‘We might be eaten by wolverines!’ cried one.
‘Or cursed by the Ice Queen’s shaman!’ said another.
And, before long, the tribe had erupted again: shouts, threats, fists banging.
Rook sat down and smirked at Jay. ‘And that is what happens when you let outsiders in.’
Jay tried to bring everyone back to order – to make them understand that their tribe wasn’t something fixed and closed, that it was open to strange dreams, Fur people and even a girl with a golden eagle by her side – but Rook’s words had stirred the Feather Tribe’s fear and it brought the worst of their hearts out into the open.
Blu raised her hands to cover her ears and Eska turned frightened eyes to Flint.
‘What do we do now?’ she said in a cracked whisper.
Flint thought back to Whitefur’s words. ‘Tell them about your voice.’
Eska reached a hand up to her throat. ‘My voice is nothing compared to all their shouting. Nothing.’
Flint shook his head. ‘Then tell them about the Sky Song’s power. Tell them about the things that Whitefur said your voice can do when you find the Frost Horn.’
‘Silence the tribes, command animals and shake the skies,’ Eska whispered.
‘Good,’ Flint replied. ‘Now louder. Much louder.’
Beside her, Jay leant forward. ‘Tell them, Eska. They might be my tribe, but they’re not listening to me. Perhaps they need to hear it from someone else.’
Eska looked at the raging crowd. ‘I – I don’t think it’ll work. There’s too many of them and my voice isn’t big enough!’
Flint shook his head. ‘You just need one person to listen, then others will follow.’
Eska stood up, her knees shaking, and cleared her throat.
Flint thought of the Ice Queen winding away Eska’s voice and he knew that when the anthem came again they’d hear it, even though they were in the middle of a mountain, and that afterwards Eska’s voice would be weaker still. But, for now, she had words, and she needed to speak them with all the force left inside her. ‘Tell them, Eska,’ he said firmly.
‘The Sky Song isn’t something that belongs to worn-out legends!’ Eska cried.
A few children looked up at her, but most continued to jeer and shout.
‘Keep going,’ Flint urged.
‘It’s the tune the North Star played on the Frost Horn to breathe life into Erkenwald all those years ago!’ she shouted. ‘And it’s the only thing that can defeat the Ice Queen now!’ She paused. ‘I may not remember anything from my past, but I know this: we only have three days to stop the Ice Queen cursing Erkenwald and wiping out the Fur and Feather Tribes for ever, but, together with my friends and the help of Erkenwald’s magic, I will find the Frost Horn and claim the Sky Song. And, when I do, I will use my voice to stop the Ice Queen and put an end to the divide between tribes!’
Some of the Feather Tribe heckled and, for a second, Flint wondered how on earth Eska was going to break through their distrust and hatred, but then he noticed that others were listening and Eska was forging on.
‘I will silence the tribes, command animals and shake the skies!’
More heads turned to listen and Balapan leapt from her perch and circled in the air above them all.
‘I may not have a whole tribe behind me,’ Eska cried, ‘I may not have words that you think amount to much now – but I won’t give in. I won’t back down. I have a voice and I’m going to make it count!’
She had the tribe’s attention now. The chamber was absolutely silent.
‘Because we have a kingdom to protect and families to bring home and, even in the face of an Ice Queen whose anthem reaches every corner of Erkenwald, our voices matter more. I will find the Frost Horn and I will blow it from the stars and, as one tribe, we will beat the Ice Queen.’
Balapan’s call rang out then, like a shuddering battle cry, and suddenly the Feather Tribe were on their feet, whooping and cheering.
And Flint smiled at Eska. Some people collected shields of bark; others collected eggshells and feathers. But Eska? She collected people.
Blu ran round the table and hugged Eska tight and at their feet Pebble began chasing his tail and yapping excitedly.
Jay raised an eyebrow at Rook. ‘And that is what happens when you let outsiders in.’
Then, to Flint, Eska and Blu’s surprise, the tribe began to sing, a slow, lilting tune that reminded Flint of the way the wind soughed through the trees in Deeproots. And, with every word that sounded, Flint realised that this was a tribe who, contrary to Rook’s words, did still believe in magic.
