Tregarthur's Revenge: Book 2 (The Tregarthur's Series)

by Alex Mellanby

  ‘What about the wolves?’ Jack called out in a strained voice.

  ‘I think you’re right to worry.’

  I sounded so serious that Jack turned to me. ‘What do we do?’

  ‘I guess we call animal welfare if the Petas find any of them.’

  Jack laughed as he finally got the joke and we built up the fire. Kan and Van were soon back and we all kept behind the burning wood. The Petas might be wild but they seemed to know how to handle danger. I think the noise they’d made running around outside the cave was probably better protection than any fire. Good to have them on our side.

  Empty Houses

  -3-

  Jack kept the fire burning through the night.

  We dozed, leaning against the cold rock. For me it was time to think – more about Mum. I knew she had come with Alice Tregarthur to the caveman world but I thought, like Zach, that she had died ages ago. I’d even been taken to her supposed grave. She must have got away, but how had she turned up to rescue me?

  Jenna was talking to the others, trying to make sense of what had happened. ‘I was up at the Hanging Stones,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘But I’d only put the note down for a few minutes and then you and Mary turned up.’

  ‘This tunnel thing really messes with time,’ Jack chipped in sleepily. ‘We got the message but it was a couple of days before we could get anyone to come with us.’

  ‘And in your caveman time we’d only been away for a week or so.’ Mary looked up. ‘Back at home it was a year at school for us.’

  ‘But Mum? Jen, don’t you know anything?’ I said and everything was questions – no answers.

  ‘It was like Van said. We all came down from the stones and the battle was already going on. I could see a woman leading the Stinkers. She shouted something about being your mum but we couldn’t talk and then …’ Jenna stopped looking at me in the dim light of the fire. I still felt that I was missing something.

  But I had to put my guilt on hold. Mum was dead and we had enough problems here.

  ‘What happened to Sam and Ivy?’ I asked, realising we still hadn’t seen them.

  That stirred Jack. ‘They escaped. They went into the tunnel ahead of us. It must have taken them home. I just don’t get this – the tunnel does whatever it feels like – took us home before, brought us back. Didn’t matter how many people we had with us.’

  ‘It’s not just time it messes with,’ said Mary, looking at Jack. ‘It moves.’

  ‘Eh?’ Jenna and I said at the same time.

  ‘The Hanging Stones must be important, that’s the way we came, but …’ Jack rubbed his face, thinking. ‘Then when the Trogs chased us the tunnel opened at the back of the cave.’

  ‘Maybe the earthquake had something to do with it,’ I said that, but it wasn’t really what stuck in my mind. I thought that whatever the tunnel did, the trouble it caused, where it took us – it was because of me and I wasn’t going to say that.

  We talked round and round in circles, trying to guess at what might have happened. In the end I suppose I dozed off again. The rest carried on talking for a while. In my fitful sleep I heard Mary ask about Zog – the cave-child who had stayed with us after Zach had bludgeoned her mother to death.

  ‘She went off with Demelza,’ Jenna said. ‘Never saw her again.’

  Just another question with no answer.

  Dawn came as the firewood ran out. The others stirred. The Peta twins were the last to wake.

  ‘Anything to eat?’ said Van, stretching out his large body.

  Jack handed out the last of the food – bread and a chocolate bar.

  ‘Mine,’ Jenna and I screamed at the same time, both grabbing for the chocolate. It might be the last of the food but we hadn’t seen chocolate for ages. Jenna won, but she did share it.

  Mary laughed. ‘We did bring you some clothes,’ she said, looking in her backpack. ‘But they were in the other packs we left behind. Just one thing left.’ She handed a plastic bag to Jenna.

  I heard her squeal, ‘Clean knickers,’ and scuttle to the darkest corner.

  The clothes Jenna and I wore were pretty much all deerskin and worn out. We were going to need something to replace them pretty soon. Walking over the moor would be hard in worn out moccasins. But we did need to leave this place. I’d already been out to the Hanging Stones, no sign of any tunnel.

