“Blimey,” coughed Maddy, stumbling into the room behind him. “What’s your mum cooking for dinner?”
“It’s not dinner,” gasped Edwin, now finding it hard to breathe. “It’s…”
“Dark magic.” Maddy grabbed Edwin’s arm. “We need to get out of the cottage.”
“No,” barked Edwin. “My mum’s in here somewhere.”
“It’s too late for her.” Maddy pulled Edwin back to the door. “She’s already been affected by the spell. The only way you can save her is to save yourself. Come on, we need air!”
Edwin tried to protest, but the pink mist seeped into his mouth, burning the back of his throat. Maddy hauled him out of the kitchen, the children clinging together as they lurched back down the foggy hallway.
Edwin tripped, and there was a scream from Maddy when his arm slipped from her grasp. He tried reaching out to her, but his flailing fingers felt something wooden in front of him.
The front door!
Eyes streaming, Edwin fumbled until he located the metal latch, but he couldn’t prise the door open.
Just like the windows, it was jammed.
He looked round for Maddy, but the pink mist closed around him like a suffocating blanket…
4 In a Roundabout Way
“Excuse me.” Bryony leaned forwards and rapped her knuckles on the perspex screen between the driver and passengers. “Can’t this thing go any faster?”
The taxi driver didn’t reply. From where she was seated Bryony couldn’t see his face, or even his reflection in the rear view mirror. She knocked again on the screen, but Bill took her hand and eased her back into her seat.
“Calm down, love. We’re nearly there.”
“We’re miles from the airport,” argued Bryony. From by the passing rural scenery it looked as though they were miles away from anywhere. “We should be on the motorway by now.” She reached up again, but this time Bill grabbed her hand before her knuckles made contact with perspex.
“Please sit still, love.”
“But we’ll miss the flight.”
“We’ve got plenty of time. Now try and relax. I know, how about a game of ‘I Spy’.”
“All right.” Bryony glared at her father. “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with ‘idiot’.”
“Er…’ Bill looked flummoxed. “Could you give me a clue?”
“It’s you.” Bryony pointed at her father. “Idiot.”
“That’s a word, not a letter. I’ve explained the rules of ‘I Spy’ to you before, and…” Bill scowled at Bryony. “Hey, did you just call me an idiot?”
“I’m not playing silly games.” Bryony slumped back in her seat. “I just want to see Mum.”
“You will.” Bill insisted. “Very soon.”
But ‘very soon’ wasn’t anywhere near quick enough for Bryony. They’d been travelling for a good half hour, surely they should have reached the main road by now?
She mentioned this again to Bill, but he dismissed her concerns with his usual patronising smile. So she sat in silence, trying to think of positive things: of flying to America, of being in a different country, of seeing her real mum again.
Bryony felt her stomach knot, but wasn’t sure if it was from excitement. She would never admit it to anyone, not even Dad, but her anticipation was chilled by a haunting sense of dread.
It had been a long time, nearly four years since Bryony had seen her mother. What if Mum had changed since then? What if she wasn’t the person Bryony remembered? Now Mum had another daughter, Bryony realised things could never be like they were before.
But there was an even greater fear, a fear that had festered inside her for months, growing larger and darker until its menacing shadow swamped all her thoughts…
Bryony rummaged in her holdall and drew out the small parcel that Edwin had given her before she’d left home. It wasn’t what she’d been looking for, so she dropped it back into the holdall and rummaged around a bit more until she found the letter.
It was just a piece of paper, but its arrival that morning had turned Bryony’s whole world upside down.
Bryony drew the crumpled piece of paper out of the holdall. She read the letter so many times that she already knew its contents off by heart. But she read it again anyhow.
“My dearest Bryony,
Great news. I have some time off work and am free to meet up with you. Only problem is you’ll have to come to America. I enclose two flight tickets, one for you and Dad. I’ll meet you at the airport as soon as you arrive. I can’t wait, it’s been so long!