‘Up north before the Groaning Splinters
The Grey Man stands up tall.
He’s been there now for many winters
Though snow and hail does fall.
The cliffs are steep; we can but warn.
Gravestones are often laid.
So those who search for the lost Frost Horn
Must seek the Grey Man’s aid.’
And, though the Ice Queen’s anthem began as soon as the Feather Tribe finished singing, weaselling its way into the depths of the Lost Chambers, it was a soulless drone compared to what Flint, Eska and Blu had just heard.
Flint reached down and ruffled Pebble’s head. ‘We have a lead now. We need to find the Grey Man before the Groaning Splinters, the icebergs way up north.’
Eska rubbed her throat as the Ice Queen’s anthem wound its way round her windpipe, leaving her voice almost threadbare. ‘We’ll leave as soon as it’s light.’
Jay nodded. ‘We’re behind you, Eska. When you find the Frost Horn and blow it from the stars, we’ll know to come out of hiding to help you.’ He paused. ‘I don’t suppose either of you has a plan for how to reach the stars?’
Eska hung her head and Blu blew through her lips, but Flint looked at Jay with glittering eyes.
‘I have an idea,’ he said.
Eska stepped forward. ‘An invention?’
Flint avoided her eyes. ‘Possibly.’ He fiddled with his cuff. ‘I don’t like talking about my ideas until I’ve properly thought them through. Just in case they don’t work.’
Jay nodded. ‘What do you need? Is there anything we can help with?’
‘As a matter of fact, yes.’ Flint picked up a snow-goose feather from the ground. It was white and large and he ran a finger up and down its length. ‘How many of these do you have?’
Jay grinned. ‘Thousands.’
‘Can I take some?’
Jay picked up another and pressed it into Flint’s hand. ‘You can take them all.’
And it was then that Flint recalled where he had seen Jay before. Years and years ago, when he was little more than a scrap, his pa had taken him hunting and out on the foothills before the Never Cliffs they had shared food with the Feather Chief and his son.
Flint tilted his head towards Jay. ‘I remember you,’ he said.
Jay was thoughtful for a moment and then he smiled. ‘Round the campfire when we were very small,’ he said slowly. ‘We ate snow hare and caribou before everything,’ he paused, ‘changed. You had lost your quiver of arrows in the river that day and I lent you mine.’ Flint nodded and Jay reached out and put his hand on Flint’s shoulder. ‘From this day on, you and your tribe will always be welcome here and if we cross paths hunting we will stop and eat and share stories.’
Flint felt a heaviness inside him lift at the warmth of Jay’s words. Erkenwald was that little bit closer to the kingdom he remembered before the Ice Queen arrived and turned it upside down.
But, while Flint, Eska, Blu and the Feather Tribe busied themselves collecting snow-goose feathers and clearing away dinner, Rook brushed past the moonflit in the entrance tunnel. She clutched the wolverine fang in a hot, angry fist and with the sound of the Ice Queen’s anthem ringing in her ears she stalked out into the starless night.
Eska woke to the Ice Queen’s anthem – and the sound of a birdcall. She pushed back the feather quilt, stretc
hed inside the cage she had slept in and opened her eyes. Balapan was still crouched on the ledge outside it, but Eska knew the call she had heard hadn’t belonged to the eagle.
A short, sharp yap came again from the entrance tunnel. It was the cry of a snowy owl. Eska had heard a similar call from her hideaway behind the Giant’s Beard, but something about this one was slightly different. And then Pipit burst into the cavern and Eska remembered his words from the night before: the snowy-owl call was a signal used by the Feather Tribe. A warning that danger was nearby.
‘The moonflit!’ Pipit cried as the Feather Tribe sat up in their cages. ‘She’s crying! And her tail’s tucked up and shaking!’
Jay scrambled up the ledges until he came to an empty birdcage not far from Eska’s. ‘She’s gone!’ he gasped. ‘Rook’s gone.’
The Feather Tribe leapt out of their cages and reached for their bows and arrows.
‘She’s – she’s gone to the Ice Queen, hasn’t she?’ Eska stammered.