  ‘Time to move.’ I stood looking out at the grey mist which hung over the hill, but at least the rain held off. We had to go. Staying here just meant starving to death. With no tunnel, we were going to be following Zach.

  ‘Down into the valley?’ Jack was ready to go.

  I nodded and we set off.

  After a few steps I stopped. The moor stretched out in front of me. Despite the trees it felt a huge space of hills and valleys. Stone outcrops on top of the hills, huge menacing clusters of black rocks. Anyone could be hiding out there.

  ‘Let’s stay on the higher ground for a while,’ I called the rest to follow me. ‘See if anyone is around. Watch out for Zach.’

  ‘You think that boy cause more trouble? We sort ’im.’ Kan smacked his fist against his other palm.

  I watched Kan, glad that we had him and his brother with us. But what could Zach be up to? Somehow he’d managed to get a whole tribe of Trogs to obey him for a while until they turned on him. Could he do something like that again? What tribes were out on the moor this time?

  We had to go down a little further and skirt round another rocky peak before we could walk along the hills that stood above the valley. We trudged on slowly, squelching over soft and boggy ground. Soon all of us were wet and covered in dark sticky mud as we tried to avoid the wettest parts. Dodging between painful spiky bushes with yellow flowers and purple plants that hid all the holes.

  ‘Gorse,’ Mary said. ‘The spiky one’s gorse, purple one’s heather.’

  ‘Thanks Mary.’ My foot had just disappeared into a treacly black hole. ‘Good to know what they are.’ I’m not sure the sarcasm reached her.

  Much later Jack called out: ‘There’s a track.’ He’d been keeping to the highest ground and his call came from a distance away. ‘It leads up there,’ he shouted, and pointed to a huge round hill, purple with Mary’s heather and dotted with small stunted trees.

  Any track felt better than struggling through the bog, wherever it went. We stumbled over to Jack. A wide path led across the moor, heading straight for the round dome in the distance. We stopped for a while, sitting on rocks and looking down at the valley.

  I found a stream, took a drink and refilled the water bottles Jack had brought with him.

  ‘You think it’s safe?’ Van dipped his hand into the stream.

  ‘Probably,’ I replied, taking a drink.

  ‘Even with those dead sheep?’ Van pointed down the hill.

  Several dead animals lay across the moor side. I could see birds pecking at one of them.

  ‘Should be ok, ’cos the dead sheep are below us,’ Jack said, and I took another drink even though I saw an old rotting carcass further up the hill.

  ‘Someone must look after the sheep.’ Jack scanned the moor. ‘Just can’t see anyone.’

  ‘They’re not doing a very good job.’ I picked up a sun-bleached bone; there were lots of bones scattered over the grass. I chucked it away as we set off towards the hill that loomed in front of us.

  Soon after we’d started climbing, I saw a strange group of stones on one side of the track. Ten or more rough pillars of rock had been set in the ground, arranged around a huge flat stone lying in the middle.

  ‘What’s that?’ I pointed, expecting Jack or Mary to have some explanation.

  ‘It’s a stone circle.’ Jack was almost excited. ‘It’s ancient. Probably where they used to have sacrifices.’r />
  ‘Maybe they still do,’ said Van.

  ‘Should we go and take a look?’ Jack sounded as though he was on a school trip again.

  ‘No. We need to get on.’ The clouds were gathering. I knew the weather could change quickly. Being stuck out here on the moor with only dead sheep wasn’t a good idea. We needed shelter and food before night.

  ‘Hang on,’ called Jenna from some way behind. ‘There’s something else over there.’ She pointed. ‘Aren’t those houses?’

  A short distance from the stone circle we could see a group of grey buildings. Not modern houses. These were rough stone structures with straw thatched roofs. I led the way towards them. The rest followed, speeding up as we neared a small village. A small ancient village.

  ‘This not like home,’ said Kan as we looked at the mud track, the low stone houses with cracked wooden doors.

