by Lyn Gardner
‘No, I’m fine,’ Storm said stoutly, struggling to her feet.
Any hugged her tightly. ‘You’re a heroine, Storm.’
Storm blushed and said shyly: ‘No, I’m not.’
‘Oh yes, you are,’ chorused Aurora and Any together, and Storm felt a warm pink toffee feeling seep into her tummy.
She allowed herself to enjoy the sensation for a second. Then, aware of the pipe tingling in her hand, she said, ‘I haven’t finished quite yet. Come on.’ And she set off determinedly through town, leaving the others looking wonderingly in her wake.
Sometime later, the girls stood shivering by the sea just to the south of Piper’s Town. It was drizzling with rain and the sky was dark and sulky although it was near dawn. From further up the beach, Kit and Netta could see Storm turning something over and over in her hand. She looked as if she was turning something over and over in her mind, too.
Suddenly, without hesitation, she strode down onto a narrow finger of rock that stretched out into the dark sea. Aurora and Any followed.
‘Are you quite sure that this is what you want to do?’ Aurora asked.
‘I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life,’ said Storm. They all looked down at the pipe in her hand.
For a moment Storm felt as if it was calling to her, urging her to put it back in her pocket. She shivered and closed her ears to its beguiling call. Then she raised her arm and flung the pipe as hard and far as she could into the sea.
As it hit the water, the rain stopped and the sun skulked out from behind a cloud. The pipe bobbed and danced across the waves, its surface glinting, then the surf closed over it and the sisters saw it no more.
They stood for a second in silence, then Storm gave a little whoop that sounded half like a cry of triumph and half like a sob, turned on her heel and walked away.
‘Where are you going now?’ called Aurora.
Storm turned round and her face was one huge smile. ‘Home, of course, sillies.’
Any and Aurora gave a great cheer of delight.
An End and A Beginning
Netta took the sisters back to Eden End in her wagon. The girls were delighted to see Pepper again, and relieved that no harm had come to him.
Kit rode with them for a short time, but jumped off near Piper’s Port. He planned to go to sea and travel the world. Storm suspected he’d soon return, though, because whenever his and Aurora’s gaze met, their eyes flew away from each other’s like shy birds.
Their route from the port took them through crowds of escaped slaves heading back to their homes from the mines beneath Piper’s Peak. And then, just a few kilometres from Eden End, they spotted Mother Collops, hobbling along with her stick. They helped her aboard the wagon and threw themselves into her arms.
Over a snack of jelly babies and Netta’s finest soda bread and flapjacks, their great-grandmother told how the wolves had suddenly fled from the mountain and how the slaves had made a dash for freedom. In turn the girls relayed how Storm had finally defeated the doctor in Piper’s Town.
Mother Collops clucked and gasped at all the appropriate moments and then her face turned thoughtful. ‘Do you think that Dr DeWilde escaped from the Ginger House?’ she asked.
‘I don’t see how he could have done,’ Kit called back, from his seat beside Netta. ‘I don’t think anyone could have escaped alive from that inferno. Bee Bumble certainly didn’t.’
‘That’s true,’ said Aurora. ‘The firemen told me that all they found left of her was her heart. It was made of lead, which proves that she was a witch.’
‘But they never found a body or anything belonging to Dr DeWilde,’ Any said, in a small voice. ‘So maybe he did escape. What do you think, Storm?’
Storm shrugged. In her bones she knew that he was out there somewhere, but she didn’t want to talk about it. She just wanted to get back to Eden End as soon as possible.
Pepper must have heard her thoughts, because he quickened his pace and soon the wagon was flying through the lanes towards home.
A few days later the sisters, Netta and Mother Collops were enjoying a picnic in the warm sunshine in the garden at Eden End.
‘I’m so very gruntled,’ sighed Any, stretching out her bare toes.
‘Gruntled? I don’t think there’s such a word,’ smiled Aurora.
