Raven's Gate

by Anthony Horowitz

  “We’d better go.”

  We left together, taking care to fasten the main door. That’s something I should have mentioned about the Lady Jane. Although you wouldn’t have known to look at it, the boat had all sorts of locks and bolts. I’m not saying it was impossible to break into, but it would take a while and you’d need a good-sized hammer or crowbar. The drawers and cupboards were also fastened. All that was missing was a self-destruct mechanism if anyone tried to tamper with anything – and I wouldn’t have been surprised if the Traveller hadn’t managed to rig one of those up too.

  It was already growing dark and without meaning to we quickened our pace, keeping close together. The canal looked darker and more dead than ever. The Lady Jane was wrapped in shadow. I felt more uncomfortable with every step I took. I hated leaving it behind.

  We walked across the green with the houses spread out in front of us and I remembered Miss Keyland telling us how, before the terror, there had been people who kept second homes – one in London, one in the countryside. I imagined that this was exactly the sort of place they would have come. Everything was so neat, so ordered, that it was hard to believe that any real country folk had ever lived here. We came to the pub, which reminded me a bit of the Queen’s Head, except it was smaller and prettier with a thatched roof and bow windows. It had a low door with a sign reading MIND YOUR HEAD and next to it, in chalk, the single word – OUCH! The pub was called the Punch Tavern. There was a sign hanging outside showing a horse pulling a plough. Somebody was playing the violin. We opened the door and went in.

  A fire burned inside, which was nice, and half a dozen tables arranged with candles, making everything warm and snug. There were all sorts of bottles arranged behind the bar, but I could see at a glance that they were empty. I wondered if the villagers produced their own beer like we had. By the end, they were making ours out of turnips, I think. I had never tasted it but George said it was disgusting. On the plus side, I could smell meat cooking in the kitchen and, I have to say, it made my mouth water. The food on the Lady Jane had been amazing in its own way. I wasn’t even sure how it had kept fresh locked up inside those tins but that didn’t stop me wolfing it down. Hot, fresh meat, though, was something else again. It must have been three months since I’d tasted a rabbit, and that had been scrawny and tough, and as for squirrels … you don’t want to know. This meat smelled like pork, for me a distant memory. I could hardly wait.

  All the villagers were there – apart from the major. There was no sign of the Traveller either. The violin was being played by a man standing beside the fire. He was missing an eye but hadn’t bothered to cover it with a patch. The socket was bunched up and ugly, like a tightly closed mouth.

  Everyone seemed pleased to see us as Jamie and I walked in. The major’s wife, Dorothy, showed us to a table. “How lovely to see you. Now, you must let me introduce you. This is Alfie and Amanda Bussell. Angus Withers-Green, who does all our building for us. Everything would fall down if it wasn’t for him! Mr Weeks, who runs the pub. I think you met Cosmo out at the lock and that’s his sister, Christabel (she was a girl about two years younger than him, pale and hungry-looking, clutching a stuffed polar bear). “Mrs Fielding and Mrs Hamilton. The Osmonds.” She laughed. “I’m sure there are far too many names to take on board all at once. I’ll let everyone introduce themselves. In the meantime, would you like some orange juice?”

  I had only ever drunk orange juice on special holidays – at Christmas and on my birthday. The publican, Mr Weeks, was a big, round-faced man with curling black hair almost bursting out of his head. He brought over two glasses and although the liquid inside them was barely orange at all, it did at least smell vaguely of fruit.

  “Here you go, my dear,” he said. He smiled at me but not in a particularly pleasant way. His face was too close to mine.

  “Thank you.” I backed away.

  He gave Jamie a second glass and the two of us sat there for a minute with nobody talking but everybody looking at us. I raised my drink to my lips.

  Don’t drink it!