  It wasn’t like home. These houses weren’t like anything I’d ever seen. A cold and uncomfortable sort of place to live. The windows were just small holes in the wall with a few wooden bars. Everywhere there was mud.

  ‘Strange we see no light here.’ Kan paused. ‘We go careful?’

  I’d felt a bit stupid being so terrified by the wolf on the previous night, so I didn’t take much notice of Kan’s words and pressed on. I went towards the first house. The stone walls were solid enough but the thatched roof had half fallen in.

  ‘Hello. Anyone here?’ I shouted. There was no reply.

  There were a few more houses on both sides of the mud road. Deserted houses with their wooden doors hanging open. I poked my head into another one and shouted again, but still no reply.

  ‘Where is everyone?’ Jenna stood at the door of one of the intact houses. ‘There’s no sign of anyone. They left stuff inside – chairs, tables, pots and things. They’ve had a fire in there.’ She pointed back into the house. ‘It’s not burning, but they can’t have left that long ago.’

  ‘They all disappear?’ said Kan as we all walked over to see what Jenna had found.

  ‘Perhaps they’ve all been sacrificed up at that stone circle,’ said Van.

  ‘Then who did it? And where are they?’ Mary hadn’t gone into any of the houses. She’d just stayed outside, her face creased with worry.

  Almost without a sound a pack of animals appeared at the end of the mud track. A huge grizzled beast, teeth bared, stood at the front and growled. I shuddered, thinking he might be the same animal that had leapt at me last night. The rest of the pack, seven or eight of them, gathered around him. Then with a howl they sprang forward, bounding towards us.

  Everything seemed to stop and we were just staring at them, not moving, until Jenna yelled, ‘In here, in here,’ as she threw herself into the house next to her. ‘NOW.’

  We all dived in behind her, slamming the door as the snarling barking pack crashed into it.

  ‘Wild dogs,’ shouted Van with his back pushing against the door to keep it closed.

  ‘Maybe dogs, maybe wolves.’ Kan joined him.

  The animals were still trying to get in, hurling themselves at the wooden planks.

  ‘Empty village, wild dogs and no people. Strange,’ Kan shouted against the noise.

  The door looked strong enough to hold, but we needed something to jam against it.

  ‘The table,’ Jenna shouted.

  ‘Move it.’ I grabbed one end, Jack took the other. We turned the table on its side and laid it across the closed door.

  ‘Not enough.’ I saw that every time the dogs threw themselves at the door, the table moved.

  ‘We sit.’ Kan and his brother sat with their backs against the overturned table and jammed their feet into the mud floor. The table didn’t move after that.

  The house had only one room with two windows, both open to the air and protected with wooden bars. The dogs couldn’t get in that way. But they were on the opposite side and it meant we couldn’t see what they were doing.

  ‘If the dogs can’t get in, then we can’t get out,’ Mary sobbed. ‘Great idea coming to rescue you, Alvin, and getting trapped ourselves.’

  ‘You sound as miserable as Ivy.’ I tried to laugh. Then I thought about the other two – Sam and Ivy. Where were they now?

  Mary seemed to read my mind. ‘Ivy?’ she blurted out. ‘Ivy’s not miserable now, she’s back home and we’re stuck here for ever.’

  No one had anything to say after that. We just listened to the growls and barks from the animal pack. Slowly they became quieter, but the dogs stayed by the door. From time to time more howling and yelping made it sound as though they were attacking each other. After they stopped hurling themselves against the door Kan and Van moved into the room and we piled the chairs against the table.

  While we had been barricading the door, Jenna had been searching the corners of the house.

  ‘Might be something to eat,’ she said. She was standing near to a low partition that cut off one corner of the room. ‘There are some jars. Mostly empty but there’s something like wheat or barley in one of them.’ Jenna waved to Mary. ‘Come and see.’

  Mary didn’t move from the middle of the room. Tears were running down her cheeks. She stood silently, except when her whole body heaved with another sob.

  ‘Come on,’ Jenna gently pulled her over to the corner.

