by SJB Gilmour
She frowned at the memory of James’ nasty tree. ‘I wonder if there’d been more than one of those horribillus things, would it have been stronger?’
James’s eyes went wide. ‘You know, that’s a great idea,’ he mused. ‘Imagine a hedge of the chockers! Protect anything, that could.’
Ronny groaned. ‘I knew I shouldn’t have got up this morning! Well, what about other objects?’
Sarah shrugged. ‘You mentioned golems. Aren’t those things just made out of mud and straw? Water can talk to me too. Isn’t mud just dirt with water in it?’
‘Good girl!’ James exclaimed so loudly that he drew more angry mutterings from inside the tents. ‘She’s got you, Ronald!’ He clapped Sarah on the shoulder. ‘Well done, kiddo! Tomorrow, I say we have a crack at another of Ronald’s mortal favourites. Newton!’
Ronald flared again. ‘Isaacs, you leave old Newton out of this!’
James crowed. ‘No way, bumpy! As soon as Sarah here sees how Kevin lifted his mountain, she’ll realise that every action doesn’t have an equal and opposite reaction. And as for Einstein’s little gem - E doesn’t equal M C squared. Not by a long shot. Even giants know that!’
Benjamin emerged from the tent he shared with Angela. ‘What’s all the racket?’ he demanded, gratefully accepting the tall glass of iced coffee that Ronny immediately held out for him.
Angela came out after him. ‘Sounds to me like Sarah’s education is coming along nicely,’ she remarked brightly. ‘Thank you, James. If you keep this up, I’ll be able to retire!’
‘Aren’t you people forgetting why we’re here?’ Benjamin asked them acidly. ‘We need to find a way inside that mountain. Right now, we’ve got no allies. If we can prove what’s going on, then they’ll have to let me back into the Guild and we’ll be able to rally enough forces to deal with the trolls peacefully.’
This reminded Sarah about the golden eagle. She quickly told the others about her strange midnight meeting up on the sand dune.
‘That’s it, then,’ Benjamin declared. ‘Tonight we find out what’s going on.’
Over breakfast, James came up to Sarah. He was carrying a large leather-bound briefcase. ‘Tell me, Sarah,’ he began slyly, ‘have you ever played backgammon?’
Sarah shook her head. The game sounded familiar, but she couldn’t remember why.
‘Well then, my girl,’ he said enthusiastically, ‘Come with me!’
He led her to a shaded spot under a mango tree where Ronny had set up a card table and a few chairs. A large jug of iced water with lemon slices floating in it, sat on the table. James set the briefcase down on the table and opened it up. Inside was a plush upholstered backgammon set.
‘Careful, cousin,’ Angela warned. ‘Backgammon’s in her blood.’
James looked up, startled. ‘What do you mean by that?’
Angela shrugged. ‘Her parents started the Sorcerers’ Backgammon Society.’
James looked shocked for a moment, then groaned and passed one hand over his face. ‘Oh, chocolate me!’ he lamented. ‘Now I see! How could I have missed it?’
‘Missed what?’ Sarah asked him.
James didn’t answer. Instead, he turned to Angela. He looked at her, suddenly very serious indeed.
‘Angela,’ he told her grimly, ‘Get everyone up.’
‘What’s wrong?’ Sarah asked, rising from her chair.
‘I just figured something out,’ he growled. ‘You’d better get Mel’s firedrake too. I need him to go back and get my diary.’
When everyone had assembled under the mango tree, Master James Isaacs held up his diary. ‘I knew this would come in handy one day,’ he told them, flicking through the pages until he found what he was looking for. He looked up at the group. ‘Remember when I looked up my diary entries to find who suggested putting Miranda under that mountain?’
Mel was first to speak. ‘Yeah?’ she said curiously.
‘And remember I mentioned Kopernik challenged and ultimately beat Mautallius?’
Everyone nodded.
‘Well, don’t you see?’ James demanded in exasperation. ‘He sired a few litters after that, but after a while a young male came along who bred into another very old bloodline, the Witch-Hazels. After Rufus married them, they started up the Sorcerers’ Backgammon Society. Those two were this Golden Mane’s parents!’
