by Cliff McNish
‘You requested the meeting, not I.’
Calen half-smiled. ‘Heebra taught me that conversation with Wizards is pointless.’
‘Did she?’ Serpantha said. ‘How could she have known? Heebra never asked for a meeting, though we invited her. What was your mother so afraid of?’
Calen tried to think clearly. Her attention was being diverted by Serpantha’s eyes. They were smaller than hers, only slightly larger than human eyes. Absurdly, she had a strong temptation to explore the delicate brows above them. She resisted it.
Serpantha wondered: did she even know? Or had so much time passed that all memory amongst the Witches had been forgotten or removed?
‘Do you realize,’ he said, ‘that Wizards and Witches came originally from the same world?’ He watched for a reaction. ‘We were once a single race, sharing all things.’
Calen’s mind reeled. ‘I don’t believe that!’ She retreated from him, staring fiercely at his body. Could it be true? Serpantha’s jaws were far tinier than her own, the teeth delicate. ‘We never had jaws like yours,’ she said.
‘No,’ Serpantha replied. ‘Your original jaws were smaller than ours. You altered them.’
‘You’re lying!’
‘Am I? What advantage would I gain from it?’
While Calen absorbed this, Serpantha appraised the other Witches. Normally Highs took immense pride in their appearance. Even battle-weary Highs used magic to hide their injuries for as long as they could. These Witches were all filthy and thin, their black dresses in shreds; some had slackening jaws where the muscles no longer had the strength to support the heavy teeth.
It meant they were close to death.
Or, Serpantha realized, it could mean the Witches were pretending to be injured.
His information spells automatically performed another sweep of the Witches. Their injuries were genuine. Serpantha trusted the judgement of his spells. Not once in his ancient life had they misled him in a matter of such importance. He stroked the damaged arm of the closest Witch – a tenderness she withdrew from only slowly.
‘You have suffered terribly,’ he murmured. ‘I see how much.’
‘We are still to be feared!’ Calen shouted.
‘I have no doubt of that.’
Keeping Nylo close, Calen tried to determine what to do next. Instinctively she knew Serpantha was telling the truth about their origins. It both disgusted and excited her to know this, but why should it change anything between them? She could not afford to make a mistake. Already several of her Witches were lowering their guard, drawing closer to Serpantha, their fear less than it had been. One reached out to him – and Calen surprised herself by slapping the claw away herself. Strong feelings welled inside her again.
Serpantha counted the Witches in the cave. ‘Is this … all that is left of the Highs?’ he asked.
‘No. There are remnants hiding in other tunnels. Some are in locations I know nothing about – in case I am caught. I lead a few, where I am able.’
Serpantha nodded. ‘As the daughter of Heebra, the Griddas must have a considerable bounty on your head.’
Calen laughed grimly. ‘I hope so! I would be disappointed if that were not the case!’
‘How have you managed to avoid them?’
‘We don’t avoid them,’ Calen said. ‘If we can smell the Griddas in time, we flee. Where that is not possible, we fight. As you can see, we have fought … many times. In any case, now that they have won the main battle, the Gridda leaders have less interest in us than you think. They are more intrigued by something else – the human child, Yemi.’
Serpantha tried to hide his concern. ‘You told them about the boy?’
‘Under torture even a High Witch can be made to talk, Wizard. The Griddas were curious to know why over five hundred of Heebra’s best fighters returned in defeat from Earth, speaking of the spell Yemi released.’
‘What do the Griddas know about him?’
‘Everything we know. His scent, his skills. His innocence.’ She eyed him. ‘Your guard must be slacking, Serpantha. Gridda scouts study all Wizard movements to and from Earth. I am surprised you have not stationed more Wizards there to protect the boy.’
‘Two are enough,’ Serpantha said. ‘More would have drawn greater attention.’
‘Only two? Thank you,’ said a new voice.
From the shadows, watcher and soldier spiders suddenly appeared. Like a tide, they swarmed from all directions across the floor of the cave. Griddas followed behind.
