“And where it fell, a spring opened up and made a loch, and the stone was lost.” Mr Mandrake carried on the tale, while he turned the car down towards the house. “He prophesied that a man with six fingers on each hand, and two navels, would find it.”
“Right,” Tanya nodded. “His sister’s son’s, son. An’ dad said as we was descended from him. The family tried to use the stone for seeing, but they wasn’t as good as old Kenneth - or maybe they just kept it quiet. They didn’t want to get burned as well!”
“They used it for healing, too,” Beth chipped in. “Dip it in holy water, dad said, say the right charm, and it’d heal cows, and babies with croup, and so on.”
“What’s croup?” Tanya asked.
“A choking cough.” Mr Mandrake’s voice was rather abstracted. Was this what he had been called here for? Yes - his skin was tingling. Sternly, he controlled his excitement. He mustn’t scare the girls, not while they were friendly and helpful. “Here we are.” He put on the brake. “So, where is the stone now?” He almost held his breath.
“Dunno.” Tanya looked crestfallen. “Dad never said. It’s disappeared.”
“I’m afraid so,” Beth confirmed. “I’ve no idea what happened to it. But I don’t believe it, anyway. It’s just a story. Not possible. Not really.” She saw something in Tanya’s face. “What is it, Tanya?” she challenged her cousin. “Do you believe in it?”
“Well...” Tanya spoke reluctantly. She’d better not tell everything she’d seen - not to a normal person like Beth. But a couple of the small things... “Cat, me pal in Oldham, she can see auras. A sort o’ mental light all round yer. It changes depending on how yer feel. Can tell what mood yer in before she gets near yer. Or even if she’s miles away phoned us once to cheer us up, knew I were down in the dumps. Just knew. An’ she often knows when something bad’s going to happen - car crashes an’ that. So I ain’t so sure what’s possible an’ what ain’t.”
Beth sniffed and reached for the door handle. Mr Mandrake smiled. Now he understood why he had felt a tingle, an itch, a draw like a magnet pulling him out of London, to drive north and further northwards, seeking - he knew not what. It had drawn him to this town, to this particular house.
His own magic circle of witches in London was becoming dull. The slavish obedience he demanded from his disciples no longer satisfied him. There was nothing to excite and interest him, he was growing bored, ready for something new. This, at last, looked promising. To his surprise, he realised that the prickle of power that he was feeling came not just from the thought of the stone, the scrying stone, but also from the girls, especially from Tanya. The stone was valuable, he knew, and he was near, so near. He’d have it... and maybe the girls, too.
Beth gave Mr Mandrake the names of some local historians.
“I’ll look them up. Come up and see me for a few minutes before dinner, and I’ll tell you what I’ve discovered,” he said. “And by then you’ll maybe have thought of something else.”
“Maybe mum knows?” Beth suggested. “Dad may have said something.”
“Maybe. You know, this stone could be worth quite a lot if you could find it.”
Suddenly, Beth perked up. “Enough to get the dry rot fixed? Put in new bathrooms?”
He laughed. “Almost certainly. Maybe you’d better not tell your mother why you’re asking? It might get her hopes up too high.” He smiled, his eyes bright blue and cheerful.
Tanya frowned. Why keep it quiet? But it wasn’t important; and true enough, it would be a nice surprise for Aunt Mary.
Mary was glad to stop doing the accounts to have a cup of tea. After they’d handed over the raspberries, and put plasters on Tanya’s blisters, and let her change back into her black jeans - to everybody’s relief -Beth and Tanya exchanged glances.
“Er, mum.” Beth cleared her throat. “You know dad used to tell stories about a magic stone?”
“You mean Kenneth Brown’s scrying stone?” To her pleasure, Mary took the question casually. “Yes, sure, love.”
“Was it true? How did it work?”
Mary shrugged. “Like a crystal ball, I suppose. He made a lot of prophecies, and some of them have apparently come true.”
“Honest?” Tanya hadn’t expected her soordinary aunt to know anything about this.