  It was Jamie, inside my head. It always unnerved me, that power of his. I remembered the first time it had happened, at the church, in front of the Assembly. It felt as if he was whispering into my ear, but inside not outside … if you get what I mean. I glanced at him. His face wasn’t giving anything away but I somehow knew that he wasn’t himself, that he was wishing he was anywhere but here.

  I put the glass down.

  “Where is our friend?” Jamie asked.

  “Mr Fletcher?” It was the major’s wife who had answered. She was sipping a glass of a dark-coloured liquid that the publican had just served her. “He’s with Michael. The two of them are having a good old chat. It’s very rare for us to have strangers in Little Moulsford and we want to know all about you, where you’ve come from, how you managed to get your hands on that fine boat. But we can start dinner without them. I’m sure there’ll be here soon enough.” She lowered her glass. It had left a stain on her lips.

  “And here it is!” someone exclaimed.

  A very short woman had walked into the room, carrying a plate of roast meat and vegetables. She was so short that for a moment I got the impression that the food was somehow floating in by itself. I had never seen so much meat, not since the time when I’d managed to bag the deer in the forest. It looked like boiled gammon and I guessed that the village bred pigs … which was more than we’d ever managed to do. The vegetables were turnips and parsnips, and there were fewer of them to go round. The woman set the plate down with a little grunt of pleasure. The man with the violin stopped playing. All the others leant in as if to sniff the aroma that was rising from the food.

  Don’t eat anything, Holly.

  They were the last words I wanted to hear and I didn’t hear them anyway – once again they were inside my head and I knew that Jamie was responsible. I glared at him. I knew there were a lot of things that didn’t add up about Little Moulsford but couldn’t we find out what they were after we’d eaten?

  Say you want to go to the toilet.

  “I’m really sorry,” I said. “It looks absolutely delicious, but I’m afraid I need to use the toilet.”

  The major’s wife looked at me disapprovingly. It was probably bad manners to say something like that after the food had been served.

  “We don’t have any toilets,” one of the villagers said. “None of them work. You have to use the latrine.”

  “And where’s the latrine?” I asked. “It’s at the other end of the car park. Behind the pub.” Tell them you’re scared of the dark.

  It was almost too much. But I’d already invested everything in Jamie. From the moment I’d met him, I’d allowed him to rip my life apart. Why should I stop now? “I know this is going to sound really stupid,” I said. “But actually I’m quite scared of the dark.”

  And that was Jamie’s cue. “That’s all right,” he said. “Actually, I need to use it too. I’ll come with you.”

  The major’s wife was clearly disappointed. She thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Well, you’d better go together,” she said. She turned to the boy. “Cosmo. You go with them. Make sure they don’t get lost.”

  She didn’t trust us. Cosmo lurched to his feet and grabbed a twenty-bore shotgun, which he slung over his shoulder. It seemed very strange that someone so young should be armed, but Cosmo held it like he’d been born with it. Together the three of us left the room. It was much colder now that the sun had set but there was still a glow in the sky, enough to see by. Cosmo pointed at a gravel path leading down the side of the pub. “It’s this way,” he said.

  “We’ve already gone ahead of you,” Jamie said. “You’d better hurry if you don’t want to lose us.”

  What he had said made no sense at all. We weren’t moving. We were standing right in front of him. For a moment, Cosmo looked confused. But then he nodded and set off into the darkness, disappearing out of sight, and I realized that this was down to Jamie,
that he had somehow made Cosmo believe what he said, even though he could clearly see that it wasn’t true. In a way it made me shiver. Jamie was so ordinary in many ways. I mean, he was just another fifteen-year-old, like me. But at the same time, he was like some sort of superhuman. He was one of the Five. He had this amazing power.

  As soon as the boy had gone, Jamie began to move in the opposite direction. “Stay close to me,” he said. His voice was a whisper and he sounded afraid. “We’ve got very little time.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “I have to show you something. You’re not going to like it. But I have to see…”

  We went round the side of the Punch Tavern and came to a window that was illuminated by candlelight from within. I realized this must be the kitchen … where the meat had come from. I think I knew what I was going to see before I saw it. All my nerves were tingling and there was a sort of dread deep in my stomach. We tiptoed forward and looked through the glass. And there it was. I will never forget it.

