The Black Amulet

by J. R. Wallis

  Givens opened his mouth. His tongue flapped, but he coughed instead.

  ‘It’s rare, sir,’ Wilfried said. ‘But it can happen, according to what the book says.’

  Givens stared at the dead One Eye on the table and the Pocket Book Bestiary. His eyes moved from one to the other and back again, trying to piece everything together. And then the man looked up at Wilfried and Thomas Gabriel. There was a bright look of frustration in his eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry this happened, sir,’ said Thomas Gabriel. ‘Perhaps it would be best to forget any dress rehearsal for my assessment by the High Council now? The evening’s getting on.’

  Givens nodded. ‘Yes . . . I think . . .’ He coughed and croaked. ‘I think you have proved yourself more than worthy of taking the test the day after tomorrow.’

  When Givens and his apprentice had left, Thomas Gabriel slid the Black Amulet down his arm. It felt good to be wearing it properly again.

  He knew that Ruby and Jones would be wondering where on earth he was since it was so late and it reminded him that they would nag him about taking the bitter potion too. He went to his study to look for the bottle.

  But the liquid made his mouth and tongue burn and he spat it out onto the floor, fanning his mouth to try and cool it down. He wondered if the bottle had been left open too long, making the potion go off.

  He poured the contents down the kitchen sink. As it glugged down the plughole, he thought of Wilfried being unable to keep down the lie he had told to his Master. Although Thomas Gabriel had used his Memory Leech on Givens, replacing the truth of what had really happened with a new version of events, the new memory would only ever be a vague one for Givens to make it feel like he had genuinely been attacked and then knocked out, giving him only a hazy feel for what was supposed to have happened. It meant Wilfried’s lie was important in backing it up.

  Thomas Gabriel took out a small silver pillbox from his pocket and flipped open the lid to reassure himself that Wilfried would never tell the truth.

  Lying on a red velvet inlay was a glass vial about half the length of a finger. There was a yellow mist trapped inside it, contained by a cork pushed deep into the neck of the vial. Holding it up to the kitchen light, Thomas Gabriel watched the wælmist shimmer as it twisted and turned. He had made it very clear to Wilfried what would happen to Givens if he ever did tell the truth to his Master.

  Thomas Gabriel put the vial back in its pillbox and snapped the lid shut. Jones and Ruby would definitely be wondering where he was. It was time to find the rest of Drewman as soon as possible now the High Council meeting had been moved forward even earlier. Thomas Gabriel smiled as he imagined passing the test with flying colours once Drewman had fixed his Commencement.

  He strode into the hallway and picked up his duffel bag and heard the clink of a couple of unopened bottles of bitter potion. He’d take some later, he decided.

  TWENTY-ONE

  The journey to the village of Old Windsor took longer than Jones expected, even though they were driving at night. An accident had blocked the dual carriageway and they stood idling in traffic for some time. Thomas Gabriel became more and more agitated, given that his assessment in front of the High Council was less than two days away. But there was no magic they could do to clear the road.

  As Jones sat with cars to his right in the outer lane, he was glad for the charm that Maitland had put on the van meaning that whenever the boy was driving it looked like his old Master was at the wheel.

  By the time the accident was cleared, they had lost some time and the satnav on the mobile phone Jones had brought with him said their new arrival time was three o’clock in the morning. He had decided to bring the phone after Ruby’s suggestion about using technology instead of magic. Thomas Gabriel did not approve, but even he had eventually agreed it was ‘quite’ useful when the satnav suddenly announced a different route that would save time.

  When they reached Old Windsor, Ruby turned off the satnav and used one of the maps to direct Jones towards Lion Island, which lay upstream of the village. They took a turning off the main road and pottered down a lane until they found a farm track where they parked. Jones turned off the headlights and the sharp-looking sickle moon bathed the hedge next to them in silver. The track leading to the river looked icy in the light. It was three thirty in the morning.

  Jones took some salt and rosemary vials from a cupboard and put them in his pockets.

