They tried to quicken their pace, but there was nearly six inches of snow now and the ground near the wall was uneven underneath it. They stumbled forward, Luath pressed against the King’s legs.
There was a new sound. A creaking, cracking sound. Josh, who was last out of the three of them, looked back. It was difficult to be sure through the whirl of snowflakes, but he thought he could see two figures, tall and shining, about fifty metres behind them.
“Winterbringers!” he yelled to the others.
Callie turned and squinted into the snow. The King walked back to where Josh was.
“Go on ahead,” he said.
“But you’re too weak.”
“There are only two of them. I can deal with that number. I can send them back into the sea. Go on ahead.”
There didn’t seem any point arguing, and Josh certainly didn’t want to be at the back of the group if there were Winterbringers behind him.
“Luath, come here!” Callie called. The dog turned his head and looked at her, but made no move to leave the King’s side.
“Leave him! He won’t come.” Josh caught Callie’s gloved hand and they struggled forward together.
Behind them, the Winter King held his ground, watching the Winterbringers approach. He stooped briefly to pick up a handful of snow, stared at it thoughtfully for a few seconds, then blew on it.
The flakes floated out of his hand and hovered in mid air like a flock of tiny white birds, then began to shape themselves into something. A few seconds later a sword of ice hung in the air before him.
The King curled his hand around the hilt and smiled grimly. “Come closer,” he muttered to himself, “and see how weak I am.”
The ice creatures had been approaching steadily and now were no more than ten metres away. They looked at him out of faces that were like a crude copy of his own, with the same wide cheek bones and curved nose, but their eyes were blank and white like those of statues. Ears flat, Luath began to growl.
Callie pulled Josh to a stop and turned to look back. They watched helplessly as the Winterbringers closed the distance between them and the King. Even if they had started back towards him they couldn’t have got there in time.
One of the Winterbringers reached a heavy hand towards the King. Luath barked and barked and rushed, snapping, at the figures. The sword swung, and swung again. There was an explosion of ice and a strange, high keening sound and for a moment the King was lost from sight among a fountain of ice crystals. Then they cleared and Josh and Callie saw that he had fallen to his knees. In one hand, something glittered.
They started back to help him, but by the time they reached him, he had clambered to his feet. Around him on the snow were shards of ice and shells and trails of weed. In his hand was an impossible sword, a sword made of ice. Luath pressed himself against his leg.
“Keep going,” he shouted at them and they turned and started back towards the centre of the village again.
For the moment, nothing seemed to be pursuing them, but the eerie sighing noise still came from within the woods at intervals.
They reached the junction without further incident and turned along past the church. They could only see a few feet in front of them, and no one else seemed to be on the streets, though Callie was half expecting to see George, come to find them. They came to the end of the church wall and fought their way through the snow across to Smithy Road.
It was almost impossible to speak. Josh clung to Callie’s hand as though it was the only real object in his world. Close behind, the Winter King and Luath walked together, the ice sword shaking slightly in the King’s grip.
“It’s there again,” Callie said in Josh’s ear.
“What is?”
“The net of lights.” She pointed. “You still don’t see them?”
He shook his head.
The four of them stood side by side in the road.
“Who has woven the net?”
“You see it?”
“Of course.” He looked at her as though it was a ridiculous question. “Few now have the power for a making like that.” Callie was going to ask what he meant, but before she could he went on. “I do not have the power to break it any more. I cannot pass through.”
“But the boat’s in there. We have to get it.”
“You two can cross, but not me. This net is woven to keep out everything from the Frozen Lands. I cannot pass through it. I will stay outside the wall and wait for you.”
“Okay. We’ll only be a few minutes. Come on Luath. Time you went in.” Luath stood his ground beside the King, paying no heed to his mistress’s voice. “Luath, come! Come here dog, we’re in a hurry.”
She put a hand through Luath’s collar to pull him away, but he bared his teeth at her and gave a soft growl.
Astonished, she let go and stepped back, staring. “Luath …?” she said uncertainly.
“Perhaps you should let him wait here,” said the King gently.
Callie nodded, frowning, and turned with Josh to the gate. He pushed it open and they walked across the untrodden snow of the garden – the path completely obscured – to the front door.
Callie let them in and shut pulled the door shut behind them. They stood still, letting their eyes adjust to the presence of colours other than white and the absence of motion.
“Maybe we can get in and out without anyone knowing we’re here,” said Josh. “It would be a lot easier.”
They crept to the bottom of the stairs just as the smithy door opened and Rose came out.
“I’m glad to see you. I was starting to think you’d managed to get lost in the snow. I think your mum’s a bit concerned too Josh. You should go through and tell her you’re back.”
“Oh … er … right. I didn’t want to mess up the carpets with my boots.”
“You could always take them off,” said Rose, suppressing a smile. “Where’s Luath?”
“He’s still outside. I left him in the lane. He’s having such a good time in the snow. We just came back for a ball for him. We’re going out again – just into the field round the back.”
