The Moon Stealers and The Children of the Light (3 page)

‘Leave it,’ said Lady Flora. ‘Nature is our friend, do
not break the root.’ Once again, Lady Flora transferred her mind into the soul
of the forest, moving at lightening speed between animal and plant until she
found what she was looking for.

Above him, Peter noticed that the roots began to move
slightly. They appeared to be moving backwards, into the soil above them,
leaving small holes where they had once been. Outside their hiding place a
thick pale root thrust down from above them and buried itself into the old riverbed,
making the ground vibrate beneath their feet. A net of other roots, thick and
thin, was now beginning to weave in front of the entrance, sealing them inside
as well as providing a barrier against the creatures. Green shoots began to
push out of the woody skins of the roots, thickening the barrier. Ivy and vines
joined in, winding between the roots until none of the outside could be seen.

Inside the undercut river bank it was black, but
outside they could hear a new frenzy of activity, the muffled chirping and
screams of creatures desperate to break through. Suddenly, the inside of their temporary
home was filled with a gentle glow as hundreds of fireflies and glow-worms
illuminated the ceiling of the cave with a natural starry sky.

‘Will we be safe in here?’ Max asked Lady Flora who
was kneeling beside Edgar.

‘Have faith, the forest will protect us,’ she replied.

They sat in silence listening to the creatures as they
attempted to break through the barrier. For a while that was all they could
focus on. Eventually, beneath the eerie blue light from the glow-worms, Scarlet’s
voice broke the silence:

‘How long do you think we have been in the Underworld?’
she asked.

‘A day in my world is exactly the same length as a day
in your own,’ replied Lady Flora.

‘But there are so many Moon Stealers now.’

‘They are strange creatures, unlike any I have come
across before. I slipped into the mind of one accidentally and all I felt was
darkness. There was no emotion and no feelings.’

‘We cannot stay here forever,’ said the Grey Man,
sounding impatient. ‘Eventually they will dig us out. We are cornered like a
family of rats, hiding in the riverbanks waiting for the time to run once more.’

‘We can stay here long enough for Edgar to regain his
strength.’ Lady Flora pulled a small clutch of berries from a leather pouch
that was tied around her waist. The berries were small and had a blue-black
skin. She squeezed them above Edgar’s mouth and let the dark red juices dribble
between his lips.

‘Acai berries,’ said the Grey Man as he watched Lady
Flora. ‘They have incredible reviving properties. He will soon be back to
normal.’

Lady Flora nodded.

She took a long look at the Grey Man. He was sitting
cross legged with his cloak wrapped around him and the stolen Donestre sword
resting across his knees.

‘There are many tales of your ability to heal the sick,’
she said to him. ‘They say that you are skilled in ways that our own healers do
not fully understand. I see your knowledge of plants is also just as
impressive.’

‘You are too kind,’ he replied, watching Lady Flora
from beneath his hood. ‘Many of the stories you have heard have been greatly exaggerated.
I learnt about medicines in this world, my home. Here I was a doctor.’

‘But there is more to you than there first seems. I
felt something when you took my hand as we ran from the creatures, but I can’t
quite work out what it is.’

Edgar’s breathing had calmed and he too was looking at
the Grey Man, studying him.

‘Who are you?’ asked Sir Edgar in a weak voice.

‘In the Underworld I am known as the Grey Man, but in
this world I have a name, one that hasn’t been spoken since my wife was killed
by the Faerie Queen. In this world I am known as Rhys Avall. I lived with my
wife and son in Caerleon,
South
Wales
.’

‘Caerleon!’ Edgar repeated loudly. He sat upright,
suddenly charged with energy. The Grey Man nodded, understanding what Edgar was
thinking.

The children exchanged glances with each other; they
did not know why Edgar had reacted in such an animated way. Joe wondered if
Edgar was going to pick up Ethera and begin attacking the Grey Man again.

‘King Arthur used to hold court in a town called
Caerleon,’ explained Edgar to the others. ‘You may know it better as Camelot.’

‘You mean you are a knight of Camelot too?’ asked Joe.

The Grey Man shook his head. ‘I have never been to
Camelot, nor have I ever met King Arthur. And, unlike your friend here, I will
not live forever.’

‘Then what is your connection to Camelot?'

‘My family history starts with a merchant called Erec
Goodfellow,’ the Grey Man began to explain. ‘He frequently travelled between
this world and the Underworld trading goods and returning with riches that others
in this world had never seen before. His reputation fell on the ears of
nobility and he began selling the most exquisite precious stones, love potions
and daggers to the knights and ladies of the royal courts. But, on one journey
he met a beautiful faerie called Liliana who he brought back to this world and
married. It wasn’t long before they produced a son,
Warren
, an unnatural mix of human and faerie. Faerie-human
mixes were called Faerie Tithes, as the child was only thought to be good
enough to be paid to the devil for the sins of its parents. In the human world,
a Tithe child was avoided and often branded as a carrier of witchcraft, so they
would often hide their magical abilities from society. During that time Arthur’s
relationship with Morgan Le Fey got progressively worse, resulting in the portals
between the two worlds being closed. After Arthur fell at the battle of
Camlann, Camelot crumbled. His queen, Guinevere, could not hold the throne
against the barbarians and Vikings and many were slaughtered. Erec, Liliana and
Warren fled to Avalon and were granted temporary asylum, taking the surname
Avall, meaning apple in Welsh, in gratitude to Avalon, the Isles of Apples.
Warren
grew up and got older just like a normal human, but
he possessed magic inside him that had been passed to him from his mother. This
same magic also flows through my veins. I am an ancestor of Warren Avall the Faerie
Tithe, and so is my son.’

