The Serpent in the Glass (The Tale of Thomas Farrell)

by D. M. Andrews

  ‘What happened to him?’ Jessica asked.

  Thayer shrugged. ‘He was never seen again.’

  Everyone looked at Thayer, but he didn’t notice. He was staring blankly out into the wood. Thomas felt his marbles digging into the flesh of his thigh, so he straightened his leg and pulled the bag from his pocket.

  ‘What’s in the bag?’ whispered Ghillie in his husky voice, his eyes widening in interest and his mouth displaying a row of small, sharp teeth. ‘Is it more patsies?’

  ‘Just marbles,’ Thomas said, deciding not to tell him about the Serpent in the Glass. ‘And it’s pasties not patsies.’

  ‘Marbles?’ Ghillie said, ignoring the correction. ‘What’s marbles?’

  Thomas slipped his hand into the bag and pulled out a large marble with a golden band in its glassy depths.

  ‘Ooohhh! Pretty. Yes, Og Tiarna. Pretty.’

  Thomas gave him the marble and the Gruagach shuffled off to examine the strange little glass ball.

  ‘Why does he keep on calling you that?’ Penders looked at Ghillie, who was now testing the marble’s hardness by biting on it with his small, sharp, white teeth.

  ‘Calling me what?’ Thomas said.

  Penders frowned at the creature. ‘You know, “Og Tiarna”. Probably some made up word.’

  Thomas looked up. ‘No, it’s not. It means Young Lord.’

  Penders frowned. ‘How’d you know that?’

  By the look on their faces, everyone else also wanted to know how he knew. But so did Thomas. He knew what it meant, but he couldn’t say how. It was as if he knew the words, as if they were part of his own language. He’d not even thought about it until now. The words weren’t English. How could he know their meaning?

  Thomas slowly shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I just do somehow.’

  Jessica cocked her head to one side. ‘Don’t you find that strange, Thomas?’

  ‘This whole place is strange.’ Thomas sighed. ‘Maybe I heard it in Havelock’s class or read it in the library?’

  The others went back to casting glances about the forest in the hope of seeing its edge, all except for Merideah who seemed lost in thought, though she cast a glance back at Thomas every now and again. Ghillie eventually came back over to sit beside Thomas, the marble he’d been given now rolling about in his dark, wrinkled hands.

  Thomas smiled. Despite the wild look and crude behaviour of the Gruagach, Thomas found himself glad that Ghillie was with them. ‘You can keep it if you want.’

  ‘Keep pretty ball? Og Tiarna is very generous, yes. But Ghillie Dhu has no pockets.’ He reluctantly put the marble back into Thomas’s hand. ‘Ghillie not want to lose pretty ball. Ghillie give it back to Og Tiarna.’

  Thomas nodded and opened up the bag to put the marble back in. But, as he did so, Ghillie saw the Serpent in the Glass and his eyes went wide.

  ‘Og Tiarna has fun with us, yes, walking around Muddlestump when he has way out?’

  His words got everyone’s attention.

  Thomas froze. ‘What do you mean?’

  The Gruagach pointed to the bag. ‘Og Tiarna has the Serpent Glass!’

  Thomas looked at the others who were all now looking at him. Clearly they weren’t going to speak. Perhaps Ghillie had just called it that because it was made of glass and had a serpent in it. But something about the way he said it made Thomas doubt that was true. The Gruagach must’ve seen it before, or at least known of its existence.

  ‘It was a gift from my father,’ Thomas said, somewhat cautiously.

  ‘Ghillie not doubt that,’ he rasped. ‘Why Og Tiarna not use it? Summon the Power?’

  Merideah stood. ‘Ghillie, how do you know about the Serpent in the Glass?’

  Ghillie Dhu stared at her as if reluctant to speak, but then he seemed to remember something, probably the pasty. ‘Ghillie served the Ard Tiarnai. Ghillie saw them use it.’

  ‘Who are the Ard Tiarnai?’ Merideah asked, looking first to Ghillie and then to Thomas.

  ‘High Lords,’ Thomas answered, eliciting raised eyebrows from Penders and the two girls. Thomas shook his head at the question he knew was in their minds. He didn’t know how he knew that either. He just did.

  ‘Ard Tiarnai were strong in the Old Power, not like silly Bumbleclogs,’ Ghillie explained. ‘They were kind to Ghillie Dhu, but then went away and never came back.’ Ghillie looked sad as he whispered these words, but then he looked up at Thomas and his eyes lit up again. ‘But now Og Tiarna is here.’

