Blind Man's Buff

by Barbara Gaskell Denvil

  Poppy, seeing them arrive through the cottage window, ran out to greet them. She hugged her mother, and laughed when she found snowflakes on Messina’s shoulders. “Well, that’s the difference between the weather in the Clarr mountains, and the weather everywhere else,” smiled Messina. “It is still summer. But in those high mountains it is always like a freezing winter.”

  “How is Gilden?” asked Sam, hurrying forwards.

  “Come and see.” Poppy took his arm and she, Sam, Peter, Alfie and Nathan all bustled indoors. John was already sitting beside the long bed, and looked up as they all crowded in. Alice stood at the other side, holding a bowl of golden figs.

  “Come meet the real Gilden,” John said. “Don’t look no different. But tis a long story.”

  The great tiger, his fur gleaming in the sunshine which slanted through the window, looked more beautiful than usual, and there were no scars nor signs of injury. The bleeding sores and the open wounds had all gone. It almost seemed that Gilden was smiling.

  “I welcome you all,” he said. “And I thank you all for a rescue which both saved my life, and has helped to weaken the monster Yaark.”

  “But you used to say you were Yaark,” mumbled Peter. “It was all very confusing.”

  It was Alice who came over, handing half a golden fig to Gilden, and then sat on the edge of the bed. “Sherdam has gone off exploring Lashtang for more golden fig trees,” she said. “Gilden will explain about that. But perhaps we could start by talking about all that dreadful succubus stuff. I understand it better now.”

  Nathan sat down very suddenly on a stool by the window. “And it got into my head. That was yuck. One of the worst things – ever! I don’t want to think about it.”

  “I will speak only of myself,” said Gilden. He had been stretched on the bed, but now he sat, his paws crossed before him. His black and golden eyes were alight, and the rich colours of his fur seemed even brighter. “It is a long story,” he continued. “But I will make it as short as possible, and I will start with the creature Yaark. He comes from another planet, far, far away, and even he himself is not sure how he arrived here. There was a storm of magnetic electricity, and a great meteor broke from one planet, and fell through black space. I would guess that Yaark was buried within that rock, and as the meteor passed by, so he was dislodged, tumbled out, and floated down to Lashtang.”

  “How long ago?” asked Sam, curling on the bed beside Gilden.

  “I do not know.” Gilden flicked back his ears, “It is unimportant. All we need to know is how Yaark operates now. He has no body of his own. His power is concentrated in one little blue sparkling star, very tiny and very wicked. But to work his magic, to hurt other people and claim power, he needs to take over someone else’s body. This is what a succubus is. So he steals the shapes of others, and this means he can move around, and speak, use his wicked magic, and kill his enemies.”

  “He stole your body?” whispered Alice. “That’s why we saw him as a tiger the first time?”

  “True indeed,” Gilden answered. “When a succubus wishes to take over your body, he must first hurt you. He can then slip into your mind through the wound he has caused himself. If you don’t realise what is happening, you may accept these new thoughts, and gradually the thing will put you to sleep, and speak through your mouth, your mind, and use your arms and your legs. The more often you let him in, the easier he will find it. Eventually he will slip in when you do not even realise. And it becomes harder and harder to keep him out.”

  John was frowning. “So’s when we sees Yaark wiv them bits o’ maggot and moose and other stuff, tis wot he’s bin stealing.”

  “Yes, exactly so,” said Gilden. “He could, if he wishes, then suck the real life out of the body he takes over, until the original creature does not exist anymore. The succubus would then have his own body forever. But Yaark has not yet done this, for he enjoys leaping from place to place, and using whoever he wishes.”

  “Like me,” Nathan shivered, horrified. “But I’ll never let him do it again.”

  “He is hard to resist,” Gilden shook his head. “But there are ways, which we must learn, and magic we can discover.”

  “Bet he takes them slugs and maggots ‘cos they’s easy,” John said. “Reckon maggots doesn’t know how to resist.”

  Having waited until everyone else had finished, now Poppy stood up, saying “Yaark’s been taking over Wagster. That’s why Wagster’s a real pig sometimes, and turns into a snake, and does real mean stuff. It’s because Yaark’s inside, and he can’t get rid of him. That’s why Brewster asked me to help.”