Rose frowned. “Are you sure? It’s terribly cold – you both look cold already – and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Callie’s voice was smooth as silk. “What could happen Rose? It’s snow, just snow.” Their gazes caught like magnets, then pulled apart. “You go and say hello to your mother Josh, and I’ll get the ball.”
He padded off obediently down the dim hall while Callie disappeared upstairs. When he opened the smithy door, a wall of heat and light hit him. The fire was roaring up the chimney, the kitten was curled on the rug, and at least a dozen candles burned in jam jars around the room. It looked like the most perfect sanctuary from everything that was happening outside; he longed to stay, knowing he couldn’t. He spent a couple of minutes reassuring his mum and talking to George, then shut the door reluctantly on the glowing warmth.
Callie waited impatiently as he laced his boots again.
“Are you sure you’ve got everything?” he asked.
Callie shot him a warning glance. Rose, in the kitchen, would be able to hear what they said.
“Yes. I’ve got the ball and my gloves,” she said carefully. “See you in a bit Rose.”
Even in that short time indoors they had forgotten how bad it was outside and the whirling chaos of snow took them aback once again. It seemed even colder now, but that was probably after the relative warmth of the house.
They walked through the gate and felt the cold intensify immediately. The snow lay in drifts against the lane wall, freezing as soon as it landed. The wind was like a blade cutting at their skin. They pulled their scarves over their noses and mouths and walked back up the lane to where they had left Luath and the Winter King.
It didn’t look as if they’d moved since Josh and Callie last saw them. Little drifts had formed against the King’s feet and Luath’s paws, and as he saw Callie the dog shook himself free of the snow th
at had gathered on his coat.
No snow lay on the King. It was as though the flakes slid around him as he stood, the ice sword dangling from his right hand, and heaped themselves round his feet.
“You have the boat?” he said.
Callie nodded and took it from her pocket to show him.
He nodded, mouth curving in what was almost a smile. “It is well made. Perhaps with this we can reach the Kingdom. Which way is the river?”
Callie pointed. “This way; but it’s hardly a river – it’s hardly even a stream. I only hope it’s the right one.”
They set off up the lane to go round the back of the garden and over the fields to the tiny stream. Callie watched the sparkling threads of light in the air above the Smithy. She had no idea why Josh couldn’t see them or what the King had meant when he had asked who had woven the net, and there seemed no time to ask now.
As they moved away from the Smithy garden and into the field they began to hear the breath of the Black Winter around them. Despite their layers of clothing, Josh and Callie were both shivering, although the King seemed impervious to the cold.
The constant blowing of white flakes in front of his eyes made Josh feel dizzy and disoriented. He wanted to stop and sit down and close his eyes, just for a moment, to get some rest from them.
Luath began to bark just then and suddenly a figure loomed out of the snow in front of them: a shining figure, like a copy in ice of the Winter King, every detail right now, even as it was so terribly wrong.
“Stay behind me!” he said to Josh and Callie and waited for the Winterbringer to come to him. Josh noticed that it moved more swiftly and fluidly than any of the others they had seen. It was as though each one was a better copy than the one before.
This one was careful to keep out of reach of the sword, circling the King like a grotesque mirror image. It was only when Luath threw himself at the creature, teeth bared, that it paused, distracted, for long enough to let the King lunge forward and drive the sword into its body in a shower of crystals.
The sword fell from his hand and Josh bent to pick it up.
“Careful! The cold will burn you.”
“Even through gloves?” They were thick ski gloves.
“I do not know. Be careful.”
Josh picked the sword up gingerly. He felt the cold pour from it into his hand, and passed it quickly to the King.
“I am sorry. I must rest for a few moments,” he said and slipped to his knees.
“That’s all right. I could do with a rest too.” Josh sat down dizzily in the snow, his hands over his face, seeking relief from the endless unbroken whiteness around them.
Callie knelt down beside them. “Just for a moment,” she said, anxiety clear in her voice. “We mustn’t fall asleep. We could freeze.”
“How could anyone fall asleep in this?” asked Josh.
Around them the snow breathed, slow and menacing.
***
Callie felt something warm and wet against her face, between her scarf and hat. She recognized it as Luath’s tongue and pushed him away, wondering how he’d managed to get into her bedroom. She felt for the edge of the duvet, to pull it further up. There was no duvet. She realized slowly where she was and opened her eyes to see Luath licking at Josh’s face where he lay curled in the snow a few feet away from her.
She moved, stiff with cold, her brain working painfully slowly. She knew they had to get up and move or they would die here of the cold. She saw Josh push the dog away and crawled across to him. Luath transferred his efforts to the Winter King, who knelt bare-headed in the snow, still as a statue, the sword fallen from his grip, eyes open but empty.
Josh pushed himself onto his hands and knees, shaking his head to try and clear it.
Callie got painfully to her feet and helped Josh to pull himself up.
“How long …” he started to say.
She pulled her glove down far enough to see her watch. “Five minutes, maybe ten.”
“We could have died.”
“I know.” She gave an involuntary shudder.
They pushed through the mounds of snow to the King and hauled him to his feet.
