by Lari Don
Molly saw a perfect six-pronged flake land on her cuff. Suddenly tempted, she lifted her head and stuck her tongue out to catch one of the flakes spiralling in front of her.
She flinched.
The flake had stung her. It was cold, of course, but it was also sharp.
She held her hand up to catch another flake. A delicate white shape tumbled onto her palm and stuck there. She blew at it, but it didn’t move. It stayed, one edge caught in her skin. As the flake melted, a red bead of blood rose from the palm of her hand.
She looked at Innes. He had a line of blood on his cheekbone.
Molly called out, “The snow is attacking us!”
The snow fell faster, whirled and thrown by gusts of wind. They all huddled together, overlapping coats and cloaks and cardigans to build a tent over their heads.
Beth gasped, “These snowflakes are like tiny knives.”
“Six-bladed knives!” said Innes. “But we can’t just cower here.”
“Cowering seems safer than going out in that,” said Snib.
“It’s not freak weather,” said Innes. “We’re being ambushed. We have to fight back or escape.”
Theo said, “It’s not strong magic. The ice is sharp, but localised. Let’s cover up as much skin as we can and push through it.”
“I’ll lead the way,” said Atacama. “It’s not getting through my fur, so I only have to guard my eyes. Follow me, fast.”
After a quick kerfuffle of hoods and hats to make sure everyone’s faces were covered, they broke apart and started to run.
They ran right into a wall of whirling snow-blades, which sliced at their flimsy fabric shields as the wind battered at them.
They pushed through, the sphinx cutting through the snow ahead, followed by everyone else. Molly felt the wind punch her belly and shoulders, but she kept following.
The snow began to fall even faster and heavier, pummelling and pushing them all towards the ground.
Molly tried to keep running, but her feet slipped and she fell, landing hard on Snib, who was already curled up and sobbing.
Molly tried to stand, but the snow lay on top of her like freezing paving stones. She was trapped on the ground.
The snow slowed. Now, instead of tiny white shapes spiralling from the sky, huge black shapes dived down towards them.
Huge black birds.
Chapter Nineteen
The black birds swooped down on Molly and her friends, grasped them with sharp talons and lifted them high into the air.
But these birds weren’t crows. These birds were longnecked, bald-headed, hook-beaked vultures. Giant vultures, big enough to lift a sphinx and a newly shifted horse.
Definitely big enough to lift Molly, Beth and Theo.
But Snib was left on the ground, a sobbing ball of wet rags.
The vultures holding the five friends flew slowly in a circle centred on a tall man standing below.
Corbie. The leader of the curse-hatched.
Outside the circle of vultures flew a wider ring of black birds: crows, buzzards and eagles.
High above flew an even bigger black bird, which had scaly legs as thick as pine trees and single feathers as wide as school desks. Molly was reminded of Sinbad stories about birds big enough to carry away elephants.
The bird screeched.
Molly hoped briefly that the screech would turn her into an elephant so she could land hard on Corbie.
Corbie laughed at her. “Do you like my roc? She’s our biggest curse-hatched yet! But she won’t turn you into anything useful, if that’s what you’re hoping. You won’t shift at all when you hear a roc call, because rocs hunt human beings. You’re already her prey!”
Corbie looked round at everyone dangling from the vultures’ talons. “Who has the star iron? Who has the stone I can use to threaten that frivolous Promise Keeper, so she will charge up the right curses to build my curse army?”
He waved his hand towards a ring of people and creatures. As Molly was dragged through the cold air, she glimpsed a woman in a cloak of snowflakes, a handful of earthbound human curse-hatched, a horned wyrm and three pale blobs that could be fungus fairies. She also saw a huge green dog and a scarred grey horse.
Corbie grinned. “You see the first recruits to the army my mother imagined, the army that will give power to the curse-hatched and make revenge the most potent magic in the world. But first I need the star iron. So, who has it?”
