by Lari Don
She looked up at them. “So, will you let me help you? Will you let me join you?”
Chapter Nine
“No!” Innes slammed his fist down on an empty desk. “No, you can’t join us.”
“What are you going to do with me, then?” asked the crow-girl.
Molly said, “We aren’t going to hurt you. Are we?”
“No,” said Atacama. “Of course we aren’t going to hurt her.”
“Why not?” snapped Innes. “She tried to kill us.”
“We can’t hurt her,” replied Atacama, “because we don’t know what her curse is, and we don’t know what happens to a curse if you kill its curse-hatched. If she’s linked to a curse that keeps a malevolent monster trapped somewhere safe, for example, then it’s probably better she’s alive and annoying us, than injured or dead, which might weaken or break the curse.”
“I don’t think it works like that,” said Theo.
“Are you sure?” asked Atacama.
“Not completely sure. The link between the curse-hatched and their curses was created secretly by Nan, and no one has tested it scientifically.”
Innes grabbed Snib’s right wrist. He shoved her cardigan sleeve up, then twisted her arm slowly, letting the harsh fluorescent light shine on her pale arm. One long patch of skin glimmered.
Snib had the image of a key marked along her arm.
“You are locking something up,” said Innes. “What’s your curse?”
Snib eased her arm out of his grip. “Corbie has never told me, and I’ve never met my curse-victim. He or she could break my curse, anytime. I’ll get no warning. I have to be ready to feel the curse break, to feel myself break, anytime. It’s… it’s hard to enjoy life, when you don’t know—”
“This is ridiculous.” Molly started to unwrap the bunting. “This girl is just as much a victim of curses as any of us. She says she wants to help and I think we should believe her. What could she tell Corbie anyway? We don’t know what’s going on, we haven’t found anything out yet.” She threw the bunting on the floor. “Snib, would you like to come with us to the Promise Keeper’s Hall?”
“Yes.” A wide smile brightened Snib’s sharp face. “Thank you.”
“Molly!” Innes pulled her away. “That’s crazy. She’s been sent here to spy on us. How can you trust her?”
“Because she’s miserable. You can tell she doesn’t like being a curse-hatched any more than you liked being a curse-caster or Atacama liked being a curse victim. If she wants to help, I think we should let her.”
“What if she’s really spying for Corbie?”
“We’ll make sure that she doesn’t learn anything which would help Corbie, and that she can’t get any messages to him. I’m not daft, Innes, I just don’t think it’s sensible to assume everyone is our enemy.”
“Last year that snivelling girl took part in an ambush designed to kill me. That’s proof enough she’s my enemy.”
Molly sighed. “What’s the alternative? You don’t really want to hurt her, do you?”
Innes shrugged.
“Molly’s right,” said Atacama. “The crow-girl is a minor threat if she’s a spy and could be a major asset if she’s an ally.”
Theo nodded. “Molly’s definitely right. I’m sure Beth would agree that holding grudges isn’t good for us: it draws us too close to dark magic. Where is Beth, anyway?”
“She’s in a huff,” said Innes. “Holding a grudge against us for getting too close to dark magic. She’s staying with her trees.”
Theo said, “Then there’s a vacancy in our quest team. And a new applicant. Come on, Snib, let’s go to the Promise Keeper’s Hall!”
But it wasn’t that easy. Molly refused to shift into a hare because she was determined to prove to Beth that she wasn’t becoming her curse, Theo couldn’t use his magic in case he exploded the whole village, Snib couldn’t fly because Theo had stolen her wings, and they couldn’t all fit on Innes’s back.
So they took the bus.
Or three of them did. While Atacama and Innes headed home cross-country, Molly, Snib and Theo settled down on the back seat of the local bus to Craigvenie.
Snib said, “I thought a magical quest would be more… exciting. Faster. More dangerous. Less dependent on bus timetables.”
Molly said, “I’d rather take the bus than be ambushed in the hills. Which has happened to me, occasionally.”
