The Door In the Tree

by William Corlett

  But, at that moment he saw the great badger, Bawson, rear up on to its hind legs. It stood, upright, blood gushing from the open wound on its shoulder, front paws jutting out, sleek head held aloft. Then, as a shaft of moonlight dazzled his eyes with its brilliance, Fang thought he saw a tall man standing where a moment before the badger had been. The man was wearing a long black coat and he carried in one hand a thin silver stick.

  Fang cowered back, squealing.

  ‘Kill, Fang! Kill!’ he heard Kev yelling at him.

  The dog growled, deep in his throat, trying to summon the courage to go into the attack once more.

  Kev climbed into the pit, lashing the dog with his rope.

  ‘I said kill, damn you! Kill!’ Kev yelled, his fury overwhelming him, thrashing the dog viciously as he spoke.

  Fang leapt forward, the lashing from Kev still stinging on his back. As the man held aloft his silver stick, Fang jumped for his arm, and sank his teeth deep into muscle above the wrist.

  ‘Is this the only language you know, poor Fang?’ he heard a quiet voice whisper in his ear. ‘Then, kill Fang, kill!’

  Fang squealed once, dropping to the ground. Then he turned and faced Kev across the pit.

  ‘Damn you, I said kill, Fang!’ Kev snarled at him.

  Fang sprang across the ring straight at Kev, with all his pent-up anger and hatred seething out of him in a ferocious, blood-chilling, roar.

  ‘Watch out, he’s run amok!’ Ted yelled.

  Kev raised his arm, fending off the powerful dog as best he could. The other dogs started to bark and snap. Some turned on each other and one or two them even attacked their masters as well.

  ‘What the hell is going on here?’ one of the men yelled. His mates were already running for the safety of their motors.

  But now, suddenly, the air around them was filled with birds. Their wings beating, they flew round the men, skimming down on to them and away from them, like a swarm of bees. The men had to duck and dodge, flailing out with their arms. The badgers in the sacks were clawing their way free. A fox leapt out of the dark and sank his teeth into Pete’s ankle. An owl dropped from the sky and sank its claws into Ted’s neck. He brushed it off with a shout.

  ‘What the hell’s happening?’ he cried.

  At the same moment a little old lady appeared in front of him and a camera flashlight sparked in the dark. Before he could even comprehend what had taken place, Meg had dodged away as she went from man to man, taking as many pictures as she could.

  Mary meanwhile was releasing the badgers from their cages and sacks, tearing at the fastenings with her fingers. As each badger was freed, it turned and, instead of running for cover, it entered the fray, joining the dogs and the birds in the assault on the men.

  Alice appeared, as if from nowhere. She ran straight to where Bawson was lying on the ground, blood oozing from his shoulder.

  ‘Oh, Mr Tyler,’ she whispered as she dabbed at the badger’s wounds with her handkerchief, ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Kev had managed to kick himself free of Fang. He ran, limping, towards Ted’s van. Ted reached the van at almost the same moment.

  ‘Let’s get the hell out of here,’ Kev gasped. But Fang leapt at him again from behind, pulling him down on the ground.

  ‘Help me, Ted,’ Kev yelled, reaching out a hand as he fell.

  ‘Not likely,’ Ted replied, scrambling into the van. ‘You’re on your own, mate.’

  The sound of motors being started cut through the pandemonium. Men were shouting to each other. The dogs were barking and squealing.

  Just as the first car was reversing to turn, a police car slid into the quarry, blocking the exit, its blue light flashing. It was followed by Jack’s Land-Rover, which squealed to a halt. Jack and William and Dan leapt out, surveying the scene in front of them with disbelief.

  Distantly, the sound of police sirens heralded the arrival of reinforcements.

  ‘Run for it, lads!’ one of the men yelled, turning, and starting a mass rush towards the only other exit: the Dark and Dreadful Path. But as they reached the gap in the rocks, they found their way barred by a bedraggled but vicious black and white dog.

  ‘Spot!’ Alice yelled, pushing through the crowd and standing beside him. Then she also turned and faced the men.

