Blue Fire and Ice (40 page)

Miniver’s teeth closed on Amelia’s robe. The bear gave her head a shake and threw Amelia aside. She staggered and fell to the stone floor. Her fingers loosened their hold and Brian tried to wrench himself free. He wriggled and twisted but Amelia gripped her fingers around his jacket and pulled him to her, putting Brian between herself and the bear.

Amelia regained her feet and turned to face Miniver. Miniver’s amber eyes glowed with anger. She snarled and bared her long, white razor teeth. She took a step towards Amelia.

‘Wait, Miniver.’ Crimson’s voice was calm. She laid her hand on Eugene’s back.

The others stood behind Crimson in the entrance, forming a semicircle around Miniver. Crimson faced Amelia. She could see the blue fire, she could feel it calling to her. She wanted to walk through the burning moat and dance with the blue flames. She concentrated all her will on ignoring the call.

‘So you did follow me,’ said Amelia with some surprise. Casually, she brushed the dirt from her robes with her free hand. ‘Well, no matter. It will make it easier to deal with you all.’ She noticed Kevin at the back of the group. ‘Kevin! I should have guessed you’d betray me. Just like all the others. Well, you shall have your punishment, too.’

Crimson managed to keep her voice calm and deliberate. ‘Enough, Amelia. We don’t want to hurt you.’

‘Ah, well, actually, Crimson …’ began Brian, but Amelia shifted her grip to his neck and squeezed. Brian closed his mouth.

‘Hurt me? You, Crimson?’ Amelia laughed. ‘I doubt it. Oh, I doubt it very much.’

Her eyes went to the others.

‘Or are you going to hurt me, Miniver? Are you going to bite me with those sharp teeth of yours? Or tear me apart with those long claws? Or smash my skull with those hooves? You don’t know whether to growl, to neigh or to roar! I have more than hot powder for you, Miniver.’

Now Amelia fixed her eyes on Grunge.

‘Or perhaps you are going to stop me, Grunge? Clumsy Grunge. What will you do? Beat me with your little tin whistle? Or drive me insane playing that awful harmonica?’

‘I’d say you were already insane,’ said Copper.

‘Really, Copper? And do you think you’re a match for me? Even with the help of your little friend, Dot? Poor Dot. Poor orphaned Dot.’ She saw the look of surprise on Aunt Mag’s face. ‘Ah, you didn’t know, did you, Aunt Mag? Her parents died in an accident when she was very young. She blames herself. I’m not sure whether she hates the world more or herself.’

Dot was furious. ‘You’ve been eavesdropping when I’ve been talking to Miniver! How dare you!’

Amelia laughed, a mirthless, scornful laugh. ‘I enjoyed it. You’re a pitiful little girl who can love only a poor dumb animal.’

‘Miniver is not dumb! She’s smarter than you are!’ retorted Dot. ‘And I don’t love just Miniver!’ She slipped her hand into Copper’s. ‘Copper has been my father and mother and if you try -’

Amelia cut her off, her voice sharp and irritated. ‘You do prattle on, don’t you?’

Amelia stepped onto a rock behind her and then onto a ledge that ran around the wall of the cave to the back of the burning fire rock. All the time she kept a tight grip on Brian, putting him between her and his rescuers.

‘So who’s left? Brian here? Aunt Mag?’ Her voice changed to a sing-song mocking, like a child tossing taunts. ‘Kevin? Pathetic little Beadles who are no match for me. You’re all so pathetic. You came all this way to get the blue ice and failed. And you needn’t have come at all! You had the answer to the blue fire all the time, right in the midst of you.’

She fixed her eyes on Crimson.

‘So, it’s down to you, Crimson. But you can hardly move, can you? You’re afraid to move, afraid if you relax, the fire will call and you’ll go to it. How wonderful! A fire-fighter who can’t resist fire!’ Amelia’s voice became low and coaxing. ‘Why don’t you, Crimson? Why don’t you give in to it? Join the flames, Crimson. You’ll succumb eventually; you may as well give in now as later. And then I have a little surprise for your little friends.’

Amelia was right. Crimson did want to walk into the flames. They were beautiful and she heard the song they sang as they leapt and whirled, acrobats of fire. But she did resist; she held her ground and focused on Amelia. The part of her that was Bright and Wave held her back. Without them, she knew she would have given in.

‘Who are you? Why are you doing this?’ Crimson’s voice was even and hard.

Surprise flashed in Amelia’s eyes. She had expected Crimson to give in. The others would be no problem without Crimson.

