The Boy with One Name

by J. R. Wallis

  Jones lay down and reached out a hand to try and move the fingers from the Bottle, but they were too far away. He had to shuffle forward until he was almost in danger of toppling into the hole. When he felt strong hands round his ankles, he looked back to see a couple of the imps holding on to him, giving him the thumbs up, and he shuffled forward more until he was tipped up like a wheelbarrow. Jones waved at Thomas Gabriel to lie down next to him.

  ‘Touch the hilt sticking out of the top of the Bottle.’ Thomas Gabriel reached out an arm and just about touched it, and felt the vibration as Jones had done. ‘Can you feel its heartbeat?’ asked Jones. Thomas Gabriel nodded. ‘I’ll move the fingers. Tell me if the beat changes and I’ll know to stop.’

  With the imps making sure he didn’t topple in, Jones peeled back one finger at a time, but they kept curling back into the same position around the Bottle so, in the end, he dug out more earth and then grabbed hold of the big grey wrist and pulled it. It was heavy, but the whole hand slid away and Jones saw the Bottle for the first time. It was bulbous below the long slim neck, rounded like a large glass onion. It was too black to see what was inside.

  Ruby was down on her front too, on the other side of Thomas Gabriel, and, with imps holding on to her ankles too, she reached down and started to dig out more of the earth around the other big hand that was still around the Bottle. She paused when Thomas Gabriel motioned that the heart was beating faster, and they all lay still, until it was safe to go on again. Slowly and surely, Ruby moved the other hand until they could see the whole Bottle sitting on a section of the sleeping Ent’s stomach, rising up and down as the rest of the creature lay buried in the ground. The Dark Bottle reminded Jones a little of a long-necked decanter of port that Maitland had kept on a sideboard.

  ‘Can you lift it?’ asked Jones and Thomas Gabriel licked his lips before nodding and shuffling forward. When he felt imps holding on to his ankles too, he moved even further to reach into the hole. He watched the Ent’s breathing and as the Bottle rose he reached out and cupped both hands around the main body of the Bottle. He took a deep breath, and tried to lift it. But it was much heavier than he expected and difficult to get the leverage he needed, so he had to let go. He shuffled even further forward on his front, to find more strength in his arms, and then reached out again for the Bottle. This time he managed to lift it, teetering on the edge of the hole, with the imps puffing as they held his ankles.

  But, as Thomas Gabriel lifted the Bottle higher, the imps started shrieking and his One Eye began yelling too and fluttering around his head. Even the candles in the lanterns seemed to be flickering madly. A sudden fear gripped Thomas Gabriel’s heart and he struggled to breathe as he wondered what was happening behind him. When a hand grabbed his shoulder, he flinched, dropping the Bottle back onto the Ent’s stomach, before he was hauled up to his feet.

  Simeon was staring at him with a face like a thundercloud, and Thomas Gabriel could barely breathe, as Jones and Ruby looked on in grim silence.

  ‘I went . . .’ The man paused because the anger inside him was so strong. ‘Tonight, I visited a house where I keep a Gast as a test for boys like you, to find out how close you’d come to finding it. To decide whether to Commence you. And what did I find?’ Simeon glared at Ruby. ‘I found a mearcunge written by you! You, girl!’ Ruby glanced at Jones, not sure what to say when she heard him mutter something. ‘And then,’ continued Simeon, ‘one look in my scrying glass tells me you’re all he—’

  The rest was lost in a great rumbling sound.

  And then the Ent’s head burst up through the earth ten metres away, great clods of earth falling from its lumpen ears. A huge arm came up through the ground, sending gravestones flying, and a coffin soared through the air like a brown torpedo and opened as it landed, a mummified corpse tumbling free.

  Simeon’s brain changed gear from red-hot anger to cold-brained thinking as everyone backed away.

  ‘Do exactly as I say,’ he shouted, ‘and maybe we’ll all live to see the morning.’ The huge creature continued to emerge from the ground, rather as if it was clambering out of a bath. ‘Without thorough planning and preparation, we’re going to need to be lucky to beat this.’ Simeon glared at the children for a moment. ‘But then perhaps dying is preferable to what I can promise will happen to you all after this is over.’

  ‘But I’ve already planned for the Ent,’ said Thomas Gabriel, puffing out his chest. ‘I’m prepared just like a good Badlander should be.’ He took out a wizened yellow fruit from his pocket. ‘You’ll be proud of me, I promise.’

