The Black Amulet

by J. R. Wallis

  ‘You say it like the number eight,’ said Thomas Gabriel, feeling rather smug. ‘Chiswick Eyot’s an island in London on the River Thames. There’s lots of islands all along the river. They’re dangerous, especially the uninhabited ones. But there’s monsters hiding on the ones where people live too.’

  ‘You’re joking,’ said Ruby. ‘Monsters on islands? Really?’

  Thomas Gabriel nodded. ‘My Master, Simeon, used to tell me the islands in London are off-limits for hunting because they don’t belong to anyone’s æhteland, that they’re under the control of the Order and no one’s allowed on them. There’s all sorts of rumours about why, though you’re not supposed to talk about it. I suppose it might be because they’re keeping all sorts of secrets there.’

  ‘Do you know where this one is in London?’ asked Ruby, pointing at the name.

  Thomas Gabriel nodded.

  ‘Well, the spell’s obviously telling us that at least one golden box is there,’ said Ruby. ‘Can you use magic to find out any more? Like where it might be on the island?’

  Thomas Gabriel tried the spell again, but not much more came to him. He fiddled with the Black Amulet, trying to coax some more power from it, but something was spent inside him. His head was starting to hurt. In the end, he placed a big X on the northern tip of the island.

  ‘It’s somewhere on that part of the island. I can’t say where exactly. We need to take a look. Once we’re there, I can try a more specific spell. We’ll have to go tonight, though. We can’t risk it during the day. Too many people about on the river for one thing.’

  Ruby flipped open the walnut box on the desk and lifted out the gun from the red velvet inlay as it continued to snore then splutter awake.

  ‘We’re going to a river island tonight. Could be full of monsters apparently.’

  ‘Hoo-ya – sounds right up my street.’

  ‘I want to get some practice in before we go.’

  ‘Fine by me. Is Jones coming too? He and Maitland visited some river islands in their time. He’ll know a thing or two.’

  ‘Good idea.’

  ‘If he wants to come, that is,’ piped up Thomas Gabriel.

  ‘Of course he will. I’ll send him a message.’

  But Thomas Gabriel just tutted and shook his head. ‘You’ve got it all wrong about him still wanting to be a Badlander, Ruby.’

  ‘Well, it’s still worth asking him, isn’t it, if these islands are as dangerous as you say?’

  Thomas Gabriel just shrugged and said nothing, because at least she was right about that.

  The River Thames had shrunk a lot now the tide was out.

  Ruby and Thomas Gabriel stood with Jones on the shoreline where the ground was solid and pebbly, peering at the sticky-looking mud. They had snuck through someone’s garden, skulking along the hedge, until they had found a ladder that let them down onto the riverbank. Behind them the city hummed as it went about its night-time business. Cars and buses droned and honked occasionally. The odd voice rang out. Somewhere, someone laughed out loud.

  Beyond the narrow channel of mud in front of them, full of large stones and pools of water, was a long island covered with poplar and alder trees so densely packed they made an impenetrable green canopy with their new spring leaves. The main body of the River Thames was still flowing on the other side of the island, albeit as a narrower body of black water than usual because of the low tide.

  Although he was still wearing the ordinary clothes his parents had bought him, Jones was thinking like a Badlander on the inside. He couldn’t help it. Being out at night made his senses prickle far more than they had done all day at school and that excited him. But he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. He hadn’t told his parents he was going out with Ruby and Thomas Gabriel. As far as they knew, he was asleep in bed.

  ‘Me and Maitland found a gang of Silver Trolls on a river island once,’ he whispered to the others. ‘They were hunting the cattle in the nearby fields. We picked ’em off one by one as they came out the water to feed.’

  Ruby gave him a nudge. ‘Sounds like you enjoyed it,’ she said.

  ‘Not really.’ Jones put his hands in the pocket of his jeans. ‘Well, even if I did, it was a different me then.’ He shrugged as if it was no big deal. Suddenly, Jones was regretting standing on the riverbank in the middle of the night. He hadn’t told his parents he was going out with Ruby and Thomas Gabriel. He had lied to them as he’d kissed them goodnight, saying he was tired and looking forward to bed. An ordinary boy wouldn’t do that, he thought.

