And had it not been for Utterly, who, during her time locked up in Topplecave, had come up with a brilliant yet highly unorthodox new system for the mills (involving emptying the most-loved Bottling shop in the village – Blend & Bottle – of their blending staffs to replace the spokes on the mills’ wheels that the Midnights had chewed away and then raiding Swoopers – Dapplemere’s bank – for their unusually shaped comet-coins to act as cogs inside the mills), it would have taken them weeks, despite the speed at which the sun scamps worked, to get the ingredients for sunlight flowing into the mills and out of the chimneys as marvels. In fact, the overhaul had been so satisfactory the sun scamps decided they’d review the construction of future mills at Dapplemere in light of Utterly’s findings.
Before long, more and more sunlight was drifting, glitter-bright, up through the chimneys and spreading out across the sky in a brilliant pink sunset. Casper filled Utterly in on all that had happened in Shiverbark Forest and about the Midnights patrolling the castle, but they were distracted as they spoke because neither of them knew where on earth to look for the familiar face now – or even how to fix the SkySoar9000. They pulled the hot air balloon up onto the path beside a mill but the Midnights had torn the balloon from top to tail and no matter how many times Casper tapped the microphone and tried to speak to Zip, she didn’t answer.
The sun scamps were busy fluttering about the chimneys on the mills, catching the marvels in spidersilk nets and bundling them into hampers. They promised Utterly and Casper they’d fly them to the Mixing Tower themselves, then try to slip them past the Midnights before racing on to the drizzle hags to persuade them to do the same – and there was no time to lose – but on seeing that Casper, Utterly and Arlo were having no luck with Zip, one of the sun scamps broke away from the hampers and flew towards them. Casper recognised him from the hilltop restaurant.
‘The dazzlethread we sneaked into Topplecave will hold those Midnights until sunrise tomorrow,’ the sun scamp said. ‘It’s the ingredient that makes sunlight fierce, you see – there’s not much that can break it.’ He seized a broom from a passing sun scamp and swept the steps leading up to the mill. ‘Once the dazzlethread’s power fades though, the Midnights will use their shatterblast to blow the roof of the giant mouth clean off and come after you. But you’ll be long gone by then, I’m sure.’
Casper was just about to say that there was little chance of them going anywhere and even if they did leave they had no idea where to go, when the sun scamp started speaking again while lifting a tape measure from his pocket and measuring the mill’s window for a new pane of glass.
‘I’m Matt, by the way – stands for Multitasker And Terribly Talkative – and that’s my sister you saw earlier at Topplecave.’ He pointed to the sun scamp reading an instruction manual entitled Handling Marvels Over Long Distances on the steps of a mill. ‘She’s called Rose – stands for Reading Over Strenuous Exercise.’ Matt gave Zip’s basket a quick polish, then he looked at the balloon and the microphone and tutted. ‘That’ll need fixing.’ He rummaged in his pocket and drew out a roll of golden thread with a needle slotted into it. ‘Nothing that a good reel of dazzlethread can’t sort.’
Casper and Utterly watched in amazement as Matt began stitching – not only was the tear disappearing but the thread was, too, as it wove in and out of the fabric so that the balloon looked brand spanking new!
‘So, what’s your plan for destroying the Midnights?’ Matt asked as he sewed.
Casper sighed. ‘I was told to find a familiar face – and I found my friend Utterly here in Dapplemere – only freeing her hasn’t put an end to the griffins for good.’
‘Of course it hasn’t,’ Matt replied. ‘You need to go to the source of the problem. To the place where all the griffins poured in from.’
‘But didn’t you say up in Topplecave that you and Rose thought the Midnights had come into the kingdom from the east?’ Utterly asked nervously.
Matt nodded. ‘From the east. Absolutely. Sun scamp wings are too frail for those parts – believe me, we tried when the Midnights started coming – but if you can get there and cut the griffins off at the source you might well be in with a chance of stopping them.’
Casper shifted. ‘And what’s in the east again?’
‘Volcanoes called the Smoking Chimneys . . .’ Utterly replied. ‘The only place in Rumblestar that is deemed Forbidden Territory, even for experienced Ballooners, because the ogres produce storms there just for the fun of it. They love nothing more than a sky full of chaos.’