Serpantha reacted at once. He had never been so completely surprised by an ambush, but now was not the time to dwell on the reason. A nest of spells, some of the deadliest any creature had ever summoned, sprang to defend him. The first cluster he sent to seal off any further entrances. A second, to deflect attacks, sought to alter his body shape, scent and chemical structure. The third cluster was a battery of fast assault spells – to distract his opponents while he escaped.
But none of Serpantha’s spells worked.
They lay uselessly in his mind, screaming in fear for him.
The Griddas, two full packs, ranged themselves about the Wizard. When they were in position a final Gridda dropped her bulk down from the ceiling.
She bounded across and raised herself to her full height. ‘I am Gultrathaca,’ she said.
‘I know who you are.’
‘Do you know what I am going to do to you?’
Serpantha knew. He tried to shift, but his spells could not fix the transfer points.
‘An inhibiting spell,’ Gultrathaca explained. ‘Effective only in contact with skin. In this case, Nylo’s skin. Of course, how could you have known? No High Witch ever used such a spell. When we used it on them, they were equally surprised!’
‘Do as you wish,’ said Serpantha, facing her. ‘I will tell you nothing.’
‘We shall see.’
Several Griddas trussed his arms and legs with spell-thread.
Serpantha turned to Calen. ‘What have you done?’ he said, his voice shuddering with regret and pity. ‘Oh, Calen, what bargain do you think the Griddas will ever honour?’
With difficulty, Calen ignored him. Facing Gultrathaca, she said, ‘I did what you asked. Now fulfil your promise. Release my High Witches.’
Gultrathaca lifted an arm and struck Calen’s face. Two of her jaws were shattered. From the floor, Calen screamed, ‘But … you promised! We bonded, snake and spiders! The agreement cannot be broken!’
‘Do you think the niceties of your bonds and promises mean anything to me?’ said Gultrathaca. She stared at Calen with contempt. ‘You have betrayed all your Witches.’
Calen struggled to get up. ‘But we let you maim us! We allowed it. To convince the Wizard we let you …’ Her face hardened. ‘You won’t find us all,’ she yelled. ‘There are more of us than you realize!’
‘You fool,’ Gultrathaca said. ‘We know where all the High Witches are. Your kind make so much noise any Gridda infant can hear you approaching.’
As she was led away, Calen looked at Serpantha. A fundamental change had occurred in him. His face was blank, his eyes glazed over. All the warmth had begun to drain from his skin.
‘What’s happening?’ asked a Gridda, prodding at Serpantha’s cheek.
‘It is not our doing,’ Gultrathaca said. ‘The Wizard is retreating inside some private realm. He thinks we cannot reach him there, but he is wrong. Eventually, he’ll tell us everything we need to know about Yemi. Perhaps he’ll even lead us to Larpskendya himself.’
Serpantha lay quietly in the arms of the Griddas. He no longer moved. A serene expression had spread across his features. His eyes were closed, at peace. Forcing open the lids, Gultrathaca gazed into them. The colours, once so bright, had started to fade. The Gridda pack hauled the body of Serpantha from the cave to the interrogation levels.
‘Hurry!’ Gultrathaca shrieked.
8
Floating Koalas,
And Other Pretties
He was in an isolated wood, hundreds of miles from home. The prapsies accompanied him, taking short flights to keep up. So far they had managed not to annoy too many of the woodland animals, and normally Eric would have rewarded them by playing a game. Not today. He had a special reason for asking Rachel to bring him here.
Eric was seeking an explanation from Albertus Robertson.
Since Larpskendya left Earth to investigate Serpantha’s failure to return from Ool, the behaviour of all the spectrums had altered. Until then they had been content to stay entirely still for days. Suddenly spectrums worldwide were on the move. And they were not alone. The thrill-seekers had joined them. They no longer hung back, out of sight. They had openly united with the spectrums – flying them wherever they wished to go.
Eric left the path, picking his way between scattered beech trees.
‘Are we nearly there, boys?’ one prapsy asked.
‘Shush,’ Eric replied. ‘Don’t want to scare him off, do we?’ He tiptoed around a bush.
