‘And not without you and Arlo either.’ Casper narrowed his eyes at the scratch marks lining the hollow where the pendulum hung. ‘Only a talon or a claw could make those marks.’
Utterly nodded. ‘And look! There are feathers scattered about the clock, too. Black feathers.’
From her pocket, Arlo gulped.
‘I don’t think this clock is just a portal from the Faraway to Rumblestar,’ Casper said. ‘I think Morg is using it to send her Midnights from Everdark to Rumblestar, too, and the Midnight pretending to be Frostbite thought I could help Morg because she wants to use this portal to join her followers here . . . Didn’t you say that Everdark is a forest located somewhere between the Faraway and the Unmapped Kingdoms?’
‘Yes. A forest full of enchanted trees . . .’ Utterly looked at the tree before them now, then she reached out a hand to the door and her eyes grew wide at the words carved into the front of it:
TO FINAL ENDINGS
‘Smudge and Bartholomew stole Morg’s wings in Everdark,’ she said slowly. ‘What if they locked them inside an enchanted tree they knew wouldn’t open?’ Utterly looked up at Casper. ‘They couldn’t have known where the tree would lead to, but this could be the very tree Smudge and Bartholomew locked Morg’s wings inside all those years ago! Without her wings, Morg isn’t strong enough to rise up out of Everdark herself, but she could have found a way to bring her feathers to life and they’ve been pouring out of this clock into Rumblestar as griffins. That’s why they’re so powerful; they haven’t just been conjured by Morg – they’re a part of her!’
Casper was silent for a moment as the horror of it all sank in. Then he said: ‘But why did the Midnights hold you as bait in Dapplemere if this is the portal Morg wants me to open for her? Why not bring you here so I’d follow you?’
Utterly looked around them. ‘There must be a reason the Midnights can’t come here.’
‘But if the ogres gave the griffins the shatterblast then surely the Midnights would be able to come here because they’re working together?’
Utterly nodded. ‘Something about this doesn’t add up . . .’
The storm raged on above the volcano, but as Casper looked at the grandfather clock, all of the commotion seemed to fall away. Here, after everything, was a link to his world. What if he could climb inside this tree right now and find his way back to his mum and his dad? It was all that he had wanted ever since he set foot in Rumblestar; to go home. And, as he listened to the ogres shouting and the thunder groaning, and he thought about the flock of griffins speeding towards them, he felt every nerve in his body strain towards the clock. Because what hope, really, was there of crushing the Midnights and stopping Morg’s plans? How could he, Casper Tock, not brave or particularly clever or even armed with a fully formed plan, destroy every griffin in the kingdom with this battered old clock? Or had he misunderstood the wind’s message – maybe it had been leading him home rather than towards a battle with Morg’s followers?
Casper thought of the turret in Little Wallops and his bedroom with his perfectly made bed and his neatly folded clothes, and of how relieved his parents would be when they saw him again. Wouldn’t it be best to go home now and leave the heroics to a more capable person?
‘You’re thinking of going home, aren’t you?’ Utterly said.
Casper didn’t reply.
‘I missed the castle like I never thought I would when I was trapped in Dapplemere,’ Utterly said. ‘So if you want to go home now, I understand. I do. Somehow me and Arlo will fix all this. We’ll find a way to use the clock and make everything right again.’
The thought of home ached inside Casper. With every bone in his body he wanted to climb inside the clock and hope that somehow it would take him back to Little Wallops. But then there was Utterly beside him, and Arlo. They had come so far. Could he really just leave now?
Casper stared at the clock, then he looked at Utterly. ‘I do want to go home,’ he said, ‘but not yet. Not while the Midnights are on the prowl and the marvels are still in danger and the lives of everyone back in the Faraway are in danger.’
Utterly breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Good. Because Arlo’s chest would’ve packed in completely if you’d decided to leave right now.’
