face of Fallow.
Lief gripped the edge of the door till his knuckles turned white. That is not Fallow, he reminded himself desperately. Fallow is dead. That creature, 3-19, simply wears the same face. But still his breath came fast and his stomach heaved with loathing.
Then the female figure looked up from the chart and half turned towards her companion. Bright white light illuminated her delicate face, her pale blue eyes.
Lief stared for a split second, then shrank back behind the door, numb with shock.
12 – Discoveries
Barda, Jasmine and Emlis were clustered in front of a narrow door on one side of the workroom. Skirting a long white table cluttered with jars, measuring jugs and a pot of bubbling green liquid set over a low flame, Lief ran noiselessly to join them.
‘There is nowhere to hide in here,’ Jasmine whispered. ‘We will have to go further.’ She paused as she noticed the expression on Lief’s face. ‘What is it?’ she muttered. ‘You look as if you have seen a ghost.’
‘I have,’ Lief whispered back. ‘That woman—the woman in the pod room—is Tira of Noradz.’
Barda and Jasmine gaped at him, horrified.
‘Who is Tira?’ Emlis asked, looking from one to the other.
‘A friend who once risked her life for us,’ said Jasmine, swallowing hard. ‘We knew her people had been brought to the Shadowlands. We hoped to find her, to save her. But—’
‘But it seems she does not want to be saved.’ Barda clenched his fists. ‘She has become the Shadow Lord’s creature. What have they done to her?’
‘The answer is in there, I think,’ Jasmine said slowly. She moved aside and pointed to a notice on the door.
There was no sound from behind the door. Lief tried the knob. It turned smoothly. He pushed the door open a crack and peered into the room beyond.
At first, all he could see was a haze of soft pinkish-red light. He blinked, and the room slowly came into focus. It was another, much larger, workroom—huge, silent and empty. The strange red light glowed from the walls, ceiling and floor. On the wall facing Lief there were two vast doors, firmly closed.
A wave of dread swept over him. Jasmine was pushing him from behind, urging him on, but for a long moment he resisted her. Everything within him was crying to him to stay where he was. He clutched at the Pirran Pipe beneath his shirt and at last gained enough strength to stumble into the room.