Mug wrinkled his nose and looked at her in sympathy. ‘It’s crazy how much you’ve been through and had to learn in such a short time. Bear with me because you already know some of it, but how about this? Think of the Tor in layers. Let’s start from the bottom. The Lower house is for molers because we like the ground and we have an affinity with the earth element. It is the castle’s old dungeon, and this is where we work and live. The dungeon is the hub of our activities and our tunnels branch out from there and, as you know, we affectionately call it ‘the pit’.
‘Next is the Middle house and parts of it you already know well from spending time there over the years. It is the castle, sitting on top of the old dungeon. The castle holds all the typical castle rooms and is where the Great Hall, royal staterooms and sickroom are found. The castle was covered by molers to create the Tor; covering the castle took molers and mole engineers many years to complete.
‘Lastly, we have the Upper house where the featherlites live and work. It’s perfect for featherlites because they like height and can fly. Molers would not be happy living up there,’ said Mug, grimacing. ‘The Upper house is the top part of the castle and Tor and holds the offices, dining rooms, training ground and barracks that the featherlites use.
The front of the Tor is where the manor house is, and it is considered part of the middle house. The manor house is what the outside world sees, and it feeds into the castle and rooms hidden in the Tor. The back of the Tor feeds into our hidden world and forms part of the cliffs and the entrances to the three valleys. Does that help?’
Deelind blew out a breath and nodded. ‘Thank you, Mug. I think I’m as ready as I can be for the next step. So why did you stop at this corner?’
‘We are standing at the entrance to the valley. Stand next to me and face down the sickroom corridor.’
‘What now?’ she said as soon as she stood next to Mug with her back to the wall painting. But just as she spoke the floor under her feet started to move. The section that moved was big enough for at least three more people. It turned quickly and smoothly. The passageway flowed past and to her delight they were turning outwards towards the large, open valley.
‘Welcome to Brakenhill Valley!’ said Mug, his face creasing in delight.
A quick glance showed her they were standing on a large, stone ledge with a cliff below them and a massive, hundred-foot wall made up of the castle and cliff behind and above them. Stone steps on either side of the ledge would take them down to the valley floor.
The sound of gushing water drew her eyes to the waterfalls that poured down next to each set of steps. She followed their cascade downwards as they pounded into the bottom of the cliff below and then joined to form Brakenhill river. The waterfalls produced a fine mist that spread out across the valley, creating a shimmering rainbow wherever the tiny water droplets hung in the air.
Much of the valley was covered in hectares of forest but alongside the forests and river were swathes of green fields sprinkled liberally with the wild flowers of spring. The view was idyllic, and the energy of the valley was deeply soothing. Deelind’s eyes narrowed. Unlike normal valleys which meandered their way through a mountain range, this one seemed to come to a dead end. It was more like a large, deep basin cut into the land with steep cliffs on all sides. It would take a full day to walk the length of the valley and another day or two to climb up the cliff faces into the mountains.
Two large, wooden drawbridges at the bottom of the steps allowed access onto either side of the Brakenhill river which flowed colourfully into the bottom of the valley. From her first flight exploring the Tor and the valleys, she recognised the footpath that ran alongside the river, on into the village and out the other side via the small wooden foot bridge. She had expected to see the mixture of old English cottages dotted about but the tree houses that surprised her. From high above she had seen the more normal tree houses, with a platform supported by the branches of the tree and the house built on top. She now knew that, in most cases, the tree houses were formed by the large trees themselves, their leafy canopies hiding the windows carved into the sides of the trunks. She tracked the river and footpath until she lost sight of them when they left the far side of the village and entered a large, green forest that ran down the length of the valley.
Children played in the fields and people bustled about doing various chores. She could have stood there all day taking in the serenity of the vista in front of her.
‘That is the Upper house,’ said Mug, pointing upwards. ‘You can see the dragon statues with their heads leaning over the cliff as if they are looking at us. I am sure you will get to see them better when you go up top to start your training this afternoon. The two waterfalls falling each side of us start at the base of those statues.’ Deelind nodded and smiled in appreciation, aware that Mug didn’t know that she had already seen the Upper house layout from high in the air. She walked towards the steps.