‘But what I don’t understand,’ Casper said, ‘is how this clock can destroy all the Midnights. It’s not a weapon . . . it’s . . . it’s furniture! How is that going to help us?’
But it wasn’t Utterly who answered.
It was twelve furious-looking ogres who had gathered at the lip of the crater above them. And though they were hundreds of metres away, Casper and Utterly could hear the clang of spears banging on rocks and the holler of a single word.
‘CHOMP!’
Utterly raised Sir Chopalot in trembling hands and Casper held up Bristlebeard’s crossbow.
‘We can’t fight all of them at once!’ Utterly cried. ‘Not from way down here!’
Then another sound rose through the ogres’ roars: a sky-shattering shriek that sent ice rippling through Casper’s veins. This was the call of the Midnights.
‘We – we need to come up with a plan!’ Utterly blurted.
But Casper, for what might be the first time in his life, was beyond plans and agendas. He thought fast. ‘We need to reason with the ogres! If they don’t call back the shatterblast, we’re done for!’
‘They’ll never listen to us!’ Utterly cried. ‘Look what happened to Pucklefist!’
Casper was also beyond weighing up risks, so he threw his voice out into the volcano. ‘You’ve got to listen to us, storm ogres! Whatever the Midnights promised you, it’s a lie!’
His words rang through the volcano, over the shrieks of the griffins, and the ogres bashed their spears and roared again. They’d clearly heard – even if it was just the echoes of Casper’s words all the way up there – and it gave Utterly the courage to shout, too.
‘Morg won’t share her rule with you!’ she yelled. ‘She wants all the Unmapped magic for herself! You killed a snow troll for trying to reason with you but you mustn’t kill us because—’
There were growls and cries from above, and then something else. Words were echoing down to them, albeit grunted ones half-stifled by ‘chomps’, but they were words all the same and Casper and Utterly listened, open-mouthed, to what the ogres had to say while the cries of the griffins drew nearer still.
‘Ogres not give wind to Midnights. CHOMP! Midnights steal. CHOMP! CHOMP! Ogres not kill snow troll. CHOMP! Midnights did. CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP! Ogres not like Midnights. CHHHHHHOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMPPPPPPPP!’
Casper and Utterly couldn’t believe what they were hearing. The ogres hadn’t been bribed to give away the shatterblast and Pucklefist hadn’t been killed by them; it had all been the Midnights’ doing!
It was no wonder the griffins hadn’t brought Utterly here as bait, Casper thought – the ogres loathed them! It was one thing to break through the clock and fly away from the volcanoes but quite another trying to hold someone captive whilst dodging a sky full of lightning. But Casper still didn’t understand why the ogres hadn’t gone after the Midnights to steal the shatterblast back. Surely they could have defeated the griffins in the end? Then he remembered Bristlebeard’s words about the Victory Seal at the Battle of the Brutes – if the ogres left the volcanoes they’d crumble to ash . . . maybe the only way of taking the shatterblast back would be if a great flock of Midnights came here for the fight. For a second, Casper felt hopeful at the scene unfolding above them, but then more words tumbled down from the crater.
‘Ogres not trust no one now. CHOMP! Ogres eat you up! CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP!’
The cries of the Midnights were even louder now and Casper’s legs were close to crumpling. ‘You can’t eat us!’ he screamed at the ogres. ‘We’re the only ones who can stop the Midnights and restore peace to Rumblestar! We know a way,’ he panted, ‘and it’s right here in this volcan
o.’
His mind spun wildly at the thought of how he was going to use the grandfather clock to beat the griffins, but Utterly was shouting up at the ogres now because she wasn’t taken being eaten for an answer either.
‘You listen to us RIGHT THIS SECOND!’ she cried. ‘If you eat us, Morg and her Midnights will tear this kingdom apart. Your volcanoes will crumble and you with them. Casper is right, we’re your only chance! The Midnights know that, which is why nearly every single one of them is flocking here now—’
‘CHOMP?’
Utterly paused and looked at Casper. There was something different about that ‘chomp’, as if, perhaps, the ogres were considering her words . . .
