The heavy door swung shut behind him as he reached the upper cellars, silencing a shriek from Snitch. It was almost as if the castle was trying to help him by slowing her down. “Thank you!” he shouted over the noise of Snitch throwing herself against the door. It finally burst open with a bang just as he safely reached the stairs up from the undercroft. He bolted up them and into the kitchen, only to find his path barred by Hugo Pugsley’s barrel chest.
“You should be in the hall,” smirked Edward over his friend’s shoulder.
“Out of the way!” shouted Alfie, frantically struggling to get past as he heard Snitch crashing through the upper cellars.
“Mrs Salvador sent us to find you,” said Hugo, dodging around to block Alfie’s path. “You’re supposed to lead the cast onstage at the end of the play.”
“Move!” yelled Alfie, bowling them out of the way.
“You’ll be in even more trouble when we tell her you did that,” Edward called after him as Snitch burst into the kitchen.
“Miss Snitch,” said Edward gleefully as he realized she was chasing Alfie. “We tried to tell Alfie he was supposed to be in the Great Hall, but he just shoved me out of the way.” Alfie glanced back. Edward’s smile had disappeared as he saw the savage look on Snitch’s face.
“Run, you idiots!” screamed Alfie as he raced from the kitchens. There was a crash behind him but he barely had time to feel sorry for the two boys – a dripping Murkle had burst through the castle door. She screeched in anger as she made a grab for him. He nimbly dodged her charge and raced into the Great Hall, straight past the confused cast waiting at the back. Some of them ran along behind him while the others looked around, unsure what to do.
“Stop, Alfie!” hissed Robin grabbing at his tunic. “The play isn’t over. We’re not supposed to go up yet!” Alfie could hear whispers spreading through the confused audience as he pulled away from Robin and sprinted down the central aisle. Cormac sat up from his deathbed looking confused as Alfie invaded the stage, turning to see Murkle and Snitch bowling children out of their path as they charged after him.
“Listen, everyone!” Alfie shouted over the sudden uproar. “Murkle and Snitch have got everyone believing their lies. There’s something wrong with them – you can’t trust them. They’re the ones that burned down the school hall!”
“Shut up and get down from there, boy!” screamed Snitch.
“This child attacked us!” roared Murkle as she turned to face the stunned audience. Alfie looked to his family as they looked from him to the headmistresses.
“He also stole something from us,” said Snitch, as she looked out over the audience. Her eyes had taken on the same yellow colour they had in the cellar. Her voice became much lower and calmer. “A necklace … it was ours and he stole it.”
A murmur went through the audience. “He stole from his teachers? Alfie’s a thief?”
“Don’t listen to them!” Alfie yelled as he saw the familiar glazed expression begin to spread across all of the eyes in the hall in response to Snitch’s tone and snake-like stare. “Don’t look at them. They’re hypnotizing you!” A couple of people started to boo him.
“He should give it back,” added Murkle, adopting the same eerie tone as her sister. “He stole it and he should give it back.”
“They’re lying!” Alfie yelled, looking around for someone, anyone, that wasn’t falling under his teachers’ spell.
“Thief!” someone called.
“Stealing is wrong. Give it back, son,” said his dad in a monotone voice as he stood up and turned to Alfie with a blank expression.
“They’re lying, Dad,” said Alfie, before raising his voice and shouting to the whole room. “They’re liars, I can prove it!”
Murkle and Snitch scrambled up on to the stage and stormed toward him.
“Give us the talisman key!” they demanded. Their eyes bored into him, seeming to gleam yellow. He realized that they were trying to control him, but the hypnosis trick they had pulled on everyone else wasn’t working. Could the talisman be protecting him from it, or maybe it was the magic inside him? Alfie reached around to the back of his belt, pulling out the two water pistols he had filled with Orin’s potion. The two women roared with laughter.
“A strange time to play games, little boy!” cackled Murkle. They lunged towards him. Alfie aimed at their faces and pulled the triggers, trying to spray as much of the potion as possible into their screaming mouths.
