Spellbound

by Anna Dale

  When Athene had recovered from the shock of being caught and her wits had been restored to her, she decided to stay tight-lipped. It was perfectly obvious that she and the two rabbits had broken into Lodestar’s secret room and stolen her precious Book of Spells. If Athene tried to deny it she would be branded as a liar, but if she elected to admit her crime, Lodestar would be bound to ask her which spell Athene had been after and she did not want to tell her that.

  In the end, the Chief resorted to magic. She slipped inside her secret room and reappeared with a beaker of viscous liquid which looked a little like cough medicine. The rabbits were ordered to swallow a spoonful each and then Lodestar chanted the Spell to Loosen Tongues (which was to be found on page three of her Book of Spells). Coney and Kit were far too weary to resist the spell and told her what she wanted to know immediately.

  ‘So you were after that spell, were you?’ Lodestar crowed, glaring haughtily at Athene. She threw back her ash-white head and laughed. ‘How naive you are! You won’t find the Confining Spell written down in any book! It’s far too important to be left lying about. The only place I keep it is inside my head,’ she said, tapping her skull with her forefinger, ‘and your little rabbit friends can’t burrow their way in there, now can they?’

  On hearing this devastating piece of news, Athene’s shoulders slumped, but she would not allow herself to sulk. If she couldn’t learn the secret of the Confining Spell then she would have to think of a way to win Lodestar round and persuade the Chief to break it. The Battle of Barnyard Bedlam was at the heart of her new plan. Surely, once the Low Gloam Chief was presented with the truth about the battle, she would realise that Lodestar the Ninth had made a colossal mistake in believing that all Glare were bad and thinking that it was his duty as chief to hide his people underground. If Lodestar could be persuaded that the Low Gloam would be just as safe above ground as they were below it, she would be bound to break the spell that was trapping them all in this hellish maze of musty-smelling tunnels – and everyone would be free!

  Before Athene could launch into her newly formed opinions, Lodestar held up the fork in front of her astonished face. ‘What is your interest in this?’ said the Chief.

  ‘I know who that used to belong to,’ said Athene. ‘At least, I think I do.’

  ‘What’s that?’ said Lodestar. ‘What did you say?’ She seemed surprised, but Athene could not tell if the Chief was amazed by what Athene had just admitted or whether she was shocked because Athene had finally deigned to answer one of her questions.

  ‘That fork that you’re holding was once the property of two Glare women who were sisters,’ said Athene. ‘Their names were Ada and Fredegond Cheese and they were the Glare who threw all that stuff at your tribe in the little set-to that your lot insist on calling a battle. It wasn’t anything nearly so momentous, in actual fact. Your historian, Ploidy, got it all wrong.’

  Lodestar’s face underwent a transformation. Her eyes narrowed, her nostrils flared and her lips became very thin. Athene would not have thought that a dumpy, middle-aged lady could look quite so mean and threatening.

  ‘You DARE to criticise PLOIDY?’ Lodestar thundered.

  ‘Yes, I jolly well do,’ said Athene, who was fed up with the Glare being bad-mouthed and was every bit as riled as the Chief. ‘Ploidy wrote some really misleading things. He didn’t bother to do much research and he made a lot of stuff up. It’s Lodestar the Ninth who is most to blame, though. He got the wrong end of the stick completely …’

  ‘ENOUGH!’ roared Lodestar. ‘Curb your tongue! I forbid you to utter another word!’

  ‘You’re just mad because you know I’m talking sense,’ murmured Athene obstinately. She hated being told to shut up.

  ‘You will be quiet instantly,’ warned the Chief, ‘or I might be tempted to use this deadly weapon to silence you.’ She lunged at Athene with the fork, but stopped short of actually jabbing her with it.

  ‘You’re cuckoo, you know that?’ Athene said. ‘You’re a complete nut. These objects that you’ve got on display aren’t weapons. They’re things that you’d find in a kitchen. Any Glare could tell you that, but you Gloam haven’t got the slightest clue. It’s not your fault, I suppose. You can’t have come across fire irons before, not having wanted to ever light a fire and you wouldn’t know what a saucepan is either because you don’t eat food that’s cooked. Still, when someone goes to the trouble of trying to put you straight you might show some manners and listen without interrupting.’