‘Many griffins come?’ the ogres roared. ‘CHOMP?’
‘Yes!’ Casper wailed, half crazed with panic now. ‘Except for the few patrolling the castle, the whole lot are after us!’
‘And you have to help us beat them!’ Utterly cried. ‘Call back the shatterblast if you can and play your part in saving Rumblestar!’
The cries of the griffins filled the volcano and suddenly there, strewn across the stormy sky, were the Midnights. The ogres looked down at the children, then up at the beasts, then down at the children once again.
‘We’re running out of time!’ Casper shouted.
One by one the ogres turned away from the crater and Casper’s heart plunged. Were they turning tail to flee? Had that been why they had questioned how many Midnights were coming – because they had wanted to know whether to stand their ground or run away? But only a few disappeared from sight completely. The others, to Casper’s surprise, threw back their heads and began chanting.
Moments later, great forks of lightning flashed above the volcano. The Midnights darted this way and that to avoid the lightning but it sought them out, and when it struck it held them where they were in the sky. Then suddenly the ogres who had left reappeared, hefting a large trunk on their shoulders, and Casper and Utterly realised that something truly incredible was happening. The ogres were getting ready to call the shatterblast back!
Casper blinked. His hunch had been right after all – it had been impossible for the ogres to call in the deadly wind when, for the most part, the Midnights had been scattered across the kingdom – but now a great deal of shatterblast was right here in the Smoking Chimneys, which put the ball back in the ogres’ court . . .
The griffins twisted in the air, as if trying to wriggle free from an invisible hold, but they couldn’t stop what the ogres had started, and now that they were in the very place where the shatterblast had been conjured, Casper and Utterly found that they could see the wind clearly – a red, hot, glittering substance trailing out of the griffins’ beaks and making its way back into the trunk.
The lightning vanished, the Midnights reeled in the sky, then the storm ogres snapped the trunk shut and, to Utterly and Casper’s horror, hurled it down into the volcano.
‘Look out!’ Casper cried, grabbing Utterly and darting closer to the tree.
The trunk careered past them and landed, with an almighty splosh, in the lava close by. But it didn’t open, as Utterly and Casper had feared. It simply sank out of sight, lost for good, and up above the Midnights screeched.
‘The ogres,’ Utterly gasped. ‘They’re bent over and panting – maybe summoning the shatterblast back took all of their magic!’
Casper gripped his crossbow tighter. ‘But it hasn’t taken all of their strength.’
The ogres were struggling up again, then launching spears and rocks and what looked like lava grenades into the flock of hissing griffins. But the Midnights were too many in number for the ogres and, moments later, two griffins slipped past the fight and shot down towards Casper and Utterly. Casper fired the bolt from his crossbow at the first and, stunned by the blow, it clattered into the treasure-filled ledges before dropping into the lava. Casper gaped at what he and the crossbow had done but there was no time to think on it because now the second griffin was diving towards Utterly with outstretched wings.
Utterly swung the axe and it sliced through the Midnight’s wings. The creature crumbled into a wisp of dust and, seconds later, another griffin sped down, and Casper only saw it in time because Arlo squeaked in his ear. He ducked and the Midnight snatched at his back with its talons as it raced on by, and had Casper not been wearing his cape, the griffin would have clamped its talons over his spine and wrenched him upward. But the frozen lightning had a steel-like strength, exactly like armour, and it gave Casper the time he needed to reload his crossbow.
Then two Midnights rocketed down at once and while Casper and Utterly turned to face them, neither noticed the third griffin tearing down behind them – until it spun round in front of Casper, slipped its talons through the gap in the front of his cape, and pulled hard on Casper’s chest.
Casper screamed as the griffin batted his crossbow from his hands and wrenched him towards the clock. Because he knew that the Midnight wouldn’t be dragging him back to the Faraway – if he went through the clock door with one of the griffins he would be trapped inside the tree in Everdark, and Morg would stop at nothing until somehow she found a way to use Casper to transport her to Rumblestar.
