Ben and the Spider Prince

by Angela Fish

  ‘Stay close to me,’ he said. ‘You’ll find our world very different from yours, but I’ll keep you safe.’

  Ben could hardly see in the cave, so he took out his torch. Lox told him to keep his hand over the beam so that he didn’t frighten the other spiders. Ben followed Lox through a long tunnel that he guessed was under the lane at the back of his garden. Then they went down a slope. In front of them were seven openings, and Lox scuttled through the middle one. Ben followed, remembering to unwind the wool as he went.

  He was becoming used to the dim light and he could just about see some shapes in the side passages. He could hear a lot of rustling noises and it made him feel a little bit afraid, so he hurried to keep up with Lox. After a while the spider stopped.

  ‘This is the wizard’s room,’ Lox said. ‘I’ll go and fetch him and he can explain everything to you. The queen will be listening, but she’ll only meet with you if you can find the ingredients. Wait here!’

  He ran through a hole at the back of the room. Ben looked around and shivered. He’d been all right when Lox was there, but he didn’t feel so brave now. It felt as though there were lots of eyes watching him, but he couldn’t see anyone at all. He felt a light touch on his sleeve and he jumped.

  ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. Are you Ben?’ A big spider was right next to him. ‘I’ve heard so much about you, and how you helped with the spider gate. I hoped I could meet you in person. I’m Spindra. The queen’s sister.’

  Ben jumped back. He really was afraid now. This was the spider who was supposed to have stolen the wizard’s ingredients. She moved closer to him and began to pull gently at the yellow wool.

  ‘Pretty,’ she said. ‘It would be good for spinning. It’s so tiring having to make all my own.’

  She pulled a little harder and started to wind the wool around two of her legs. Ben knew that she must have untied it, or bitten through it at the spider gate. He tried to tug the wool away but she hissed at him, so he dropped the ball and ran. He didn’t know where he was going, but he wanted to get away from Spindra as quickly as he could.

  He went up one passageway but it was a dead-end. He went back and tried again. Another dead-end. He could hear something behind him, and he was just about to run again when he tripped over a tree root. He felt the adder stone dig into him as he fell, so he took it out and held it in front of one eye.

  Through the hole in the stone he could see that there was a bright yellow cobweb all across the opening of the passageway in front of him. If he’d run into it he would have been trapped. When he took the stone away from his eye, he couldn’t see the web. Gran had been right – the stone was magic! He shone his torch at the web and he could see Spindra watching him. Ben waved the torch at her and she ran away. When he stood up, Lox was behind him.

  ‘Come on,’ the spider said. ‘It’s all right now. Just follow me. The wizard’s waiting.’

  They ran back to the wizard’s room. Ben was amazed at the colours all over the spider’s back. There was a silver star, a gold moon and lots of red and green spots. The wizard was bigger than Lox but he wasn’t scary at all. He told Ben to sit down on the floor.

  ‘Thank you for coming,’ he said. ‘I know this must be very strange for you, but I can only go outside at night, and we knew that you wouldn’t be able to meet me then. Lox has explained the problem to you?’ Ben nodded. ‘Good. Then this is what I need.’

  He began to list the things he wanted for the magic potion, but Ben couldn’t keep up.

  ‘Wait,’ Ben said. ‘Please can you talk more slowly? Can I write these things down so that I can remember them?’

  The wizard agreed and began again. ‘I need seven petals from the Fairy Wing Flower, seven leaves from the Dragon’s Breath Fern, and seven tears from a true friend. You can see what the plants look like in my potions book here, and how to keep them fresh when you’ve collected them. You can catch the tears in this tube.’ He passed it to Ben. ‘You must collect them all in the same week. The prince is very ill and I can’t keep him alive for much longer.’

  ‘How much time do I have?’ Ben asked.

  ‘Tonight there will be a full moon,’ the wizard said. ‘You have until the next full moon. After that it will be too late. Lox will take you back and answer any more questions for you. Goodbye Ben, and good luck.’

