Nathan grinned. “How’s the crazy crowd doing in Lashtang?” he asked. “And is Little Seed still alright?”
“Little Seed,” said Hermes with a frown of disapproval, “is thriving on daily feasts, cakes, and affection. Now she wishes to return to Sparkan, and this is being arranged.”
Hambrick, as usual, interrupted. “The creature that threatened my daughter should be destroyed, not molly-coddled.” He stood centre room, his hands clasped behind his back, which made his stomach poke out. “We were kept prisoner by that vile beast for many months.”
Bayldon’s patience continued. “As has been explained, my friend,” he murmured, “the lava wolves are not as dangerous as they seem. Sadly Braxton did not realise this until he had already dragged it from its home, so he then starved it and forced it to behave as a threatening gaoler, or it would have never been fed it all.”
Hambrick stamped one large foot. “I maintain that the wolf is a ravenous beast. Its slavering jaws reached for my dearest daughter on more than one occasion.”
Even Bayldon was getting fed up. “Yet had you been courageous enough to attempt escape,” he said mildly, “you would have discovered that neither the wolf nor the young girl were dangerous. Simply hungry and miserable and in need of help.”
Glaring, Hambrick marched over and stood in front of Bayldon. “Are you calling me a coward, sir?”
Bayldon smiled, still polite. “Certainly not,” he said. “I don’t know you well enough to make any judgement. However, I should remind you that I am not a sir, I am the empling. “
“And I, the empole,” grunted Hambrick.
“Precisely,” Bayldon said. “The empling naturally takes precedence.”
Nathan was trying hard not to laugh, watching as both Alice and Alfie walked over. Alice said, “My lords, I never met this poor little creature, but she sounds mistreated. And since she isn’t here anyway –”
And Alfie snorted, saying, “I likes dogs meself. Wanted ter get one, but we’s surrounded by cats.”
Mouse was grooming her whiskers, but keeping a sharp lookout for Hermes. The kittens had grown considerably but were still small and active enough to cause chaos, and at that moment Flop was hiding under one of the chairs, tail twitching, ears alert, ready to pounce on Mars Bar as he walked past, looking for his mother. Gosling was asleep, white fur nestled in white feathers, as Hermes sat beside Nathan. Sam curled in the window seat, watching Mouse, while Peter curled in the second window seat, sucking his thumb. John was outside saying goodbye to his father, Poppy and Tansle were at the table, helping themselves to a bowl of strawberries, while Bayldon sat comfortably, looking up at Hambrick.
“I shall order more cider and wine,” decided Alice, walking to the door, but it was at that exact moment that everything changed.
The wind blew in with a whistle so high pitched it sounded like a steam train about to crash. It blew through everyone’s hair, shook the chandelier until three of the candles fell out and one broke on the floorboards, ruffled the heavy tapestries on the walls, whipped up a strawberry and then dropped it on Poppy’s head, swept around skirts and ankles, pounded into Hermes’ feathers and frightened Gosling, and finally stopped in the middle of the hall where it spiralled upwards, then downwards, and started to take shape.
Braxton, his friend Chadrack and two rough looking men appeared from the twisting gusts. The two men, one short, one tall and both well-muscled, seemed utterly confused, but Braxton and Chadrack stepped forwards, grinning and raising their swords.
The shock stunned everybody. For a moment nobody moved except Braxton, who swept his blade forwards in a threatening gesture. “Well now,” he said, “what a pleasant gathering. It seems the only one missing is my charming brother. And wine, of course.”
“I was just about to order some,’ said Alice with a faint hiccup, “but I’m certainly not ordering any for you. How dare you appear in my home without invitation or excuse? Get out. I’m sure you can disappear as easily as you appeared.”
Braxton snorted. “Certainly, if I wanted to,” he said. “My magic is excellent, thank you. But I’ve no intention of disappearing. And we have a very good excuse for coming, as I’m sure you must guess. I want my prisoners back.”
Hambrick had quickly moved behind the long table, and Tansle had scuttled beneath it. “I won’t come,” Hambrick muttered. “You haven’t got that monster with you anymore.”
