Here Be Witches

by Sarah Mussi

  I hoist myself up from trunk to trunk. Yuck, slimy cold moss. I try not to go all urrrgh; to stay strong. I’ve been pretty scared of Dinas Emrys ever since I was first brought here by the White Dragon. I tell myself: Sir Oswald can’t get you any more. I hold my breath. He’s like my worstever nightmare. Totally evil. But he’s shut up under the fortress, isn’t he? I briefly cross my fingers. Then I carry on struggling up the dark slope.

  Halfway up, I check my phone to see if there are any new pings. Actually, I stop to get my breath back.

  The bars on the phone are down. No coverage. Snowdon has shut down. Locked us all in.

  I puff a bit (OK, a lot). It’s very steep, and I’m out of breath. I get going again; have to crawl on hands and knees in places, up towards a pile of stones – all that’s left of the ruined ramparts of the old castle.

  Legend has it that the fort of Dinas Emrys was the ancient stronghold of Vortigern, the king who disturbed the lair of the dragons. He was the pillock guy who started the problem to begin with. I seriously blame him for that. If he hadn’t decided to build his stupid castle up here, Merlin would never have got involved. And the curse that took Henry away from me would never have been cast. It is all Vortigern’s fault. Though I guess I should thank him too, because if he hadn’t dug up the dragons and Merlin hadn’t offered them the chance to become human, I’d never have met Henry.

  That’s history for you. Perverse.

  I mean, why would you want to build a castle up here? In the most inaccessible spot ever? I seriously pity his workers. If my mum even tried to ask a builder to do a job on the top pastures he’d tell her where to go. And just because they didn’t have human rights in the Dark Ages, that was no excuse. They were still humans. Except for Henry, obvs.

  I try not to think about Henry, down under the mountain.

  At last I get up off all fours, dust bits of random moss and lichen from my knees, round the top of the escarpment and start to descend on the other side.

  And then I blink.

  My heartbeat shoots up, way over healthy.

  WHAAAAAT?

  SIX

  ELLIE’S PHONE

  No coverage. No coverage. No coverage.

  Holy heck.

  Half of the north face of Dinas Emrys has split open.

  Trees uprooted, boulders cracked right through. Great half-broken trunks stuck up in the air. It looks like a train crash. There’s an overpowering smell of crushed foliage and damp earth; a thick, sickly smell. I try to stay sane, breathe in great gulps after the long bike ride, the scramble up the hill …

  Someone’s screaming.

  The mist about the ramparts of Dinas Emrys suddenly closes in. It feels like nothing else in the world exists apart from that great scar, that huge open crack. Half of the flipping fortress is gone!

  I close my eyes. Reopen them. It’s all still here. The hill, the landslide, the police, the lights, the diggers, ropes, torches, sirens …

  I hear another scream. I wheel round to my left, standing in the mist; way up ahead on the lip of the crack is Rhiannon.

  ‘ELLIE!’ she shrieks. ‘ELLIE, THANK GOD YOU’VE COME!’

  She’s pale, distraught, wearing some kind of funny outfit. I make my way over the top towards her. She scrambles over the rocks and throws herself at me.

  She latches on to me with fierce frenzy.

  ‘THEY’VE GONE! THEY LEFT ME!’

  ‘What have you got on?’ I say. She’s all dressed up in some shapeless black (lacy!) cloak thing with a fish-tail, plus an extra-wide, fur-trimmed hood, totally covered in sequins, pulled over a pointy hat! A mask hangs from elastic around her neck.

  ‘It’s all gone wrong!’

  ‘What?’ I say.

  ‘She’s dead!’ shouts Rhiannon. ‘She’s DEAD!’ Rhi points into the crevasse right behind her.

  I try to get my head round that. Has the earth shifted, opened up right down to the cave? What does she mean? My heart jumps around in my chest. ‘Who’s dead?’ I ask.

  ‘Fiona.’

  ‘Well shove over then,’ I say, ‘so I can see.’

  Rhiannon lets go of me, clutches her head, screams, ‘She’s dead. They left me. With someone dead! DON’T TELL MY DAD.’

  I try to squeeze past her but get a blast of vertigo. I realise she’s standing on the edge of some huge drop.

