The School between Winter and Fairyland

by Heather Fawcett

  First published by Allen & Unwin in 2021

  Copyright © Text, Heather Fawcett 2021

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

  Allen & Unwin

  83 Alexander Street

  Crows Nest NSW 2065

  Australia

  Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

  Email: info@allenandunwin.com

  Web: www.allenandunwin.com

  ISBN 978 1 76052 654 2

  eISBN 978 1 76106 274 2

  For teaching resources, explore www.allenandunwin.com/resources/for-teachers

  Cover design by Kirby Armstrong

  Cover illustration by Dana SanMar

  Typography by Catherine Lee

  CONTENTS

  1 IN WHICH AUTUMN MEETS AN UNUSUAL MAGICIAN

  2 IN WHICH AUTUMN TAKES THE BOGGART FOR A WALK

  3 IN WHICH CAI MORRIGAN NEEDS A FAVOR

  4 IN WHICH AUTUMN DOESN’T SEE HERSELF IN THE MIRROR

  5 IN WHICH A MAGICIAN COMES TO DINNER

  6 IN WHICH AUTUMN VISITS THE SKYBRARY

  7 IN WHICH WINTER REMEMBERS HIS NAME

  8 IN WHICH CAI SWALLOWS TOO MUCH MAGIC

  9 IN WHICH CAI IS SOMETHING

  10 IN WHICH WINTER WAKES THE BOGGART

  11 IN WHICH CAI HUNTS FOR SPELLPRINTS

  12 IN WHICH THE BOGGART SCORCHES THE SKY

  13 IN WHICH AUTUMN IS ENTANGLED

  14 IN WHICH THE DARK COMES FOR WINTER

  15 IN WHICH AUTUMN’S PLAN HAS HOLES

  16 IN WHICH CHOO SAVES THE DAY

  17 IN WHICH AUTUMN HAS A TERRIBLE IDEA

  18 IN WHICH THERE IS A CLOAK FULL OF MONSTERS

  19 IN WHICH WINTER DRIFTS TOO FAR

  20 IN WHICH THE GWYLLIONS TAKE WHAT IS THEIRS

  21 IN WHICH A BOY IS PUT BACK TOGETHER

  22 IN WHICH THE BOGGART IS A LITTLE BIT HUMAN

  23 IN WHICH AUTUMN WADES INTO THE STARS

  24 IN WHICH THEY GO BACK TO WHERE THEY BEGAN

   1

  IN WHICH AUTUMN MEETS AN UNUSUAL MAGICIAN

  The dragon wasn’t happy with the roses. No matter how Autumn cajoled and pleaded, Amfidzel refused to leave her garden, declaring that she wasn’t going anywhere until she’d plucked all the aphids off the drooping stems.

  Jack’s round face was pale. “What do we do?”

  Autumn tapped her foot, surveying the darkening sky. All monsters in Inglenook School’s menagerie had to be stabled by sunset—that was the rule, and there’d be trouble if anyone found out that a dragon had been left to lurk the grounds after dark. Not that Amfidzel was particularly lurky, as dragons went. She’d huff and puff over the dying roses until she huffed and puffed herself out, then she’d fall asleep among the lady’s slippers.

  Like all dragons, Amfidzel was obsessed with flowers. She spent her days hovering over her honey-scented hoard, pruning and plucking and weeding.

  Jack patted Amfidzel’s flank. “Can’t she stay out a little longer?”

  “Oh, Jack.” Autumn drew her softhearted brother out of range of Amfidzel’s horns. Jack was forever making pets out of the monsters, giving them names and fussing over them when they were sick. When he was little, he used to put raincoats on the Hounds of Arawn when he took them down the mountain for walks—as if they were real dogs, not ghostly, coal-eyed beasts that howled at impending death. It was a wonder Jack had made it to thirteen with all his limbs.

  Autumn was tired. She’d spent all afternoon mucking out the stalls in the menagerie, and she didn’t have any patience for dillydallying dragons. She drew a breath and spoke into Amfidzel’s mind. Do you want to get Gran in trouble?

  No, Amfidzel said sulkily. Autumn’s grandmother was the menagerie’s head beastkeeper, and had hand-raised most of the monsters, including Amfidzel herself. It wasn’t entirely accurate to say that Gran was like a mother to Amfidzel, but she was certainly more mother than paid keeper.

