Soul Splinter

by Abi Elphinstone

  Moll felt a yearning in her chest for the mother she’d never known. It made her legs and chest go weak. ‘They took you, took you when they had no right.’

  ‘The bones told me I would die – that the only way the Bone Murmur could go on was if your pa and I sacrificed our lives for it. We knew the old magic would stir and fight back, but neither of us could have understood the bravery that you would show – and the love and loyalty to your friends. The second amulet, my soul, was searching for a virtue needed for the old magic to win through. Moll, the second amulet stood for friendship.’

  Siddy gasped. ‘The feathers scattered in the cage! Oak always told us brown feathers meant friendship!’

  ‘Moll and Siddy, you have stuck by your friends – however hopeless things have seemed. You trusted Alfie when he came from a witch doctor’s gang and held secrets none of you knew how to explain. You did everything you could to look after Scrap, the child of the man who sought to kill you. And Moll, there’s no one out there who can break the bond you share with Gryff. My soul is trapped here, but in destroying the Shadowmasks’ weapon you’ll undo their power and I will be free. Remember this though: he who made the Soul Splinter will destroy it.’

  Siddy glanced at Moll. ‘We – we have to get the Shadowmasks to destroy it . . .’

  The voice of Moll’s ma came softer now, as if full of untold secrets.

  ‘There are things I can tell you, things you’ve been begging to understand. I know you’ve been questioning why the Shadowmasks shaved my head and your pa’s. It was for a reason, Moll – to use our hair, a symbol of the purity of the Bone Murmur, as thread. And, with it, the Shadowmasks plan to weave a quilt of darkness that will be carried across the land and used to smother children’s dreams, poisoning their minds with evil. But there are forces stronger than the Shadowmasks’ menace, and, if you set my soul free, as you did with your pa, the Bone Murmur will fight back and the ways of the old magic will be restored.’

  The voice paused and, when it came again, Moll could feel it as a whisper in her ear.

  ‘I love you, Moll. You were, and are, everything to me. And I’ll always be with you – me and your pa – watching over you as stars from the Otherworld.’

  Moll held the letter close, the words now smudged with tears. She wanted to rush into her ma’s arms and hold her tight, but she was just a voice, a sound in a forgotten cave. ‘That was her, Sid,’ she sniffed. ‘My ma – as real as you and me.’

  Siddy nodded. ‘That was her all right.’ He looked at the parchment. ‘And – and the amulet. Do you think it’s her letter?’

  Moll didn’t answer. It had been niggling at her too. The first amulet had been a jewel more beautiful than anything she’d ever set eyes on before. But this – though it meant more to her than any ruby, sapphire or emerald could – was now a damp piece of parchment, blotted grey where words had once been.

  ‘The feathers,’ Moll said slowly. ‘When me and Alfie spoke to Mellantha about the first amulet, she said something about birds when we were out on the heath.’ Moll racked her brain. ‘She said: In a bird, we see our soul set free.’

  Siddy frowned. ‘So you think these feathers are . . .’

  His voice trailed off and Moll’s face filled with dread. ‘Are we too late? Perhaps there was a bird inside this cage once, but now—’

  The glow-worms above them shuddered, splaying flickering turquoise over the cave walls. The lake didn’t stir, as it had done before, but the curtain of creepers hanging down at the opening of the cave did. They swept aside and a throng of bats swarmed in, their screeches grating into the stillness.

  Moll’s insides convulsed with fear and Siddy’s eyes grew large as the bats whirled together and merged to become one terrifying figure.

  Darkebite had arrived.

  The Shadow Keeper landed with a crunch on top of the birdcage, her enormous leathery wings outstretched, her mask of charcoaled wood tilting down to the children.

  Moll and Siddy backed away, to the furthest point of the boulder, but they could hear footsteps scuttling closer. Ashtongue was crawling on all fours towards them, his snakeskin mask glinting in the light, but he wasn’t using the stepping stones to cross the lake: he was scampering over a length of glittering black scales. The eel had risen to the surface of the lake, bidden by the commands of the Shadowmasks.

  Moll’s blood roared inside her. There was nowhere left to turn; they were boxed in on both sides. And then a noise shattered the tension: an inhuman, blood-curdling shriek.

