Casper could’ve hugged the microphone because here, hundreds of metres up in the sky, was a magical hot air balloon fond of forward planning.
Zip hovered behind a cloud just above the hills leading down into Dapplemere. Through the mist, Casper could see the slopes formed a bowl around the lake, grassy banks filled with crags, waterfalls and beautiful old trees, but from where they were floating it was hard to see more.
‘Hatch five for a telescope,’ Zip prompted. ‘And you’ll be pleased to know that its glass is enchanted so it’ll bring everything you look at – from the caves containing ingredients for sunlight to the wishing trees on the slopes – right up to your nose.’
Casper drew out the telescope and raised it to his eye. ‘Wow . . .’
Zip wasn’t lying about the enchanted glass; he could see everything in the valley in the sharpest detail. What Casper had thought were rocky crags at either end of the valley were in fact two enormous stone heads. They stretched the height of the hillside and waterfalls poured down from their eyes into jutting mouths – vast stone bowls as large as swimming pools. There were caves dotted about the hillside and Casper could make out the signposts before them: Gold Flakes, Honeyfire, Dazzlethread and Treacle. Were these the ingredients for sunlight? Casper wondered. Ancient trees swayed in the breeze, with endless ribbons tied to their branches, and Casper imagined these could well be the wishing trees Utterly had paid a visit to on her birthday.
He slid his telescope down to the lake and through the haze of cloud Zip hung behind, Casper could see the exquisitely carved mills, with patterned shutters and verandas overlooking the water. But the mills didn’t look like they were in good shape at all; the windows had been punched through, the wheels had been smashed to pieces and some appeared to be nothing more than heaps of charcoaled wood. On the lake itself, half-sunk rowing boats swayed aimlessly, and tucked into the foot of the hillside there was what looked like the remains of a village.
The shops lining the higgledy-piggledy streets claimed to sell all manner of things for Ballooners and Bottlers but every single one had been ransacked: there was Huffington Balloons (Est. 1325), whose sign was hanging by its hinges; Brittleweave Baskets (10% Discount for First-Time Buyers), whose contents were spilled out into the street; and Twizzlequick Tools (Purveyor of Quality Tools Since For Ever), whose door was missing.
Down a winding alley, picnic tables lay overturned outside a pub called The Burping Eagle and menu boards had been clawed through outside a terraced building called Nibblenosh. The place had been trashed – it looked like a ghost town – but over everything, Casper noticed, there were bird droppings. And when he looked back at the mills he stiffened. Because as he peered closer he saw that Dapplemere was not a ghost town at all.
‘The Midnights are here,’ he whispered.
Arlo tiptoed along the edge of the basket to be closer to Casper.
‘At first I thought all those rotten branches on the verandas of the mills were simply churned-up wood from the spokes of the wheels, but if you look carefully you can see the tips of black wings draped over the edge. The Midnights have built their nests there – no wonder the sun scamps haven’t been able to send sunlight out into the kingdom!’ Casper steadied himself as he took in all the nests lining the lake, then he turned to Arlo. ‘Somehow we’ve got to find Utterly without disturbing them.’
Arlo whimpered and Casper drew back from the edge of the basket for a few moments. The task ahead seemed impossible, ridiculous even. But if he did nothing then the whole kingdom could fall and he’d never get home to see his parents again. He was no hero, when it came down to it, and yet he was the only one left to stop the Midnights!
Casper forced himself to look through the telescope again. The tails of the griffins hung lazily over the nests and though their wings were tucked in, every now and again their heads swivelled round to the far hillside sloping down into Dapplemere. Casper squinted through the telescope at the wishing trees and the caves there. Then his eyes rested on a larger cave tucked into an overhang of rock so near the top of the hillside that part of the cave was lost in the clouds. The signpost outside it was still visible but the words on it didn’t seem to have anything to do with ingredients for sunlight. They read: Welcome to Topplecave Restaurant: 2-4-1 Sunfizz on Thursdays After 6 p.m. (Over 18s Only). On the platform of rock before this cave, tables and chairs lay in pieces, but this was not what the Midnights were looking at.
