Seven Sorcerers

by Caro King

  ‘I think you’re on a loser there,’ laughed Jonas.

  He was already on his feet, stamping out the fires. Nin hurried down the last of her food.

  ‘Right. The worst part of the journey will be the Savage Forest. It’s pretty deadly if you don’t play it right. And Quick can’t survive the Heart either, so normally we’d have to walk all the way round it. Only I know this Quickmare just before you reach the Heart; it’s pretty nasty, but it brings you out into the Widdern south of London. With the money your Grandad so kindly gave you, we could get a train from London to Bury St Edmunds. Then, when we get to Bury, we find another gateway back into the Drift, see? Cut out the walk around the Heart, the longest part of the journey, straight away.’

  ‘Good old Grandad, I must remember to thank him when I get back.’ Nin rolled her pyjama bottoms up in her top along with Monkey, tying the arms in a knot to make a bundle. She felt like Dick Whittington only without the stick. Jik trailed along at her heels, like Whittington’s cat.

  ‘If ! Just because I’m taking you there doesn’t mean I think you’ll succeed. Is that thing following you?’ Jonas grinned. ‘Well, he might come in handy, I s’pose.’

  ‘Jik?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m talking about you.’

  ‘Yik!’

  ‘So,’ she asked as they headed across open heath towards a cluster of trees in the middle of a field of daisies. ‘What can you tell me about the Terrible House of Strood. Like, why’s it called that?’

  ‘Because it’s terrible. Oh yeah, and it belongs to Mr Strood.’

  ‘All right, Mr Smarty Pants. I want detail.’

  Jonas sighed. ‘Look, Nin, the thing about the House is that people who go in there don’t tend to come back out again, so that kind of puts a damper on the exchange of information. See what I mean? Apart from the BMs, of course. They come and go, but then they don’t spend a lot of time gossiping to the Quick.’

  ‘What about Mr Strood? Don’t you know anything about him either?’

  ‘Nope.’ Jonas shrugged. ‘There are tales about him, but a lot of them are made up. Some people say he’s a kind of demon. Others that he’s a bewitched monster who eats souls.’

  Nin turned the stories over in her head. She guessed she would find out the truth eventually, if they ever reached the House. Right now, with the sun on her shoulders, Jik at her heels and Jonas leading the way, she was almost sure they would succeed. Almost.

  She had been lucky so far, she knew that. She had Jonas, her boots and Grandad’s money to prove it. Perhaps her luck would hold. After all, she had already survived more danger in two days than she had faced in her whole life until now.

  ‘I’ll just have to trust to luck,’ she said cheerfully, ‘because that’s all I have.’

  Their path took them through a cluster of twisted trees standing in a ring like a circle of dancers turned to wood as they swayed and bent. Shadow dappled them and the air was suddenly cool on their faces and hands.

  ‘Luck!’ said Jonas. ‘You need to come up with something a bit more concrete than luck if you want to survive the Terrible House of Strood, find Toby and get your life back.’

  ‘I’ve got a plan,’ said Nin, as the path took them out again into the sun and alongside the whispering river. ‘I just don’t know what it is yet.’

  Underneath a nearby shrub a sinister patch of shadow with blood-red eyes couldn’t believe its ears.

  Skerridge watched patiently as Right Madam and Obstacle, followed by the mud creature, wandered past him at the painfully slow pace anything that wasn’t a BM always used. He didn’t move until he thought they were far enough down the path that if they glanced back the trees would be just a shaggy blot on the horizon. Then he exploded.

  He rolled out of the shrub and back into his own shape, shaking with laughter. He lay on the ground and roared, accidentally setting fire to a patch of feathery bracken. Scalding tears of mirth steamed on his cheeks.

  Skerridge had never heard such a good joke in his life. When he had laughed himself into acid hiccups he calmed down and thought about it.

  Skerridge had been worrying about how to get Right Madam to the House, but there was no need to worry any more because she was WALKING TO THE HOUSE OF HER OWN ACCORD!

  And if that wasn’t mad enough, the kid even thought she was going to get out again. Alive. Some chance! Not if Mr Strood had anything to do with it. Right Madam was destined for the same terrifying end as all the other kids over all the many years. Or then again, she might just end up as one of Strood’s horrible experiments.