  Before Simeon could swipe the fruit from his hand, Thomas Gabriel bit down and swallowed a mouthful of the bitter fruit. And then he stuffed the rest of it in his mouth and chewed and chewed, juice dribbling down his chin.

  ‘Have you lost your wits, boy?’ cried Simeon, shaking his head. ‘What have you done?’

  ‘Exactly what I need to do, to show you I’m ready to Commence,’ said Thomas Gabriel.

  TWENTY-SIX

  When Jones had seen the fruit in Thomas Gabriel’s hand, he’d grabbed Ruby’s wrist immediately and dragged her away before the other boy had even taken a bite. The imps had backed off too, scattering into the dark and disappearing among the gravestones, where they cowered and squeaked and then went silent. Even the One Eye flew like an arrow into Jones’s overcoat pocket to hide.

  ‘What’s he eating?’ asked Ruby as Thomas Gabriel polished off the fruit.

  ‘A wuduæppel. One way to take on a Grey-Fisted Ent is to transform into something bigger. But it’s only for Badlanders who know what they’re doing. It takes great skill choosing a creature, to get it right.’

  ‘It didn’t mention it in the Pocket Book.’

  ‘Most Badlanders consider it an act of treachery, changing into a monster to fight another. You need special permission from the Order to do it. Thomas Gabriel must have known his Master had the wuduæppel.’

  Ruby was about to ask more, but stopped at the sound of the Ent standing up in the graveyard, the lanterns scattered around it, the odd candle in some of them still lit. The creature was about twenty metres tall, with a pot belly and dark bristly hair sprouting on the backs of its arms and chest. A dewlap of loose hanging grey skin wobbled as it shook its body free of earth and roots.

  ‘There,’ Jones shouted, and Ruby got a glimpse of the Dark Bottle before the Ent closed one huge fist around it and roared, its red tongue flapping against a mouth of rotten teeth. Clearly, the creature was not going to give up the Dark Bottle without a fight.

  Ruby and Jones could see Thomas Gabriel crouched on his haunches with Simeon down beside him and they could hear the man telling his apprentice to throw up the wuduæppel.

  ‘No,’ shouted Thomas Gabriel. ‘I’m a good Badlander. I’m going to show you I can take on this Ent so I can Commence.’

  ‘It’s too late for that now,’ roared Simeon. ‘You’re not right for Commencement. You’re a stupid boy and a liar. You’re no apprentice of mine any more.’ All Thomas Gabriel could manage in response was to cry out and clutch at his stomach. ‘I’ll clear up this mess,’ Simeon shouted at Ruby and Jones, ‘and then I’ll deal with you, Thomas Gabriel. I’ll cut you down, whatever foul creature you’ve chosen to become. I’ll take great pleasure in marking two mearcunga here tonight, for both the beasts I’m going to kill.’

  Simeon strode purposefully towards the Grey-Fisted Ent, which licked its lips and smiled a ragged grin when it saw him.

  Simeon raised his hands.

  ‘Gebíed mé lígetslieht,’ he shouted. Ruby and Jones watched his fists glow light blue and then he banged them together three times. ‘In the name of the Order, I despatch this foul Ent, to protect the world, using the gift of magic that I, Simeon Rowell, possess and control.’ Ruby could see that his fists were glowing golden now and then Simeon took one arm back and hurled something out of his hand. A golden missile flashed towards the Ent, but the creature held up the Dark Bottle and the projecti
le fizzled out like a firework and dropped to the ground before hitting its mark.

  Simeon stared at the Ent, watching its belly shake as it howled with laughter.

  Then the Ent roared as it came stomping forward and the sound seemed to stir Simeon. In a panic, he flung back his other golden fist and threw it forward, releasing a second missile at the oncoming creature. But that fizzled out too and the Ent snarled as it drew back its free arm and swung a fist at Simeon. It was too big to dodge and it hit the man like a train. Simeon went flying through the air, his coat billowing round him, and landed near Ruby and Jones with a horrible thud that made them gasp.

  The Grey-Fisted Ent waited for the man to get up, but there was no sign of life. When the creature sniffed the air, Jones pulled Ruby back into the dark shadows beside the church.

  The Ent sniffed again and took a lumbering stride towards them, then stopped again and scanned the ground ahead, peering into the dark for them.

