Uki and the Swamp Spirit

by Kieran Larwood

  ‘We won’t!’ Uki shouted. ‘I promise!’

  ‘Coughing clouds into the sky, cracking up the bones of the Earth to suck out the marrow, burning, smashing, looting, eating …’

  ‘That’s not true!’

  Charice let out a mad, cackling laugh before vanishing back inside the body of Granny Maggitch, who was holding something up between the thumb and finger of one paw. Some kind of wriggling, spiky insect. ‘Fiddlesticks and candlewicks. It doesn’t matter to me. All this time, all these ages … I have been practising and perfecting. I have been mixing and meddling. I have been trying to brew, to breed the perfect plague … the life-ender, the slate-wiper, the begin-againer … and I have finally succeeded!’

  ‘What … what is that?’ Uki asked.

  ‘This? This is a … glimpse? A quince? No … a nymph! And in it sleeps the seed of a dragonfly. A dream of wings. A hint of a fly. And in the fly curls a virus. And in the virus hides death of everything. Peek-a-boo! I’ll kill you! Mammal, bird, fish, insect … once this little precious hatches, they will all come tumbling down!’

  ‘No!’ Uki kicked and wriggled against the snake, but the thing wouldn’t budge. ‘You can’t do that! Please!’

  ‘Too late, too late. You’re going to die now, after a little bit of crunching and swallowing. Snicker-snack, gulp, gulp, burp. And when my dragonfly hatches, everything else will die too!’

  Charice began to sing again, snippets of jumbled rhymes and lullabies. She waved her deadly nymph in the air, as if it were a prize, cooing to her snake as it squeezed its coils ever tighter.

  Uki could feel his ribs straining, bending inwards. Sparks danced before his eyes. As the snake bent down towards its mistress, he saw the seething pool of larvae below him, squirming away. Would his dead body be dropped in there for them to eat? Or would the snake just swallow him whole?

  Jori … Kree … Uki sent out his thoughts, unable to spare any more breath to speak. They had come so close … but for it to end like this … All Uki could think was how unfair it was.

  The larvae seemed to be wiggling faster as he dipped towards them. A million, million tiny mouths with pincers chomping, swimming closer, closer …

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Lady of the Maggot Lake

  A paw.

  Uki was wobbling on the very edge of consciousness now, not sure if what he thought he saw was truly there. But there was indeed a paw. And it had a sword.

  Like something from one of the legends his mother used to tell, it came up from beneath the surface of the water. Rising slowly, light glimmering along the blade. A magic blade for the king, Uki remembered. Clutched in the paw of a goddess.

  Except this sword wasn’t magic. And it wasn’t emerging from a sacred lake. It was Jori’s blade, clutched in the tiny hand of Kree, rising up from the disgusting mass of larvae.

  Uki could see Kree’s beaded leather sleeve with its stripes of red paint. He could see the ripples of dark steel on Jori’s Damascus blade. The finely ground edge, like a slice of moonlight.

  His friends – they were still alive. The realisation hit him: Charice’s diseases couldn’t kill them, not with Uki’s blood still in their veins, and she had let them slip from her attention. The pulsing waves of sickness she created had ebbed away, giving them the chance to help him.

  Uki fought against the blackout that was creeping up on him. He watched Jori’s sword draw closer to the snake’s body. He had to stay awake, he had to be ready.

  Iffrit, give me strength, he prayed to whatever was left of the spirit in his blood. Gaunch and Valkus, even. For Charice will wipe you out too.

  He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he felt a small swell of power. One last scrap, but it was enough for him to tighten his grip on his spear, snagging it tight just before it dropped from his fingers. He craned his head to track the body of Granny Maggitch as Charice made it dance, out of the larvae now and on to the earthen island in the middle of the chamber.

  You’re only going to have one chance, his dark voice told him. Don’t mess it up.

  And then, in an instant, in half a heartbeat, everything happened at once.

  Kree’s paw came swiping down, plunging the sword deep into the snake, slicing through buttery flesh and crumbling bone.