  Skerridge sniggered. Main point was, the Quick would cross the Drift on their own. No need for Skerridge to do a thing. But it was a long haul and a dangerous one and at some point they would run into trouble, get separated or simply leave one another alone for a moment. Then he could snatch Right Madam and run, leaving Obstacle to whatever horrible fate awaited him. After all, there were so many horrible fates in the Drift that sooner or later one of them was bound to get him.

  Skerridge grinned. He grinned so fiercely that a rabbit shivering under a bush nearby had a heart attack and dropped dead of fright on the spot. Skerridge’s sharp ears picked up the soft sound of its crumpling body. Licking his lips, he grabbed a twig, speared the tiny body through and picked it up. Then he gave it a light roasting with his firebreath and popped it in whole.

  When he was finished he yawned, scratched himself, straightened his waistcoat and disappeared.

  9

  A Drop of Rain Won’t Hurt You

  o when do we get to the Savage Forest?’ asked Nin.

  It was late in the afternoon. They had left the river behind and were crossing a stretch of open meadow. The wall of Raw was still visible behind them, looking smaller now and less threatening, like a beached cloud on the horizon. A red-painted barn dominated the field to their left, its doors slightly open on to darkness. From the waves of energy that came off it, Nin knew it had to be a gateway. Beyond the fields to their right lay a swathe of woodland, covering a range of low hills like green fur.

  ‘Tomorrow. Tonight, we need to get to Hilfian by sunset because we don’t want to risk the tombfolk. Indoors they can’t smell you. Out in the open your scent will travel on the air.’

  ‘There isn’t exactly the chance of a wash out here,’ grumbled Nin.

  ‘Not that scent, idiot! Life has its own aroma. A Quick wouldn’t smell it. A tombfolk will pick it up from miles away.’

  Nin glanced over her shoulder to where Jik was trotting along at her heels. Her eye caught something on the horizon, a band of purple clouds that boiled against the sky, travelling swiftly towards them.

  She sighed. ‘Look at those clouds! We’re gonna get soaked.’

  ‘A drop of rain won’t hurt you,’ said Jonas briskly, barely glancing at the sky.

  ‘Yeah, but what about Jik? I mean, won’t he kind of melt? Get washed away like a mud pie?’

  ‘Of course. That’d be one problem solved, anyway.’

  ‘He’s not a problem,’ said Nin indignantly.

  Jonas sighed and came to a halt. ‘Strapped to the bottom of my pack,’ he said, ‘there’s a roll of waxed cloth. It’s waterproof.’

  He stood patiently while Nin fiddled with the straps. The cloth wasn’t big, barely enough for Jonas to lie on, but it would do. Feeling goosebumps run along her arm as the temperature plunged, she draped it around Jik like a stiff shawl so that only his glowing eyes peered out. He looked puzzled. Already it was growing dark.

  ‘It’ll keep you dry when it rains. The clouds are coming up awfully fast.’

  ‘What?’ Jonas turned his head to look. He went pale. ‘Nin! Don’t argue, just run. Towards the wood.’

  She opened her mouth to ask why, but a glance at Jonas’s face made her shut it again and start to jog across the field. The trees were a strip of darker green ahead and suddenly it seemed like they were miles away. Thunder rumbled at their backs, shaking the air and sending a cold wind to lift N
in’s hair and chill her blood. If clouds can be pirate ships, she thought, what is it that runs in the storm?

  Jonas was doing a steady trot rather than going full tilt, so as not to wear them out. Even so Nin soon found herself gasping for breath. She glanced up. The sky was more than dark, it was a mass of seething purple that swallowed the light in bounds. She struggled along behind Jonas, her hair flopping in her eyes and blood pounding in her ears. They were gaining on the trees, but the clouds were faster.

  Lightning slashed the sky with brilliance and the thunder that followed was loud enough to make Nin scream. She was stumbling now, hanging on to Jonas for support. A brown object, knee-high and crackling as it ran, overtook her. It glanced back and she saw Jik’s eyes glow from under the waxed hood as the first drops of rain hit and ran across its slippery surface.

  The trees were dead ahead, lit by another slash of white light. Just a little further, she thought, and tripped.