“Oh, I and my men are far more dangerous than the wolf ever was,” Braxton sniggered. “And there’s no one in this room with the power to challenge me.”
Overcoming the shock, Nathan and Poppy jumped to their feet while Alfie marched over, and all three stood between the unwanted arrivals and everyone else. Peter and Sam hurried across the room and Hermes hopped up onto the table, spread his wings very wide, and hissed loudly. “There is more magic in this room than you traitors realise,” Hermes said. “My magic is considerable and I hereby challenge you puny humans. My illustrious Lord the Empole also has potent magic, and so does his illustrious sister.”
It was Chadrack who answered with a sarcastic smile. “Children? Oh, how fearsome. And a goose, plump enough for the spit roast? How terrifying.”
“And perhaps I should introduce myself,” said Bayldon, standing slowly and walking from the shadows. “I am the rightful empling of Lashtang, and you have no conception of the strength of my magical powers.”
Everyone stared at everyone else. Nathan guessed that the two fighting men Braxton had brought with him would have no power at all, but he didn’t know about Chadrack, and certainly Braxton was an excellent wizard. It was the taller of the two men who glared and reached out to grab at Hambrick. Hambrick quickly moved further back behind the table, but did not see the shorter of the two men come to his other side, both arms pinning him against the wall.
It was, most unexpectedly, Mouse who made the next move. She flew at the short man’s ankles, clung on and bit hard, her claws ripping through the tight Lashtang trousers and into the short muscled leg. The man squealed and let Hambrick free, but at once the taller man kicked Mouse away and grabbed Hambrick, punched him in the face, and then threw him to the ground.
The fight swirled around the hall as previously the strange and magical wind had done. Nathan grabbed up his sword from the hearth, and rushed at Braxton. Alfie, well-practised and his own sword high, stormed Chadrack, slowly over-powering him. Alfie was the better swordsman, but Chadrack was the larger man.
Poppy threw the empty stone bowl at one of the men. It hit him on the side of the head, but did not knock him out. Poppy ran around the room looking for something else to throw. Sam clasped Mouse, protecting and comforting her, while Peter ran into the hall to call for help.
Tansle was still under the table, and Hambrick behind it on the ground, one of Braxton’s men on top of him. Hermes screeched and rushed at the other, his beak in the shorter man’s eyes, who now also screeched.
Nathan was totally over-powered by Braxton, who was playing with him, his sword pricking, teasing and cutting. Soon Nathan was bleeding badly, although all the wounds were shallow.
Bayldon, unarmed, had been standing with great concentration, attempting to summon his small magical powers, but not much had happened. So now, seeing his son bleeding, he leapt on Braxton’s back, grabbed at his hair and pulled him away. Braxton lost his sword in the tumble, but he fought back with furious force, punching, kicking, biting and cursing. Bayldon would not release his hold on the man’s thick black hair, and gradually lumps of it were wrenched out.
Arthur had left for his own home some minutes previously, but now John, the steward, three scullery boys and the chief cook came running in, shouting and hurling saucepans and heavy pewter mugs.
Both Alice and the cook had grabbed carving knives from the kitchen, and now raced towards Braxton and the others.
It was at this precise moment that one window smashed with a huge explosion of shattered glass, and in flew a tall thin man in tigh
t black clothes and a black top hat, sitting astride a small clockwork helicopter, its tiny whizzing propeller occasionally knocking against the hat.
“Oh no, Wagster,” yelled Alice, and immediately Poppy threw a candlestick at him, which caught in the propeller, John jumped up to drag him down, and Nathan lost concentration, looked at Wagster, and didn’t see Braxton break free from Bayldon, pick up his blade, and come at him with his sword swinging.
Nathan, his shoulder now bleeding badly and almost every other part of him trickling blood from many tiny wounds, now fell backwards, and was caught by his father, who carried him carefully to the chair in front of the window away from the fighting.
Wagster was cackling. “Spugalug empling, pretending to be an emperor,” he called at Bayldon. And two empoles, each sillier than the other. Two empolas, one with wopsy hair, but where’s the other? Hiding under the dinner table? What a supper to be had indeed.”