  “I thought Yaark was on the Hazlett side. I thought he was the Hazlett friend.” Alice took a small piece of golden fig, another very large piece for Gilden, and offered the rest around. “This is one of the good ways of keeping out a succubus,” she said, licking the juice from her fingers. “We need to grow more fig trees.”

  “Yaark is the friend of no one,” Gilden said, licking his own lips as he swallowed the slice of rich fruit. “He wants power only for himself. He might even sometimes slip inside Clebbster. He pretends friendship, but a succubus has no friends.”

  “He wants to rule all Lashtang?” asked Nathan.

  “Most certainly he does.” This was Messina, suddenly walking into the bedroom. “We must face a war with the Hazletts, to take back the throne for the Octobrs. But first we must destroy Yaark. And that may even be a greater and more vicious war than the other.”

  “How does you kill a star?” demanded Alfie. “And just a weeny star at that?”

  “Reckon you gotta trap him first,” said John. “Get the nasty little thing in a pot, then squash him flat.”

  “Fire,” suggested Sam.

  “Throw him into the sea where that ruddy great giant octopus was today, out at sea,” said Peter.

  “Oh no,” wailed Poppy. “If Yaark got eaten by a giant octopus, then that would be Yaark’s next body. He’d be terrifying.”

  “We must devise a plan,” Gilden said. “We must trap him. But it will not be easy.”

  “Nothing is,” said Messina softly. “The harder plans are always the best. And I refuse to fail. The Octobrs will always succeed.”

  Gilden stretched. Like a huge cat he stretched his back legs, his neck, and his front paws, then settled back down with his tail wrapped around him. “I think one thing is possible,” he said very softly, “although I cannot be sure. I believe that if the creature that Yaark is occupying, whether this be myself or another, is forced to eat the golden fig, then Yaark would be violently ill, and would therefore be much weakened and forced from the body he was occupying. He would then be easily trapped.”

  Messina nodded, smiling. “That is an excellent idea, my friend. The golden fig is also a marvellous cure for anyone recently taken over by Yaark, for it gives them back their strength. It will help cure anything and everything to some extent, and can also strengthen the magic of one whose magic is normally small. So I would suggest we begin a great effort to grow more of these trees throughout Lashtang.”

  “And Sparkan,” said Poppy at once.

  “There are seeds inside the fruit,” Gilden said, grooming his whiskers. “It is the buried seed which may grow into the tree.”

  “I shall speak to a gardener,” said Messina, “and discuss what must be done. In the meantime Sherdam has gone searching for these trees, but I doubt he will find many.”

  “I will never again permit Yaark entrance into my mind and heart,” said Gilden, “unless it is intentional, as part of a plan. But although I am deeply grateful for the time I have spent here as your guest and patient, I must soon return to the Wild. I cannot remain here. But I shall remain in contact.”

  Poppy sighed. “I wish you could stay,” she said.

  “I will see you often, I am sure of it,” Gilden said. “But in the meantime, I do believe there are two other creatures, of particular innocence, which need your care.”

  As he lay back do
wn, Poppy ran to the window. She peeped out, staring around the garden. “I can’t see anything else,” she said, “only Alan. He’s out there chewing Dad’s hair as usual. And Dad is sitting on the grass.”

  “If you go outside to speak to him,” Gilden said with a yawn, “you will meet the new arrivals.”

  “More maggots?” giggled Poppy, but Gilden had closed his eyes.

  Messina, smiling, stayed sitting beside Gilden but all the others hurried out into the sunshine. As they ran to the kitchen door, Granny called, “Dinner will be ready in one hour’s time, and I’ve baked apple and fig pie and custard for later this evening.”

  Bayldon looked up as Nathan, Poppy and the others came running out. Alan also looked up, continued chewing with a slight burp, and ignored them. Bayldon smoothed back his hair, dislodged it from Alan’s teeth, and pointed. “We have two new little visitors, it seems,” he said.

  They all stared. Hiding under a small bush at the back of the garden, covered in bright purple flowers and large dark green leaves, were two little white bundles.