  Her scream as she fell was lost in breaking thunder that shook the ground. Jonas was at her back in an instant, shielding her with his body and hauling her to her feet. Around them the air was filled with the clamour of baying hounds and suddenly she knew what it was in the storm. Rain came now in a wall of ice that beat her head and drowned her eyes. And then Jonas lifted her in his arms and fell past the first trees into shelter.

  They lay in the gloom, listening to the Hounds rage over their heads, unable to come to ground without tearing themselves into slivers of dank air on the branches. Nin was gulping quietly, trying to hold the tears back. Jonas stared up through the canopy of leaves, his eyes bright with fear. Keeping under the waxed cloth, Jik watched anxiously, nothing visible save for the reddish glow of his eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Nin as soon as she could speak.

  ‘It wasn’t your fault, kid. They move fast, the Gabriel Hounds.’

  ‘W-what are they exactly?’

  ‘The Gabriel Hounds are the Storm. They’re not physical, more like shapes made of cloud and energy. They hunt the Quick. If they come close enough to touch you, then they think you are theirs and never let up until they get you. And when they do, you get swallowed up and made like them. You never escape. You forget everything and hunt with them. Give it a while and you become one yourself.’

  Nin was silent, tears near to the surface again. ‘I felt their breath, was that close enough?’

  Jonas turned a pale face to smile at her. ‘No, kid. Not quite enough. They didn’t touch you.’

  ‘You then!’ She began to feel panicky. ‘They’ll come back for you?’

  Jonas sat up. He shrugged. ‘Better make sure we keep our eyes open and stay out of their way, hadn’t we.’

  ‘Listen,’ whispered Nin, staring up.

  The Hounds were rising higher into the sky and as they left the Land behind, the heavy rain slowed quickly to a halt. Even so, drops still pattered down from the trees and Jik stayed huddled nervously under his makeshift umbrella, his flame eyes glowing in the halflight. Nin shivered, listening to the low rumbles of thunder from the Hounds as they circled high overhead, waiting for their prey to come out.

  ‘I’m crazy, aren’t I?’ she asked. ‘I mean, to think that a four-year-old kid could still be alive in a world where even the storms can swallow you whole.’

  ‘Changing your mind about going to find him?’

  Nin didn’t even have to think about it. She sat up.

  ‘No! I didn’t mean that. Even if I think it’s mad, I have to try, because he’s my brother and I want him back.’

  She meant it. Thinking about him lost in this dangerous world, perhaps hurt or frightened or lonely, made wanting to find him feel like a huge, painful knot inside her. She shook her head, her ears filled with a high-pitched ringing that brought her out in goose-bumps.

  ‘Can you hear that noise?’

  ‘Probably just a rabbit.’

  Jonas was on his feet, checking his pack. Jik settled his wrap more comfortably over his head and looked in disgust at the wet woodland floor.

  ‘It’s not that sort of noise,’ mumbled Nin getting up carefully. She was worried she might have twisted an ankle during their tumble into the wood, but it took her weight all right.

  ‘OK,’ said Jonas, ‘we’ll have to stay here until the Hounds move off – and I warn you, they could trap us in here for days. Still, being under cover makes it harder for tombfolk pick up our scent, so that’s good. Problem is, if they do happen to come close enough to smell us, then the trees won’t stop them. Gabriel Hounds are only made of cloud and the branches break them up, but tombfolk are different. When they are in the air, tomb-folk are like ghosts and can fly through anything in their way. And then there are the bears to worry about, of course.’

  ‘Bears? Cool.’

  ‘You won’t think that when they’re gnawing on your leg-bones!’ Jonas grinned at her, his face pale in the gloom. ‘Still, it’s a chance we’ll have to take.’ He glanced up through the rain soaked trees to the storm clouds beyond.

  Brushing off the wet leaves that clung to her jeans, Nin paused, turning her head to stare into the darkness between the trees. For a moment she thought she heard that eerie ringing again, but there was nothing, only a faint rustle away to their left. Probably just rain trickling through the greenery. Or a rabbit. She shivered. The wet woods had an earthy, graveyard smell.

  ‘I just thought,’ she said nervously. ‘Tombfolk. I mean, I know it’s still day and all that, so they won’t be out hunting, but what if they live in here?’

  ‘No, too much light. Anyway, they like to live around tombs. The clue is in the name, you see.’