Jay’s face darkened. ‘Perhaps. Something inside Rook changed a few weeks ago. She came in from a hunt and her thoughts were darker, her words sharper.’ He shook his head. ‘But I don’t believe Rook’s to blame. I think it’s the Ice Queen – somehow she got to Rook.’ Jay glanced towards the tunnels on into the mountains. ‘You must leave now. Your skis won’t be much use on the ice flats, but we can lend you a sled and some dogs from the outchambers. Ride fast across the Driftlands until you find the Grey Man; there’s no time to spare if the Ice Queen knows where you are.’
Flint gathered up his sack of snow-goose feathers. ‘What if Rook tells the Ice Queen where the entrance to the Lost Chambers is?’
‘I’ve ways of charming the door and changing its location,’ Jay explained. And then, after a pause: ‘You’re not the only one who kept believing in magic when the rest of the tribe turned their backs.’
Grabbing Pebble from the food store, where he was helping himself to a third breakfast, Flint, Eska and Blu tore through the candlelit passageways after Jay. They ran past chambers filled with furs, bows and arrows, until eventually they came to a small cave that contained ten yapping dogs. Balapan flew up to the highest ledge she could find and peered down.
The dogs were bigger than Flint’s had been – wolfish grey coats and strong, muscled legs – and they crowded round Jay, their tails wagging, as he harnessed them to a fur-lined sled. There was space enough for Eska and Flint to stand on the runners and Eska nudged Blu towards the seat in front.
‘For you,’ Eska whispered. ‘A little throne.’
Blu clambered on. ‘Happy.’
Pebble swaggered up to the dogs, desperate to be part of the pack, but Flint lifted the fox pup into his arms, dropped him on to Blu’s lap, then wedged his sack of feathers at her feet. ‘Working dogs don’t eat three breakfasts before a run, Pebble.’
He climbed on to the back of the sled, but Eska hesitated for a moment and looked at Jay.
‘You will come, won’t you?’ Her voice was little more than a scratch. ‘When I blow the Frost Horn?’
Jay nodded. ‘I’ll come. The whole tribe will. I give you my word.’
Pulling her hood up, Eska mounted the sled beside Flint. Words, she was beginning to realise, were like glue. They held promises and friendships together. And though her own words were coming apart she hoped that Jay’s were enough to rouse his tribe when her call came.
‘Thank you for everything,’ she whispered.
Jay smiled, then he put his hand on a slab of rock on the chamber wall. ‘Once I open the door here, you’ll be out on the Driftlands.’ The dogs shifted their weight, as if they could sense the journey ahead. ‘Ride fast across the ice and follow the river until it reaches the Groaning Splinters. You’ll find the Grey Man there and, though our ancestors talk of a wise old man, it’s my bet he’ll be in pieces in light of what’s been going on. The Ice Queen’s reign won’t have been kind to folk like him.’
He pushed against the slab of rock and it crunched forward to reveal a door out of the mountain. Almost immediately, there was a sharp cry and a flap of feathers as Balapan glided into the world beyond. The cold slipped into Eska’s lungs and she squinted into the silver mist that hung over the Driftlands.
‘Spring hasn’t reached the north yet,’ Jay said. ‘But you’ll find the ice makes your travels swift.’ He clasped Eska’s and Flint’s hands, then he ruffled Blu’s hair. ‘Until we meet again, good luck.’
And, before Eska, Flint or Blu could reply, the dogs lurched forward, hauling the sled out on to the ice and it was several seconds before Flint gathered them under his control.
He steered through the mist. ‘How are we going to find the river in this? I can barely see the Never Cliffs behind us let alone Balapan in front!’
Eska peered through the wisps of white. They hung like floating ribbons over the ice, masking the morning sun, and, though the Ice Queen’s anthem had now trailed away, every time Eska heard a new sound – the wind moaning, a musk ox grunt – she spun round. The mist was a cloak and the Ice Queen and her sleigh might appear from under it at any moment.
Flint nudged Eska. ‘Well, how are we going to find it?’
‘I’m thinking, Flint,’ Eska replied. ‘I need quiet for that.’
Flint tapped his mittens on the sled and Eska tried to ignore him. And, as they raced away from the Never Cliffs, Eska thought carefully. Animals needed water to survive so any wolves or musk oxen that prowled the Driftlands would head to the river if they could break a hole in the ice.