Love you,
Your ever loving Mother. XXX”
Bryony’s eyebrows knotted. After the blur of excitement that morning, she felt a sudden pang of doubt. There was something about the letter. Something that didn’t feel right…
Maybe it was because the letter was typed, rather than handwritten? Maybe because it wasn’t signed? Or maybe…
Or maybe she was just being dumb. What had got into her, trying to pick holes in a letter from Mum after all this time? Did it matter if it was typed? Did it matter if there was no signature? Did it even matter that there had been no stamp or postmark on the envelope?
But the letter itself didn’t really matter. Bryony had a long list of questions to ask Mum about more important things.
Like the Moon of Magister.
Those words had kept cropping up ever since Bryony had discovered the power of Wychetts. She had heard them that first night in the garden, whispered by Katya Pauncefoot as the Shadow Clan hatched their scheme to seize the cottage. And again at Barrenbrake Farm, and then on the Darkwing airship in the midst of their fight to retrieve the Thunderstone. And of course, there had been the message stowed inside Mr Cuddles…
Those five words now haunted Bryony, whispering at the back of her mind over and over. What could they mean? Was this Magister a person? And why wouldn’t Inglenook, the Keeper of the Ancient Wisdom, even attempt to help her unravel the mystery?
Beware the Moon of Magister.
Bryony shuddered, her skin puckering as an icy chill ran down her spine. She told herself they were just words. In any case she’d soon be with Mum, who’d explain everything and make her feel safe again. Safe again, just like the old days in Mossy Glade Close.
She inserted the letter back into her holdall, then looked out of the window again. They were still in the countryside, miles away from anywhere. She glanced at her watch, noting that nearly ten minutes had passed since her last time check. Surely they should be on the motorway by now?
Dad had his eyes closed, deep in thought. Bryony sat up, and was about to request the driver’s attention when she saw a roundabout up ahead. At last! Hopefully there would be a sign showing how far they were from the airport.
The taxi headed around the roundabout. Bryony pressed her face eagerly against the window, but couldn’t see any signs for the airport. In fact, she couldn’t see any signs at all.
The taxi went right around the roundabout. Bryony wondered if the driver was going to head back where they’d just come from, but then she saw the road they had just come from wasn’t there anymore.
In fact, she couldn’t see any roads coming off the roundabout.
Bryony blinked, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Then she pinched herself in case she had fallen asleep and was dreaming. The she pinched her father, because she realised that she wasn’t seeing things and she wasn’t dreaming.
“Ow!” Bill’s eyes snapped open. “What is it? Are we there?”
“Look.” Bryony tapped on the window. “The roundabout.”
“It’s a roundabout.” Bill nodded. “Well done. But I still don’t think you’ve quite got the hang of ‘I Spy’.”
“Look closer,” urged Bryony. “Where have all the roads gone? There’s no way out of it.”
Bill peered out of the window. “But that can’t be. How did we get on the roundabout in the first place?”
The taxi continued rou
nd the roundabout, gathering speed as it went. Bryony raised her hand to knock on the screen, but she was thrown sideways onto her father when the taxi tilted sharply.
She looked up, hoping to catch the driver’s eye in the rear view mirror; but the reflection she saw was just an empty seat.
And that’s when she realised: there was no driver!
And yet somehow the taxi continued circling the roundabout. The engine roared as it hit top speed, and the view through the windows became a blur of streaky colours.
Bryony closed her eyes as her head swam. She heard her father calling out to her, but his cries faded before she drowned in a whirlpool of giddiness…
5 Don’t You Trust Me?
“Wake up, sleepy head.”
Edwin felt something nudging his shoulder. He opened his eyes and saw a foot. The foot was connected to a leg, and the leg was connected to a girl with green hair wearing a pair of old-fashioned thick-rimmed glasses.
Edwin tried to speak, but could only manage a strangled yawn.
“What beautiful tonsils you have.” Maddy knelt on the grass next to Edwin. “You’ll be a little dozy for a minute or two. Then you’ll be very dozy for an awful lot longer, but that’s just how you were before.”
Edwin sat up, realising he was lying in the garden outside the cottage.
“What…” He yawned again, but remembered to cover his mouth with a hand this time. “What happened?”
“You fell asleep.” Maddy tutted. “And just when it was getting interesting. Typical man.”
