I grabbed him by the shoulders. I didn’t slap him. I’d tried that once with Demelza and it hadn’t worked. I held him tightly. ‘Stay with it Jack, we’re getting out of here. It’s not going to be easy but we’re going to do it.’
What were we going to do with Zach? Do as Jack said, I thought. If the crowd of villagers found Zach then that might be enough for them. Zach and Demelza might end up on their bonfire but we could get away.
‘No.’ Jenna seemed to read my thoughts. ‘We can’t be like them.’ I knew she meant: ‘Or like your family,’ but it didn’t need saying.
‘But they won’t burn Zach,’ Mary said in a high pitched frightened voice. ‘He wasn’t convicted; he sentenced US to burn. They’ll leave him alone. We don’t need him.’
I didn’t think Mary was right. Smith would have told everyone about the imposter bailiff. The mob wouldn’t leave them alone.
‘We have to take them, just in case.’ Being calm was getting harder. ‘In case we need all of us to open the tunnel.’
‘We take them.’ Jenna went to the door and shouted, ‘Come ON.’
‘They’ll slow us down,’ Mary cried. ‘They can’t walk.’
‘We put them on the horse, tie them on.’ Jenna would make this happen. ‘Mary, you know about horses – get him ready. Kan and Jack, get Zach.’ They didn’t move. ‘NOW,’ she shouted and they jumped.
Jenna followed them out, stopped at the door and pointed to Posy. ‘Talk to her.’ Then I knew why I hadn’t been sent to get Zach.
I told Posy about the tunnel. My explanation was short and quite brutal – why I didn’t think she could go into the tunnel.
‘I don’t think it will let you,’ I said thinking about how the Trogs had stopped chasing us, and then all that time ago when the others had tried to take the baby Neanderthal – Zog – back with them and she had gone berserk.
‘So I can’t go with Kan?’ she said with tears welling up in her eyes.
I shook my head. The others were ready to go.
‘What do I do?’ And she heaved a sob. ‘If they catch me …’
I’d done my best, Jenna would have done this better – said the right thing. Why did she get me to do it? What I’d told her wouldn’t make it any easier for her to leave us. We had no time to talk anymore. We all gathered in the darkness on the track between the houses.
Kan had slung Zach and Demelza over the horse. They were too weak to struggle. He and Jack tied their feet and hands under the animal. They’d found one leather strap hanging from a beam and Kan had ripped the straps from Mary’s backpack to tie Demelza. It didn’t look comfortable and no one cared. Both of them moaned weakly as we set off.
There was no path. In the moonlight we could only see the shape of the dark hills. The Hanging Stone hill silhouetted in the distance. Without the moon, finding the way would have been impossible. We had no torches. Unless we made it to the stones before the villagers came over the hill they would see us out on the open moor. We stumbled on, tripping over boulders and falling into holes.
‘Don’t look back.’ I pulled Jack onward. ‘Slows us down.’
Soon the ground became soft and boggy. The moor was silent but I was sure I heard a distant noise.
‘Chanting,’ said Kan.
‘What are they chanting?’ Posy held onto him tightly.
The noise became clearer. I could make out one word. I wasn’t going to say it. But the chant of ‘burn’ soon echoed across the moor.
We were not going to make it. I wondered if we should abandon Zach, but the horse didn’t slow us, it helped. Holding on to the horse steadied me in the boggy bits. We were all holding on from time to time. But we were too slow.
‘Can we hide?’ Mary had realised the danger. ‘Otherwise we’ll stand out against the moon.’
I couldn’t see anywhere to hide. If the villagers waited for the sun to come up, they would see us. And I’d heard barking. Was that the wild dog pack or had the villagers brought their own dogs?
‘Just hurry,’ Jenna urged.
The chanting grew louder and louder. Suddenly the noise stopped. The crowd had reached the top of the hill, near to the village. Now they could see across the moor. They raised their burning torches and the priest stepped out in front. He raised his hand, and pointed in our direction.
‘Witches, witches,’ he screamed.
‘Burn them, burn them,’ the crowd howled as they came after us.
We had nowhere else to go. It was to the Hanging Stones or give up. If the tunnel didn’t open then we were dead.
‘Feel anything?’ I didn’t understand it but I hoped Jack might get his feeling about something happening.
He shook his head.
The ground sloped upwards as we neared the stones. The villagers moved faster, easier for them to find a way through the bog with their torches. I could only see dark rocks. No light, no sign of somewhere to escape, nothing. Something whizzed past me and disappeared into the night.
‘They’re shooting,’ I cried.
‘Guns? Here?’ cried Kan.
‘Arrows,’ I shouted as another one went over my head and buried itself in Mary’s backpack.
‘Just run,’ Jenna said, but we’d already been doing that.
We were making our way through stacks of other rocks. I hoped it made it harder to see us. At least the arrows passed over us. There seemed to be only one person with a bow.