  Don’t tell my dad? Where did that come from? ‘Tell him what?’

  ‘There was no phone signal,’ she cries. ‘I didn’t even know if my messages got through.’

  I look up towards the peak of Snowdon. You knew though, didn’t you? I think. You know which messages you let through and which you don’t.

  ‘Snowdon’s funny like that,’ I say. ‘Go on.’

  ‘Nothing’s funny,’ Rhiannon screeches at me. ‘It was TERRIBLE.’

  ‘OK, stay calm. Breathe out through your mouth. That’s it. You’ll be fine … ’ All my mountain-rescue training kicks in. ‘But I need to know everything.’ I try to untangle myself from Rhi, so I can look over the edge of the crater.

  ‘It was the Supreme One’s idea,’ she said. ‘We were just doing girl power thingies.’

  The Supreme One?

  ‘I didn’t know what would … I thought it was going to be different.’ Rhiannon sounds aggrieved.

  ‘What did you do?’

  ‘We were going to wake up these dragons and ask them to tell us the future.’

  My heart misses a beat.

  ‘It wasn’t supposed to be real witchcraft,’ she says, ‘just pretend. We had to have clothes and hats and brooms and be all dressed up, which was fun. I thought we’d look all sexy-Wiccan princess. And, you know … do love spells … ’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You know – LOVE SPELLS.’

  ‘How can that be OK?’ I say. ‘I mean, making someone love you. Seriously Rhi?’

  Rhiannon shrugs. ‘Not everyone can be as fussy as you.’

  ‘Then what happened?’ I try again to get free, but Rhi’s got some kind of death grip going on around my neck.

  ‘Well, The Supreme One – that’s the High Priestess – it was all her idea.’

  ‘Can you let go?’ I say.

  ‘Someone’s boyfriend brought us in a van. I don’t know whose – one of those other girls.’ I don’t really know them anyway. Meryl refused to join and nobody bothered asking you … ’ She stops.

  ‘Why don’t you sit down?’ I say. ‘And let me look at what’s happened.’

  Rhiannon starts shrieking. ‘NO, DON’T! DON’T! SHE’S DEAD!’

  I really need to see if Henry’s OK …

  ‘OK – just sit. Try to breathe evenly.’ I pull her down beside me, put my arm round her. ‘It’s not safe anyway standing on these rocks.’ Maybe if she sits down I can get her a bit calmer and then I can try and find out what’s happened. Rhiannon tightens her grip.

  ‘We had to walk all the way up the slope, chanting. Once we got up here, we formed a circle and said the magic words. And you know, called the dragons.’

  I go cold all over.

  ‘Then this huge crack opened up, something white and, like, weird rushed out. Honestly, I swear it looked like some kind of dinosaur or something, and I thought maybe it was a dragon. I thought maybe it was just all of us standing in the wrong place and it’d rained a lot and that’s why … ’

  Oh God, I think. Oh My God. I hold my breath. I can’t believe it. But what else could be that huge and white and … weird?

  ‘OK, describe it.’

  I just want to see for myself.

  ‘It was like a sinkhole opening up.’

  ‘No, the dragon thing.’

  ‘Like some kind of … breath of death flying out of the mountain.’

  Breath of death?

  ‘And that’s when this girl, Fiona, just screamed and toppled in. She wasn’t even standing at the edge. It was as if when that white thing came out, it kind of sucked her in.’

  I’ve heard enough. I pul
l her arms off me, a bit roughly. She’ll be OK. She’s calmer. ‘Stay there.’ I clamber up over the last heap of stones and lean over the lip of the crevasse. I look down.

  There are the ruins of the cavern. There, impaled on crystals, lies a girl. A policeman in a white spacesuit thing is moving around. The girl looks like a broken doll. One of the crystals has pierced right through her. I can see the dark spread of blood seeping around. I think I gasp or mumble or moan. I’m not sure.

  A policeman looks up, angrily waves me back, turns to someone and points up at us. I inch my way back to Rhiannon.

  ‘Didn’t anyone go down there, check she was still alive?’ I ask.

  ‘The Supreme One went down, but she said there was nothing we could do,’ wails Rhiannon. ‘She went with the rest of the girls to go and fetch someone. They left me here to tell the police … and … ’

  Well, that’s weird, isn’t it? Leaving Rhi here all alone.

