Copper

by Rebecca Lisle

  ‘Oh, heck, look at that lot,’ whispered Questrid, squinting round over his shoulder.

  ‘What shall we do?’ gasped Copper.

  ‘Get me out of here,’ whispered Ralick from inside her coat.

  ‘Pray there are no more boats,’ said Questrid, ‘and that there’s a way out of this place.’

  Peering into the gloom ahead, Questrid rowed the little boat in amongst the lumps of ice bobbing around them in the icy water and as far away from the shore as possible.

  ‘It’s like riding a horse,’ said Questrid, in awe. ‘I can feel the boat is trying to understand my mind and guess which way I want to go, but I don’t know myself.’

  ‘There’s something there,’ said Copper, pointing. ‘Look, a big black hole. A tunnel, I think. Can we get through?’

  ‘We can try.’

  Questrid pulled gently on the oars and the boat obediently veered round towards the tunnel entrance. As they moved forward, Copper looked round at the rows of silent staring men.

  ‘I’ve got a bad feeling in my seams,’ hissed Ralick.

  ‘Why aren’t they doing anything? Why are they standing and watching us?’ Copper asked Questrid. ‘I hate this quiet. What are they waiting for?’

  ‘I don’t know. The tunnel’s big enough for us to go through,’ Questrid added, peering over his shoulder at it. ‘Wonder where it goes?’

  ‘Why aren’t they doing anything?’ Copper said, again. ‘What’s happening?’

  ‘Who cares?’ said Questrid. ‘We’re nearly there.’

  The boat was a few metres away from the exit when suddenly everything changed and the cave burst into a flurry of activity. All around them, the Rockers began running and shouting.

  ‘NOW!’ roared Granite from the other side of the lake, and as if by magic, a vast net swung down in front of the tunnel entrance, blocking off their escape.

  Copper shrieked.

  Ralick shrieked very quietly.

  ‘No!’ cried Questrid. The oars fell from his grasp and the little boat dipped and spun in a crazy circle, like a beetle flipped on its back. Quickly Questrid caught the oars again and began rowing back towards the centre of the lake.

  ‘What are we going to do?’

  Copper looked over to Granite. He hadn’t moved. He waved at them, grinning.

  ‘Thank you for falling so neatly into my trap,’ he called. ‘I knew you had the bracelet somewhere. I knew you’d go to Amber and try and set her free. Greedy, greedy little Stick. Now, come over here and bring it to me.’

  ‘Ignore him,’ said Questrid.

  Copper took the bracelet out of her pocket. It was fizzing and sparkling.

  ‘It’s really crackling,’ she said. ‘It seems to draw energy from being here. It was never like this before.’

  ‘As if it’s turned on,’ agreed Questrid. ‘This is how it was when it was near your mother, wasn’t it? Do you think we can use it somehow? I mean, if it’s magical enough to get Amber out of the ice, like Granite says, then it must be magical enough to get us out of this. But how could we use it, do you think?’

  ‘COPPER!’ Granite’s rough voice interrupted them. ‘You’re wasting time! Come here!’

  Copper ignored him. She let the bracelet dribble through her fingers, marvelling at the way it trickled like gold water and the way tiny dots of gold flew off like sparks from a fire. ‘It’s so beautiful.’

  ‘Yes, but make it do something,’ urged Questrid.

  ‘What?’ Copper scanned the charms hopefully. ‘There are two babies, a dog, a bird, a heart, a hammer …’

  ‘HAMMER?’

  ‘Yes, a tiny weenie hammer, Questrid, it can’t possibly do any good.’

  ‘Of course it will!’

  Copper grinned. ‘Of course it will. Amber made it for a purpose. See that rock over there, Questrid, sticking out of the water like a shark’s fin. Please row over there.’

  ‘OK. Whatever you say.’

  Questrid rowed to the pointed rock and pulled up the oars so the boat lay bobbing gently up and down beside it. Copper held the tiny hammer in her fingers and leaned over the rock, holding it poised …

  ‘STOP!’ croaked Granite. ‘Don’t do that! You don’t know what it might do! Stop, STOP!’

  Copper smiled grimly. ‘Good, he’s worried. I think this was a good idea.’

  Carefully, she struck the rock with the tiny hammer.