  ‘DIMPSY!’ roared the Chief, turning to her servant. ‘Run and fetch help. Now! Right this minute! This young woman needs restraining!’

  Dimpsy dithered for a moment. She did not seem to want to leave. It took another barked command from Lodestar before she nodded and ran from the room. In the meantime, Lodestar’s guard seemed in two minds what to do. He could not come to Lodestar’s aid without releasing his hold on the rabbits and as soon as he placed them on the floor, their paws scrabbled feverishly and they tried to scramble away.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ said Lodestar, frowning at the guard. ‘Hold on to those traitorous rabbits. Don’t let them escape!’

  ‘But what about the girl?’ said the guard, struggling to hold the squirming rabbits in his arms.

  ‘I can handle her for the moment,’ the Chief informed him, making slashing motions in the air with the fork. ‘She doesn’t dare move while I have this.’

  ‘Don’t be silly!’ said Athene. ‘If you were to prod me with that fork it might hurt a bit, but it wouldn’t cause much damage. You use it to eat with. It’s certainly not a weapon!’

  Knowing that it was important to get her timing right, Athene waited until Lodestar waved the fork near enough for her to grab hold of it. When she shot out her arm to snatch it, Lodestar was taken unawares.

  ‘I’ll show you what you do with it,’ Athene said, whipping the fork away and pretending to eat with it.

  ‘You nasty little thief!’ screamed Lodestar, snatching a handful of Athene’s hair and yanking it so hard that Athene’s scalp smarted with the pain.

  Athene tried to retaliate, but the Chief’s hair was too short to get a satisfactory grip on it. She decided to give Lodestar a firm shove instead.

  They might have grappled with each other for several minutes more if Dimpsy had not returned with Lodestar’s other guard in tow. The guard overpowered Athene with the minimum of effort, pinning her arms behind her back. With one hand, he seized her wrists and with the other, he opened Athene’s palm and took the fork away from her.

  ‘Good,’ said Lodestar, panting slightly. She straightened her dress and smoothed her hair which had got quite messed up in the scuffle. When she had made herself presentable she accepted the fork which the guard was holding out to her.

  ‘Take charge of this unruly creature, will you?’ she said to the guard. ‘Be sure to have your wits about you. She’s very unpredictable. There have been others amongst us who have not adapted to our way of life and have succumbed to hysteria. However, I don’t remember anyone losing control like this young Gloam. Don’t be deceived by her innocent looks,’ warned Lodestar, shaking a finger, ‘and don’t feel any pity for her either. She’s crafty, cunning and dangerous.’

  The guard gave Athene a distrustful glare and gripped her wrists even more tightly.

  ‘Now, take her away,’ said Lodestar, wrinkling up her nose to show her displeasure.

  ‘But you can’t!’ Athene protested. ‘I won’t go. Not yet! Not until you’ve heard me out. The Glare that attacked your people all those years ago weren’t warriors at all and they weren’t bad people either. They were a pair of scared old ladies. If you ask Tippitilda to open up her locket you’ll see their pictures. You don’t have to be afraid of the Glare and there isn’t any need to live underground! Don’t you see? The whole thing’s just a silly misunderstanding.’

  ‘Twaddle,’ said Lodestar dismissively, smiling at Athene as if she were a simpleton. ‘Exactly t
he sort of ludicrous bilge I’d expect from someone who’s raving mad – and that’s what I’ve decided you are.’

  ‘The Glare aren’t horrible!’ Athene shouted, frustrated by Lodestar’s refusal to take her seriously. ‘Why won’t you listen to what I’m saying?’

  ‘Must you persist in defending the Glare?’ snapped Lodestar, losing her temper. ‘They are our sworn enemies. How can you pretend to know so much about them?’

  ‘Because I’m a Glare myself,’ Athene said, struggling to stop herself from being bundled across the room.

  ‘Are you trying to tell me that you’re part Glare?’ said the Chief. The laugh that escaped from her lips was hollow and disbelieving.

  ‘No, I’m Glare through and through,’ declared Athene. The situation was getting so desperate that she no longer cared about pretending to be a Gloam. ‘There isn’t a single drop of Gloam blood running in my veins,’ she boasted, hoping that this bombshell would herald some sort of breakthrough and prove once and for all that the Low Gloam’s terrible opinion of the Glare was grossly undeserved.

