Seven Sorcerers

by Caro King

  ‘Maybe it’s magic. Maybe it opens to a word,’ suggested Jonas hopefully.

  ‘There’s a keyhole,’ said Taggit dryly.

  ‘Oh? Oh yeah. What are we gonna to do then?’

  They stared at one another blankly. No one had any suggestions. There was a sizzle in the air, some sparks and then a pop.

  ‘Ya could always go frew it,’ said Skerridge, holding out something shaped like a diamond and etched with symbols.

  There was a stunned silence and then Nin burst out. ‘You lied to me!’

  Skerridge looked crestfallen. ‘I was goin’ t’ drop yer pearl off after I gave ya t’ Strood, but in the end I fought I’d keep it. As a memento of our adventures across the Drift, like.’

  Nin glared.

  ‘An’ I didn’ lie as such. I said the pearls were in the ’Ouse, I didn’ say that yer pearl was wiv ’em is all. I ’ad it on me all the time. Funny really. Ya was chasing off t’ the House t’ get the pearl, but it was wiv me an’ I was chasin’ … Ya don’ fink it’s funny, do ya?’

  He sighed, then rummaged in a pocket inside his waistcoat. He pulled out a small bag tied with a drawstring, opened it and tipped the contents into his palm. In the dim light, Nin’s pearl glowed with bright colours.

  Nin held out her hand and the pearl drifted through the air towards her. She held it for a moment and then tucked it in the pocket of her dress.

  ‘Thanks.’ She gave him a watery smile.

  ‘No problem. I found yer bag an’ all. It were in the dusters box, see?’ He held out a battered and no longer very pink rucksack. ‘Blimmin’ uncomfy t’ sleep on an’ all.’

  ‘Right,’ cut in Taggit. ‘Give us that key. No time for reminiscin’.’

  ‘Awright!’ grumbled Skerridge, handing it over. ‘Took a lotta trouble over that, I did.’

  Taggit slotted it carefully in the lock. There was a screech of metal as the bolts and bars began to draw back of their own accord, one after the other, releasing the door. Taggit pushed and it swung open silently, even after all this time. They stood on the threshold and stared.

  They were looking into earth, only it wasn’t earth, it was the ghost of earth.

  ‘Fink of it like the soil ’as been shifted over a bit, dimenshunally speakin’,’ said Skerridge, seeing Nin’s baffled look. ‘What we’re seein’ is like an echo, the real stuff is jus’ slightly somewhere else, geddit?’

  ‘So, while the magic is still working, we can just walk through it like it was a tunnel? But where’s the magic coming from?’

  ‘Dunno, but see that sorta golden light? Tha’s the bit where the magic’s workin’. Where it ends, the soil is still there.’

  ‘Um … what happens when the magic runs out?’

  ‘S’easy. The soil pops back inter it’s proper place and the tunnel’s gone.’

  There was a moment of silence, then Taggit cleared his throat.

  ‘Better get movin’. I’ll go first. Bogeyman at the back, right?’

  Skerridge grinned. ‘In yer goes. Door’ll bolt up again as soon as we pull it shut, and I’ll ’ang on t’ the key. Don’ wan’ anybody follerin’ us, do we?’

  Strood hissed irritably as he tried to bend his arm to raise it up past his chest to shoulder height. In a space barely big enough for him to draw breath it wasn’t easy. He had finally slithered to a stop at a point where the tunnel bent sharply, blocking his downward plunge. On the plus side, he was no longer falling. On the minus side, he was wedged tight, deep in the foundations of the House with no obvious way of getting out. Except that his one remaining hand was still clasped around the throwing star.

  At last he got the star to about shoulder height. He paused to check that he was facing the right way. He had worked out roughly where he was in relation to the down-house by mentally calculating his angle and speed of descent. Next he had inched painfully around so that he was pointing in the direction of the indoor garden, far below where his roses should be.

  Because, many years ago when he was pleading for his life, Gan Mafig had told Strood a secret or two. Like where he had found his daughter’s pendant, lying on the ground before a closed and locked door. She had left it, Gan Mafig said, by way of a farewell to her father. Something to remember her by. So naturally Strood had taken it away from him and thrown it into the attic with all his other belongings.