  ‘Jones, I was only teasing. Is there anything else you know?’

  Jones pointed at Thomas Gabriel. ‘Ask him, not me. I’m not a Badlander, all right?’ he told Ruby sharply. ‘I wish I’d never come now. I should have stayed at home.’ He dug his hands deeper in his pockets and scowled.

  To Ruby he seemed as stubborn as a shell that didn’t want to open. Something was definitely up with him.

  ‘Jones, are you regretting giving up being a Badlander? You can say if you are. I know how boring ordinary life can be.’

  Thomas Gabriel rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, Ruby, not this again,’ he muttered. ‘We haven’t got time,’ and he pointed at the island.

  Ruby ignored him. She was too busy looking at Jones, trying to figure out what was going on in his head. ‘You don’t have to be embarrassed,’ she said.

  Jones looked down at his feet. He did feel embarrassed about it because he’d always made it very clear he wanted to be an ordinary boy. But now wasn’t the time to discuss it, not beside a river island, in the middle of the night.

  ‘I don’t wanna be a Badlander,’ he said rather curtly to Ruby. ‘I’m just here because I want the magic out of me.’

  ‘Told you,’ said Thomas Gabriel. ‘Now, let’s go, shall we?’

  He set off across the mud towards the island without another word.

  Ruby and Jones followed him in silence, wrapped up in their thoughts.

  The three of them made their way across the shiny riverbed, picking a path round the rocks and the large puddles of water. The mud was sloppy and sticky and clung to their shoes. When they reached the island and started up the steep bank, they discovered large sections of it had been built up with flat stones set into concrete. They left shiny footprints as they scrambled up.

  The island was boggy underfoot and it was clear the land they were walking on was submerged when the tide was up. It was choked with young willow, which made it difficult to find an easy path, so they ended up walking round the edge, which was thick with grasses and weeds and early spring flowers.

  ‘Where do we go?’ asked Ruby.

  Thomas Gabriel consulted his Black Book of Magical Instruction and then conjured the easiest spell that could find something hidden close by. He felt the magic welling inside him and, when the Black Amulet started vibrating gently on his wrist, the magic powered up more strongly. White sparks spiralled round his hands, growing into horns like those on a snail, extending and retracting as if tasting the air. But nothing more came to Thomas Gabriel about what was hidden on the island and he tutted and shook his head.

  ‘Keep your eyes peeled,’ whispered Jones to Ruby. ‘These islands can be dangerous and this one’s covered in willow so that’ll tell you something.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Pucan,’ he said before walking on.

  Ruby’s first thought was to ask Jones what he was on about. But instead she nodded, pretending she understood. She didn’t want to ask him anything. If she was going to be a proper Badlander, she had to start figuring things out on her own since Jones was determined to leave her in the Badlands and be ordinary and Victor Brynn was . . .

  She swallowed the lump in her throat and stopped, waiting for the boys to get a little ahead of her. When they were out of earshot, Ruby took out her Pocket Book Bestiary.

  ‘What are Pucan?’ she asked it in a whisper. The book vibrated in her hands before giving an answer.

  Puca

&n
bsp; (pl. Pucan)

  Puca is the Anglo-Saxon name for the many different types of Sprites, fairies and elemental beings found in the Badlands. One such creature with the alternative name of Will-o’-the-Wisp is known to inhabit places where willow trees grow.

  Ruby stumbled and the book went flying, landing in the mud with a loud splat that made Jones and Thomas Gabriel stop and look round.

  The book clearly didn’t like being face down in the mud. It started flapping its pages in an effort to try and get up. But the ground was too sticky. The harder it struggled, the more noise it made.

  ‘Pick it up, will you?’ hissed Jones. ‘It’s making too much noise.’

  Ruby peeled the book out of the mud and tried her best to wipe it clean on the lush green vegetation. But the book kept flapping, trying to clean itself, making even more noise until Ruby had no option but to put it away in a pocket.

  ‘Ask next time you don’t know something,’ said Jones. ‘I wanna get back to my parents safe and sound tonight.’

  He muttered something under his breath and walked on.