‘I thought I could feel magic in you,’ said Lady
Flora.

‘One of the gifts I have is the ability to heal.
Sometimes I use my magic, but other times I use the knowledge that I have learnt
in this world. There is magic to be had in all manner of things, from the way
the human body works, to the plants that we eat. Combining my healing magical
abilities with a conventional and learned approach gives me a much greater
understanding of the human body.’

‘You said one of your gifts?’ said Joe. ‘What else can
you do?’

‘Like a lot of faeries, I also have the ability to
shape-change. That is how I have been so successful in avoiding the Faerie
Queen’s bounty hunters and attacking them whenever possible. Most faeries can
shape-change permanently if they wish to, but my power is limited and I can
only change for a small period of time, just long enough to keep out of sight
of my enemies.’

‘Could you turn yourself into a giant bird and fly us
away from here?’ laughed Max.

‘No.’ The old man smiled, causing the skin at his
cheeks to fold. ‘I can only turn into something the same size as myself. The
magic in me is not strong enough to change me into another living animal. Mine
works more like a chameleon that changes the colour of its skin to blend into
the background.’

‘The tales of the Grey Man always said that you were
searching for something,’ said Lady Flora.

‘I was always on the look out for a way home. When my
wife was killed, I took her body and buried her at Holmeswood Dean. That was
the location where we entered your world, and where I hoped one day to bring
her back home and find my son again. It was unfortunate that I got captured by
the Donestre at Morgan’s Landing, but in the carriage along the

‘How did you find yourself in the Underworld in the
first place?’ asked Edgar.

‘We were in the
Forest
of
Dean
visiting my wife’s sister. There was a wild
electrical storm that was blowing off the
Atlantic
and whipping up the river
Severn
, fiercer than any I had ever seen before. As we began
driving home a fork of lightening crackled from the clouds and struck something
inside the forest. We then saw what we thought was a fire starting within the
trees where the lightening had hit. I stopped the car and, while we ran to find
help, we left our son, Steffen safely inside. The rain was coming down so fast
that our clothes became soaked and heavy with water. We approached the fire,
but realised immediately that it was not what we thought it was. A bright light
filled the forest and at its centre was a vertical pool that shimmered and
moved like a puddle of mercury. It quickly receded, but the electricity that
had ignited this pool of metal clung to the static charge in our water soaked
clothes and pulled us through. I don’t know if it recognised the magic inside
me and thought I belonged in the Faerie World, but we were dragged out of the
forest and landed in a small village on the other side of the light. We tried
many times to get back through the portal, but it never reappeared.’

‘How long ago was that?’ asked Scarlet.

‘Over twenty years now. My son will probably be in his
thirties by now,’ replied the Grey Man. ‘If he’s still alive,’ he added,
thinking about the black shadowy creatures that had been hunting them. ‘What
are those creatures anyway?’

‘Uninvited party guests,’ replied Edgar with a smile.
He was sitting up and beginning to look a lot better now. He carefully took
Ethera out of Max’s hand and slid it into its sheath that hung round his waist.
‘They originate from alien bacteria that arrived on this planet within a meteor.
They seem to be creatures born to consume and destroy any other living organism,
including us.’

‘It seems that this world has bigger problems than we
had in the Underworld.’

‘Maybe,’ replied Edgar. ‘Thank you for your help back
there, I’m glad we helped you find a portal to get home.’ Edgar held out his
hand to the Grey Man.

‘I’m glad to be back, but things have certainly
changed a lot since I was last here,’ said the Grey Man as he shook Sir Edgar’s
hand.

‘What do you think happened to your son on the night
you were sucked through?’ Joe asked the Grey Man.

‘It’s a question I’ve asked myself every single day
that I've lived in the Underworld. I intend to make my way to the
Forest
of
Dean
to find his aunt; she would have been his next of
kin. Hopefully she brought him up and may be able to tell me where he is. I don’t
know if he has discovered his magical abilities yet or not.’

Outside, the screams of the creatures continued. They
sounded like they were becoming frustrated as their attempts to unearth their
prey were getting them nowhere.

‘These black creatures may make my journey a little
more difficult, but I’m used to blending into the background and moving around
unseen when I need to.’

‘There are three possible ways to cross to the
Isle of Wight
,’ said Steven Knight as he pointed to the map that
was spread over the table in front of them. The room was dark except for a
small lamp that held down one corner of the map and cast an orange glow onto
the faces of the people around the table. Steven’s was slim, featureless and
framed by dark hair. His eyes betrayed the tiredness that he felt inside. He
had begun to loose track of time, it seemed like ages ago when he had left
London
to research the landing site of a meteor that they
now knew had contained an alien bacteria. What no-one had expected was how
rapid the growth of the bacteria would be in developing into a creature that had
terrorised the human population ever since.