“I’ve said sorry about that already.”
“This isn’t really a quest and it isn’t really dangerous,” said Theo. “We’re simply visiting Mrs Sharpe and Estelle at the Promise Keeper’s Hall. We’ll have a chat and a quick look at the mirrors holding information about the charged-up curses. It’s not a quest. It’s a social call, with a bit of research thrown in.”
He turned to look directly at the crow-girl. “In the meantime, Snib, tell us: what’s Corbie up to? If he’s sending out spies, is he continuing Nan’s plan to build an army?”
Snib shook her head. “He can’t. He’s afraid of your power and of the threats you made when you attacked the strongest curse-hatched and stole our ability to shift into birds. He’s keeping his head down, because you said if he didn’t, you’d do something even worse. Though I can’t imagine anything worse than losing my wings…” She stared out of the window.
Molly nudged Theo along to the other end of the backseat and whispered, “If that’s what’s keeping Corbie from getting ambitious again, we mustn’t let her know you can’t do magic just now.”
***
They got off the bus two stops before the clock tower in Craigvenie, and found Innes and Atacama sitting in a slice of shadow by a warehouse. They all walked past the distillery to the cooperage yard, then strode between pyramids of strongly scented casks towards a door guarded by a golden spotted sphinx.
“Hello, Caracorum,” said Innes. “No need to ask us the riddle for the hundredth time. The answer is: a baby.”
Caracorum smiled. “No, it isn’t. I have a new riddle.”
Theo sighed. “I still don’t understand the last one.”
“When did you get a new riddle?” asked Atacama.
“Don’t you know about the new riddles? Oh, of course not.” She laughed. “You’re still guarding the back door of that sweetie shop! It’s only the top-level guards, the ones trusted to guard this door, who have new riddles. So you won’t get through the door today.”
Molly said, “Just ask your riddle, please. We solved the last one, we might solve this one too.”
Caracorum spoke, in her haughtiest voice:
My perfect beauty is made to be broken,
I can be freckled, tanned or pale, whether I’ve seen the sun or not,
I contain gold, but I’m not a treasure chest,
I contain white, but I’m not a snowball,
I have a smooth shell, but you won’t often find me at the beach
Unless a witch is sailing away in my cracked remains.
What am I?
Theo sighed. “That makes no sense.”
“It will make sense,” said Molly, “once we know the answer. Riddles are backwards that way.” She nodded to the sphinx. “Thanks. We’ll be back with our answer soon.”
Molly led them round the corner. “Who has an idea to start us off? We usually manage by circling round the riddle. Any possible answers, however daft?”
Snib said, “I wonder—”
“You want daft answers?” asked Innes. “What about a goose? Or a duck? Or a quack? Or the sound of two hands clapping? Or a wasp?”
“Be serious. Could it be teeth?” Atacama bared his long fangs.
Molly frowned. “Why teeth?”
“White and gold could be teeth with gold fillings.”
“But teeth aren’t made to be broken,” said Theo. “Oh, I have an idea. I hardly ever have an idea with riddles, but perhaps it’s… snails. With smooth shells, but not at the beach.”
“There are lots of snails at the beach,” said Innes. �
��Whelks, in rock pools: they’re sea snails.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, desert boy. Trust the water guardian on this one. Sea snails. I’ve eaten them. It’s not snails.”
Molly said, “Not teeth, not snails. But that bit about the witch, sailing away…”
Snib said, “I think—”
“What can you sail away in?” asked Innes.
Atacama said, “You could sail away in a boat or a ship—”
“Yes!” said Innes. “A pirate ship, you could sail in that, and it would have stolen golden treasure.”
“And the white?” said Theo. “And the freckles?”
Innes laughed. “Ok, so a pirate ship, with golden treasure, and freckly pirates having a snowball fight. There’s your answer.”
Snib said, “It’s not that complicated—”
“I remember!” said Molly. “My gran must have believed in tiny witches, because she said witches could sail away in—”
“Egg shells!” shouted Snib. “It’s an egg. That’s what I’ve been trying to say!”
