by Gill Vickery
Bryndis tugged Tia’s sleeve. ‘Come on.’ She led the way to one of the hearths. ‘We need to get the fire going.’
Tia pumped a pair of bellows and Bryndis heaped fresh fire-rock on the embers. When the flames were burning well she put a large pot of water on a rack over the top.
‘Now what do we do?’ Tia asked.
Bryndis grinned. ‘We do our tasks,’ she said.
The night passed in a whirl of work. The four children washed pans and pots, scoured the flagstone floor, mended clothes, washed laundry and scrubbed shoes. Tia was weary when they’d finished, and hungry.
Ingvar put the last shoe neatly by the hearth and said, ‘Done! Now let’s wash and eat.’
Bryndis warmed up slices of cold pie in the stone ovens in the hearth and pushed fish wrapped in wet leaves among the ashes of the fire while Ingvar cut up bread and cheese. Sindri and Tia laid plates, knives and goblets on the cloth and poured water from a jug. Then they sat at the table and dined in style.
When Tia felt she couldn’t eat another crumb, she said, ‘I don’t understand – who leaves you this work? Why do they feed you and why do they serve you food on such fine plates?’
The children laughed. ‘It’s the castle servants – they think we’re night elves who do their work in exchange for food and clothes,’ Bryndis told her.
‘Don’t they ever try and catch you?’ Tia asked.
Bryndis shook her head. ‘They know the elves will leave if anyone tries to trap them.’
Tia had heard stories about elves from the Traders. If you annoyed them they made mischief, so people were always respectful, just in case.
‘And we make sure to leave well before dawn,’ Ingvar said, getting to his feet. ‘That way we’re never seen.’
Tia was disappointed. She’d hoped to have time to explore the castle and find out where Skadi was and, more importantly where she kept her sapphire. I can do that another time, she thought as she followed Bryndis and Ingvar back to the watergate.
In the boat Sindri leaned against her and fell asleep. She woke him when they reached the other side of the moat and he held her hand all the way back to the cellar.
Tia worked well with Bryndis, Ingvar and Sindri and soon fitted in with them. She began to enjoy living with the little family but it made her miss her DragonBrother terribly. She fretted about Finn. She knew he would be worried about her but, as she never saw Loki by night and the trapdoor was always securely locked by day, she couldn’t ask the jackdaw to take a message to the little dragon.
She concentrated on learning about Iserborg castle – and High Witch Skadi. On nights when there weren’t too many tasks the children went exploring, and Tia soon got to know the castle layout well. Skadi’s rooms were in a tower at the very top of the castle. ‘We don’t go there,’ Bryndis said one night as they sat in front of the kitchen fire. ‘It’s too dangerous.’
‘There’s guards,’ Sindri said, his eyes wide, ‘in the sapphire room where she leaves the bracelet at night.’
‘Why does she do that?’ Tia asked the two older children who were frowning at Sindri.
‘Because if she had a bad dream the sapphire would take her to the place of her nightmares,’ Bryndis said.
Sindri opened his mouth to speak but Ingvar held up his hand. ‘Hush!’ he ordered. Tia knew they weren’t going to tell her any more about Skadi or the sapphire. She’d just have to find out for herself.
Chapter Four
The Stone Guards
Tia’s chance came one night as they sat in front of the fire playing a game of counters. Sindri had won and was very pleased with himself.
Tia jumped up. ‘I’m tired of sitting – let’s go and explore.’
Sindri’s face fell. ‘One more game, please,’ he pleaded.
‘All right,’ Ingvar agreed. ‘Just one.’
‘I don’t mind exploring on my own,’ Tia said, trying not to sound too eager.
Bryndis frowned. ‘You won’t be too long, will you? Or we’ll have to leave without you.’
‘No, I promise. I don’t want to get stuck here!’ Tia waved and left the kitchen.