Casper reached out a hand to Arlo for emotional support but the little dragon had already fainted. ‘Bristlebeard told me that a snow troll called Pucklefist has gone to reason with the ogres there. The trolls suspect the Midnights bribed the ogres for the shatterblast, which they had been keeping in a locked trunk, so they’re hoping they can persuade the ogres to call the wind back in.’
‘Maybe the Midnights promised the ogres a share in Morg’s rule if they handed the shatterblast over,’ Matt said. ‘Whatever the reason, you should press on for the Smoking Chimneys if you want to stop the griffins flooding into the kingdom.’ He paused. ‘And by the sounds of it, it’s also one of the last places in Rumblestar that you haven’t yet looked for that familiar face . . .’
Utterly turned to Casper. ‘We have the snow trolls’ armour, remember? It’ll help us there just like it helped you against the shatterblast earlier – and we’ll have an actual snow troll on our side, too. Pucklefist will help us – the trolls are meant to be incredible fighters!’
Casper tried to smile but it came out as a grimace.
‘And from what my dad says,’ Utterly went on, ‘the volcanoes themselves are dormant; that’s why we call them the smoking rather than the erupting chimneys. It might not be as bad as it sounds.’
Matt knotted the end of the dazzlethread, which vanished when he tugged his needle free. ‘One SkySoar9000 ready for departure.’
Casper gasped. The tear was nowhere to be seen and through the microphone there came a familiar voice. ‘Right then, skipper. Where to next?’
‘Thank you, Matt!’ Casper cried.
The sun scamp shook Casper, Utterly and Arlo’s hands. ‘A pleasure. I find being busy immensely satisfying. Good luck with your journey on and don’t let those volcanoes put you off – you’ve a kingdom to save and we’re all rooting for you!’
He fluttered back to help with the marvels while Casper, Utterly and Arlo climbed into the basket. Casper nodded to Arlo and, throwing a quick glance in Utterly’s direction to check that she was watching, the little dragon blasted the balloon’s burners with flames.
Utterly clapped, Arlo beamed and Casper took a deep breath. ‘To the Smoking Chimneys, Zip.’
As the sun scamps cheered Casper, Utterly and Arlo on from below, and the Midnights hissed inside the giant’s mouth, Zip flew up out of Dapplemere and headed east over the dusk-filled valleys. For a while they flew silently, gazing down at the hills as they grew into mountains with ridges so high and sharp it was like looking at the spines of sleeping dragons. The sun was setting now and the sky was a fiery orange against the peaks, dashed through with golden clouds.
It was the most brilliant sunset Casper and Utterly had ever seen. And though Casper was all too aware that life, at this moment, was far from perfect – in fact, it was decidedly wigglysplat if he thought about what lay ahead – he smiled. Because he had rescued his friend, Zip was fixed and this really was an incredible sunset. And Casper concluded, as he looked up at the shining clouds, that since he planned to spend a little less time in Lost Property boxes when he got home, perhaps he could spend a little more time sky-gazing instead. It probably wasn’t going to help his homework, boost his exam results or get Candida and Leopold off his back but sometimes it was good just to look, and think.
The sky faded to purple and the mountains went blue, then Utterly turned to Casper. ‘You came for me even though I got you thrown into a dungeon.’ Utterly pi
cked at the basket. ‘Even though I shouted at you on the Witch’s Fingers and stormed off in the forest.’
Casper wasn’t sure whether this was an apology or a test or simply a string of facts, so he stayed quiet and tried his best to understand Utterly. Because her conversations, he was learning, were like cupboard doors – open for a while then slammed shut. But Casper got the feeling that this time the cupboard door might stay open a little longer if it was given time and space.
‘I was rude and horrid and impossibly angry and still you came to save me,’ Utterly said.
There was another pause but now Utterly was looking at Casper and Casper wondered whether a small space had opened up in the conversation for him, too. He had to be careful though – he was dealing with a stormgulper, after all – and Bristlebeard had expressly told him that he would have to be patient and kind, as well as good at listening.