Casper gasped. There were bars strung across this cave and behind them, only just visible in the gloom, was a girl with wild blonde hair dressed in dungarees!
Casper’s heart thumped. He’d found Utterly – and it looked as if she was alive and awake, not slumped in an eternal sleep! The relief rushed through him and though he wasn’t quite sure how freeing her would destroy the Midnights and he knew that he didn’t really have a sensible plan for Zip, he grabbed the microphone anyway. Because he knew, very firmly, that he had to rescue Utterly as soon as possible.
‘Drop back from Dapplemere, Zip, then fly as quietly as you can behind the far hillside,’ Casper whispered. ‘When you get to those clouds bunched up around the top corner, stall a while. My friend is trapped inside Topplecave and—’
‘Got carried away on the two-for-one sunfizzes, did she? Common story.’
‘She’s eleven, Zip. And she’s been locked in the cave by the Midnights.’
‘Ah, I see. Carry on, skipper.’
‘So, while you hover in the clouds, I’ll drop down and free my friend.’
‘May I suggest the use of hatch six to create a distraction for the Midnights at that point?’
Casper was steadily falling more and more in love with Zip. ‘That would be brilliant. Thank you.’
Soundlessly, Zip drew back from Dapplemere then, as she skirted behind the far hillside, Casper shook Bristlebeard’s weapons out of the rucksack. The crossbow looked suddenly small compared to the flock of Midnights squatting on the mills and even the axe looked less impressive than it had done up in the snow troll’s hideaway. Casper felt sick with fear. But Zip was already round the other side of Dapplemere now and as she inched into the clouds, the edge of Topplecave came into view just a few metres below them. The hot air balloon hovered where it was. Any further and it might attract the attention of the Midnights.
Utterly was sitting in the corner of the cave closest to them, amidst the rubble of broken tables and smashed-up chairs, with her legs pulled up to her chin. Her coat and dungarees had been slashed by talons and her face was ghostly white but Casper felt a little less afraid on seeing her than he had done before. Arlo hopped up and down on the basket edge and at that small, tapping sound, Utterly looked up.
She squinted into the clouds and then blinked in disbelief when she saw the hot air balloon and Arlo bouncing on the basket, but her mouth fell well and truly open at the sight of Casper, his sky goggles pushed up on his forehead and Bristlebeard’s axe clasped firmly in his hand.
‘Casper?’ she breathed. ‘Is . . . is that you?’
‘I did tell you,’ Casper whispered, ‘that I am never, ever late.’ He paused. ‘Especially when it comes to rescuing a friend.’
And at those words, Utterly’s eyes filled with tears.
Arlo launched from the basket, slipped through the bars covering the cave and flung himself at Utterly. She held him tight and kissed his wings.
‘You came for me! Both of you! And in a SkySoar9000! But how? Only Lofty Husks have access to those!’
Her voice was only a whisper but it sounded different somehow – less sharp, perhaps, less cross.
‘We can talk about all that later,’ Casper said. ‘Right now we need to create a diversion for the Midnights so that we can get you out of this cave and into the hot air balloon – because I think you’re the familiar face I’m meant to find, Utterly. If I rescue you then the Midnights will be stopped!’
Before Utterly could reply, he yanked on the lever for hatch six and several black cylindri
cal shapes, about the size of rolling pins, shot up into the air and soared over Dapplemere before exploding over the next-door valley in a blaze of colour.
‘Fireworks!’ Utterly gasped.
The griffins shrieked and launched into the sky towards the commotion while Arlo blew hard at the bars across the cave.
Utterly blinked in surprise at the flames the dragon conjured. ‘You’ve learnt to blow fire, Arlo!’
Arlo nodded, then blushed – he could tell Utterly was proud of him – but no matter how many flames shot out from his nostrils, he couldn’t melt the bars.
Utterly bit her lip. ‘They must be cursed somehow! When the Midnights carried me here yesterday it was just a battered-up restaurant but then they scratched at the rock with their talons and bars appeared over the entrance.’ She turned panic-stricken eyes towards Casper. ‘What if . . . what if the bars are unbreakable and I’m trapped in this cave for ever!’