No one said anything. No one pointed at Theo, no one even glanced at him. They all looked at the massive roc above them, or the shabby curse-hatched leader below.
Corbie crouched down, brushed the snow from Snib’s shivering shoulders, and said, “Tell me, sister. Who has it?”
Snib sat up, Snib smiled, and Snib pointed at Theo.
The crow-girl said, “The magician has it, Corbie. And, like I told you, he can’t use magic to defend it, so you can just take it from him.”
Corbie looked up at Theo. “You are a magician with power you’re afraid to use. I am the commander of a curse army that I’m quite happy to use. This is not a contest of equals. You will give me what I want.”
“It’s not a very big curse army,” said Theo calmly. “More of a curse gang. I’m not impressed. And I’m not giving you anything.”
Corbie nodded to the wide ring of black birds.
Suddenly Theo was mobbed by dozens of crows, buzzards and eagles, all flapping and pecking and clawing at him. Shreds of his cloak floated out of the whirlwind of feathers.
Molly saw Theo’s face harden and saw him raise his hands as high as he could while his shoulders were held by a giant vulture.
She knew that Theo could stop the birds’ attack with a few gestures of those powerful hands. She’d seen him create weapons from the air and throw monsters into the sea. But she also knew that if he used his power, he wouldn’t just destroy his attackers. He would destroy everyone and everything around him. He would destroy his friends as well as his enemies.
Molly held her breath.
Through the blur of feathers and beaks, she saw Theo close his eyes and let his hands drop. Then he wrapped his cloak around himself and over the star iron in his tunic.
But the birds jabbed and tugged and pecked and scratched. They ripped his cloak, dragged his arms apart and shredded his tunic.
The dull grey lump of star iron tumbled out and dropped towards the ground. It landed deep in a drift of snow, digging its own dark hole as it fell.
The mobbing birds flapped away from Theo and he hung, motionless, from the vulture’s talons.
Corbie lifted the star iron from the snow. “The fool’s gold was prettier, but this is the rock with power. Thanks magician, for realising what it could do; thanks hare-girl, for fetching it. Now I will control the Promise Keeper and the curse arc. I will have even more power than my mother did.”
Molly looked down at Snib, who was clambering to her feet. “Snib! Were you spying on us all the time?”
Snib looked straight at Molly. No tears, no sniffling, no cowering or cringing. “Of course I was. Don’t sound so surprised, Molly. I told you what I was doing, right from the start.”
“You said you were sent to spy on us, but you also said you didn’t want to!”
“I didn’t want to. That was true. I didn’t want to spend time with you. But I did what I was told. I spied on you. I wrote down all your conversations and plans, then I left little notes for my sisters and brothers to pick up. I left messages on roofs, on walls, on the ground. You never noticed, because you wanted to trust me. You’re weak and foolish in many ways, Molly-mouse, but your greatest weakness is your need to trust your friends.”
Molly said, “That’s not a weakness. My mistake was believing you were my friend.”
“How could I ever be your friend? You killed my mother.”
Molly stared at Snib, and realised it was true. She’d thought of Snib as Corbie’s little sister and Mickle’s big sister, but never as Nan’s daughter.
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” asked Snib.
Innes shifted back to a boy to shout, “Traitor!”
“At least I’m not a traitor to my family, like you.”
Beth yelled, “I never trusted you.”
Snib smiled. “But you went along with everyone else. You even fixed my arm for me.” She pulled off the socks, let the splint fall to the ground and flexed her arm. “Thanks for that.”
Theo said hoarsely, “But your brothers and sisters are still under threat, as their curses become more dangerous.”
Snib shrugged. “We all have to make sacrifices.”
Corbie said, “We’re done here. Drop them.”
The vultures opened their talons. Not one of Molly’s friends fell in a soft snowdrift. All of them fell onto icy heather or hard stones.