  Autumn decided to change tactics. If you’re good, I’ll bring you a present tomorrow.

  Amfidzel’s head lifted at that. She was a snowy dragon, white as milk but for a ridge of golden scales down her back. Snowy dragons were only about twenty feet from nose to tail when full-grown, but what they lacked in size they made up for and then some with their enormous antlers. The tips were poisoned: one scratch and you’d fall into a slumber from which not even the mightiest magician could wake. Amfidzel, though, was only ten years old, or about five in dragon years, and almost sweet, if you looked past the antlers and shadowy red eyes.

  What sort of present? The dragon’s pointed face brightened. Another rosebush?

  Autumn didn’t have the heart to tell Amfidzel she didn’t seem to have a green thumb where roses were concerned. Jack’s eyes darted between them, his brow furrowed. He wasn’t very good at the Speech—half the time, the monsters ignored him.

  I’ll talk to Miss Ewing down in the village, Autumn said. She may have some lily seeds from beyond the Blue Mountains.

  Hmph. Amfidzel cast another mournful look at the roses and followed Autumn and Jack out of the garden. Autumn breathed a sigh of relief.

  The dragon’s garden was enclosed by three tumbledown stone walls that had probably been a farmer’s house long, long ago, back when the Gentlewood had been only a shadow on the horizon. It was a small garden by dragon standards—two neat plots of vegetables, a strawberry patch, and a tangled bed of pansies and sweet violets. The oldest dragons had acres of fragrant flowers, vegetables, blooming shrubs for all seasons, and fruit trees. Amfidzel’s mother had turned a slope in the Blue Mountains red with tulips and poppies, and laced the scree with creeping hibiscus and mounds of rhododendrons. Gran had seen it with her own eyes, for she was the one who had stolen Amfidzel for the menagerie when she was just an egg. Dragons protected their gardens more ferociously than they did their children.

  Autumn led Amfidzel up the muddy mountain path toward the menagerie. Above them, Inglenook School of Magic gleamed against the twilight. It was nestled into the southern face of Mythroor, the largest of the Taran Mountains, having been enchanted into existence from the stones of the mountains by magicians who knew nothing about architecture but wanted something impressive and grand. Inglenook was impressive, in a confusing sort of way: a huge pile of columns and turrets and towers and—unaccountably—a drawbridge (there was no moat); your eyes slid all over the school as if trying to work out an optical illusion.

  Smoke puffed out of the turret above the banquet hall, where the windows glowed golden. Autumn wondered what sort of feast the magicians within were sitting down to—cabbage rolls and roast duck? Bacon and sweet potato pie? She shivered in the October air, her stomach knotting with a hunger that wasn’t entirely for food.

  Autumn had grown up in the shadow of Inglenook, in the little beastkeepers’ cottage at the edge of the grounds. She knew it was silly to long for something she could never have—for a place at that banquet table, to be among those students as they swept from class to class in their long cloaks. She wasn’t a magician. She was a servant, same as the rest of her family. She could gaze into the world of Inglenook, like gazing into a pond full of col
orful fish, but she would never be part of it.

  Autumn and Jack led Amfidzel into Inglenook’s menagerie, a large stone paddock with a floor heated by an underground spring. The flagstones had been soaked in seawater, which had a soothing effect on monsters—for the same reason that the sea had a soothing effect on people, Gran thought, but nobody really knew for sure.

  Autumn put Amfidzel in her stall, which was roomy and lined with floral tapestries that the dragon had selected herself. The stall was next to the griffin and across from the wyverns, who were already asleep. Not all the school’s monsters were housed in the menagerie—there were some that were simply too dangerous.

  One in particular.

  “Here you go,” Autumn said, tipping vegetable scraps into Amfidzel’s trough. “Gran will be in later to say good night.”

  “I guess I’ll round up the wisps,” Jack said sadly. Rounding up the wisps usually involved hitting the pesky things with a stick to stun them, then shoving them into a sack. Jack hated it.

