Spellfall (24 page)

Natalie backed further under the bush, heart hammering. K’tanaqui joined her, his belly fur dragging in the mud. “I don’t see anything that could be the Raven,” she whispered. There were several rucksacks, though, piled with the Casters’ bows and arrows at the far side of the clearing. She eyed the spellclave. They seemed fascinated by whatever they’d unearthed. Hawk had joined the diggers in the bottom of the trench.

Keeping one eye on the goshawk’s perch, every nerve taut, Natalie started to work her way towards the rucksacks. K’tanaqui followed, still wriggling on his belly. He was trying to tell her something but she needed all her concentration for the Raven. What would she do if it was there? She hesitated, turned to ask K’tanaqui if he had any ideas, and stared in dismay.

Gone.

“K’tanaqui!” she hissed, her heart pounding uneasily. “Come back! This is no time to go off chasing rabbits—”

From the thicket came a little scream.

K’tanaqui find human.
Her magehound sounded smug.
Pup not worrry, though. Human frrriendly
.

He wriggled out of the bushes and a tall girl wearing jeans and a black-and-green ski jacket crawled out after him. Natalie gaped, open-mouthed, as the girl flicked her thick chestnut fringe out of her eyes and grinned. “About time,” she whispered. “If I’d had to follow this lot much further, my feet would’ve dropped off!”

“Jo!” Natalie squeaked, finally finding her voice. “What are you doing here?” Her whole being filled with a warm golden glow. They fell into each other’s arms and hugged tightly.

“It’s a long story,” Jo said, pushing her back so she could examine her from head to toe. “Oh, Nat, we’ve been so worried about you. You wouldn’t believe what’s been happening at home.”

“Yes I would. But you won’t believe what’s happened to me!”

The two friends retreated into the trees and exchanged stories in excited whispers, while K’tanaqui kept an eye on the spellclave.

“...illusion spells...”

“...wonderful tree...”

For Natalie, the most unbelievable part of Jo’s story was that
Tim
had come up to Unicorn Wood to look for her. But Jo wouldn’t lie about a thing like that. Apparently, they had got separated while searching the Lodge. They still hadn’t found each other, when Jo had stumbled across the spellclave. Her voice tightened. “I hung on as long as I could but I was afraid I’d lose them if I waited for him any longer, and I didn’t dare take my eyes off them in case they vanished again. I couldn’t see them at first. Tim thought it had something to do with the spells.”

“Illusions,” Natalie said. “They don’t work during the Opening.”

Her friend pulled a face. “Tim saw through them straightaway. When he lost me, he must’ve thought I’d gone back to town to fetch the police. I was supposed to phone but my mobile wasn’t working. Maybe he didn’t notice my bicycle was still there in the dark.” She smiled. “Tim’s not the idiot everyone thinks he is, you know. I expect he did the sensible thing and went for help but all I could think of was the spellclave hunting you with their bows and fire-arrows. So when they set off into the wood, I followed.”

“They’re hunting
me?”
Natalie shivered, not sure she’d have had the nerve to do what Jo had done.

“That’s what Tim said, though I must say it’s the strangest hunt I’ve ever seen. They keep stopping to dig up those white flowers. They’ve been at it for hours.” She glanced at her watch, then shook her wrist and grinned sheepishly. “Stupid thing stopped at midnight, I keep forgetting.”

K’tanaqui, who had been growing more and more agitated as they talked, came back and blinked his amber eyes.
Casterrrs dig up soultrrree rrroot. Pups stay. K’tanaqui fetch help.

Before Natalie could protest, he’d slipped into the trees and vanished into the night. She fought a crazy impulse to race after him. With an effort, she turned her attention back to the spellclave.

Lord Hawk climbed out of the trench. He planted his stick in one of the soil mounds, wrapped his scarf around his nose and pulled on a pair of thick gloves. Carefully, he opened one of the rucksacks and extracted a metal canister which reflected the spellfire. All the Casters stepped back. Cold prickles worked their way up and down Natalie’s spine as she saw the symbol on the side.

“What do you think it is?” Jo whispered. “A bomb?”

Natalie’s heart clenched. “They’re going to blow up Oq!” She fought her way out of the bush and would have raced into the middle of the spellclave there and then, had Jo not grabbed her ankle and pulled her down.

“Are you crazy?” her friend hissed.

“But we have to stop them! You don’t understand!” Never taking her eyes from the Raven, she explained.

