Copper

by Rebecca Lisle

  PART THREE

  Inside the Rock

  16

  Granite

  The sledge bumped and slithered over the uneven surface and Copper bumped and slithered uncomfortably with it.

  She felt the incline of the hill underneath her but that was the only way she knew they were moving upwards. In the yellow glow of their torches, she could only just see the outline of the four men pulling the sledge in front of her and occasionally she caught sight of Silver.

  Something awful had happened to make Silver do this. Something terrible.

  Bang! Jolt! Thump! went the sledge, crashing over stones and slipping over the snow. ‘I wish I could move my arms, Ralick,’ whispered Copper. ‘They’re tied so tight. I’m glad you’re here.’

  ‘I’m not,’ hissed Ralick.

  ‘You are really,’ said Copper. ‘You know you are.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  At last they came to the Rock. It loomed thirty or forty metres up, a sheer cliff of marble and stone, grey and glistening and cold. Deep windows, shuttered and barred were set into the stone. A great wooden door with huge metal hinges and iron studs on it stood at the top of a flight of black steps. The men hammered on the door and tugged at the iron bellpull until the door was dragged open. Copper was hauled inside, the metal sledge runners screeching and scraping over the stone floor.

  Copper blinked, staring above where high up against the ceiling, a strange green vapour hung like smoke.

  They untied her and yanked her off the sledge. ‘Get up.’

  ‘Come with me,’ said one of the men. He had long black hair and a black beard which curled around his chest. His eyes glinted as he pointed down a corridor. ‘That way!’

  Copper stared at him. Should she? Or should she run?

  ‘Just do what they say,’ whispered Ralick. ‘We’re outnumbered. By lots.’

  So she did.

  She shuffled along beside the Rocker, hugging her coat round her. The air was freezing, even colder and damper than outside.

  The man led her down a passageway with polished stone walls. The marble floor was slippery and cold and their feet made a quiet flapping noise as they hurried along as if they were large aquatic animals.

  There were some miserable candles flickering in brackets on the walls, but most of the light came from the eerie green vapour floating above. It gave everything and everyone a sickly green tinge as if they were ill or living under water.

  What a horrible place to live, thought Copper, and immediately a picture of the warm and beautifully scented rooms at Spindle House sprang into her mind and she felt a pang of sorrow. Would she see it again? Ever?

  I could never live here, she thought. Never stay in this terrible, stone place. No wonder the Rockers are so bad tempered and rude.

  Every single window was shuttered and barred and the shutters themselves were rotten with sagging hinges. If they were so much as touched, Copper guessed, they would fall apart. She remembered that trading of wood for metal and metal for wood had stopped between the families. That explained a lot.

  Copper was taken up a wide stone staircase and locked into a bare room with nothing in it except a narrow, hard iron bed with no mattress.

  ‘This is nice,’ said Copper, sitting down on the bed and taking Ralick out from her coat.

  ‘Five Star apartment,’ Ralick agreed. ‘Thanks for bringing me along, Copper.’

  ‘My pleasure.’

  They grinned at each other.

  ‘Any chance of me getting rid of this hat?’ Ralick added. ‘It’s worse than ever under here: it seems to be buzzing and burning. My stuffing’s being squished.’

  ‘Sh!’ Copper hissed. ‘I know it’s not your favourite headgear, but you must. Our precious you know what is in there … and I’ve just realised … I’m so stupid … I bet it’s not me they want at all: it’s the bracelet and the gold charms they’re looking for. Aunt Ruby told me they wanted it, but of course then I didn’t know it was the Rockers who were after me.’

  ‘You should have left me at home then,’ said Ralick.

  ‘I would have if I’d known we were going to be kidnapped. It’s all Silver’s fault – Silver the wolf.’

  ‘Are you quite sure about that?’ said Ralick.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Well, I remember you saying, back home at Aunt Ruby’s, that wolves were very loyal animals and you would like one as a pet.’

  ‘Oh, yes, I did … But Silver seems to be loyal to the wrong person. Loyal to the Stone people.’

  ‘That’s how it looks,’ said Ralick.

  They sat and stared at the locked door. The hours passed very slowly.

