The Children of Hare Hill (7 page)

Chapter 17

Far from being tormented by spectres, Ben was having the time of his life. So far in his wildlife-spotting challenge, he had seen a hare, a kestrel, a deer, and a grass snake. Each time he saw one of the creatures, he removed his binoculars, ticked them off on his sheet, and watched them roam free for a while. Then, when he checked his sheet for the next animal to spot, the previous one had disappeared. Now, Ben was watching a scorpion scurrying around in the bushes.

That's weird
, he thought, I
didn't know there were scorpions in this park.

Shrugging off that thought, he lowered his binoculars and ticked off the scorpion on the sheet. There were three boxes left on the sheet and, just as the silhouettes of the other animals had appeared before him, he saw the outline of a sixth animal draw itself on the page.

But this didn't make sense to Ben. He rubbed his eyes, not believing what he was seeing. The new image on the page was the silhouette of a horse, but it had a horn protruding from its head.

A unicorn?
Ben thought.
But they don't exist. Or do they?

He lifted the binoculars to his eyes, missing the silhouettes of the two remaining creatures as they were magically drawn onto the page.

Ben scanned the surroundings, expecting to see a horse galloping through the trees, telling him his mind had been playing tricks on him. But he didn't see anything, at least not at first. He heard a piercing howl from somewhere in the trees. It was like a wolf's call, but it reminded him of a song that Charlotte always badgered their mother to play in the car. She said it was one of their father's favourite songs and they all joined in when the singer began howling. What was it called?

That's it!
 Ben thought, remembering the name of the song.
It's called “Werewolves of London.”

Then a single word remained in his mind.
Werewolves
.

Before he could look down at the clipboard, a flash of white caught his eye. Bursting through the trees, a massive white unicorn galloped majestically into the clearing and stopped in clear view. It seemed to turn in slow motion, allowing Ben to take in its unnatural, fantastical beauty. It let out a huge breath and clouds of steam burst from its mouth and nose. The unicorn steadied itself on its feet and breathed heavily. It looked tired, as if it had been running from—

An enormous roar erupted from the trees and a huge hairy beast leapt from its hiding place. Ben jumped and crouched down in the hut, but he kept watching the scene before him. His mind was telling him to drop everything and run, but his body was frozen solid; it was impossible to turn away.

The werewolf was the size and shape of a grown man, but it was standing on all fours, covered from head to toe in thick black fur. It paced in front of the frightened unicorn, barking and howling, making false lunges towards it, trying to pick its moment to attack. The unicorn was backing up further and further. Ben could see that the werewolf was trying to corner it against the fence at the other side of the clearing, but he was powerless to help. What could a five-year-old boy do to help in this situation?

Maybe there's something in the hut I could use to distract the werewolf
, he thought, and lowered his binoculars. As he did so, silence and calm suddenly descended on the park. The sound of snarling and howling had gone, and he looked across the clearing to see that the creatures had disappeared.

What's going on?
Ben thought. He looked through his binoculars and saw the creatures once again; now the werewolf had the unicorn pinned against the fence. He looked down at the clipboard and saw that all the remaining boxes on the sheet had been filled in with silhouettes of animals. The last three creatures were a unicorn, a werewolf, and—

No way,
Ben thought.
It can't be...

He raised his binoculars again and saw the same scene: werewolf versus unicorn. The werewolf crouched and, as the unicorn whimpered, resigned to its fate, the werewolf pounced. The creature flew through the air, drool dripping from its long fangs, but it failed to land the killer blow. The werewolf was stopped in mid-air. A gigantic foot came from above and slammed it into the ground in a cloud of dirt and dust. In the commotion, the unicorn made its break for freedom, running through the clearing, past the hut and into the trees.

There was a deafening thump as a second giant foot slammed into the ground, rattling the wooden planks of the hut. With wide, unblinking eyes, Ben followed the creature's feet to its legs, to its torso; the rest of this behemoth was obscured from view by the hut. With two more giant thumps, the creature's feet turned to point directly at Ben.