‘Follow any animal tracks you find,’ she said. ‘They’ll lead us to the river.’
But as Eska’s eyes flicked downwards it was not footprints that she saw. All around them now, only just visible through the mist, were caribou antlers, shed from the animals themselves the year before. They lay on the ice like stiff white claws.
‘That’s odd,’ Flint murmured. ‘Normally, the hares, lemmings and voles gnaw away at the antlers after they’ve fallen from the caribou.’
Eska shifted her weight. ‘Why would those creatures suddenly stay away?’
‘Look – on the tip of every antler.’ Flint swallowed. ‘I think the smaller animals did come; they just never left . . .’
And as Eska peered more closely she noticed the tiny animal skulls hanging from the antler tips. Blu tucked her legs up to her chin, Pebble burrowed his head into her furs, and in front of them the dogs’ ears cocked this way and that. It was like a graveyard of antlers around them and Flint did his best to weave a way through, but, when his sled crunched over one, the wind died away completely and the silence that followed pulsed.
‘The Ice Queen’s dark magic has been here,’ Flint whispered. ‘This whole place feels cursed.’
‘A taste of what’s to come for the kingdom, if we can’t stop her . . .’ Eska shivered. ‘Ride faster.’
Flint urged the dogs on and in the distance they heard a wolf howl.
Eska tensed. The sound was low and lingering, like wind moaning through a chimney, and as it rang out the skulls on the antler tips rattled. Then it died away and, a few moments later, the sled was free of the antlers and Eska glimpsed Balapan’s silhouette through the mist.
She pointed down to the snow. ‘Wolf tracks leading east.’
They followed them until they came to the river, a silent snake winding its way north, a few minutes later.
‘This Grey Man – what do you think he’s like?’ Eska asked.
Flint flapped his reins and the dogs sped on. ‘Old, if the Feather Tribe have been singing songs about him for generations – and unhappy, because the Ice Queen doesn’t look kindly on Erkenwald’s magic.’
Eska nodded. ‘We can cheer him up, especially when he learns that you’re an inventor and you might know a way of reaching the stars so that I can blow the Frost Horn.’
Flint glanced at Eska. ‘You know inventions don’t always work.’
‘Yes.’
‘So, you understand thi
s one could be a disaster?’
‘Yes.’
‘So, why aren’t you more worried?’
‘I’m terrified,’ Eska said quietly. ‘But sometimes all you can do when you’re scared is hope.’
The mist thickened without them noticing at first. It was only when the dogs grew twitchy, shying at bends in the river and flinching at frozen trees, that Eska felt her heart quicken. Then the wind picked up, heaving and groaning and stirring the mist so that it rose around them like a slow-creeping wave. The dogs stopped before Flint drew them in and though they were large, strong beasts they whined like newborn pups. And, when Balapan appeared through the hazy screen and swept low beside Eska, she knew something wasn’t right.
Blu turned wide eyes to her brother. ‘I scared, Flint.’
Before Flint could reply, the wind blew harder, whipping the snow and ice up into its swell until a churn of flakes tore around them and the world seemed to dissolve into white. The dogs backed up towards the sled and Balapan’s wings juddered as the wind gathered pace and strength.
Eska shielded her eyes with her arm as the snow beat against her. ‘This storm is brewed with the Ice Queen’s magic! Keep going!’
Flint whipped the dogs on, but as the wind shunted the snow and ice against the group the dogs yanked at their harnesses before snapping free and bounding away into the endless white. The sled ground to a halt again and the blizzard raged with newfound fury, sending needle-sharp ice against the children’s faces.
Flint rushed towards Blu and lifted her, Pebble and his sack of feathers from the sled. The group could barely open their eyes in the face of the storm, but Eska managed to, just a crack, and that was enough to see a square shape – a snow-covered food store perhaps – a few metres in front of them.
‘There!’ she cried. ‘Shelter!’
Balapan spiralled into the sky and yapped, but her cries were drowned by the smashing of the gale, and Eska, Flint and Blu staggered towards the hut. They yanked the door open and it clattered back against the wall then they stumbled over the threshold and hauled the door shut.
Sky Song Page 14