  Thomas reddened and was suddenly glad of the forest’s gloom. Ghillie had obviously decided to attach himself to Thomas and there wasn’t a lot Thomas could do about it. Despite the Gruagach’s confidence in Thomas using the Glass to escape the wood, Thomas was sure they would still need Ghillie’s help, and if that meant allowing Ghillie to believe Thomas was some returned young lord then so be it. ‘Ghillie, do you know how to use the Glass to find our way out of Muddlestump?’

  Ghillie cackled what must have been a laugh. ‘Og Tiarna plays with Ghillie! Gruagach cannot use Serpent Glass.’

  Thomas didn’t know anything of the sort, and he certainly wasn’t laughing. They’d been in Muddlestump Wood for several hours now and the gloom seemed to be growing heavier. He wanted to get out of this cloying, windless, tree-filled cage.

  ‘Maybe if we move around, the Glass might glow when we get near something — like it did with the Way Gate?’ Penders suggested.

  Thomas nodded. ‘Sounds as good an idea as any.’

  Thomas got up and started to walk around. Ghillie followed behind, scratching in the undergrowth with his staff every now and again to root out small rodents, which he caught in his clawed feet and swallowed whole.

  ‘It’s disgusting,’ Merideah whispered to Penders the third time the Gruagach did it.

  ‘Yeah,’ Penders replied. ‘But at least he’s not eating the pasties.’

  Merideah eyed him. ‘How did you know I had more?’

  Penders grinned. ‘I didn’t, until you just said that.’

  Merideah shook her head and turned her attention back to Thomas.

  ‘This isn’t working.’ Thomas dropped down against an old gnarled tree. The Glass hadn’t so much as glimmered, and Thomas wondered if they were doomed to be trapped here forever like that poor cadet Thayer had mentioned.

  ‘How can it be so difficult to find the edge of this wood?’ Penders slipped down beside Thomas and yawned widely.

  ‘Let’s rest,’ said Thomas.

  ‘Not long,’ said Merideah as she and the others sat. ‘It’s getting darker, and we won’t have enough light to see where we’re going.’

  Penders sighed. ‘As if that makes any difference!’

  ‘It will if you fall over a tree root and break your leg,’ Merideah said.

  Penders leant back against the old tree. ‘I’m going to have forty winks.’

  ‘Make it twenty,’ said Merideah, but Penders ignored her and shut his eyes. One by one they all closed their eyes, even Jessica.

  Thomas found his own eyes growing heavy, and he yawned as he watched Ghillie next to him slowly fade and disappear so that all that remained was his white crook staff that had been lying across his legs. It now hung suspended several inches above the ground. He must be dreaming, he thought.

  ‘Blind,’ said the voice.

  ‘Sorry?’ Thomas stood up. Everyone looked asleep. Perhaps someone had spoken in their sleep.

  ‘Thomas?’ came the voice again.

  Was it a woman’s voice? It was hard to tell, it was so quiet. More like a wind than a voice.

  ‘Yes?’ Thomas answered, anyway.

  ‘The Wood. It deceives. Trust not your eyes. The blind are not blind…’ the voice came again.

  ‘Who are you?’ Thomas asked.

  ‘It’s Jessica!’ the voice sounded in his ear as he opened his eyes to find the girl shaking him. ‘Are you all right? The Glass was glowing again.’

  The others gathered around, includ
ing the inquisitive Ghillie Dhu. Thomas looked down at the Glass in his hand. It wasn’t glowing now, but he knew it had been. He stood up. ‘I think I might know how to get out of here.’

  Ten minutes later, and watched by a very intrigued Ghillie Dhu, each of the children had a sock tied around their head.

  Thomas looked around. ‘Now, if only we had some rope. I guess we’ll just have to hold hands and keep in line as best we can.’

  He’d explained what needed to be done, and after some seriously questioning looks from Merideah and even Penders, they’d all eventually agreed to the plan. After all, there was nothing to lose. They might get a few bruises, true, but most of them had those already. A few more wouldn’t hurt if they could escape this dreaded wood.

  ‘Og Tiarna use this?’ Ghillie held what looked like a thick, frayed brown rope in one hand.

  ‘That’d be perfect, Ghillie. Where’d you get it?’ Thomas took the rope from the Gruagach.