With the binoculars still held to his eyes, he scrambled out of the hut and wound the zoom dial back as far as he could. No sooner had he slammed the door behind him, than the hut was flattened by one of the gigantic feet. Splinters showered all around and, in the cloud of debris, the beast leaned over and let out a blood-curdling roar. Ben spun round and found himself face-to-face with a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Time seemed to stop. This creature, only inches away from his face, was majestic in its horrific beauty. He was staring down the biggest, most fearsome killing machine that had ever walked the earth. He had seen the T-Rex in books and in films, but nothing had prepared him for the sight before him. He could feel this monster's breath on his skin; it was blowing his hair like he was staring down a thousand hair-dryers. The rows of razor sharp teeth were never-ending and Ben knew it could swallow him whole if it wanted to.

And it did want to. The T-Rex lunged at Ben, its jaws open wide, and Ben saw the dark abyss behind the sharp teeth coming towards him. He fell backwards and dropped his binoculars. He heard a smash as they hit the ground. Ben scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could, then stopped when he realised the sound of the ravenous dinosaur had gone.

He turned round. The scene behind him was still. The hut was still in one piece. Ben found the binoculars and picked them up. Anticipating another dinosaur attack, his body tensed as he looked through them. But he saw nothing, apart from a magnified view of the hut, distorted by the cracks in the binoculars' lenses.

He started to walk back down the path to the hut, but he stopped at the fourth hare when it suddenly started to glow. The ring of ashes whirled around it, then there was a flash and the hare was released from its spell. Right on cue, it ran away.

Ben felt a warm, positive feeling wash over him.

I completed one of the challenges all by myself!
he thought.

Then, as quickly as the feeling of achievement had come, it was replaced by concern for his sister.

Is she being chased by dinosaurs too?
he thought, and headed in the direction of hare number ten—the hare Ben and Charlotte thought they had been looking for when they were separated. That felt like a long time ago, almost as if a different little boy had rolled the dice with his sister.

Chapter 18

Charlotte arrived at the sixth hare just in time to see it break out of its spell. She was taken aback.

But I didn't have to complete a challenge or solve a puzzle
, she said to herself, then a thought struck her and she ran back across the bridge onto the island. The bridge where the woman—or was it the witch?—had tried to get Charlotte to go with her had repaired itself.

This was the challenge
, Charlotte realised. The hare had been broken from its spell, so she knew she must have done the right thing. For a brief moment, she considered what might have happened if she had gone across the bridge with the stranger, but she quickly wiped it from her mind. She thought of Ben instead.

"Charlotte!" came a shout from across the pond. This time it was a voice she recognised, and the boy waving at her was the person she longed to see more than anyone in the whole world.

"Ben!"

She sprinted across the bridge and they met with a warm embrace. In their excitement, they bombarded each other with questions like, "What happened to you?" and "Where did you go?" before Charlotte said, "Okay, Ben, you go first. What happened to you?"

"I went to the tenth hare but you weren't there. Then I went to hare number four, which was the number on my dice when we rolled them together. Then, when I got there, I had to go into the hut and spot animals using some binoculars. It started off with hares and birds, but then I saw a unicorn, a werewolf, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex!"

Had they found themselves in any other situation on any other day, Charlotte would have written off what Ben was saying as either pure fantasy or the fevered dreams of a child who had had too much cheese before bedtime. She was no stranger to vivid dreams herself. But this was their day in the dreamland of Hare Hill, where anything was possible. She believed him completely; after all they had seen together, why would he feel the need to make up anything more fantastic? She was also relieved that his experience had been exciting and fun, unlike hers.

"What did you have to do?" Ben asked, and Charlotte told him. She told him about the woman who said she would take her to Ben and her mother, how she had tried to cross the bridge, and how the hares had helped her cast her own spell that sent the woman tumbling into the murky depths of the pond.

"Wow," Ben said. "Were you scared?"

"A little," Charlotte said. "But somehow I knew the right thing to do."

"Do you think it was the witch?"

"I don't know. I'm starting to think there isn't a witch, not a real one."

"Why?"

"Because I've worked out the solution to the Guardian's riddle."

"Really? What is it?"

Charlotte recited the Guardian’s riddle.