“See this behaviour,” Snitch called out to the audience, wiping her face as she grabbed one of Alfie’s arms. “First he steals from us, then this horrendous show of disrespect!”
Alfie’s blood ran cold as the audience got to their feet, booing and yelling at him. Even his family looked as though they were about to join in. Murkle and Snitch’s hypnosis had held. Why hadn’t the potion worked? He realized that even if they admitted everything right now, it would be no use in front of this audience. He couldn’t see any way back from this moment. Soon they would drag him down to the cellars, and no one would do a thing to stop them, not even his dad or the twins.
A crumpled programme hit Alfie in the face as Murkle and Snitch dragged him from the stage to a chorus of taunts and jeers. He wondered if he could get away from them and hide in Orin’s study – but as he twisted and tried to wrench himself free he realized there was no getting away this time.
“Move boy, or I’ll ask your father to help us,” said Snitch.
“Maybe your grandmother would like to help too,” giggled Murkle. “Shall we ask her…?”
A loud yowl interrupted her taunt, silencing the baying crowd. Alfie looked down to see Galileo standing in the aisle. His tail was puffed up like a chimney brush as his fur rose into a spine along his arched back. He yowled and hissed at the two women.
“What is wrong with that creature?” said Snitch, grabbing a programme and launching it at the cat. Galileo sprang out of the way and continued to hiss. Snitch suddenly doubled over as though she had been struck in the stomach.
“Your face, sister,” shrieked Murkle. Snitch’s features appeared to be melting in and out of focus. Murkle clutched at her own face, which was also distorting. Alfie saw his chance and pulled away from the sisters.
“He did something,” she cried, launching herself towards Alfie. “What did you do to us?” Alfie leapt back as Murkle dropped to the floor. He watched in horror as their bodies began to contort along with their faces. The potion was only supposed to reveal the truth. Had he just poisoned his headmistresses in front of everyone?
Alfie stared. Murkle and Snitch had gone, and in their place stood two men. They were a similar size and shape to the two sisters and just as mean looking.
“Mr Smeadon? Mr Lurcher?” said Granny, getting up and looking at the men in surprise.
“What have you done, boy? Stop this now!” the two men demanded, their mouths moving together as they spoke in exactly the same voice. The rest of the crowd started to come out of their trance as the two figures began to contort and change again, briefly settling on a new form.
“That’s Miss Craggs and Mr Fargle,” said Hexbridge’s oldest resident, Ernie Wilmslow, rolling down the aisle in his wheelchair. “Ain’t seen those two for over eighty years but I’ll never forget the hidings they gave me – couldn’t sit down for a week!”
The changes became faster, different clothing and faces flickering across the two forms. Their faces became twisted and distorted – strange green-tinged parodies of human faces.
“What did you do, Alfie?” shouted Holly in horror.
“I … I don’t know.” shouted Alfie over the screaming of people scrambling to get out of the way of the horrifying transformation. “I only wanted to show you all what they’re really like. I had to stop them!”
A terrible gurgling came from the two bodies as they blurred into one mass and began to grow. The gu
rgling turned into a deep rasping laugh as something huge materialized, right in front of everyone’s eyes.
Alfie staggered back in horror at the creature looming over him. Murkle and Snitch weren’t controlling the dragon, he realized at last – they were the dragon. And he had invited it in! People were screaming and scrambling over chairs to get away from the creature that had appeared in their midst. The two heads were pulling in different directions as the dragon seemed to be deciding who to eat first. Alfie knew he had to lure it away from the castle.
“Hey, sewer breath!” he called, hurling a chair at it. “You want this?” he shook the talisman at them. A rumbling growl came from the creature’s throats. Alfie backed towards the doors, hurling another chair. The dragon bellowed, its clawed feet crunching golden chairs into firewood as it lumbered towards him. “Well, you’ll have to come and get it!” Alfie yelled as he turned and ran from the hall.
Reaching the courtyard, Alfie pulled the silver whistle from his pocket and blew it as hard as he could. Within seconds, Artan had swooped down from the tower and scooped him up on to his back.