‘I don’t think you’re rude or horrid or impossibly angry,’ he said quietly, ‘whatever I might have said back in Shiverbark Forest.’
‘You told me I was foul-tempered and forever in a grump,’ Utterly mumbled. Arlo climbed up onto her shoulder and licked her cheek. ‘That it wasn’t surprising people couldn’t wait to be rid of me.’
Casper winced; tempers were an ugly thing. ‘I’m sorry I said those things, Utterly. But I did some thinking after you left.’ He concentrated extremely hard on a flock of geese fanning out over the peaks below them so as not to catch Utterly’s eye. ‘I – I think you might have swallowed a storm – and that’s why sometimes you get a bit –’ he fumbled for the right word ‘– snappy.’
Utterly grabbed her throat. ‘I’ve done what?’
Casper tightened his grip on the basket in case Utterly decided to hurl him over the edge. ‘Well, not literally swallowed a storm,’ Casper explained. ‘But one of the snow trolls told me about how sometimes people who experience something very sad or very difficult find a little piece of the “storm” they’ve gone through stuck inside them, then they carry it about with them for a while afterwards. The snow troll called them stormgulpers.’
Utterly looked at Casper with glassy eyes. ‘You . . . you can see my storm?’
Casper nodded. ‘I think I mistook it for something else at the beginning because I’m not very experienced at friendships, but now –’ he turned to face Utterly ‘– I can see it.’
Utterly brushed the tears from her eyes but more fell, so Arlo yanked the lever on hatch four and pulled out the emergency tissues. He handed them to Utterly, then fluttered back to her shoulder and hugged her neck. But even he couldn’t stop the tears coming. They streamed down Utterly’s cheeks and squeezed her breath into sobs but somehow the tears pushed the words, so long locked inside her, out into the open.
‘Three years ago, when I was eight, I persuaded my older sister, Mannerly, to come out onto the castle roof to see a moonbow I’d spotted from my bedroom window.’ Utterly tried to swallow the lump in her throat but that only drew more tears down her cheeks. ‘We were always watching the night sky together – sometimes from our bedroom windows, all tucked up with hot chocolates, then other times we’d creep out of the castle when everyone else was asleep and the world was ours for the taking. That night was one of the best lunar rainbows we had ever seen – a glowing arc surrounding thousands and thousands of stars. But then I told Mannerly we could get an even better view if we climbed up the spire and when she was following me she slipped on a loose tile and . . . and she fell. If I hadn’t persuaded her to come out onto the roof, if I hadn’t told her to keep climbing when she wanted to turn back, she never would’ve fallen. She would still be here. And that’s why I’m not allowed to cry or even talk about any of this – because it’s all my fault.’
Utterly slumped down into the basket, pulled her knees up to her chin and cried even harder. There had been relief in saying the words aloud, at last, but there was sorrow, too – years of it tumbling out now – because she missed her sister and all the nights they’d shared marvelling at the world together.
Casper sat beside her but he didn’t say anything because if he knew one thing about tears – and he did, because thanks to Candida and Leopold there had been nights at Little Wallops where his own had soaked right through his pillow – it was that sometimes they needed a moment to themselves.
‘I was angry with everyone after that – my parents, my classmates, the Lofty Husks – but really I think I was just angry with myself,’ Utterly sobbed. ‘Because no matter how hard I tried I could never make up for what my parents lost. I could never be as good as Mannerly. She was a brilliant Bottler-in-training; she turned up on time to classes, she was awarded so many Certificates of Excellence for her exam results we ran out of wall space and so many trophies she had her own special cabinet for them, and she was easily the most popular girl in her year.’ Utterly paused. ‘But me? I’m late for everything, I win nothing because I’m always being sent out of class for bad behaviour and though I used to find making friends easy, ever since Mannerly died, I’ve found it impossible to get on with my classmates because I either end up shouting at them or getting them into trouble. And that’s just who I am now, on the outside anyway: the Bottler-in-training who can’t behave. Because at least that me lives up to the recklessness my parents expect of me! But you want to know the real reason I push everyone away?’
Casper nodded. He had a feeling it was important to let stormgulpers get everything off their chests.
