Escape From Wolfhaven Castle

by Kate Forsyth

  ‘Look, they wear my father’s wolf insignia!’ Elanor cried in excitement. ‘They can help us!’ She stood up and waved at them.

  The two knights suddenly lifted their bows and aimed at the boat. ‘Watch out!’ shrieked Quinn. One arrow whizzed so close to Elanor’s face, it raised a thin red welt along her cheek. She stumbled back, her hand to her face.

  ‘But … they’re my father’s men …’

  ‘Must be the invaders in disguise,’ Tom said, as the sound of galloping hooves disturbed the mist. ‘Everybody down!’

  The knights began chasing them along the harbour’s edge, little more than dark, racing shapes in the fog.

  ‘Quick, let’s put up the sail,’ Quinn cried. Then, when everyone else looked around, worried and confused, she said, ‘Here, Tom, take the oars and row, while I do it. We need to get away!’

  Quinn lifted the mast up from where it lay in the bottom of the boat, and set it in its socket. Sebastian held it steady for her while she secured it with pins, and then together they unfurled the brown sail. Tom, meanwhile, had been gallantly rowing while Elanor kept an eye on the riders, who were drawing closer to them with each stride. The first rider released the reins as he lifted high a bow and arrow. The arrow had been set alight. ‘Fire!’ cried Elanor, as it soared toward them, leaving a stinking trail of smoke and ashes.

  A wind sprang out of nowhere, and the sail bellied out. The boat sprang forward, and the arrow fell into their wake, sizzling as it hit the water. The rider aimed another fiery arrow, but it was too late. With the wind behind them, the boat surged ahead, and the galloping riders were left far behind.

  The children shouted with relief and Sebastian pumped his fist into the air.

  ‘Goodbye,’ Tom called. ‘Hope to never see you again.’

  ‘Thank you, Owl-Eyes,’ Quinn said, and patted the side of the boat as if it was a dog or a horse.

  ‘Thank you,’ Elanor said, her eyes shining. ‘Thank you, all of you.’

  The boat sailed on into the mist. The rocking motion lulled the exhausted children. An hour passed, and then another, and still the boat sailed on up the river. One by one, the children laid down their heads on their arms. ‘I’m so tired,’ Elanor murmured.

  ‘Me too,’ Tom said, huddling the grey cloak close about him. ‘But we should push on. We’re still too close to the castle.’

  But then Quinn yawned, and they all yawned with her. Even Fergus, showing a lolling pink tongue and sharp pointed teeth.

  ‘Need … to … rest,’ Quinn said. She was so tired her whole body ached. She yawned again, so widely her jaw made a cracking sound, and drew her shawl closer about her.

  ‘Maybe we can stop … just for a little while,’ Tom replied. He steered the boat towards the shore and tied it to a low-hanging branch.

  ‘One of us should stand guard,’ Sebastian said, lifting his head from his arm.

  ‘Fergus will,’ Tom said. Fergus’s ears pricked up. ‘Fergus, guard,’ Tom added.

  ‘Good dog,’ Elanor murmured.

  The wolfhound’s tail thumped in response.

  ‘All right then. Just for a minute or two.’ Sebastian lay down again, his arm flung across his eyes.

  The only sound was the lap, lap, lap of the river against the boat’s wooden sides. Fergus yawned again and stretched out across Tom’s feet. His ears slowly sunk. He shut his eyes and began to snore.

  Nobody heard him. They were all fast asleep.

  13

  ARGUING

  Elanor stirred and opened her eyes. She looked up into leafy fronds. She stared in wonderment. Where was her four-poster bed, with its velvet curtains?

  Slowly her memory returned to her. The battle with the bog-men, the escape through the caverns under the castle, then the wild ride through the underground river on the boat with the eyes of an owl.

  Elanor sat up. She was still in the boat. The other three were fast asleep, under blankets. Fergus lay with his head on his paws, one ear cocked. He lifted his head and gazed at her as she looked around.

  The boat was now rocking gently against the bank of a round green pool, under the shelter of a willow tree. Elanor could see little beyond its leafy fronds, but she could hear the roar of what sounded like a waterfall. She frowned in puzzlement. Where were they?

  She spent little time wondering about it. A more pressing problem was bothering her. Elanor was in desperate need of a chamber-pot. She realised with a sinking heart that she was going to have to crouch down behind a tree and relieve herself there. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment. What would Mistress Mauldred say about that?