She went straight to where her friends had told her Skadi’s forbidden tower was. To her surprise there weren’t any guards at the bottom of the stairs. She quickly crept up the stone steps. It was pitch black but she didn’t dare spark a flame for fear of alerting the guards she was sure were at the top of the stairs. She put one hand on either side of the cold stone walls and felt her way upwards. The steps were broken and crumbling and she stumbled twice. I suppose, as Skadi can use the sapphire to transport herself, she doesn’t need to use stairs, Tia thought. That’s why she hasn’t bothered to mend them.
At last the spiral stairs came to an end and opened into a small circular hall dimly lit with an ethereal blue glow. On either side was an archway. One had a door with a lock, the other was doorless and the ghostly blue light was coming from inside the room. Tia decided the locked door probably led to Skadi’s apartments while the doorless room surely contained the sapphire. Only a jewel with strong magic could give off such a beautiful light.
There was still no sign of guards. Tia crept round the walls up to the open archway and looked cautiously inside.
Resting on a white marble block in the middle of the room was a silver bracelet set with a huge, glowing sapphire. Stationed around the room stood six massive guards. They were carved out of marble in the form of huge trolls, snarling and baring broken fangs. Each gripped a club in fists tipped with talons.
Skadi had cast such strong magic on them that the air crackled with it. Tia was sure that the minute the trolls knew she was there they’d turn on her. I can’t fight them! she thought. But there had to be a way to trick them; trolls were stupid creatures and there was no reason to suppose that marble ones were any cleverer.
She stared hard at the trolls and began to see glimmering silver threads of magic beaming from their eyes. The magical rays wove a criss-cross web around the room. She guessed that if anyone touched one of the magical beams it would set off an alarm to make the trolls attack and bring Skadi rushing from her rooms.
Tia frowned. There had to be a way through. But no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t see one. The only way to reach the jewel would be to climb over, and wriggle under, the beams.
She took a tentative step forward then thought, There isn’t enough time to try now – I’ve been here long enough already.
She drew back, tiptoed through the hall and went back down the steps. As she entered the corridors she realised with a shock that faint daylight was filtering through the windows. She ran as fast as she could for the kitchen.
But she was too late. Her friends had gone.
She could hear stirrings in the castle as servants began getting ready for the new day. She sprinted to the watergate. It was shut and there was no sign of the boat.
Tia gripped the iron bars and the gate opened. Ingvar had left it unlocked.
That was one problem solved, but now she had to swim the moat. Well, it was her own fault she’d lost track of time; she’d have to make the best of it.
She took off her gold chain with its locket and the emerald ring and put them safely in her coat pocket before she took it off. Then she kicked off her boots and wrapped them in her coat. Holding the bundle above her head she slid into the smelly water. She swam across one-handed, keeping her coat clear of the water. It took her much longer than if she had been swimming freely and she was freezing when she got to the other side. She clambered onto the bank and dressed as quickly as she could.
By the time Tia had dragged on her boots and coat and refastened her chain with fumbling, icy hands, the sun had risen. She made sure the way was clear before she made a dash from the trees, ran through the backstreets and skidded down the deserted alley. She rapped gently on the trapdoor. ‘It’s me, Tia,’ she said softly. ‘Let me in!’
She heard a bolt being drawn back and looked round quickly to check that n
o-one was turning onto the street. Perched on a window ledge was a jackdaw. Before she could decide if it was Loki, the trapdoor opened and Ingvar grabbed her, pulled her into the cellar and re-bolted the trapdoor.
Sindri rushed up and flung his arms round her. ‘I thought you’d been taken!’
‘I’m sorry,’ Tia said hugging him tightly.
‘So you should be.’ Bryndis glared at her. ‘He was worried about you.’
‘Thanks for leaving the watergate unlocked,’ Tia said to Ingvar.
‘Don’t expect me to do it again.’ He glared even more fiercely than his sister.
‘You’re all wet and you smell!’ Sindri said.
Tia wrinkled her nose. She did smell. ‘I had to swim the moat.’
‘You can borrow some of my clothes for today. We’ll wash yours at the castle tonight,’ Bryndis said.
‘Thank you.’ Tia smiled but Bryndis simply handed over the clothes and went with Sindri to lie down with her face to the wall. Ingvar did the same. Tia was in disgrace.