  ‘You all stay where you are,’ she sobbed, the tears – of relief as well as of anger and misery – welling out of her eyes. ‘You stay where you are. You . . . revolting, vile, cruel people.’

  ‘Get out of the way,’ a man shouted, as he pushed past her, knocking her to the ground.

  Alice fell to her knees, sobbing. All around her was chaos as the men tried to escape. But the opening was narrow and gradually they gave themselves up. Some hung their heads. The sight of the small girl, kneeling sobbing in front of them tugged at their sentimental hearts.

  ‘Don’t cry, lass,’ one of the older men said. ‘It was just a bit of fun we were having.’

  ‘Fun?’ Alice yelled and she threw herself at the man, pummelling him with her fists, as though she wanted to destroy him.

  ‘Hey! You little vixen,’ the man exclaimed. ‘I’ll have you up for assault and battery. You can’t treat me like that,’ and he gripped Alice in his strong arms.

  ‘Put her down,’ a grim voice behind him ordered.

  The man turned in time to see Jack’s fist, going straight for his chin.

  ‘Oh, Uncle Jack!’ Alice exclaimed, brimming with pride as she picked herself up off the ground. ‘I think you’ve knocked him out!’

  26

  A Fair Wind and a Full Moon

  THEY ALL SLEPT late at Golden House the following morning and the sun was high in the sky by the time breakfast was served in the kitchen.

  Phoebe had been too concerned about their welfare to be cross and even Alice escaped with no more than a reprimand.

  ‘You can’t go rushing off in the middle of the night all on your own, Alice. What would your mother and father think of us?’ she said.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Alice told her. ‘But I wasn’t really alone, Phoebe. I was with Spot. And Mum and Dad would understand, I’m sure they would.’

  Jack and Dan had carried Bawson back to the Land-Rover. Then they drove to Four Fields with Meg. They took Spot with them. Meg said she would be getting the vet first thing the following morning to look at Bawson and she thought it would be as well if he saw the dog as well.

  The other badgers had slipped away into the night. The Golden Valley sett hadn’t far to go. They’d found Betty and the young cubs, huddled under a tree at the top of the quarry cliffs, where they had watched the ghastly spectacle, unable to move for fear, and had been reunited with Grey and Stella and Trish, who had mercifully survived the dogs.

  Meg, meanwhile, had been fretting about what would happen to the badgers that had been brought by baiters from outside the area.

  ‘Perhaps they’ll make new homes here,’ she’d said, ‘but I doubt it. They’ll pine for their own families, you see. That’s why Betty wouldn’t stay away. The family means everything to a badger. I fear they’ll try to get home and that could mean crossing miles of unknown country.’

  The police had rounded up all the badger baiters and taken their details. One or two of the rowdiest had been put under arrest. The dogs had taken some quietening down, particularly Fang, who’d had to be stunned before anyone could handle him. An ambulance had come to take Kev to hospital. As for the birds, they’d simply disappeared back into the dark trees and blended with the night. In time they became no more than a vague memory, the stuff of legends, to be added to the other magic tales of Golden Valley.

  ‘I’ve never seen birds behaving like that before,’ Bob Parker had repeated more than once. ‘Out in the middle of the night? Mobbing humans? What on earth was going on?’

  ‘They were helping their friends,’ Meg had said quietly, and she had looked at the children as she spoke, as if suggesting that perhaps she meant them.

  Eventually Bob
had driven the children home to Golden House in his panda car. They’d found Phoebe pacing up and down on the drive, anxiously scanning the trees for sign of them and she’d been so relieved to see them safe that she’d hugged them all to her and cried and wasn’t cross once.

  Now, with the light, some of the horrors of the previous night began to ease away. They had arranged to go and see Meg at Four Fields, but it was decided that they would wait until after lunch, to give the vet plenty of time to make his visit.

  The children waited until the coast was clear and then they hurried up the steps to the secret room. To their surprise, the Magician was waiting for them. He looked older and sadder and the arm that usually held the silver stick was in a thick white sling.

  As soon as Alice saw him, she ran across the room and threw her arms round him. The force of her weight made him wince, but he put his good arm round her waist and hugged her close.