  It was hard to see what they were. “Wot’s that?” asked John, half whispering in case he frightened the two tiny new animals.

  “Candykins and Gillywobbles,” said Bayldon with a wave of his arm. “Go and take a look. But be gentle, they are very shy and a little frightened.”

  Cuddled up together with big blue eyes staring out round and timid from their fluffy white woolly heads, were two baby llamas. They were very small and looked nothing like Alan.

  “But Alan can’t be the mum,” objected Sam. “Is he the dad?”

  Alan turned a haughty stare, and walked quickly in the opposite direction. Bayldon laughed. “Neither mother nor father,” he said. “But the army of Lashtang has always ridden llamas, and they are trained by special experts within the llama stables. Llamarites, they are called, and they are important men. But sometimes too many babies are born, and there are too few Llamarites to train them all. The army has been sadly depleted lately, and so the army has more llamas than warriors to ride them, for Yaark turned many into small animals, and others did not want to follow the Hazletts, and so deserted.”

  “So these are two little left-over llamas?” asked Poppy.

  “Indeed, they are,” said Bayldon. “I have a great friend amongst the Llamarites, and he brought these to me. For if we one day want our own army, llamas will be needed.”

  Sam was already sitting next to the woolly white babies, and cuddling up. “Are they both boys?”

  “They are both girls, though I can’t tell the difference,” smiled Bayldon. “When they are older, we must train them for battle.”

  Sam looked a little worried at that. “They could get hurt.”

  “Llamas can be fierce,” Bayldon explained. “But they need to grow up first.”

  “I’d love to see that army school,” said Sam, bright-eyed, and now sneaking a protective arm around Candykins. ”It must have lots of babies too. I’d love to be a Llamarite and start my own llama school.”

  “Speaking of schools,” Bayldon added, looking up at Poppy and Nathan, “you two have been away from home for so long, I doubt you even remember where your school is. I’m afraid you need to go back there soon.”

  Horrified, Nathan and Poppy stared at each other. “Leave Lashtang for school in Hammersmith? We can’t do that,” squeaked Poppy.

  “I remember all my lessons,” Nathan said. “I don’t need anymore.”

  “Very well,” said Bayldon. “What’s five times a hundred and seven?”

  Nathan looked a little wildly at Poppy, and said, “Five hundreds and – something.”

  “Five hundred and seventy,” decided Poppy.

  Bayldon sighed faintly. “And how do you spell ‘suspicion’?”

  “Um, s-u-ss-p-i-ss-i-n,” said Poppy hopefully.

  “Yes, but just ones,” decided Nathan.

  “I believe,” said their father with a slight hiccup as though ready to faint, “you both need to go back to school.”

  Alan hurried over and stood behind Bayldon, while the llama babies gave a little shiver.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “Reckon I orrta go back and see me dad,” agreed John. “But can’t say as how I wanna leave here yet.”

  “And I have to go to Sparkan before I go home to Hammersmith and school,” objected Nathan. ”I have to find the Eternal Chain, and that’s where Peter thinks it is. I need to bring all those wonderful creatures back to their real selves.”

  “Very true,” said Alfie. “They was so ruddy loyal, they was, when we did Bannister’s Muster. And they found them boxes o’ weapons, everyone. Now they’s off spying in the city and I reckon t’will give us loads o’ help.”

  Nathan nodded. “But I want to do my part too,” he said. “School will be fun because I can do a little secret magic and they won’t know what it is. I shall be laughing all the time. But I want to stay here as well. Maybe I can’t spell suspicion, but I can spell Peganda.”

  “Quite right, my illustrious lord,” said Ferdinand, peeping out from the empty teapot on the kitchen table. “And we will all faithfully follow the Octobr empress when the time comes.”

  Gillywobbles was chasing Candykins around the table and Ferdinand had considered it wise not to get in the way. The baby llamas had long legs and loved to gallop, even though they usually fell over and tripped themselves up every time, They were no longer so shy, for everyone in the cottage, except for Hermes, Gosling, Alan and Ferdinand, had fallen in love with them.