  When they were back at the gate and the guards had let them through, Ben asked Lox if he knew how much time there was between the full moons. Lox wasn’t sure and told Ben to ask his gran. He waited until Ben had said the rhyme and was big again and steady on his feet. Then he said he’d come to see Ben on the following Saturday.

  7

  Ben And Gran Begin The Search

  In the kitchen, later that day, Ben dragged a chair across to the wall where the calendar was hanging. Last year, when he’d wanted to know about the autumn, Gran had shown him how to mark off the days. It was March now and there were thirteen crosses on the page. Ben could see that there was a small picture of a moon in the box for Saturday – that was today. Did it mean that the calendar showed when every full moon would be? Ben looked at the page for April and he could see the same moon picture in the box for Sunday the twelfth of April. Just then Gran came into the kitchen.

  ‘Hello,’ she said. ‘Trying to work out when the holidays start?’

  ‘No,’ Ben answered. ‘I want to know how long it is between tomorrow and this day.’ He pointed to the April page on the calendar, ‘and I want to know if this picture means it will be a full moon on those days.’

  Gran frowned. ‘Yes it does, but what are you up to, young man? I hope you’re not planning to do anything that you shouldn’t?’

  ‘Not really.’ He grinned at her. ‘I’ve promised to help Lox and the wizard find some things and it has to be done before the next full moon. Can you help me?’

  Ben explained that he’d been asked to find some unusual plants, but that he’d forgotten to ask the wizard or Lox where to look for them.

  ‘That was a bit silly,’ Gran said. ‘They could be anywhere.’

  ‘I know,’ he said, ‘but I was a bit scared when I was in the spider caves. Oh–’ he tapped himself on the head, ‘I forgot – there might be something in my notebook.’ He opened it at the pages where he’d drawn the pictures of the plants.

  ‘See,’ he pointed. ‘This one’s called the Fairy Wing Flower, and this one’s the Dragon’s Breath Fern. It says that the flower sometimes grows under a tree, and the fern grows near a stream.’

  ‘Well that’s not much help,’ Gran said. ‘The stream could be anywhere, and there are hundreds of trees around here. What type of tree?’

  Ben looked puzzled. ‘I don’t know. There was a picture of a tree but I didn’t have time to copy it properly. It had funny-shaped leaves, and it was a bit like those trees in the park next to Mrs Jenkins’s house. You know, the ones where the birds were fighting over the berries last year.’

  ‘I think you mean the rowan trees,’ Gran said. ‘So, as long as the wizard didn’t mean one particular tree, that could be a good place to look.’

  Ben wanted to rush off right away but his gran reminded him that he’d said the ingredients had to be found in the same week. If he found the flower quickly and then couldn’t find the fern until another week, he’d have to go back for more flowers. If they really were magic then Gran didn’t think it was a good idea to take too many.

  ‘Now, what about the fern?’ she asked him. ‘Any thoughts on that?’

  Ben shook his head. ‘Nothing. What can I do? Can we look on the computer for ideas?’

  Gran nodded. ‘I suppose so, but I won’t be much help to you. I’m not very quick with it you know, but I can help with spelling, and reading what you find. We could have a look in your dad’s gardening books as well, but I don’t think these kinds of plants would be in there. What about the library?’

  Ben groaned. ‘Oh Gran! That’ll take ages. It’s much quicker on the computer.’

&nb
sp; ‘I’ll make a deal with you then,’ she said. ‘I’ll help you with the computer once or twice in the week, but then you come to the library with me on Saturdays. Not everything’s on the computer, you know.’

  ‘All right,’ he agreed, ‘but I have to find out where to look as soon as I can. Is it a long time until the holidays?’

  Gran looked at a piece of paper that was pinned up near the calendar. Ben’s mum had put it there to remind her of all the school events.

  ‘Look,’ Gran pointed. ‘You break up in two weeks and a few days. Then you have another twelve days before the next full moon.’

  They agreed that they’d begin looking for clues about the Dragon’s Breath Fern the next day. Ben knew that Gran still couldn’t walk too far, so he hoped that the ferns were nearby. There was no way that he could go out on his own, and even if Jess was still talking to him properly, he knew she wouldn’t go with him. He had an idea about the last item on his list – the seven tears – but he didn’t want to tell Gran just yet.