  ‘Well done, Alice,’ he said. Then, looking over her shoulder at the other two, he smiled and nodded. ‘And well done, all of you.’

  ‘Oh, Mr Tyler, I thought I’d never see you again,’ Alice said. ‘And the thought was so dreadful that I . . . I couldn’t bear it.’

  ‘You had to think that, Alice,’ he told her, gently. ‘You had to act from your own conviction. You had to act with your own courage. The danger of magic is that you can come to rely upon it. You expect it to do things for you. It is all very well being brave but, if you secretly know that at the wave of a wand you can change the order of things, then it does rather spoil the valour, doesn’t it? But you had to be brave all on your own. And you were. You were brave and fierce and strong. You acted from your heart and your only weapon was love. I’m so proud of you, Alice. You are a true Constant and you will be constantly true. You will ever be my companion in this work. I told you all that you had to come to understand the natural world. It is a simple world that has been muddled and muddied by the deeds of Men. But it is not too late for our world. It will be, I think, never quite too late so long as people learn to act from the heart, and not from greed for riches or lust for power. Only the heart can save the natural world, for it is the heart that is in tune with nature. That is where the understanding lies. It is from the heart that you respond to the beauty of a sunset or the wonder of a rose. It is the heart that hears the blackbird’s song, it is the heart that smells the wild honeysuckle. It is the heart that allows you to enter into the Dog, Sirius, and the Fox, Cinnabar, and the Owl, Jasper. It is the heart that hears and feels and smells and tastes and sees all the wonders of this world. You three have good hearts. You three Constant children. My companions. My friends.’

  He paused and there was silence in the room. Alice didn’t look at William and Mary. She was too embarrassed. She thought that the Magician’s long speech had been a bit over the top really. She hadn’t been all that brave, in fact most of the time she’d been so scared that she could hardly breathe. And anyway it had been Spot that had done most of the brave things. But it was nice to be specially praised and she was so glad to see the Magician again that she decided not to say anything. But then she remembered something that she did just want to say, though it was almost more to William and Mary than to Stephen Tyler.

  ‘The Dark and Dreadful Path isn’t really all that bad, you know. So I wasn’t being very brave. The moon came out and all the trees looked like Christmas trees and it was so light that it wasn’t ghostly at all.’

  Stephen Tyler cried out delightedly.

  ‘The Silver Path!’ he exclaimed. ‘Oh, that is good news! You see, this place, this Golden Valley, is particularly special because it is a place where three great energy lines – you know what these are?’ The children shook their heads. ‘No, well you will one day. They are the ancient paths, that our forefathers understood and used. They are the sacred paths, where the energies of the earth are at their most potent. Here in Golden Valley we have two paths close together. The Golden path and the Silver path and between them, entirely because of them, there is a third, hidden, quite unique and secret path. It has no name and, in some ways, it is still unexplored. But the Silver path lost its power. Men cut down the beech woods and planted foreign pines. The animals left it, birds wouldn’t fly there, even the moon could not penetrate through the thick branches. When the power went from the Silver path, the balance went with it. That is why this house was falling into ruin. That is why Jonas Lewis was so easily corrupted. A corruption at Golden House? It cannot be possible. That is why, eventually, the emblem was removed.’

  Stephen Tyler sighed, remembering only the sad thoughts. Alice yawned. He was talking a bit above her head again and Mary shuffled her feet and wondered if it was going to be a long lecture. She had heard a car arriving down on the drive and was wondering who it might be who had come to call.

  But William, however, was eagerly listening to the old man’s words and now excitedly exclaimed;

  ‘Yes, yes. That’s what I think I saw when we were flying in the kestrel. The country below us reminded me of the picture I saw on the chimney breast when I found the steps up the chimney. And the pendant that Jack found and gave to Phoebe. It’s all the same, isn’t it? And the weather vane. I’m right, aren’t I?’

  Stephen Tyler looked at him deeply.

  ‘Your time is coming, William Constant. That brain must be opened. When will you next be here for a considerable time?’

  ‘The summer holidays,’ William replied.