  ‘We don’t know what might be on the island,’ he said as he looked through the rest of the cupboards and plucked a few more things from the shelves.

  Meanwhile, Ruby checked the gun was clean and ready. She also made sure she had a full vial of Slap Dust and consulted her Pocket Book Bestiary to see what sort of creatures might be found on a river island at night. The book spluttered for a minute and grew larger in her hands and the pages started filling up. And filling up. And filling up.

  When it was done, Ruby had to put the Bestiary down on the table because it was so heavy.

  As she flicked through the pages, there were sections about creatures that only lived in the water, as well as ones about amphibious monsters, land dwellers and those in the air too.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Thomas Gabriel, peering over her shoulder. ‘We’ll be safe with the amulet.’ His breath was warm and garlicky from the bitter potion he’d been sipping on the journey. Ruby offered him a white pellet of chewing gum.

  ‘What’s that?’ he asked, looking at it suspiciously.

  ‘Ask Jones,’ she said, putting the gum in his hand. ‘Protects against something really important.’ She leant in close. ‘Bad breath.’

  Thomas Gabriel shot her a look and then sniffed the gum. He popped it in his mouth and started chewing. Ruby watched him take a crafty sniff of his breath, cupping his hand and breathing into it.

  They had to cross two fields to get to the riverbank. The island was separated from the bank by a thin strip of water that was too wide for jumping across. Downstream of the island was a lock and a large weir over which the water tumbled noisily, foaming white before becoming black again.

  ‘We can use Slap Dust to get across,’ said Ruby as she uncorked the vial. But Jones waved her idea away. He pointed to an old dinghy tied to the bank downstream of them near the lock.

  ‘We’ll use that. It’s best to approach any island cautiously and get a good look at it first. See if there are clues about what might be there before we set foot on it.’

  But, when Ruby started walking towards the dinghy, Jones pulled her back.

  ‘Let’s just sit here for a little while,’ he said, taking a seat on an old stump by the bank and wrapping his overcoat round him. Thomas Gabriel leant against a tree. Both boys said nothing as they scanned the river’s surface.

  ‘Can’t we just go?’ asked Ruby. ‘We haven’t got time to sit about.’

  ‘Five minutes,’ said Jones.

  Thomas Gabriel didn’t even look at her as he concentrated on peeling off the bark from a fresh green stick, the wood like a bone in the grainy light.

  Ruby was about to ask what all the waiting was about when Jones waved at her to crouch down. He pointed to the ripples in the middle of the slow-moving water. Something had entered the river from the bank of the island and was swimming towards them.

  ‘It’s got our scent,’ said Jones.

  ‘What has?’ whispered Ruby.

  ‘I think I know . . .’ Jones said and motioned for them to retreat among the trees where they crouched behind the nearest trunks. Ruby watched the dark shape slither out of the water up the muddy bank and lie flat in the grass. It could have been a long stick lying there. And then it moved and snaked fast towards them, a forked tongue darting out between fangs.

  ‘It’s a sláwyrm,’ hissed Jones. ‘A small one.’ He pointed up with a finger and quickly the three children clambered up into the nearest tree. Ruby was the highest, with Thomas Gabriel just below her and then Jones, who stood on a low branch a few metres off the ground
. He aimed his catapult at the sláwyrm, watching it move like an S across the grass, and trying to get a clean shot at it. When it stopped suddenly, its tongue flicking in and out, Jones pulled back his arm a little further. But, as he did so, the world darkened as a large cloud passed over the moon, shutting off the bright light and making the creature disappear in the sudden darkness.

  Jones listened. He thought he could hear the sláwyrm winding through the grass again. And then he heard something below him.

  Thomas Gabriel shouted out a spell and a small white light appeared in the air above the tree, lighting up the ground below. Jones looked down to see the sláwyrm spiralling round and round the trunk of the tree, climbing towards him.