“Quick, get us away from here, before it kills someone!” Alfie lay flat and grasped the bear’s fur. Artan shot up into the sky just as the dragon burst through the castle doorway and launched itself after them.
“You want to be more careful picking your guests,” roared Artan as they rocketed into the air, the lights of the castle dwindling below as they soared over Lake Archelon. The moon reflected off the water, illuminating the dragon as it flashed past. Artan swooped downwards, almost skimming the lake as he dodged the tail that whipped towards them. Alfie hung on tight as the bear wheeled to the left. They gained a few precious seconds as the dragon flapped around, struggling to turn as quickly as the bear.
“Where to?” called Artan.
“The forest!” Alfie shouted. The dragon would be too big to follow – maybe Artan could lose it among the trees. They shot past the castle again and headed towards the village. Alfie saw his cousins racing down the hill with Jimmy and Holly, trying to follow their flight path. The adults were milling around on the drawbridge, still looking dazed. A clatter of breaking tiles came from behind them as the dragon landed briefly on the church spire, then launched itself in their direction.
“Look out!” he screamed as the dragon whistled through the air, wings flat to its sides as the spire crashed to the ground behind it. Artan dodged a second too slowly this time, and its great tail lashed against them. As they dropped from the sky, the bear wrapped himself around Alfie, softening his fall as they crashed into the village square.
Alfie leapt to his feet, grimacing as his ankle buckled under him. The dragon landed with a thump, claws clattering on the cobbles. It stomped a foot on to Artan’s back – pinning the bear in place as he struggled to take flight.
The head with the sharpest snout dipped down to within two feet of Alfie. As its pupils narrowed to slivers of black in its yellow eyes, he knew that he was looking at Snitch.
“The talisman-key,” it snarled, extending one of its claws towards him.
“No,” said Alfie. He backed away, trying not to show the pain he felt as he put weight on his ankle.
“Wrong answer!” boomed the dragon, sending a searing blast of air from its nostrils. Alfie staggered back from the hot, sulphurous stench. “Idiot child! Did you really think that you could stand in the way of us taking it back whenever we wanted?” The dragon picked Artan up between two claws and dangled him in the air. Lizard-like frills unfolded with a snap around the two heads, vibrating threateningly as the beast examined the bear. “So old and dried out,” it observed.
“One little spark and … Poof!” cackled the fat scaly head that had Murkle’s sly features.
“Put him down!” screamed Alfie as smoke began to curl from Snitch’s nostrils. Glaring up at the dragon, he became aware of a whispering noise building up inside his head. His skin tingled and a warm sensation flowed through his veins.
The dragon had stopped toying with the bear. Both of its heads were turned to Alfie, their eyes wide and glittering.
“Look at his eyes,” the heads hissed to each other. “It’s Orin’s magic. It wasn’t lost. He has it.”
Orin’s magic! It was awake inside him, just like the day of the fire. But this was different from the school hall – he felt in control. He could almost understand it as it whispered to him, asking to be released. To be fed.
“We could take it,” hissed Murkle, eyes gleaming greedily. “Feed it on the humans, their electricity lines and power-stations. Then we could use it to rebuild the land for our brothers and sisters! Tall mountains, steaming volcanoes, lovely lakes of lava! The humans would farm their livestock, just for us. And the ones that won’t…” Her forked tongue shot out and licked her lips greedily as she looked down at Alfie. He glared back. The whispering in his head was like the soft roar of a mighty waterfall.
“Or, we could create a new breed of dragons,” growled Snitch, baring her long fangs and sending out a snort of steam. Murkle’s head snapped around to face her as she continued. “All the others ever did was fight. Why not leave the gateway sealed? Let them sleep for ever. We’ll build our own army of dragons…”
“… with us as their rulers!” shrieked Murkle. “The world will be ours!”
Alfie tried to stay calm, but his heart was beating faster and faster. An immense feeling of power had filled his body. He felt stronger than he had ever felt before.
“So how do we get it?”