  “I think we should do something about Tansle first before we go home,’ said Alice, who was sitting with her hands neatly clasped in her lap, but was looking very sternly at Granny. “Braxton could be hurting her and she’s all alone with him.”

  “And,” said Zakmeister, looking in at the kitchen window, “something should be done with Braxton too. He has worked against us for long enough.”

  Gilden had left, wandering elegantly out into the starlight the night before, but with a promise to return soon. Now Tryppa was in the far bedchamber with Peter, for she was teaching him some more music on the lute, and the beautiful melodies came floating through the warm air like magic spells. Messina and Bayldon were outside, talking together very loudly about where to grow an orchard of golden fig trees. Granny was icing a cake. She turned to look at Nathan, carefully lifting her icing bag out of the way as Candykins and Gillywobbles raced past.

  “I also agree that school is important,” she said, putting the cake back on the table with a puff of sugar. “But I do believe that the problem of Yaark should come first.” She sat down at the table in front of her cake, and pushed her glasses back onto her nose. “We’ve seen surprisingly little of him lately, and that makes me highly suspicious.” And here she looked at Nathan. “And yes, I also know how to spell it. But most important, where is Yaark, and what is he planning? Is he, perhaps, working through Braxton?”

  These words were immediately interrupted by Zakmeister who marched in the kitchen door, and frowned. “You mean I cannot blame my brother for all his wickedness? It might be Yaark who makes him do it?”

  “I have no idea,” said Granny, wiping icing sugar from her fingers onto her apron. “But we must admit, it is a possibility. If Yaark can occupy Wagster and make him even worse than he is, then he could do the same to Braxton.”

  “Humph,” said Zakmeister. “Braxton was always a horrid brat even as a child. And it couldn’t have been Yaark back then. We need to destroy them both.”

  “So, no chance of going back to school,” grinned Nathan, “not until I cut the Eternal Chain, and we destroy Yaark, and find Tansle and get rid of Braxton.”

  “And I want to stay here anyway and start a llama school,” said Sam.

  “And Peter wants to stay here and learn to be the best lutist ever.”

  Granny laughed. “If you lot think we can’t do anything without you here,” she said, “then you are sadly mistaken. But what you’ve forgotten i
s that you can stay here as long as you like, and then I can still arrange to send you back to Hammersmith right at the start of the school term. The times don’t have to coincide.”

  Poppy pushed back her chair and nearly crashed into Gillywobbles. “Great. So what first? The Eternal Chain? Tansle? Braxton? Or Yaark?”

  “Or fig trees or llama schools?” added Sam.

  “I reckon there only be one wot’s urgent,” said John. “And that’s Tansle.”

  “Yes, indeed,” said Alice. “Because she could be hurt right now. Braxton could beat her or starve her, like he did with the other poor little Tansle, the lava wolf.”

  “I’ve been thinking of her,” said Nathan. “She’s Little Seed, and she had a terrible time here on Lashtang. I should go back and see all those lovely lava wolves, and the dragons too. I want to meet Wuz. And especially finding the chain to cut, especially since it’s only me who can cut it.”

  “But everyone’s safe on Sparkan. Little Tansle isn’t safe with Braxton,” insisted Alice. “We don’t think much of her father or her grandfather, but that little girl isn’t to blame.”

  “Reckon tis up to her father to find her,” said Alfie.

  “He’s useless.”

  Granny started to cut the cake. It had six layers of sponge cake, and between those six layers of cake were two layers of thick whipped cream, one of lemon custard and one of sliced figs. It wasn’t easy to cut and kept squidging. Finally she managed to hand a plateful to everyone, with a few left safe for Peter and Tryppa and the others. “Now,” she said, lifting up the lid of the teapot and giving a tiny piece of cake to Ferdinand, “I have a suggestion to keep everyone happy.”

  They all looked at her as they ate their cake and licked their fingers. With a mouthful of crumbs, Poppy said, “I want to go back to Sparkan with Nat.”

  “First things first,” said Granny. “We must rescue the child Tansle, tackle Braxton, and find out what Yaark is doing.”

  They all nodded. “Good,” said Alice.