Casper instructed Zip to move right up to the cave now that the Midnights were tearing through the next-door valley as more and more fireworks were exploding around them. Then he held up Bristlebeard’s axe and looked at Utterly. ‘Just as well I made friends with the snow trolls then.’
He clambered over the edge of the basket, then jumped down onto the hillside before the cave and raised the axe. It sliced through the first bar as if cutting paper and the metal crumbled to dust. Utterly’s eyes lit up and Casper set to work on the remaining bars until soon there was an opening large enough to crawl through. Utterly shot through it. But in her haste to escape, and in Casper’s excitement to see her, neither of them noticed that the fireworks had stopped and an ill wind was blowing.
They looked out across the valley. The Midnights had massed together in the sky and were heading back towards Dapplemere. And now the air thundered with the sound of their cries as their eyes locked on to what was happening at Topplecave.
‘I . . . I thought you were the familiar face,’ Casper stammered at Utterly. ‘I thought finding you would stop the Midnights!’
Utterly glanced at the swarm of griffins beating towards Dapplemere. ‘I don’t think so . . .’
Casper shook himself. ‘Quick! Grab my hand!’
But Utterly grabbed the axe from him instead. ‘It’s not just me who needs freeing!’ she blurted.
It was then Casper noticed a faint glow from further inside the cave. It grew brighter and brighter until two creatures – a boy and a girl who looked about Casper’s age but who could only have come up to Casper’s knees – limped into view. They had gold skin, tunics made of bracken and moth-like wings.
‘The only two sun scamps not imprisoned by the Midnights. They’re the reason this kingdom still has any light at all! The Midnights have been burning whole mills full of sun marvels and any other marvels they’ve managed to steal from the drizzle hags and the snow trolls. These two sun scamps have been sneaking down to the caves at night to collect the ingredients for sunlight, but making marvels without a mill is wearing down their strength.’
The griffins called out again as they poured over the far side of the valley and the air trembled with heat.
Utterly gripped the axe. ‘I need to free the rest of the sun scamps – apparently they’ve been locked up without food or water for two days now – then maybe I can use my ideas –’ she pointed to the diagrams she’d scratched with a stone onto the cave walls – complicated sketches of cogs and wheels, pulleys and weighting systems ‘– to mend the mills and get the marvels up and running again!’
‘You did all those?’ Casper gasped.
Utterly clambered down the hillside with the sun scamps, one of whom was lugging a very large, impractical bag with him. ‘I want to be a Bottler, Casper – engineering is what I do! Now get back into the balloon with Arlo and see if you can stall those Midnights! It’s you they’re really after so if I can just get down to The Burping Eagle – the pub by the lake that the sun scamps are trapped in – then at least we’re in with a chance of saving the marvels!’
Arlo clutched Casper’s sleeve as he made a wild jump for Zip’s basket then, as the valley darkened with outstretched wings and turned suddenly very hot indeed, Casper tightened Bristlebeard’s cape around him, pulled down his goggles, and seized the microphone.
‘Duck and weave time, Zip! Move like you’ve never moved before and don’t give the Midnights any reason to dive down after Utterly!’
The hot air balloon slid away from the cave, then skirted across the hillside, skimming the tops of the wishing trees as it passed, and like moths to a flame, the Midnights and their shatterblast careered towards Casper. But Zip was a SkySoar9000 and she was faster than them, and Casper could see when the spirals of shatterblast drew close, so together they darted right then left then right again.
Then, just as the first of the griffins made a beeline for Zip’s basket, the shatterblast pouring out from its beak, Casper yelled, ‘Loop the loop!’
Zip did just that, tangling the Midnight’s talons in her ropes while Casper hung on for dear life. The balloon righted itself, then Casper grabbed Bristlebeard’s crossbow and sent the bolt slamming into the Midnight’s chest. True to the snow troll’s word, the griffin crashed down the hillside, stunned by the deadly nightshade’s magic.