Amelia had been moving slowly along the ledge and she now stood almost directly behind the fire. Brian felt the fire slowly roasting him.

‘Who am I? Your sister, of course, Crimson. I told you that on the river.’

‘You can’t be! You’re not even a Muddle!’

She laughed derisively. ‘Do we have to be the same to be sisters? Besides, what’s a Muddle but a messed-up Myrmidot?’ The confusion on their faces made her laugh even more.

‘You’re just like me, Crimson. You have a connection to this land the way that I have a connection to mine. And you have a connection to me. I felt it that night on the river. Since then, I’ve sensed you even when you weren’t near. And you can sense me the way I can sense you. Remember the first day you came to Beadledom? You and that blasted puppy. I was watching. The puppy knew there was something. You knew. Often, I called you, and you heard me, didn’t you? I nearly had you when you crossed the river into the mountains. I was sure you’d give in, that you’d join me. It was so close at the waterfall! But you managed to shut me out.’ She shrugged as if it was of no importance. ‘So I stopped.’

‘You stopped?’ said Crimson, puzzled. ‘Then what …?’

Amelia was startled. ‘Something else called to you?’

‘We all felt something as soon as we crossed into the mountains,’ said Copper. ‘Crimson felt it more than we did, but it’s been with each of us all the time.’

‘Oh, that,’ said Amelia. She seemed surprised at their ignorance. ‘That was the Guardian.’

‘The Guardian?’ said Copper. ‘What Guardian?’

‘The Guardian Mountains!’ exclaimed Grunge. ‘This used to be called the Guardian Mountains, remember, Crimson?’

‘Oh, so you do know something!’ said Amelia sarcastically. She pushed Brian closer to the fire. ‘Would you like to see what the Guardian does?’

The flames were scorching Brian’s face and hands. His clothes grew hotter, burning his skin. He struggled to break free, to get away from the fire. He kicked at Amelia and flailed at her with his fists, but she ignored his efforts and slowly pushed him towards the fire.

Crimson was perturbed. ‘The fire is the Guardian?’

Grunge leapt onto the ledge and started towards Amelia. Amelia gave Brian a sharp push, then pulled him back. ‘Stay where you are, Grunge, or I’ll roast him.’

Grunge stopped. From the corner of his eye he saw that Aunt Mag had moved to the other side of the cave and was approaching Amelia from the opposite direction. Grunge realised that Aunt Mag was getting ready to grab Brian if he was pushed into the fire. Grunge felt the heat and knew that Aunt Mag would be risking her life in vain. Once in the fire, Brian would be beyond saving.

‘Fool!’ Amelia spat the word at Crimson. ‘Of course it is! It protects you from outsiders. Imagine that feeling you have but a hundred times worse! But I found a way to endure it. I found its secret.’

Amelia let go of Brian. He fell and lay still on the ledge. Slowly, Amelia pulled back the sleeves of her robe, then raised her arms so they could see.

Blue. Amelia’s hands and arms were the blue of fire.

‘You have to embrace it. That’s its secret. You have to become part of it, let it become part of you.’ Amelia’s voice held a tremor of excitement, a quiver of anticipation. ‘The more I used the fire rock to burn Beadledom, the more I could feel it in me. As I watched my arms become blue, I realised the truth. I didn’t need the fire rock. I could become like the blue fire itself.’ She stepped closer to the fire. ‘I will step into the fire and it will become a part of me, and I a part of the fire.’

Crimson shut her eyes. This was wrong. She could feel the fire but it wasn’t the same feeling that she had felt – that they all had felt – since coming to the High Mountains. It beckoned but it wasn’t benign. It wasn’t a feeling of protection. It was a feeling of deception.

Amelia continued. ‘When I emerge from the fire, no one will be able to stop me. I will have its power. And I will have my vengeance.’ Amelia stood on the lip of the ledge. So close that her robe started to smoke. She was oblivious to the heat.

Crimson opened her eyes and stared in horror at Amelia.

‘No!’ she shouted. ‘No! You’re wrong! The fire isn’t the Guardian! Amelia -!’

Grunge lunged as Amelia stepped from the ledge. His arms closed around her and Amelia was carried backwards, away from the fire. They hit the wall of the cave. Amelia’s legs buckled but she managed to remain on her feet. And then she started to fight back.

She was strong and fury added strength to her blows. Her fists pounded into Grunge’s face. She kicked and scratched, and pulled at his hair. Grunge could feel himself falling to his knees and his grip weakening.