  There was a chef in a white apron with a white hat on. In Little Moulsford they had to do everything properly, didn’t they. I bet he washed his hands before he began cooking. There was a huge slab of meat on a wooden board in front of him – except it wasn’t meat. It was a human being … or the remains of one. I could clearly make out an arm, a shoulder, and part of a torso, some of it wrapped in silver foil. So this was what we had just been served. This was what I had been about to eat. I turned round and spewed up on the grass. I couldn’t help myself.

  Jamie was angry. He was afraid the noise would give us away. But fortunately the pub had old walls and thick glass. The chef didn’t hear me. I wiped my sleeve across my mouth and took a deep breath. I didn’t know if it was a man or a woman on the board. It was too horrible to think about. But that was how these people had survived. They were cannibals. They had taken to eating each other.

  “We have to find the Traveller,” Jamie whispered.

  “Where is he?” For a dreadful moment I wondered if I had just seen him. But that wouldn’t have been possible. The dead person in the kitchen must have taken hours to prepare, while the Traveller had only been away for a few minutes.

  Jamie stared into the darkness as if listening for something – and in his own way that was exactly what he was doing. He was picking up thoughts as if they were radio signals. “There’s a barn…”

  We ran in that direction. I was glad to put distance between myself and the Punch Tavern. I couldn’t wait to get away. But we weren’t going anywhere without the Traveller. We wouldn’t have been able to manage the boat without him, and anyway, there was no way we were going to leave him behind. We reached the barn. There was just enough light to see that it was painted white, with a pond outside and a well. The barn had huge wooden doors but fortunately they were open. We went in.

  There was a single oil lamp burning on a table and a man sitting next to it in what otherwise seemed to be an empty space. He had a rifle across his lap and he snatched it up the moment we came in. I found myself reaching for the gun which was still tucked into my waistband. Of course, he’d have shot us both before I’d even found the safety catch and remembered how to release it, but Jamie simply looked at him and said, “You’re very tired. You need to sleep.” And the man did just that, laying his rifle down again and closing his eyes.

  “Where is the Traveller?” I asked.

  Jamie looked around him, then pointed to a grid in the floor. “Down there,” he said.

  The grid was like a trapdoor, solid metal, partly covered in straw. It must have opened into some sort of underground storage area. We hurried over to it but it was locked with a heavy padlock. My heart sank when I saw that. How many more problems would we have to overcome? And how long would it be before the people in the Punch Tavern realized we were missing and came after us?

  “See if you can find the key,” Jamie said.

  I went towards the guard, who was now sound asleep, the rifle loose in his hands. At the same time, Jamie knelt beside the grid.

  “Jamie – is that you?” The voice was hoarse. It came from below. It was the Traveller.

  “We’re looking for the key,” Jamie said.

  “They knocked me out. We have to get out of this place.”

  “I know.”

  “I’ve got it!” I’d found a key on a chain in the guard’s jacket pocket. I pulled it out and threw it to Jamie, who fitted it into the padlock. I was relieved when I heard the click and the lock sprang open. Together, we heaved the grid up and the Traveller climbed out. He nodded his thanks at us but I could see that he was embarrassed. He was meant to be looking after us – the Nexus had trusted him – but without us he would have been dead meat. Quite literally. He turned back and that was when I saw something else that made my skin crawl.

  He hadn’t been alone.

  Looking down, I saw that there were two more men in the pit below the church. They were both stark naked, with shaved heads and wide, blank eyes. I don’t know how long they had been there but they had been caged like animals. That was all they were to the people of Little Moulsford. I expected them to climb up, but they just sat there, staring at us, saying nothing.