  ‘What are we going to do, Jones?’ whispered Ruby.

  ‘It all depends on Thomas Gabriel now. On what sort of creature he’s going to become,’ and he pointed as Thomas Gabriel rushed to his Master’s side, in full view of the Ent, which began watching in fascination at this new entertainment.

  Ruby and Jones could see that Simeon was badly hurt, that his breathing was blood and spit. And with Thomas Gabriel closer now too they could see the boy’s right eye had turned yellow. In fact, everything on his right-hand side was starting to look very different. His foppish chestnut hair was already a dark grey. His right arm was rapidly growing and, as his hand swelled, the fingers ballooned to the size of rolling pins.

  ‘I wiii-llll Commm-mence,’ he said, his voice sounding warped and strange because the right half of his face was becoming much larger than the opposite side. ‘An-thnd I’ll be-ee a gwreat Baddd-looonderrrr too-ooo.’

  Simeon was breathing fast, but he managed to find the words he wanted. ‘You’ll die tonight like me,’ he wheezed. ‘You’re not skilled enough to use a wuduæppel . . .’ Simeon choked a laugh. ‘Typical of you . . . No . . . no . . . good at anything . . .’ He laughed again and coughed before his breathing became laboured and his head dropped to one side. Ruby gripped Jones’s hand as the man died and she looked away.

  Jones was busy watching Thomas Gabriel. As the other boy grunted at his dead Master, and stood up, Jones gasped as the whole right side of his body swelled so quickly the clothes covering it shredded in an instant, and fell away. Thomas Gabriel grew rapidly taller as his right leg lengthened, and the bare foot beneath it broadened into a grey, bony, clawed thing, the size of a small family car. In a matter of moments, half of the boy’s body had become Ent-like. But the left-hand side of Thomas Gabriel remained boy-sized and it flailed like a small flag atop a huge, thick mast as the half-formed Ent wobbled on one gigantic leg. Thomas Gabriel put his massive right hand down on the earth to steady himself. The fist was huge and it was black. The Ent half of his body was much larger than the Grey-Fisted one that had been woken from the earth.

  ‘Oh, Jones, what’s happened to him?’ asked Ruby.

  ‘He ain’t changed properly. I said it was hard. He’s only changed to half an Ent. A Black-Fisted one by the look of it,’ and they watched the Grey-Fisted Ent try to make sense of what new creature was standing in front of it.

  The half boy, half Ent gave a reasonably sized roar, which ended with a high-pitched squeak, rounded off by the part that was still very much Thomas Gabriel. The Grey-Fisted Ent cocked its head at such an odd noise and then decided it was worth investigating and loped towards Thomas Gabriel, who was managing to walk, using his massive black hand like a crutch. The ground shook as both Ents lumbered towards each other.

  ‘Black-Fisted Ents hate Grey-Fisted ones and vice versa,’ said Jones. ‘They’re natural enemies. So at least Thomas Gabriel tried to change into something half decent.’

  ‘Do you think he’s changed enough?’

  ‘I don’t know. Black-Fisted Ents do pack a bigger punch cos they’re much larger. So, if he lands a blow just right, he might be okay. As long as he doesn’t break the Dark Bottle. He’s got to remember that’s why we’re here.’

  Jones licked his lips in nervous anticipation as he watched Thomas Gabriel try to lift his huge arm off the ground and balance on his one massive leg at the same time. Wobbling, Thomas Gabriel swung a punch at the Grey-Fisted Ent and completely missed, spinning round in a circle before crashing to the ground.

  ‘We’re going to have to help him,’ said Ruby. But as she got ready to run, pulling the gun out of her waistband, Jones held her back. He put his finger to his lips before she could say anything and nodded across the graveyard at the huge crater from which the Grey-Fisted Ent had emerged.

  The Scucca was crawling from out of the same place in the ground, planting its two front paws on the grass and then hopping its back legs up too. It sniffed the air as it watched the Grey-Fisted Ent slam a big fist into the Ent side of Thomas Gabriel, making the strange hybrid creature groan as it lay on the ground.

  The Scucca turned to face the church, and it seemed to be aware of Jones and Ruby right away. It growled and padded in their direction.

  ‘Time to move,’ said Jones. ‘The Sing-Songs and the silver spikes must have got dislodged in all the ruckus.’