  Jones tried to take a clean shot at the creature’s head, but the sláwyrm was too fast. In a matter of seconds, its head popped out onto the branch he was standing on. It opened its mouth and bit down on his boot. Luckily, the teeth only caught the big rubber sole. As it clung on, Jones aimed his catapult again, but, before he could fire, there was a little phut from above and a dart pierced the side of the sláwyrm and the creature fell to the ground and lay motionless.

  Ruby was grinning above him.

  ‘That’s her kill, Jones!’ shouted down the gun in her hand.

  Jones and Thomas Gabriel clambered to the ground quickly and kicked the creature to make sure it was dead. Ruby followed. She was smiling at her successful kill. But, before she could say anything, the others were dragging her away.

  ‘It’s just a hatchling. There’ll be more,’ Jones told her. ‘We need to back off and come back in an hour or two after sunrise, when they’ll be sleeping.’

  Ruby pulled away. ‘But I should make a mearcunge,’ she said.

  Thomas Gabriel sniggered. ‘For that little thing? No Badlander is going to take you seriously for that. Jones is right. We’ll come back in the daylight.’

  ‘If there’s more, why don’t we take them on now?’ she argued, cross that they were both ganging up on her. She was just as much a Badlander as either of them: hadn’t she been the one to stop the creature?

  But Jones just dragged her on. ‘Trust me, it’s better if we wait until it’s light. You can check the Bestiary when we get back to the van and then you’ll see why.’

  Jones warmed up a big Tupperware pot of soup made with chicken and pearl barley that his mother had cooked. It tasted good.

  Ruby flipped through the Bestiary with one hand as she spooned up her soup.

  Sláwyrm

  (pl. Sláwyrmas)

  The sláwyrm is an amphibious nocturnal creature that relies heavily on scent and sound to find its prey. It is recommended that Badlanders take great care to avoid an area with a suspected burrow at night since the sláwyrm sleeps during the day.

  Openings to burrows are difficult to spot as they are usually made below the waterline on riverbanks. The female sláwyrm will dig through the bank and tunnel up to create a dry burrow above the waterline but beneath the ground where she can lay a brood of young. This hidden burrow makes it largely secure from predators with an entrance that is underwater. The burrows are reinforced with mud and the roots of plants woven together, but the hollowing out of the ground can still make the surface above it unstable and liable to collapse.

  A female sláwyrm can grow to between seven and ten metres long. The female will lay a brood of up to a hundred hatchlings at one time. The young will remain in the burrow for a period of months after their birth. The egg casings provide sustenance and the creatures will eat their siblings, but it is hunger that will eventually drive them out of the burrow to survive on their own in the world . . .

  Ruby gave a start when Jones tapped her on the shoulder.

  ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to give you a fright,’ he said. ‘Understand now?’ he asked, pointing at the book.

  Ruby nodded. ‘It’s too risky to go onto the island at night because there’s a sláwyrm burrow there. You used our scent to check for one, didn’t you?’

  Jones grinned. ‘Young ones are usually hungry enough to want to investigate any potential meal.’

  ‘There’s so much to learn, Jones,’ she sighed. ‘I wouldn’t have known to wait and see if there was a burrow there.’

  ‘Don’t be hard on yourself for not knowing that. You’ve only been learning for a few months. Me and Thomas Gabriel started when we were tiny.’

  ‘I know, but you had Maitland and Thomas Gabriel had Simeon. I’ve got no one to teach me anything, now Victor Brynn’s gone.’

  ‘You’ve got the gun,’ he said. ‘And you’ve got me now.’ He smiled. ‘I’ll teach you everything I know if you want.’ He squeezed her shoulder. ‘It’ll be my way of paying you back for helping me realize I can be a different type of Badlander.’

  Ruby smiled. ‘Yes please,’ she said. ‘Thanks. She tapped her head. ‘Sláwyrm logged away.’

  Jones yawned. He checked his smart watch, another piece of technology that normally belonged in the ordinary world, just like the satnav. ‘It says sunrise is in two hours. We can go back to the island then when any sláwyrmas should be asleep. Let’s grab a couple of hours’ sleep.’