‘Well, there should be,’ said Any firmly. ‘If you can be disgruntled, you must be able to be gruntled. And I am extremely gruntled.’
‘So am I,’ laughed Aurora.‘I’m very, very happy. We all are.’ She swept Any into her arms and, giving Storm’s hand a quick squeeze, carried her baby sister across the lawn to Eden End.
Storm watched them go, a nugget of envy lodged in her heart. She suddenly realized what she was missing: that warm chocolate fudge sundae, pink sticky toffee feeling in her tummy that she associated with happiness. Its absence gnawed at her. It was making her crabby and resentful. She wondered if there was something wrong with her. The others were elated by their safe return to Eden End. Why wasn’t she?
A sudden terrible, shameful thought swept over Storm, making her flush with embarrassment, even though she was quite alone. Perhaps she had actually preferred being out in the world pitting her wits against the wolves and Dr DeWilde to being safe and sound. The adventure had made her feel important. It had made her feel certain of her place and role within the family. She thought of the terror of being lost in the woods and being alone in the town and wondered wearily why it was that being lost had seemed so much more like being found. She turned her back on Eden End and walked down to the lake to be alone in her misery.
For a while Storm sat dejectedly, her legs dangling in the water. Then she felt a hand clasp her own, and Netta was beside her.
They sat in silence for several minutes and then Storm said haltingly, ‘I thought that it would feel different. I looked forward to this moment so much. I imagined what it would be like when we were all together, safe and …’ She paused and gave a bitter little laugh ‘And happy.’
‘And you’re not happy?’ asked Netta gently.
‘Of course I’m happy,’ said Storm indignantly. She looked up into Netta’s wide silvergrey eyes and sighed heavily. ‘No … No, I’m not. It just doesn’t feel like the happy ever after that I thought it would be. Everything’s changed and nothing’s changed. Mama’s still dead, Papa hasn’t come back, and Aurora’s gone back into housework overdrive. You should have seen her face when she saw all the dust when we got back – it was as if she had discovered gold at the end of rainbow. She’ll be delirious with happiness for weeks getting rid of it all and putting the house to rights.’
‘Maybe she’s got the right idea. Maybe you do have to get rid of some things so you can go on,’ Netta suggested.
‘I don’t think I can ever forget how I betrayed her,’ Storm mumbled.
‘You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, Storm. You were in desperate circumstances. Aurora’s forgiven you, why can’t you forgive yourself ?’
Storm sighed. ‘Because that wasn’t how I saw myself. I used to imagine what I’d be like in peril and how I’d always speak up for what was right and true and always be heroic. Aurora and Any called me a heroine, but when the crunch came, I was a coward. I left them alone in Piper’s Peak.’
‘But, Storm, you are brave and tenacious. If it wasn’t for you, neither your sisters nor Mother Collops would be here now. You saved them all. In a way you even saved Kit. You broke his enchantment when you broke his heart by telling him that Aurora would never love him. And you took on Dr DeWilde and you won. You got back to Eden End.’
‘So why don’t I feel triumphant, then?’ scowled Storm. ‘Why do I just feel … empty?’
Netta hugged her tightly. ‘You can’t turn back the clock. You can’t bring your mother back to life, or make a different decision at Piper’s Peak. This isn’t a fairytale. It’s real life. But you can find a way to deal with the past, find your own way of getting rid of the bits you don’t need, j
ust as Aurora gets rid of her dust.’
‘I don’t think a purple feather duster would be much help to me,’ said Storm, with a shaky attempt at a joke.
‘No,’ smiled Netta.‘But perhaps writing it down and casting it away would be.’
‘You mean like you do, with the paper boats?’
‘If you think it might help.’
Storm thought for a second and smiled.
‘It might. But in my case I don’t think I’d need one boat, I’d have to make an entire fleet.’
‘Well,’ smiled Netta, her silvergrey eyes sparkling, ‘in that case you better get started.’ And she removed several large folded sheets of paper from her pocket and a stubby pencil. She pressed them into Storm’s hands and walked away.
