‘But they’ll know we’re here,’ said Edward anxiously. ‘Even if we’re hiding, they’ll know someone lit the fire.’
‘Unless they think it was a deer,’ said Potjer.
Dani and Edward stared at him.
‘I mean, a very clever deer. One who liked fire,’ added Potjer. ‘I’m just saying, they might think that.’
Dani turned back to Edward. ‘I say we do it. Unless you’ve got a better plan.’
Edward stared at her. Finally he sighed. ‘All right.’
Gronk’s hand was on Bart’s shoulder, guiding him down the other side of the hill. Gronk had never been this way before so every dozen steps he sliced a mark into a tree with his knife to help him find his way back. He knew he had already gone further than he needed, but he walked on because he was trying to put off the moment when he would have to kill the boy.
Eventually, surrounded by dense forest, he did stop. There was no point delaying any longer. He took his hand off Bart’s shoulder, unsheathed his knife, and then looked at Bart. Gronk stared at the knife in his hand. He wished Bart would try to run away, or resist. That would make it easier.
‘Run!’ he snarled, pushing Bart hard in the chest. Bart stumbled two steps back, his blank expression unchanging.
Gronk took a deep breath. He’d just have to get it over with. The boy seemed as good as dead anyway, so it wasn’t like he was murdering a proper, functioning human being. He wasn’t to blame for the boy’s condition. Randling was. He stepped forward, grabbed Bart’s shoulder and pulled back his knife, ready to thrust it into his stomach. Bart stared back at him, hands by his sides, defenceless. Gronk hesitated. He remembered how the boy had sat beside him in the cart and told him stories. They had been good stories, too. He especially liked the one about the talking banana who had run away from the fruit bowl. He gripped the knife harder, willing himself to plunge it into the boy’s guts, but his arm wouldn't move.
Eventually, he lowered his arm and kicked the nearest tree. ‘All I’m probably doing is giving you a slow, painful death over a quick, painless one,’ he said, ‘but I can’t kill you like this.’ He shook his head. ‘Soft, I am.’
Bart stood still, giving no indication that he had understood, or even heard.
‘Off you go, then. Go on. Get away!’ shouted Gronk. He turned Bart around so that he was facing deeper into the forest and shoved him between the shoulder blades. Bart started walking.
Gronk turned and ran back the way he had come. After a few minutes he stopped and turned around. There was no sight or sound of the boy. He trudged towards the cottage, trying not to think.
Dani had her flints in her hand, and her sling and four fist-sized stones in her pockets. She bent forward, left the cover of the trees and crept across the clearing to the back of the cart, keeping the wagon between her and the cottage. Once she reached it, she leant over the hay and clicked the flints together. Immediately the hay sparked alight. Quickly she retreated to the trees and then made her way around to the right-hand side of the cottage where Edward and Potjer hid. By the time she got there the wagon was ablaze.
The cottage door opened and out rushed a tall, muscular woman with a black plait and, behind her, a thin man with a goatee dressed in a white robe. The woman pulled off her jacket and used it to hit at the flames, but the fire spread until it engulfed the wagon. Another, shorter woman emerged from the cottage. The tall woman ran around the far side of the cottage and returned with a garden fork, which she used to drag the hay out of the wagon. Then she was able to smother the remaining flames with her jacket. The thin man with the goatee watched from near the cottage door, not helping at all.
Dani guessed that if Bart was inside the cottage, at most there might be one or two more people guarding him. As for the two women and the man outside, between them they seemed to be only armed with one garden fork. Surely she would never get a better chance.
‘Come on,’ hissed Dani. ‘In a moment they’ll go back inside.’
Edward swallowed and looked around. ‘Um . . .’
Dani pulled out her sling, loaded it with a stone and stepped forward into the clearing.
‘Don’t move,’ she shouted, whirling the sling above her head. The tall woman by the wagon, the man by the door and the shorter woman beside him all turned to face her.
‘Hello,’ said the thin man, staring hard at Dani.
‘Where’s Bart?’ demanded Dani.