  Ghillie gave a rictus smile. ‘It’s danglevine. Ghillie see it hanging from tree. Lots of danglevine deeper in wood.’

  The single strand of danglevine proved long enough for each of them to wrap around their wrist so that they were all joined together.

  ‘Og Tiarna?’ Ghillie said, as they finished forming a line with Thomas at the front.

  ‘Yes, Ghillie?’ Thomas asked.

  ‘Ghillie have no socks.’

  Thomas looked down and realized he’d not even thought about the Gruagach. Muddlestump was his home. Why would he want to leave? ‘You want to come with us?’

  Ghillie nodded. ‘Like the old times. Ghillie fed up with Muddlestump.’

  Thomas wasn’t quite sure what he meant by the ‘old times’,but he had pity on him. Penders had a frown on his face as if he thought the wretched creature could stay in Muddlestump Wood forever for all he cared. Thomas removed his trainer, took off his remaining sock, and tied it around Ghillie’s head.

  ‘Thank you, Og Tiarna,’ Ghillie said in awe, looking up toward the sock as if he’d just been crowned.

  Thomas replaced his trainer. ‘OK, everyone. Blindfolds down, and no peeking or it won’t work. You’ll just have to trust me. And don’t let go of the rope.’

  Ghillie picked up the trailing danglevine behind Thayer and wrapped it around his arm. He then pulled the sock down over his beady eyes.

  Thomas pulled down his own blindfold once everyone else had done the same. With the Glass held before him, he started to lead the others through the darkening wood. At first he felt nothing. He tried to keep as straight as he could, but every few feet he could feel the Glass give a gentle tug in one direction or another. He followed it without question. After about five minutes he could no longer feel the brush of leaves and small branches against his head, and he suddenly realized that his plan had a weakness. How would he know if they’d reached the edge of the wood or just a clearing? Should he risk a peek? No. Thomas knew he was still in Muddlestump Wood. The Glass still tugged at him every ten paces or so, and he could still feel the gloom about him even though he couldn’t see it. Besides, he had the feeling that if he took the blindfold off too soon they’d get lost again or, at least, get no further. He wasn’t going to chance it. For some reason he knew he could trust the voice he heard, the voice he now knew had come from the Glass.

  Suddenly the ground beneath his feet became soft and even. It was grass. He took a few more steps forward and then an opportune breeze confirmed to him that they were no longer in the windless Muddlestump Wood. They’d escaped.

  Thomas pulled the sock from his head and stared out at the dimming light of day as it shone its final embers over the expanse of grass that lay between the south-eastern tip of Muddlestump and the road. He didn’t need to tell the others they were out. They already knew and were taking off their blindfolds.

  Treice sighed. ‘I never thought we’d see the sun again for a moment there.’

  ‘Or eat another meal,’ Penders added.

  Merideah turned away from Penders, shaking her head, but then she stopped and pointed. ‘Look!’

  Several hundred yards away, but approaching fast through the evening’s fading light, marched Gallowglas, his limp accentuated by his speed. Several of the flat-helmed Darkledun Guards followed him stiffly. Thomas stuffed the Glass back into his bag of marbles.

  ‘We’re in for it now!’ Penders sighed as he kicked off a trainer. ‘Trapped between Gallowglas and Muddlestump Wood. What a terrible fate!’

  Jessica looked back at the trees. ‘Well, you can go back in that forest if you like, but I’d rather have a detention.’

  Penders pulled his sock back on his foot. ‘If we only get a detention for ruining the coach house, smashing up the Darkledun carriage and crushing half a dozen Darkledun Guards, then I’d say Gallowglas is a pretty generous guy. And I wouldn’t say he was a pretty generous guy.’

  Jessica shrugged and bent down to slip her sock on. ‘That wasn’t our fault.’

  No, Thomas thought as he slipped his sock onto his foot, it was his fault. But he wasn’t going to run from it. Let Grim Gallowglas do his worst, Thomas had only wanted to do what he thought was right. When Mr Gallowglas reached them he didn’t look very happy, and it wasn’t just because one of the Guards had walked into the back of him before it knew he’d stopped.

  ‘Are you mad?’ Gallowglas boomed at the children.

  It seemed to Thomas that Gallowglas was the one who was mad, though in quite a different way to what he meant, of course. Gallowglas, Thomas realized, was staring at him. Thomas suddenly remembered he had no contact lenses in. However, Gallowglas made no comment about Thomas’s eyes, but cast his cold gaze across all their faces instead.

