Shapeshifter's Guide to Running Away (Spellchasers)

by Lari Don

  They all looked at Theo, who was gulping deep breaths of the fresh air. “We are at the Keeper’s Hall.”

  “But where are we? Where is the Keeper’s Hall?”

  Theo shrugged. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t have to mess around with sphinxes in Scotland. It could be the Atlas Mountains or the Urals or the Andes. It could be anywhere. Wherever it is, it’s inaccessible, except through the door Atacama guards and the crowgate. But we’ve found it. Shall we look around together?”

  Beth said, “If you promise not to use us as spare batteries for your fancy magic.”

  Innes nodded. “You’re like a magical vampire, sucking our energy.”

  Theo sighed. “You still insult me, after I saved your lives. You’re not even slightly grateful, are you?”

  “We are grateful,” said Innes. “We’re also a bit freaked out.”

  Beth said, “Let’s search for Mr Crottel. If we get separated, let’s meet here, at the door leading back home.”

  Molly glanced behind her and saw the big solid wooden door fade away. She blinked. There was definitely no door, just straight lines of white stone. She pointed at the blank wall. “Our way home just disappeared.”

  Theo frowned. “So, as well as finding the missing curse-casters and discovering what the Keeper is up to, we’ll have to search for an exit, or we’ll be trapped here forever.”

  Chapter Eight

  “So, Theo, where will we find Mrs Sharpe and Mr Crottel?” asked Molly.

  Theo shrugged. “I’ve never been here before.”

  “You said you could guide us!” snapped Innes. “What was the point in bringing you, if you don’t know where we should look?”

  “I also said I could protect you, and I did that in the corridor.”

  Molly said, “Shh… I hear music. Down there.”

  They looked over the inner parapet to the courtyard below. A pale person wrapped round a harp was playing four slow notes, then drifting into silence, then playing the same four notes and drifting off again…

  The harpist wasn’t alone in the courtyard. Amongst couches, pools of water and small potted trees, Molly saw dozens of fabled beasts and magical beings, including:

  A boy pirouetting slowly on delicate deer’s legs

  A girl with ivy in her hair

  A giant lying on an enormous beanbag

  A multi-coloured goat, nibbling the giant’s vest

  A white-haired mermaid

  A scarred man in a sealskin cloak

  A black-legged faun

  And a familiar witch in a wrinkled three-piece suit, with his two smelly dogs.

  All of them moving dreamily or snoozing.

  Many of them were also eating, because the centre of the courtyard was filled with an enormous table, shaped like the spokes of a wheel without a rim, each spoke covered in white tablecloths and piles of brightly coloured foods.

  The food looked tempting. But then Molly noticed dozens of crows circling the courtyard above the guests’ heads, and decided she’d rather be hungry than join a feast patrolled by those dark birds.

  She heard a giggle. On the other side of the courtyard, she saw a small silver-haired woman in a striped blue dress and a white apron, holding a plump baby. The baby was giggling and grabbing at a couple of golden flower fairies, who were hovering dozily just out of reach.

  The woman laughed and pulled the baby back just before her chubby white hand snatched a fairy out of the air. As the woman turned to watch the fairies float away across the courtyard, Molly ducked out of sight. Everyone else was already crouched behind the parapet.

  Beth said, “We’ve found Mr Crottel and his horrible dogs. And they’re not prisoners. They look quite happy.”

  “They are prisoners,” said Innes. “They’re definitely guarded. Didn’t you see the crows?”

  “But where’s Mrs Sharpe?” asked Beth.

  “I know where she might be, if she’s not a willing guest,” said Theo. “I saw barred windows at the base of the highest tower.”

  They twisted round and looked over the parapet. At the bottom of the tower Molly saw small windows criss-crossed with dark lines.

  She heard a squeal and glanced into the courtyard. The woman and the baby were getting up and leaving.

  The baby was yelling “NO NO NO!” but her silver-haired granny or nanny or childminder said loudly, “Who’s getting silly with the pretty dandelion fairies? You know you can’t eat the guests’ food and you know it’s not polite to throw custard. Time for a nice nap.”