‘Oh, my dear girl,’ said the man, smiling. ‘I understand completely. There has been a terrible misunderstanding. Come inside and I will explain everything. The boy is fine.’
Gronk saw smoke rising from the direction of the cottage and broke into a run. As he neared the cottage he slowed and hid behind a tree. Ahead, in the clearing, he saw Randling, Wanda, the maid Fleur and the wagon, which looked like it had recently been on fire. Between Gronk and the clearing was a girl with her back to him whirling a sling. Behind the girl stood a soldier and a well-dressed boy, both holding swords. Clearly they were enemies. Gronk drew his knife and crept forward.
The thin man with the goatee beard stared at Dani. She felt as if a fog was enveloping her brain. Slowly, she lowered her sling arm. On one level she knew this was a bad idea, but on another it seemed like the easy, correct and relaxing thing to do. Suddenly she heard a cry behind her and whirled around. As soon as she broke free of the thin man’s gaze her head cleared. A strong-looking bearded man was behind Edward, holding a knife to his throat. Potjer was a couple of steps away, next to a tree.
‘Drop your sling,’ the bearded man called, ‘or he gets it.’
Dani knew she had to act quickly. The two women and the man behind her could be on her in seconds, and then she would be their prisoner. She turned about and whirled the sling. ‘Stay,’ she snarled to the taller woman and the thin man. The shorter woman had disappeared, probably back into the cottage. Dani turned back to Edward and his attacker, still twirling her sling.
‘Drop your weapon,’ the bearded man shouted.
Dani hadn’t come all this way to give up now. She heard footsteps behind her. Turning, she saw the tall woman running toward her and flung her stone. It hit the woman in the head and she cried out and fell.
Dani reached into her pocket for another stone. ‘Don’t move,’ she shouted to the thin man. ‘If I hear your footsteps behind me, that’ll happen to you too.’
Dani turned back to Edward and his attacker.
‘Drop the sling and put your hands up,’ the man ordered, pushing his knife closer to Edward’s throat.
Slowly, eyes not leaving the bearded man, Dani raised the sling and began swinging it around her head. She calculated her chances. Edward was in front of his attacker, obscuring most of him. All she could see was half the man’s head, his left shoulder and a bit of his upper chest, and Edward was shaking so much it made the shot even more difficult.
‘Last chance. Drop the sling or I kill your friend,’ the man shouted.
Dani felt like yelling back, ‘He’s not my friend’, but refrained.
‘Dani, drop it,’ added Edward shakily. ‘Please!’
If she put the sling down Dani knew she would have no bargaining power, and that meant she wouldn’t be able to help Bart. She aimed at the half of the bearded man’s head she could see and flung the stone as hard as she could.
Edward screamed. The stone whistled past his ear and thudded into his attacker’s forehead, knocking him backwards.
Dani heard footsteps behind her. She turned to see the thin man run into the forest. She ran to Edward.
‘You could have killed me,’ he panted.
Dani knelt over the man she’d hit who lay on his back making faint gurgling noises. Blood flowed from a deep cut on his forehead. She turned to Potjer. ‘Cut his sleeve off and bandage his head with it.’
‘Which sleeve?’
‘
It doesn’t matter which sleeve!’
Potjer glanced at Edward, who nodded. Potjer pulled out his knife, sliced off one of the man’s sleeves and tied it around the wound.
Dani leant over the man. ‘Where’s my brother? The boy who was taken from the castle.’
‘Who . . . you?’
‘I’m his sister. I need to find him.’
Gronk couldn’t focus. He was only half conscious, but he knew he was hurt and that this girl had done the hurting. But he also knew that he liked Bart, and he felt bad about leaving him to die. If this girl found him, she might be able to help him.
‘In . . . forest,’ he panted.
‘Where?’
He pointed back the way he had come. ‘Up path . . . top of hill . . . follow cuts . . . on . . . trees.’
‘Why did you kidnap him?’ asked the boy in the fancy clothes. ‘Was it me you were after?’
‘Who . . . you?’ Gronk struggled to get the word out.