She quickly changed and lay in her sleeping place. She shivered; even with her coat on top of the blankets she was still chilled from the moat. She hoped she’d warm up quickly. She hoped even more that Bryndis and Ingvar would forgive her soon.
After they’d finished their tasks that night and sat at the castle fireside where Tia’s newly washed clothes steamed in the heat, Sindri held up his fist. ‘Look what I found.’ He waved three glossy feathers, two black and one grey.
‘They’re pretty,’ Tia said. ‘Where did you find them?’
‘On the ground, by the trapdoor.’ Sindri stuck the feathers in his hair and ran round the kitchen pretending he could fly.
Ingvar and Bryndis laughed and joined in but Tia stayed by the fire, thinking.
The feathers were from a jackdaw. Loki must have left them as a sign he knew where she was. She could leave a message in return and he’d take it to Finn.
The next day, while the others were sleeping, she took her silver-tipped pen and green book out of her bag and wrote:
Finn – I am well. I have discovered where the next object is. I will take it soon. T.
She tore the page out, rolled it up and tied it with a piece of thread pulled from her shirt. That night, when they went through the trapdoor, Tia dropped the message. When they returned, the paper had gone.
Chapter Five
The Great Statue
Tia worked very hard during the next few days. She scrubbed and sewed in the castle kitchens at night and sat at the table with Sindri, helping him learn his runes, when the work was done. Back in the cellar she told him stories of Prince Kaspar and the Skrimsli Bear before he went to sleep. Very often she saw Bryndis and Ingvar listening too. She pretended not to notice and concentrated on telling the tales as skilfully as she could. She always ended with a soft sweet lullaby that sent Sindri off to sleep.
‘Where did you learn that song?’ Bryndis asked one morning.
‘I don’t know,’ Tia said. To her surprise she realised it was true. It wasn’t a Trader song or a DragonSong so where had she heard it? For a fleeting moment she thought she remembered a warm embrace and a woman singing sweetly, then the memory was gone. ‘I’ve just always known it.’
When Tia settled down later and fell asleep, the song was echoing in her mind.
A sound of cheering and the blare of a trumpet woke Tia. A second blast of sound had Bryndis, Ingvar and Sindri shooting up from their blankets.
‘What was that?’ Sindri said.
‘Let’s find out.’ Ingvar unbolted the trapdoor and raised it cautiously. Tia joined him and they looked down the street to the square. ‘It’s a procession,’ Tia said. ‘Where are they going? Why are they so excited?’
‘No idea. Wait here, I’ll go and see.’ Ingvar climbed up into the deserted street. He walked a little way, paused in a doorway and watched the excited crowd.
Tia was annoyed. If Ingvar could go out in the daytime then why couldn’t she? She scrambled into the street, ignoring Bryndis’s fierce, ‘Stop!’, and joined Ingvar in the doorway.
‘What’s going on?’ she asked.
Ingvar glared at her. ‘You should be in the cellar.’
‘I wanted to see.’
More and more people were lining the square. The excitement built. A trumpet sounded again.
‘There it is!’ A man pointed to the open gates. The whole crowd started cheering and clapping as a team of eight horses hauled a waggon into the square. It stopped and Tia gasped. In the waggon, secured by ropes, was an enormous marble statue glistening white in the sunshine.
‘It’s Skadi.’ Tia turned and saw Bryndis staring open-mouthed in astonishment at the statue. Sindri was hopping up and down in excitement beside her.
‘Let me see!’
‘Hush, in a minute,’ Bryndis said.
Tia turned back to the scene in front of her. So this was Skadi, feared High Witch of Iserborg – and her fourth aunt. The sculpture was magnificent: dignified and with a beautiful face, though Tia thought the lips were twisted in a cruel smile.
A herald rode up to the waggon. He blew a fanfare on his trumpet and the crowd stopped shouting and listened.
‘All you subjects of the mighty High Witch, the Lady Skadi, are ordered to gather before her at the gates of the castle,’ he announced. He blew his trumpet again and led the waggon towards the castle. The crowd surged after it, leaping and cheering.