  The giant serpent flinched in shock – a spasm that made it uncoil like a pent-up spring, shooting Uki upwards into the air, the tips of his ears brushing the earthen ceiling.

  From up there, he had a view of the whole chamber. The ring of seething larvae; the collapsing, dying snake; the circular island in the middle, and upon it the tottering, dancing figure of Granny Maggitch, fingers still clutching her precious dragonfly nymph.

  Uki didn’t pause. Not for a breath.

  Even as his little body was fired upwards, he was drawing back his arm, angling the crystal point of his spear down to where Charice was standing.

  He pulled together every last scrap of his strength and channelled it into a mighty throw, sending the spear streaming down towards its target, so fast it turned into a streak of white light.

  The body of Granny Maggitch had paused in its dance and was just turning to look at the dying snake when the spear struck. Charice hadn’t even noticed Uki, who was now tumbling back down from the chamber roof.

  Shunk!

  The spear hit her in the shoulder, piercing through her tattered snakeskin cloak. As Uki landed in the larvae with a sickening splat he looked up in time to see Charice’s face appear. The madness, the grin – it had vanished, replaced by a look of stunned horror. She stared at the spear for a moment and then was gone … sucked down into the crystal along with every last scrap of her aura. All the sickness that had choked the Fenlands … it swirled round and round like a hurricane, vanishing into the depths of the crystal, into the tiny, tiny realm inside where it would be trapped, this time, forever.

  The sensation was like a fever breaking, like a sudden breeze of fresh sea air on a hot afternoon. A nagging sore tooth being pulled, leaving instant pain-free calm in its wake.

  The past days had been a constant struggle against Charice’s presence, Uki realised. So subtle, he hadn’t even sensed it, not until it was gone. He could almost feel every living thing in the Fenlands sigh with relief.

  But the crystal needed to be sealed.

  Uki began to struggle through the larvae, striking out with his arms and kicking his legs as if he were swimming in a pond. A wriggling, squirming pond that shuddered and jiggled all around him.

  A few strokes and he was at the island, hauling himself out. Granny Maggitch had collapsed, the spear still jutting from her shoulder, and he scrambled over to her.

  She was barely breathing. Without the presence of Charice possessing her, the plague was starting to eat her frail body alive. Uki had to act quickly.

  He grabbed the spear, feeling terrible that it had actually cut into her. Luckily, it was just her shoulder, but perhaps he shouldn’t have thrown it so hard? He grabbed her arm with one paw and the spear haft with the other and pulled.

  Granny Maggitch’s body was very old, her muscles like stringy wire. The spear came out easily and Uki was relieved to see the wound wasn’t deep. He would tend to it later. As quickly as he could, he unscrewed the crystal from the haft and slotted it into his harness.

  Just like before, he could feel the orange light that was Iffrit’s binding power flow out from his body, enveloping the new crystal. He felt the same electric charge of energy as Charice’s power became his own. But somehow it was different this time.

  The other spirits had given Uki immense strength, speed and healing. Charice’s green glow brought him something else. It was a new kind of sense – a connection – joining him to all the living things around him. Similar to when he had first entered the fen and become aware of the teeming life everywhere, but much more intense. It was like he could pick out every single creature – all the countless grubs and maggots, the larger forms of Jori, Kree and Granny Maggi
tch – he could see their life force in his mind. He could feel the energies coursing through them, he knew how each cell in their body was knitted to the others, how every part of them should feed and shape and work with the rest.

  There was a noise at the edge of the earthen platform and he looked up to see Kree clambering out of the larvae, dragging Jori up by her arm. She pulled the larger rabbit safely clear and then did a funny little dance, shaking all the squirming grubs from her body and out of her clothes.

  ‘Ukku neekneek bulbu bu!’ she shouted. ‘That is the most disgusting thing that has ever happened to me!’

  Uki wanted to rush over to them, but he could feel that something was not right with Jori. When he looked at her with his new sight, he could see the toll that her dusk potion had taken. All her energy had burned away, her every muscle had been strained and pulled to the utmost limit. Her brain was thumping with the exertion of driving everything at extra speed, her heart was sore from pounding blood around her system.