‘Prince Edward of Tintarfell.’
‘Wanted . . . Bart. But . . . he’s . . .’ Before he could complete the sentence, Gronk felt blackness closing in and then everything slipped away.
Chapter 13
Dear Deer
Bart walked. Something had set him in motion and nothing had made him stop yet, so he kept going until something hit him in the nose.
That thing was a tree, but that information, along with so much else, had been sucked out of Bart. Bart stayed with his nose pressed against the tree for several minutes until eventually he was able to use what little there was left of his mind to decide to take one step to his left. Then he found he could continue and walked on until he banged into another tree. This time a slightly shorter time elapsed before he was able to step to his left and continue.
In this way, he made his way through the forest, blood trickling from a graze on his nose that got deeper and wider each time he hit a tree.
Eventually he grew tired, sat on the ground and licked his lips. All that remained in his mind were the basic drives that motivate any animal – to get food, water and shelter, to avoid pain and to rest when needed. At the moment he wanted to lie down because he was weary, but he was also thirsty and that meant he should try to find water. He started to pull himself to his feet, then stopped. A few moments later, he started to rise again, and once more stopped. Eventually, he rolled onto his side and shut his eyes. Exhaustion had won.
Dani ran through the forest in the direction the bearded man had pointed. Behind her, Edward and Potjer led their horses. They followed the path to the clearing at the top of the hill and then looked around until they found a tree with a cut on it. A little past it, Dani found another. They followed the trail of cut trees to the bottom of the hill and a bit further, but then they could find no more.
They tried to keep going in the same direction as the trail of cut tress had led but the dense forest made it hard to get their bearings.
‘Bart!’ shouted Dani. ‘Bart!’ She would find him, even if she had to search the whole forest.
Even though Bart’s brain had been sucked nearly dry, traces of the strong connection he had with animals remained. Animals could no longer communicate with Bart, but they were still drawn to him. Soon, a deer named Cyndartha approached him. She sensed he was weak and needed water and felt an urge to help him.
She licked Bart’s face and he rolled away. Cyndartha licked again, and he covered his head with his hands. The deer turned and, with one of her back legs, kicked him gently on the bottom.
When he was kicked, Bart’s brain told him to avoid pain by rolling away. He did, but the deer kicked him again. Bart rolled again, and once more the deer kicked. After being kicked four times, Bart clambered to his feet and stumbled away. The deer trotted around to his left and approached him, so Bart veered right. The deer followed, so Bart kept walking. Sometimes the deer trotted around to one side or the other, causing Bart to change direction.
In this way Cyndartha herded Bart towards a stream. Whenever he walked into a tree she either waited for him to step around it or, if she got impatient, pushed him sideways.
When they reached the stream, the boy sank to his knees, drank greedily and then sat on the bank. Cyndartha waited for him to start chewing the abundant green grass that flanked the stream, but he did not. Perhaps, she thought, he was more of a fungi eater. There was some lovely-looking moss growing on the rocks. She beckoned him over with her head, but he ignored her.
Odd, thought Cyndartha. Maybe he likes bark. She tore some off a tree and dropped it at his feet, but the boy just stared blankly ahead.
Cyndartha tried offering roots, shoots, lichen and leaves, but they were all ignored. Then she found an almond tree, tore off some nuts and dropped them in front of the boy. These he showed some interest in, and was soon wolfing down as many as Cyndartha could supply. A bit further away she found a pear tree, and pulled off a low-hanging fruit. He ate that too, so she got him another one.
After the boy had eaten, Cyndartha wondered what to do next. The urge she felt to help the boy was strange. She had never felt it before, not even for another deer. There was clearly something wrong with the boy. He seemed unable to look after himself. On his own, he would surely die, but she couldn’t take care of him forever.
She had an idea. Another human lived at the edge of the forest and helped animals who were sick or injured. She would take the boy to her. She would know what
to do.
