Copper

by Rebecca Lisle

  ‘I …’ began Copper.

  ‘Wait. There’s more. I’ve got plenty against your family, Stick, plenty. I had an older sister, Pearl. She married a Wood; I begged her not to, but she did it anyway and I refused to see her ever again. Then Amber did the same. Amber, down there in Spindle House! With those people who had cheated us! Traitor! She had food and warmth and everything she wanted, and we had nothing. I fought Cedar. Your mother came with me. She volunteered to come back to the Rock with me, she didn’t really care about him. She brought you to be with me and then …’

  ‘Then what?’ Copper couldn’t help herself from asking. She saw her mistake immediately when Granite leaned towards her, smiling so nastily.

  ‘Your mother? You really are interested in knowing about your dear mother, aren’t you?’ He chuckled. ‘Shall I show you? Amber got the better of me. She always did. Come with me, come on, I do so want to show you!’

  He pulled her along winding corridors until they reached some narrow steps which led downwards into a misty darkness. Grabbing a lighted lantern from the wall, he hustled her along with him, and descended into the darkness.

  ‘Are you scared, little wooden thing? You should be excited. You’re going to find out about your mother at last!’

  The rough rock walls glistened with water seeping through the cracks. The rock floor was wet and slippery. The further down they went, the colder it became. Icicles hung from the roof and ice glistened on the walls. Copper’s breath blossomed in a cloud around her face. The cold air caught in her throat and froze in her nose.

  ‘Yes, it’s cold, isn’t it? They say the mountains are getting colder. They say that trees will never grow on these hills again. Your fault. You Woods have done it!’

  Copper didn’t reply. She was so cold her brain seemed to have stopped working. She was no longer afraid. Or scared. She followed Granite blindly, hopelessly. He was going to lead her to her mother. That was the only important thing. The only thing she cared about.

  At the bottom of the stairs, the air was moist. The sound of water lapping against rocks filled the air.

  Granite stopped abruptly. ‘The lake!’ he hissed.

  The light was very poor but as Copper took a few tentative steps forward, she sensed a vast emptiness in front of her as the ceiling soared upwards out of sight.

  ‘It freezes up some years,’ said Granite, as if he was talking to himself. ‘Like the year that you came. Very cold. Come on, this way.’

  Granite led her along the side of the lake then turned off down a wide tunnel to where a shallow cave was set into the rock wall.

  At the back of the cave, a sheet of ice hung from the ceiling to the floor in frozen pleats and folds like a solid green and blue curtain. Granite was pulling her towards the ice, but Copper hung back, afraid. There was something in the ice, something terrible.

  ‘Look!’ he hissed.

  Trembling, Copper drew nearer. ‘I can’t …’

  She looked back at Granite; his mouth was a twisted smile. If a forked tongue had slithered out it wouldn’t have surprised her.

  ‘Please …’ she begged in a whisper.

  ‘There! Look deep into the ice,’ he said. ‘See the blue ice pillar deep inside? The ice inside the ice and inside that … Can’t you see her? Can’t you see her there, Copper? That’s your mother!’

  18

  Amber

  Copper swallowed. Her mouth was dry. She laid a hand over her heart, hoping to calm it. ‘My mother?’ she gasped. ‘Dead?’

  Copper took a tentative step nearer. Then another. Peering all the time into the beautiful iridescent ice, trying to look through it and into it and yet afraid of what she might see.

  ‘Is that really my mother?’

  The woman’s features were hard to make out. Large brown eyes, a strong chin and a wide, pale face. Her right arm was held out; her eyes stared away past Copper.

  ‘So sad,’ said Copper. ‘And wistful. She’s reaching out for something.’

  Her long, wild hair floated in a frozen cloud round her face, like seaweed tossed and curling in a soundless current. Her ankle-length, full dress ballooned as if full of air.

  Copper saw a glint of greenish gold on the woman’s wrist and drew in her breath sharply. ‘I think it really is her.’

  Granite leapt forward. He had been watching her carefully. ‘Ah ha! You saw her bracelet, didn’t you? I gave her that bracelet,’ he croaked. ‘I made it. I designed and fashioned every single charm, and I made her wear it. It won’t ever come off. You could say it’s the most expensive handcuff in the world.’