  Ashtongue leapt up on to the boulder just as the eel reared backwards, hurling itself against the lake. And only then did Moll and Siddy see the silver-birch arrow lodged deep inside its gills. The Oracle Spirit billowed out, spreading the length of its body, and dragged the great beast under the surface.

  Moll looked towards the shore, and there was Alfie, his bow raised to his chin, a second arrow poised.

  ‘Alfie!’ she screamed. He’d come for them, just as he’d done in Ashtongue’s house. And Moll knew in that moment that she never should have doubted him.

  Darkebite jumped down from the cage and landed in a crouch, her wings jutting out either side of her like claws.

  Alfie drew back on his bow and fired again. The arrow whistled through the air, straight for Darkebite, but she drew the Soul Splinter from her cloak and the arrow clanged uselessly against the shard of black ice, before clattering to the ground. Ashtongue scurried round the cage behind Darkebite, and, hiding behind the safety and power of the Soul Splinter, he let his tongue flicker out from his mask.

  Alfie raised another arrow to his bow, but there was someone else charging over the stepping stones now. Moll blinked once, twice, then again to be sure. It was Gryff! Not blind any more, but bounding towards her with every ounce of strength inside him, his teeth bared in a snarl, his claws splayed.

  ‘It can’t be . . .’ Siddy murmured.

  ‘Gryff!’ Moll gasped. ‘Gryff!’

  Alfie released another arrow, but once again Darkebite raised the Soul Splinter to ward it off. Swift as light, Gryff leapt from the stepping stones up on to the boulder and flung himself against Moll. She wrapped her arms round him.

  ‘You’re OK! But how?’

  Gryff looked back at Alfie and Moll’s eyes widened. Alfie had healed him? Just like he promised he would . . .

  The wildcat wriggled free of Moll’s hug and sprang on to the cage, snarling at the Shadowmasks. Then he pounced.

  ‘PAAAAAH!’

  Ashtongue hissed and swiped with his hands, but Gryff was fighting with a new-found strength. He was bigger somehow, wilder, as if regaining his sight had made him stronger. Moll watched in awe as Ashtongue staggered backwards and Gryff tore at Darkebite’s cloak with his teeth. Then Darkebite raised the Soul Splinter and Moll rushed forward to help Gryff, but the wildcat thrashed his claws at Darkebite’s wings and the witchdoctor shifted backwards, the Soul Splinter still held high.

  Moll’s pulse quickened. Alfie and Gryff might be able to stall the Shadowmasks, but without the power of the amulet the dark magic would win. Grabbing Siddy by the arm, she rushed to the cage, her ma’s letter clasped in her hand.

  ‘Help us, Ma,’ she whispered between the bars.

  Something strange began to happen inside the cage. The feathers heaped on the ground started to quiver, as if brushed by a mysterious breath, then they floated upwards, shifting and twisting into unrecognisable shapes. Siddy’s jaw dropped and he clung to the bars, and together they watched as an eagle larger than anything they’d ever seen, with shining golden-brown feathers, took shape.

  This was the second amulet, her ma’s soul.

  Behind the cage there was a tangle of wings and claws. Then the bird, five times the size of an ordinary golden eagle, spread its wings and struck out. The cage groaned and the bars crashed to the ground.

  Moll rushed towards the bird, somehow knowing what to do. ‘Sid, get on! We won’t last if we stay here!’

  They
leapt up on to the bird and Gryff skirted the cage, his strides more agile than Moll had ever seen. He leapt on to the eagle’s back in front of Moll and the great bird dipped for a second, as if flexing its muscles after a long sleep. Then it launched itself off from the boulder, beating its wings towards the shore. Moll clung to the bird’s back, her legs tucked beneath her.

  ‘Come back!’ Darkebite screeched, still wielding the Soul Splinter.

  Siddy tightened his grip round Moll’s waist as the eagle flew further and further across the lake. It swooped by Alfie, and Siddy stretched out a hand to yank him up on to the bird’s back. The eagle faltered for a second under the extra weight, but didn’t stop. It thrust its wings on, tearing through the creepers before flying on beneath the limestone stalactites.

  Moll turned her head towards Alfie. ‘You – you healed Gryff?’

  ‘It was my tears,’ he panted. ‘I don’t understand how, but they made his whiskers grow back.’

  Moll didn’t have time to reply because suddenly the roar of the falls filled their ears – and Devil’s Drop appeared, thundering down, a wall of furious water.