  The three of them walked across the fields in the early morning light. The grass was wet and it hissed as they moved across it. Jones led them down to the lock where they unhooked the small dinghy. There were no oars in the boat, but they found some small planks of wood in a skip, offcuts from the building work being done on a house nearby.

  They worked their way up the river towards the island, the water lapping and the planks dripping each time they came out of the water. Jones and Thomas Gabriel rowed on either side, working together so as not to rock the boat. It was difficult working against the current. As the sun rose higher, the riverbanks steamed and the odd piece of mist floating on the water glowed orange.

  As they approached the island, Ruby got ready to jump out. She stepped onto the bank and tied the rope round the slender, stripy trunk of a young silver birch tree.

  They stood on the bank, listening. Nothing but birdcalls and the distant rumble of the water over the weir. Thomas Gabriel cast the same spell for finding things hidden with magic as he had done on Chiswick Eyot, the first island. The amulet seemed to make it easier this time and Thomas Gabriel was so glad to have it. He smiled as the magic rose in white sparks from his hands and became like the horns of a snail as before. They swivelled and then all started to point in the same direction, showing him the way. Then he felt a tug and he was off, walking fast through the grass.

  ‘Come on,’ he said. The others followed him, weaving between the densely packed trees. The undergrowth was wet and left dark stripes on their trousers. They had to push back branches, setting off showers of raindrops as they grabbed hold of them.

  When the horns on Thomas Gabriel’s hands died away, they all stopped. It was difficult to tell exactly where they were on the island because the trees were so densely packed and the vegetation so thick. It was like being in a jungle. Through the canopy of trees above, Ruby could see patches of early morning blue sky.

  ‘So?’ she asked.

  ‘The þurhfarennesse is here somewhere,’ replied Thomas Gabriel as he looked about. ‘The spell should have unlocked it like last time.’

  Ruby peered about too, but the sunlight coming down through the treetops made it difficult to look for a bright little hole like the one they had found before.

  ‘The hole’s called an éghþyrl,’ said Thomas Gabriel. ‘I did some reading on it in the van. It’s much easier to see at night because of the light coming through it from the other side so I brought some ascan along, burnt rye. There’s a load of it in one of the cupboards in the van. Throw it up and it’ll show you where the éghþyrl is.’

  Thomas Gabriel drew out a bottle of black powder from the pocket of his coat and uncorked it. He scattered the powder into the air, making a dark cloud that drifted a little and fizzled as it dissolved. But no one saw the hole they were looking for.

  ‘How
much of that stuff did you bring?’ asked Jones.

  ‘Only one bottle,’ said Thomas Gabriel.

  ‘But what if it’s not enough? We haven’t got time to go back—’

  ‘It’s more than enough,’ grinned Thomas Gabriel. ‘At least it is if you’ve got the Black Amulet.’ He uttered a spell and fired some white sparks at the bottle of ascan. Duplicate bottles appeared in the air and fell to the grass. Thomas Gabriel gave a little laugh.

  ‘Pick them up then – the dust will stick to the éghþyrl and make a black hole instead of the bright one we saw last time so it’ll show up in the daylight.’

  The three of them made their way cautiously, throwing up the dust in little handfuls, and waiting to see if it coalesced round the hole they were looking for.

  For a few moments, there was nothing but the sound of their boots hissing through the wet undergrowth and the fizzle of the ascan.

  ‘Stop!’ shouted Ruby suddenly, pulling Jones back from a thin channel of water that split the island into two. The boy had been so busy looking for the éghþyrl he hadn’t noticed it and had almost fallen in. He nodded a thank you as Thomas Gabriel took a decent run-up and was the first to jump across. The boy threw up a cloud of dust as he leapt through the air, landing hard on the other side with both feet clumping into the turf, making the ground judder.

  The dust didn’t fizzle this time, but twitched and moved through the air, attracted to something on the other side of the channel. It clustered together to mark a small black circle about waist-height close to where Thomas Gabriel had landed.

  ‘It’s the éghþyrl!’ he shouted. ‘It’s on this side.’