“But why? How?” Edwin stifled yet another yawn. Then he remembered. “It was because of that pink mist.”
“It wasn’t mist,” said Maddy. “It was pollen. Hypnoflax pollen.”
“Hypno…” Edwin couldn’t prevent another yawn. “What’s Hypnoflax?”
“A species of magical flower. The Wise Ones cultivated it widely, harvesting its spores as a powerful sedative.” Maddy smirked. “Even more powerful than their Magic School lessons.”
“Those flowers.” Edwin remembered the seeds his mother had planted in the sink. Then he realised his mother wasn’t anywhere in sight. “Where’s Mum?”
“Still inside the cottage.” Maddy’s lips straightened. “I’m afraid I couldn’t get her out in time.”
“You mean…” Edwin clambered to his feet and ran screaming towards the cottage. “Mum!”
“Edwin, be careful!” Maddy followed, but couldn’t catch up before he was through the front door.
“Muuuum!” Edwin hared through the hallway, staggering to a halt when he entered the kitchen. “Mum?”
For a moment Edwin wondered if it actually was the kitchen. The whole room, walls, ceiling, furniture, everything, was covered in a mesh of strands that looked like cobwebs. Thick pink cobwebs.
“Don’t touch.” Maddy seized Edwin’s wrist before his fingers brushed the dense pink fibres.
“But the flowers are dead.” Edwin noticed the flowers in the sink had wilted, the once pink petals now shrivelled and blackened.
“Maybe.” Maddy let go of Edwin’s arm. “But their spores remain toxic for up to three weeks.”
“Where’s my mum? I can’t see…” Then Edwin noticed a shape slumped on the table. A vaguely human shape, smothered in pink cobwebs. He couldn’t see a face, but there were a few coils of auburn hair visible through the blanket of cobwebs.
“Mum!” A distraught Edwin hurried to the table. “Are you OK? Can you hear me?”
“She’s alive,” advised Maddy. “But in a very deep sleep.”
Edwin leaned forwards, catching a soft murmuring noise from his mother’s lips.
“She’s waking up.” Edwin sighed with relief, but Maddy shook her green head.
“She’s dreaming. That’s another side effect of Hypnoflax poisoning. Vivid dreams that seem almost real.”
“Then we need to wake her up,” said Edwin.
“We can’t.” Maddy grabbed Edwin’s arm again when he moved to touch Jane’s shoulder. “Nothing can counter the effect of Hypnoflaxflax spores.”
Edwin frowned at Maddy. “Not even Wychetts’ magic?”
Maddy bit her bottom lip. “Your mother isn’t the only one affected.”
Edwin twisted his arm from Maddy’s grip and ran from the kitchen. As he galloped back down the hallway he now noticed that the walls and floor were smothered in the same pink cobwebs. The lounge was in an even worse state…
The cobwebs were thickest around the fireplace, clinging to Inglenook’s carved wooden features, smothering his mouth and nostrils, drawing a pink veil across his eyes.
“Inglenook!” Edwin ran up to the hearth, yelling at the top of his voice. “INGLENOOK!”
“He can’t hear you.” Maddy stood behind Edwin. “He’s in the same comatose state as your mother.”
“I can contact him by psychic link.” Edwin closed his eyes and concentrated. “Inglenook, can you hear me?”
“Nothing can wake him up,” said Maddy. “Not even you.”
Edwin concentrated for a few more seconds, his freckled face contorted with effort.
Then he heard a sound. A sound that came from nowhere and everywhere at once, that made the floor and the walls tremble. A deep, rhythmic rasping noise that reminded him of…
Snoring. It was Inglenook snoring.
And then he realised Maddy was right. He couldn’t wake Inglenook.
Edwin opened his eyes, blinking back a tear as he lowered his gaze to floor. Then he saw the little ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ sign. His spirits lifting, Edwin put a hand to his shirt pocket.
Stubby will know what to do, he thought. But Edwin’s eyes started watering again when he found his shirt pocket was empty.
“I don’t know what happened to your mouse,” confessed Maddy. “Guess he must have been affected by the Hypnoflax like everyone else. Probably fell out of your pocket when I was dragging you out of the cottage.”
