Darren Shan - The Lake of Souls

SUMMARY: If you step through after Harkat, you might never come back. Is your friend worth such an enormous risk? Darren and Harkat face monstrous obstacles on their desperate quest to the Lake of Souls. Will they survive the savage journey? And what awaits them in the murky waters of the dead? Be careful what you fish for

DARREN SHAN

THE LAKE OF SOULS

THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN

Darren Shan

THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN

1 Cirque Du Freak

2 The Vampires Assistant

3 Tunnels of Blood

4 Vampire Mountain

5 Trials of Death

6 The Vampire Prince

7 Hunters of the Dusk

8 Allies of the Night

9 Killers of the Dawn

10 The Lake of Souls

DARREN SHAN

THE LAKE OF SOULS

THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN

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An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Fish for Darren Shan on the web atwww.darrenshan.com

First published in Great Britain by Collins 2003

Collins is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd,

77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith,

London, W6 8IB

The HarperCollins website address is: www.harpercollins.co.uk

Text copyright Darren Shan 2003

ISBN 0 00 715919 6

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.

Printed and bound in England by Clays Ltd, St I.e. plc

For:

Bas you steer my vaparetto!

OBEs

(Order of the Bloody Entrails) to:

Nate - the Sheffield Shanster Seer!

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Banshee Babes:

Zo Clarke & Gillie Russell

Global Grotesques:

the Christopher Little Clan

DEATH WAS on the cards that day, but would it be ours or the panthers? Black panthers are really leopards. If you look closely, you can see faint spots blended into their fur. But trust me unless its in a zoo, you dont ever want to be that close to a panther! Theyre one of natures greatest killers. They move silently and speedily. In a one-on-one fight theyll almost always come out on top. You cant outrun them, since theyre faster than you, and you cant out-climb them, because they can climb too. The best thing is to stay out of their way completely, unless youre an experienced big game hunter and have come packing a rifle.

Harkat and I had never hunted a panther before, and our best weapons were a few stone knives and a long, round-ended stick that served as a club. Yet there we were, on the e.g. of a pit which wed dug the day before, watching a deer wed captured and were using as bait, waiting for a panther. Wed been there for hours, hidden in a bush, clutching our humble weapons close to our sides, when I spotted something long and black through the cover of the surrounding trees. A whiskered nose stuck out from around a tree and sniffed the air testingly the panther. I nudged Harkat gently and we watched it, holding our breath, stiff with fright. After a few seconds the panther turned and padded away, back into the gloom of the jungle.

Harkat and I discussed the panthers retreat in whispers. I thought the panther had sensed a trap and wouldnt return. Harkat disagreed. He said it would come back. If we withdrew further, it might advance fully the next time. So we wriggled backwards, not stopping until we were almost at the end of the long stretch of bush. From here we could only vaguely see the deer.

A couple of hours passed. We said nothing. I was about to break the silence and suggest we were wasting our time, when I heard a large animal moving. The deer was jumping around wildly. There was a throaty growl. It came from the far side of the pit. That was great if the panther attacked the deer from there, it might fall straight into our trap and be killed in the pit. Then we wouldnt have to fight it at Page 3

all!

I heard twigs snap as the panther crept up on the deer. Then there was a loud snapping sound as a heavy body crashed through the covering over the pit and landed heavily on the stakes wed set in the bottom. There was a ferocious howl, followed by silence.

Harkat slowly got to his feet and stared over the bush at the pit. I stood and stared with him. We glanced at each other. I said uncertainly, It worked.

You sound like you didnt expect it to, Harkat grinned.

I didnt, I laughed, and started towards the pit.

Careful, Harkat warned. It could still be alive. Stepping in front of me, he moved off to the left and signalled for me to go right. Raising my knife, I circled away from Harkat, then we slowly closed on the pit from opposite directions. Harkat was a few steps ahead of me, so he saw into the pit first. He stopped, confused. A couple of seconds later, I saw why. A body lay impaled on the stakes, blood dripping from its many puncture wounds. But it wasnt the body of a panther it was a red baboon.

I dont understand, I said. That was a panthers growl, not a monkeys.

But how did Harkat stopped and gasped. The monkeys throat! Its been ripped open! The panther must

He got no further. There was a blur of movement in the upper branches of the tree closest to me. Whirling, I caught a very brief glimpse of a long, thick, pure black object flying through the air with outstretched claws and gaping jaws then the panther was upon me, roaring triumphantly. Death was on the cards that day.

Six months earlier.

THE WALK up the tunnels, coming off the back of our battle with the vampaneze, was slow and exhausting. We left Mr Crepsleys charred bones in the pit where hed fallen. Id meant to bury him, but I hadnt the heart for it. Steves revelation that he was the Lord of the Vampaneze had floored me, and now nothing seemed to matter. My closest friend had been killed. My world had been torn asunder. I didnt care whether I lived or died. Harkat and Debbie walked beside me, Vancha and Alice Burgess slightly in front. Debbie used to be my girlfriend, but now she was a grown woman, whereas I was stuck in the body of a teenager the curse of being a half-vampire who only aged one year for every five that passed. Alice was a police chief inspector. Vancha had kidnapped her when wed been surrounded by police. She and Debbie had taken part in the fight with the vampaneze. Theyd both fought well. A shame it had been for nothing.

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Wed told Alice and Debbie all about the War of the Scars. Vampires exist, but not the murderous monsters of myth. We dont kill when we feed. But other night creatures do the vampaneze. They broke away from the vampires six hundred years ago. They always drain their victims dry. Their skin has turned purple over the centuries, and their eyes and fingernails are red. For a long time thered been peace between the two clans. That ended when the Lord of the Vampaneze emerged. This vampaneze leader was destined to lead them into war against the vampires and destroy us. But if we found and killed him before he became a full-vampaneze, the war would go our way instead.

Only three vampires could hunt for the Vampaneze Lord (according to a powerful meddler called Desmond Tiny, who could see into the future). Two were Vampire Princes, Vancha March and me. The other had been Mr Crepsley, the vampire whod blooded me and been like a father to me. Hed faced the person we thought was the Vampaneze Lord earlier that night and killed him. But then Steve sent Mr Crepsley tumbling to his death in a pit of flame-tipped stakes shortly before he let me know that the person Mr Crepsley killed was an impostor, and that Steve himself was the Vampaneze Lord. It didnt seem possible that Mr Crepsley was dead. I kept expecting a tap on my shoulder, and the tall orange-haired vampire to be standing behind me when I turned, grinning wickedly, his long facial scar glinting as he held up a torch, asking where we thought we were going without him. But the tap never came. It couldnt. Mr Crepsley was dead. Hed never come back.