Storm crouched on the grass, sucked the end of her pencil and started writing. After a few hesitant lines she scribbled furiously. As she wrote she was dimly aware of the warm sun on her back and the sound of Netta and Aurora laughing, as Aurora sat sewing replacement silver stars onto Any’s midnightblue blanket. Looking over to the field, she saw Pepper rolling in the buttercups, delirious with the sheer pleasure of the long meadow-grass on his back. Looking up the garden, she saw Mother Collops practising her tiddlywinks skills and occasionally pausing to pop a jelly baby into her gummy mouth. Then Any ran across Storm’s field of vision, chasing a large yellow ball: a laughing, happy toddler without a care in the world. Storm’s eyes misted with tears, but they were not tears of self-pity.
An hour later, with the sun low in the sky, she was still writing fast, pouring out all her pain and shame onto the paper. By the time she had finished, the sun was sinking quickly and the others had already slipped inside the house to make broccoli soup, more madeleines and hot chocolate. Storm stood up, her knees protesting from being in one position for too long. She carefully folded the sheets into the shape of small boats and, feeling into her pocket, found a pin and a piece of string and linked them all together. She dug further into her pocket and pulled out a little twist of gunpowder and placed a smidgeon in each of the boats.
Feeling to the very bottom of her pocket she found a sorry box of matches – the very same ones that Any had given her a lifetime ago in the forest. There was just one match left inside. Carefully she placed the little flotilla of boats on the lake, then she struck the match and dropped it into the first boat as it drifted away from the shore. As the boat caught light, and the flames took hold, the fire spread until, one after another, each vessel was lit up with an explosive little pop.
Storm watched the luminescent fleet bob across the surface of the lake. Then, as the final boat flamed, flickered and burned itself into ash, she turned her back on the lake and walked quickly towards the house. For the first time since their return to Eden End she felt a sudden fierce need to be with the others.
She was about to enter the house when she saw a familiar figure trudging up the drive, a large carpet bag over his shoulder and a raft of maps under his arm. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief, but when she looked again he was still there.
‘Aurora! Any!’ she yelled.
‘What is it?’ asked Aurora anxiously, rushing outside. She looked to where Storm was pointing. ‘Papa!’ she cried. ‘It’s Papa!’ She ran towards him, followed by the others.
‘Hello, girls,’ he said cheerily.‘Been having fun?’
‘You could say that,’ said Storm dryly. ‘Where have you been all this time?’
Captain Eden looked rather sheepish. ‘Oh, just off on one of my expeditions. I thought that this time I really had found the fourtongued, three-footed, two-headed honey dragon, but it turned out to be a false lead. Terribly disappointing.’ He saw his daughters staring at him open mouthed, and had the grace to look embarrassed. ‘It’s not as if I just disappeared,’ he mumbled defensively. ‘I did leave you a note. And I’m sorry if I was away a trifle longer than I had intended, but I knew that you’d cope fine without me. I had no doubt you would all be safe at Eden End.’ He smiled winningly at Aurora. ‘I do hope you’ve got something nice and hot bubbling on the stove. I’m so famished, I could eat a wolf.’
Aurora and Any glanced at Storm. Her colour was rising dangerously; she looked as if she was about to explode. She did, but it was with gales of laughter. Captain Eden gave her a funny look, and picked Any up. ‘So you must be Anything,’ he said with a smile.
Any looked at him crossly. She opened her mouth as if to bite him, changed her mind and said, ‘Really, Papa! Have you got any idea what my sisters and I—?’
Surprised, Captain Eden set her on her feet. ‘Anything talks? Now that’s really quite something.’ Then, without a pause, he added, ‘Right, I’ve got my next expedition to plan. It’s going to require all my attention, so you may be left to your own devices for a bit.’ And he hefted the carpet bag onto his back and marched into the house.