  Copper found a crochet hook and the rest of the birthday knitting wool in her coat pocket so she began to crochet a fancy dressing-table mat, then she pulled it out and went to sleep.

  She woke when the door was pushed roughly and noisily open and two Rockers came in. They were well covered with black, grey and brown clothes, woolly hats and big fur-lined boots.

  ‘At last,’ said Copper. ‘You can’t keep me locked up like this. It’s against the law. My friends will be coming to find me and you’ll …’

  ‘Be quiet! You don’t know anything.’

  ‘Hush, Grit,’ said the other man. ‘Granite wants you, young lady.’

  ‘Granite?’ Copper’s heart nearly failed her. She fixed a frozen smile on her face. ‘Ah, Granite,’ she said, trying to look calm. ‘Of course.’

  She got up slowly and followed the men as they led her down a green-tinged corridor to a large metal door. Grit slid it back and pushed her forward.

  ‘Go in.’

  In front of her another metal door opened, spilling out a brilliant light like golden syrup on fire and behind her the doors slid shut.

  Copper held up her hand to shield her eyes as she went in.

  It was extraordinary. Hanging from the ceiling were five large chandeliers with red candles burning in them. On the walls were more candles and in the centre of the room, a vast pile of gold and precious stones, which shimmered and glistened. Everywhere was light and brilliance.

  Something moved in the shadows and Copper turned quickly.

  ‘Ah ha! So this is it. This little stick is Copper Beech, is it?’

  It was an unpleasant voice, rattling, like gravel skittering downhill.

  Granite was broad, with powerful shoulders, but his body was permanently bent over as if he’d been kicked in the stomach and badly winded. He had long grey hair and his skin was pitted with black dust. His hands were wide; his nails were chipped and ingrained with black and his fingertips were almost flat, as though they’d been squashed under a heavy weight.

  On one cheek, the word GOLD was tattooed in fine black letters into his pockmarked skin.

  Granite stepped forward and their eyes locked: Copper’s brown ones and his coal-black ones. For a moment they battled silently, each assessing the other, each preparing to fight.

  Copper didn’t let her gaze drop although her insides were weak and wobbly.

  Then Granite lumbered towards her on bent, knobbly legs, like an old crippled toad, licking his thin wide mouth as if she were a juicy fly he was coming to eat.

  ‘It’s a long time since I’ve seen you, little Stick, and how you’ve changed. Copper Beech,’ he croaked, ‘now there’s an interesting name. A freaky name. A combination – metal and wood.’

  ‘I’m not a freak. Copper Beech is a tree,’ said Copper, sticking out her chin proudly. ‘And if I am both wood and metal, well, other things are – a knife, a cart, lots of things.’

  ‘Huh!’

  ‘I’m not afraid, you know,’ she said and it was almost true.

  ‘Not afraid? Hah! You will be,’ growled Granite, scrunching his hands together and cracking their joints. ‘Everyone is afraid of me. I am Lord of the Rock and molten lead runs through my veins! Mercury courses through my arteries and my heart is hewn from steel!’

  Copper stepped back involuntarily
.

  ‘Your father was so afraid that he ran away and never came back. Your mother was so afraid she …’

  Copper felt a wave of icy goose pimples spreading up and down her spine.

  ‘What? What about my mother?’

  Granite grinned nastily.

  ‘You’d like to know about your mother, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you?’

  Copper stared down at the floor. If Granite realised how badly she wanted to know it would be like showing him a raw wound and he could hurt her all the more.

  ‘You said you weren’t afraid. You can’t even look me in the eye!’ croaked Granite.

  ‘I can. I will …’ Copper hesitated, her hands were scrabbling in her pocket, searching. Her fingers were itching to dance and fly. She felt loose and weak and if she didn’t do something in a few seconds, all would be lost. ‘I just have to … Excuse me.’

  At last she found her crochet hook and blue wool and quickly cast on some stitches, her wrist flicking back and forth expertly: in out, in out, went the needle.

  Granite gazed at her. His face was unmoving, his eyes unblinking.

  ‘Triple loop, hook in and out, slip one over and in, out …’ muttered Copper. ‘That’s better. Just a few stitches. I’m not afraid. If I don’t look at you it’s because I would prefer not to look at you. You aren’t very nice to look at and you’re trying to threaten me.’ She glanced up at Granite then continued crocheting.