  The baby screamed and wriggled, working up to a serious tantrum, as the old lady carried her out of the courtyard, leaving one of the golden fairies perched on a fountain, slowly washing his wings.

  Then, on the white wall behind the fountain, Molly saw a door appear.

  The blank wall shimmered, and suddenly an arched wooden door was crashing open. A tall dark man in a long black coat, with one fringed sleeve shorter than the other, burst through the doorway.

  “Corbie!” whispered Innes. “His feathers haven’t grown back yet.”

  Corbie yelled, “Curse-hatched, to me!”

  As the door behind him disappeared, crows flew from all round the courtyard to land at Corbie’s shiny booted feet.

  “The mosaic men have been defeated. We have intruders. We must search the Hall.” He lowered his voice and started giving orders to individual crows.

  Molly, Innes, Beth and Theo crouched behind the parapet.

  Innes said, “They know we’re here.”

  Beth said, “That’s the bad news. The good news is the door might reappear anywhere. So we can search for our way out and Mrs Sharpe at the same time. Let’s start at the tower with barred windows.”

  Molly said, “I saw a few crows flying in the top of that tower.”

  Theo looked up. “That must be where the crowgate opens.”

  “Even if the place is crawling with crows,” said Innes, “we need to find Mrs Sharpe.”

  They crept along the battlements, staying below the lowest stones of the parapet. Molly knew that any bird flying above would spot them immediately. But the crows were still cawing and flapping in the courtyard when they reached the door to the tallest tower and stumbled gratefully into the covered darkness.

  They walked cautiously down the winding staircase, passing a wooden door every few steps. Innes pushed one open and peered inside. “A bedroom,” he whispered. “Probably for one of the guests in the courtyard.”

  Molly opened the next door. It was also a bedroom, with half a dozen tiny beds. The room after that contained one massive bed with specially strengthened metal legs.

  “Fairies and giants,” said Beth. “Beds for everyone.”

  “It’s a comfy prison, but it’s still a prison,” said Innes. “I wonder if they knew they’d end up here, when they cast their curses?”

  As they went further downstairs, the music from the courtyard got louder. Then they heard Corbie’s sharp voice coming through the windows at the bottom of the tower. They all stopped.

  The leader of the curse-hatched was asking: “Did you find anything in that initial sweep of the grounds?”

  He was answered by a chorus of squawks.

  “Nothing? Then Grasp’s team will search for intruders, starting at the east tower and working round. Flock’s team will watch for the door and guard it when it appears.”

  A high-pitched voice asked, “Should we get the guests to help search?”

  Corbie laughed. “Those overfed idiots are too dopey to be any help.”

  Molly stood still, waiting until the sound of boot heels and wingbeats faded away. Then they all crept slowly downwards again. The stairs ended in a big shadowy room with four barred windows, two closed wooden doors, an archway into the bright courtyard, and lots of circular metal cages.

  “More lucky guests,” said a croaky voice, “parading past from your fancy bedrooms to your scrumptious feast, looking at us starving in our damp cages, reminding you where you�
��ll end up if you ask awkward questions.”

  “They aren’t guests,” said a clear voice. “They’re trespassers. And I’m delighted to see them.”

  Molly looked at the cage in the darkest corner. “Mrs Sharpe?”

  The missing witch stepped closer to the bars, smiling but crumpled, her hair dusty and uncombed. “Molly, Innes, Beth and my young friend the toad. Why are you here?”

  “To find you,” said Innes.

  “To help you,” said Molly.

  “To find the witch who cursed Molly,” said Beth.

  “To find out why the Keeper’s Hall is filled with curse-casters,” said Theo.

  Mrs Sharpe glanced at the archway, then spoke quickly. “The curse-hatched are protecting the curses that keep them alive. The crows are bringing curse-casters here so they can’t be persuaded or forced to lift their curses.”

  “Does the Keeper know about this?” asked Theo. “Is the Keeper behind it?”

  “How do we get you out?” asked Molly.