  ‘But you didn’t make mine!’

  ‘Ha! So you do have the charm bracelet!’ snapped Granite. ‘I knew it. I knew she must have given it to you.’

  ‘Aunt Ruby gave it to me.’

  ‘But Amber made it.’

  ‘Amber made it?’ repeated Copper breathlessly. ‘My mother made it for me?’ The words brought a warmth flooding through her which made her skin tingle all over. She broke into a smile. ‘I’m so happy it was her.’

  ‘She was a genius with gold,’ said Granite, crossly. ‘Such a talent. Such finesse.’

  ‘What did you do to her?’

  ‘Nothing. It’s suspended animation,’ growled Granite. ‘Nothing to do with me. She did it herself, some trickery to keep herself from me. But she’s a Stone and she belongs here and here she’ll stay. Free from me,’ said Granite. ‘Free from you, from Cedar, everyone. She didn’t want any of you.’

  ‘That’s dreadful,’ said Copper, looking anxiously from her mother to Granite and back again. ‘She loved Cedar. I’m sure she loved me. She looks so very sad … I think she was too sad to go on. You made her sad and she’s locked herself away from the sadness and it’s all your fault.’

  Granite laughed nastily. ‘Maybe, maybe. I think she was a wicked girl and she did this to punish me. She wouldn’t do what I wanted but now at last you’re here …’

  ‘Why can’t you get her out? Why can’t we melt the ice and break it down and get her out?’

  Granite took hold of Copper’s wrist and squeezed it tightly.

  ‘You stupid girl,’ he hissed, his face close to hers. ‘I cannot get her out of that ice prison because she put herself in there. The only way she will be released is by you … you and the gold charm bracelet.’ He let go of her suddenly, his voice softening into a wheedling whisper. ‘Only you can free your mother, Copper. This is what you need to do, you need to save your mother, so don’t tell me you haven’t the gold bracelet, you must have!’ He paused and wiped his face, tried to calm himself. ‘And when you do, it can be the end to the quarrel. All over and done with. We can be friends. Your mother would want that.’

  ‘Is that true?’

  But Granite had turned away and was lumbering off back down the tunnel.

  ‘Come on, Stick. Follow me. There’s plenty of time to think about it.’

  Then Copper had a sudden flash of inspiration.

  Seeing Granite’s retreating back, she quickly reached for her ball of wool and slipped the looped end of it over an icicle. It was done in an instant and Granite didn’t see a thing. Then, as she followed him out, the wool in her pocket slowly unravelled, leaving a blue line. Now I can come back and find her all by myself, she thought. I’ll set you free, Amber. I can do it.

  ‘You go back to your room,’ Granite said, ‘and think about what I’ve told you. I’ll leave you a few days. I should imagine that without food and drink you will soon come round to seeing things my way.’

  The door slammed behind Copper and she was alone in her cell again.

  ‘Ralick.’ Copper gathered him into her arms. ‘My mother is here!’ And quickly she told him what she’d seen and what Granite had told her. ‘I feel all unravelled,’ she added. ‘And yet coming together too.’

  ‘You feel unravelled,’ said Ralick, indignantly. ‘You don’t know the meaning of the word. I’m coming apart at the seams. Loose. Frayed at the edges …
’

  ‘Oh, Ralick, I’m sorry. Look, I’ll wrap my hankie round you,’ said Copper. And she bound her large hankie round his middle and tied it tight. ‘That’ll hold things in a bit.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘It’s all mighty suspicious,’ said Ralick, ‘because I’d like to know why Granite wants Amber set free. I mean, why not leave her in the ice? He’s got her, your father hasn’t.’

  ‘It could be just that he loves her …’

  ‘Nah,’ said Ralick.

  ‘So what shall we do?’

  ‘Escape,’ said Ralick, ‘that’s what we shall do.’

  ‘Ralick that’s a very good idea,’ said Copper looking round the tiny room. ‘But how? The door’s locked …’

  ‘Try your crochet hook.’

  ‘Another brilliant idea, Ralick,’ she said, jumping off the bed. She slipped the long, hooked needle into the lock. ‘This is the sort of thing that people do in films,’ Copper whispered, ‘but I never thought I’d be doing it. How does it work?’