  Granite stared, then pushing aside a heap of pearls and other precious stones, settled himself on the edge of the table, watching her.

  This time Copper stared back.

  ‘Is your knitting as good as your crocheting?’ he asked, gruffly.

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Is it indeed? Do you know why I brought you here, Copper Beech?’

  ‘I haven’t a clue,’ she said calmly. In out, in out, twist, loop, over and through, her needle went as if on a journey of its own.

  ‘You’ve got something I want, Copper. Look! You can see how I like my gold, see how I’ve filled the room with lovely things, delicious ornaments and brooches and brilliant bangles …’

  Copper felt the blood beginning to rise in her cheeks: he was going to ask about the charm bracelet.

  ‘I’m a reasonable man. I don’t want to hurt you. I’ll swap you.’ He leant lower towards her, dropping his voice. ‘Take what you want from here, I’ve got mountains of the stuff. Take anything. All I want in exchange is that little charm bracelet you’ve got. It’s not worth a jot compared to all this. Come on, give it to me!’

  He held out one of his broad, black-stained hands.

  ‘Give it to me!’

  Copper didn’t move. Suddenly his steely fingers locked round her arm like a vice and he yanked her towards him until his face, tilted down at hers, was just inches away and she couldn’t help but see how his skin was marked with millions of tiny holes and lumps, like blackened orange peel. How his hair was greasy and how his breath smelt of stagnant water.

  ‘I’m talking to you, Copper Beech!’

  ‘No,’ said Copper. ‘I’ve been to the theatre. I’ve seen Aladdin, hundreds of times, and that’s just what his wicked Uncle Abanazer says. This bracelet must be worth loads and loads if you want it so badly. And anyway I haven’t got it. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Liar!’ he gasped. ‘Liar. Of course you’ve got it – somewhere. What did you come to the Marble Mountains for if you haven’t got it?’ Keeping hold of her arm, he hauled her roughly out of the room.

  Locking the metal door behind them, he half-dragged her down the stone corridor to another miserable, grey room where two unsmiling women were waiting for them. They wore grey clothes and hats, beneath which their faces were grey and tired.

  ‘Search her!’ he said.

  The women went slowly towards Copper and took hold of her.

  With their backs turned to Granite, they whispered to her: ‘Sorry, dear.’

  Then they began looking through all her clothes, in her boots and socks, under her jumpers and in all her pockets.

  ‘There’s knitting wool,’ they said. ‘And a crochet needle.’

  Granite shook his head irritably. ‘I know. I know. What else?’

  ‘A gold charm,’ cried one woman, finding it in Copper’s trouser pocket.

  Granite smiled and held out his hand, open palmed. ‘That’s more like it,’ he said. ‘I knew …’ But his face changed when he saw it was the tiny fir tree charm.

  ‘Where did you get it?’

  ‘I found it.’

  ‘Did you? I sent that charm to your mother. Yes, it was a little present for her. I thought it had gone long ago. Do you like it? The mighty axe cuts down the weak tree. It signifies the destruction of the Wood family by the Stone family. Hard against soft. What wonderful stone buildings we Rockers have built: the pyramids, the temples, Stonehenge, even. But the Woods … nothing. I hope Amber liked it.’

  ‘She didn’t. I found it on top of the curtains. I bet she was throwing it out of the window and it got caught up there,’ said Copper in a flash of inspiration. ‘It’s ugly.’

  ‘There must be more,’ said Granite to the women. ‘Go on, keep searching!’

  ‘Yes, Granite,’ the women muttered.

  Copper stood very still. She had been holding Ralick in her arms and now he hung dangling in her hand.

  Oh, please, not Ralick, she begged silently. Please, please if I don’t look at him or think about him at all, perhaps they won’t touch him.

  ‘Nothing.’ Both women stepped back.

  Granite smiled nastily at Copper. ‘Very well, now try that revolting bald old teddy,’ he said. ‘She’s far too old for a toy like that anyway. Pull it to pieces!’

  17

  Granite’s Secret

  ‘Don’t! Not Ralick! Please!’

