‘She means act as bait,’ said Kree. ‘Like a fat worm left out on the plain for the buzzards.’
‘Oh,’ said Uki. ‘I see.’
Not really liking the idea, he walked a little up the hillside and then lay down in as crumpled a heap as he could. ‘Aargh!’ he shouted. ‘My leg!’
‘Put some effort into it,’ Jori hissed. ‘That wouldn’t fool anybody!’
‘Neeargh! The pain!’ Uki rolled around for a moment, then popped his head up to check. The bobbing lanterns and torches were beginning to weave down the hill towards him. He gave a bit more of a wiggle, just enough to be spotted. The Maggitches took the bait and started charging down the slope.
‘Hold,’ he heard Ma Gurdle whispering. ‘Hold till they’re nearly upon us.’
Realising that meant after the Maggitches had reached him, Uki got up and then began to hobble with a fake limp, leading them down into the flat marshland, in amongst the reeds and hawthorns. The Maggitches were only too pleased to follow, and began cheering garbled cries of victory, waving their weapons and torches as they came.
Uki kept going, on past the bushes, until his galoshes began to sink in the soggy ground. Then he ducked behind one of the last remaining trees. The Maggitches halted, looking angrily around for him.
And that was when the Gurdles charged.
With a chorus of wild whoops, they burst from their hiding places, falling on the startled Maggitches before they could react. Many were knocked to the ground even as they raised their weapons to defend themselves. Others fell back to the mound, screaming in terror. The sight made Uki wince. They thought the Gurdles were all dead, he realised. They must have no idea what’s going on. He had wanted to avoid all this. It almost made him feel sorry for the Maggitches.
‘Quickly, Uki! Now’s our chance!’ Jori had run up beside him, along with Kree and Coal.
‘Climb on to Mooka’s back,’ said Kree. ‘He can carry us up the hill. Not you though, Coal. You’re too fat.’
‘Charming,’ said Coal, as he helped Jori clamber on to the jerboa. Uki leaped up, enjoying the sensation of having all his power again.
‘Hai, Mooka!’ Kree shouted. ‘Hai! Hai!’
The jerboa sprang forwards, bursting out of the bush and bounding across the battlefield. As soon as he had solid ground beneath his paws, he began to tear up the hillside, dodging the fleeing Maggitches and the Gurdles that were chasing them.
Uki looked over his shoulder to see Coal puffing along behind them. The hill was too steep for him to use his crutch properly and he kept having to pause to knock a Maggitch or two out of the way with his hammer.
Mooka soon cleared all the scrub and reached the top of Gollop’s Mound. Uki pointed over to the huts, the one he had visited still pouring smoke from its doorway. ‘There! Inside that one is a tunnel down into the mound.’
Kree steered Mooka over and they climbed off his back. Jori drew her sword, checking around for any remaining Maggitch warriors.
‘Mooka won’t fit through the tunnel,’ Uki said. ‘We’ll have to leave him here.’
Kree looked horrified. ‘But I want to go with you this time. I want to fight the spirit!’
Just as Jori was beginning to argue, the panting, staggering figure of Coal appeared at the edge of the camp. He came straight over to them, fighting for breath. ‘I … can … stay with the jerboa,’ he gasped. ‘Keep … the way out … clear for you.’
‘Really?’ Kree squeezed his arm. ‘That would be very kind of you.’
‘Not … a problem,’ Coal said, wheezing out each word. ‘I can’t go on … any further … anyway.’
‘Then let’s get on with it,’ said Jori. ‘Before those Maggitches come back up the hill.’
Uki nodded. He shifted his spear to grip it in both paws and took a deep breath of air, ready to step into the smoky hut. Kree did the same and Jori unclipped her flask of dusk potion, taking a deep swig.
‘Onwards,’ she said, and they plunged into the smoke.
Even though he had been in the hut before, the stink still made Uki gag. The fires in the barrels had been put out, leaving a smouldering heap of charred mess in the middle of the room. Squinting through the smoke, Uki headed straight for the tunnel entrance. Behind him, he could hear Jori and Kree spluttering and coughing.
As they ran down the tunnel slope, the air cleared. By the time they reached the junction at the bottom, they could see and breathe normally again.