  ‘Of all the ridiculous nonsense!’ scoffed Lodestar, glancing at the others. ‘As I suspected – this girl is clearly deranged. Don’t stand there gawping, Dimpsy. All the excitement is finished with. Go and get on with your chores, please. Guards, remove this crackpot and her two associates. You know where to take them.’

  ‘Where?’ said Athene, trying to resist being dragged out of the door. ‘Answer me!’ she said fiercely.

  ‘Where all troublemakers are taken,’ said the Chief in a cool, dismissive voice. ‘To the Coop, of course.’

  Chapter Fifteen

  Cooped Up

  Coney and Kit were much lighter and a lot more cooperative than Athene and so the guard that carried them led the way. Athene brought up the rear of their little procession, dragged along by the other Low Gloam guard. Determined to be as much of a nuisance as she could and thus delay her arrival at the Coop, Athene refused to walk for more than a couple of paces at a time before sinking to the ground as if her legs would not support her weight. This was annoying for the guard, but it was also painful for Athene (and for her knees in particular) because he refused to stop. Keeping a firm hold on her wrists, the guard dragged Athene beside him, unmoved by her cries of protest. Eventually, tiring of her stubbornness, he swept Athene up in his arms and carried her in a fireman’s lift, which frustrated her efforts at slowing him down and also made it hard for her to observe the route that they were taking. Athene thumped his back with her fists and tried to waggle her legs, but the guard continued to plod along at a steady pace and took no notice.

  Their journey ended at the bottom of a flight of steps. When Athene’s feet had been planted on the ground again she was able to take in her new surroundings. They had arrived in a chamber with a low roof and a few basic items of furniture: a bench, a table with some dirty plates on it and a bed with a pillow and a blanket that had both been patched and mended. There appeared to be only one other prisoner there: a gaunt, gangly man, with long greasy hair and bulbous eyes that never seemed to blink. He stood and watched them keenly.

  Athene was mildly relieved by what she saw. The chamber was not decked out in mod cons, of course, but it was clean and dry and did not appear to be as grotty as the guards had described. Perhaps it would not be such a bad place to be imprisoned. Cautiously, she ventured further in.

  When Athene noticed that the chamber had a hard, rocky floor she was reminded of the Water Hole. To her amazement, this chamber also had a hole in its centre; only instead of being exposed, this hole had a crude sort of grating covering it. Athene approached the hole, curious to know what resided in its depths. She wondered if there might be a river running below it, like the one in the Water Hole.

  ‘That’s right, ducky,’ simpered the Gloam with greasy hair. ‘Take a teeny peek, why don’t you? ’Course you might see better if you lift off the lid. That’s the way, sweetie-pie. Careful not to trap your precious little fingertips!’

  The lid was like a circular drain cover, constructed from wood rather than metal which made it manageable for Athene to shift. She pulled the cover to one side, knelt beside the hole and looked down it. There were no glimmering ripples below and no sounds of fast-flowing water. Instead, Athene was startled to hear a chorus of pitiful cries. Staring up at her, she glimpsed a number of fearful, anxious faces.

  ‘In you pop!’ said a voice in her ear. Before she could stop him, the long-haired man had pushed Athene out of the way. To her horror, one after the other, he dropped the two rabbits into the hole.

  ‘Don’t!’ she said, clasping the rim of the hole and staring wildly into it. ‘Coney! Kit!’ she called. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Just about!’ answered Coney, sounding a little shaken. ‘Luckily, some kind people caught us before we hit the ground.’

  ‘Why’d you do that?’ said Athene, turning to the long-haired man.

  ‘Oops!’ he said, smirking. ‘Clumsy me!’

  ‘You did that on purpose,’ Athene said, shrinking away from him. ‘You’re not a prisoner at all, are you? How could I be such an idiot? This room isn’t the Coop, is it? That’s the Coop down there,’ she said, pointing towards the hole.

  The man’s delighted giggle made the hairs stand up on the back of her neck.

  ‘Your turn next,’ he said, holding out his knobbly fingers and creeping slowly towards her. ‘Come along, poppet. You mustn’t be naughty. Don’t you want to join your little friends?’