  Immediately a clear sound like the chime of an expensive clock rang out around the cave.

  ‘Do it again,’ said Questrid.

  ‘NO!’ yelled Granite.

  ‘Yes,’ urged Questrid.

  Copper hit the rock again.

  This time there was a dull, distant noise like thunder followed by a roaring like a train rushing towards them. The water shivered and the rocks shuddered.

  ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ cried Questrid. ‘Something’s happening. Do it again, do it again!’

  ‘But … what about my mother?’

  Copper looked back at Granite and could feel his anger reaching to her across the water. His eyes were black holes in his pale face.

  ‘Later,’ said Questrid. ‘I promise we’ll get Amber later.’

  Copper hit the rock for a third time.

  The rock cracked, opened and fell apart, crashing into the water with a mighty splash. A roar, as if a jumbo jet was picking up speed to take off inside a hollow box, thundered and crashed and blasted the air around them.

  Then the cave was full of flying rocks and stones and grit and dust. The Rockers shouted and yelled, and swarmed up and down the rock ledges like angry ants.

  A great swell rose under them and Copper clung to the sides of the boat as it was lifted on a great wave like the back of a whale.

  ‘That was some hammer!’ cried Questrid as the boat soared towards the roof. Then suddenly they were plunging downward again, icy water sprayed over them, and Questrid had to grab at the oars before they were thrown over.

  ‘Look!’ he cried. ‘The men are on the net. It’s sagging. It’s going to break!’

  As the men tried to escape the falling rocks, they clambered over the net, clinging to it like monkeys. But now there were too many of them and bit by bit, the net was beginning to slip into the lake.

  ‘If it falls, we’ll be able to … There! It’s down!’ she cried as the net finally fell. The Rockers toppled into the water with splashes and shouts and soon the lake was dotted with men swimming towards the shore.

  Questrid strained against the oars, crashing through the choppy waves as the water rose and fell and swirled beneath them. He pointed the boat towards the mouth of the now unblocked tunnel.

  ‘Uh, oh,’ said Questrid quietly, ‘more trouble. Look behind you.’

  Copper twisted round quickly.

  There was something speeding up behind them; a huddle of boats or rocks … no, it was great slabs of ice, globs of sharp blue ice, spinning and twisting through the wild water.

  ‘Look out!’

  ‘I don’t think I’m going to like this,’ moaned Ralick.

  The ice splinters skimmed up behind them and hit the boat with a mighty smash, jolting them so fiercely that Copper would have tipped out if her fingers hadn’t been gripped so firmly by the wooden boat.

  The mouth of the tunnel loomed up, was there, and Questrid yanked in the oars just before they sped inside.

  The tunnel was narrow, the water moved quickly, roaring, screaming. They went faster and faster.

  ‘Hang on!’ cried Questrid. ‘Hang on!’

  The boat was caught in a tidal wave, it was lifted and carried along, grazing the rock walls, tipping and dipping, shooting forward then round in a dizzying whirl. Behind them, like an angry animal came the mass of creaking, groaning ice.

  Copper was numb with cold and fright. We’re going to die, she thought. This is it. The end, and I’ve hardly begun …

  ‘It’s all right,’ whispered Ralick. ‘It’s only like the rides at the fair.’

 
In her mind’s eye Copper saw Spindle House. She smelt the sandalwood in the sitting room, the apple-wood in her bedroom; she saw her father’s face, the mother’s face that she would never know …

  ‘But I must know her!’ she shouted and immediately the panic which had streamed through her insides like hot lava, melted away and she knew, she absolutely knew that she couldn’t give up, because she was going to see her mother again and she was going to know her.

  20

  Home Again

  The water thundered around them, pounding, swishing and tossing them like toys in a tub, but it no longer scared Copper: she was going to win.

  She smiled at the biting cold of the water as it splashed her skin. She grinned at the vicious ice behind them which threatened to crush them at any moment.

  ‘Are you all right?’ cried Questrid, alarmed by Copper’s frozen smile. He had stashed the oars at the bottom of the boat and like Copper, was gripping the sides and staring ahead into the darkness. He was damp and shivering.

  ‘Yes!’ she shouted back. ‘Don’t worry. It’ll be all right.’