‘Which way?’ Jori asked. The dusk potion made her movements quick and jerky. Birdlike, almost.
Uki didn’t have to focus hard. Charice was angry and seething. He could feel waves of furious energy pulsing out from the centre of the mound.
‘Left,’ he said, leading the way.
The passage ran straight for a few metres, the walls still scarred by the Maggitches’ charge earlier. It came to a steep staircase, the steps carved out of the earth itself. Just as they had begun to descend, a Maggitch appeared, clambering towards them.
‘Allow me,’ said Jori. She stepped in front of Uki and then moved so quickly he couldn’t even see her actions. There was the sound of her sword swishing through the air, and in the next blink the Maggitch collapsed to the floor. The spear it had been holding was sliced into tiny pieces and there was an egg-sized lump on its head, in amongst all the boils and pustules.
‘Never attack someone upwards on a staircase,’ Jori said, already stepping over her victim and heading down the steps.
They were challenged three more times, and each Maggitch was quickly knocked out by Jori. It seemed nearly all of Charice’s soldiers had been sent out after Uki. She must have thought herself safe in her hideout, with all the Gurdles dead in their village.
After running along several narrow tunnels and down another flight of steps, they came to a wide double door. Lanterns burned in alcoves on either side, and a sickly, pungent smell seeped through the cracks, choking up the tunnel.
‘Mik jibbadan lashki!’ Kree pulled her cloak up over her mouth and nose. ‘What is that stink?’
‘It smells like the barrels of maggots did,’ said Uki. ‘Only much, much worse.’
Jori had covered her nose as well. She stood at the doorway, ready to kick it open. ‘Is it Charice?’ she asked. ‘Is she inside?’
Uki nodded. The force of her power was stronger than ever. Even with Iffrit’s immunity, he was finding it hard to stand. He lifted his spear, ready to throw, to get the crystal close enough so that it could draw her in and trap her. He gave Jori a nod. She nodded back and sent a spinning kick into the doors that splintered them off the hinges, revealing the chamber within.
Uki stepped through, ready to hurl his spear straight away this time. He wouldn’t give Charice a split second to unleash another cloud of flies to stop him.
Except she was nowhere to be seen.
The circular room had an island of earth in the centre, empty except for a crude chair made of lashed-together branches and scraps of snakeskin.
Around it, in a ring, was a ditch filled to the brim with the source of the putrid stink. Larvae. More than there had been in the barrels. More than Uki could ever have imagined. Millions upon millions of them, writhing and seething. Fat white ones, tiny pink and brown ones. Mealworms, bloodworms, threadlike twitching mosquito larvae. They crawled over each other in an endless sea.
Here and there, bits of their dinner surfaced before sinking back down into the seething mess. Pieces of rotten meat, some with flaps of skin still attached. Frogs, toads, newts … even a rat’s tail and other fragments of fur that could have been weasels, badgers or worse … rabbits.
‘Where is she?’ Jori asked. ‘My potion won’t last much longer. We need to find her!’
‘I think,’ said Uki, wincing. ‘I think she’s in there somewhere.’
They moved closer to the ditch, looking down into the sea of bubbling larvae. The sight, combined with the stench and the overpowering sense of Charice herself, was making Uki feel horribl
y sick. He could see Kree was suffering as well. Jori seemed to be coping better, but that was probably due to the potion she had taken.
‘What do we do? Dive in and search for her?’ Kree gave the maggot ditch a poke with her spear. It was very deep.
Uki thought hard. Climbing into that seemed crazy. Maybe even dangerous. Who knew what those twisted grubs would do to living flesh, and being eaten alive by a hundred thousand tiny jaws was not his idea of fun.
Then he remembered the barrels.
‘We could set fire to them,’ he said. ‘That would drive her out if she’s hiding there.’
‘Good idea,’ said Jori. In a twitch, she dashed back to the doorway and fetched one of the lanterns. She emptied the oil out into the ditch and then dropped the lantern in. A puddle of fire instantly appeared, and the larvae surrounding it went crazy, trying to wriggle away from the flames.
‘There are barrels of oil up in the hut,’ Uki said.
He was about to suggest running back to fetch it, when he felt a surge of Charice’s power. A blast of sickness that made every cell in his body clench up. Even with all his strength, it was enough to make him stagger. Kree and Jori both clutched their stomachs and then toppled forwards, tumbling into the ditch.