“Oh, yes. There was one about fire and water running through the streets of Inverness. They say that’s the water and gas pipes - or electricity, I suppose. And he described ships sailing round the back of Tomnahurich Hill long before the canal was dreamed of. There was one about a well at Culloden running blood for three days. That’s supposed to have been the battle of Culloden, in 1746. And then there was the big one about the fate of the Seaforths, when Lady Seaforth was going to burn him. That the line would die out, with the last Earl seeing his sons die before him, and the land going to a white-hooded lassie from the east who would kill her sister. That came true all right.”
“Never!” Tanya exchanged a thrilled glance with Beth.
“Oh, yes. The heiress was the young widow of an Admiral Hood. In those days, a widow wore a white bonnet or hood, too. Well, one day she was driving her sister in a carriage when the horse bolted, and they crashed. Her sister died. So in a way she did kill her.”
“You believe in it, then, mum?”
Mary shrugged. “Could be, love. Mind you, a lot of other people’s sayings have got mixed in with his, I think. And he spoke in old Gaelic, that doesn’t translate well into modern English, and figuratively at that - like that fire and water business; who’s to know just what he meant? The prophecies weren’t written down for years after he died, so anything could be added to the stories about him and who could argue? But it does seem there was something there.”
Tanya was nearly bursting, trying not to grin in triumph. “Do you know what happened to the stone then, Aunt Mary?” she asked.
“Yes, has it come down the family to us?” Beth’s face was eager.
Slowly, Mary shook her head. “I can’t say. Sorry!” She chuckled at their disappointment. “Maybe it’ll turn up some day soon!”
“I hope so!” Beth sighed.
Tanya nodded, but she felt an odd uneasiness.
That afternoon, when they heard Mr Mandrake come in, the girls ran up the stairs and tapped gently at the door of Room 3. When he answered and beckoned them in, Tanya had to dismiss a chill of unease, though it was to her that the broad, golden man smiled warmly. “Come in, come in! Did your mother know anything, Beth? No? Well, nobody else did either. But I’ve had an idea that may help.”
The girls were puzzled.
“I told you that I knew about witchcraft, remember, Tanya? Well, that’s because I am -” He paused. Take it easy, don’t scare them off. “Well, let’s say I have certain unusual skills.”
Tantalising them, he slowly opened a small case lying on one of the spare beds. It was like a picnic case, fitted with straps to hold not plates, but odd-shaped bags and bundles, wrapped in glowing silks and velvets, mysterious and intriguing. Beth’s fingers itched to investigate. These things were beautiful.
Tanya nibbled at her lip, worried by the shine in her cousin’s eyes. She knew what this was all about. All those bags, like Cat’s back in Oldham but much posher. Magic. Real magic. Dangerous, this was, if you didn’t know what you were doing. Or if you did...
It was at her, not at Beth, that Mr Mandrake was looking. He had taken out a tiny light-blue bag with a silver draw cord. “You know, the only reason I stayed here was that I heard you, Tanya. You were threatening to curse your cousin. Weren’t you? And I knew that you meant it.”
“In a temper,” Tanya protested. She tried to pass it off as a joke. “I swear terrible, Beth says, but -”
“No, no.” He wasn’t to be put off. “You’ve cursed somebody before. And it worked. You told me you wanted to be a witch. You do, don’t you? You’ve felt the power in yourself.” His eyes were blue and piercing.
She gave up, shruggin
g, to avoid a flat opposition to the mental pressure. “Done it once... A bully, see, roughing up a mate o’ mine till he didn’t know up from down. I illwished her, an’ she were hit by a lorry same day, right outside the school gate. But I dunno - could’ve been just her bad luck.” She didn’t like the way Beth was staring at her, looking rather afraid.
He shook his head again. “No. It was you, I’m sure. I knew you had something. You see, I have power, too.” He smiled at Beth. “Don’t be alarmed, now. You have it as well. Everybody has. Everybody can sing, but some better than others. In the same way, everybody has power - mental, magic, whatever you call it. But most people have only a little, never notice it and can’t use it. Tanya here has a great deal. On your own, Tanya, you’ve learned, somehow, how to well, how to wave a mental fist about, as you might say, in a disorganised, inefficient, dangerous way. If you ignore your power, don’t master it, or run away from it in fear and try to smother it, it may burst out some day in doing something dreadful. But with help - with my help - you can learn to control and use it. Like an Olympic athlete, Beth! Tanya can have that terrific thrill of glory, if she’s not too scared.”