  She wanted to shout: I’ve got a mother and a father, just like I always knew I had. I’ve found them at last. But she only smiled.

  ‘Look there’s light up ahead. Daylight,’ cried Questrid.

  ‘I see it,’ said Copper. ‘I knew it would be all right. I just knew it.’

  The circle of light grew brighter and larger as they sped towards it. Then, suddenly, they were at the end of the tunnel and the wave gushed out of the opening, like water from a burst pipe. Questrid and Copper popped out into the fresh air screaming and shouting.

  There was nothing in front of them now except the snow-covered hill stretching out below.

  Copper tensed, ready for the boat to crash onto the ground, but it didn’t. The wave of water had thrown them down onto the hillside, and as the water met the freezing air it turned to ice beneath them and now the boat was speeding down the hillside, sailing on a frozen ice river. And where the ice stopped, there was snow to sledge on.

  ‘Yahoo!’ Questrid cried, pulling himself onto his knees in the prow. ‘Yahoo!’

  The boat tipped and tilted as it slithered down the blue and silver, smooth as glass mountainside, towards Spindle House far below.

  The boat was going home.

  ‘Wheeeee!’ cheered Ralick, peeping through the front of her coat.

  Behind them, the great shards and blocks of ice pushed and bounced and tumbled along as if trying to catch up with them. Looking back, Copper half expected to see Granite and his men somersaulting along amongst the ice, but there was no sign of them, they were safe inside the Rock.

  Finally the ice river turned to snow and the boat slid slowly into the courtyard where an excited and noisy crowd was waiting for them.

  ‘Copper! Questrid! We saw the ice. We saw it all falling and we didn’t know …’ cried Oriole, rushing to them and hugging them.

  ‘Oh, thank goodness you’re back.’

  ‘What’s been going on?’

  ‘Copper? Questrid, are you all right?’

  They pulled them out of the boat and kissed them and hugged them.

  It was a hard moment for Copper. The one and only time she’d seen her father she had run away from him and now she didn’t know what to do so she avoided meeting his gaze and when Cedar touched her she was as solid as a tree trunk in his arms. Pretending she’d dropped her crochet needle in the boat, she went back to it, to have a moment alone.

  ‘What’s up?’ hissed Ralick.

  ‘Nothing. Just avoiding someone that’s all.’

  In case she was being watched, she did pretend to search the boat. Of course there was nothing there, but she saw something she hadn’t had time to see before: the boat’s name. Carved in intricate letters on the little boat’s prow was the name LINDEN.

  Copper was astonished. Was this the Linden she had to be kind to? Was it possible to be kind to a boat? But it was a Linden who had been kind to them and saved them from Granite. I’m sure Aunt Ruby said a person called Linden, she thought. What’s the connection? Silver. Linden. Amber and Cedar … She looked up at her father who was watching her and then away. What could she say to him? Would they ever be able to say anything to each other?

  Quickly she followed the others into the kitchen.

  It was warm inside, the birds were twittering noisily and it smelt of new bread and wood smoke. When Questrid and Copper had put on dry clothes, they sat by the fire and sipped hot chocolate. Copper propped Ralick up against the warm stove to dry, then Questrid describe his part of the adventure.

  ‘Well done, Questrid,’ said Cedar, when he’d finished. ‘It was very brave of you to go into the Rock. I wish I could have fitted through that broken window.’

  ‘You should have seen your father, Copper,’ Oriole said. ‘He made such a fuss and banged and yelled. But we couldn’t get in. The Rock’s as impenetrable as a fort.’

  ‘We were going to send the birds in to drop smoke bombs,’ said Robin. ‘We contemplated setting fire to the wooden door but we worried about hurting you.’

  ‘We didn’t want to endanger you,’ said Cedar. ‘We were going to go back with reinforcements.’

  ‘Thank you for trying,’ said Copper quietly, staring at her feet. ‘Oriole, I do so want Aunt Ruby to come. I need her. Could Robin send a message with one of his birds, do you think?’

  Oriole nodded. ‘Of course. Now, can you tell us what happened?’

  Copper told them, starting at the beginning when she had been enticed out of the garden by Silver.