  ‘Hold on!’ Moll shouted.

  ‘Not through the middle of the falls again!’ Siddy moaned.

  The eagle flung itself into the churn. Water hammered down, clamouring in their ears, and the bird dropped several metres. Moll’s stomach plunged and the water continued to beat down. Then the eagle burst free from Devil’s Drop and soared upwards, into the breaking dawn. An orange sun hung above the horizon, casting shards of light through scattered clouds, and the eagle thrust with its wings, up and up, until it was circling above the falls.

  This, Moll thought, the fierce beating of wings and legs clamped hard round rippling feathers – this is what it means to fly. And, in all her wildest dreams, Moll had never experienced anything so full of freedom. She gazed at the eagle’s body, the tips of its wingspan flecked with white, the hooked beak releasing sharp, high cries. Two large brown eyes scanned the sea and its tail feathers rippled in the wind. This was her ma, somehow, and she had come to their rescue just when they’d needed her. Moll bent forward and stroked the golden feathers.

  Down below, spray misted out from the falls. Siddy narrowed his eyes. ‘Is – is that . . . ?’

  Beyond Devil’s Drop was a small red rowing boat – the one from Little Hollows that Alfie had been waiting to take out – and, inside the boat, a man who built wagons and found secret coves.

  ‘Oak!’ Moll shouted, her heart flooding with relief.

  Tucking in its giant wings, the eagle dived, and the children clung on. The wind whistled in their ears and their stomachs rose into their throats, then the eagle’s wingspan burst out and it swooped, level with the boat. Moll clutched at Oak’s arms as they passed and he grappled for her hands, but the eagle had to circle to stay in the air.

  ‘You’re all right,’ Moll gasped. ‘You’re OK!’

  Oak smiled. ‘I’m OK, Moll. It was Willow. After she left you, she came to Little Hollows and lifted the Shadowmasks’ curse. She told me where to find you!’ Moll’s face dropped slightly as she noticed Oak’s ankle was still bound in bandages. ‘It’ll heal in time,’ he said.

  ‘We’ve got the amulet!’ Siddy yelled, stroking the eagle’s feathers.

  ‘This is my ma’s soul!’ Moll cried, her cheeks flushed with pride.

  ‘I’m so proud of you all!’ Oak shouted against the roar of the falls. ‘You did it!’ He glanced at Devil’s Drop. ‘Now what do we need to do?’

  The answer was clear in Moll’s mind already. ‘Somehow I need to get the Shadowmasks to destroy their Soul Splinter. I think it’ll help close the thresholds for a while and keep their dark magic back while we search for the last amulet.’

  The bird circled again, but it was losing height, struggling under the weight of its load.

  ‘There are too many of you on there!’ Oak cried.

  Siddy raised a shaky hand. ‘I’ll come off.’

  As the eagle swooped once again, Oak grabbed Siddy and pulled him down into the boat. But, as he did so, a dark shape surged out of Devil’s Drop.

  Oak seized a quiver from the rowing boat and tossed it up to Moll. ‘Alfie said you’d be needing this when I bumped into him before Devil’s Drop.’

  She caught it and slung it on to her back, then the eagle beat its wings harder and harder out to sea.

  And, behind them, the Shadowmasks followed: Ashtongue, bent forward like a giant insect, riding between Darkebite’s leathery wings.

  The eagle climbed higher into the sky and Moll felt its soft, warm feathers beneath her and the strength of the wildcat in front. Eyes streaming from the headwind, she turned back to Alfie. ‘Thank you. For coming after us and for healing Gryff.’

  Alfie reached into his quiver for an arrow. ‘I’ll always come after you, Moll.’

  She turned back to face the sun straight on. ‘And I’ll come after you – wherever you go and whatever the Shadowmasks might have in store for us.’ Gripping the eagle’s back with her legs, she reached for her own quiver.

  ‘What’s your plan?’ Alfie asked.

  Moll set an arrow against the moonbeam, only just visible in the daylight. ‘To follow my gut.’

  ‘And what’s your gut saying now?’

  Moll glanced back, the wind whistling in her ears. The Shadowmasks were gaining on them and Darkebite’s screech hung in the air.

  ‘Fight,’ she answered.