  Autumn sighed. Though Jack was her favorite older brother, he was unquestionably the worst beastkeeper. She should have asked Kyffin or even Emys for help—despite being the world’s biggest pests, they could at least be counted on not to waste time coddling things that would sooner bite your arm off than thank you. Autumn often wondered what she had done to deserve the curse of three older brothers and not one sister, but then Gran often said that everyone had their burdens to bear in life.

  I’m your brother too, Winter had always said whenever she complained.

  You’re all right, Autumn would respond. You’re younger. Younger brothers are okay.

  Ten minutes younger, he’d snort.

  A person can gain a lot of wisdom in ten minutes.

  Mud pies, too. A person can get a lot of those in ten minutes. And he’d scoop up a handful of mud and send it whizzing past her head as she ran away laughing.

  At the other end of the menagerie, one of the Hounds of Arawn stirred in her stall, crooning hungrily as she tasted Autumn’s sadness. Autumn forced her thoughts of Winter away. It was dangerous to be sad among monsters.

  “I’ll find the wisps,” she told Jack. “You go help Emys with supper. It’s his turn, and I’d rather not eat burned potatoes again.”

  Jack’s face lit. He wrapped her in one of his warm hugs and kissed her cheek.

  “Yuck,” Autumn grumbled. “Go away.”

  Jack grinned and ran off in the direction of the cottage.

  Autumn ghosted into the twilight. She could move as quietly as a pooka and as quickly as a crested dragon when she wanted to.

  Part monster yourself, Gran had once told her proudly. The best beastkeepers usually are.

  The wind was silken against her cheeks, still woven with a trace of summer. Autumn ran to the dark side of the mountain, which stretched its long shadow over the treetops. She found the wisps hovering at the edge of the forest, framed against the black boughs.

  The forest that clothed the slopes below Inglenook was part of the Gentlewood, the great forest that surrounded the Kingdom of Eryree on two sides. Every year, the Gentlewood crept deeper and deeper into Eryree, no matter how often the king’s soldiers burned it back. All forests got bigger if left to their own devices, but the Gentlewood’s growth was fed by the magic of the creatures that made their homes there. The part that touched Inglenook’s grounds was a long finger extending off the main sweep of the forest, less dangerous, but still home to a variety of monsters.

  From a distance, the wisps looked like little orbs, but close up you could sometimes make out a hint of a grinning face or the flicker of wings. Autumn crept up behind them and pounced, walloping two with a stick and trapping them in her sackcloth net.

  Cloud-headed dunce! one of the wisps shrieked at her. I’ll bite your toes off!

  Autumn swung her stick, which connected with a nice ping. The wisp went down.

  The remaining wisps swarmed, hollering insults and threats. It was the only speech they were capable of—even in a good mood, all they did was jabber at each other. Wisps liked to lure travelers astray in the wilderness by mimicking the distant glow of a cozy hearth, but otherwise they weren’t particularly dangerous—just annoying.

  Cauliflower hair!

  I’ll poke your eye out, you duck-footed lummox!

  One of the wisps got itself tangled in Autumn’s hair, while another flew up the back of her cloak. After dancing about for a moment, giggling uncontrollably, she dropped to the ground and rolled. The wisp up her cloak let out a soft merp and stopped squirming, and she stuffed it into the net with the others. It felt like cupping dandelion seeds.

  A peal of laughter rang through the shadows. Autumn froze.

  Charging out of the forest, cloaks streaming behind them, were two boys. As they neared, Autumn saw that one of the boys was Gawain Gruffid, best friend of Cai Morrigan, the most famous magician in the kingdom. Cai was only twelve, like Autumn, but he was prophesied to one day slay the Hollow Dragon, the deadliest monster in the world. Cai had fought and killed a pooka when he was only ten years old—no one knew exactly how; each story was wilder than the last.

  The other boy was Cai Morrigan himself.

  Cai paused in the forest’s shadow, gazing into the trees. His face in the moonlight was alive with longing.

  Who looks at the Gentlewood like that? Autumn thought, neck prickling.

  Cai backed away from the trees slowly, as if fighting a retreating wave. Gawain called him, and Cai ran to catch up.

  Autumn started and shrank back, hoping to fade into the twilight. But there wasn’t anything to hide behind, and the wisps glowed faintly through the sackcloth. The boys came to a halt.

