by Caro King
‘Nik tik wik KIK!’ Jik threw open the door and Hss headed through it.
Toby looked back for Nin who had paused to throw a horrified stare at Strood as a thick dribble of venom ran down his face. Or maybe it was his eye. The sleeve of his white coat had burned away and his skin was beginning to smoke.
Strood raised the thing in his hand, the razor-sharp teeth glinting as he aimed for Nin’s heart. He had a clear shot and his arm was in motion, his fingers uncurling to release the star.
Floyd lurched into Strood’s line of fire, cold sweat breaking out on his corrugated forehead and his ruined boots flapping about his feet as he threw himself towards the escaping captives. Strood howled, for a split second he faltered. Then he let the star go, spitting fire as it blazed through the air.
Jik shoved Toby through the door, grabbed Nin and towed her out of the laboratory.
The door slammed shut in Floyd’s face.
The star slammed into the door where it stuck, burning a deep gash and showering sparks everywhere. There was a smell of scorched guard.
Mr Strood went nova.
‘RELEASE THE MAUG!’
Floyd gulped. ‘Do ya mean … let it loose?’
Strood turned a look on him that made him flinch.
‘Do it,’ he hissed, ‘and do it NOW! Or I’ll feed to you the tigers piece by piece and MAKE YOU WATCH.’
Having made it to the up-house, Jonas and Taggit were wondering which way to go next when they heard the thunder of many feet running at speed up the corridor. Jonas grabbed Taggit and pulled him out of sight under the stairs.
When they were past, Jonas peered round the corner, too late to see who it was. Then he heard someone yelling from somewhere down the hallway.
‘What was that?’
‘Sounded like “release the Maug” t’ me.’
‘It’s got something to do with Nin, hasn’t it?’
‘Wouldn’t put it past ’er to ’ave got up Strood’s nose some’ow.’
‘Come on, then. Follow me.’
‘Right y’are,’ said Taggit, grimly.
With Toby hanging on to her free hand and Jik and Hss at her heels, Nin ran as fast as she could, trying to remember the layout of Polpp’s map. She reached the door to the Maug’s courtyard and yanked it open.
The Death Dog turned its heavy head to look at them. Toby gasped, clinging on to Nin, and Hss bunched up nervously as it galloped towards them, only stopping when it reached the end of its chain. They ran past it, across to the arch and through into the gardens beyond with the Maug’s icy howl at their backs.
‘Now …’ Nin stared around her. Polpp’s sketch had shown something that looked like a big, blurred cabbage. ‘Gotta be!’ she said, and headed across the grass towards Mr Strood’s rose garden.
A second later, Floyd staggered through the door. He gazed at the Maug with horror as it howled after the escaping Quick, its unseeable eyes, darkness in darkness, fixed on the retreating shapes in the distance. It howled again, turning the air to frost.
Already pale, Floyd went the colour of cottage cheese. He lurched a few steps towards it, then a few more, not wanting to do what he had to do. Muttering to himself, he unclipped the chain from the collar around the Maug’s neck.
It took off through the archway at a horrible speed.
As he watched it go, the door behind him burst open on a Quick with eyes that glowed and a Fabulous goblin several sizes larger than Floyd. The guard raised his fists, ready to fight, but they had already gone, thundering past him, hot on the tail of the Death Dog.
They ran, but Toby was only small and he was weak from his long stay in the cage. Nin couldn’t carry him without slowing down, so they could only go as fast as he could.
Behind them the Maug was gaining. It loped over the grass like a bundle of night-time that had got loose in the day, leaving a ripple of darkness in its wake that swirled like ink in water until it dissolved in the light. Nin ran on, towing Toby behind her, across the neatly cut lawn, through a gap in the dividing hedge and into the rose garden.
In front of her, row upon row of dark red rose-bushes all led straight to a marble-pillared temple in the centre. She headed for that. Toby was white with effort, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes, but he struggled after Nin, trying to go just a little faster. Jik dropped back behind them.
The Maug came on. It might look like a dog, but that was all. It could not see or smell in the normal sense, but it could detect the glow of a living soul from a hundred yards. It liked the bright ones best, the ones that glowed with years of glorious life to come. The young ones.