‘Because the thought of losing another person I love makes my heart shake. Mannerly was my best friend and I miss her. I miss the jokes we shared and the way she would tell me about the castle’s secrets when I couldn’t get to sleep.’ Utterly stroked the little dragon on her shoulder. ‘Arlo has been my only friend for the past three years. He showed up on my windowsill a month after Mannerly died and though I tried to encourage him to fly away, he stayed. Maybe he didn’t really fit in with the rest of his kind either – not big enough to carry the marvels on to the other kingdoms and not strong enough to scatter enough moondust to make a difference.’
Casper fiddled with the cuff of his coat. ‘I don’t fit in back home either and I’d pretty much given up on ever making friends. But then I met you –’ he smiled ‘– and Arlo and Bristlebeard. A lot can change on an adventure, you know.’
Utterly nodded, then she rested her head back against the basket. ‘My mum hasn’t been the same since Mannerly died. Before we were always laughing and having fun together but now . . . she’s closed off. Sometimes I wonder whether she wishes it was me that fell that night.’ Arlo nuzzled into her neck. ‘And my dad always looks so sad and lost; most days I don’t even think he notices me at all. I want so much for them to be proud of me and I thought that if I did something truly remarkable out here in The Beyond then Mum and Dad would forget my part in what happened on the roof that night. You have to do things – like win certificates, bag trophies or save kingdoms – to make people proud –’ she looked down ‘– or even make them notice that you’re there at all. That’s how you end up getting loved like Mannerly was.’
Casper passed Utterly another tissue. ‘I’m not sure it works like that, Utterly.’
‘Then how does it work?’
Casper shrugged. ‘I’m not entirely sure. But I don’t think love has got much to do with certificates, trophies and saving kingdoms. I think you get loved because of who you are. And you’re brave and you’re kind – you freed all the sun scamps when the Midnights could have killed you. Without you, Utterly Thankless, this whole kingdom would have crumbled.’
‘You really think so?’
Casper nodded.
‘But if my parents really loved me, they’d have at least sent me another paper aeroplane. But not one has come.’ Utterly sighed. ‘Either they don’t care or the drizzle hags didn’t write to the Lofty Husks about our quest after all and everyone at the castle still thinks I betrayed Rumblestar!’
Casper shifted. ‘They know you’re innocent, Utter
ly. Because I told them.’
Utterly frowned.
‘Please don’t be angry with me, but I wrote back to your mum when we were in the canoe. I told her about the shatterblast and the griffins and the fact that you weren’t to blame.’
For a moment Utterly looked relieved, then the hurt crowded in. ‘But then why haven’t my parents written back? I don’t think they’d care if I got lost in The Beyond for ever!’
‘They’d care all right, Utterly. Lots of people would. Frostbite knew who you were – he said you had a brilliant mind for Bottling and—’
‘He said that?’
‘Yes. But what I’m trying to say is that the Lofty Husks wrote back to us – they even tried to send a search party before the Midnights blocked their way out of the castle altogether! – but their message never reached us because the Midnights have disrupted the kingdom’s SkyFly. Now it seems to have broken completely as no paper aeroplanes are able to get over the castle walls so the reason your parents haven’t written is because they can’t.’ Casper paused. ‘But I did find this.’
Casper rummaged in his pocket and dug out the scrap of newspaper he had taken from the Unmapped Chronicle back in the forest. He handed it to Utterly and fresh tears welled as she read the message from her mum.
‘My . . . my parents are proud of me?’ she said quietly. ‘But . . . we haven’t saved Rumblestar yet.’
‘Exactly,’ Casper replied. ‘Because you get loved even if kingdoms fall.’ He paused. ‘You might not be able to go back and fix what happened with Mannerly, but carrying a storm around with you isn’t going to help.’
Utterly was quiet for a while as she let herself accept what Casper was saying and what her mum’s message in the newspaper really meant. Then she said: ‘I have to let my storm go, don’t I?’
‘I think so. I’m not sure I can face a storm ogre and your temper all at the same time.’ Casper paused. ‘And look at it this way: if you get rid of your storm, just think how much extra room you’ll have inside you for friends and adventures and all sorts of complicated Bottling ideas.’
Rumblestar Page 17