His tone was a challenge, and even though she realised it, Tanya fired up. “Ain’t scared o’ nowt!” It wasn’t true. She’d once seen Cat, days after a spell went wrong, still trembling and twitching. This was an awesome thing. Anybody who wasn’t frightened was an idiot.
Mr Mandrake smiled. “Come and try this, then. It’s quite harmless, I assure you.” He was holding up a slender, delicately faceted point of milky crystal, about three centimetres long, hanging on a fine silver chain.
“Oh, that’s pretty,” Beth whispered.
He held it out to her. “Here.” Smiling in pleasure, she held it up to twinkle in the light. “It’s a pendulum, for dowsing. You’ve heard of that? Lots of people do it, to find water, and other things. Gold and treasure. Old drains, even. Most dowsers do it with wires or hazel twigs, on the ground, but it’s quite possible on a map, too.” While he spoke he was taking a map of the north of Scotland from the side table and flattening it out on the double bed. “I’m not very good at it, myself. But Tanya might be. Or you.”
Beth hastily returned the crystal to him. “No, thanks.”
Mr Mandrake didn’t argue. He beckoned them to sit with him on the edge of the bed. “You see this, Tanya? There’s the Moray Firth, and Inverness down in the corner. There’s Chanonry Point, where Kenneth Odhar was burned, on the north side. Here’s Nairn, where we are. You understand the map? Well, this is how you do it. Or how I do it, anyway. I think hard about what I want to find. It helps if I say it out loud. And I hold the crystal over the map. If I’m over the right place, it starts to swing round and round instead of backwards and forwards. Here, I’ll show you.”
He touched the crystal to the map and then lifted it. “Where is Kenneth Odhar’s stone? In Nairn? In Forres?” He moved his hand over the map. The crystal swung straight. At last he sat back, shrugging. “Not today. Not for me, anyway. Would you like to try, Tanya?”
Reluctantly she took the chain, letting it dangle loosely from her fingers. Better get it over with! She held it out, not really watching where she held it. “Where’s this stone, then?”
A shock like electricity ran up through the chain. With a yelp she dropped it onto the map and snatched her hand away, rubbing her stinging fingers.
“What happened?” Mr Mandrake was excited.
“Dunno. But I ain’t doing that no more, I’ll tell yer!”
When they couldn’t persuade her to try again, in spite of his disappointment, Mr Mandrake made himself shrug. “Well, it was just a chance.”
It was maybe his lack of pressure that persuaded Beth. “I haven’t had a shot.” She blushed slightly, but put out her hand quite firmly. “I’ll give it a bash.”
Mr Mandrake chuckled. “Don’t bash it too hard, then, you might break it!” Controlling his excitement, he draped the chain over her fingers. “Go ahead.”
Concentrating, she held the crystal out over Nairn. “Is this scrying stone here?” The gleam hung steady for a few seconds. Mr Mandrake, eyes narrowed slightly, laid a hand on her shoulder. Almost immediately, the crystal trembled and swayed. In another three seconds, it was clearly moving in a circle.
She turned and gaped up at Mr Mandrake, who was smiling down at her. “Look, it’s moving! It’s working!”
“We can’t be sure yet,” he warned her, but still sounding pleased. “Try over some other places, to check.”
She tried over half a dozen places, coming back to Nairn twice. Everywhere else, the crystal hung steady or swung in a straight line; over Nairn, each time, it tilted into a circle.
Tanya was astonished. “It’s here! Here in Nairn!”
“It certainly looks like it. Well done!” Mr Mandrake patted Beth’s shoulder. “You have a rare talent there, my girl!”
She blinked, coming out of her amazement, and scrambled to her feet, beaming proudly. “I’ll get a street map - there’s one in the lounge. Then we can find out just where it is in the town!”
“Good idea!” As she hurried out, he smiled at the other girl. “Won’t be long now, Tanya, until we know where the stone is! Beth’s a very powerful scryer. That means she’s like a telescope - she can’t see by herself, as you might say, but she can help someone else to see much better than usual. I don’t know when I’ve seen...” He sounded, Tanya thought, like a cat that’s found the cream. He glanced at her; his greedy voice tailed off, and he tutted to himself. “But that’s of no interest to you, is it?”