Jo’s eyes narrowed. “All right... suppose it is a bomb? They won’t set it to go off immediately, will they? Not unless they want to blow themselves up too. Wait until they’ve gone, then maybe we can defuse it or something. Getting yourself caught isn’t going to help anyone.”

Natalie sighed and dropped into the leaves. Part of her knew Jo was right. Yet, what if they waited and then it was too late? They certainly didn’t know enough to defuse a bomb on their own.

“Anyway,” Jo whispered, wriggling forward on elbows and knees and craning her neck to see into the trench. “I don’t think it is a bomb. He’s unscrewing the end. Looks like there’s something inside.”

Natalie joined her friend. There wasn’t much cover but the Casters were all watching Hawk. Hardly daring to breathe, she raised her head until she could see.

The root the spellclave had dug up was only about as thick as her leg, nothing like the impressive tunnels she and Merlin had whizzed along in the organazoomers. But it glowed as brightly as the rest of Oq. And it was struggling. Legs braced and sweat streaming down their faces, four men wearing gloves like Lord Hawk’s dragged the writhing tendrils out of the earth and stretched the root between them while Lord Hawk used his stick to scrape off a patch of Oq’s protective fur. He carefully dripped black liquid from the canister on to the exposed soultree flesh. Steam hissed out of the trench, along with the sickly smell of rotting fruit. The root convulsed in the men’s hands then went slack, its glow fading. The watching Casters cheered.

Natalie grabbed Jo’s arm in dismay. “We’ve got to do something! They’re hurting Oq! Oh, I wish K’tanaqui would come back.” She looked round in anguish and Jo’s warm hand squeezed hers.

“Shh. This is the first one they’ve found. Destroying a single root’s hardly going to kill the whole tree, is it? Especially not if it’s as big as you say it is. They could chop that little root off entirely and the tree would just grow another one.”

She bit her lip. What Jo said sounded sensible, except the bad, cold feeling remained in her gut.

While she watched the spellclave suspiciously, the goshawk flapped out of its oak and glided over the clearing, wings black against the stars. She and Jo retreated into the bushes and flattened themselves to the ground. The Casters shot nervous glances up at the sky. Some retrieved their bows, nocked their arrows and knelt, watching the trees with alert eyes. The hawk dwindled to a speck against the moon, then wheeled and came back,
caaa-ing
loudly.

Natalie’s heart thumped. “K’tanaqui?” she whispered in hope. “That you?”

Help coming,
answered her magehound, faint but clear.
Pups stay
.
Wait for unicorrrns.

Natalie dug her fingers into the earth and tried not to think about that struggling root. Jo’s right, she told herself fiercely. Killing a single root won’t harm the tree. It
can’t.

*

Oq’s smallest twigs and leaves began to tremble first, as if stirred by a summer breeze. Then small branches began to shake, followed by the larger branches, until the soultree’s fear and pain rippled through the trunk like the first shocks of an approaching earthquake.

Merlin hugged himself tighter and stared nervously at the tightly-woven vines across the entrance of the chamber where Lady Thaypari had left him with strict instructions to stay out of trouble. With Redeye’s sharp teeth to help, he might have been able to force his way through the vines. Or he might have tried to cast the spell, which was still warm in his boot. But outside were unicorns and bears and men who wanted to kill him. At least in here he was safe. Or so he’d thought.

He brushed a leaf out of his hair and stared at the petals littering the floor. “What’s happening, Redeye?”

In answer, his mouse squeaked and fled beneath his tunic. Since it was the Opening, Merlin no longer needed his familiar’s eyes to see but he reached into his sleeve and dragged the mouse out. “Don’t be so silly!” he hissed. “If the tree falls on me, it’ll crush you in there just as easy—” He broke off as the entrance vines unlaced themselves with a crackle, revealing the source of Redeye’s fear.

Lord Pveriyan strode into the chamber, closely followed by Lady Thaypari, Lord Gerystar and the other nine Council members and their magehounds, all darting nervous glances at the roof.

Before Merlin could move, Lord Pveriyan seized his arm and shook him until his teeth rattled. “What do you know about this, Caster?” he demanded.

“N-nothing—”

“Don’t give me that! You’ve done something to Oq, haven’t you? I don’t know how but you’ve smuggled something in here. What was it? You’d better answer me, Caster, or I’ll—” He broke off, scowling.