And there, in a small clearing, stood Albertus Robertson.
He was balanced on one bent leg. His other leg was off the ground, as though something had caught Albertus’s interest in mid-step. No child in the world other than a spectrum could have held such an unnatural position for more than a few seconds. For a while Eric just hung around, trying to disentangle his feelings. What drew him to the spectrums? The things other children found creepy about them, fascinated him …
Albertus paid Eric no attention. His narrow shoulders and thin neck did not seem quite strong enough to hold his heavy head – as if, Eric thought, on a windy day an unexpected gust might snap it off.
He wanted to start a conversation with Albertus, but was put off by the presence of the thrill-seekers. There were two of them, two teenage girls. That in itself was unusual – Eric did not know of any spectrum with more than one thrill-seeker. Both girls were only inches from Albertus. Their arms were stretched out towards him, ready to lift him up at a moment’s notice. One of them clearly did not welcome Eric’s arrival. She glanced briefly, angrily, in his direction.
‘Hi,’ Eric said, feeling awkward. When there was no reply one of the prapsies screeched, ‘Wake up when Eric is speaking to you!’
‘It’s all right, boys,’ Eric said. ‘Let it go.’
One of the thrill-seeker girls rotated fractionally towards him. ‘Please don’t interfere,’ she said. ‘Go away. Leave us in solitude.’
‘I’m not going to bother you. I just want to ask a few questions.’
‘We don’t want to answer them.’
‘Why?’
‘If we speak to you, then some of our mindfulness will wander.’
‘Wander?’ Eric hesitated. ‘You mean – from Albertus?’
‘Of course. Please leave. You are distracting him, and there is danger.’
‘What danger?’ Eric stepped closer, forcing the closest girl to pay him attention. She immediately took up a defensive stance. Eric felt her attack spells being readied. At the same time the other thrill-seeker held Albertus Robertson’s waist, preparing to lift him to safety.
‘I’m not a danger to you!’ Eric said. ‘Surely you know that.’
‘Go away!’ the girl demanded.
The prapsies flew around her head, shouting insults she ignored.
In frustration, Eric gazed directly at Albertus Robertson. A falling leaf had come to rest on one of his upturned ears. With extraordinary speed the nearest of his thrill-seekers ripped the leaf away.
‘Look, talk to me,’ Eric said to Albertus. ‘I’m close to Rachel and others who have our safety in mind. I sense you’re part of that somehow, but you must explain yourselves. What are you all looking for? Why are you all on the move? What –’
Albertus Robertson flinched. At first Eric thought he was responding to him, but it soon became apparent that the spectrum’s conduct had nothing to do with Eric. His head cocked skyward. With panic in his eyes, Albertus silently opened and closed his mouth, desperate to say something. Glancing at one another, his thrill-seekers picked him up. They flew above the trees and away.
‘What is it?’ Eric called after them. ‘What’s –’
Suddenly he gasped and fell back, understanding.
The prapsies stared at Eric. They touched the tips of their wings against his face, as they always did when they were frightened.
‘Eric, what’s wrong? Eric!’
‘Find Rachel,’ he rasped. ‘Oh, boys, find her fast!’
Nine Gridda packs descended into the mild-weathered skies of Earth.
Using her spies, Gultrathaca had chosen a time when she was certain Larpskendya was absent, and there was a brief gap in the network of children patrolling the skies. The task should have been easier, but Serpantha had given Gultrathaca nothing. Throughout the interrogations he had stayed silent. Gultrathaca could hardly believe his resistance. How could he hold out for so long against the unrelenting battery of spells the packs breathed inside him? Even causing Serpantha true pain had eluded her. He had entered some kind of tranquil region where her Griddas could not reach him …
Gultrathaca countered Serpantha’s silence with numbers. On their last visit to Earth, the High Witches had helpfully left boosters to improve speeds between the two worlds. Gultrathaca used them and hundreds of Griddas – all those who had learned to shift – streamed across the continents of Earth.