Cyndartha moved to the boy and gave him a gentle kick, and then another. The boy clambered to his feet. She circled behind him, put her head down and pushed, and he started walking. Once again, Cyndartha herded him through the forest. After a while the boy learnt to walk around, rather than into, trees, and that was helpful. As the day wore on Cyndartha could see he was growing tired, as she was, but they were getting close. Whenever he showed signs of slowing, she gave him another push.
They were nearly there when Cyndartha heard a noise to her left. It was a sort of an ‘Ahhhh!’ sound, but with a stop at the end. ‘Ahhhht!’ There was something before the ‘Ahhhhh’, too. ‘Bahhhht!’
The boy stopped and turned in the direction of the sound, looking confused.
‘Bahhht!’ The boy’s expression changed to one of joy and he ran towards the sound. Cyndartha galloped after him. She tried to catch and overtake him, but the trees were dense and she had to keep dodging them.
‘Bahhht!’ The boy kept heading for the noise. Cyndartha didn’t like loud noises. They often meant danger, so she decided to stay behind the boy. She didn’t want to abandon him, but she didn’t want to get too close to anything dangerous.
Dani, Edward and Potjer had been walking through the forest for much of the day, still leading the horses and taking turns to shout ‘Bart!’ when Dani heard a rustling in the trees. ‘Something’s coming.’
Edward started to back away.
Dani turned towards the noise. It sounded like something running towards them. ‘Hide,’ she said.
‘Where?’ asked Potjer.
‘Behind a tree, of course,’ snapped Dani. ‘That’s all there is. Pick one with low branches so you can climb it if you have to.’
Dani got behind a tree and popped her head around. She made out a shape approaching. She saw legs . . . and arms . . . and . . .
‘Bart!’ She leapt out and raced to him. She just had time to register several grazes on his nose before she grabbed him and gave him a mighty hug. ‘Oh . . . Bart.’ Dani started to shake. Tears ran down her cheeks. ‘Oh, my brother.’
After a while Dani wondered why Bart wasn’t hugging her back.
‘Dani, I . . . I think you should look at him,’ said Edward behind her.
Dani stepped back, holding Bart by the shoulders. She gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. It was Bart, and yet it wasn’t. Something had happened to him. His eyes were vacant.
‘Bart!’ she cried, shaking his shoulders.
Bart smiled vacantly.
‘What happened?’ cried Dani.
Edward stepped closer, studying him. ‘It’s like there’s nobody home.’
Dani was breathing heavily, on the edge of panic. Her lower lip quivered. The need to find her brother had dominated her every thought and motivated her every action, but now that she had succeeded, somehow, he wasn’t there.
‘What’s happened to him?’ she asked.
Edward was also shocked by Bart’s condition, but relieved they had found him. Now all he had to do was get him home and he would have fulfilled his father’s mission. However, it had already crossed his mind that Dani might not want to return to the castle once she had found Bart. Perhaps he could use this new development to his advantage.
‘I don’t know what’s wrong with him,’ Edward said, trying to look concerned, ‘but it’s obviously serious. We need to get him back to the castle quickly so the doctor can examine him. I’m sure he’ll be able to work out what's wrong and how to fix it. Maybe he just ate some weird berries, or had a knock on the head. But we must hurry.’ He stared at the sky. ‘Let me see. It’s afternoon so the sun is in the west. We are south-west of home. So . . .’ He pointed back the way they had come. ‘. . . it’s that way. There’s no time to waste. Dani, you lead Bart. It looks like he can move all right.’
Dani, still dazed, took Bart’s arm. Edward set off, relieved to be going home. As soon as they got out of this horrible forest, or found a track, they could mount the horses and then it wouldn’t take long. He hoped Pancake could carry two people.
Cyndartha watched from a distance. She could tell that the girl cared about the boy, but something about the other boy smelt suspicious. When he began to lead the humans in the opposite direction from where Cyndartha had been going she had to make a decision. She could let them go and forget all about the boy, or she could try to get the boy to the human she thought could help him. Cyndartha wasn’t sure why she decided to act. Maybe it was because, after all the trouble she’d gone to, she couldn’t just let the boy be led away in the wrong direction.
The Twins of Tintarfell Page 8