Ahead it could see three glowing forms and one dusky one. The dusky one it wasn’t interested in, Fabulous life was no use to a Quick Death. Of the three glowing shapes, the nearest shone with a silvery radiance, and the furthest with a clear, golden light. But the Maug ignored both of them, because trailing just behind the golden one was another little life, one so bright it was dazzling.
And that was the one it wanted.
It took the ground in vast leaps, roses withering and dying as it passed, dropping their silky petals like crimson snow. Ahead, Jik turned, ready to face it.
It reached him and went to leap over his head. He jumped, grabbing for its darkness-dripping underbelly. For a moment everything went black and cold and then it was gone and Jik was left gripping nothing. The Maug, to the Fabulous at least, was as insubstantial as the darkness it was made of.
Bewildered, Jik spun around, feeling his inner fires chill with fear as the Maug headed for Nin and Toby. Hss dropped back and reared up, poised to attack. But the Maug leaped again, sailing over her upraised legs.
Nin and Toby had nearly reached the marble temple at the centre of the rose garden, but Toby couldn’t run any more and Nin knew it. She could hear his breath rasping in his throat and when she picked him up, he was shaking. With his weight slowing her down she knew it was hopeless, but she ran anyway. She didn’t look back, except at the end.
Even if he had conquered the Hound inside him, it would never be gone entirely and Jonas flew over the petal-covered ground, his eyes lightning white. Taggit charged after him, even his long legs barely keeping pace. Jonas sped past Jik and kept going, close enough now to see Nin’s eyes as she turned to look Death in the face.
As the Maug gathered itself for a final spring it looked less like a dog and more like what it was. Darkness incarnate. Before it could leap, Jonas covered the last few yards, throwing himself at the creature and catching it side-on. The force of his body colliding with it, knocked it off course, rolling it on to the ground with Jonas underneath.
The Maug sprang back on to its feet in a strangely fluid movement, but it was too late. Taggit had already grabbed Nin and Toby and run with them up the temple steps and in through the marble columns. Two strides in he found that the temple had no floor and all three of them vanished, plunging out of sight into the vaults below.
With its target vanished, the Maug turned on Jonas, still on the ground, half-frozen from his contact with the Death Dog. Hss launched herself at it from behind, scrabbling up on to its back and digging in with her hook-ended feet. As the Maug tossed and twisted, trying to reach her, Jonas rolled to safety and staggered to his feet. He heard Jik yelling ‘thik wik!’ and saw the mudman charging towards them across the grass.
Hss could feel Death creeping into her blood, but she held on, too terrified to let go, while the Maug tried to shake her off, scattering darkness around it like rain. Jik reached them, running straight through the Maug and out the other side. When he got there he was carrying Hss on his shoulders, her legs wrapped around him. He looked like he was wearing some weird kind of cloak.
Before the Death Dog had time to realise that Hss had gone, the three of them had charged into the temple and vanished from sight through the missing floor, leaving the Maug bewildered and cheated. It gave a howl that made ice flakes fall from the air, then it turned back to the House.
36
Seraphine’s Secret Way
in scrambled to her feet and turned to face what ever it was that had grabbed her and Toby. It was horrible. It was at least nine foot tall, had a face like a nightmare and was wearing baggy trousers and a T-shirt which said: ‘Looks Ain’t Everythin”.
A second later, Hss and Jik tumbled in, closely followed by Jonas. Fortunately, Taggit was quick enough to catch them.
Toby was staring around him.
‘Bubbles,’ he whispered.
They were standing at the foot of a well. From about halfway down, the circular walls of the well gave way to pillars that made a tight circle of arches. Beyond them was a huge vault, filled with the radiance from thousands of marble-sized spheres, hanging suspended in the air.
‘Not bubbles,’ said Nin, also whispering, ‘memorypearls.’
Toby held out his hand, reaching towards them. His movement made the pearls closest to him drift away, but then, from deeper within the vault, a single pearl spun down through the air to land in his palm.