Alfie managed to slash Chadrack in the thigh, and then in the forearm, and finally the man fell. Turning quickly, he then ran at Wagster, but the Hazlett wizard scooted up to the high-beamed vaulted ceiling on his clockwork helicopter, and zoomed six times around the chandelier before hopping off and sitting on one of the wide wooden beams, his little machine beside him. He called down, “Try and catch me now, teeny weeny human meanies.”
Hermes, spitting and hissing, flew into the air, and pecked wildly at Wagster, but his anger and his beak didn’t bother Wagster at all, who just laughed.
Meanwhile the taller of Braxton’s men was sitting on Hambrick, the shorter man was struggling with the chef and two scullery boys, the steward and Bayldon were attempting to deal with Nathan’s wounds, while everyone else was chasing Braxton and the badly injured Chadrack.
“Carry my boy upstairs to his bed to recover,” Bayldon ordered the steward, but Nathan bounced up with a shout.
“No. I’m not running out now. This is serious.”
“So are some of these wounds,’ said his father.
“I’m not dying,” objected Nathan. “They don’t even hurt,” he lied, “and I have to help get rid of all these horrible men.”
Poppy knelt at his side. “Are you alright? Good,” and handed him back the sword he’d been using before. “You’re a good shot, Nat. Throw this at Wagster.”
“Hold on. Wot’s ruddy happening?” called John.
Wagster was changing.
His body darkened and grew even thinner. His face slipped into liquid black, then sharpened, and two vivid green eyes glared out from a serpent’s furious face. It opened its jaws wide, two long fangs jutted out, dripping venom, as it’s tongue, a great thin whip of dark red, forked and flexed. Wagster’s body coiled into fat black scaled muscle, and with a silent slither, wound around the ceiling beams, staring down.
The steward fainted on top of Peter, who had to wriggle out. The cook and two of the scullery boys screamed and rushed from the hall. The third scullery boy burst into tears and huddled on the floor in a corner, his hands over his head.
Sam clutched Mouse, Mars Bar and Flop as tightly as he could, and the man sitting on Hambrick vomited all over him.
Braxton laughed. “Now, my friends, who is first to surrender, and give up my prisoners to me? And shall I take the rest of you prisoner too? Or just the vile Octobrs who want to usurp the Hazlett throne?”
For a moment no one else moved, staring up at the huge coiled python, and at Braxton, Chadrack and the short man, who now all stood together with their swords in their hands. His knees and his voice shaking from loss of blood, Nathan managed to stand, and called, “You’re a vile pig, Braxton. When my mother catches you, she’ll turn you into one.”
“Forget your childish insults,” Braxton said, “where’s the scrawny child Tansle? Give her up now, or the great Wagster will eat you all.”
Bayldon, who was taller than Braxton, strode over, pointing the tip of his sword at the other man’s face. “A sword kills faster than a snake,” he said. “Who will die first, I wonder.”
But Chadrack, although bleeding badly now, moved instantly, knocking Bayldon’s sword aside, so that Braxton had no more than a tiny scratch on his nose. “Try that again,” Braxton shouted, “and I’ll have Wagster eat you first.”
But the great serpent was coiling downwards, its tongue flicking in and out, searching for Hambrick’s little daughter. She was still in a shivering ball beneath the table not far from where her father lay, who no longer making any effort to escape as the tall man was sitting heavily on his chest amidst the slimy puddle of puke.
Nathan stood beside his father and faced Braxton. “Tansle is upstairs in bed,” he said. “What a bully you are, wanting to fight with a little girl. You haven’t got the courage to do anything alone. First you used the lava wolf, and now you use that horrible Wagster.”
“Or is it Yaark?” called Alice from beside him. “Does Yaark climb into other people, like Gilden and Wagster? What’s that ugly fat snake doing in my house?”
A long slow hiss seemed to ooze from the serpent as it began to coil downwards, slithering from beam to beam and to the chandelier, wrapping around the heavy metal with a slight swaying imbalance. Still everyone was staring and no one was sure what to do. Even Braxton seemed unsure. They waited, as though mesmerised, for Wagster.