Snib stood over Molly. “I can still fly, you know. You never truly defeated us, because I can still fly.” She stretched out her arms. Two eagles flew down and grasped her wrists.
The eagles lifted Snib into the air, and began to fly away.
Molly yelled after her, “That’s not really flying, Snib. You know it isn’t!”
The circling birds screeched. The new recruits growled and snarled and hissed. They all moved towards Molly and her friends.
But Corbie said, “No, just leave them lying on the cold ground, with only their misery and shame to keep them warm. They aren’t worth our time or energy.” He kicked Theo, and laughed. “You are all completely pathetic. You can’t tell a friend from an enemy, you can’t hold onto a magical object for more than a few minutes, and your strongest team member is a useless embarrassment. So now I will have my revenge: you must watch my curse army darken your world, using the power you brought us!”
Corbie was lifted up by the roc, whose massive wings blew a blizzard of sharp flakes round the group huddled on the ground.
As the army flapped and marched and slithered away, Molly heard again, “I can still fly,” and Snib vanished into the clouds.
Chapter Twenty
Molly’s curse was completely confused by the chorus of birdcalls, hisses and snarls as the army left. By the time she was watching Snib fade into the clouds, Molly was perched on top of the snowy heather as…
Actually, Molly had no idea what she was, but she was aware of lots of legs and a hunger for spinach.
She heard Beth’s booming voice. “For earth’s sake. Now she’s a caterpillar.”
A huge white shape gouged a trench in front of her, then large wet fangs picked her up and carried her over the line.
Molly was human again.
She looked at Innes, who’d drawn a line with his hoof, and Atacama, who’d lifted her over it, said “Thanks,” and smiled.
No one else was smiling.
Everyone was dotted with cuts from the snow-blades. Everyone had rips in their coats or lumps of fur missing, after being grasped by the vultures’ talons. Everyone was bruised from their falls to the ground.
But Theo had suffered the most. His cloak and tunic were bloodstained and shredded. His hands and chest were grazed from the beaks of the mobbing birds. He was crouched on the ground, his face raised to the sky, as he began to scream.
One long raw scream of a vowel. No words. Just anger and frustration…
Theo raised his hands to thump them on the ground. Then he jerked the motion backwards and hit himself instead, punching his legs, as if he was afraid to touch the earth with his hands, in case he accidentally used his magic.
He yelled again and again.
Molly, Innes, Beth and Atacama stood together and watched him.
“How can we help him?” asked Molly.
“I don’t think we can,” said Innes. “Not yet. We just have to let him get it out.”
Theo screamed so long and so loud that the clouds above him parted, letting a shaft of sunlight through.
He stared at the hole in the grey sky, and whispered, “I have to be so careful… all the time.”
He put his head in his hands.
Innes walked over and touched Theo’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m the one who’s sorry. Corbie’s right. I am useless. I can do nothing. Nothing to protect my friends. Nothing to protect the curse arc. Nothing to protect the world.” Theo looked up and there were tears in his dark eyes. “I can’t do anything without making everything worse. And I nearly gave in. I nearly attacked Corbie. I nearly defended myself. That would have been so selfish. It would have destroyed you all. I would have been left standing, alone, on a pile of rubble. But I nearly did it because I was angry. Because I was threatened.” He looked down again and muttered, “Because I was scared.”
Innes said, “But you didn’t. You’re not like Estelle, you don’t use your power just because you can. And you’re not useless. Your knowledge and your courage are just as important to us as your strength and your magic. You’re not useless.”
They all sat down beside Theo, huddling together for warmth and comfort.
Atacama sighed. “I saw the deephound in Corbie’s little band of nasties. So we know where Molly’s curse-caster is.”
Molly touched her right pocket, and nodded.
“I saw the fungus fairies,” said Beth.
“And the weather witch who made the snow-blades,” said Theo.
“Anyone else?” asked Innes quietly. “Did any of you recognise anyone else?”
There was silence.
