“We’re not going to let the dogs do any harm, don’t worry,” said Tom reassuringly. “I take your concerns seriously. I know that these are no ordinary dogs. We’ll get you all into the vehicles and go.” He put his arm around Toby and led him to a bench. Toby sat with his head in his hands, shaking violently.
As he felt the panic slowly subsiding, Toby lifted his head and looked around. There were adults standing talking quietly in anxious groups.
Tash’s parents should be here somewhere. At least, I really hope they are.
Toby suddenly remembered something. Stuffed in the bottom of his jeans pocket were the photographs he and Tash had taken at Christmas at the Kingshouse Hotel. He fished out a screwed-up print and tried to smooth the creases. From the crumpled paper smiled Tash, her jet-black hair framing her face and a wide smile showing her pearly white teeth.
Toby got to his feet and wandered over to some of the adults.
“Do you know this girl?” he asked. “Her name is Natasha, but her friends call her Tash.” The weary folk shook their heads.
Toby approached a couple sitting on the floor near the door. The grave-looking man was talking quietly in a foreign language to a small frail woman with a brightly coloured silk scarf covering her head. As he got near, Toby could see she had black hair streaked with white poking out from under the scarf.
“You must be Tash’s parents?” he cried, shoving the photo in front of them. The woman took it in trembling hands and burst into tears, babbling something incoherently to her husband.
“You know our Natasha?” said the man, incredulously. “Where did you get this photo?”
“Yes!” cried Toby. “I know Tash, she’s my friend. We travelled from Fort George together. She’s safe, don’t worry. She’s at the bunker where Tom is taking us. You’ll see her soon.”
Tash’s dad wrapped his arms around Toby, smothering him in a huge hug. Her mum stood up and joined in, squeezing Toby in an enveloping embrace.
“We never thought we see our Natasha again…” sobbed her dad. “Her mother says you must be brave boy to save her. We see her soon, yes?”
Toby nodded and gulped hard. He could feel all the emotion of the day starting to well up inside of him.
“Yes,” he cried. “You see her soon!” The three of them burst out laughing, as they stood holding onto each other.
Toby’s dad came over with Sylvie and Toby introduced them to Tash’s parents. The five of them sat in a small huddle, shaking hands and trying to chat calmly about how they came to be there.
Just then the main doors swung open and a balaclava-clad soldier stood waving his rifle in the air, signalling them all to move.
“Come on, everybody!” shouted Tom. “Let’s get loaded up as quickly as possible.”
The sun was dappling the courtyard in a sharp bright light as Toby stepped, blinking, outside. A new day had started while they had been hiding in the Great Hall, and a cold dry wind chased across the turreted walls. In the courtyard the raiders and the General were being thrown unceremoniously into the back of the white van, their faces dark with anger and frustration. Next to the van was parked a fleet of army trucks, their engines running and their doors open.
“Tom?” asked Toby, “can I ride shotgun up front in the cab?”
“Yes, sure. You really want to? Might be a bit scary.”
“Huh! I’m not scared, really,” replied Toby. Tom smiled and shrugged.
“Ok. Go with Simon in that one.”
Toby watched as his dad and Sylvie got into the back of one of the trucks, along with Tash’s parents, Jamie, and Jamie’s mum. He then climbed into the front with Simon.
“Let’s get this show on the road!” cried Simon, driving out of the yard, under the archway and into the inner courtyard. Travelling fast over the outer bridges, they were soon in the huge car park. Simon pulled over to the left to miss the smashed security barrier. As he did so, Toby could see over the embattlements, down to the valley beneath them.
“STOP!” Toby shouted. “LOOK!” He signalled frantically for Simon to pull in.
Simon swerved to bring the truck to the edge of the esplanade so they could see the whole plain spread out below them for miles and miles. From the castle perched high on the rocky ridge, the land spilled higgledy-piggledy down, spanning out at the bottom into rich flat farmland. Toby saw the work that had been done by the prisoners: square fields of neat, black, ploughed earth, plots of vegetables, lines of sown cereals and paddocks full of cows and sheep grazing. Surrounding all the acres of land was a huge fence made of wood and barbed wire with a wooden watchtower at every corner.
But it wasn’t any of this that had caught Toby’s attention. As he had glanced across the vista he saw the pattern of light changing, dappling the fields below, as something moved at speed over the land. It was something dark and disturbing.
Like a black tide. It’s a black tide of dogs!
Out in front of the wave upon wave of sleek black dogs, a solitary animal was racing along, his head held high, his stubby tail erect.