  Uki closed his eyes and focused on his friend. He spoke to the hurting parts of her body and told them to fix themselves. Instead of using Charice’s power to send flowering packages of germs bubbling through her blood, he soothed and healed. He lent some of his strength to her gut, helping it draw energy from the food there. He sent that speeding around her system, giving it power to knit and mend. He calmed the parts of her brain that were blazing with alarms, taking away all the pain she felt. He put all the pieces back into their correct Jori-places, as best he could. Some of the fixing would take more time, he could see, but her body was young and strong. She would be fine.

  ‘What … what did you do?’ Jori was looking up at him, eyes wide, jaw open. ‘I could feel you taking it away … all the sickness from the potion. It’s gone …’

  ‘It’s Charice’s power,’ Uki said. ‘I … I could see what was wrong with you … and then I made it better.’

  ‘Now that is a good power to have!’ Kree laughed and did another little dance. Uki ran over to her then, and grabbed her in a hug. They tumbled to the ground and hugged Jori too, squeezing each other tight with the pleasure of being safe and alive.

  ‘How did you manage to stab the snake?’ Uki asked when they finally untangled themselves. ‘I thought the maggots had eaten you.’

  ‘They tried to,’ said Jori, cringing. ‘They were everywhere. And I felt so sick, I could barely move. Then when Charice started talking to you, it eased off. I managed to get my nose above the surface – I could just touch the bottom with my toes – and I could see what was going on.’

  ‘But wasn’t it Kree who had the sword?’ Uki asked.

  ‘Yes. I could feel something thrashing away nearby. I managed to get over to it, and it was Kree. We kept our heads just under the surface and came up with a plan.’

  ‘It was my idea, actually,’ said Kree. ‘I climbed on Jori’s shoulders, and she walked along the bottom. Then I chopped that huge creature with the sword … swish! I was amazing, wasn’t I?’

  ‘My sword!’ Jori sat up, looking around for her precious weapon. Fortunately, it was still jutting out of the snake’s side. The enormous adder had collapsed when Charice was captured and was now lying lifeless, half buried in larvae. The diseases in its body had completely taken hold and its flesh was dissolving like ice in the midday sun.

  As Jori went to retrieve her blade, Uki remembered Granny Maggitch and ran over to her, peeling her tattered cloak aside to see if there was anything he could do.

  She was barely alive. Uki put a paw to her head and drew on his new power, but was horrified to see the damage Charice had done. Every part of the old rabbit was riddled with some kind of sickness. Through and through, down to her bones.

  ‘Jori, hold out your sword,’ he said. With a worried look on her face, she did as he asked, but Uki had no intention of harming Granny Maggitch. Instead, he pricked his thumb on the blade and squeezed out a drop of blood, just as he had done with the Gurdles. He gently opened the old rabbit’s mouth and let it fall on her tongue.

  ‘I don’t know if it will be enough,’ he said. ‘But with the help of Charice’s power, I might be able to save her.’

  ‘I’ll carry her outside,’ said Jori. ‘I can’t believe I feel strong enough after taking that much dusk potion, but I think I can manage it.’

  Uki nodded, lifting Granny Maggitch up and passing her to Jori. They turned to look at the sea of larvae between them and the chamber door.

  ‘I am not going back through that,’ said Kree.

  ‘I don’t think you’ll have to,’ said Uki. He closed his eyes and opened his senses to the teeming sparks of life in the ditch. They were all wrong somehow. The simple creatures that Charice had rebuilt into new, toxic forms, their only purpose being to deliver her carefully crafted diseases. He could feel their pain, their anguish at every part of themselves being twisted in ways they shouldn’t be. Even though they were basically just mouths connected to stomachs, they knew there was a problem. They could sense their bodies weren’t assembled properly and it was causing them distress. But it was Charice’s will that held them together, that kept their mutated forms from collapsing. A will that was now Uki’s.

  Rest, he told them. Let go. You are free now.