Sarah was stunned. She turned to Roberta and Robert. ‘Did you know about that?’ she asked them.
Robert shrugged. ‘I had no idea,’ he confessed. He turned to Roberta. ‘Did you, ‘Berta?’
Roberta held her hands out to her sides and shrugged. ‘Nope,’ she said. She looked at her mate curiously. ‘Henryk’s closer to your side that Jozefa is to mine,’ she accused. ‘How come you didn’t know that?’
‘We weren’t that close!’ Robert defended himself. ‘He and Jozefa left our pack to start their own and they decided to go mortal for a while and went to Europe. We sort of lost touch. You know that.’
‘Mautallius abducted my parents?’ Sarah asked them then in a small voice.
James shook his head. ‘Probably not Mautallius,’ he surmised. ‘A Kopernik beat him once, so he wouldn’t risk trying it again. They’d kill him. No, I reckon it was that chocking chocker, Molotov. He wouldn’t release her from under Kevin’s mountain unless there was something in it for him. I bet he let her out on the condition that she kill your parents and you.’
‘But he put her there!’ Mel protested. ‘Why would he do that only to let her out again?’
‘He probably had an idea she’d come in handy down the line. He scratched his chin thoughtfully and looked at Benjamin. ‘You know,’ he suggested, ‘maybe Mautallius is stronger than we think. He must have had the power to restore Molotov’s powers – enough at least to give her the strength to abduct Henryk and Josephine.’
‘Jozefa,’ Sarah corrected. ‘But my parents disappeared years ago!’ she protested.
‘That’s right,’ said James, his voice like a steel trap. ‘Until recently you were indistinguishable from every other snot-nosed mortal brat. Miranda wouldn’t have been able to pick you out of all the others. She couldn’t kill all the mortals in Melbourne. She wouldn’t dare. She had to wait until you started making noise in the enchanted world before she could start hunting you down. But she couldn’t just kill your parents, either. She’d need them just in case things got sticky when you came looking for them. If she had killed them back then, she’d have known that she’d never catch you. One day you’d return and obliterate her.’
Benjamin began pacing back and forth. ‘I should have seen it coming!’ he burst out. ‘I knew I was missing something, but I just didn’t see it!’ he raged. The air around him began to crackle and spark. Then he produced a small portal and marched through it.
James watched the Silver Shroud disappear. He turned to Ronny. ‘They might have a wonderful black-and-white instinct,’ he told the gnome, ‘but I wish they weren’t so chocked impulsive.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘The man needs a leash.’
In the silence that followed Benjamin’s sudden departure, the others milled about aimlessly. Nobody felt like playing games or even talking much. The hours dragged past as they waited for him to return. Sarah found herself caught between bouts of weeping and absolute joy. Everything was falling into place, and her parents’ disappearance was becoming less and less mysterious.
‘Can’t we go after him?’ Sarah demanded of Angela. She was very worried.
Her teacher shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Sarah. We don’t know where he went. If we go barging in now, we might do more harm than good.’
Finally, around nightfall, Benjamin reappeared, carrying a very scruffy-looking troll. Instantly the clear sky above them clouded over. Loud rolling rumbles came ominously from above them. Angela reacted immediately, producing a large enchanted dome that shielded them from the rain that began pelting down. James sighed disconsolately as he watched the water run out onto the desert sand and not onto hi
s precious plants.
Sarah immediately changed into her brilliant golden werewolf form and growled at the troll that was squirming in Benjamin’s vice-like grip.
Benjamin held the troll by the scruff of the neck and shook it vigorously. ‘Your eagle friend was right, Sarah,’ he said to his niece, giving the troll an angry look. ‘The lower entrance is a trap. The main gates are open and the place looks deserted. The whole place is rigged so if anyone goes in, the gates shut and then these guys appear.’ He shook the troll again. ‘Good thing I’m quick!’
This troll was more vicious than the one they had encountered in Russia. It snarled at Benjamin. ‘They’ll find you!’ it hissed. ‘They’ll stop you getting to Mautallius!’
Ronny stepped up to the troll who was dangling unceremoniously from Benjamin’s grasp. ‘You don’t have enough trolls to stop us,’ he told the troll scathingly. He wrinkled his nose. ‘I understand why you lot don’t take baths, but can’t you at least use some deodorant?’