  “There’s nothing we can do for them,” the Traveller said. “They’re both mad. God knows what they’ve done to them.” He snatched the rifle from the sleeping guard. “Is there anyone near the Lady Jane?”

  “Not that I saw,” Jamie said. “But we need to hurry. They must already be wondering where we’ve gone.”

  The three of us scrambled out of the barn. We left the trapdoor open so if the poor men who were down there wanted to, at least they could get away.

  The Traveller checked the rifle. It had a clip of ammunition and the clip was full. “They took my gun,” he explained.

  I drew out my pistol. When the Traveller had given it to me, I’d doubted that I’d ever be able to use it. But if Major Higham or his charming wife had come anywhere near me just then, I’d have gladly blown their heads off. I saw that Jamie had his gun too. I did wonder if he couldn’t just tell the entire village to drop dead, but I wasn’t sure if that was how his power worked and this probably wasn’t the time to ask.

  We ran across the village green, keeping our heads low. We could see lights behind the windows of the Punch Tavern but there didn’t seem to be anyone around. The canal was right ahead of us – and there was the Lady Jane, waiting quietly, moored to the side. I was doubly glad now that we had gone through the locks. Opening and closing gates in the darkness would have been impossible.

  Jamie had the key to the boat door. He took it out and handed it to the Traveller.

  “As soon as I start the engine, they’ll hear us,” the Traveller warned. “Be ready with your guns.”

  “Will they be able to follow us?” I asked.

  It was probably a stupid question and I never got the answer because at that exact moment the entire scene lit up. We hadn’t seen them in the darkness and I’ll never know why we hadn’t heard them. Maybe it was because they were parked in the distance, on the other side of the locks.

  There was a ring of police cars. The headlamps had been turned on and they were focused on us, hemming us in, blinding us. As I stared – completely shocked – a woman walked forward, crossing the canal and continuing right up to us. At first she was silhouetted against the light and I could only make out her long hair and her coat flapping around her legs. But then she reached us and I recognized the woman who had come out of the helicopter and who had given the orders for first Miss Keyland and then everyone else in my village to be killed.

  “Well, well, well,” she said. “A canal boat. Who would have thought it?”

  Jamie opened his mouth to speak and I knew he was going to use his power to make her go away. But before he could say anything, she hit him with her fist. She was surprisingly strong. Jamie was knocked to the ground, dazed. At the same time, a whole crowd of police officers closed in. They were all carrying weapons.
There were more than a dozen of them. We had nowhere to run.

  “Kill the man and the girl,” the woman said. “And then let’s take the boy.”

  I still couldn’t see. The light was dancing in my eyes. The Traveller reached out and took hold of me and together we waited for the end.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  There was a burst of gunfire, a thousand bullets being fired at the same time. But it wasn’t the police firing at us. The shots were coming from behind us and as I turned round I saw the crowd from the Punch Tavern, a whole line of them, firing at the police. They had finally figured out that we’d slipped away and they had come slithering into the night, carrying weapons that they must have collected from their houses. I don’t know why they had chosen the police as their targets instead of us. Maybe they were protecting themselves. After all, the police had completely destroyed my own village and perhaps word had got round. Alternatively, given that the major and his friends were both horrible and sick, it could be that they saw a year’s supply of prime steak inside those blue uniforms. In any event, they had decided that the police were their main enemy and so that was who they were taking out first.

  The police had no time to react. They had been aiming at us and hadn’t seen the figures rising out of the darkness. There was a crowd of villagers firing at them simultaneously and at least half of them were blown off their feet in the opening salvo. At the same time, the headlights were blinking out, one by one, as they were hit, which was good for us because darkness would be the one thing we would have on our side. I glanced at Jamie, who was still lying on the grass, half-hidden in shadow and to some extent out of harm’s way. Maybe he was making everyone fire in the wrong direction because, miraculously, neither the Traveller nor I had been killed.