“He was sleepy all morning.” Edwin recalled how everyone in the cottage had been drowsy. “Mum, Inglenook too. And the windows were jammed so I couldn’t let any air in.”
“All part of the Hypnoflax spell.” Maddy’s green freckled forehead puckered thoughtfully. “But how did the flowers get here in the first place?”
“The seeds arrived in the post this morning.” Edwin’s gaze followed Maddy as she started pacing around the lounge. “With the letter from Bryony’s mother in America. She said they were a present.”
Maddy halted, then wheeled round to face Edwin.
“That letter didn’t come from Bryony’s mother.”
“Huh?” Edwin wondered how Maddy could be so sure about that. “Then who sent it?”
“Who indeed.” Maddy tapped her little cleft chin. “An enemy of Wychetts, I’d say. An enemy who wanted to knock down your defences, leaving you vulnerable to attack…”
Edwin gawped. “The Shadow Clan?”
Maddy waved away the suggestion. “The Shadow Clan don’t do flowers, not even poisonous ones. No, this seems more like…”
Edwin wondered why Maddy had stopped mid sentence. She stared into space, her lips apart, eyebrows arched in apparent anguish. For a moment he feared she had fallen asleep like his mother, but then Maddy spoke again. Although what she said didn’t make much sense.
“The Vampiropteryx.”
“Vampi…” Edwin gave up trying to repeat the word. “What are they?”
“You don’t know?” Maddy fixed Edwin with an incredulous look. “Only the most evil creatures ever, from another dimension. Sometimes they leave their domain of darkness and come into ours to feed. Except the Vampiropteryx don’t feed on blood, but magic. The magic of our world draws them like bees to nectar. Except they’re more bat-like. And spit deadly green fire.”
“Wow.” Edwin gulped. “These Vampi… bat monster things sound as bad as the Shadow Clan.”
“Worse, I’m afraid. They’re everyone’s most terrible nightmare come true, all at once, with wings on. It was the V
ampiropteryx who sent you the Hypnoflax seeds, along with the letter luring Bryony and her father away from Wychetts.”
“Bryony.” Edwin gasped. “Then we’ve got to warn her, send her a message in America.” Then he gasped again. “But if the letter was a fake… she probably isn’t on her way to America?”
“Your stepsister is already a prisoner of the Vampiropteryx. Her father too.” Maddy nodded slowly. “It was the perfect plan. The easiest way of splitting up the Guardians and leaving Wychetts open to their attack. Except for one thing.”
“Which is?” Edwin wondered why Maddy was smiling.
“Me!” Maddy patted her chest. “I’m a descendant of the Wise Ones like you. I’m a Guardian.”
“We’ve been through this before,” Edwin reminded her. “You never finished your magical training.”
“Neither have you,” argued Maddy. “But you can still use Wychetts’ magic.”
“But Inglenook is asleep. So even two Guardians won’t be enough to stop the Vampi…” Again Edwin gave up trying to say it. “… those magic eating monsters.”
Maddy tutted like an impatient schoolteacher. “We can still use Wychetts’ power without old wooden chops. Even more of it, seeing as he can’t ration our use of magic like he normally does.”
Edwin didn’t like the idea of that. “But Inglenook is the Keeper of the Ancient Wisdom. It wouldn’t be right to use Wychetts’ power without his say so.”
“But if we don’t do something to help, Inglenook might not be able to say anything ever again. Or your mother, for that matter.”
Edwin let Maddy’s words sink in. If what she said was true, Wychetts was in terrible danger. And if these Vampi… bat monsters stole Wychetts’ magic, there was no way of waking up Mum, let alone finding Bill and Bryony.
“Let’s do it.” Edwin decided he had no choice. “We’ll use Wychetts’ power to wake up Inglenook and my mum.”
“It’s not as simple as that,” warned Maddy. “There’s no antidote to Hypnoflax poisoning. At least not any more.”
“But if there’s no antidote, then how can we…”
Maddy skipped between Edwin and the fireplace. “Do you trust me, Edwin?”
Wychetts and the Dungeon of Dreams Page 3