‘That one must be yours, Toby,’ said Jonas. ‘Keep it safe.’
Toby clutched the pearl nervously. Taggit bobbed down until he was on a level with the boy.
‘Why don’t you pop it in your pocket ’ere what buttons up.’
While the goblin helped Toby tuck his pearl away, Jonas stepped forward.
‘I always said I wouldn’t do this, but …’ He held out his hand. There was a pause while the pearls skimmed aside, leaving a space around his hand. The pause lengthened.
Hss raised a leg, pointing to a disturbance in the pearl-filled air above and to the left. A pearl spun through the horde, dropping neatly into Jonas’s hand.
Nin stuck her hand out. Five minutes later, while they all stared with dismay at the undisturbed air, she put it down again.
‘It’s not here,’ she said blankly. ‘Skerridge lied.’
‘We carn’ ’ang about with Strood on our ’eels,’ said Taggit firmly a short while later, when Nin had stopped crying into Jonas’s shoulder. ‘We’ll ’ave to deal with the lyin’ bogeyman problem when we’re out of danger. The good thing is, it’ll take all the guards ’e’s got to get the Maug under control when it’s in that mood. Which’ll give us some time, like.’
‘It’s no use.’ Nin sniffed hard, rubbing her wet face on her pinafore. She felt so disappointed it was eating at her spirits. ‘Jonas said the tunnel to the sanctuary is gone, the roof ’s fallen in …’
‘What about Seraphine’s Secret Way?’ Jonas gave her a reassuring hug. ‘According to Gorgle it’s beneath the main house. He thinks it might run from the garden.’
‘It figures.’ Taggit looked thoughtful. ‘Apart from the roses, everythin’ ’ere’s the way she left it, more or less. ’Cept the temple we’re in. Gan Mafig put that up just after Seraphine ran away, an’ just before Strood took over. It ’ad a statue of Seraphine in it, but Strood must ’ave got rid of it when ’e took away the floor an’ started usin’ the vault to store memory pearls.’
‘A statue,’ said Nin, pointing. ‘You mean like that one?’
It was behind them, framed in the curve of the arches and almost hidden by the memory pearls. The marble figure wore a hooded robe over a long dress and was holding a lamp high in one hand. Around her neck hung a diamond-shaped pendant.
‘She was one lovely lady,’ sighed Taggit. ‘The sort o’ person who always made you feel better about things.’
Nin had to agree. And if the statue of Seraphine was anything like the original then she had been kind with it, and strong too. It must have taken strength to leave wealth and security behind for the sake of love. Feeling slightly better about things, Nin squeezed Toby’s hand and smiled down at him.
‘It says something!’ Jonas read the inscription around the base aloud. ‘Let … love … light the way.’
‘Sounds like a clue t’ me,’ said Taggit firmly. ‘The Way. Must be the Secret Way, right? So the statue ’as somethin’ to do with the Way.’
‘It was in the temple, over this vault. So maybe the Secret Way is down here.’
They stared around. Jik frowned at the marble floor, trying to feel the Land behind it. There was definitely something there. Or rather nothing there. Hollowness.
‘Yik!’
‘Right, so where’s the way in?’
‘What’re you lookin’ at, kid?’ asked Nin.
Toby was staring at the ground underneath the statue. He pointed. At the back, the base of the statue was not level with the floor, tipping her slightly forward.
‘There’s something making her crooked.’
Taggit was already putting his arms around the statue, shifting it easily over to the left to uncover the metal ring of a trapdoor. He pulled up the marble slab and peered into the darkness below.
‘Looks like we found our way out! Well spotted, kid.’
Jonas was already digging into his pack, looking for his tinderbox and a candle.
‘I’ll go first. Nin, stay right behind me. Everyone else can see in the dark, right?’
There was a chorus of grunts, yiks and yssses. Nin watched anxiously as Jonas lit the candle, then went ahead, stepping down into the darkness. She had a nasty feeling it was all a bit too easy.