  The next two weeks seemed to go by so slowly for Ben. He went to school and tried hard to make up with Jess, but she still preferred to spend time with Kelly. Twice a week Gran helped him to search on the computer for clues about the plants, but they found nothing.

  On two Saturdays Ben’s mum drove him and Gran to the library in the nearby town. Gran knew the lady who worked there and she explained that Ben was looking for a book on unusual plants for a project that he was doing. He smiled when she said that, but it was true in a way, wasn’t it? They stayed for two hours each time but they still didn’t find anything.

  8

  The Book

  On the last day of term Ben was surprised to see Gran waiting for him at the school gates. She told him that the lady from the library had telephoned her. She’d found a very old book in the storeroom, and she thought that it might be just what Ben was looking for. They hurried into the library, and the lady said that Gran could take the book out on her library card. Ben was so excited that he hopped all the way to the bus stop.

  ‘Do you think this is the right book for us?’ he asked. ‘It’s really old, isn’t it? Can we look at it right away?’

  Gran laughed out loud. ‘I think I deserve a cup of tea first, don’t you?’

  When they were home, Ben sat at the table with Gran and opened the book. He turned the pages carefully because they were quite stiff. There were lots of pictures, but Ben found it hard to read some of the words because they were handwritten. Gran, though, seemed to be able to read them easily.

  She said that the book was full of stories from a very long time ago, and some of them said things about special plants. People believed that these plants had magic powers. Ben wriggled on his seat. He hoped that Gran could find something about the fern, but after half an hour she hadn’t found anything.

  ‘That’s enough for now,’ she said. ‘I might have a look this evening, but otherwise we’ll start again tomorrow.’

  Ben woke up early the next morning but then he remembered that he didn’t have to go to school and that he could look at the story book again. He felt a little bit sad that Jess wouldn’t be coming over to his house. He’d asked her but she said that she was going to stay at Kelly’s house for the first week of the holidays. He went downstairs and into the living room. It was very quiet, as his mum and dad had already gone into town for the day.

  Ben found the story book on Gran’s chair, and as he picked it up he could see a piece of paper sticking out of it. He opened the book at that page and he nearly dropped it on the floor! There in front of him was a picture of the Fairy Wing Flower. It was growing in a circle underneath a big rowan tree. Gran had been right. He couldn’t understand what the writing said, so he put the piece of paper back and went to find his gran.

  ‘You found it – the flower!’ he shouted. ‘But I can’t read what it says.’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘They don’t grow under every rowan tree so we have to hope that we’re lucky with the ones in the park. I’m going to keep reading to see if there’s anything about the fern. That’s the one we really need help with. Why don’t you get your bird book out and do some drawings while I read, or you could take Scoot out into the garden?’

  Ben called to Scoot. The little dog wagged his tail hard and followed him. They played ball for half an hour, and then he did some more training with Scoot’s special whistle. He looked up and saw that Gran was waving to him from the kitchen doorway, so he began to run. She must have found something!

  Gran showed Ben the book again. She had found a story about some little people who lived in the woods, and how a kingfisher had helped them to chase off a water rat who was stealing their food. On the second page was a picture of the plants that the little people grew, and one of them was the Dragon’s Breath Fern.

  ‘What does it say?’ Ben asked Gran. ‘Does it say where it grows?’

  ‘It says that the fern was made from the breath of green dragons. The little people let the dragons live under the roots of the trees, and the dragons helped the little people by making the fern for them to eat.’

  ‘Wouldn’t the dragons have burned the plants?’ Ben asked. ‘The ones in my computer game and in my story book all breathe out fire.’

  ‘Well,’ Gran read from the book, ‘these were tiny dragons, and their breath was cold like frost, so the plant was silvery, and looked like snowflakes. People believe it can still be found near the part of a stream where the kingfishers dive.’