  Nin thumped him gently on the arm. Something beyond him caught her attention.

  ‘Anyway, what’s that!’ She pointed.

  Rising through the dark shadows of the woodland was a pale column, gleaming wetly in the storm light.

  ‘I thought it was a dead tree, but it’s not.’

  Jonas studied it, then moved closer, picking his way carefully through the undergrowth. Nin and Jik followed in his tracks. A few paces from the base of the column, they stopped to stare. It was twice as broad as Nin and shaped more like a flattened oval than a round pillar. The whole thing was curved too, not rising straight from the ground like Nin had expected, but round like the outer rim of a vast wheel. Three pairs of eyes followed the line of it as it swept up, its top almost reaching the canopy of leaves overhead, and then down again the other side.

  ‘It’s like an arch, only the wrong shape, too round,’ muttered Jonas, frowning as he tried to work out what it was.

  ‘Jik!’

  The mudman pointed deeper into the woods. There were more of them. A few feet away, looped in ivy and hemmed with thick moss, was another strange arch-like shape. And beyond that, almost hidden in the green shadows, shone the pale gleam of a third. Although discoloured and scarred by weather and time, their creamy colour showed through, glowing against the dark trees. Nin looked behind her.

  ‘It’s like a row of weird arches and we’re in the middle.’

  ‘I wonder how many there are? I can see three in front of us and two behind, but there are probably more hidden by the trees. They’re pretty old too; this wood must have grown up around them. Look, that one’s broken.’

  Jonas pointed to one of the row that had splintered into a jagged point halfway down, revealing a honeycomb of porous rock inside.

  Nin craned her head back, picking out the line of the arches just below the thick spread of leaves that formed the roof of the woodland.

  ‘They join up at the top, look, there’s something running along from this arch to the next one. Like a kind of bridge, only it’s not that. It reminds me of something, but I can’t think what.’

  Jonas was frowning. ‘You’re right the shape does seem familiar …’

  There was a sudden crack of thunder from the storm clouds above. Nin gasped as something small and inky swirled around them, followed by a cluster of others, then hurtled
upwards. An eerie screeching filled the air.

  ‘Bats,’ said Jonas. ‘Thunder disturbed them, I guess. You’re not afraid of bats, are you?’

  ‘Nope. No worries.’ Nin sent him a worried look. ‘So long as they’re not the blood-sucking sort?’

  ‘Don’t get vampire bats in the Drift as far as I know. Just vampires.’ He looked up at the swirling cloud as it disappeared into the space beneath the arches. ‘Must be a nice place for them to sleep.’

  ‘I s’pose,’ said Nin doubtfully. ‘I’d just like to know what it is. I mean, I’d think it was ruins, but it doesn’t look right for a building at all.’

  Jonas’s grey eyes went wide with astonishment. ‘I’ve got it!’ A smile crossed his face as, for a moment, he forgot about the Hounds. ‘You’re right, it’s not a building. It’s too natural. This wasn’t made. This GREW, like you and me.’

  Nin looked bewildered.

  ‘It’s a giant. Or the remains of one. Look, Nin.’

  He dragged her closer to the arch, near enough to touch the rough surface of the stone. Only it wasn’t stone. It was bone.

  ‘A skeleton! The ribcage, see. The skeleton is lying on its back and these curved columns are ribs. They rise to join at the breastbone, which is that bridging bit at the top. I bet if we dug underneath we’d find the backbone. Buried under decades of leaf mould and tons of bat dung. The rest of him is probably buried in the wood or crumbled away. Wonder what happened to the skull!’

  Nin was silent, staring. Trying to imagine a person so huge that their chest would be as big as a castle hall. A glimmer of lightning made the white bone flick into sharp relief against the dark trees. High above, the storm rumbled again.

  ‘Think of that,’ she breathed, ‘lying there dead with whole trees pushing up through your ribcage where your lungs used to be, and hundreds of bats fluttering in your heart space.’ She smiled. It was grisly, but it was pretty fantastic too. ‘A real giant!’

  ‘Giants didn’t normally live this far south, but people say that when they were all dying, the oldest and strongest of them all, the last of his kind, got lonely and left the Giant Ridge to come and live down here where there were other Fabulous still alive.’