  ‘Silver!’ cried Oriole. ‘But she would never …’

  ‘I know,’ agreed Copper. ‘She didn’t look happy at all … I think she’d had her puppies and I think the Rockers must have kept them from her. It’s the only thing I can think of.’

  Then Copper repeated what Granite had told her about Great-Grandfather Ash stealing their gold. Uncle Greenwood looked embarrassed.

  ‘It could be true,’ admitted Cedar, meeting Copper’s gaze. ‘But I can’t believe it myself. I think he was a good man, but … the truth is, he did disappear and so did all the gold, but he might have had an accident. People do get lost up there, fall down ravines or get caught in snowfalls.’

  ‘Did anyone look for him?’

  Greenwood nodded. ‘I remember our father telling us about the searches that went on, but I was only a small boy then. He never believed the Rockers had given Ash the gold in the first place. There was bad feeling on both sides, you see? And it grew and grew. No one is entirely bad or entirely good, but events can push you one way or the other.’

  ‘Granite seems to blame the Wood family for every misfortune he’s had,’ said Copper.

  Cedar nodded. ‘He was beside himself with anger when I married Amber. It wasn’t the first time a Wood had gone off with a Rock. His own sister did it and so the hatred was already there.’

  ‘But …’ Copper was confused. ‘Why was it worse for Granite when Amber married you?’

  Cedar opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything.

  ‘Was he in love with her?’ asked Copper.

  ‘Perhaps. Maybe he thought he was. I can’t believe he could ever love anything.’

  ‘Can’t you? Don’t you believe anything he says? Why else would he want her free of the ice unless he loved her? If he loved her, he can’t be all bad, can he? If he loves her, I mean.’

  Cedar looked away uncomfortably.

  ‘If,’ he repeated quietly.

  An awkward hush fell until Oriole said: ‘I can’t help thinking about our poor Silver, trapped up there in the Rock with her puppies just born and everything. She’s such a good dog …’

  ‘Wolf, you know she’s a wolf!’ said Copper crossly. ‘You can stop pretending now.’

  Oriole looked uncomfortable.

  ‘I’m sorry we didn’t tell you,’ said Robin. ‘I imagine it feels like we tricked you, but we didn’t want to scare you. I am sorry.’


  ‘Silver belonged to Amber,’ said Cedar. ‘Amber found her starving in a cave and brought her home and nursed her. Silver would never do anything to hurt Amber, she’d rather die.’

  ‘So the Rockers have her and her puppies,’ said Questrid.

  ‘And Silver will do anything the Rockers want.’

  ‘Poor Silver, those poor babies,’ said Oriole. ‘And they must still be up there in that dreadful, cold stone place.’

  It was a strange day. Copper felt restless and unhappy.

  ‘Everyone knows everything and I know nothing,’ she told Oriole. ‘All these secrets that they share. It’s not fair.’

  ‘I suppose Robin and I did know about your father,’ admitted Oriole. ‘But we also didn’t. We were part of the secret and yet we were not. Nobody told us. When we came to live here, there was only Greenwood. I sent food upstairs, but I never asked why.’

  ‘It was safer for Cedar that way, I suppose,’ said Copper.

  ‘Yes. But I wish we’d told you. Or that they had told you,’ said Oriole. ‘Still, you’ve started to change things. You’ve shaken us all up, stopped us behaving so stupidly. You should be proud of yourself.’

  But Copper wasn’t proud of herself and she was sure that her father wasn’t either. Her running away had not been brave.

  She sat in the kitchen and knitted three socks for Ralick – none of which fitted, a bit of a tea cosy and three fingers of a glove, then pulled everything out.

  ‘I wish I knew what I wanted to knit,’ she moaned. ‘I need a pattern, that’s what I need but I don’t know what of … Oh, I can’t stop thinking about Amber still up there in the ice. She must be so cold! We shouldn’t have left her. Or Silver.’

  ‘Imagine being so miserable that your only way out is to lock yourself up in the cold, cold ice.’ Oriole shivered. ‘Poor Amber. A terrible choice. But we’ll get her out, somehow.’

  ‘You know what else,’ Copper went on. ‘It was so odd, just being there, knowing I half belonged there, since I am half a Stone person and half a Wood person. I mean, Granite seemed to hate me for being a mixture, but actually I think it’s the best.’