  The eagle soared higher and the sun-flicked waves grew small below them, but Darkebite’s wings thrust on. Then the children pulled back on their bows and let their arrows fly. They hurtled through the air and Ashtongue ducked, but Darkebite raised the Soul Splinter in her hands and batted them away. She rose higher, climbing the air with her bat-like wings, the chin of her mask jutting out above them, as if thirsting for Moll and Gryff. And, before the children could reload and fire again, Ashtongue flicked his wrist.

  A rope shot out from his sleeve, one end wrapping tight round Moll’s arm, the other curled about Ashtongue’s wrist. The eagle cried out and Moll felt her body being snatched upwards. In the nick of time, Alfie grabbed her by the shoulders and held her down. The eagle slowed, thrashing its wings against the strain from above, but the Shadowmasks drew closer as Ashtongue placed hand after hand on the rope, reeling himself in towards Moll.

  And it was then that Moll realised what was really bound round her arm – not rope, but a snake. Her stomach lurched and she tried to wrench herself free, but the Shadowmasks loomed closer. Ashtongue’s fingers grasped the brown-scaled reptile.

  Gryff leapt on the snake, slashing with his claws. It writhed and hissed, then the wildcat’s claws sliced through it and it split in two before tumbling from the sky. Moll yanked her arm in and Alfie raised an arrow to his bow. Darkebite had the Soul Splinter just metres from Moll, which left Ashtongue unprotected.

  The eagle quickened its pace and Alfie released his arrow. It sailed through the air, a flash of wood, feather and moonsilver, then slammed into Ashtongue’s chest. The Shadowmask howled as the Oracle Spirit billowed out and snatched him from Darkebite’s back. Limbs scrabbling, Ashtongue fell through the air, his body crumbling into black dust as the Oracle Spirit brought it down.

  ‘No!’ Darkebite howled, reeling in the air. Her wings spread out either side of her, blocking out the sun, then she dived straight for Moll.

  The eagle plummeted, wings tucked in like a bullet, and Gryff, Moll and Alfie clung on for their lives. Then the bird pulled up hard and swerved to the right. Moll grabbed another arrow and released it from her bow, but Darkebite ducked, then sped after them until both she and the eagle were side by side, speeding through the cloud-scattered sky.

  ‘You want to know the truth about your past, Alfie?’ Darkebite shrieked.

  Alfie stiffened, but Moll reached for another arrow and set it to her bow. She fired again, but Darkebite flung it aside with the Soul Splinter. Then she threw back her head and laughed.r />
  ‘Why you’re broken inside? Why people treat you as if you don’t exist?’ Darkebite dipped her mask into the headwind and sped on through the sky beside the eagle. Then she looked at Alfie, eyes like coal burning behind her mask. ‘You created the Soul Splinter, Alfie. The very weapon you want to destroy. You made it.’

  Moll’s body shook with hatred. ‘Don’t listen to her, Alfie! You’re part of our camp and you’ve got the old magic on your side! You rescued me from Skull! You helped find the amulet! You cured Gryff! And you’re real to every one of us!’

  But Alfie was silent behind her and Moll could feel Gryff’s fur stiffening with dread.

  Darkebite laughed. ‘We needed an innocent child’s tears,’ she sneered at Alfie. ‘Skull stole you from a farm and it was your tears that helped bind our shadows inside the Soul Splinter.’ Her dark wings beat on beside the eagle. ‘You’re a part of it, Alfie. A part of us.’ She turned her mask towards Moll. ‘So you see, if you destroy the Soul Splinter, then you destroy Alfie too.’

  Moll shook her head, panic rising thick inside her. ‘You’re lying!’ She spun round to Alfie, but his face was white, his eyes fighting back tears.

  Moll blinked at him and Gryff placed a paw on the boy’s foot. ‘It’s not true, Alfie. Don’t believe what she says. Your tears healed Gryff – remember that! You’re not like them!’

  But the choice drummed inside her, as fast as her pounding heart. What if it was true? What if a part of Alfie belonged to the Shadowmasks? And what if destroying the Soul Splinter meant losing him? But doing nothing – letting the Soul Splinter exist – would allow the Shadowmasks’ evil to spread and the Bone Murmur would be broken . . . They would lose everything. She bit down on her lip. It couldn’t be true. She wouldn’t believe it. She couldn’t make that choice.