‘No!’ Uki shouted. He ran forwards to grab them, but they sank under the surface quicker than he could move. He plunged his arms in amongst the squirming grubs and groped around, trying to ignore the tickling, seething, wriggling sensation. But his paws found nothing. His friends had been dragged deep down, out of his grasp.
‘Charice!’ he screamed. ‘Give them back! I know you can hear me!’
Looking across the chamber, he tried to spot some sign of the spirit, or the body of Granny Maggitch it was hiding inside. If he could capture it quickly, maybe the maggots would release Kree and Jori.
It seemed hopeless, but then a ripple appeared. Like a slowly building ocean wave, it rose on the far side of the room and began travelling over to him. Something was pushing the larvae up from underneath, sending them tumbling to the sides of the pit as it passed.
Uki readied his spear and stepped into a throwing stance. He gathered all his strength, all his energy and held it tight, ready to unleash. As soon as Charice breached the surface …
There was an explosion of tiny, wriggling worm bodies as something huge burst upwards, out from the bottom of the ditch.
Uki sensed it rising, up and up and up – much bigger than a rabbit, more solid than a spirit. He lunged forwards with his spear, even as his sight was clouded by thousands of scattered maggots. There was a solid thud as it connected with something fleshy …
… and then the larvae fell away, revealing his target.
Not Charice. Not Granny Maggitch.
He had struck an adder. A big one. Rearing up, almost to the ceiling, it was clearly in the clutches of Charice’s disease. The thing had gaping open sores all over its body and its eyes were blinded by dripping pus. Its mouth was choked with ulcers. Even its deadly fangs had rotted away and dropped out.
Uki’s crystal spearhead was lodged in between two of its ribs, sunken deep into the decayed flesh. He tugged hard, dragging it free for another strike, but the snake was too quick.
Even though it had no fangs to bite with, it still had the use of its long, sinuous body. Before Uki could jab it again, the snake wrapped itself around him, squeezing, crushing and lifting him from the ground.
Coils and coils looped across him, slithering tighter and tighter, crushing the air from his lungs. Only the strength of the trapped spirits stopped him from being popped like a fat blister.
Instead he hung there, dangling over the sea of bubbling maggots, his useless spear still clutched in a paw that poked out from the adder’s coils. His head jutted out of the top, his eyes still searching the ditch for any sign of his friends.
There was none. Just him, the snake and the muffled sound of crazy, manic laughter.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Charice
The snake was slowly suffocating him. Every time he breathed in, it tightened its grip so he had less air in his lungs. If it kept on, he’d soon be out of precious breath.
Uki tried to use all his strength to break its hold, but the beast’s scales were like mirrors. His feet slipped off them wherever he tried to find a spot to push against. His arms were pinned to his sides, useless. He sucked in a last gasp, feeling his head begin to spin, the edges of his vision begin to blur.
‘Squash, smush, crush, mush, grindy-grind him into dust.’ A sing-song voice echoed around the chamber. The snake turned its head towards it, moving Uki as well. He caught sight of a body emerging from the sea of larvae, like a bather stepping out after a dip.
‘Jori …’ he managed to gasp, but it wasn’t her. As the maggots and worms fell away, he could see a snakeskin cloak, draped round an old rabbit’s body. Her skin, where it wasn’t covered in the marks of plague, hung from her bones. Her deep-set eyes were swollen shut and she moved like a puppet being dangled from a string.
‘He smells of fire, he does, my children. Burny-burny. Hot orange flames, birdy in the sky with its bright little eye. I spy, I spy, kiss the girls and make them cry.’
‘Granny,’ Uki tried to shout, but it was an effort to talk. ‘Granny Maggitch! If you can hear me … the creature that’s controlling you … try and fight her off. She’s going to kill everyone. All your family, all of the rabbits in the Fenlands …’
‘Who are you talking to, little ball of fluff? Whining like a baby mouse. Squeak, squeak, crunch, die. Soon you’ll be just a bump in that snake’s tummy. Bumpty dumpty, sat on a wall. Swallowed alive, bones and all …’
As Uki stared at the body of Granny Maggitch, jutting out of the pit of larvae, it seemed as though the air around her began to shimmer. Sickly green light swirled, drifting into the shape of Charice.
