They were outside, standing on a flagstone courtyard surrounded by ancient olive trees, olive trees bigger than any Becky had ever seen. They could have been oaks. The villa behind them shone, dappled by the shadows of the trees in the late morning sun. In the daylight, Becky could see how immeasurably old it was. It seemed to have been built not merely on the hillside but as a part of the hillside itself. The stucco on its limestone blocks was crumbling here and there, and its roof sagged in places much like the roof of Silenus’s more modest cottage.
Beyond the courtyard the countryside below lay exposed. From their position high on the bluff, Becky could look out not only over the narrow strip of plain below with its winding shining river, but to the sea beyond, impossibly turquoise under the blue sky. To Becky’s right the hills rose from the plain. Somewhere in those woods were the fauns who had befriended her. Somewhere, too, would be Johnny Cadman, possibly escaped from Silenus. She fervently hoped so. And also, if Hester Nye were to be believed, Dr Faunus himself, rejuvenated, although perhaps not rejuvenated enough.
Becky shivered. This intelligence had frightened the women. What frightened her more was the suggestion that the doctor at some point would be intent on hunting her down.
‘I was explaining that you were not to blame,’ said Hester Nye.
From the reaction of the women, Becky wondered how convincing her explanation had been.
‘I did not, though,’ said Hester Nye, ‘tell them who you were.’
‘I noticed that,’ said Becky, assuming the woman meant that she hadn’t introduced her. ‘You didn’t tell me who they were either.’
‘You don’t understand,’ said Hester Nye.
Becky looked at her. Hester Nye was quite right. Becky did not understand.
‘You see,’ explained Hester Nye. ‘Although the event happened so very long ago, some of them haven’t ever forgiven Syrinx.’
Becky did not follow this sudden shift in the conversation. Still, she asked, ‘Forgiven her? Why did they have to forgive her?’
‘For enflaming the passion of Pan,’ said Hester Nye mildly, ‘and setting this whole thing in motion.’
Becky did not know what she meant by the whole thing in motion, but she did feel aggrieved on behalf of the hapless Syrinx who had the misfortune not just to be pursued over hill and dale but then to be turned into a set of reeds for Pan to tootle on. ‘But,’ she protested, ‘that’s utterly unfair! It was hardly her fault she happened to be pretty and catch his eye.’
Hester Nye did not reply.
‘A classic case of blame the victim,’ said Becky crossly.
‘Perhaps,’ agreed Hester Nye after a pause. ‘But however you apportion blame, there were consequences.’
For some reason, Becky again thought of her father’s situation. He, too, had caught the eye of a presumably pretty girl. Was she able to view Syrinx as an innocent victim and Pan as the old goat without seeing Roger Pym as an old goat and the bimbo as an innocent victim? In this light things were a little more confusing.
‘Anyway,’ she said, shaking off those thoughts, ‘you’re telling me that Dr Faunus …?’
She recalled Old Paddy’s faint embarrassment at telling her the story of the beautiful nymph and the lecherous old Pan and how his behaviour gave rise to the words panic and panic-stricken.
Hester Nye gave her a sharp look, then said, ‘You must have known.’
Becky nodded. She knew.
Hester Nye added, ‘Dr Faunus is Pan, of course! Pan is only one of his many names, Faunus is just another one of them.’
Together Becky and Hester Nye wandered further; across the courtyard and through the olive grove and down a stony downhill path lined with very old orange trees. It was a beautiful avenue, shady and tangy with the heady scent of orange blossom.
‘Who are they?’ asked Becky.
‘I’m sorry?’
‘The women in the house?’ explained Becky.
‘They are my sisters,’ said Hester Nye simply.
‘Sisters?’
Hester Nye did not deign to explain. Becky knew they couldn’t possibly be sisters literally, so she presumed Hester Nye meant sisters in the sense of a sisterhood or community. Nevertheless, the reply did not begin to explain who these women were. In fact, given the strange creatures she and Johnny had met so far, Becky was beginning to doubt whether even women was an accurate or useful description.
‘But you said I was one of you?’ prompted Becky.