“Like this!” Snitch’s head shot towards Alfie. Her jaws snapped shut on nothing but air as he rolled aside. Electricity crackled through his veins. If the magic fed on energy, he wondered, could he use it to draw out the dragon’s strength, like Orin had used it to absorb Agrodonn’s magic? He dodged Snitch’s jaws again, fury building as he concentrated on the magic inside him. He had no choice – he had to use it.
The dragon lurched forward again and Alfie let go, imagining the full force of the magic bursting out of him, tearing into the creature. Immediately he knew that something was wrong. A massive electrical charge shot through his chest, throwing him to the ground. The dragon was completely unharmed and let out a deep rasping laugh from both of its throats as Alfie groaned from the pain of hitting the cobbles so hard. Before he could clamber to his feet, a claw jabbed down on to his chest, pinning him back to the ground. He cried out in pain as the tip of a talon slowly pierced his skin.
“Alfie!” yelled Robin, racing across the cobbles, closely followed by Madeleine.
“Get your claws off him!” screamed Madeleine, picking up stones and hurling them at the dragon with all her might. Murkle and Snitch’s lips drew back into terrifying grins, revealing razor-sharp teeth as they ignored the stones bouncing harmlessly off their armoured body.
“Remove the key first,” Snitch growled as Murkle’s teeth snapped within inches of Alfie’s face. A claw hooked under the talisman as Alfie wriggled helplessly on the cobbles. The cord snapped and it flew across the square. Alfie stared into Snitch’s gaping maw as she prepared to swallow him whole. Suddenly, the air between them was filled with black feathered wings and snapping beaks.
Alfie staggered to his feet and stared up in awe as hundreds of ravens flocked down into the square, heading straight for the dragon like tiny warplanes. The dragon snapped both sets of jaws, sending feathers flying as the birds pecked at its eyes, ears and wings. For every bird it caught, ten took its place. The moon and stars were blotted from view as the swirling cloud of ravens descended on the dragon like an oily black tornado. The beast screeched and took to the air, sending jets of flame into the swarm, which parted and regrouped like a shoal of fish as it continued its attack.
“Quick, Alfie!” said Robin, pulling him to his feet. “Let’s go while it’s busy.”
“I can’t!” Alfie looked up at the ball of feathers surrounding t
he dragon and knew that Caspian was in there somewhere, saving his life. “I’ve got to stop it. The talisman, quick, help me find it!”
They spread out to search the cobbles. The charred bodies of ravens began to rain down around them as the battle raged overhead.
“Here!” called Madeleine suddenly. “Is this it?”
“Yes!” Alfie grabbed the talisman and checked that the lens was still intact. The lens! Emily had said that it could focus energy. Could it focus the magic too? He leapt aside and a jet of flame scorched the cobbles as he fastened the talisman around his neck.
“What now?” asked Robin, helping a dazed Artan float away from the flaming ravens that were dropping from the sky.
Alfie knelt down on the ground and closed his eyes, shutting out the noise of the battle as he focused, calming his mind and beating heart as the voice in his head became clear. Suddenly he knew what to do. He had used the magic too violently before. This time he listened to it and guided it, directing the build-up of energy towards the talisman. A warmth spread across the centre of his chest.
Opening his eyes, he stood up. His ankle gave him no pain now. He felt calm and alert rather than seething with raw power.
“What are you going to do?” asked Madeleine.
“Shh! Let him concentrate,” whispered Robin.
The ground was covered in the corpses of ravens that had fought to protect him. The survivors withdrew and swooped away. Alfie prayed that Caspian wasn’t among the dead.
The dragon span furiously in the air, spitting flames after the retreating birds. One of Murkle’s eyes was closed and the creature’s wings were in tatters from the hundreds of beaks that had torn at them. It steadied itself in the air and caught sight of Alfie standing below. Both mouths screeched in unison, sending out a fiery blast that turned the weathervane on the village hall into a molten stream of metal.
Alfie Bloom and the Secrets of Hexbridge Castle Page 19