He had glimpsed her at the Gurdle village, but now he saw her properly. She was tall and skeletal. Her skin was furless and blotched all over with spots and sores. She had tiny ears at the sides of her head, and a strange, pointed nose. The features of an Ancient, like Iffrit and Gaunch.
Long, thin, straggly hair hung from her head, swirling and swaying as if she was floating underwater. Around her neck was a garland of flowers that seemed to be continually growing – blooming, shrivelling and then bursting open again. Except they didn’t look like they had petals. They were living, twitching, swelling things – writhing, dividing and spreading.
Diseases, Uki thought. She’s wearing a necklace of diseases.
She smiled as she spoke to him in her lullaby voice, but it wasn’t a nice smile. Wide and manic, showing narrow yellow teeth and blackened gums. It was the grin of someone whose mind has been boiled soft as mashed turnips.
‘Charice, please,’ Uki said. ‘You can take me, but let my friends go …’
At the mention of her name, the ancient spirit’s face changed. The crazed grin widened and her blank yellow eyes grew tiny pinprick pupils.
‘What nom-noms has my petty-pet got here?’ she said, as if seeing him for the first time. ‘That creeping, crawling thing with the fire guardian in his brain? Burning, boiling, trouble and toiling? The snatching sneaker who snaffled my brothers? Got your crystals back, did you? Your brightly blinking baubles? And brought a bunch of thugs to try and burn my creatures … my bearers of beautiful blessings …’
‘They aren’t blessings,’ Uki tried to shout. ‘They’re poison! They’re going to kill every living creature in the Fenlands!’
‘Oh yes, yes, yes!’ Charice cackled with horrid laughter. ‘That’s what I’ve made them for. Knit one, purl one; spit one, churn one. All those years stuck in that prison … I brewed up so many vibrant viruses: such gorgeous germs, perfect plagues, sweet, savoury sicknesses. Now I’m going to unleash them all! Everything will rot and bubble! Sing to me, my pretties!’
‘You can’t do that …’ Uki started to say, but the spirit was lost in a frantic dance above the sur
face of the maggots, singing and twirling.
‘Hubble, bubble, pus and rubble,’ she cooed. ‘Down with their buildings, their roads, their meddlings! Atishoo! Atishoo! A plague a day rots the doctor away …’
‘Charice!’ Uki shouted, straining against the snake’s coils for enough room to snatch a breath. ‘If you spread your diseases everywhere, there’ll be nothing left! You’ll be all on your own! Think how lonely and empty you’ll be …’
‘Own? Alone?’ Charice shook her head. Her face turned mean. ‘Why would I stop? The ones that made me never will. They are the vilest plague of all. They spread and spread, killing everything they touch. Greed like an ocean. They have eaten the whole world, covered it in poison and junk. Trashtic plastic. The sea is thick with it. Hot smoke, smoggles and foggles. The air, the sky. There will be no end until they are ended. Until I wipe the whole world clean and build it up again with my beautiful bacterium.’
Uki realised she was talking about the Ancients. In her unhinged mind, they were still here, still alive. As if all the millennia she had spent locked away hadn’t even happened.
‘The Ancients … the ones that made you … have already gone, Charice! You don’t need to wipe them out. There are different creatures living here now. Peaceful, innocent ones …’
‘Gone?’ Charice peered across the room at him. Then she nodded to herself. ‘Yes. Of course. Gone. You rabbit-things are here now. But you’re almost the same as them, underneath the fur, you know. Hoppity-pop. Like cousins. Brothers and sisters, even.’
‘We’re not! We’re nothing like them! We believe in the Goddess. In the Balance! We want to live in harmony with life, not destroy it!’
‘Really? Is that so?’ Charice moved closer and Uki could see the spindly figure of Granny Maggitch, suspended inside the cloud of green light. ‘Liar, liar, world on fire. I know that’s not true. You’re all digging, digging, digging away. In the city … Eisenfell … there are metal machines and smoke. The process has already started. Gobble, gobble, gobble. Before long you’ll be tearing up the forests, pouring sludge into the sea …’
Uki and the Swamp Spirit Page 15