There was another pause. ‘Did I? Perhaps I should have said that you were once one of us?’
‘But how?’
‘You told me yourself, when you saw your reflection in the wellspring in the enchanted grove.’
Again Becky saw the faraway face in the dark water. Looking over her shoulder Sylvester had identified her.
‘I did not tell the others,’ said Hester Nye, ‘because it wouldn’t only be your rejuvenating music that drives Faunus to seek you out.’
Becky looked at her with growing alarm.
‘There could well be other reasons,’ said Hester Nye, ‘and it were best my sisters do not know those.’
The music of the pan pipes was haunting and ethereal and seemed to Johnny to have sprung from some ancient past for it sang of forgotten worlds and unknown places. Dr Faunus swayed slightly as if he were keeping time, his eyes all the while looking over the top of the pipes at Johnny and around the cavern.
Johnny remembered his saying that he had friends he needed to summon and understood that this pipe music was the doctor’s method of summoning them. With this in mind, Johnny, too, began to glance around at the entrance to the cavern, increasingly curious as to who or what might emerge.
He did not have to wait long. Within a minute or two, small figures began to emerge from the passage entrance, small figures looking like tinier versions of Dr Faunus. Whereas he was man-height with a powerful looking chest and stocky thighs, these creatures were smaller than Johnny and delicate somehow. It was, Johnny decided, the difference between a full-grown stag and a number of little antelopes. Like antelopes, too, the creatures seemed timid and ready to run at the slightest provocation.
They scarcely gave Johnny Cadman more than a nervous glance, however, before falling back in astonishment at the sight of Dr Faunus. More and more of these creatures trit-tritted into the cavern on their elegant little hooves, the newcomers pushing into the backs of those braver creatures who had come first.
When there must have been more than a dozen in attendance, Dr Faunus gave off playing and lowered his pipes.
‘Well, dear friends,’ he said, looking at them fondly, ‘it is so good to see you again!’
‘Is it you, Master?’ asked one in the front row.
‘Is it really you?’ asked another.
‘Oh, yes, Sylvester,’ said Dr Faunus. ‘I have returned.’
‘But …’ began another.
‘We thought you …’
‘Were dead?’ asked Dr Faunus.
The fauns nodded.
‘Those reports were somewhat exaggerated,’ smiled Dr Faunus, ‘although I must concede that I have not been well. In fact, I have only recently been restored to health with the assistance of a young girl-child.’
There was a slight commotion at this news as the fauns, whispering excitedly, jostled forward.
Dr Faunus waited for the excitement to die down before adding, ‘I understand you have seen her with this boy here and left them food.’
Johnny looked around at the little creatures. So these were the owners of the basket of fruit. Becky thought it could have been a gift.
‘Master,’ said another faun. ‘We have seen the girlchild since then. In fact she has been in this cavern.’
This surprised Johnny. He looked about him again, half-expecting to see Becky.
‘You have?’ asked Dr Faunus keenly. ‘Tell me, I am very desirous of finding her.’
So am I, thought Johnny. Especially before Silenus gets his hungry ha
nds on her.
The faun called Sylvester took up the story and told of how they had seen Becky pursued by a strange roaring creature, but had managed to elude it by making her way into the woods. ‘She had been with Silenus,’ Sylvester explained, ‘and that worried us, knowing that Silenus would mean her no good. He’d already carried off the boy here when they ran from the roaring creature.’
The faun turned to Johnny. ‘You are lucky to no longer be in his clutches,’ he said.
Johnny nodded. ‘He’d locked me up,’ he said. ‘He was going to eat me. Dr Faunus found me and let me out, but we must find Becky. He’ll do the same with her.’
‘He will not,’ said Dr Faunus emphatically. ‘Or he will answer to me!’
There was such vehemence in this assertion that the fauns shrank back and some bowed their heads.
‘But how will we stop him?’ protested Johnny. ‘He’s built like an ox and he’s as strong as …’ He remembered the ease with which Silenus had seized him and thrust him under one arm like a rolled-up newspaper.