  Mary tried to shake her off, but Jenna just pulled harder. The two of them shuffled over to the stack of pottery jars. Mary wiped her face and joined Jenna in the search for food.

  ‘There’s a pile of wood over here,’ Jack called from another corner.

  Why had this place been deserted? It made no sense. Whoever the house belonged to, there wasn’t much, but they’d left their life behind.

  The small windows gave a gloomy light, making it difficult to see where we were treading. It wasn’t long before Kan trod in a pile of dung.

  ‘Now you smell like goulash,’ muttered Van and soon the twins were throwing straw and mud from the floor at each other and laughing. That started the dogs off again and the two of them had to move back to hold the table, but it didn’t stop them shouting or laughing.

  ‘Don’t know how they keep doing that.’ Jenna smiled.

  ‘Don’t know why they keep doing that.’ Mary didn’t smile.

  Jack started to make a fire in the middle of the room. ‘There’s a hole in the roof and I guess that lets out the smoke.’ He pointed to the ground. ‘You can see where they have made the fire before.’

  ‘Glad you explained that,’ I joked. ‘I thought you were going to burn the place down.’

  Jack just kept blowing on the glowing wood, he always seemed slow to see the funny side of anything. Perhaps he was right – there wasn’t any funny side to being stuck here. I moved some more wood. Looking up at the hole in the roof I wondered what happened when it rained.

  ‘Any water?’ Jenna called out, holding an iron pot that she’d found near to the jars of grain.

  ‘I’ve two bottles in my pack.’ Jack glanced up from blowing at the fire.

  ‘Enough to make some stew.’ Jenna pulled out the plastic bottles.

  ‘Jenna’s stew,’ I shouted. ‘Jenna’s famous stew, keeps you alive all winter.’

  ‘Maybe we eat dogs.’ Van was watching Jenna preparing her stew.

  ‘Yee-eew,’ said Mary.

  Jenna put a mixture of grain and water into the pot and hung it over the fire. There was a metal chain fastened to a roof beam with a hook at the end which held the pot. Probably the owners of the house cooked this way. Why hadn’t they taken these things with them when they left?

  The mixture bubbled and Jenna stirred it with a piece of stick. She picked up a bowl that had fallen from the table, gave it a sort of wipe and filled it from her pot. ‘More porridge than stew,’ she said, passing the
grey gloop around.

  After we had finished trying to eat whatever it was, Kan stood at the door listening. ‘Can’t hear dogs,’ he said. ‘I look.’ He moved the table a fraction.

  With a crash the largest animal hurled itself forward, ramming its snout through the opening. Yellowed fangs bit into the wooden door frame as it held on and threw its body, trying to smash a way in. Kan was knocked down. The door started to open.

  We all screamed.

  Van and I dived at the table, pushing and scrabbling to close the door. The other dogs had joined in, throwing themselves at the gap. We smashed the door into the nose of the first animal. It leapt back with a wild howl. Together we all shoved and slowly pushed the table, closing the door against the pressing weight of the snarling beasts.

  The dogs weren’t going anywhere.

  ‘I think that big one is more wolf than dog,’ muttered Van with his back to the table again. ‘Not the same one we saw last night. Nice place for a walk, this moor.’

  Van had almost slipped into his brother’s way of talking. It would be difficult to tell them apart unless Kan was the only one who stuck with the chopped accent. They pretty much had the same clothes. It made me wonder.

  Day slipped into early night. Jenna passed round more porridge. No one talked. We stayed sitting on the floor. There were two rough straw beds behind the partition. I persuaded the Petas to take them. I thought we needed to keep them in good condition, Jenna agreed. So she and I swapped and lay down against the table, in case the dogs tried again. Jack and Mary huddled in another corner.

  I didn’t think we would be able to sleep. The growling and sniffing went on into the night as the dogs shifted and snuffled at the door, letting us know they were still there. But slowly I drifted into fitful nightmares. Images of snapping jaws and dagger-sharp fangs woke me throughout the night. From the moans and groans around the room I think we were all in the same dream.