  Suddenly: Click, the hook caught and turned and the lock was undone.

  ‘Like that!’ said Ralick.

  ‘Amazing. Off we go.’ Copper picked Ralick up and snuggled him down the front of her coat, put her crochet hook back in her pocket and sneaked quietly out of the door.

  The corridor was empty. Above her the green hazy vapour shimmered brightly. The walls glistened moist and cold, a bitter draught nipped at her legs.

  ‘This way,’ she whispered. ‘Down the corridor and then we should find my wool on the stairs.’

  ‘You hope,’ growled Ralick.

  ‘That’s right, Ralick, I hope. Let’s try and be positive.’

  As Copper slipped along the passageway an eruption of loud, angry voices and hammering noises stopped her. She shrank back against the wall and held her breath, listening. From outside the Rock she could hear yells and shouting … that was surely her father’s voice! Yes, and Questrid too!

  They must be at the front door! The hammering echoed and reverberated through the cavernous building. Doors slammed and inside the Rock there was the scurrying of many feet along the stone corridors and more shouting.

  ‘My father and Questrid, they’ve come to rescue us,’ breathed Copper, looking back to where the commotion was coming from.

  ‘Let’s go and be rescued, then,’ said Ralick.

  ‘No. I can’t. I have to help my mother.’

  ‘You can’t be serious?’

  ‘I am. Oh, listen, Ralick, it’s great that Cedar came to find me, I’m proud of him, I love him for it, but they’ll never get in the Rock, how can they? And this may be my only chance to get Amber out.’

  ‘But, Copper …’

  ‘No, I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to Amber.’

  Copper scampered off along the corridor to the top of the dark stairs leading down to the lake. She took a lantern down from its bracket in the wall and descended quickly into the darkness.

  At the bottom, near the path leading to the lake, Copper picked up the end of the wool she’d left. She sighed with relief. Anyone might have found it. But they hadn’t. She was safe.

  She ran quickly, reeling in the wool and balling it up as she went. Her heart was racing now, like horses’ hooves galloping in her chest and she felt hot and clumsy inside her thick coat.

  I’m coming. I’ve got the charms. There’s nothing to stop me. I’ll save you now, Mother, and then we’ll go to Cedar and be together like a real family and I’ll have done it all. My mother … oh!

  She stopped suddenly. ‘Did you hear something, Ralick?’

  ‘Nothing except your blooming heart going like a piston in my earhole.’

  Copper took a few more steps: the light was very dim and the air was misty with moisture from the lake.

  She stopped again, trembling: there was a noise. Someone was there.

  She darted forward pulling at the wool, but the sound of hurrying footsteps was gaining on her, coming nearer, nearer. She froze, waiting for the heavy hand on her shoulder, the cold voice of Granite …then …

  ‘Copper!’

  She spun round in amazement.

  ‘Questrid! Questrid, is it you?’ she marvelled. ‘It is you! How did you find me?’ She threw her arms round him, knocking his hat to the floor. ‘It’s so good to see you, you’ve no idea! How did you find me?’

  Questrid grinned and at that moment Copper thought it was the nicest, jolliest smile in the whole world.

  ‘We were out searching for Silver,’ Questrid explained in a loud whisper, ‘didn’t even know you’d gone, when we heard the alarm. We thought it might be a fire, or rock rolling, but it wasn’t, and then we saw your footsteps in the snow and the sledge marks, so we knew you’d been captured. We all came up to the Rock – even your father – and started shouting and trying to break open the door, but we couldn’t. Then the Rockers started yelling and chucking stones out of the windows and we had to go back … Well, the others did, I dodged round the stones and sneaked in through a broken window. This place is a real dump.’

  ‘But how did you find me here?’

  ‘Oh, I tracked you. I hunted you down.’

  ‘Am I really so smelly?’

  ‘You certainly are. You can follow a strand of wool, Copper, and I can follow a smell. And I found something really interesting. Come and see.’

  ‘Oh, not now, Questrid, we’ve no time, they might be following us. They might come and get us any moment.’