Caper kicked and yelled and Arlo shot out of Utterly’s cape, risking the searing heat of the volcano, to blow fire into the griffin’s face, but it was only when Utterly grabbed on to his ankles that the Midnight stalled before the clock. It thrashed from side to side as it tried to shake Utterly off, but Utterly wasn’t letting go and so the griffin changed tack by springing into the air and shaking its wings.
‘I . . . I can swing at its talons if I grab the axe inside my cape!’ Utterly gasped.
‘It’s too dangerous!’ Casper cried as the Midnight beat upwards. ‘If you don’t hold on with two hands you’ll fall into the lava!’
Casper winced as he felt the hold on one of his legs go as Utterly seized her axe, swiped at the griffin . . . and missed. Realising it wasn’t going to shake Utterly away though, the Midnight tightened its grip on Casper, then turned tail and thundered back down towards the clock. And now it had momentum on its side.
Utterly swung again, with all the force she could muster, and just as the griffin tucked in its wings to shoot inside the clock, Utterly’s axe cut through its talons and the creature crumbled into dust. Casper smacked down onto the roots of the tree, but when he spun round Utterly and Arlo were nowhere to be seen.
Another griffin had sneaked past the ogres and, on seeing that Utterly’s cape was twisted up round her neck after the tussle with the axe, had snatched her by the arms and was wrenching her up, up, up. And though Arlo was trying his best, he couldn’t keep up and blow flames all at the same time.
Casper grappled for his crossbow because he could see what was happening. The griffin knew that Utterly was only causing trouble and that it was him Morg really needed – and now that Casper was within the Midnights’ grasp, this particular griffin wasn’t thinking twice about killing Utterly. Casper fired the crossbow but the Midnight was flying fast and the bolt fell short.
‘Casper!’ Utterly yelled as the Midnight yanked her higher still.
Casper tore across the roots of the tree towards the steps, but no matter how fast he climbed the volcano and no matter how many Midnights he brought down, he knew he couldn’t match the speed of a griffin’s wings. He watched as the Midnight carried Utterly out of the volcano and into the storm, and Arlo followed.
Then Casper felt his world slide.
The griffin had torn off Utterly’s cape, then smacked Arlo away, and Casper could only watch as both the girl and the dragon fell through the sky somewhere far beyond his help.
‘Noooooooooo!’ Casper shouted as he charged on up the volcano.
Then the air was punched from his lungs as a Midnight barged into him – sending his crossbow plummeting into the lava. Casper went to pull his cape across him but the Midnight was too quick and it seized him by his wrist and dragged him towards the clock.
The griffin shuffled backward into the clock, never letting up its grip on Casper for a second. But at the very moment it made to snatch Casper inside with it, Casper planted his feet either side of the opening and yanked hard on the pendulum. He tumbled backward with it, and the griffin flapped and screeched and clawed at Casper. But in his hands lay the pendulum, only this long piece of silver wasn’t a pendulum at all. It was a blade and above the blade, tucked out of sight when it had been hanging in the clock, was a hilt studded with rubies.
The pendulum was a sword.
And the rubies were the same fiery red as the feathers of the phoenix in the painting Casper had seen in the castle – and he understood then that there was a magic stronger than the Midnights and stronger even than Morg. The magic of the phoenix, the very creature who had created the Unmapped Kingdoms and the Faraway at the dawn of time.
Casper held the sword high and the griffin shrank back before scuttling over the roots and cowering in the ogre’s den. But then it narrowed its eyes and let out a throaty snarl as it heard the cries of its flock hurtling down into the volcano. They had beaten a way past the storm ogres.
Casper stiffened with fear as the volcano filled with talons and feathers. How could he possibly kill every Midnight before they dragged him into Everdark? And was it too late now to save Utterly and Arlo, wherever they were?
Rumblestar Page 19