  ‘Watch out, Scabbler,’ warned the nearest guard. ‘She’s a loony and likely to give you trouble.’

  ‘Thank you for your advice,’ said Scabbler witheringly. ‘I think I can manage a slip of a girl. You’re dismissed. Go on. I said you could leave!’

  The two guards shrugged at each other and rolled their eyes. Then they wished Scabbler luck, told him he’d need it, and left.

  Athene backed into a corner. She did not want to be put in the Coop where, if the guards had been telling her the truth, bugs crawled all over you while you slept. Sick of being labelled as a mad person and fed up with the Glare being demonised, she had had more than enough of the injustice of it all. As Scabbler sidled closer, she made up her mind that she would live up to the undeserved reputation of the Glare and fight him off as best she could.

  She gave him a Chinese burn when he tried to seize her wrist and followed that up with a punch to the stomach and a kick in the shins. Caught off guard, Scabbler’s reflexes proved to be too slow and he let Athene dodge past him and wrench open the door to the chamber. Without stopping to close it, she began her ascent of the steps. Behind her, she heard Scabbler laughing and then he shouted something that tested Athene’s resolve.

  ‘Run, my pretty,’ he called. ‘How far do you think you will get in a place that has no exit? You’ll be caught and brought back here. It’s a shame that you chose to attack me. I shall have to make you suffer for that! Run by all means, sweet one, but you’ll never get away!’

  His words dampened her spirits, but Athene was not so disheartened that she gave up all hope of avoiding recapture. Putting as much distance between her and the Coop and its creepy jailer was the overriding aim in her mind. She regretted having to leave Coney and Kit behind, but she knew that she would be of more use to them as an escapee than a fellow prisoner.

  Desperation and fear gave Athene extra energy and she reached the top of the steps in five seconds flat. Not wishing to run the risk of bumping into Lodestar’s guards, she took a different route from the one which they had chosen to bring her to the Coop. Unsure of where she was heading, Athene’s only goals were to evade anyone who tried to stop her and to keep on running until she found a friend.

  In her panicked state, she would have run right past Huffkin, if the Gloam had not jumped into her path and called her name.

  ‘Thank goodness I’ve found you,’ said Huffkin, giving Athene a hug and pulling her along the tunnel until they found a secluded section wher
e they could talk without being overheard.

  ‘Things haven’t gone according to plan,’ Athene said.

  ‘I guessed as much,’ said Huffkin. ‘I heard a rumour that a Gloam had upset Lodestar and had been seen being hauled down a tunnel by a guard.’

  ‘That was me,’ said Athene, showing Huffkin the grazes on her knees.

  Huffkin made sympathetic noises. ‘I’ve been hunting for you everywhere. Not long ago, I came across your bag lying on the floor …’

  ‘I must’ve dropped it without realising,’ said Athene, taking her rucksack from Huffkin and hooking her arms through the straps. ‘It must have happened when that beast of a guard was pulling me along. Thanks a lot. I would’ve been lost without my Goggle Drops.’

  ‘So, what went wrong?’ asked Huffkin.

  As briefly as she could, Athene filled her in. She also explained how she had come to the conclusion that the Battle of Barnyard Bedlam had not been a battle at all.

  ‘Two old ladies?’ said Huffkin in total shock, ‘and kitchen utensils, you say? I’m not surprised that Lodestar had difficulty swallowing that.’ Huffkin shook her head sadly, a pained look of disbelief on her face. ‘It’s tragic really, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘If Lodestar the Ninth hadn’t panicked … if someone in the Lofty Gloam had shown a bit of common sense … if they’d been a little less hasty they wouldn’t have hidden themselves underground needlessly for all these years.’

  When Athene broke the news that the two rabbits had been imprisoned and that she had only just managed to avoid the same fate, Huffkin’s expression grew even more sorrowful.

  ‘Dear, dear,’ said the Gloam, her hands clasping her cheeks. ‘We’re in a pretty pickle now. I can’t see a way out of it.’

  With little time to waste, they decided to find Humdudgeon. There wasn’t much chance that he’d be able to come up with an answer to their problems, but they both thought that they would feel a bit braver in his company. They did not dare to visit Tippitilda for fear that it would lead Lodestar straight to Zach. Athene could not bear to think of her brother being thrown in the Coop, not after everything he had suffered already.