  One by one, he released them. He sent his new power coursing through the ditch, taking away all the corruption and damage that Charice had caused. The little larvae blinked out in their hundreds of thousands, their frantic wriggling gradually ceasing. Further still, he reached out across the marshes, the lakes, the rivers – the entire Fenlands – seeking out the creatures who had fallen to Charice’s diseases. He made the viruses turn on themselves, burning out and devouring each other. He freed their hosts, curing and healing some, allowing others to sink slowly to the marsh bottom, where their bodies would become food. The process of mending and recovery had begun. With time and growth, he knew, all trace of the evil ancient spirit would be wiped away.

  Back in Granny Maggitch’s chamber, the ditch was still. The surface level of the larvae sank down as the little grubs perished and dissolved, leaving a shallow pool of filthy swamp water in the bottom. The hunks of meat and bone they had been eating jutted up here and there like the hulls of wrecked ships.

  ‘I’m still not walking through that,’ said Kree. ‘Not even with galoshes on.’

  In the end, they used the wooden chair like a stepping stone, throwing it into the ditch, and then leaping on to it from the island, then off again to larvae-free ground. Uki was last to jump, but before he did he paused, looking back down at the spot where Granny Maggitch had lain.

  There, where it had been dropped, was Charice’s last creation. The dragonfly nymph with the life-ending plague brewing inside. Its six spindly legs were still working as it tried to drag itself across the floor. Its spiky, plated body twitched, bloated with evil poison.

  Once more, Uki closed his eyes and focused his new power on it, sensing the poisonous life force within. He could pick out which parts of the soupy goo would twist its eyes, wings, legs and organs. He could see the invisibly small particles that would explode into plague when they touched another living body.

  Slowly, taking great care to be thorough, he pulled apart the virus piece by tiny piece. He unmade it so thoroughly, there was no trace it had ever existed. Then he brought his booted paw down on top of the nymph, grinding it into the dirt.

  With the final, soft pop of the undone creature, he thought he could feel the new crystal on his chest buckle twitch. Charice’s life’s work, her reason for existing, had just been wiped out.

  Uki smiled to himself as he followed his friends out of the chamber.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Healing

  Stepping out into the night air, they could feel Charice’s absence even more strongly. Everything seemed fresh and new. The whole fen was a healed patient, the morning after a long, painful illness.

  ‘Neek neek!’ Mooka was still tied in place by the hut door. He jumped up an
d down in pleasure when he saw them, nuzzling Kree with his pink nose. Jori set about placing Granny Maggitch on his back, using the reins to tie her in place.

  ‘Where’s Coal?’ Uki said, peering around the dark camp. There were moving flashes of light at the bottom of the hill, where the Gurdles and Maggitches had been battling, but the top of the mound seemed deserted.

  ‘Maybe he went down to join the fighting,’ suggested Kree.

  ‘Maybe he got hurt,’ said Uki. ‘I’d better try and find him.’

  Uki set off at a jog, in and out of the huts and bushes. He half expected to find Coal lying wounded somewhere, a thought that deeply upset him, and so was very relieved when he spotted a figure in the gloom. By the way it leaned on the crutch at its side, it couldn’t be anyone else but the one-legged smith. He was standing by the pit that Uki had been trapped in, staring down at the bottom.

  ‘Coal?’ Uki called as he drew closer. ‘Are you all right?’

  Coal looked up, the frown on his face melting into a smile as he recognised Uki. ‘Well, bless my ears! You did it!’ He reached out to clasp wrists with Uki and gave his arm a squeeze. ‘I could feel it, you know. It was like something had been crushing me all these past weeks, and then it was suddenly lifted.’

  ‘Yes, I got her,’ Uki said, tapping the green crystal on his harness. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘Oh,’ said Coal, looking back into the hole. ‘I got my breath back, you see, and then I was just standing around. I remember you said about those rabbits in the pit that were going to hurt you … so I thought I’d see for myself. Teach them a lesson maybe.’

  The pit was dark as pitch, but Uki could see that the wooden grille had been lifted off. A fresh trail of torn-up mud led from the far edge, off down the mound.

  ‘They’ve escaped,’ Uki said.

  ‘It would seem so.’