  I clamber back from the lip of the crater. I sit shaking on the rocks. Apart from the girl down there and the two crystals and the blood there is nothing.

  Nothing!!!!!!

  Except a feeling; an eerie fear, like a curse has been fulfilled. No White Dragon. No Red Dragon. No Henry.

  And – come to think of it – it’s pretty weird of Rhi to agree to stay.

  A policeman appears, climbs over the rocks towards us. Rhiannon grabs my arm, whispers, ‘I’m so sorry. Please forgive me, Ellie, I love you really.’ Then she stands up, hurries forward.

  ‘Steady there,’ says the police officer.

  ‘HELP!’ screams Rhiannon. And she flings her arm out, points straight at me. ‘IT WAS HER!’ she yells.

  ‘SHE PUSHED FIONA IN!’

  ‘Whaaat?’ I say, for the third time tonight.

  ‘YOU DID! YOU DID!’ screeches Rhiannon.

  ‘Hang on,’ I start.

  ‘You pushed her! You threatened me and you’ve been standing here ever since forcing me to send you fake texts, because you know on Snowdon the coverage is unreliable – so that you can pretend you didn’t do it!’

  ‘Rhiannon!’

  I’m totally shocked.

  Totally.

  Totally.

  ‘HELP ME!’ weeps Rhiannon. ‘SHE DID IT! SHE DID IT! I’m so scared. She’s gonna push me in.’

  I feel all the blood draining out of me.

  ‘I – ’

  ‘Please don’t move, Miss.’ The policeman steps towards me.

  ‘But I’ve only just arrived.’

  I can’t believe this.

  ‘Well, we didn’t see you,’ says the policeman.

  ‘I scrambled up at the back way,’ I say.

  ‘Did any of the residents there see you?’

  I can’t believe this.

  ‘I think we better go down to the station, Miss.’

  ‘But … ’

  ‘You have the right to remain silent, but anything you do say will be taken down in evidence and may be used against you.’

  Ohmygod.

  I didn’t wake Mum. OMG. Nobody in Llanberis saw me. I don’t know if I got through to the police when I was on the pass. OMG. I didn’t text George back. Nobody will be able to vouch for me.

  Oh My God.

  It’s my word against Rhi’s.

  I don’t believe this.

  But surely the Supreme One and the rest of the coven … they know I wasn’t here.

  OHMYGOD.

  ‘Please come quietly.’

  He removes the handcuffs from his belt.

  ‘OK, Officer,’ I say. ‘I’ll come.’

  SEVEN

  I pull out my phone. I’ve got to let someone know.

  ELLIE’S PHONE

  Status: … no signal

  Recent updates:

  Sheila

  Why did you ping me? Is this about a boy? If it is, I bags him first.

  YES! Even your PRECIOUS Henry! Mwahaha.

  I close my phone.

  Great.

  A team from Caernarfon comes. They remove Fiona. How horrible. I feel ill. It takes a long time. I don’t see any of it. I sit in a police van, and watch the dawn not happening. Horrible. Horrible. Horrible. Cold mist rolls down off the slopes, hits the blue-flashing police lights in weird puffs, like the breath of the Brenin Llwyd for real. My phone has no bars showing. Poor Fiona. I wonder if Mum has woken up and is freaking out that I’m not back, or thinks I’m staying over with Rhi.

  Rhi?

  What the heck is going on with her?

  I actually still can’t believe it. I try, but my brain gets stuck. I sit there. I watch as they remove a lumpy black shape into an ambulance parked across the road. So Fiona’s really dead? Somehow I was hoping …

  God, it’s just so awful. Impaled on the heart crystals? I shudder. I don’t even know where Rhiannon is. They led her off, sobbing. Her face was puffy and her eyes couldn’t meet mine. ‘Rhi?’ I shouted at her, but she ducked her head low and leaned on the policeman supporting her, as if I was like: Evil Incarnate.

  And no Henry.

  Where is he?

  I scanned every corner of that ruined cavern. I even saw the pool where George poured the potion. I saw the alcove at the back, where we’d hidden. I couldn’t possibly have missed two huge dragons, could I?