‘Do you really want to walk?’ he said, his brow furrowing.
Matching his expression, she said, ‘Uh. You know I can’t fly yet.’
‘I know. I mean, we can if you want, but it will take ages to walk down.’
‘Well, how else, then?’
‘Oh, sorry, Deelind. I keep forgetting that this is all new to you. We can go via Rainbow travel.’
‘And how do we do that?’
‘We travel on the rainbow magic in the water. The water flows in one direction through the valley but the rainbow magic in the water can go in either direction without affecting the flow of the water. The rainbow magic in the waterfall on the left of us goes down and into Brakenhill river and the magic of the waterfall on the right travels up, to the Upper house. You must be careful which colour you ride as each one goes to a different place. It is much like a bus service with a destination and stops along the way.
The red will take you to the Upper house, the green is for anyone wanting to go to Brakenhill Valley, and the blue will get you to the Lower house. Indigo is for the Middle house where Miss Tibi is, and it will take you to Oakman’s pond in the Great Hall.
Violet is used by the Royal house and it will take you anywhere you need to go. Not that there is anyone but Princess Lee left in the Royal house anymore. Captain Roeland sometimes uses it and I think some of the councillors can use it as well, like my dad. If we use it and get caught, we will get into big trouble. Some folk have been banned from using Rainbow travel and forced to walk everywhere. Imagine having to walk up and down these steps every day to get between Brakenhill Valley and the Great Hall. That’s enough to make anyone behave.’
‘So, what colour do we use to go to school and how do you ride a rainbow colour?’ she said, her eyes wide. She could not wait to ride a rainbow colour!
‘From here we need to go to Brakenhill Village so we must use the green colour, or, as we call it, ‘vein’. Travelling by rainbow is easy. All you do is put your hand into the colour you want to use and hold it. The vein then pulls you into it and away you go. You travel with the river and when you come to a fork you point your hand in the direction you want to go.’
‘But how do you know which direction to go in?’
‘Oh, that’s easy. You can see where you are going out of the side of the colour and inside the valley there are signposts next to the river pointing to the different stops along the way.’
‘What if you are in one of the middle veins? How do you see through the colours to the signs?’
‘We learn all about it as we grow up. Let me try and explain as quickly as possible and then we better get going. You can see through the colours but not clearly, so the signs are displayed above the river and next to the river.’
‘How do you reach a vein that is on the far side of the river?’
‘Some veins travel faster than others and if you want to get to a vein on the far side of the river all you have to do is reach over the top of the water and think about the colour you want. It will then stretch over to you and you can grab hold
of it. You can’t wait too long or it will sink back down into the river. When we go down now, stay in the green vein and it will take you into the village centre. Just get out when you see the Learning Tree sign.’
‘Okay, I think.’ Her mind was buzzing. It would have been so much easier to have flown down. ‘Wait! How do you get out at the Learning Tree sign?’
‘As long as your hand is holding the vein you will stay in it. If you release the vein it will pop you out next to the river.’
‘So, who is going first?’
‘I’ll go first. You can see what I do and then follow me,’ he said, stepping towards the waterfall to the left of the ledge and stretching his hand out to the middle where the green vein flowed. The vein bent up to him and he grabbed it with his left hand. She recoiled as he was pulled in, his whole arm disappearing. His body soon followed as he was swallowed up by the colour.
With some trepidation, she walked up to where Mug had disappeared. ‘This is madness, stepping off a ledge like this.’ Before she could overthink it, she held her good hand out over the waterfall. The violet vein bent up, grabbed her by her broken arm, and pulled her into it. ‘Ouch!’ There was little time to think about what had just happened because her arm felt like it was being yanked off her body. In a split second she was inside the violet vein, travelling at great speed head first straight down the cliff face. It felt like she was inside a slippery, wet balloon. Unsure if she could breathe, she held her breath. She could see the other colours next to her and soon she sped past Mug, who was travelling along at a nice, steady pace. Forgetting she was holding her breath, Deelind tried to call to Mug but she was going too fast. She wasn’t even sure if you could talk to someone in another colour but apparently, she could breathe just fine. She plummeted into the pool at the bottom. The vein bent upwards and fed her into Brakenhill river.