Cerberus!
“LOOK!” cried Simon, pointing to the far left of the castle. From the other side of the Carse of Stirling came another flow of movement. Toby strained to see what was moving: it was another tide of animals and it was heading straight for Cerberus and his pack. These beasts were bigger and rangier, with mottledgrey hairy coats. Out at their front, galloping towards Cerberus, sped a huge grey wolf.
There’s going to be a battle – the dogs against the wolves! Cerberus must be mad if he thinks he can win – they look even scarier than him and his pack.
“I think we should go quickly. We don’t want to get caught up in this,” said Simon. “They might decide to unite against their common enemy: humans.”
Toby nodded speechlessly, not able to take his eyes off the appalling scene unfolding in the valley. As the two dark shadows converged towards each other, the cows and sheep took fright and fled towards the hills in blind panic.
Simon reversed back onto the road and joined the line of trucks that was zooming out of the car park.
“WAIT!” Toby shrieked again. “Let me out! I’ve just seen something!”
Simon braked hard, slewing the truck across the snowy gravel, as Toby flung the truck door open.
“What are you doing?” cried Simon. “We’ve got to travel in convoy, we mustn’t lose the others.” But Toby didn’t hear him; he was pelting across the tarmac. He had seen a shadowy white shape moving fast through the cemetery that ran alongside the car park.
“Belle! Belle! Come here!” he shouted. Jamie’s big, white, fluffy dog was bounding towards him. “Belle – it’s Toby – come – good girl!” She bounced up to him, jumping around and wagging her tail furiously, her large pink tongue licking at his face and hands. She was so happy to see him.
“And I’m happy to see you, too, Belle. Come on, let’s go and find Katie and Jamie!”
The two of them sprinted back to the truck, Belle almost knocking Toby over in her excitement. Toby pulled open the back door.
“Look who I’ve found!” he yelled, as Belle leapt in.
“BELLE!” cried Jamie and his mum, simultaneously.
“Hurry up, Toby!” screamed Simon from the front. “We’ve got to get going!”
Toby climbed back into the truck, a huge grin on his face. He couldn’t believe that Belle had managed to survive so long on her own, despite the wild dogs and the wolves. It must have been Belle trying to play with Bill in the graveyard when he’d tried to sneak into the castle. Only Belle would be daft enough to want to play ball with a stranger in the middle of the night.
“You’re mad, you are,” said Simon, though he was smiling, too.
“I know. Just what we need, eh? Another dog!”
The convoy of trucks tore along the lanes leading from the castle, bumped over the cobbled streets of Stirling, then swung right out of the town centre to avoid the Carse where the dogs and wolves were doing bat
tle.
As the truck sped along country lanes heading away from Stirling, Toby settled down in his seat. He felt the adrenalin that had been coursing so fast through his veins start to ebb away, leaving him drained and his limbs heavy. He was beginning to feel very very tired.
“How long will it take to get to the bunker?” he asked Simon, yawning.
But before he heard the answer he was fast asleep.
29. Forward to the Future
Toby woke to Simon gently shaking him.
“We here already?” he asked sleepily, climbing stiffly out of the cab. His dad was walking down the ramp into the bunker, carrying a soundly sleeping Sylvie. Belle came rushing up, all tongue and tail, her body gyrating with happiness, followed by a grinning Jamie.
“Oh, Toby! I can’t thank you enough. That was amazing! Fancy spotting Belle like that. I thought she had…”
“Well, she hadn’t, and lucky for you I’ve got good eyesight. Now, where are Tash’s mum and dad? I must take them to see her. She’ll still be in the medical bay.”
“So this Tash you’ve been talking about – is she your best friend now?” asked Jamie.
“Don’t be daft, Jamie, you can both be my best friends! After all, it’s not like I’ve got a lot of them.”
“That’s ok then, just wanted to know.”
Toby patted his friends arm and hobbled off to find Tash’s parents.
Tash was sitting up in bed when Toby finally arrived at the medical bay with her parents in tow.
“Hello, lazy bones,” he said. “Look who I’ve brought to see you.”
“Father! Mother!” cried Tash. Snowy got up from under the bed and greeted Tash’s dad enthusiastically, baring his teeth in a grin and wagging his huge tail.
“You’d think he’d known you all his life,” said Toby, amazed.
“He recognises someone who knows something about wolves,” Tash told him. “And YOU are a very bad boy, going off and leaving me here,” she cried, laughing through her tears of happiness.