Chadrack and the shorter man now sat heavily, almost falling to the floor as both were wounded, but Braxton stood powerful and unmoving, gazing upwards. Poppy, Nathan, John and Alfie tried to reach the snake with their weapons, while Bayldon stood in a corner, again trying to summon some magic.
The serpent’s head hovered. Winding down from the lower beam, it hung half its length, then circling, hissing softly.
Now it was within reach, yet no one could reach it. Nathan, John, and Alfie rushed forwards, swords pointing, but the blades seemed to slide away. Peter threw his shoe, but it bounced off. Bayldon, marching over, tried to put his hands around its neck, to pull it down, but his arms were blocked. Wagster was surrounded by an invisible barrier and could not be hurt. And then it turned to Alice.
She had been standing, facing upwards, half from panic as her thoughts flew in circles, wondering what she could do. As the green slit eyes peered unblinking into her face and coming ever closer until they were almost nose to nose, she realised that she was somehow paralysed and could not even stretch a finger. The snake opened its jaws. They appeared to disconnect, yawning ever wider. And then its tongue began to lick, slipping across her eyelids and down her cheeks, then finally between her lips and into her throat.
Alfie screamed, but as he hammered on the invisible barrier, he had to watch as Wagster began to eat Alice. Sam was crying. John and Nathan encircled the serpent’s swaying body, slicing with their swords. But nothing pierced the invisible wall.
The open mouth of the serpent slipped over Alice’s head and pushed downwards until her entire face disappeared. It then began to coil around her, its massive body stretching down and clasping her in an impossible embrace. Its coils constricted, tightening around her. And still no one could touch either of them.
Braxton’s eyes gleamed. They shone nearly as brightly as the serpent’s, as he watched his success reach further than he had hoped.
But Bayldon crossed to Nathan, putting out his hand. “Give me your knife.”
“None of them work,” panted Nathan, his wounds bleeding even more as he danced around, trying to do something.
“No.” Bayldon shook his head. “The Knife of Clarr.”
“I’ll try with it,” Nathan nodded. “It’s supposed to burn anyone else.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Bayldon said. “Give it to me.” Surprised, but hopeful, Nathan pulled out the knife and handed it over. His father took it, and held it without hesitation, and turned to the impregnable Wagster. Alice could now hardly be seen. Her shoulders had disappeared into its huge jaws, and her body was being squeezed by the black iridescent coils. Bayldon marched forwards and held up the blade of the knife. He
spoke so that his voice echoed, calling, “I am the empling of all Lashtang and I command the obedience of the Knife of Clarr. You will break through this magical barrier and you will attack the serpent Wagster. You will leave the serpent vulnerable to my attack and you will save the girl Alice Parry.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The invisible barrier crumbled like thin glass. Fallen shards turned to fragmented mist and smelled like acid spice.
Bayldon, still wielding the knife, thrust one hand around the serpent’s neck, and slashed down with the blade. No blood seeped from the gash, but the wound was long and opened wide.
With a gurgling cough, it released Alice, pulled back and away, and swung out for Bayldon. Alice, sweating and crying, fell onto the ground. There was slime in her hair and her face was bruised and thick with a vile brown jelly. Alfie rushed to her. “Did it bite you?”
She hardly knew, and sighed with relief as Alfie tugged at the table cloth and wiped her face and hair as clean as he could. “No signs o’ bites,” he announced. “But reckon that monster has broke yer ribs wiv all that squash an’ squidge.”
Alice was heaving, bent over and clutching her chest. Poppy ran over, helping her to her feet. “Up to bed,” she insisted. “Alfie, let's get Alice upstairs.”
Nathan and John ran straight to Bayldon. The serpent was wrapping itself around his arms, but he was wrestling, grappling with its coils and hoisting it away. It was far too large, even for all three of them together, but they managed to keep it from biting, and stabbed it repeatedly in the body. It still did not bleed, but oozed a brown slime and the stink of rotten food. It hissed and spat, and as one coil was thrown off, so another slipped into a tighter squeeze lower down. Now it held Bayldon, Nathan and John, and as they fought it, so it seemed to grow.
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