“Of course!” said Innes. “An egg is made to be broken, and it has yolk and white inside. But Molly, none of the witches I’ve met would sail away in one.”
Molly shrugged. “That’s what my gran believed. I still bash a hole in the bottom of my shell when I’ve finished a boiled egg, so a witch can’t use it as a boat.”
“An egg?” said Theo. “That can’t be right.”
“Why not?” asked Innes. “We all think it fits and you’re the worst at riddles. Turns out our curse-hatched is the best.” He almost smiled at Snib.
Theo shook his head. “It’s not whether it fits the riddle, I trust you on that. But the sphinxes agreed to use crow-proof riddles, to stop the curse-hatched influencing the Promise Keeper while she grew up. A riddle with the answer ‘an egg’ is the opposite of bird-proof.” He looked at Snib. “How did you know the answer?”
“I hatched from an egg. I live in Stone Egg Wood. Eggs are something I know.”
“Exactly. Crows know eggs. So why is ‘an egg’ the answer to Caracorum’s new riddle?”
Atacama said, “Perhaps Estelle has grown up. She was bigger than Rosalind last time we visited. Who knows how big she is now. Remember, she’s growing unnaturally fast, because of all the years Nan stole from her. The crow-proof riddle agreement was for while she was a child.”
Theo frowned. “Perhaps.”
Molly said, “If Snib’s answer is correct, we can find out for ourselves.”
They walked round the pyramid.
“Go on, Snib,” said Innes. “It’s your answer. You should get the glory if it’s right, and the embarrassment if it’s wrong.”
Snib faced the spotted sphinx and said clearly, “The answer is: an egg.”
Caracorum scowled. “Yes. You may pass.”
She backed away from the door. Molly reached out and pushed it open. They stepped into the darkness beyond.
Chapter Ten
“I’ve never come in this way before,” whispered Snib. “Isn’t it terribly dangerous? I’ve heard there are monsters.”
Molly took her hand in the darkness. “It’s fine. We’ve been this way lots of times, and we’ve only been attacked once.”
As they walked along the dark corridor, flaming torches flickered into life. Mosaics on the walls and floor glittered with patterns and fruit, then a few steps on, the mosaics glittered with men and weapons.
The mosaic soldiers stepped off the wall and blocked the corridor.
“Token,” said the tallest mosaic man.
Molly said, “You know we’re allowed in.”
“Token,” he repeated, in a bored tone of voice.
Molly murmured to her friends, “Beth usually carries the token.”
Theo said, “I kept one, just in case.” From a pocket inside his linen tunic, he pulled out…
A potato.
A small, wrinkled, sprouting potato.
“A seed potato from Mrs Sharpe’s farm,” he announced. “The token to enter while Mrs Sharpe is the Keeper’s guardian.”
“No.” The mosaic man’s blue pebble eyes glowed with sudden excitement. “That’s not the token. There’s a new token. Show the token or face your doom!”
Molly sighed. “We’re not going to ‘face our doom’ this afternoon. We could just walk back out.”
“Or Theo could rip you apart, like the first time we met,” said Innes.
He winked at Theo. Theo shrugged, took a step forward and raised his hand.
All the mosaic men took a step back.
Snib said, “I might have a token. It’s not a potato, but…” She pulled a triangle of silvery glass from her ragged grey dress.
The mosaic men nodded and moved aside to let Snib pass. Molly and her friends followed.
As they walked towards the door at the end of the tunnel, Theo asked, “Why did you have the right token, Snib?”
“Corbie gave it to me, when he sent me to spy on you. He said it might be useful.”
Theo frowned again. “Corbie should not know the token to enter the Hall.”
The door opened and they stepped out into a beautiful courtyard, surrounded by the arched windows and doorways of the Promise Keeper’s Hall.
“Should we say hello to Mrs Sharpe and Estelle first, or look at the mirrors first?” asked Molly.