“Or was it just me who saw the horse?”
Molly pulled her socks back on. “Yes, I saw your dad. So we know where he is too.”
Innes shivered. “Now all our enemies are working together. And we just gave them more power.”
“I’m so sorry!” moaned Theo.
“It wasn’t your fault,” said Innes. “It was all of us. Crossing the moor in this weather was stupid. Letting a curse-hatched know our plans was even more stupid. We’re complete idiots.”
“Snib was my fault,” said Molly. “I wanted to trust her. I wanted you all to trust her. She seemed so sad, and she talked about flying the way I feel about running. I think that convinced me to trust her. Sorry.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” said Atacama. “We were all taken in, especially after she’d injured herself falling from the wall.”
Molly shook her head. “I even knew she had a pencil and paper in her pocket. I wanted to gnaw the pencil when I was a mouse. I can’t believe I didn’t realise what it was for. I’m sorry.”
“Ok,” said Beth, standing up and brushing snow from her legs. “We’re all sorry, and we’re all idiots. But we’re not achieving anything sitting here. Let’s get up, get to Craigvenie and work out what to do next.”
As they walked, Molly felt the heavy leather collar in her pocket banging against her bruised hip. She started to ask, “Atacama, what do you know about…” then she realised everyone was looking at her, hopeful she had an idea.
If she asked about the collar, she’d have to use the collar. Or, at least, she’d have to listen to Beth nagging her to use the collar. She hesitated.
“What do I know about what?” asked the sphinx.
“Em… a box! Do you know anything about a box?”
“What kind of box?”
“Mrs Sharpe mentioned a box,” said Molly. “She told me to ask the crow about the box. She said that was the way to stop the Keeper.”
“Did you ask the crow?” said Beth.
“Yes, but she claimed she didn’t know anything about any boxes. So, with all your ancient learning and your family lore, do any of you know of a box that could help us stop Estelle now, before Corbie gets to her?”
Beth frowned. “Why didn’t you mention this box before?”
Molly shrugged. “The star iron seemed like the best plan. I didn’t want to send us on two different quests at the same time. But the box idea is all I have now.” She prodded her pocket. It wasn’t all she had. But the collar would only save her, not anyone else.
“And which a crow – perhaps any of the crows, or just that one treacherous crow – knows about,” said Innes.
“We can’t ask Snib,” said Beth, “because we won’t be talking to her ever again.”
“So where might the box be?” asked Theo.
“The Keeper’s Hall?” suggested Molly.
Innes shook his head. “If there was something at the Hall that Mrs Sharpe could use to stop Estelle bullying her, I’m sure she’d have used it by now.”
“Could it be in Stone Egg Wood?” wondered Beth, as they slid down a steep slope. “Maybe that’s why she mentioned the crow.”
“If there’s a box at Stone Egg Wood, it won’t be easy to get,” said Theo. “That’s where Corbie has barracked his nasty little army.”
“Where else could it be?” asked Atacama.
Innes said, “There are boxes everywhere: shops, warehouses, attics…”
Beth said, “We can look for the box in the morning, when it’s light and when we aren’t too tired and bruised to think. First we all need to warm up, eat something and get some sleep. My house is nearest, so—”
Atacama hissed, “Shhh! Down!”
They all dropped into the heather.
The sphinx pointed at the brow of the next hill. They crawled up and peered over.
They saw a line of fabled beasts walking below them, heading southwest.
Molly saw two familiar boys, arms linked, faces pale and tired, beetles and gems falling from their lips.
Behind them walked a troll with a rusty axe, a giant goat with dozens of horns, a centaur filly with glass hooves slicing into the path, a pure white minotaur, a weeping girl wearing a dress made of thistles, and a wolf with a boy’s head who kept flickering into a boy with a wolf ’s head.
Molly heard a high-pitched sob from behind her. She turned round and saw a fairy in a woolly yellow dress, fluttering in the wind.