  Copper held him against her chest where it seemed his heart beat as rapidly as hers. ‘He’s all I’ve got.’

  ‘Really? You wouldn’t be hiding something in him, would you?’

  ‘No, no! I don’t know anything about a bracelet.’

  She held on to him tightly, silently telling him it would be all right. She wouldn’t let them hurt him, but there was nothing she could do. The women prised her fingers from him and took him away.

  It was like removing a part of her. Never had she felt it so badly or been so scared.

  She didn’t want them to find the bracelet, but she didn’t want them to harm Ralick. Which was worse? Which mattered most?

  Copper held her breath.

  The women carefully took off Ralick’s hat. Copper’s heart seemed to take one long last beat, then held on, waiting. Would they feel the charm bracelet beneath the knitting? Would they?

  They took off the hat, looked inside it, then tossed it to the floor.

  Copper’s heart began beating again and she breathed once more.

  ‘Shall we open it up?’ asked the second woman.

  ‘There’s nothing there,’ said Copper. ‘Please. I promise. He’s empty.’

  They were holding Ralick tightly, stretching him and a dreadful popping sound meant the stitches in Ralick’s seam were breaking. It was like a jolt of electricity through Copper. ‘Please!’ she cried.

  ‘Yes, yes,’ said Granite, never taking his fathomless black eyes off Copper, ‘that’s right. I’m sure it’s in there.’

  ‘He’s empty. I promise,’ said Copper. ‘Please don’t.’

  Ignoring her, they took a large, sharp knife and sticking it straight into his tummy, they sliced open the seam along Ralick’s front and pulled out his stuffing.

  ‘Ralick!’

  It was dreadful! Terrible to see him pulled apart like that, as if he was just a toy. Copper clutched at her own stomach in sympathy. Poor Ralick.

  They squashed him and prodded him and shook him upside down.

  ‘Nothing,’ they said.

  ‘Give him to me!’ snapped Granite. ‘It must be in there. Useless �
�� Go on, go!’

  The women shuffled out.

  Granite squeezed Ralick’s arms and legs, feeling for the slightest lump or hardness. He searched in every corner of the toy and ripped out more of his filling. Finally he flung Ralick back at Copper. ‘Nothing!’ he said grimly. ‘Nothing. Here, have your teddy back and stop looking at me like that; it’s only a stuffed toy!’

  Copper gathered Ralick into her arms. Only a stuffed toy? What did he know? How could he ever appreciate the hours that Ralick and Copper had spent together? The secrets they’d told each other?

  ‘I told you I didn’t have this bracelet,’ said Copper calmly, although inside she was trembling; as if her stuffing had been pulled out. She picked up Ralick’s pale fluff from the floor and pushed it gently back into his middle. She retrieved his hat and tied it back on neatly.

  ‘I’ll mend you,’ she whispered. ‘Dear Ralick. You are brave.’

  ‘Never knew I had it in me,’ wheezed Ralick. ‘If you see what I mean.’

  ‘This isn’t a game, Stick, this is for real,’ snapped Granite. ‘You’ve got that bracelet and I need it. I’m going to get it.’

  He turned and began lumbering up and down the room, muttering to himself and when he turned back he was smirking.

  ‘About Amber, did they explain?’

  Copper shook her head.

  ‘You know the Wood and the Stone families were once … friends?’

  Copper nodded.

  ‘That was until your family got greedy. Your great-grandfather, Ash, cheated us. Surprised? You think your family are so wonderful, don’t you? But it’s true. Ash stole our gold which was payment for wooden goods which we never got. He disappeared with it. He ran away. That’s the sort of person he was. Is it any wonder that Cedar was such a coward? You’re all the same, you run away, you hide. Cowards!’

  ‘I’m not!’ cried Copper. ‘And I don’t believe you, anyway. Why should I believe anything you say?’

  ‘Because it’s the truth. Show me it’s not true and I might forgive. Your family stole from us and wouldn’t admit it. So we stopped trading. You had our metal goods and they last for years, but we had to do without wooden things. We had to cut down trees ourselves and it doesn’t come easy … and then we couldn’t do anything with them, it’s not in our blood to carve wood. Now we have nothing.’