  Ruby kicked at a stone. She felt so useless having to consult the book when Jones and Thomas Gabriel didn’t have to. If she was going to prove herself good enough to be in the Order, she had to make sure she was at least as good as any boy, if not better.

  As she walked on, she couldn’t stop thinking about Jones mentioning his parents. He was lucky to have such good ones, she thought. She wished hers had been more loving and kind. She wondered whether they had been told about her running away. Perhaps they were worrying about her? They might even be out looking for her. Ruby decided it was highly unlikely. But maybe her disappearance had made them realize how much they loved her, just like Jones’s parents loved him. She felt a little arrow hit her heart with a quiver. If they did really love her then they’d want her back?

  When she heard her name being shouted in the distance, she looked up and saw her parents standing up in a small wooden dinghy floating on the River Thames. They were lit by an array of small lanterns suspended around them, waving at her. Quite how they’d come to be standing up in a boat on the river didn’t matter to Ruby. What was important now was that they were there. They’d come looking for her, meaning they loved her after all!

  Ruby veered down the bank towards the main body of the river. She ploughed into the stretch of mud by the water’s edge, looking up occasionally to check her parents were still there.

  As she reached the water, she felt a weight on her shoulders. Heard voices. Somebody pulled her back from the river.

  ‘My parents,’ she whispered as she tugged to get free.

  Ruby felt a sharp slap on her face and she gasped with the sting of it.

  ‘Ruby, snap out of it,’ Jones said. She blinked, realizing now that he was holding her left arm and Thomas Gabriel her right. Both boys were staring at her in alarm.

  Confused, she looked out across the water. Her parents weren’t there. All she could see were white lights flitting low over the river.

  ‘Pucan,’ said Jones as he dragged Ruby back through the mud and up the bank. ‘They were tricking you into the water,’ he said, breathing hard. ‘And now I should think they’ll be angry ’bout not getting what they wanted. We need to go.’

  Ruby heard a tiny shrieking sound as the lights came skimming towards them. Jones and Ruby stumbled up the bank and flopped down among the vegetation as Thomas Gabriel stood with his hands raised and fired up the magic inside him. The white sparks flicking off his fingers turned into long strings lined with hooks that swirled round him as he waved his hands and cast them forward. As the hooks snagged the little white lights fizzing through the air towards them, Ruby heard high-pitched shrieks of pain. She felt her heart go out to whatever was being caught and hurt. She had to help—

  ‘No, Ruby! You can’t listen to them!’ shouted Jones as he grabbed her to stop her getting up.

  Ruby watched as little men swirled all round Thomas Gabriel, caught on the hooks, straining to get away. They shrieked as they clawed to try and set themselves free. But the longer they stayed snagged on the hooks, the weaker they became until they slowed, drooped and then dissolved into nothing.

  Some got past Thomas Gabriel and landed beside Ruby in the grass. They peered at her with hard faces, sharp smiles and hooked noses. Some wore silver hooped earrings. Others had neckerchiefs. She pulled the gun out of her waistband, but it drooped in her hand as the Pucan urged to her to go into the water and she wondered dreamily if she should.

  Jones flung his hands at the creatures, but they jumped out of the way like crickets. So he grabbed a branch and began swinging it around like a scythe, sending most of them spinning into the grass. The remaining Pucan gave up and flew away, burrowing down into the roots of the willow trees growing on the island.

  Eventually, it became quiet once more.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Jones asked Ruby.

  Ruby nodded. She plucked a twig from her hair.

  ‘They were in my head,’ she said.

  ‘What were they saying?’

  ‘That if my parents had loved me everything would be better. Ruby wrapped her arms round herself. She felt cold.

  Jones looked at his muddy shoes. He wasn’t quite sure what to say to Ruby to make her feel better.

  ‘Whatever the Pucan told you,’ he said, ‘remember it’s cos they wanted you drowned in that water, Ruby. They were trying to trick you.’

  Ruby opened her mouth to say something else, but there was no time as Thomas Gabriel came jogging past with the snail-like horns protruding from the back of his hands again and pointing in the direction he was going.

  ‘I’m onto something this time,’ he announced. ‘I can feel it.’