  “Who’s there?” Cai called, trying to peer into her shadowed hood.

  Autumn’s heart thudded. She knew exactly who Cai Morrigan was—everybody in Eryree did—but she’d never been so close to him. She was suddenly very aware of her mud-stained cloak, her disheveled hair with a wisp tangled in it, and her handed-down work boots, which had a hole in the left toe.

  Cai and Gawain, on the other hand, were resplendent in Inglenook cloaks that might have been cut from the twilight, glossy black with lavender trim. Gawain’s tie was askew, and Cai’s plaid scarf dragged in the grass, but otherwise they were the picture of two dashing magicians, who, once grown, would be treated as royalty wherever they went. Magicians were the protectors of Eryree, the only ones who could stop the advance of the Gentlewood and its monsters. Only the king and queen were more beloved.

  Autumn realized she was staring at Cai and bowed deeply. “Sir” was all she could get out.

  “It’s just a beastkeeper,” Gawain said, in the same way you’d say It’s just a mouse.

  Cai seemed relieved. Given how famous he was, he wasn’t much to look at, with a lot of messy black hair that often hid his eyes and a delicate, heron-like frame. His light brown skin was covered in freckles that made him look younger than twelve. But his voice had a mellow, musical quality that somewhat made up for his unimpressive appearance.

  Cai squinted at Autumn, taking in her white hair and gangly legs, the only parts of her that showed around her cloak. “You’re Winter Malog, right? Could you pretend you didn’t see us? We’re not supposed to be out after dark.”

  Autumn stared. Every thought flew out of her head, and it wasn’t because the famous Cai Morrigan had asked her for help.

  “That’s not Winter,” Gawain said. He had pale skin and beautiful dark curls that fell to his chin, while his gaze had a cool, hooded quality shared by all the wealthier students at Inglenook. “Winter’s the dead one. That’s his twin sister—I don’t know her name.”

  Cai reddened. Autumn felt as if she’d swallowed something cold and slimy.

  “You didn’t see us,” Gawain said to Autumn. “Got it?”

  Autumn bowed her head. To her horror, her lip was shaking. She was not going to cry in front of Gawain. She was not.

  Gawain stepped closer. �
��I said, got it?”

  Autumn forced herself to breathe, forced herself to murmur, “Yes, sir.”

  “That wasn’t so hard.” Gawain turned to Cai. “I wish Inglenook would train its servants properly. Come on.”

  Cai’s cheeks were flaming. He murmured something that might have been an apology, and then he was racing up the mountain after Gawain. He looked once over his shoulder, but Autumn didn’t see. She was already gone, fleeing across the mountainside with her heart in her throat and furious tears stinging her eyes.

   2

  IN WHICH AUTUMN TAKES THE BOGGART FOR A WALK

  Autumn had lived beside the Gentlewood for so long that she sometimes forgot it was full of monsters. Monsters of all shapes and sizes, and some with several shapes and sizes, or none. Not all the Gentlewood’s monsters ate children—some ate sadness or fear; others had a taste for souls or hearts or toenails, especially when accompanied by a lot of screaming. But a few monsters had decidedly unmonstrous diets. Dragons ate berries, apples ripe from the tree, and vegetables they grew in their gardens. Amfidzel was particularly fond of her carrots, which grew fat and luxuriously orange, and would devour them, greens and all, with much gnashing and snorting only once they had reached—in her expert opinion—the perfect ripeness.

  The morning after Autumn’s disastrous encounter with Cai Morrigan, the entire school was buzzing with the rumor that he had snuck into the forest and fought the Hollow Dragon.

  “He’s all torn up, they say,” Ceredwen said, her green eyes wide. Like her parents, Ceredwen was a housekeeper and heard all the best gossip. “Got a scar from here”—she touched her navel—“to here.” She tapped her forehead.

  Autumn hadn’t seen any evidence of terrible wounds last night, but she wasn’t about to tell Ceredwen that. “What was he doing wandering into the forest and getting himself cut in half?” she said crossly.

  She was in one of the spare paddocks with Gran and the others, replacing rotten fence posts. The paddock lay at the foot of Mythroor, where the shade lingered most of the day, stubborn and clammy, a match for Autumn’s mood.