The troll snarled and unleashed a string of curses at Ronny. Benjamin lifted the troll up and hit it across the face.
The troll spat blood and teeth. ‘There are more than four thousand of us now! We’ve taken back the Troll Hall that was rightfully ours! Rufus isn’t around any more to supplant us with more rock giants. A long time, we have waited for this. No-one is going to stop us!’
‘I will,’ Benjamin grated and dragged the troll over to the bubbling fountain. He held the troll over the surface of the water. ‘And you shouldn’t have given away your trap so easily,’ he told the struggling troll. ‘Climbing that mountain is just what you want us to do.’ He shook the troll over the water threateningly.
The troll swore at him again. ‘Do your worst!’ it sneered, though its eyes were worried when they looked at the water below.
Then Sarah padded forward. A terrible fury had overtaken her. The air around her shimmered and crackled. Overhead, the stars began to disappear behind clouds, and thunder barked and rumbled. Her hackles rose and her tail was flat down, twitching. She felt an enormous power welling up inside. She climbed up on the stone edge of the fountain and glared at the troll, snarling terribly.
‘Let me,’ she growled.
The troll screamed. ‘No!’ it cried and began struggling even harder. Its eyes widened in terror as it stared at Sarah.
Sarah was angrier than she had ever been. The rage within her boiled and her whole lithe wolf body swelled with the power of Wolfenvald. Her eyes burned and began to glow with a dull golden light. That light became brighter and brighter until her yellow eyes shone like two burning suns. The light from her eyes formed two solid beams that shone straight at the terrified troll. The troll screamed again and stiffened, suddenly immobilised by the light that surrounded it. The others backed away from Sarah and her uncle nervously.
Sarah gestured with her head to a point over the bubbling fountain and the troll was wrenched free from Benjamin’s grasp to hover directly over the water. Slowly and deliberately, she began lowering the troll towards the surface.
The troll shrieked and brought its knees up to its chest. Sarah lowered it even further.
James grinned at Sarah. ‘Good idea,’ he congratulated her. Then he turned to the troll. ‘You’re not going to be able to hold your knees like that for long, stinky. Why don’t you be a good troll and answer a few simple questions, eh?’ The cocky Master botanist’s tone was deliberately relaxed.
The troll swore at him.
James laughed. ‘You know, every time I try to hold something over my head, I can only do it for a few minutes or so.’ He waved at Sarah. ‘This a
is a Golden Mane who’s got you a couple of centimetres from the first and last bath of your life. She could hold you here all day if she wanted to, I’d bet.’
‘Five gnangs says it can hold out for more than an hour,’ Ronny wagered.
James turned to him, ignoring the swearing troll. ‘You’re on,’ he agreed and spat on his palm. Ronny did the same thing and the pair shook hands then turned back to watch the troll, both grinning from ear to ear.
‘Where are my parents?’ Sarah growled.
The troll stopped and swore at her again. Of course, now that Sarah was already very angry, this wasn’t the wisest of things the troll could have done. Sarah dunked the troll towards the water. The wretched creature shrieked and clutched its knees to its chest even tighter. Then it faltered and one leg fell forward so its knee touched the surface of the water. The troll’s knee hissed and smoked.
Sarah growled at the troll again. ‘Where?’ she demanded.
‘In my Master’s quarters!’ cried the troll. Now it was shaking uncontrollably. It clutched its melting knee and howled.
Sarah snarled at the troll. ‘Tell me more!’ she commanded it and dunked the troll waist deep into the fountain. The troll howled, now quite beyond making any kind of speech. She pulled it back out of the water to where she’d held it first. Its legs and hips were completely melted away. There was a sickening squelch as several metres of steaming, smelly troll entrails sloshed out into the water beneath it. That water, still boiling away as it dissolved the troll’s legs, splashed and bubbled as more magnesium-heavy organs fell into it.
All the power and voices of Wolfenvald filled Sarah’s mind. Her golden coat shone brilliantly and seemed every bit as fiery as her deadly eyes. The troll howled and gibbered in pain and terror. She focused her burning yellow eyes on the troll in absolute rage and the light surrounding the troll grew even brighter.