  ‘What foolishness have you been up to?’ Gallowglas glanced at the wood behind them, his eyes narrowing.

  ‘We were chased, Mr Gallowglas,’ Thomas said timidly.

  Gallowglas didn’t reply, so Jessica stepped forward nervously. ‘There was this monster —’

  ‘Yes, yes. The Guards have communicated their’ — he turned and glanced at the Suits either side of him — ‘failure.’

  A couple of the Suits, with the numeral V on their helms, tilted and then lowered their heads as if in shame or sorrow. One held a broken spear and the other had a large dent and scratch marks in its breastplate.

  ‘It wasn’t our fault,’ Merideah plucked up the courage to say.

  ‘Not your fault?’ Gallowglas said incredulously. ‘Was it also not your fault that you sneaked back into the Grange without Stanwell and without permission? Or were you also chased from the Manor? Well?’

  No one answered. Thomas heard Penders gulp. Perhaps Muddlestump Wood would have been the better option after all. Mr Gallowglas’s attention suddenly switched to something on the ground behind Thomas. ‘What is that?’ Gallowglas said, as he walked past Thomas and the others.

  Thomas froze. He’d forgotten all about Ghillie Dhu. Gallowglas must have seen him. He turned around expecting to see Ghillie inflating himself into a giant and preparing to do battle with the teacher, but Thomas couldn’t see Ghillie anywhere.

  Gallowglas stopped and snatched something from the ground just behind them. It was Ghillie’s white hooked staff.

  ‘Well?’ Gallowglas asked, holding up the staff.

  ‘I think, Mr Gallowglas, that these children have been through a great deal this afternoon,’ came Trevelyan’s voice from behind the Suits.

  Thomas and the children turned to see the Suits parting, and nodding deferentially, as they let the High Cap through.

  ‘Is everyone all right?’ Trevelyan said, looking around. ‘All present and correct?’ He too looked at Thomas’s eyes, but only for a brief moment. Perhaps, thought Thomas, he was too polite to say anything. ‘Good.’ The High Cap rubbed his hands together. ‘Now, how about a late picnic? You must all be famished!’

  Trevelyan sat down, but before he reached the grass a red-and-white checked cloth large enough to cover the floor of a small room app
eared beneath him. From his robes he pulled out the delicate silver bell he’d used in his office all those months ago, and gave it a tinkle. A large hamper appeared in the middle of the cloth and promptly opened itself. Then several hidden shelves shot out, each revealing a white porcelain plate filled with tomatoes, chicken drumsticks, cheese, pork pies, beetroot and large crusts of buttered wholemeal bread. The children eagerly sat down and eyed the food greedily. Thomas felt as hungry and thirsty as any of them (except perhaps for Penders).

  ‘Will you join us?’ the High Cap asked Mr Gallowglas.

  Gallowglas seemed to grit his teeth. ‘No, High Cap, I must attend to the Guards.’

  ‘They can go back to their posts,’ Trevelyan said. ‘The creature will not, I am glad to say, be as fortunate as our friends here in escaping Muddlestump.’

  Gallowglas nodded. ‘As you wish, High Cap.’ He thrust the crook staff into the ground next to the cloth, turned, and limped off, giving directions to the Suits as he went.

  ‘We’re sorry about the carriage,’ Thomas said. ‘And about the Guards. Can they be erm ... mended?’

  ‘Yes, unlike yourselves had that creature got hold of you. Now,’ Trevelyan picked up a piece of bread with sliced tomatoes upon it, ‘why don’t you tell me what happened?’

  Thomas nodded and, after a brief glance at his companions, knew that he’d been chosen to do the explaining. ‘It was my idea.’

  Thomas told Trevelyan about wanting to heal the Way Gate after discovering it had faded, and in so doing had to tell him about the Glass, though Trevelyan seemed unsurprised by its mention. ‘I guess I wanted to do something for Dugan, for everyone. My father gave me the Glass for a reason. I just wanted to help.’

  Trevelyan looked at him with his boyish blue eyes. ‘Indeed, I’m sure you did. And your motives are admirable. But, please, go on.’

  Thomas blushed. ‘And then this creature stepped out of the Way Gate. It was huge, covered in green fur with a large horn on its head. It chased us into the stables and we jumped on the carriage. It would’ve got us if it weren’t for the Guards slowing it down.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Penders. ‘And if we’d not crashed in Muddlestump Wood the Fachan would’ve got us for sure.’