‘I wonder what Skadi wants now,’ Ingvar said.
Tia wondered that too.
‘It’s too dangerous to follow,’ Bryndis said. ‘We have to get back to the cellar.’ She reached out her hand to her little brother. He wasn’t there.
‘Where’s Sindri?’ Bryndis looked round wildly.
Tia pointed at the end of the procession. ‘There he is!’
Sindri was skipping into the crowd hurrying to the castle.
‘You should’ve held onto his hand, Bryndis,’ Ingvar said.
‘And you shouldn’t have left the cellar in the first place,’ his sister blazed back.
Tia knew they were angry because they were scared, but arguing wasn’t going to do any good. ‘I’ll go and get him,’ she said.
‘We’ll all go. It’ll give us a better chance of finding him,’ Ingvar said firmly.
Leaving a safe gap between themselves and the end of the crowd, the three children followed until the waggon lumbered to a stop in front of the castle. They hid behind a cart and watched as the men driving the team of horses climbed into the waggon and cut the ropes keeping the statue from toppling over. The throng fell silent. It waited anxiously. Tia wondered what for.
Then a gasp rippled through the gathering. Skadi had appeared out of nowhere to stand in front of the waggon. She had her hand on the arm of a man who’d appeared with her.
Tia gasped too, not just at the sight of her beautiful aunt with a streak of white zigzagging through her dark hair like a bolt of lightning, but also at the man. He was shorter than Skadi, and very strong-looking. And he resembled the portrait of Tia’s father that she carried in her locket: his eyes were as dark, his hair as black and curly and he had the same curving nose.
The crowd began to cheer and call out, ‘Long live the Lady Skadi!’
The witch held up her hand and the gathering instantly stopped shouting. ‘My people, as you can see, Master Zeno has completed his tribute to me.’ She gestured at the statue and then at the man beside her. He bowed and helped Skadi onto the waggon. She put her hand on the statue.
‘He has brought this to me but cannot take it to the place where all can see and admire it.’ She pointed to an alcove cut into the stone above the castle gates. Before Tia could even blink, the statue was inside the alcove with Skadi standing on the ledge next to it. In the time it took Tia to draw breath in amazement, the witch was back beside Zeno.
She smiled in the cruel way the statue did. ‘The Master Sculptor will accompany me to dinner where he will be my guest of hon
our.’ The witch laid her hand on Zeno’s arm again and they vanished.
The crowd let out a final gasp, this time of relief. Skadi wasn’t coming back, at least for now. Little groups formed, chatting and laughing or talking solemnly, shaking their heads and pointing up at the statue.
Tia leaned against a cart. No wonder everyone in Iserborg was jumpy and tense! Although she’d known Skadi used the sapphire to transport herself from place to place, she hadn’t known the witch could carry people – and statues – with her. That was what people meant when they said Skadi ‘took’ men for the quarries or women and children for servants. Tia wondered what had happened to her friends’ mother. Where had Skadi ‘taken’ her?
Bryndis elbowed Tia. ‘There’s Sindri,’ she whispered. The little boy was near the front of the crowd, gaping at the statue, entranced. ‘You stay here,’ Bryndis ordered. ‘We’ll get him.’ She and Ingvar moved off.
‘Where’ve you been?’ a voice said close to Tia’s ear. She nearly jumped out of her skin.
‘Loki!’ The jackdaw was perched on the cart. Tia quickly explained where and why she hid in the daytime and what she’d discovered about Skadi and the sapphire. ‘I’m going to get into that room as soon as I can and steal it.’
She pulled a fat wad of paper out of her pocket. ‘I’ve written it all down for you to take to Finn. It’s quite a big message, I’ll need to tie it on.’
With a shake of his head, Loki held out a leg and Tia fastened the package on with twine she’d found in the castle. ‘There, it’s done. Thank you, Loki.’ Tia stroked the bird’s grey head.
‘I’ll be back to keep an eye on you,’ he said. ‘At least you haven’t been captured again – yet.’ He took off and was soon out of sight.