‘I must have the girl,’ said Dr Faunus in the same frightening tone. ‘And I must have the flute she had with her.’
‘The boy-child may be right, Master,’ said Sylvester nervously. ‘Last night we delivered her to the path to Silenus’s cottage. She was worried about the boy here …’
‘Why?’
‘We had to tell her,’ said another faun, ‘about Sylvander.’
‘Sylvander? What happened to Sylvander?’
‘Silenus ate him,’ whispered the faun. ‘And not only that, we suspect he fed Sylvander to these children. The girl told us about a stew …’
Johnny looked at the faun aghast. Even that morning Silenus had delivered him a bowl of the delicious casserole.
‘But you didn’t see the girl Becky last night?’ Dr Faunus said, turning to Johnny.
‘How could I?’ said Johnny. ‘I was locked in a filthy fowl house.’
‘Silenus was ever a gluttonous fool,’ said Dr Faunus, ‘but this is too much!’
‘I don’t think Becky is with Silenus,’ said Johnny, thinking about it. ‘I mean, if he’d caught her then he would have put her in the hen house with me. I had a feeling he went out last night at some stage and I remember thinking that he was probably off to try to find Becky. He can’t have found her.’
‘Unless he found her after we left his cottage,’ said Dr Faunus.
Johnny nodded. That was certainly a possibility.
‘She will not be able to find this place,’ said Sylvester. ‘When we led her down the mountain she was blindfolded. We were worried about Silenus finding this sanctuary, especially after he seems to have developed a taste for …’
Bloody helpful, thought Johnny a little bitterly, although he could see their point of view.
‘Well, where is she?’ demanded Dr Faunus. ‘I cannot stress how important it is to find her.’
The fauns had no answer. Most lowered their heads. Johnny had no idea, either. However, at that point he remembered the motorbike noise he’d heard in the night.
‘I know what might have happened,’ he said.
Dr Faunus looked at him with the same keen intensity he’d given to Sylvester.
‘When I was in the hen house,’ Johnny said, ‘I heard the sound of a motorbike. It must have been that farm trike, the one that was chasing Becky.’
Dr Faunus’s eyes glittered.
‘What of Silenus?’
‘I didn’t hear anything from the cottage.’
‘I think I understand,’ said Dr Faunus thoughtfully. ‘Silenus has left to search for Rebecca. Rebecca goes to the cottage to warn you somehow. The rider finds her there and seizes her. She would insist on Rebecca’s bringing the flute. And then she rides off with her.’
Johnny stared at him.
‘It’s the only thing that makes sense,’ said Dr Faunus grimly, ‘and it means we have a bigger problem than I anticipated.’
‘She?’ asked Johnny.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Dr Faunus, ‘my nemesis. And she has seen fit to plague me still!’
‘Nemesis?’ asked Johnny, thinking it must be somebody’s name.
‘The one who has held me powerless all these years and the one who wants to keep me powerless. The foolish creature seems not to understand that it is too late now, far too late, now that I am back in Arcadia, now that I have my fauns about me. It is too late to stop the process now. The sport will soon begin again!’
Johnny stared at the doctor in alarm. As he said these words Dr Faunus had grown angrier and angrier. He had risen higher on his legs and lifted his arms. The fauns had backed away from him in some disarray.
‘I will recover that flute!’ shouted Dr Faunus. ‘I will seize the girl!’
There was so much intensity in the doctor that Johnny Cadman flinched. The creature was mad. While Johnny too was desperate to rescue Becky from whatever awful situation she might be in, he somehow felt that the doctor’s reasons for rescuing Becky were not promising, not promising at all.
After Dr Faunus’s outburst, Johnny was increasingly uneasy. He was hugely grateful the doctor had released him from the hen house and brought him to this place of safety, but at the same time, he felt that every now and again the doctor became more than a little unhinged.
Even if, for whatever reason, the doctor was able to rescue Becky and bring her to the cave, what then? Dr Faunus himself had said that he had no idea how to return them to the real world. So far, in all of their ups and downs in this crazy place, they hadn’t come across a hint of any way back again. This was seriously worrying.