The signpost pointing towards Brakenhill Village raced by. She pointed towards the village and was guided off towards it. When the village was next to her, she tried to launch herself out the river, but somehow the vein held fast and she couldn’t get the attention of anyone as she was swept through the village, under a stone bridge and out the other side, into the forest. All she could do was watch and see where this ride was taking her.
Soon it became clear that she was being diverted left into a side stream and under the small wooden foot bridge. Only the violet vein travelled down this stream. Abruptly, she was thrown out of the water to land hard on her bottom next to the stream. Had the vein suddenly realised she was not meant to be travelling in it? Mug had said it was only for the royal family and a few others. Standing up, she straightened her dress and was surprised to find her hat still on her head and her clothes dry. It was like she had been riding a water roller coaster without getting wet. Her broken arm throbbed.
Looking around to see where she had been dropped off, she realised she was surrounded by forest. This part of the forest looked overgrown and it didn’t look like many people came here. She could just make out faint signs of an old path. She should try and go back to the village but where would the violet vein take her next? With little choice, she decided to investigate the path to see if it led back to the village. She wasn’t in a hurry to retry Rainbow travel just yet.
The path was twisty and overgrown but Deelind could follow it without too much trouble. She hadn’t gone far when a strange mist formed in front of her. Stopping, she peered into the mist. She saw nothing but thought she heard something ahead of her. ‘Hello?’ No one answered. She took a few steps forward and suddenly broke through the mist, stumbling into a clearing in the forest.
There in front of her was a cottage that appeared identical to the one she and her gran had lived in. Like her gran’s, this cottage was made of stone and had had a thatch roof, which had fallen in. The windows had rotted, and the front door was gone. Walking slowly up to the cottage she went inside. It felt like she had come home. Her eyes prickled with tears. From the floor layout to the fireplace everything was the same, just old, dirty and broken. There was nothing left inside the cottage and she wandered out of the kitchen back door. Instead of a herb garden at the back there was a graveyard. On entering the graveyard through its gate, it was apparent that someone was looking after the graves. The grass was trim, flowers had been planted all around and the trees were freshly pruned. The gravestones were tall and elegant and positioned in a circle facing out towards the forest. Reading the names on the gravestones, she noticed that there were no dates given.
King Merle Arnethland
Honourable leader of the Dragon Kingdom
Husband of Queen Inna Arnethland
Father of Princess Leilatha Beriogelir-Arnethland & Tia Inna Blodwen-Arnethland
Queen Inna Arnethland
Great Lady of the Dragon Kingdom
Wife of King Merle Arnethland
Mother of Princess Leilatha Beriogelir-Arnethland & Tia Inna Blodwen-Arnethland
Duke Tegalad Beriogelir
Dearly loved Husband of Princess Leilatha Beriogelir-Arnethland
Father of Princess Desiree Tia Beriogelir-Arnethland
Princess Desiree Tia Beriogelir-Arnethland
Cherished daughter to Princess Leilatha Beriogelir-Arnethland & Duke
Tegalad Beriogelir
Princess Tia Inna Blodwen-Arnethland
Wife of Duke Galan Blodwen
Mother of Princess Dei Inna Blodwen-Arnethland
Duke Galan Blodwen
Husband of Princess Tia Inna Blodwen-Arnethland
Father of Princess Dei Inna Blodwen-Arnethland
Princess Dei Inna Blodwen-Arnethland
Daughter of Princess Tia Inna Blodwen-Arnethland & Duke Galan Blodwen
All the graves had headstones and raised beds, except for King Merle Arnethland and Queen Inna Arnethland. Their graves had thick slabs of stone that covered the entire grave and were flush with the ground. The cemetery creeped her out. Usually she liked graveyards, they were so peaceful, but something was not right about these graves. Not wishing to stay any longer and knowing the day was moving on, with Mug probably looking for her, she left the graveyard and followed a path she found at the back of the cottage.