Another Midnight drew close before Casper had time to reel the bolt back in. But Arlo was ready for the fight this time and he managed to conjure a spark of fire, which he spat into the griffin’s eye. The Midnight whirled backward and slunk away but more appeared in its place, all swarming around Zip with beaks open and shatterblast swirling. Casper reloaded and, as the hot air balloon darted this way and that, he fired the crossbow again and again.
The griffins screeched together and Casper watched with dread as enormous spirals of scorching-hot wind poured into the sky, wrenching trees from the ground and sending boulders tumbling down slopes. The shatterblast beat against Casper’s face and clamoured in his ears but still the cape kept him safe.
‘Keep moving, Zip!’ Casper screamed.
The air was too thick with feathers and talons for Casper to see how Utterly was doing but however fast Zip moved or however quick Casper was to reload, the griffins and their shatterblast seemed to be one step ahead. And when Casper’s ears snagged on the sound of a talon splitting silk, he felt his insides churn.
‘Mayday! Mayday!’ Zip wheezed. ‘Balloon torn!’
She began to sink towards the lake – at speed – and the griffins screeched with delight. Casper and Arlo huddled in the corner of the basket in the snow troll’s armour, then every single griffin shrieked at once. Casper thought that the end was coming, that finally the griffins had outdone them, but there was something about this shriek that was different from the last. It was sharper, angrier.
Casper looked up as something like rope, only not quite it, slid beneath the griffins at the very moment their beaks and talons reached into the basket. It was a net of sorts – spun from glittering gold thread – and as Zip plunged downward the net held the flock of raging griffins exactly where they were in the sky.
Dumbfounded, Casper clung on to Arlo as the hot air balloon splashed down into the lake then was shunted, by the last few gusts of shatterblast tearing through the valley, against the mills before the village. Casper and Arlo scrambled out of the basket to see Utterly racing round the side of the lake towards them while thousands of sun scamps held the flock of hissing griffins inside a golden net.
Casper watched, open-mouthed, as the freed sun scamps flew the net towards one of the giant heads closing in the valley. Whatever this net was made of, it was not only holding the griffins captive but it was preventing them from breathing shatterblast, too. Then Casper remembered the oversized bag one of the sun scamps hiding in the cave had been carrying – had the net been bundled up in there all along?
One or two sun scamps fluttered up to the enormous ear of the stone head while the rest of their kind hauled the griffins into the gaping mouth. Then the mouth snapped shut w
ith a deafening boom and the sun scamps flew out through the gaps in the giant teeth, but the griffins, though they thrashed and screeched inside the net, couldn’t escape the clamped mouth. And as if Dapplemere itself knew the threat was now contained, every single one of the caves scattered about the hillsides began to glow. A gurgling noise, which seemed to come from within the hills themselves, echoed through the valley, followed by a rushing sound that soon became a roar.
Casper watched as slowly but surely the entire lake turned gold. ‘The ingredients for sunlight are being released!’ he gasped.
Utterly rushed round the lake until she stood, panting, before Casper and Arlo and the ruined mill Zip was slumped against. ‘I was wrong,’ she said.
Casper wiped the sweat from his forehead. ‘About what?’
Utterly took a deep breath. ‘About you, Casper. Because never, ever being late is a skill. It’s the same thing as being loyal. And you’re the most loyal person I’ve ever met.’ There was a squeak from Casper’s shoulder. ‘Joint with Arlo.’
Casper blinked. He felt a strange tingling in his chest, and though he knew he had very little experience of these things, he wondered whether perhaps this was his heart stretching. Bristlebeard had warned him that that was par for the course with friendship.
Casper blushed. ‘Maybe – possibly – we could upgrade from acquaintances to friends?’
Utterly was silent for a moment, and Casper wondered whether he’d got things wrong all over again, but then she took a small step forward and, for the first time in his life, Casper was hugged by a friend.
Up until arriving at Dapplemere, Casper had thought that Utterly was the fastest-moving person he’d ever encountered. Then he saw the sun scamps working. Some busied themselves in the village repairing roofs, mending windows and righting the contents of the shops while others poured into the mills, desperately trying to salvage the blades and rotors to get them turning again.
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