In an instant, Sarah understood exactly what the troll was thinking and feeling. The light from her eyes was part of her. It penetrated the troll so that she could see within and even through it as though it was no more than a thin piece of tissue held up to the sun. She could feel its thoughts. Here before her was a troll that was truly terrified, but it was not terrified of her or even of dying. It was convinced that if it betrayed its master, Mautallius, the wicked sorcerer would do far more horrible things to it than Sarah could ever imagine.
Sarah plunged even deeper into the troll’s mind. Within another minute, she knew the entire contents of the troll’s memories.
Sarah shook her head roughly towards the sand and the troll was hurled several dozen metres out onto the desert. The fiery light surrounding it flowed back into the Golden Mane’s burning eyes.
Abruptly, the thunderstorm died out. Shrieking in rage and terror, the troll began the long and laborious task of hauling itself back to Troll Mountain with only its claws. Its entire body below the waist had been melted away.
‘It’s getting away!’ Mel cried.
Sarah turned to her friend. ‘Why kill it?’ she asked. ‘It wasn’t hurting us.’
‘Are you crazy?’ Mel almost screamed. ‘It’s a bloody troll! Kill it!’
‘I’ve only ever seen Rufus do that.’ Benjamin observed to Sarah. Over his shoulder, he told the others, ‘That light you saw was as strong as the strongest sunlight.’
James nodded. ‘Always been a strong link between sunlight and gold. Same as there is with moonlight and silver…’ The bald botanist looked at Sarah shrewdly. ‘I wonder what effect that light would have on seedlings...’ He grinned. ‘Next time, can I play bad cop? I’d like to have some fun before you read its head like that.’
‘You’d need to know how first, Isaacs,’ Benjamin told him. He looked at Sarah with a curious look. ‘How did you do that?’ he asked her.
‘I’m not sure,’ Sarah snarled.
Benjamin reached out to touch her temples. ‘Do you mind?’ he asked her.
Sarah sat still, but her hackles were still raised and she could not stop growling. It felt as though her mind was being tickled a little as Benjamin read her mind. After a moment, the touch of his mind with hers was gone and he withdrew his fingers. He immediately began scribbling down notes and formulas on a notepad, shaking his head in awe. ‘Oh, thank you Sarah,’ he told his niece. ‘This is going to be a great spell!’
&n
bsp; ‘Will you teach it to me when you’re done?’ Mel demanded eagerly.
Angela interrupted. ‘Maybe he will when you’re old enough.’
Benjamin put his notes away then turned back to Sarah. ‘I only saw how you did it,’ he told her. ‘What exactly did you see? What was inside that troll’s head?’
Though Sarah’s eyes still glowed with golden light and she was still terribly angry, the others realised that this was a controlled rage of terrible purpose, and they hesitantly drew nearer. She took several deep breaths and managed to calm down enough so that thunder stopped booming overhead.
Sarah could sense the voices of Wolfenvald telling her quite clearly what to do. She stood with both front paws on the edge of the fountain and peered down at the mucky water.
‘Ugh,’ Mel muttered, also looking at the water. ‘Troll soup.’
‘Abeos!’ Sarah commanded it, using the Magaeic word for ‘change’.
The smooth surface of the water shimmered. The memories she had seen within the troll’s mind were clear. The surface of the pool cleared and displayed an image of the inside of Troll Mountain. Thousands of trolls were gathered in loose formation. They were armed with axes and spears and wore studded leather vests and short leather kilts. On their legs were strapped studded leather pads. On their hideous heads, they wore brass helmets.
‘They shouldn’t be armed like that,’ Angela observed. ‘It looks as though they’re forming an army.’
James nodded. ‘Trolls aren’t usually that organised,’ he agreed. ‘Last time there was an uprising they spent more time fighting each other than anyone else. Someone must be stirring them up.’
Off to one side there was a huge man-like creature strapped to the wall. He wore a long tunic that came down to just above his knees, belted at the waist. His skin resembled a dried up creek-bed or cliff-face. There was no denying it – this creature was a rock giant.
‘That’s Kevin,’ said Benjamin. ‘He looks pretty deposed to me. I wonder if the Guild will trust him to do any more babysitting after this.’