A long, thin, prickly bramble tendril was growing into the path. She reached out to pull the bramble branch to one side. At the same time her foot pressed down on a twig lying in the middle of the path. It broke with a loud crack, as if someone had broken a bone. Deelind froze. A high-pitched scream pierced her ears. Her heart beating rapidly and afraid of what she might find, she followed the sound and looked down at the twig sticking out from under her foot. It was yelling and wriggling like crazy. It had two legs and arms, a mouth and two eyes. The top of its head and its bottom were jagged as if it had been broken off from another twig. Swiftly removing her foot, she bent down to pick it up.
‘I’m so sorry!’ she said, feeling sick at the thought that she had severely injured it. ‘Is there something I can do to help you?’
‘Murderer! Murderer!’ screamed the twig as her hand came near it. The trees around her rustled and then she saw them. What seemed like a thousand walking and shouting twigs erupted out of the forest. At first sight, they looked rather cute but then they started to throw stones and shoot sharp needle thorns at her. The ones shooting the thorns quickly spread across the tree branches while the ones throwing stones dropped to the floor and moved slowly towards her in a line, driving her away.
One managed to jump onto her leg and tried to bite her. She flicked it away and started to run as fast as she could away from the twigs. The twigs in the trees moved from tree to tree, firing the thorns at the same time. Not knowing which direction to run, she ran straight through the low-lying branches of the forest and over small bushes. She kept running until she could no longer hear the twigs behind her.
Eventually she stumbled out of the forest onto a well-worn path and spotted Brakenhill Village up ahead. She was at the far side of the village and she could see a mix of mole fami
lies, elves and witches walking around further up. Blowing out a breath of relief she pulled out the few thorns that had penetrated her clothing, wincing where one had gone deeply into her skin. There was even one embedded in her plaster cast. She was going to have nightmares about little twigs attacking her for a long while.
On walking into the lower end of the village over the foot bridge, the dirt path became a cobbled street. She passed a statue of a large snail with car tyres on either side of its shell. Shaking her head at the oddity, she looked around. She needed to find the school.
‘Everyone has been looking for you,’ said a voice near her.
Turning her head towards the sound, she said, ‘Who said that?’
‘Me. Zackerase the 200th,’ said the voice proudly. Locating the voice, she found herself looking into the snail’s eyes.
‘A talking snail. Why am I not surprised?’
‘Everyone calls me Zak,’ said the snail. ‘I am happy to give you my autograph.’
‘Deelind! Where have you been?’ called Mug, who came running down the street towards her.
‘The rainbow pulled me in and took me for a ride and a half.’
‘Not heard of rainbows pulling anyone in before,’ said Mug, his eyes wide. ‘Where did it take you?’ She felt torn between telling Mug what had happened and her interest in this large, talking snail. Zak was as tall as her, as wide as a small pony, and his shiny mother-of-pearl shell changed colour when the light caught it at different angles.
‘Why would I want your autograph and why do you have car tyres on either side of your shell?’ she asked Zak who was now moving slowly towards them, eating and scraping up all the dirt on the side of the road.
‘Zak is our road sweeper. He was famous when he made it onto the national TV news a few years ago,’ said Mug. ‘Now he thinks everyone should know him and want his autograph. Princess Lee has banned him from leaving the valley.’
‘What happened?’
‘He decided to take a rainbow into the middle of Hyde Park one Saturday morning during the summer holidays. He drew a huge crowd. No one could believe that you could get a snail this big and, more importantly, a snail that could talk. By the time Princess Lee and Captain Roeland heard about it, it was too late and Zak was on the national TV news. Princess Lee went to Hyde Park and had to turn it into a protest about the French restaurants selling snails. She told the media that Zak was a radio-controlled car with speakers. The press seemed to buy that. A few days after the event Princess Lee received a call from a special effects company offering her a job because of how real Zak looked, spoke and moved.’
Deelind and The Icefire Page 12