Atacama said, “Can’t you hear them? They’re in the Chamber already. We can do both at the same time.”
They walked towards the tallest windows, hearing faint giggles as they crossed the courtyard.
Molly smiled. “She does love playing with her toys.”
“I was here six weeks ago, and she was the size of a ten year old,” said Theo. “She might be growing out of toys by now.”
The giggles got louder, and Molly said, “She’s playing with something.”
They looked in a window and saw Mrs Sharpe, the white-haired witch who’d taught them how to lift curses, sitting in a corner. A lumpy length of mud-brown and mustard-yellow knitting dangled from her clicking needles and coiled in a woolly worm cast at her feet.
And they saw a gold-haired girl standing at a long white table covered in mirrors.
“She looks older than us now!” said Molly.
Estelle had been a teddy-cuddling baby last October, and a doll-hugging little girl at Christmas. Now she was a teenager. She was as tall as Theo, she was wearing a short tight dress and heavy boots, and she wasn’t playing with teddies or dolls any more.
“At least she’s taking her job seriously,” said Atacama.
Because the Keeper was playing with the mirrors.
Molly noticed a few changes in the Chamber of Promises. The long table was the same, but the mirrors weren’t tidy in racks, they were scattered on the floor and chairs in wobbly piles of glass and handles. The knitting witch in the corner looked very traditional, but the wide flat-screen TV hanging on the wall was more hi-tech than Molly expected in an elemental being’s hall.
Estelle picked up a mirror and gazed at her reflection, tipping her head to the side, adjusting her gleaming gold ringlets. She smiled, then licked her pearl teeth.
“Let’s go in,” said Molly.
“Wait,” said Theo. “What’s she doing now?”
They watched as Estelle put her slim hand on the surface of the mirror. Sparks floated around her fingers. The mirror absorbed the sparks and started to glow.
“What’s the mirror showing?” said Theo. “I can’t see from here.”
“Look at the screen,” said Atacama.
The huge screen glowed, then showed a picture of two boys, probably brothers, possibly twins, sitting on a bed in a small cluttered room. One of them opened his mouth to speak, and a small glittering green stone fell out and landed on his lap.
He looked at it in horror and knocked it onto the floor.
The other boy spoke one word, then clamped his hand over his mouth. He started to cough and splutter, then pu
lled his hand away. His lips opened and a beetle, with skinny black legs and shiny green wing-cases, crawled down his chin, dropped onto his lap and scuttled away.
Both boys shrieked. A blue gem and a blue beetle fell to the floor.
Estelle laughed. “Look! This is a really funny one! It used to be just when they lied. Now it’s whenever they speak at all. I wonder whether the jewel brother will still support the insect brother if I ramp it up to cockroaches…?”
Mrs Sharpe squinted at the screen with dull eyes. “That’s not very kind. Perhaps you should put your energy into tidying up, rather than playing with mirrors—”
“Stop nagging me, Mrs S. It’s my hall, they’re my mirrors, I’ll do what I like.”
Mrs Sharpe said, “But…” then glanced down at her stripy knitting, which was winding round her body and tightening round her neck. She closed her mouth.
Estelle used a remote control to turn up the volume. Now Molly could hear the clattering of jewels and the fluttering of insects. One of the boys yelled, “Stop talking!” as a line of pearls dripped from his mouth. Both brothers put their fingers on their lips and sat silently staring at each other, tears running down their faces.
“Well, that’s boring.” Estelle sighed. “Ooh! I know! Breathing!” She put her hand on the mirror again.
The boys started to splutter and choke, and opened their mouths to gasp in air. But with every out-breath, a nugget of gold or a moth or a ruby or a ladybird tumbled down. Soon both boys were crouched on the floor, coughing and retching.
Estelle giggled. “That’s much more fun to watch than anything the old troll who cursed them could have imagined!”
Everyone outside the window watched the girl laughing and the boys weeping.
Molly whispered, “So that’s what happened to the curses.”
Snib sighed. “The Promise Keeper is charging them up herself.”