‘There!’ I pointed ahead to the Hanging Stones.
A faint glimmer of light shone in the night. It came from the cleft in the rock where we had sheltered before. Almost another cave and a blue haze of light.
It grew stronger as we approached. A chance to escape. Into the tunnel and it would take us home? Or would we be back with the cavemen? Would I find out the truth about Mum? We’d probably all end up dead but maybe not burnt alive.
The villagers were too far away to stop us.
‘The tunnel,’ Jack cried out. ‘We’re safe.’
Then I heard her voice.
Even though it had been more than a year since we had set out on the hiking trip, I remembered the sound of her voice. The same voice I’d heard in my dream. She stood with the blue light of the tunnel behind her. Miss Tregarthur. Her hair as wild as before. No sign of her injury.
‘Alvin Carter, you will die. All of you will die. I told you to save him.’
She held up her hand as though to stop us. I ran on, we could knock her out of the way.
She gave a wild laugh. ‘The tunnel is not for you. I will have my revenge.’ She turned and walked back into the rock cleft. The light surrounded her, moving as she moved. Darkness folded in behind her. The tunnel closing as she walked. As I ran she drifted out of reach. The light grew dim.
Now the howling crowd would soon reach us.
Two small shadowy figures appeared in the gloom and grabbed Miss Tregarthur. ‘NO,’ she screamed and lashed out in her struggle to escape. I rushed forward, still too far away to help.
‘Alvin,’ cried one of the figures.
‘Sam?’ I shouted.
Sam and Ivy together.
Miss Tregarthur broke free, throwing Sam to the ground. She ran into the blue haze, shrieking: ‘REVENGE. REVENGE.’
Sam scrambled to his feet. He and Ivy came towards us. The light grew stronger again. They were bringing it with them. The tunnel hadn’t closed.
‘Quick.’ Jenna struggled to undo the straps holding Zach and Demelza. They fell to the ground. Jack and I dragged them to the entrance. I thought they were dead but as we dumped them they started to crawl away.
Kan and Posy clung to each other.
‘I’m not coming,’ Kan said to me. ‘There’s nothing in there for me.’ He pointed at the rocks.
I
wanted to argue, to say that we had to take everyone, but it would have been useless. He had lost his brother, half of his life, but now he had someone to be with. How could I stop him? Jenna must have wanted me to understand that this had to happen – that’s why she asked me to talk to Posy and see there was no other way.
I stepped up to Kan, not sure what to do, but he leant forward and wrapped me in a hug.
‘Never going to end well,’ he said.
I knew he wasn’t talking about us here on the moor or about the chasing crowd. He meant him and his brother. Their life had been too dangerous, too violent. I could see why he chose to stay here. I’d made that same decision in the caveman world – it was a better life than being abandoned on the streets at home. And at least he had Posy.
‘Come on,’ Jack shouted as he and Mary hurried forward, shrouded in the blue light. Jenna walked back and took my hand.
Kan let me go.
‘I’ll come back for you,’ I tried to say but I’m not sure if the words came out.
Kan smiled. Then he jumped on the horse, grabbed Posy, pulled her up behind him and kicked away.
‘I didn’t know he could ride,’ I said to Jenna as they disappeared.
‘There’s a lot of things we don’t know Kan can do.’ She pulled at my hand. ‘Time to go.’
Zach and Demelza had disappeared.
The mob had stopped only a few yards away. The white-robed priest screamed and screamed, but they came no further.
We ran towards the gap in the rocks, towards the light. No longer the blue haze that had surrounded Miss Tregarthur, now we were in a dark smoky mist. The taste of ash hit the back of my throat. We went forward. The screams of the crowd grew fainter. But I heard another distant cry, ‘Revenge,’ echoing in the void.
The ground moved once more. Not the violent shaking of an earthquake, the earth swayed and the air moved with it. We were in a swirling tumbling mist of gas. I heard the others cry out. I couldn’t see them anymore, only Jenna. I hadn’t let go of her hand.
Ivy and Sam had saved us. Why had they come back? But this was wrong, wrong colour – black smoke. Had Miss Tregarthur made this happen? Had she made the tunnel into a burning fire? Was her revenge to make sure we were still burnt alive?
With a violent heave the tunnel twisted, turned and reached a juddering halt. We tumbled out, on to grass and rocks. I wiped my eyes; no cavemen, no priests, no fire.
A sudden movement and rough hands seized me from behind.
‘Hold them,’ someone shouted and I felt the rope bite into my wrists.
This didn’t look good.
About the Author
This is Alex Mellanby’s second novel in the Tregarthur Series. Alex’s medical career fell apart when he failed to pay his GMC registration, not necessarily a bad move for humanity. He is now writing full time. The current series was inspired by the timeless nature of walks on Dartmoor. Mostly timeless for him because getting un-lost took unimaginable time. Apart from the current series he is working on a number of short stories and very different novels.
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