Tash’s parents crowded excitedly around the bed, hugging and kissing their long-lost daughter, and chattering in what Toby presumed must be Russian. He left discreetly; he could see it was a very emotional reunion. He told Tash he’d come back later and relate all of his adventure. As he left, he saw that Snowy was lying at Tash’s dad’s feet, staring up at him in adoration.
Toby found his dad sitting in the canteen with Jamie, Katie and Tom. They were all tucking into huge platefuls of breakfast. Belle was lying under the table, slurping down a large bowl of custard.
“This place is amazing,” enthused Jamie, stuffing a large piece of bread into his mouth. “I haven’t had any proper food for ages.”
“Go steady! You’ll make yourself sick,” advised Toby, picking at some toast.
“Jamie,” said Katie, kindly, “why don’t you take Toby to see Sylvie. We adults need to discuss the future.”
“Don’t we have any say in the future?” demanded Jamie. “Toby here has rescued all of us practically single-handed. I think you should ask him what he wants to do.”
“It really is ok, Jamie, I’ve told you before,” sighed Toby, “I’m so tired of making decisions. It’s too worrying. I’m quite happy for the adults to take over now. Let’s go and see Sylvie and Henry.”
The two boys found Sylvie sitting on the edge of her bed cuddling the little brown rabbit.
“Hello Sylve, how’s Henry? Has he recovered from his adventure?” asked Toby, patting the rabbit’s soft fluffy fur as he sat down on the bed. “Ouch! What’s this?” he exclaimed. “There’s something hard under here.”
Toby put his hand under the duvet and removed a small cloth bag containing some heavy objects that made a clacking noise. He pulled open the drawstring fastening and put his hand in.
“Mum’s marble eggs!” he cried, taking out a smooth, round, egg-shaped object. “Where did you get these from?”
“Daddy’s had them all the time. He always carries them with him. He gave them to me to play with this morning, but I had to promise to be very careful with them.”
“I’ll say – these are the only things we have left that were Mum’s. I thought we’d left them in the cottage at Collieston. I’m glad Dad remembered to bring them with him.”
“Me too,” said Sylvie, holding a shiny, pink marble egg in her hand. “They’re very pretty, and they remind me of Mummy.”
Toby tried to think of some way of changing the subject; he didn’t want Sylvie to get upset. Then he remembered something. “Hold on, I’ve got something for you!” he shouted, running from the room. He returned minutes later clutching a box.
“Here, a present for you,” he said, watching Sylvie’s excited face.
“What is it, Tobes?”
He saw her expression turn to disbelief.
“You found it! It’s The Little Mermaid!”
“I promised you, didn’t I? Maybe they’ll have a DVD player here. They’ve got just about everything else. I’ll go and ask someone.”
Later, Toby, Jamie, Tash and Sylvie sat on the bed watching the film in silence.
This is great – safe at last. And Sylvie has her favourite film. Who’d have thought I’d have found that in this mad world?
Toby put his arm around Sylvie who snuggled up to him. Tash turned and smiled at them both.
“Look what Bill gave me,” she said, laughing. She held up a dirty, tatty-looking teddy bear.
“Who would think a seriously scary soldier like Bill would rescue a teddy bear in the midst of a battle?” remarked Jamie.
“Just shows you,” said Toby. “You should never judge people by their outward appearances, after all who’d think a brave wolf-girl would even have a teddy bear!”
They all laughed, especially Tash.
I hope Tash gets on with Jamie – then I’d have two friends. I miss all my school friends. No, don’t think about that. Think forwards to the future.
“Eh, Henry, stop nibbling my jumper!” cried Sylvie, pulling a long thread from the rabbit’s paws. Henry sat up on the bed and started to wash his ears.
They all burst out laughing once more.
“I’m so glad I got to see The Little Mermaid again,” mumbled Sylvie.
“Me too,” said Toby.
“You said it was for babies!” declared Sylvie indignantly.
“Yeah, it is, but sometimes it’s nice to go back to being a baby,” Toby said. “This adult stuff is too much like hard work.”
Copyright
Kelpies is an imprint of Floris Books
First published in 2012 by Floris Books
© 2012 Caroline Clough
Caroline Clough has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this Work
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the prior permission of Floris Books, 15 Harrison Gardens, Edinburgh www.florisbooks.co.uk
The publisher acknowledges subsidy from Creative Scotland towards the publication of this volume
British Library CIP data available
ISBN 978–086315–932–9
Black Tide Page 19