  As to the Secret Way, Strood had ordered one of the workman to put the statue of Mafig’s daughter over the trapdoor (it was the last thing the workman had ever done), and the Way had stayed hidden ever since. After all, it wasn’t like anyone could use it since the key had gone along with Seraphine. Unfortunately, Strood had a bad feeling that Ninevah Redstone would manage somehow.

  Strood gripped the star firmly. There was no room to throw it, but if he could just get up a little forward motion …

  He shoved his hand hard into the earth, hoping the movement would ignite the star. Nothing happened, but then the earth was only about an inch in front of him. Irritably he tried again and again, the action slowly burrowing out a hole into which he could thrust his hand. And then finally, it worked.

  The star came alive.

  Magical devices like staffs or wands relied on their sorcerer owners to keep them filled with power, but the throwing star was designed like a small generator. Once it was in action, it created its own power. It would never run dry and could never be earthed. Which was a good thing under the circumstances.

  Spitting like a firework, the star began to spin. In the air it would have been white hot in seconds, but here there was resistance and it could only move slowly. It did move though, the sparks burning the soil as it turned, leaving behind a dry black grit that Strood could push through easily.

  The star was meant to be thrown, not held on to, so it crisped Strood’s fingers as well. Not that it mattered. He was already growing some more.

  37

  Earthed

  hey set off down the steeply sloping tunnel. The air was thick and heavy and even though the golden light was all around them, Nin could feel the soil that should have been there.

  ‘The magic is coming from those, look.’ Jonas pointed to a cone of tarnished copper on the right of their path, set on a stone plinth about knee-high. The golden light sprayed from its point like fire from a volcano. There was one every few yards, each decorated with the sign of the long-gone sorcerer who made them.

  ‘They’re prob’bly all connected,’ said Skerridge from the back, ‘linked like. If one goes out, the others’ll follow. Light musta been brighter once, kep’ the air clearer, like a proper passage. Been dimmin’ over the years, no doubt. But don’ worry, it’ll be a few more decades afore they go out altogevver. What’ve yer stopped for?’

  By now the tunnel had levelled out and the floor had changed from earth to uneven rock, though it was still soil all around them.

  ‘We’re right at the bottom, near the front of the cliff,’ said Jonas. ‘Those,’ he nodded at two cones on the ground in front of them, ‘are the last.’

  The passage ended in an open space, the soil held at bay by two of the light-cones. But beyond those the golden light ended and there was only rock.

  ‘The sea is just there, behind the cliff face, but how do we get out? The rock could be feet thick.’

  Taggit was studying the cones. In between them was a hole in the ground, full of gold-lit water.

  ‘My guess? Beneath ’ere is an underwater cave that leads out through the cliff face into the sea. This ’ole goes through the floor inter the cave, see? The ’ole is ’eld open by a cone, like the passage, but I’m bettin’ the tunnel underneath is natural.’

  Peering into the hole, Nin saw shadowy traces of the rocky floor, its echo still there, occupying the same space as the sea water lapping at her feet. There was a single light-cone keeping the rock at bay, set into a niche in the walls of the hole.

  ‘Can yer all swim?’ Skerridge asked.

  ‘You’ve got to be kidding!’

&n
bsp; ‘Nope. The Way goes on under water, right? So tha’s where we gotta go too. We’ll come out by the beach jus’ below the cliffs.’

  ‘She was a good swimmer, Seraphine,’ said Taggit reflectively. ‘Everyone knew that.’

  ‘NO!’ said Nin. ‘Jik can’t go, so I won’t.’

  Jik went to the edge of the hole and looked at it thoughtfully. He shrugged. ‘Wik kik gik bik.’

  ‘Ya looks kinda harder t’ me,’ said Skerridge. ‘Gravelly like, specially wiv the new top layer. If we wraps yer in everyfin’ we got, ya might jus’ make it.’

  There was a long silence while Nin struggled with the knowledge that to save Toby and Jonas she might have to lose Jik.

  ‘OK,’ said Jonas at last, ‘here’s the plan. We wrap Jik up tight then strap him to Skerridge’s back. Skerridge can move fast so he can get Jik out as quick as possible. Then Taggit can take Nin and Toby and I’ll take Hss. I’m guessing you can’t swim?’