Behind him, Lady Thaypari coughed. “We should get him to the Heart as soon as possible, Pveriyan.”

Merlin stared at them, excitement battling with terror.

But Pveriyan whirled on Thaypari. “That’s the last place this boy is going! Have you any idea of the damage he could do in the Heart, if he can do this much out here?”

“I didn’t—” Merlin began, but Lady Thaypari silenced him with a raised finger.

“Don’t be silly, Pveriyan,” she said. “Of course it isn’t him doing this. Oq would never have allowed the boy back inside if he was a threat to her. It’s obvious the Casters have deployed this Raven of theirs. None of us know enough about it but Merlin’s from over the Boundary. Oq thinks he might be able to help her. We have to let him try.”

“Try what?” Merlin asked.

Shh!
Redeye said
.

“I’m telling you we can’t trust a Caster in the Heart!”

Thaypari gave Lord Pveriyan a weary smile. “That wasn’t what you said last time. I seem to remember you were only too eager to drag the poor boy in there.” There were a few chuckles.

“This is no laughing matter!” Pveriyan snapped. “Are you all blind? I don’t know how he managed it but the boy obviously tricked Oq the last time he was in the Heart, and now you’re going to let him finish the job! We shouldn’t be wasting our time arguing in here. It’s the Opening, for Oq’s sake! We have a Caster invasion on our hands. We’ve units of bears and stags that need transporting to the battle site. We should be out there with our people. Fighting Casters!”

His magehound’s hackles went up, and there were several mutters of agreement. Merlin looked from face to face and swallowed. Then Oq gave a fresh shudder, and above them a branch broke with a noise like a thunderclap. Everyone glanced up in alarm as the chamber roof creaked and more leaves came spiralling down, settling like green snow in the Spell Lords’ hair.

“Thaypari’s right,” said Lord Gerystar, reassuring his nervous hound. “And so is Pveriyan. We’ve no time to waste arguing. Has anyone thought to ask the boy if he’s willing to help us?”

Merlin shuffled his feet uncomfortably as every eye turned to him. Lady Thaypari smiled. “Well?” she said softly. “Will you?”

“Will I what?”

“Will you help Oq fight the Raven?”

Merlin licked his lips. “But I don’t know how.”

“See?” Lord Pveriyan said. “Let’s seal the Caster back up, leave one of our magehounds to make sure he doesn’t get into any mischief while we’re gone, and get out there where we’re needed.” He jabbed a finger at the shivering entrance vines.

Lady Thaypari ignored him and went down on one knee. She took Merlin’s spell-singed hand in her soft, clean ones and looked him in the eye. “All we’re asking is that you try. Oq thinks your knowledge of human technology will help her fight the Raven, but no one’s going to blame you if it doesn’t. Please, Merlin. We don’t know the right things. You do.”

Merlin had never been so embarrassed in all his life. But if they let him in the Heart, he might be able to find Natalie. “All right,” he mumbled, cheeks burning. “I’ll do my best. Please get up, Lady, you’re making your skirt all dirty.”

Lord Gerystar spluttered, then arranged his features into something more appropriate for a Spell Lord and said solemnly, “Thank you, Caster. We won’t forget this.”

Lord Pveriyan snorted. “I can’t believe you’re going through with this! Trust a Caster in the Heart during the Opening, of all times! What is the world coming to?”

“The world is changing,” Thaypari said calmly, brushing leaves and petals off her robe. “And we have to change with it. In future, we’ll need to study this Raven-technology so we can set more effective spells on the Boundary to keep it out, but tonight it appears Merlin’s the only one who can help us. We should be thankful he’s agreed to, after the shameful way some of us treated him last time he was here.” She glanced at Pveriyan, her look saying more than her words. “I’ll stay outside the Heart and monitor the boy while you—”

“
I’ll
monitor him,” Pveriyan said, scowling at Merlin.

“…while you catch up with the army and coordinate its transportation,” Thaypari continued smoothly, taking Merlin’s elbow and guiding him out of the chamber. “The Unicorn Herders, in particular, need a firm hand. Oq already reports an Eight has broken away from the main force and gone off alone. If they find the enemy first they’ll be outnumbered. You’re needed at the front, Pveriyan. None of us have your experience of fighting Casters.”

Lord Pveriyan’s glower became a small, hard smile. “True enough,” he said. “But I’m going to check the boy is properly installed before I go. I still don’t trust him.”