  Ruby scrambled to her feet and ran with Jones. They caught up with Thomas Gabriel who seemed to be being pulled at a jog towards one end of the island.

  ‘I tried a different spell,’ he said breathlessly. ‘One for finding things hidden by magic. As soon as I said what I was looking for, I started getting dragged along.’ His legs drove him on through the boggy ground and the dense vegetation.

  He stopped abruptly when the spell did, like a cord had been cut, and stood, looking round, trying to catch his breath.

  He was at the very tip of the island, staring upstream at the River Thames as it flowed towards him. Lights winked on either bank. Sounds of the city rose and fell. An aeroplane’s lights blinked as it cut across the sky.

  Ruby and Jones were waiting expectantly when he turned round.

  ‘The golden box is around here somewhere,’ he said. ‘Has to be.’

  ‘Look,’ said Ruby and pointed at a small white circle hovering in front of Thomas Gabriel at about knee-height. It looked like a tiny spotlight.

  He bent down to take a closer look, careful not to put his face too near. Then he waved a hand either side of it and behind it too. Eventually, he plucked up enough courage to push a finger into the light, watching it disappear as he did so. He pulled out his finger, looking for any sign of damage, but it was fine.

  ‘It’s a hole to somewhere else,’ he whispered to the others. ‘The spell must have opened it and dragged me here.’

  ‘A keyhole, do you think?’ asked Jones, crouching down beside Thomas Gabriel.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Jones looked through the hole, scrunching up one eye.

  ‘There’s something in there,’ he said, pressing his eye closer. ‘I can see a little box.’

  ‘Is it golden?’ asked Ruby eagerly.

  ‘Yes . . . I think so. Just one, though. I reckon this is a þurhfarennesse,’ he said looking away from the hole. ‘A secret compartment made with magic.’

  ‘How do we open it?’ asked Ruby.

  ‘It says here that you can’t use magic,’ said Thomas Gabriel, looking in his Black Book of Magical Instruction. ‘You have to cut it open.’

  ‘With what?’

  ‘It says there’s a special knife, sharp en
ough to cut the air. We aren’t getting that golden box out without something like that.’

  ‘Maybe you can use magic to make one?’ suggested Jones.

  Thomas Gabriel scanned the page. ‘No, I don’t think—’

  ‘Is this sharp enough?’ Ruby had dug into her pocket and pulled out the Vampire’s tooth. It dangled on the cord she’d strung it with.

  The boys looked at the tooth and then at each other.

  ‘Maybe,’ said Jones.

  ‘It’s worth a try,’ said Thomas Gabriel.

  Ruby gripped the tooth by its long root and slid the sharp point into the bright hole. She started sawing upwards, tiny movements at first, trying to make an incision. The night air felt tough, like cutting through a steak with a plastic knife. But, even though progress was slow, the tooth seemed sharp enough to slice through the air.

  ‘That’s it, Ruby,’ said Jones. ‘Keep going.’

  As the tooth made a larger cut, Ruby used her arm to start sawing backwards and forwards more efficiently.

  ‘Stop,’ said Jones. He reached forward and wiggled his fingers into the cut Ruby had made above the hole. And then he pulled. But, despite tugging as hard as he could, the dark air didn’t move. ‘It’s like trying to fold concrete,’ he said, finally removing his fingers, the skin on them red and sore.

  ‘Look, it’s healing up!’ Thomas Gabriel pointed at the incision that Ruby had made. It was indeed disappearing, retreating slowly back to the bright hole from which she’d started cutting. She slid the tooth back into what was left of the slit and started cutting again. The dark felt softer this time, as if it hadn’t quite healed over properly, and it was easier to cut, but, when she reached the point at which she had stopped before, Ruby noticed the texture change. She kept going, making the cut longer.

  ‘Make sure it doesn’t seal up again,’ she told the boys.

  Jones and Thomas Gabriel slid their hands into the space to keep it open.

  When she was satisfied the incision was long enough, Ruby started cutting around the bright hole, the light from the hidden compartment shining out of it. Thomas Gabriel shuffled round, pushing his fingers into the large circle she was making, to ensure it stayed open.