  Ladies do not pee behind trees!

  Elanor had to smile at the thought. She wriggled out from under the blanket and did her best to climb out of the boat without waking anyone else up. It was impossible not to set the boat rocking, though. The other three all stirred and yawned and stretched, then looked at her, half-in and half-out of the boat.

  ‘Where are we?’

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Where are you going?’

  The other three spoke almost simultaneously.

  ‘I … I’m just … I don’t know,’ said Elanor, as she made it to the shore.

  ‘How did we get here?’

  ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Did we drift upstream?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she answered again, crossing her legs awkwardly.

  Sebastian turned to Tom. ‘You can’t have tied us up very securely.’

  ‘But I did. I know I did.’

  ‘Perhaps the boat brought us here to safety,’ Quinn broke in. ‘Perhaps we tied up too close to the town, and perhaps the bog-men would have sniffed us out.’

  Everyone was silent, caught between amazement and unease.

  ‘Well we’d better work out where we are,’ Tom said and jumped out of the boat, ‘but first I need to pee!’ He strode off behind the tree, and Elanor’s face turned even hotter. She covered her ears so she didn’t have to hear him.

  Quinn grinned at her. ‘Let’s find another tree.’

  The two girls went off in the other direction and stood guard for each other, then washed their hands in the pool. It was set among willow trees, with steep rocky banks behind. At the far end of the valley was a waterfall that plunged in long, white ribbons down a cliff. To the north, mountains rose up, grey and forbidding under a heavy mantle of cloud. Mist lay over the trees in faint wisps, growing thicker to the south.

  Quinn and Elanor met the boys back at the boat. Tom was busy getting out more food from the knapsacks. Fergus wagged his tail eagerly, and Tom tossed him a sausage.

  ‘Don’t eat it all,’ Quinn suggested, jumping back into the boat. ‘We’re in the midst of the forest, we might have trouble finding more food.’

  ‘There’s always food in a forest,’ Tom responded blithely, taking a huge bite of a pork pie.

  All four children and the wolfhound busied themselves eating. No-one was able to stop themselves finishing every last crumb. It must be after noon, Elanor thought. It was hard to tell since the sun was hidden behind the fog. They must have slept the morning away.

  ‘I’ve been thinking,’ Sebastian burst out. ‘Someone must have unlocked the gate to let all those black knights and those leathery bog-creatures into the castle. How else could they have got in so easily?’

  ‘I saw someone unlocking it,’ Tom said. ‘With the key from the great hall.’

  ‘Who was it?’ Sebastian demanded.

  ‘I didn’t see their face,’ Tom answered. ‘They were wearing a hooded cloak, and it was dark.’

  ‘It had to be someone from inside the castle,’ Quinn said. ‘Else how did they get the key?’

  ‘Oh, no, surely not,’ Elanor whispered.

  No-one liked the thought of a traitor in the castle.

  ‘No-one would,’ Elanor repeated. ‘I can’t stop thinking of my father, taken prisoner, and all the castle folk too. What if they’ve been hurt? We have to rescue them.
’

  ‘But how?’ Sebastian asked.

  ‘We have to go and find the four magical beasts,’ Quinn said. ‘Then we can wake the sleeping heroes and defeat the enemy.’

  ‘That witch of yours is wandering in her wits,’ Sebastian retorted. ‘There are no sleeping heroes under the castle. It’s just an old story. Like dragons and unicorns. Everyone knows they don’t really exist.’

  ‘But what if they do? Arwen said the world is full of magical things and we just need to have an open heart to see them.’

  ‘She also said stones could sing,’ Sebastian answered.

  ‘Maybe they can,’ Quinn replied stoutly. ‘After all, who could ever imagine that Wolfhaven Castle would be stormed by men made of leather and bone?’

  ‘We need to find help,’ Elanor said. ‘We can’t rescue everyone by ourselves.’

  ‘My mam said to go and find my father,’ Tom said.

  ‘So where’s he?’ Sebastian asked.

  ‘In the forest somewhere,’ Tom answered.

  ‘But where in the forest?’

  Tom shrugged and looked uncomfortable. ‘She said to look for him where the wolves howl.’

  At the word ‘wolves’, Fergus’s ears pricked up and he growled softly.