  I start thinking this is a nightmare. This is a total nightmare. I must have fallen asleep on the sofa, or I’m having more Horror Her visiony things.

  But you don’t really have visions about sitting in the back of a police car. Do you?

  Eventually another policeman arrives. There’s a quick conversation, then the policeman who arrested me starts the engine. He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t even glance at me. We drive off down the mountain, through Beddgelert, towards Caernarfon. At least he doesn’t put on his stupid siren, as if I’m a mass murderer. Maybe he believes everything Rhiannon said. Maybe he’s so used to arresting teenagers in the middle of the night, he doesn’t think anything. I can’t think anything either. I can’t get over the fact that this is happening.

  I keep expecting to wake up.

  But I don’t.

  I stare out of the window at the mist and rain. Henry can’t have just disappeared.

  I have to say something in my own defence, so I mention my bike, and how that might prove I really did come through the chalets at the back.

  But then again it might not.

  Inside those chalets might be whole gangs of stripy-pyjamaed bike thieves: who will obviously nick my bike and pretend they aren’t in their mobile homes at all; even if the whole of North Wales Police pounds, all night, on every door.

  The policeman calls someone, asks them to check.

  I don’t hold my breath.

  After dark, mountain roads in Wales are quite scary, even in police cars. In thick mist they’re even worse. At one point I almost wish he had put on the siren, just to warn anyone coming the other way. I realise, I’m probably freaking out about the twisty roads to stop myself freaking out about Henry not being there – and that poor, poor dead girl …

  And Rhiannon.

  Rhiannon!

  I just don’t get it.

  I can’t think about it, either. It’s actually unthinkable.

  So I’m officially not thinking.

  At the police station, the officer parks the car round the back. I’m still not thinking. I’m taken into the charge office. It’s very humiliating. But I’m not thinking about that either. I have to empty everything out of my pockets including my ratty old bits of tissue. They take everything.

  When it comes to the interview statement, I have to start thinking.

  And the first thing I think is: they are not going to believe anything about dragons. If I mention Henry, they will freak out and get a psychiatrist in.

  Not going there.

  They get someone in anyway. I think she is called an Appropriate Other.

  APPROPRIATE OTHER: We are going to have to interview you about what happened.

/>   ME: I wasn’t there. I swear. I keep telling them.

  POLICE OFFICER: We are recording this interview at 5.30 a.m.

  ME: Cripes, is it 5.30 already?

  THEM: Please confirm these belongings are yours. They are being sealed in a plastic envelope.

  ME: OK.

  THEM: Sign.

  THEM: Your full name?

  ME: Arabella Bronwyn Lily Morgan.

  THEM: Age?

  ME: Sixteen, nearly seventeen.

  THEM: Address?

  ME: Uchaf Cwm Brwynog Farm, Llanberis.

  THEM: Next of kin?

  ME: My mum, Mrs Gwen Morgan.

  THEM: Please tell us exactly what happened.

  ME: OK, but first of all, I want you to know that it’s not true. I didn’t push anyone into that crevasse. I didn’t try to kill anyone.

  THEM: Please relate everything as it happened.

  I stare at them. I sigh.

  ‘Can you write it yourself,’ the policeman says, ‘or would you like to dictate it to me?’

  ‘I’ll write it myself,’ I say. I don’t want him putting my words into his words. I take the pen from him. He pushes a sheet of paper towards me across the table.

  ‘I want you to tell me absolutely everything that happened from 11 p.m. last night, through to this morning,’ he repeats. ‘You need to write it down and sign each part of the statement.’

  So I do.

  I only miss out the weird Brenin Llwyd and dragony bits. He tells me that they have made enquiries, and no, they have not ‘found’ my bike – that the chalets are in fact all empty and there is no sign of me having hidden a bike behind any of them.

  What did I tell you?

  He reminds me that knowingly giving a false statement is a criminal offence.

  —

  After all that, I wait for a long time in the charge office. They take away my stuff. They put it in plastic bags. Then they show me into some other room. I notice when they go out that the door won’t open from the inside. I’m basically locked up. I knock politely at the door. Nothing happens. I push the door.

  I am locked up!

  I pound at it and shout. ‘HEY!’ Someone yells back at me.