  “How do we get the curse-casters out?” asked Innes.

  “Why are you here?” asked Beth. “Is it so you can’t give advice to people trying to lift curses?”

  Mrs Sharpe covered her face. “Too many questions! I can’t answer them all.”

  “You’d better answer that last one,” whispered a voice from the neighbouring cage. “These innocent little victims should know whose advice they’re—”

  “Hush, Morgan,” said Mrs Sharpe. “That’s not as important as getting everyone out.”

  She looked up. “If you release the guests in the courtyard, they might be grateful enough to you that they lift their curses. We’ve refused to join the feast, so we’re locked in these cells. If you want to free us, you’ll need to find the keys.”

  “But what about the last question?” asked Beth. “Mrs Sharpe, why have the crows taken you, as well as all these curse-casters?”

  The witch looked straight at the dryad. “I think you can guess the answer.”

  Beth shook her head.

  Innes said calmly, “You’ve cast other curses. Not just the wyrm round your old farm, but more curses the crows don’t want you to lift.”

  Mrs Sharpe nodded.

  Beth gasped. “Mrs Sharpe! Are there still victims suffering from your curses?”

  “It’s not that simple—”

  There was a flash of shining wings at the bright archway, followed by a screech, Kraa-hrr!

  Mrs Sharpe called, “Get out, now! Don’t worry about us. We’ve brought this on ourselves.”

  Beth opened a wooden door and looked down a white corridor. “Come on! Run!”

  As Molly and the boys followed her, they heard Corbie screaming in the distance. “The intruders are at the cages!”

  But the intruders were already running away from the cages.

  “Where are we running to?” asked Innes.

  “Just run,” yelled Beth. “Don’t let them separate us. That door will reappear somewhere, and we need to be ready to escape when it does. So run!”

  They ran, with one squawking crow flying after them.

  They sprinted down a corridor built along one side of the courtyard, with open arched windows looking out onto the feast. Individual crows flew through the arches and attacked them, with claws, beaks and piercing shrieks.

  “They’re only crows,” yelled Innes. “They can’t stop us running.”

  “They can hurt us though,” muttered Molly, as a claw scraped her scalp.

  They crashed through another door, into a large room with mirrors lying on a long table and propped in racks on the floor, slim vases on high shelves and jewelled chains hanging from hooks on the ceiling.

  As they ran past the white table, Molly saw small moving figures reflected in the mirrors’ surfaces. In one wooden-framed mirror, she glimpsed a familiar figure standing beside a pile of dog dirt. She stopped to get a closer look, but Innes shoved her between the shoulder blades.

  “Keep going!”

  She ran on, through the room, into another corridor. They now had a crowd of crows above them, beating their heads and shoulders with wings. There were footsteps behind them. And the corridor ahead was blocked by men and women in dark coats with fringes dangling from the seams of their sleeves.

  Theo slid to a stop. “Human curse-hatched,” he gasped. “They’ve absorbed enough power from their curses to shift shape.”

  The four intruders were trapped between two groups of human curse-hatched, who were walking toward them with open arms and wide grins.

  “Into the courtyard!” Innes scrambled onto the frame of the arched window.

  He climbed through, followed by Beth, then Theo.

  Molly was nearest the wall, furthest from the arches. By the time she took six steps across the corridor and clambered onto the sill, the curse-hatched had reached her.

  She felt bony fingers grab her wrist.

  Molly tried to pull away, but strong arms wrapped round her. She jabbed her elbows back, but she was dragged off the windowsill.

  The woman holding her screeched, “I’ve got the human girl!”

  Beth, Innes and Theo were still being dive-bombed by crows as they ran past a fountain. They stopped and looked back at Molly in the fringed arms of the curse-hatched woman.

  Molly yelled, “Run! Just leave me, and run!” But she wasn’t sure she meant it.

  Beth nodded. “Follow if you can. As fast as you like.”

  She turned away, the boys turning with her. They ran off across the courtyard.

  Molly watched as her friends left her behind, in the hard hands of the curse-hatched.