Strood paced the laboratory, walking round and round the hole left by the mudman’s unexpected arrival. He had retrieved the throwing star that had missed Ninevah Redstone and was clutching it as if waiting for another chance. Bits of him lay scattered about the floor. Other bits of him, the ones that were still roughly in the right place, were trying to heal in spite of the venom eating at his flesh. His face was half gone and he still only had one eye. Scribbins had been sick already and even Mrs Dunvice was wishing she hadn’t had breakfast.
‘Sho,’ slurred Mr Strood coolly. ‘Let me get thish right. My chief bogeyman and my gravedigger have turned traitor. All my guardsh have had to leave their poshts to deal with the eshcaped tigersh and the Maug, caushing a riot in the Engine.’
He paused as the lights flickered, just to demonstrate the point.
‘One guard ish trapped in a packing cashe, two have been mauled by the tigersh and one hash been eaten by the Maug, which you have only jusht managed to get under control.’
The Housekeeper’s yellow eyes watched her master warily as another chunk of flesh dropped off to join the mess on the floor. There seemed to be so much of it, but then it would keep trying to grow back.
‘Sssho, tell me, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GIRL?’
Mrs Dunvice swallowed hard. ‘It’s possible, sir, that she and her friends have found Seraphine’s Secret Way.’
Strood turned a look on her that would have sent her to her knees begging for mercy, except that werewolf Grimm did not beg from anybody. Cowering behind her, Scribbins whimpered, shivering in the remains of his long johns.
‘How posshible?’ Strood asked icily. He raised one hand to stop his jaw from falling off.
‘Very possible,’ said Mrs Dunvice reluctantly.
Strood snarled and turned sharply. It was a mistake. His leg, already half eaten through, snapped and sent him reeling towards the hole in the ground. His arms windmilled as he teetered on the brink, one hand flying off at the wrist and hitting the wall with a dull thwack. Staggering, he lurched the wrong way, stepping into the hole instead of away from it. There was a crack as his head connected with the remaining edges of tile and then he was gone.
For a few moments they could hear his smothered howls of rage as he plummeted downwards, until finally the sounds were swallowed up in the depths.
There was a soft sound, like heavy rain only more earthy and then silence.
Mrs Dunvice stepped carefully towards the edge of the hole, but there was no hole left. Strood must have clawed at the earth as he fell, disturbing the loose soil. At any rate, it had caved in refilling the shaft completely.
‘W-what do we do now?’ wailed Scribbins, wringing his hands.
The Housekeeper shrugged.
‘Start digging?’ she said.
Skerridge was halfway down the tunnel in the graveyard, staring thoughtfully at the wall of earth in front of him. Rumour had it that the tunnel had been here even before the down-house had been built, that it was Seraphine’s Secret Way and had once led all the way from the up-house to the secret love-nest built in the grounds of the house, the building that had since become the sanctuary. But there were things that didn’t fit. For a start, where was the door? You wouldn’t find a door in a mud-walled tunnel like this. And Skerridge was certain that he wasn’t wrong about the door. He looked at the diamond-shaped key in his hand and grinned.
If Ninevah Redstone’s luck was in, then this wasn’t Seraphine’s Secret Way. Which was a good thing, because the roof had fallen in and there was no exit here.
Skerridge got moving. Finding Nin might be a problem, but he knew where to start. He burnt air all the way to the memory room.
From there it was easy. Taggit had pulled the trapdoor into place behind them, but he couldn’t put the statue back. Skerridge grinned broadly.
‘Right y’are,’ he chuckled as he set off down the stairs, raising sparks from the stone as he went.
The stairs spiralled down through walls of old and crumbling brick for a very long time. They walked in single file, with Jonas and his candle in the lead, followed by Nin and Toby, then Jik in the middle because his eyes gave a little more light. Hss came after Jik, with Taggit last. At the bottom was a small landing and a door. It was made of thick oak, barred with iron and set in a stone arch, and it was locked. Taggit squashed past them down to the front and put all his weight into shoving, but it didn’t give an inch.
‘I don’t believe it!’ Nin groaned, sinking against the wall.
‘We carn’ go back,’ muttered Taggit. ‘Once the Maug’s under control Strood’ll be after us an’ … well, it doesn’t bear thinkin’ about.’