The fauns, however, seemed not in the least uneasy. On the contrary, and even given the doctor’s occasional fierceness, they were positively buoyant. Food, mainly fruit, was found and piled on to platters. Drinks were brought forth. Johnny was offered a goblet of some sweet nectar and he accepted it gratefully. The drink was quite wonderful. From some annexe three or four fauns found a heavy chair, clearly belonging to Dr Faunus, and they manhandled it awkwardly into the centre of the chamber. Shortly afterwards, the doctor was seated there, as if on a throne, and lording it over the entire company.
Despite all the fuss and attention, though, the doctor himself had lost the good humour apparent after he’d summoned the fauns. If not exactly brooding, he sat there distracted and Johnny guessed he was focused on the problem of Becky and the missing flute.
Dr Faunus had clearly constructed a convincing scenario about what had happened. However, something niggled at Johnny and he was not entirely sure what it was. It had to do with the flute. All the same he was pretty sure that up until the time he’d been released Becky had not fallen into Silenus’s hands, and if she had been heading towards the cottage at night and if he had heard the motorbike sound then it was pretty logical that she’d been apprehended by the rider in black leathers.
When morning arrived, Johnny woke to find himself sitting on the sandy floor of the cave, his back against the wall.
Sunlight splashed down through the great aperture high above. It was all very restful and Johnny enjoyed the safe drowsiness after the terrors of the previous night. Beside him was a small basket of grapes and berries, the pewter goblet, and the black oblong of Becky’s flute case.
All at once he realised what had been niggling at him the night before.
He glanced up at Dr Faunus, wondering whether he dared to interrupt the silent figure either asleep or deep in thought. And then, perhaps sensing Johnny’s look, Dr Faunus focused on the boy and his expression became more intent.
‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘It may not mean anything,’ said Johnny.
‘What may not mean anything?’
‘Why didn’t Becky take the case?’ asked Johnny. ‘Why would she open it and just take the flute?’
Dr Faunus shrugged. ‘Less weight, perhaps … Or she might have hoped to fool Silenus.’
Johnny shook his head slowly. He put himself in Becky’s situ
ation. If she had taken the flute that meant she’d have to go right into Silenus’s house, and this would be after the fauns had told her that Silenus was a violent cannibal. She’d have no way of knowing whether Silenus were in or not. Becky was feisty, he knew, but he didn’t think she was that feisty. In the unlikely event that she had entered the house, then naturally she’d be really, really desperate to grab the box and get out of there again as quickly as possible. She wouldn’t give a fig about fooling Silenus by taking the flute and leaving the box. Anyway, he was pretty sure that Silenus had no idea that the flute was under the kidskins. Moreover, whenever he’d seen Becky with the flute she’d always been very particular about carrying it in the box, always dismantling it and packing it away carefully. What possible reason could she have for breaking her habit at this point?
Most of this he tried to explain to Dr Faunus.
However, the doctor was quite fixed on his own theory.
Why would it have been Rebecca who went into Silenus’s house? It could well have been her abductor, and her abductor for some reason may have left the box behind. He added pointedly, ‘Becky probably wanted to make sure that the flute was in the case!’
‘It could have been somebody else,’ Johnny insisted stubbornly.
‘Who?’ asked the doctor. Because Johnny couldn’t answer that, he didn’t even try. In any case, he knew the question was not serious. Dr Faunus had clearly made up his mind.
Hearing the noise of footsteps approaching, Becky and Hester Nye looked up. One of the women was walking down the path towards them.
‘I have come to tell you our thoughts,’ she said.
Hester Nye asked, ‘Is it appropriate that the child should hear them?’
‘Oh, yes. These matters concern her very much.’
‘Tell us then,’ said Hester Nye.
The woman paused before continuing. She looked around the pathway, at the orange trees and then the beautiful countryside beyond. It was as if, thought Becky, she were holding it in her arms, fearful it might disappear. The woman turned back to them. Her face was sombre, her tone serious.
The Enchanted Flute Page 19