"My first will glow and also has wings,

My second can't be found in town, but belongs to these things,

My third and fourth are in something that might scare,

My fifth is waiting at Pistol Pond, but isn't a hare."

“It's one of those puzzles where you need to work out which letters are in one word but not the other, or in both words in one line of the riddle, isn't it?” Ben said.

“That's right,” Charlotte said.

“I started thinking about it and I thought I'd worked out the first letters, but I can't make it work.”

“How far did you get?”

“On the first line, we need a letter that is in ‘glow’ and ‘wings,’ right?”

Charlotte nodded and Ben continued. “So that gave me ‘W’. Then we need a letter that isn't in ‘town’ but is in ‘things,’ so I picked ‘I’. Then we need a letter that is in ‘something’ and ‘scare,’ so I picked ‘T’ and ‘C’. That just leaves us needing an ‘H’ to make ‘witch,’ but I can't make that work. If I've got the last line right, we need a letter from ‘waiting’ that isn't in ‘hare’.”

Charlotte smiled, knowing their mother would be impressed by Ben's deductions to get to the conclusions he'd made. She was certain she wouldn't have been able to get that far when she was five years old.

“I don't think that's right, though,” Charlotte said.

“Why?”

“All we've talked about since we woke up is the witch Daddy made up a long time ago. I thought the answer was ‘witch’ too, but I realised I had started with that word in my mind and I tried to make the riddle fit that word.”

“So what is the solution?”

Charlotte talked him through her thought process. ‘G’ is in ‘glow’ and ‘wings,’ ‘H’ is in ‘things’ but not in ‘town,’ ‘O’ is in ‘something,’ ‘S’ is in ‘scare,’ and, to complete the word, ‘T’ is in ‘waiting’ but not in ‘hare.’

"A ghost?" Ben said, looking worried.

"That's the answer. If I’m right, there is a ghost waiting for us at the thirteenth hare."

The light in Ben's eyes seemed to burn out.

"I don't think we need to worry about it," Charlotte said.

"Why not?" Ben said.

"Look at what we've had to do so far. Pretty much everything has been fun, hasn't it?"

Ben thought for a moment, then smiled and nodded.

"So there must be good ghosts as well as bad ghosts," Charlotte continued. "I think we're searching for a good ghost who likes to play games."

Ben's eyes brightened once more. "And we've still got to work out what to do at the tenth hare," he said.

"Let's go," Charlotte said, and took her little brother's hand.

Chapter 19

They arrived together at number ten to find the sculpture of two hares boxing. They checked the map and this time the drawing had appeared, but the seventh, eighth, and ninth sculptures had appeared as well. An egg had been drawn next to each one. As they appeared on the map, numbers seven, eight, and nine seemed to form a crescent-shaped path that led back to number ten.

"What do you think we have to do?" Ben said.

"Do you remember when we came here for an Easter egg hunt?" Charlotte asked. Ben nodded.

"It was really easy," Charlotte said. "All we had to do was follow a map, find all the hares, and we got an Easter egg when we got to the end."

With that thought fresh in her mind, Charlotte looked up and down the wall.

"What are you looking for?" Ben asked.

"There," she said, pointing at a closed door. Ben followed her as she walked over to the door and tried the handle. It was locked and there was no key, but they noticed an empty basket sitting at their feet.

They cupped their hands around their eyes and peered through the glass. Inside was a small room with shelves lining the walls that held well-thumbed paperbacks—the kind of place where people leave books they've read and pick up another one in exchange. With only the moonlight outside providing any illumination, it was very difficult for them to make out anything other than black-on-black shapes within the room.

But then there was a yellow flicker from the middle of the room and they saw a lamp fire itself into life. They gasped as they saw an enormous bowl sitting on the table in the middle of the room, which contained what must have been at least a hundred chocolate eggs.

"Look at that!" Ben exclaimed.

"I've never seen so much chocolate," Charlotte said.

They contemplated the bowl of chocolate eggs and the silence was broken by their stomachs, which rumbled in unison. They burst out laughing.

"This must be part of the challenge," Charlotte said as they looked at the map again. Something else had appeared on the map: now there was a trail of footprints, running in a loop from where they were standing, past the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth hares, and back again.