Copper and Crimson jumped onto the ledge. Crimson could feel the intense heat of the fire on Wave’s bare legs. They tried to grab Amelia but the ledge was too narrow for them to reach past Grunge. Amelia forced Grunge back until his heels were on the very lip of the ledge. She was going into the fire and she was going to take Grunge with her.

Crimson slipped between Grunge and the wall and grabbed Amelia’s arm. Amelia twisted her torso and her fist smacked into Crimson’s cheekbone. Crimson staggered back, straight into Copper. The Myrmidot reeled. His foot caught on a small rock and he fell. Frantically, Crimson thrust out her hand and grabbed Copper’s shirt, pulling him towards her, away from the searing fire.

Brian was aware of noise and movement on the ledge nearby. He opened his eyes. It took a moment for the blurriness to clear but then he saw Grunge on his hands and knees next to him. Amelia stood over Grunge, a wicked smile of triumph on her face. She turned on her heel, then stepped from the ledge into the fire.

A single, short shriek filled the cave. Amelia’s foot touched the rock and the blue fire consumed her instantly. The flames left not a trace of her.

No one spoke. They stared at the spot where Amelia had stepped into the fire. After a moment, Brian helped Grunge to his feet. Following Copper and Crimson, they moved from the edge and stood with the others. Grunge picked up Japes’s drum, then they turned and left the cave, the blue fire burning behind them.

*

Not a word was spoken as they trudged back to Amelia’s quarters. Amelia’s death had shocked them. They had never wanted to harm her. They just wanted to stop her. And although the threat she posed to Beadledom was gone, the damage she had already caused remained. Their failure to bring back the blue ice meant that another journey would have to be made. In the meantime, the fire rock would continue to eat the Land.

That they had also failed to discover why Amelia had been bent on destroying the Land weighed heavily on Crimson. Hate and vengeance were unfamiliar to her and she desperately wanted to know what had created them in Amelia. She could never imagine feeling those things. Even now, after all Amelia had done, even after trying to kill Brian and Grunge, she couldn’t feel hate for her.

They were in the living room Amelia had created. Copper and Aunt Mag were putting cream on Brian’s burns. His face and hands were very red, like he’d been lying too long on a beach in a hot sun. Dot had found a pair of scissors and was snipping the singed bits from Reach’s tutu. Miniver lay next to Crimson, who sat in Amelia’s chair by the fire. Kevin sat in his usual chair, quite alone, away from the others.

Crimson’s eyes swept the sparse room. ‘Whatever had driven her to leave her home and spend a hard, lonely existence here must have been very powerful,’ she thought.

‘She was wrong, you know.’ Dot spoke quietly, as she snipped a final thread from the tutu. ‘There, Grunge. But I think Reach will want an explanation.’ The scissors were clenched in her hand like a knife. Dot placed them on the table next to her. ‘We could have fought her. I would have fought her not out of hate for her, but out of love for the Land.’

It was if the young apprentice had spoken what they all felt. Crimson looked at Dot and held out her hand. Dot went to her friend’s side and put her hand in Crimson’s.

‘I’m sorry about your parents, Dot. I didn’t know. No one told us.’

‘I asked Copper what saddened you but he said your feelings belonged to you and it wasn’t his place to be free with them,’ said Aunt Mag.

Dot glanced at Copper. ‘I didn’t want you to feel sorry for me,’ she said. ‘But it was good to talk to Miniver. It made me let go of things I shouldn’t have held on to. And Amelia was wrong about hating myself, and hating the world. I blamed myself for my parents’ deaths even though I knew it wasn’t my fault. They’d often say how hard they worked to make a good life for me, so I would have things. They worked so hard, I thought it was always because of me. And I knew they wouldn’t have been at work that day if it wasn’t for me.

‘Copper took me in after they were killed. He was their best friend and looked after me. No, not just looked after me. He really cared for me. He helped me not to feel guilty. It was the anger that was hard to get rid of. I was angry because I didn’t want to feel guilty. Being angry is a hard habit to break.’

She smiled at Copper. He winked and smiled back at his apprentice.

Aunt Mag nodded. Her eye fell on Kevin, sitting in his chair away from the companions. ‘Kevin,’ she said gently, ‘what will you do now?’

‘I … I don’t know.’ He glanced around the cave. ‘I can’t stay here. I guess I’ll have to go back.’

‘Do you want to go back?’ asked Aunt Mag.

Kevin shook his head. ‘No,’ he said in a very small voice. ‘It doesn’t seem right, now, the way they treat us. We just don’t matter.’

‘You are welcome to come back to Beadleburg with us,’ said Brian.