  Ben opened his bird book and found a picture of a kingfisher. It had bright blue and orange feathers, and a pointed beak. He remembered seeing one when his dad had taken him out with Scoot once. They’d crossed the park and walked around the edge of the woods until they came to the stream. The path followed the stream back into the woods and that’s where they’d seen the bird, which was hunting fish, and it had flown quickly and low over the water.

  ‘Oh yes!’ he said. ‘I’ve seen one on the other side of the woods. Do you think it might still be there?’

  Gran thought for a moment then said that it was quite likely, but she wouldn’t be able to take Ben there. Her foot was a lot better but the path in the woods was bumpy and she didn’t want to fall again. She said she would ask Ben’s dad to take him at the weekend.

  9

  The Rowan Tree And The Kingfisher

  It rained for the next few days, so Ben stayed indoors. He played his computer games, which was fun, but he missed Jess. The bad weather kept on, so the trip to the stream had to be put off for another week. He was worried that he’d never find the plants in time. Mum had some holidays from work and took him out to the cinema and the museum, and he liked that, but he still wanted to start searching.

  On the following Sunday the sun was shining and there were lots of fluffy white clouds in the sky. In the afternoon Gran told Ben to fetch his coat and boots as she wanted him to walk along the lane with her to Mrs Jenkins’s house. Ben made a funny face. He liked Mrs Jenkins, but when she started talking with Gran they could be there for hours!

  ‘Come on,’ she winked at him, ‘it’s nice enough weather for you take Scoot into the park to play ball.’

  Ben opened his mouth. He’d almost forgotten about the rowan trees in the park. Clever Gran! His hands were shaking as he went to open the door. He remembered his notebook where he’d written how to keep the plants fresh, so he unhooked his rucksack and took that as well. Scoot barked and jumped around them as they went down the garden path. When they reached Mrs Jenkins’s house Gran told Ben to go into the park, but nowhere else. She said she could see him from the kitchen window.

  Ben and Scoot raced into the park and across to the fence at the far end of the grass. There were three rowan trees on the park side of the fence, and two in the farmer’s field. Ben threw the ball for Scoot and then he knelt down under the trees. He moved slowly, pushing the grass apart with his hands, but he couldn’t see anything that looked like the Fairy Wing Flowers. Scoot came back wit
h the ball and jumped up at him.

  Ben wanted to have a look under the two trees that were in the next field. He wasn’t supposed to go out of the park, but he threw Scoot’s ball so that it landed right next to the trees and the dog chased after it. Ben followed and started to look for the flowers again. He was hot and there seemed to be lots of flies on this side of the fence.

  Just then a small dragonfly landed on his hand. He kept very still and watched its wings shaking. He looked more closely and saw a tiny face scowling at him. A very angry face! It wasn’t a dragonfly at all. It was a fairy, and it seemed to be trying to tell him something, but he just couldn’t hear it.

  Ben looked around. He would have to use the rhyme to become small again. It was the only way that he could ask the fairy for help. He put his hand against the tree trunk and the fairy floated away. He said the rhyme and waited for the dizziness to pass.

  ‘Who are you?’ the fairy shouted at him. ‘Why are you here and what are you looking for?’

  Ben told the fairy all about the Spider Prince and the magic potion. The fairy calmed down, and told him that, many years before, the Spider Wizard had helped the fairies to find a new home after their rowan tree had been hit by lightning. The fairies were very grateful, so she showed Ben where the flowers were. She helped him to collect the seven petals and to wrap them in a dandelion leaf to keep them fresh. Ben thanked her, said the rhyme quickly, and soon he was running back towards Mrs Jenkins’s house, with his precious parcel of Fairy Wing petals in his rucksack.

  The following Thursday Ben’s dad was at home. He told Ben that they could go bird watching if he liked and Scoot could go as well. Gran had told him that Ben wanted to see the kingfishers again, so they set off for the stream in the woods. They walked for quite a long way, so everyone was tired when they reached the place where they’d seen the bird before. Dad sat down to read his newspaper and Scoot lay at his feet. Ben said that he was going to sit nearer the stream, and his dad told him to be careful and not to fall in.