  ‘It’ll only take a sec. Come on. You must see, it’s so weird.’ And he pulled her round a corner to where a small metal door was set into the rock. From all around it, the brilliant green light shone brightly as if it were trying to push its way out from the inside.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Come and see,’ Questrid insisted.

  The key was in the lock and he quickly undid it and opened the door.

  Green light poured out like liquid, bathing them in colour and making them blink.

  ‘It’s where it comes from,’ he said. ‘There’s a sort of hole or well in the floor, see? I can’t imagine what it is. The green comes out and up all those cracks and pipes in the ceiling and then all over the Rock, I guess. Isn’t it weird?’

  ‘Yes. Fantastic! But now, come with me, Questrid. I’ve got something to show you, and if we don’t hurry, Granite will be after us.’

  She pulled him away and following the wool trail again, made towards the underground lake.

  They had left the door of the green light room open, letting a wave of coloured air waft along behind them. Everything shimmered greenly, like sunshine coming through a thick canopy of leaves.

  At last they reached the cave. ‘Here, this way, she’s in here,’ cried Copper. ‘Questrid … It’s my mother.’

  Questrid gazed at the ice in amazement. He took a few steps back then a few forward, resting his nose right against the ice to stare inside.

  ‘Blimey!’ he said.

  ‘Granite told me I was the only one who can set her free,’ said Copper, undoing her coat and pulling Ralick out. She began ripping open the stitches around Ralick’s hat. ‘With this. She’s alive in there, Questrid, and I’m going to set her free.’ She held out the bracelet. ‘There!’

  It was like a handful of fireworks, fizzing and sparkling, glittering and glowing in the green light as if charged with electricity.

  ‘Wow!’ said Questrid.

  ‘Poor Ralick, he said it had … I mean,’ Copper added, realising her blunder, ‘Ralick was hiding it. I didn’t notice it was so … so brilliant!’

  ‘It’s like it’s on fire!’ cried Questrid. ‘It’s beauti …’

  Suddenly a horrible, grating laugh resounded across the cave, hammering their ears and pounding into their heads.

  ‘Ah ha ha! Ha ha haaa!’

  It was Granite. He rose slowly up from behind a jutting rock like a genie, with an evil smile on his lips.

  ‘Thank you, Stick, thank you very m
uch. That’s the bracelet I want. How extremely kind and thoughtful of you to bring it into the Rock for me.’

  19

  Across the Lake

  Granite waddled out from behind the rock, but Copper quickly darted out of his way. She pushed the bracelet deep into her pocket, stuffed Ralick back down her coat and with Questrid beside her, headed back along the corridor towards the lake.

  Granite swung round, grabbing at her, but didn’t see the wool still stretched across the doorway: he tripped over it and fell, crashing to the floor with a heavy thud.

  ‘RUN!’ cried Questrid.

  They ran. They ran, half skating on the icy floor, leaping over rocks and dodging the spiked icicles which hung from the ceiling. Back along the path they went until, panting, they came to the lake.

  Green light had flooded through the open door and lit up the whole massive cavern. Even the lake water was emerald. Each tiny moving point in the water glinted turquoise and green and was reflected eerily in shimmering dots over the walls and ceiling.

  ‘Look, there’s a boat,’ said Questrid, pointing to a small wooden rowing boat tied up between the rocks. ‘Quick!’ He wrenched the boat free from the chunks of ice which gathered at the shoreline and pulled it near so Copper could jump in.

  Copper yelped as she made contact with the wood. It was such a shock, like jumping into a living thing: as her fingers touched its sides, the boat gave a minute throb and shudder in response.

  ‘For Wood people,’ she whispered.

  Questrid leaped in behind Copper, unhooked the rope and pushed off from the rocks with an oar. The boat wavered off across the water.

  A few seconds later, Granite appeared at the lakeside. He was bent over and gasping for breath.

  ‘You’ll never escape!’ Granite called to them wheezily. But he didn’t try to stop them. He crouched beside the water, legs apart, watching.

  Minutes later, the cave filled with the thundering noise of feet and twenty or thirty Rockers burst in and began to circle the lake. They climbed the craggy walls, reaching high ledges and ridges and then they, too, stood and watched Questrid and Copper as they rowed out across the water.