  Sebastian looked disgusted. ‘Where the wolves howl? That’s not much help. They howl everywhere.’

  ‘But the prophecy mentioned wolves,’ Quinn argued.

  ‘And it also mentioned unicorns,’ Sebastian snapped back. ‘Besides, what good is just one man? We need an army! We should go to the nearest castle and beg the lord to help us.’

  ‘Yes,’ Elanor cried. She thought of being safe behind castle walls, with a soft bed to sleep in … and chamber-pots. ‘Yes, let’s do that.’

  ‘So where are we?’ Sebastian asked.

  ‘There was a map in the locker,’ Quinn said. She pulled it out and they unfolded it, four heads leaning together to examine it.

  Spread out before them was the Kingdom of Stormness, guarded by mountains to the north and east, and by blue ocean to the south and west. The land was shaped like a running girl, one arm stretched before her, skirts billowing. Wolfhaven Castle was like a gemstone on the blue river and harbour that made up her choker necklace. The long chain of castles that guarded Stormness from her enemies to the east ran down like buttons to the king’s stronghold, Stormholt Castle, the jewelled tip of her slipper, far to the south.

  But the boat had sailed upriver, to the wild north.

  ‘I think this must be Frostwithy Falls,’ Quinn replied, pointing to a picture of a waterfall far to the north. ‘It’s the source of Wolfhaven River. That means we have travelled about six hours up the river.’

  ‘So where’s the nearest castle?’ Sebastian asked.

  Tom put his finger on a picture of a tall, forbidding-looking castle, set on a rock in the sea, surrounded by cliffs. ‘It’s Frostwick Castle.’

  ‘Right,’ Sebastian said. ‘That’s where we’ll head.’

  ‘Frostwick Castle! Lord Mortlake of Frostwick wanted to make a trade agreement with my father,’ Elanor said. ‘Surely he’ll help us!’

  ‘But the Grand Teller told us we had to wake the sleeping heroes,’ Quinn protested. ‘She didn’t tell us to seek help from a lord!’

  ‘I tell you what, if we see any sea-serpents on the way, we’ll grab a scale from it,’ Sebastian said. ‘In the meantime, let’s try and do something practical. Getting help from someone with his own army makes a lot more sense right now.’

  ‘Still, I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do.’

  Quinn frowned. ‘There was something I didn’t like about Lord Mortlake.’ Tom met her eyes, his own just as troubled. Quinn hesitated, and then pulled out the small bag of tell-stones Arwen had given her. ‘Let me throw the stones.’

  She laid out four white stones and stared at them, frowning.

  ‘What do they say?’ Tom asked.

  Quinn pointed at one stone after another. ‘Crossroads means it is a moment of decision …’

  ‘We needed a pebble to tell us that?’ Sebastian jeered.

  Quinn ignored him. ‘Ring means that a time or a season is coming to an end, and a new one is beginning. Bird means flight, or escape, or freedom. Dark Moon means darkness and fallow times, and … sometimes … black magic.’

  ‘Well, that’s reassuring,’ Sebastian said sarcastically.

  ‘What does it all mean?’ Elanor asked. ‘Surely it means that we’re escaping from darkness and black magic?’

  ‘Except the Dark Moon stone came last. That means it lies ahead of us.’

  Elanor gasped, then pressed her hands over her mouth. She looked imploringly at Sebastian.

  He stood up. ‘Lady Elanor wants to seek shelter at Frostwick Castle. I think we should do what she wants. Aren’t we in the employ of her father, after all?’

  ‘Well, yes, but …’ Tom objected.

  ‘But nothing. What our lady desires, so I am sworn to deliver.’ Sebastian bowed deeply, but the boat rocked and he almost fell overboard.

  Tom grinned, and Elanor tried to hide her smile. She thought Sebastian was very well-mannered indeed, if rather clumsy. Mistress Mauldred would have approved of him. A gentleman is always gallant, she would say.

  ‘But what if the Lord of Frostwick Castle has something to do with the invasion of Wolfhaven?’ Tom interrupted. ‘I’ve been thinking …’

  ‘Good heavens, a pot-boy thinking,’ Sebastian mocked.

  Tom flashed him a look of annoyance, but persevered. ‘I reckon it was that Jack Spry who opened the gate for the bog-men. He’s the only real stranger at the castle, and it just seems all too coincidental that he should start living there only a few weeks before the castle is invaded.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Sebastian agreed.