  ‘Nss.’

  Jonas took off his coat. ‘We can use this.’

  ‘This first, then the coat.’ Taggit dragged off his T-shirt. It was huge. Jonas laid it on the floor and Jik settled in the middle of it. It went round him three times.

  ‘OK?’

  ‘Yik,’ said Jik, his voice muffled by the layers.

  Nin pulled off her pinafore and turned her back on the others to fumble under her long skirt and drag off her petticoat. When they had added those to the T-shirt they wrapped the whole bundle in Jonas’s coat. Then Hss webbed the lot into a silvery package.

  ‘Looks like one o’ them chrysalis things,’ said Skerridge. ‘Strap ’im on then.’ He stood still while they fastened Jik on with some more webbing.

  As soon as they were done, Skerridge said. ‘See yer on the ovver side,’ and jumped.

  ‘Look kid,’ said Taggit to Jonas. ‘You go next. That way, if you get into trouble I can pick you up on my way through.’

  Jonas nodded and Hss clambered on to his shoulders. A splash and they were gone.

  Nin glanced uneasily over her shoulder. She could hear something weird, like a muffled hissing or spitting sound. Crackling perhaps, like a buried firework.

  Taggit paused in the middle of settling Toby on his hip with the boy’s arms around his chest. He looked at Nin. She looked at him.

  ‘Better move it, kid,’ he said evenly, just as the earth behind her began to boil and crumble.

  Something bright shot out of the soil, followed by a hand that grabbed it, dulling its brilliance, turning it back into a metal star even as it burned the flesh that held it. Strood tumbled into the hollow. For a moment Nin barely recognised him. He was in tatters. His clothes were rags and his skin not much better. The venom had seen to that. On his left side, some ribs were visible, he was missing an eye and one leg was doing its best to grow back, but it couldn’t quite manage because the venom was still at work. It was mostly bone.

  There was a moment of stunned silence.

  Strood’s remaining eye fixed Nin with a glittering stare she would never forget. He grinned with a mouth that was barely there any more. Slowly he raised the throwing star.

  ‘Got you,’ he said, and threw.

  The star curved though the air towards Nin, its light fierce again, sending out sparks like hot knives. She screamed and leapt at Taggit who grabbed her round the waist with his free arm and swung her out of the way. She felt the star’s heat as it flew past, sparks ripping her thick servant’s skirt to rags and burning her legs.

  It circled them, arching high, then swooping down again, burning a line in the air as it came for her.

  I’ve killed us all, thought Nin, I should have run the other way, drawn the fire so that Taggit could get Toby to freedom.

  With a roar, Taggit spun around. On his other side, Toby hung on grimly, arms and legs wound tight around the goblin’s massive chest. The star swerved behind them, missing Nin again, its jagged sparks slashing the air and cutting a bloody rift across Taggit’s back and Toby’s wrist.

  ‘Kill her! KILL HER,’ yelled Strood crazily. He was almost dancing on the spot, his eye bright with excitement.

  Skimming the floor, the star swung upwards. As it went, the rim of sparks brushed one of the light cones, knocking it from its plinth and sending it flying point first towards the earthy walls.

  ‘Breathe!’ yelled Taggit and jumped.

  In that single moment, hanging half upside down, fingers knotted into Taggit’s belt, Nin felt as if she could see every grain of soil in the walls, hear each separate breath as they all filled their lungs. The air in her chest was like hot fog and her blood hurtled through her veins like fire. She heard Strood howling with triumph, felt the star burning towards her back, and the air swirling past her face as they plunged towards the only way out.

  But what filled her with terror was the sight of the cone flying through the air to bed itself in the wall, its tip digging into the soil.

  The cone earthed. And Skerridge had been right, they were all linked. Power streamed down the passage draining from cone to cone, running out of the earthed tip like bath water down a plughole. Golden light drenched the air as the magic poured back into the Land.

  Nin sent a last look at Strood before the water closed over them. She saw his face change, his glittering eye go cold and hard as it fixed on hers. And as they passed through the hole into the cavern below, she felt the last of the power drain out of the cones and the golden light switch off.