The girls stared after him, then Any said very slowly, ‘Are you quite sure that that man is our father?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ Storm answered sympathetically.
‘Well,’ said Any, in her most mournful voice, ‘he is a severe disappointment.’
‘I know,’ smiled Storm. ‘We’ll just have to hope that he improves with age.’
She looked at Aurora, and was surprised to see her big sister’s normally serene face wet with tears.
‘What is it, Aurora? What’s the matter?’
‘Oh, I’m just being silly,’ she sniffed. ‘It’s just that seeing Father and him being so particularly Fatherish, reminded me of Mama and the fact that she’s not here – that she really is dead.’ She choked back the tears and her nose began to run. She fumbled desperately in her pocket for a handkerchief and couldn’t find one.
‘Here,’ said Storm, proffering her sleeve. ‘I’ve a got a clean … well, a fairly cleanish sleeve. It’s all yours if you want it.’ Aurora fell into Storm’s arms and hugged her sniffily. Then Storm bent and lifted Any so that her face was level with theirs. The three children watched their father’s disappearing back.
‘We’re never going to change him,’ said Aurora wistfully.
‘No,’ agreed Storm sadly. ‘I don’t think we are.’
Aurora sighed. ‘Oh well, I suppose we’ll just have to have lots of hot baths.’
Storm and Any looked at her, nonplussed. ‘Hot baths?’
‘Of course,’ said Aurora brightly. ‘Everyone knows that a good scrub in a hot bath is the best cure there is for when you’re feeling blue.’
Storm and Any grinned at each other. ‘No it isn’t,’ said Storm. ‘It’s having sisters.’ And she wrapped her arms around the others, who encircled her with their arms too. ‘The three of us alone, the three of us together. For ever and for always.’
The end?
Into the Woods
was brought to you by …
Lyn Gardner works as a theatre critic for the Guardian. She goes to the theatre five or six nights a week, which should leave no time for writing books at all. In fact she is quite surprised to have written a novel, as she never believed the cliché that everyone has a book in them. Prior to joining the Guardian she was a tea lady, a waitress, sold (or failed to sell) advertising space for a magazine called Sludge, wrote for The Independent and helped found the London listings magazine, City Limits. She and her two daughters have one venerable goldfish (there were two, but one came to a tragic end) and a horse – who is the most demanding, temperamental and expensive member of the family.
Mini Grey was given her name after being born in a Mini in a car park in Newport, Wales. She studied for an MA in Sequential Illustration at Brighton under the tutelage of John Vernon Lord. When she is not writing and illustrating, Mini works part-time as a primary school teacher in Oxford, where she now lives.
There were over a hundred very sweet words on this page, but Any swallowed them all.’
There would have been words on this page but they were tidied up by Aurora.’
A DAVID FICKLING BOOK
&nbs
p; Published by David Fickling Books
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the
product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2006 by Lyn Gardner
Illustrations copyright © 2006 by Mini Grey
All rights reserved.
Originally published in Great Britain by David Fickling Books, an imprint of
Random House Children’s Books, in 2006.
DAVID FICKLING BOOKS and colophon are trademarks of David Fickling.
www.randomhouse.com/kids
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at www.randomhouse.com/teachers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gardner, Lyn.
Into the woods / Lyn Gardner; illustrated by Mini Grey. — 1st American ed.
p. cm.
SUMMARY: Pursued by the sinister Dr. DeWilde and his ravenous wolves, three sisters,
Storm, the inheritor of a special musical pipe, the elder Aurora, and the baby Any, flee
into the woods and begin a treacherous journey filled with many dangers as they try to
find a way to defeat their pursuer and keep him from taking the pipe and control of the
entire land.
eISBN: 978-0-307-49621-8
1. Sisters—Fiction. 2. Characters in literature—Fiction. 3. Fantasy.] I. Grey, Mini, ill.
II. Title.
PZ7. G17931Int 2007
[Fic]—dc22
2006024350
v3.0