It certainly was. She was getting more worried by the minute. Okay, so it was exciting. And he’d said it was harmless. Huh! She wasn’t so sure. While this old crow had his hand on her shoulder, Beth’s face over the map had been blank, mindless almost, as if he was hypnotising her, and now she was all flushed, full of a kind of rapture. Not like her. It was wrong. For Beth, especially; she was too nice and normal. Tanya tried to think, ‘That’ll teach the stupid girl to mock magic!’ but she couldn’t.
Beth returned, unfolding the street plan as she came. “Come on!” All eagerness now, she grabbed for the crystal. “Is the stone in the High Street? No... Is it in Seabank Road? No... Is it -”
Mr Mandrake gripped her shoulder, and her gabble stopped with a gasp. He smiled down at her. “Let’s maybe save some time,” he said. “Where’s Firthview House on the map? There. Touch the point on it. Now up. Hold steady, now. Is the stone here?”
The crystal started to circle enthusiastically.
“I’ve got it!” “Well done, Beth!” Two voices called out together. Tanya didn’t shout, but she couldn’t help sharing their triumphant grins. They were all laughing.
There was a brisk knock at the door, and it swung open. Mary stood there, her face furious.
Beth didn’t notice. “Now we just have to hunt for it in the house...” Mr Mandrake’s finger touched her arm. She stopped and looked round, and turned bright pink.
Mary’s lips were tight. “Excuse me for walking in, Mr Mandrake, but I heard the girls.” Her voice and expression were icy cold. “We have dinners to see to. Beth, give Mr Mandrake his necklace back and come along. Now, please.” Her tone admitted no argument.
“But - but -” Beth was stammering, when Mr Mandrake stopped her.
“You’re quite right, Mrs Mackenzie.” He gestured to the maps, smiling reassuringly, and scooped the crystal out of Beth’s fingers in the same movement. “I shouldn’t have kept the girls. We were discussing places of interest. I hope you’ll forgive us.”
His eyes were very blue, but at that moment Mary was too angry to notice. “I can tell you whatever you want to know about most of the sights in the area. Beth! Tanya!”
Embarrassed and insulted, Beth stood up, trying to keep her dignity. “Excuse us, please, Mr Mandrake.”
He smiled to them all, thoughtfully swinging the pendant on its silver chain. “I’ll see you around.”
/> Outside, Mary looked straight at the two girls. “Beth, I’m very disappointed in you. I’ve warned you, over and over, about going into rooms with guests, or taking presents. I want you to stay right away from Mr Mandrake from now on.”
“But he’s a nice man!” Beth protested. “We were just -”
“I don’t care what you were just! I don’t want you going behind my back, Beth! Do you hear me?”
Beth looked mutinous, but Tanya shoved her hard towards the stairs. “Right, Aunt Mary. We’ll stay right clear of him. Cross me heart an’ hope to die. Go on down, Beth. Be wi’ yer in a jiff.”
As Beth sulkily stomped off down the stairs, Tanya turned to Mary. “Don’t worry yer head, Aunt Mary,” she hissed. “Wasn’t doing no harm. An’ I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“We’ll see him off, eh?” She nodded more confidently than she felt, and trotted upstairs to the bathroom.
Mary gazed after her before she shrugged and walked off down the stairs.
Beth was furious. Tanya had better watch out! Whisper about her to her mother behind her back, would she? And get her into more trouble, probably, or say bad things about Mr Mandrake? He was a nice man, he was so, and she’d worked the crystal, not Tanya! Confused and resentful, she got on with the work, crashing the dishes about until her mother’s jaw ached from clenching it to hold in her temper.
If they got through dinner without breaking any plates, Mary thought, she’d be astonished... And she wasn’t surprised Tanya was keeping out of the way.
Chapter 4
Tanya sat on the side of her bed, arguing with herself for ages. “Can’t let Beth get into this. She’ll get hurt. Serve her right! No, not really... But what can I do? Tell Aunt Mary? She’d not believe me. An’ Beth won’t listen, not now. He’s a baddie. Yeah. Real bad, smile an’ all, like a crocodile.” She drew a deep breath. “Gotta stop him. But how?”
There was only one way. She winced as she thought of the sharp jab of power in her hand from the pendulum, but... she had to.
The Seer's Stone Page 3