In the absence of better information, they sniffed for an individual child whose magical signature was more remarkable than all others. They should never have succeeded. Before he left Larpskendya had created a spell to camouflage Yemi’s magical scent. But Yemi himself, not understanding its importance, had merely seen the spell as a challenge – and broken it.
The pack of Griddas who came across him were fortunate in another way. Heiki, charged with protecting him, had not allowed Yemi outside in recent days. This morning Yemi, in his boredom, had mischievously shifted to a summer meadow. Heiki could not persuade him back underground, and the Griddas found him in bright sunshine, playing with his animal friends.
Heiki saw the Griddas first – a sight that baffled her. She had been prepared for outstretched claws and teeth, not these oddities. Confused, she called sharply to Fola, who was talking with her brother.
‘What is it?’ Fola asked.
‘Say the safety words to Yemi.’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Just say them!’
Fola turned to look. If the Griddas had come in their true form she would have known at once to whisper in Yemi’s ear the words she had practised with him over and over – words Yemi had been taught meant danger, to get away.
But Gultrathaca had planned for this.
Her first instinct had been to use the tactics of terror: to scare Yemi by threatening him and those he loved. However, she had heard how easily Yemi had disposed of Witches in the past, and sensed her Griddas would not be able to force this particular human child to join them.
So – to entice him instead – the Griddas came in other guises.
Having questioned the High Witches they knew what young children liked, and they came in that fashion. They came as the playthings of children. They came disguised as animals: as furry dogs and oversized kittens, floating koalas, and other pretties. They came as dolphins with merrily flicking tails. And they came as made-up things – things that were warm, that smiled at Yemi, that reached out their arms for him, that were soft and downy and pleasant to look upon. They came in bright, noisy, chuckling shapes that swept down from the clouds.
Fola reacted too slowly to Heiki’s warning. Before she could open her mouth a Gridda spell sealed her lips. She tried to make Yemi understand as the Griddas closed in, but he was too mesmerized to notice.
Yemi knew that the things approaching with open paws and crazily wagging tails were not real, but that only excited him. Serpantha had assumed many animal guises when t
hey played together; and while Yemi knew these new creatures were not disguised Wizards, they were certainly magical, powerfully so. It did not worry him that they were not real. He had himself made many objects that were not real, and those had never harmed him, after all.
Heiki seized one Gridda as it passed by. Briefly, as she fought it, the manufactured kitten-smile masking the true face of the Gridda faded. But it was too powerful for Heiki to deal with on her own. It cuffed her with a hairy blow. The blow was calculated to disable Heiki without killing her – in case Yemi noticed.
Heiki was left dazed amongst the grass and small flowers of a field.
The Griddas drifted to the ground. All Yemi’s animals were joined by the new brightly-glowing companions, each given its own to play with – there were welcoming Gridda arms for them all.
An impossibly floppy puppy plucked Yemi off the ground. As the other Griddas hastily surrounded him, he did not notice that his true animal friends were left behind.
On a tide of chattering, mirth-filled magic he was carried beyond the skies of Earth.
Eric and Rachel arrived too late.
They found Heiki in the flowered field, her cheeks burning with anguish. Animals surrounded her, searching vainly in the grass for Yemi. Eric could faintly detect Yemi’s dwindling scent; then even that faint smell was snuffed out as the Griddas erased it.
Rachel placed a distress call to Larpskendya while she tended to Heiki’s injuries. Too distraught to speak, Heiki sat gazing at the clouds, as if they themselves had betrayed her.
Other children arrived at last from the sky, stunned by the speed of the kidnap.
For a while all Yemi’s special animal friends crawled, walked or flew around the fields, searching. A few dug at the soil, thinking Yemi might be under it. Then, at the same moment, each animal stopped. They sat quite still, faces all tilted up expectantly.
‘Hey, what’s going on?’ Eric asked. ‘What are they doing?’
Rachel’s information spells scanned the local area. ‘I can’t tell. I don’t detect anything.’
‘It’s Yemi’s butterflies,’ Heiki said. ‘Normally this is the time they fly overhead here.’