  Chapter Nine

  Molly struggled. The curse-hatched woman laughed and gripped tighter with clawed fingers.

  Then Molly realised that Beth hadn’t just run off and left her. Beth had given her instructions. Follow. Fast.

  Molly grinned.

  Molly growled.

  Molly shifted.

  And as a slender hare, she slipped easily out of the encircling arms.

  She leapt onto the windowsill, bounced into the courtyard and sprinted after her friends. She overtook them, then slowed her pace to run beside Beth, who muttered, “I suppose your curse is useful sometimes.”

  Molly’s wide vision showed more fabled beasts and magical beings in the courtyard than she’d seen from high on the walls: a glittering snake with folded wings, three white mice with silver crowns, a shining crystal hare who flicked his ears at her…

  Then she hurdled a pile of smelly fur and heard a familiar sneering voice.

  “You followed me, foolish girl!” said Mr Crottel. “Now you’re being followed! Claw and peck her, crows, rip and tear her!”

  Molly sprinted away from him. But a line of men with fringed sleeves blocked the archway ahead, so the friends turned and ran back across the courtyard.

  Now Mr Crottel was fiddling with a black rose in his lapel and boasting to the mermaid in the pool beside him. “That hare is my curse. The crows invited me to this splendid feast when I promised to make her curse worse. They even showed me how. So that hare is my ticket to all this lovely food!”

  As they ran round the courtyard, he started to sing. “Run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run.” He prodded his sleeping dogs. “Chase her!” But the dogs just snored.

  More and more curse-hatched crows mobbed the runners.

  “We’re too exposed,” shouted Theo. He led them to a smaller archway, so low and narrow that the whole flock couldn’t follow at once.

  They ran into another long room and Innes slammed the door, shutting most of the crows out. They ran through that room, into another corridor, round another corner. Molly’s paws skidded on the polished marble floor. Innes kept slamming doors behind them, losing more crow followers each time.

  Then they ran into the room filled with mirrors again, and Innes closed the door on the last of the chasing crows.

  “Are we going round in circles?” shouted Theo, as they sp
rinted past the table.

  They heard Corbie screeching in the distance, “Catch them!”

  They ran out of the mirror room and Innes shouted, “If we keep running this fast, we won’t see the exit appear!”

  “Does anyone have a better idea?” Beth yelled, as she led them round yet another white marble corner.

  “I have an idea,” said a soft voice behind them. “I could hide you.”

  The white-aproned, silver-haired woman stood by an open door just past the corner they’d hurtled round. They ran back towards her and she ushered them into a big bright room full of toys.

  “Shh, don’t wake the sleeping babe…”

  But as the door closed, the baby sat up in her cot in the middle of the room.

  The baby was shining. Her gold curls shone like sunbeams, her bright blue eyes reflected light like gems on a necklace and her pure white skin gleamed like it had been polished.

  She opened her mouth, showing two pearl teeth, shouted, “BUNNY!” and pointed at Molly.

  “Hide,” said the woman. “Hide now!”

  But the baby was crying, “Bunny bunny bunny!”

  The old woman scooped Molly up. “Here, my lovely, cuddle the big bunny…” She dropped Molly into the baby’s arms. “The rest of you, hide!”

  Molly, held in fingers that seemed colder and harder and stronger than a baby’s fingers should be, watched Innes transform into a horse and hide amongst a herd of life-sized rocking horses. Beth slid behind a tower of large wooden building blocks. Theo jumped into a ball-pit and burrowed under the blue and purple balls.

  The door slammed open.

  “Shhh, Corbie. The baby’s in her cot!”

  “My apologies, Nan. We’re looking for intruders.”

  “There’s nothing in here but me, the baby and her toys. Look round if you want, but leave the birds outside. Those feathers get everywhere.”

  Molly saw Corbie glance at the toys. Then he turned to the baby’s cot and looked straight at Molly.

  “That’s right, little one,” said Nan. “You cuddle your bunny.”

  “Bunny!” The baby squeezed Molly and rubbed her heavy hand the wrong way up Molly’s spine.