"Let's follow the trail," Ben said, taking Charlotte's hand. They walked into the trees, following the path that led towards the seventh hare. They felt no fear. After all they had seen and done this night, they felt like the park was a second home to them now. It was somewhere they felt entirely safe; somewhere they could be themselves without any worries in the world. Somehow they knew their mother was safe—they
would
see her again soon—and everything they were doing would eventually lead them back to her.

"This is the last one, isn't it?" Ben said.

"What do you mean? Charlotte asked.

"It's the last puzzle," Ben said. "Seven, eight, nine, and ten: they're the last hares we have to free from their spell."

Charlotte stopped in her tracks. After being separated and solving different puzzles themselves, she had lost track of their progress. But now that Ben had realised this would be the last puzzle before they had to go up the hill to the thirteenth hare, a cloud of sadness crept into her mind. This was the first time in a very long time that she and Ben had had so much fun together. It didn't have to end here, though, did it?

"We can come back and do this again, can't we? Maybe we can bring Mummy, too," Ben said. Charlotte could tell her little brother felt the same way she did.

"Of course we can," she said. "We can come back as much as we want."

Ben smiled, and so did Charlotte, then they burst into a run through the trees to the seventh wooden hare, which they found standing in a small clearing. Instead of bursting with golden light, it remained still, with a sign hung around its neck. On the sign was an arrow pointing down the path to their right.

They followed the path, which snaked through the trees and bushes. It led them past a patch of skunk cabbage, which gave off a scent appropriate to its name, but also looked like something that had fallen to Earth from outer space. The short walk led them to a bend where the eighth wooden hare stood on the other side of a flower bed, and around its neck hung a sign that directed Charlotte and Ben to head to their left.

Another short walk led them to the ninth hare; this time the wooden statue was lying down in a patch of leaves. A sign around its neck directed them to the left again.

The path came out at the intersection where they had solved the number puzzle to set hare number eleven free. Heading right would take them up the hill to Pistol Pond and the thirteenth hare. They went straight on and found themselves back at number ten.

"Look!" Ben said. "In the basket!"

They ran over to the basket sitting outside the locked door. It had been empty before they set off to see the hares, but now two chocolate eggs sat in the basket. They looked through the window and saw that the bowl on the table behind the locked door was missing two eggs.

Without another word, they unwrapped the multi-coloured foil and ate their eggs, taking huge bites and groaning appreciatively as they did so. In no time they were done and they licked their fingers clean.

Charlotte thought for a moment and said, "Do you think we'll get more if we go round the hares again?"

Ben's eyes lit up. He nodded and broke into a sprint, shouting, "Come on, let's find out!"

They ran all the way round the path through the trees, past the seventh, eighth, and ninth hares, back to number ten and, as they hoped, they found two more chocolate eggs waiting for them in the basket. Once again, they tore the shiny foil away and gorged on the milky chocolate. With chocolate still smeared over their lips, they smiled at each other and both said, "Again!"

They ran giggling into the trees, following the signs hanging round the hares' necks for a third time, and for a third time they found their prizes waiting for them in the basket.

Charlotte puffed out her cheeks and let out a long breath, the way people do when they've just finished a huge meal. "How many times do you think we need to do this?"

Ben shrugged. "I never thought I'd say this," he said, "but I think I've had enough chocolate."

"Me too," Charlotte sighed. "When we got here, I thought I could eat that whole basket, but if I have any more chocolate, I think I'm going to burst."

Ben was about to say, "So what do we do now?" when they saw the golden glow. The two wooden hares of the tenth statue were shining, and the ring of their father's ashes rose and whirled round and round. Within the trees and bushes, they could see the golden glow from the seventh, eighth, and ninth hares as all the remaining hares were broken from their spell.

But this time the hares didn't run away; they hopped towards Charlotte and Ben. Then all the other hares they had freed from their spells appeared out of the bushes, forming a circle around the young brother and sister, who were frozen to the spot in amazement. All at once, the hares looked to the heavens. They twitched their noses and emitted a flash of golden, magical light from their eyes. Charlotte and Ben followed their gaze upwards and saw a flurry of snow falling from the sky.