  ‘We’ll have high jinks in the summer holidays,’ the Magician told him.

  ‘What? Just William?’ Alice protested.

  ‘Certainly not. All of you.’

  ‘Where did the weather vane come from?’ Mary asked.

  ‘The top of the dovecote,’ Stephen Tyler replied. ‘Now it could be replaced. It would be a good time. For tonight we will have a fair breeze and a full moon.’

  He sighed again, as if he was in pain, and lifted his arm into a more comfortable position in the sling.

  ‘Is your arm very bad?’ Alice asked him.

  ‘Of course it’s bad,’ he replied irritably. Then he smiled, apologetically. ‘You remember – a dog bit it. I must go. Perhaps tonight we might be together at the tree house. You have yet to see it with the lantern alight. But only if it is convenient. You have done enough, you three. You have given us back the Silver path.’

  And he left them in the secret room, fading into his own time, with a long, weary sigh.

  When they returned to the hall they discovered that Dan had come to see them. He was still full of all that had happened at Blackscar Quarry the night before and he was anxious to reassure them that Arthur and he wanted to continue working on the house if they were still welcome.

  ‘Of course you are,’ Phoebe told him, as she gave him a second helping of cherry cake. ‘It isn’t your fault that Kev turned out to be so horrid.’

  ‘I don’t think he’ll ever do it again, though,’ Dan said. ‘I should think what happened last night will stay with him for the rest of his life.’

  ‘What will happen to Fang?’ Alice asked.

  ‘He’s got to be put down, I’m afraid. That dog’s completely out of control. A real vicious brute.’

  ‘Poor Fang,’ Alice said.

  ‘Oh, no!’ Mary groaned. ‘She’s not going to start being sorry for Fang now, is she?’

  ‘I can’t help it if I have a big heart,’ Alice said with a superior shrug, then she burst out giggling and made the others laugh as well.

  As Dan was leaving, William caught him up and they had a moment’s whispered conversation before they both disappeared together round the back of the house.

  ‘What’s William up to?’ Alice asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Mary said, sounding preoccupied. Then she ran a hand through her hair. ‘I think I’ll wash my hair,’ she said.

  ‘Mary?’ Alice said, looking at her suspiciously. ‘What are you up to, for that matter?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Mary replied, innocently.


  ‘You’ve got that funny look. . . . Oh, no!’ she sighed, suddenly realizing. ‘You’re falling in love with Dan now. Oh, fishcakes!’

  ‘No, I am not,’ Mary protested, crossly. And she ran into the house, confirming Alice’s suspicions.

  They returned to Four Fields that afternoon, driving there in the Land-Rover. Meg welcomed them on the doorstep and Spot appeared, with a bandage round one shoulder and looking very sorry for himself. But he did manage to wag his tail when he saw Alice.

  Meg gave them tea and sausage rolls that she’d bought specially off the travelling shop that visited her once a week. Alice had never tasted anything so delicious since she didn’t know when, but she didn’t say so for fear of upsetting Phoebe.

  They stayed until dusk, then Phoebe and Jack drove home with Stephanie, and the children walked back through the woods to the yew tree with Meg. She wanted to see that Bawson had got home safely and that the other badgers were all settling back in at the sett. The vet had given Bawson an antibiotic injection but apart from that they had decided to let nature be the healer. The big badger had been impatient to get back to his family and as soon as he was able to move he had lumbered off across the meadow and disappeared from sight.

  A stiff breeze was blowing when they reached the edge of the valley. The light was fading from the sky and, as they watched, a perfect silver disc of a moon rose out of the ragged trees on the horizon.

  The children climbed the yew to the secret house and Meg went down the hill to be with her badgers.

  William had brought a box of matches and with one he lit the candle that was stuck into the sconce inside the old lantern. Then, one by one, they opened all the shutters of the pointed windows. The air swirled in about them, fresh and cold. The lantern swung from side to side, casting pale shadows. Then, as the moon rose in the sky and grew stronger, a tiny circular disc appeared deep down in the valley, where the chimneys of the house could just be seen. It glittered and shone with the intensity of a searchlight, a mirror-image of the moon itself.