“I hope the river is close,” he said as Josh handed the sword to him again. “I cannot go much further.”
“It’s not far,” said Callie. “Just down …” She looked around, unsure of what way she was facing. “Wait a minute.” She looked around for their tracks, but the snow had already blotted them out. Think, she said to herself in her head. Concentrate. She looked up this time, hoping to see the glimmer of lights over the Smithy. At first there was nothing but snow. She turned slowly, watching carefully.
There.
She kept looking for a minute to make sure, then turned away from the Smithy lights.
“Down there.” She pointed into the blurred snow.
“Are you sure?” said Josh, doubtfully.
“Yes.” She certainly sounded sure.
They fought their way forward. Around them the wind rose higher, blowing snow so hard at them that it was virtually impossible to speak. Above the wind came the loud breath of the Black Winter, deeper and faster now, like an animal rousing from sleep.
They pushed on as fast as they could, but now the snow seemed to fight them at every step. Callie wasn’t as sure as she had sounded that she was heading in the right direction, so it was with enormous relief that she saw through the blizzard the line of small trees that marked the river bank.
“There!” she yelled at Josh.
He nodded in return.
“Nearly there,” she shouted encouragingly to the King.
With a sound like shattering glass, the fallen snow around them exploded into life.
14. Summer’s Heart
Hands shot out of the icy snow around them, grabbing sightlessly. Too shocked to scream or run, Josh and Callie froze.
Arms emerged fully, shoulders, heads, dragging themselves from the frozen mounds of snow, each one a replica of the Winter King, their icy hair woven with feathers and bones of frost.
“Run!” yelled the King. “Get to the river. See to the boat. You cannot help here.”
Luath ran here and there, biting at hands and faces as they emerged, maiming but not killing the ice creatures.
“Go!”
They turned and ran for the river as best they could, swerving, half-falling; anything to avoid the grasping hands. They crashed through the trees in a shower of snow and there lay the stream in front of them, frozen solid.
Callie pulled the boat out of her pocket and set it down on the ice. The thread had already been fastened to it in the Smithy. Josh pulled off his gloves with his teeth and willed his numb fingers to tie the other end round an alder branch which Callie showed him.
“Nothing’s happening,” he said anxiously.
“The blood,” Callie yelled in his ear. “We forgot the blood.”
They glanced back up the slope, to where the Winter King and Luath held the ice-warriors at bay.
Callie fumbled for the penknife in her pocket and tried unsuccessfully to open it.
“Give it to me.”
She passed it to Josh without argument. He blew on his fingers and pulled at the blade and it slowly unfolded. He jabbed the point into his thumb immediately and passed it back to Callie and held his hand over the boat on the ice. His fingers were so cold that the blood wouldn’t flow out of the cut. He rubbed his thumb hard with his other hand, coaxed a sullen drop from it and let it fall into the boat.
Up on the bank, the King and Luath were retreating before the onslaught of the ice warriors, one slow step at a time.
Callie let her blood fall into the boat, her breath held.
Nothing happened.
“What’s wrong?” she yelled. “We did everything. Why isn’t it working?”
“I don’t know.”
They stared at the boat as though they could will it to do what they wanted.
Think, Callie urged herself. Picture A
gnes’ journal. Remember the words.
Beatrix had a long coil of white silk thread. She tied one end to the boat and the other to a trailing branch, so the boat would find its way home, then set it down on the water of the …
“The water!”
“What?”
“The boat has to be on the water. Quick, we have to break the ice.”
Luath and the King had fallen back to the trees now. They only had a few more seconds before they would all be overwhelmed. Josh and Callie kicked at the snow on the bank trying to find something they could use to break the ice. With a gasp, Josh pulled a fist-sized stone free from the earth and hammered at the ice in front of the boat.
“Hurry!” screamed Callie “They’re coming.”
Josh struck at the ice over and over again, as hard as he could, but it didn’t even crack.
“It’s no good.”
With a sob, Callie threw herself at the ice and hammered at it with her fists.
“Break! Break!”
The ice shattered under her hand and split apart, a channel of shining dark water opening in front of the tiny boat. The slab of ice it lay on tilted sideways and the boat slid down and onto the water.
As they watched, it seemed to shiver, and then to swell, until it lay tethered by a white rope to the tree, a small boat still, but big enough for all of them.
Callie threw herself into the boat and held tight to a branch to stop it drifting.
“Quick – get in!” Josh yelled.
Luath bounded down the bank and jumped into the boat.
With a cry, the Winter King hurled the ice sword at the Winterbringers. It shattered into tiny shards with a noise like a bell and he fell and rolled down the slope.
Josh hauled him into the boat and half-fell in himself and Callie pushed off.
As well as the boat, the stream seemed to have grown much wider and within a few seconds they were floating in a channel in the centre, out of reach of anything on the bank.
Josh pulled himself up and looked properly at the boat. “It worked,” he said in amazement, staring at the reddish-brown stains on the bottom. “What did you do to the ice?”
Winterbringers Page 12