  With the magic gone, the soil snapped back into its rightful place, suddenly very there and most definitely earthy. The star, caught halfway through the hole just as the rocky floor refilled it, came to a sudden halt.

  Silence descended. And darkness. Lots of darkness.

  Buried alive, deep in the foundations of the House and packed so tightly in earth that he couldn’t even blink, Arafin Strood pondered his next move.

  There didn’t seem to be many options.

  The sea was shockingly cold. Taggit paused just long enough to rearrange Nin so that she was hanging on around his neck, leaving his arms free. As they swam away, Nin took one look up to see that the roof of the cave was unbroken, the hole gone as if it had never been. All she could feel was relief that the rock had only been a layer. Any thicker and they would have been encased in it the moment the magic earthed. Fossils forever locked in stone.

  To reach the cavern entrance, deep below the sea, Taggit had to swim down before he could swim up. Holding her breath was beginning to be a struggle. As well as Jik, Nin was worried about Toby because he was so small and surely wouldn’t be able to last as long. If he got panicky and struggled he’d slow them down and if he breathed in water, he’d drown. She couldn’t bear to lose him all over again.

  And what about Jonas? He wasn’t a Fabulous, he couldn’t swim as fast as Taggit and Skerridge. And he had been carrying Hss. What if they came across him now? Floating here, drowned in the cave?

  Her lungs were at bursting point when Taggit curved steeply up, the darkness around them grew lighter and a moment later they broke into the air and she could breathe again.

  The first thing she heard was Toby coughing.

  Taggit waded up to the beach, one arm around Nin and the other holding Toby. Just beyond the water’s edge, he dropped them gently on to the sand. Jonas and Hss were already there, gathered around Skerridge. Jonas looked up as they arrived, a smile wiping the fear from his face. He came over.

  Nin hugged him hard, then hurried to Toby. He seemed all right and gave her a smile, so she rumpled his wet hair and went to Skerridge. The bogeyman was breathing flames on to a mess of burnt cloth and silken thread on the ground. Another burst of fire-breath and the wrappings were gone.

  They stared in horror at what was left of Jik.

  As tightly as they had wrapped him, water had found its way in. He had no arms and no legs and his body was eaten away on the surface as if by acid. His face and head were damaged, with half the back of his mud skull melted away.

&n
bsp; ‘His eyes are still lit,’ said Taggit.

  He was right, but Nin had never seen them so low, barely glowing at all. She dropped on to one knee and looked into the dull coal eyes.

  ‘We can sort it.’ She looked up. ‘Everybody get mud. Don’t be fussy about where from, we just need to be fast.’

  Overhead the sun shone and a warm breeze blew in waves topped by frothy horses. The clouds raced on white wings and over them towered the great cliff, silent and dark against the sky. They worked in silence, mixing sandy earth with seawater. Hss and Jonas prepared the mud, while Skerridge and Taggit pressed it into arms and legs. Toby handed scoops of it to Nin, who covered Jik’s body and head with a fresh coat and filled out the missing part of his skull. As they gave him shape and form, she was sure the lights of his eyes grew brighter. When they were done they stood back and looked.

  ‘I think we made him a bit bigger.’

  ‘Uh-huh. His legs are longer. And his arms. Still, won’t do any harm.’

  Next they collected as much dead wood and twigs as they could. There wasn’t much on the beach and Skerridge had to superspeed inland a couple of times. They built it all in a pyre around Jik and Skerridge set it alight.

  Then they watched him burn.

  ‘Well, Ninevah Redstone,’ said the bogeyman edging closer to the roaring fire, ‘it’s been fun, what wiv everyfin’. Even the scary bits, an’ there’ve been plenny enuff o’ those. But yer got what yer was after in the end.’ Skerridge sniggered. ‘An’ yer gave Mr Strood a knockin’ while yer was about it too! So what’s next, huh?’

  Nin looked at him and smiled. ‘We all go home,’ she said.

  Before

  Please turn the page to read ‘Before’ by Harry McWhirter, age twelve. ‘Before’ is a short story about Arafin Strood before he went to the Drift. Harry McWhirter’s story won the Quercus Seven Sorcerers Writing Competition. For more details about the winning entries, go to www.sevensorcerers.co.uk