  ‘No,’ Elanor spoke up quickly. ‘Jack Spry wouldn’t have betrayed us. He was so grateful to us for letting him stay. He said he’d be starving in the streets if we didn’t let him stay.’

  ‘A likely story,’ Sebastian said with disgust in his voice. ‘Well, I saw him sneaking off to explore the castle. He would have seen the key hanging upon the fireplace in the great hall. He was probably checking out the best way to drag it to the gate. It’s so big he couldn’t lift it easily.’

  ‘I wouldn’t have thought he’d be strong enough to open the gate,’ Quinn said.

  ‘And I guess he was strong enough to steal all my father’s silver …’ Elanor admitted, solemnly.

  ‘Perhaps he let down a rope for those bog-men to climb and they helped him open the gate,’ Tom suggested. ‘Anyway, Lord Mortlake brought the boy in a pie. They’re in cahoots.’

  ‘Do you really think so?’ Elanor asked. ‘Jack Spry said he hated Lord Mortlake and was glad to have been able to leave him.’

  ‘Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he, if they were in cahoots.’ Tom looked around at the others. ‘Don’t you see? I really don’t think we should risk going to Frostwick Castle.’

  Elanor felt tears prickle her eyes. ‘But there’s nowhere else for us to go. It’s not safe out here in the forest. There are wolves. And bears. And witches. And bandits.’ She dabbed her eyes with the trailing sleeve of her dress.

  ‘Now look what you’ve done,’ Sebastian said to Tom.

  ‘All right,’ Tom said. ‘It’s okay, Lady Elanor. We’ll go to Frostwick Castle if you really think we should.’

  Elanor’s tears dried up at once. She smiled at him radiantly.

  ‘Just don’t blame me if we all end up in a dungeon,’ Tom added, hoisting his knapsack onto his back.

  Elanor could not help thinking that Tom could have done with a few hours reading A Lady’s Complete Guide to Manners, Morals & Modesty. Surely a gentleman should never insist on having the last word?

  14

  FROSTWICK CASTLE

  Tom left the boat tied up under the willow tree. ‘It may come in useful,’ he said. ‘If we need a quick escape.’

  Sebastian
rolled his eyes. ‘Soon we’ll be riding back to Wolfhaven Castle at the head of an army. We won’t be needing a boat.’

  ‘Better safe than sorry,’ Tom said.

  While tucking the cushions and blankets away in the locker, Quinn found a compass. ‘This may come in useful,’ she said, holding it up.

  Sebastian grabbed it. ‘I’ll take that.’

  ‘Why do you get it?’ Tom said furiously, pausing in the act of tucking the map into his knapsack.

  ‘Squires are trained to read compasses,’ Sebastian answered. ‘My guess is you’ve never even seen one before. I don’t recall ever seeing a compass in a kitchen,’ he scoffed.

  Tom went red, and jumped ashore. Without looking back, he stormed up the path, Fergus at his heels.

  ‘You don’t need to be so rude to him all the time,’ Quinn said, picking up the other knapsack.

  ‘Rude?’ Sebastian was astonished. ‘I’m not rude.’

  ‘You are,’ she said, and hurried up the track after Tom. Elanor followed, looking back at Sebastian with her brow all scrunched up.

  Sebastian stumped along behind. He hadn’t spoken with malice, he reassured himself. He was just stating an obvious truth.

  The slope was steep, but there was a clear path with stone steps here and there, to make the climb easier. He soon caught up with the girls, though Tom rushed on ahead, whacking at trees with an old stick. The other three all walked in silence. Gradually they caught up to Tom, though he would not look at them. Sebastian wondered if he should apologise, then told himself angrily that the pot-boy should get over it.

  The four walked on and on and on.

  ‘There’s something odd about this forest,’ Tom said eventually. ‘Have you noticed?’

  ‘No birds,’ Quinn said at once.

  ‘That’s right. And no rabbits either. Or foxes. I’ve seen nothing living at all.’

  Sebastian looked around in surprise. It was true the forest was very still and quiet. ‘What does it mean?’ He put his hand on his sword-hilt. ‘Are we in danger?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Tom replied. ‘Maybe it’s just been hunted too much. It does mean we can’t catch anything for our supper.’