  Ruby and Jones kept out of sight in the shadows as they crept quietly beside the church, aware of the Scucca stopping periodically and sniffing the air as it attempted to locate them. Jones kept glancing at the two Ents, watching what was going on, nervous about what might happen to the Dark Bottle.

  He could see Thomas Gabriel lying on his back as the Grey-Fisted Ent came at him again, its large arm raised. But this time Thomas Gabriel was quicker. He launched his huge arm, swinging it up and round before the other Ent could hit him.

  Jones heard the large black fist make a satisfying thud as it hit the other Ent’s head before the creature tottered away. Ruby kept hissing at Jones to keep up as the Scucca followed them, but Jones was too worried about the Dark Bottle, and looked back again to see the Grey-Fisted Ent pull up a couple of gravestones and hurl them at Thomas Gabriel, who punched them away, splintering them over the grass. But the stones were only a distraction as the Grey-Fisted Ent came at Thomas Gabriel and landed a blow on the Ent half of his body. But this time the Grey-Fisted Ent didn’t back away, staring instead at the pint-sized part of the creature lying in front of it. And then it raised its fist.

  Jones ran on after Ruby, with the Scucca quickening its pace behind them. When Ruby crouched down out of breath behind a large gravestone, deep in conversation with the gun, Jones stopped and looked back again.

  To his relief, Thomas Gabriel had grabbed the Grey-Fisted Ent by its throat with his giant hand, and he was using the creature as a crutch with which to stand up on his one massive leg. Thomas Gabriel’s black fist was clamped tight like a vice. He was choking the Grey-Fisted Ent, which was clawing at the huge black fist with one hand as it held the Dark Bottle safe in the other. But Thomas Gabriel held on tight, squeezing harder and harder.

  Suddenly, there sounded a great crack as the neck of the Grey-Fisted Ent broke and Thomas Gabriel snapped the creature’s head clean off. The headless body slumped to its knees and the hand holding the Dark Bottle opened as the corpse fell to the ground.

  Jones watched as Thomas Gabriel lunged and reached out his boy-sized hand to catch the falling Dark Bottle, which he did safely before it could crash to the ground. Jones pumped his fist and then heard a deep growl close by.

  The Scucca was facing him. For a moment, time seemed to stand still and then the creature charged, and, in that second, Jones thought of how short his life had been and of all the things he wished he’d done.

  A loud bang from behind made him flinch and the Scucca crumpled instantly to the ground. With his ears still ringing and his hands shaking, Jones looked back at Ruby, who was standing in a triangular stance, holding the gun with both hands.

&nb
sp; ‘You’re as good as any Badlander I ever met,’ he said quietly, his voice all shaky, and Ruby smiled back as the gun started hollering about what she’d just done.

  By the time the wuduæppel had worn off, Jones had disposed of the bodies of the Scucca and the Grey-Fisted Ent, melting them away into great lines of white foamy bubbles that popped as they disappeared. But the graveyard was a mess and nothing could be done about that. Gravestones lay scattered and broken over the grass. Great furrows were ploughed into the earth. Coffins were splintered apart and strewn like driftwood. Old bones glinted in the moonlight.

  Jones and Ruby skirted round it on their way to Thomas Gabriel who, now restored to his normal body and with his clothes in rags, was standing over the body of Simeon with his One Eye perched on his shoulder. The old grey imps were beside him, standing in a line, sniffling and wiping their eyes as Thomas Gabriel tipped up the little pot of dust he was holding. The brown dust sparkled as it fell and Thomas Gabriel watched the body of his Master dissolve.

  ‘Do not be afear’d

  It is only the wyrd

  That says you must go

  From this world that you know.

  Do not be afear’d

  It is only the wyrd

  That wants you to leave

  Which means I won’t grieve.

  Do not be afear’d

  It is only the wyrd

  That rules all our lives

  And always decides

  The length of one’s life

  All its joy, all its strife,

  So do not be afear’d

  It is only the wyrd.’

  Jones and Ruby kept a respectful distance until the body of Simeon was gone.

  When Thomas Gabriel was ready, he turned round and came towards them. He was smiling as he opened his fist and out dropped a silver key bobbing on its chain.

  The gun in Ruby’s hand piped up instantly. ‘It’s against the Ordnung for an apprentice to take a key without their Master’s blessing. It can affect their Commencement. You need to tell the Order what’s happened. That Simeon’s dead.’