‘Which is the shortest crossing?’ asked Tracker. It
had been several days since Tracker had shaved and his chin was covered with a
thick layer of yellow stubble. Steven often wondered why, whenever he had grown
stubble, it just made him look tired and pale. But, Tracker wore the rugged
look well. He was handsome with unruly hair that curled in random flicks from
beneath his baseball cap, and a wide grin that creased the skin of his cheeks
creating attractive dimples.

‘Commercial crossings go from Southsea, Southampton
and Lymington,’ continued Steven. ‘Lymington looks the shortest.’

The well folded map they had found in an abandoned
Tourist Information office in
Basingstoke
was designed for walkers. It showed the south coast
of
England
together with the
Isle of Wight
, a small island separated from the mainland by a small
stretch of water called the
Solent
.

‘Won’t they have guards watching the docks where
ferries would normally enter the
Isle
of Wight
?’ asked Georgia, a dark
haired woman that stood between the two men. Her right arm was strapped to the
side of her chest, a reminder of a previous encounter with one of the alien
creatures.
Georgia
had skin that was smooth and exotic in colour, a
genetic clue to her Spanish origins.

They had left the safety of
Fort
Halstead
to rescue other survivors that had been taken to the
Isle of Wight
. Coldred, their ruthless leader, was deceiving them
and selectively supplying antibiotics to people he considered useful to the
community as well as to his own needs.
Steven
,
Georgia
and Tracker already had first hand experience of
Coldred’s desire to surround himself with the right people. He had already
tried to kill them once, which resulted in
Georgia
’s injury. From what they had found out, Steven knew
Coldred had already been aware of the deadly nature of the creatures before
they had attacked. He had also developed a vaccine. With his knowledge of the
creatures, Coldred planned to control his destiny, destroying those that got in
his way, whilst nurturing those that would help him and acquire as much wealth
as he could get his hands on. Steven even wondered if Coldred already had a
plan to remove the creatures from the planet once he had acquired enough gold
and control, enabling him to be the overall leader of all survivors.

‘I’m sure Coldred would have some form of defence on
the
Island
, but he may have also posted guards on this side of
the
Solent
,’ replied Steven. ‘If they want to gather other
survivors for their community they may be filtering people on both sides of the
water.’

Outside a loud bang sounded.

The three humans inside the abandoned house
automatically fell silent. The bang echoed in the still night air, gradually receding
into the distance. It reminded them that they were not alone wherever they
went. They exchanged glances with each other. Tracker reached for his shotgun,
while they listened to the sounds from outside. All survivors now lived beneath
the threat and shadow of the creatures, but the three humans around the map
knew that they had an advantage. Before they had left the growing community at
Fort
Halstead
, they had stocked up on supplies of antibiotics that
would provide them with some protection against the creatures. The creatures no
longer attacked them. Somehow they knew that to eat them was bad for their own
health, which meant they could move around during the night without fear of
attack. But, the creatures were evolving rapidly and Steven had noticed they no
longer stayed restricted to night-time hunts, but had begun to venture out on
overcast days, as well as the dusk and dawn hours. Hopefully, if they managed
to return to
Fort
Halstead
, the scientists working in the community would have managed
to replicate the vaccine that would provide a permanent solution in protecting
the human race.

‘I think we should approach the coast during the day
and see what sort of defences they have arranged,’ added Tracker in a low voice
once the noise of the creatures had passed.

‘I agree, approaching at night will be too dangerous. In
so much darkness the headlights from the cars would be easily spotted and could
bring too much unwanted attention,’ said Steven.

‘Even if the docks are unguarded, how will we cross to
the other side?’ asked
Georgia
.

‘We will have to take a small boat, maybe even row
across,’ replied Steven.

‘That could be too dangerous,’ added Tracker. ‘The
waters of the
Solent
can sometimes get quite rough. If we choose the wrong
time to cross, we might not make it to the other side. If there are guards on
the mainland, we could pretend to be someone else, someone of value to the
community.’

‘You mean, be willingly taken?’

‘Yes. If there are others crossing, we could simply
merge in with the crowd and give false names.’

‘But, what if someone recognises us from the Bank
Community?’ said
Georgia
. After being left at the mercy of the creatures by
Coldred once, she was not keen to have a second experience of his form of human
selection again. The first time she lost part of her arm, the second time they
may lose much more.

‘If we bumped into Wanda or Coldred our whole journey would
be pointless,’ added Steven.

‘If there are guards on this side of the water, they will
be running boats or ferries of their own at regular intervals. They may still
be foraging for supplies on this side and taking them over, we could stow away
amongst the boxes.’

‘I don’t like it,’ replied Steven. ‘We need to keep
our contact with the community to a minimum.’

‘Then, the only other way would be to make our own way
across.’

‘They might only operate crossings from Lymington as
it's the shortest distance and would consume less fuel,’ explained Steven. ‘We
could head for the second shortest crossing. They wouldn’t have enough guards
to place them everywhere and may have concentrated their operations in
Lymington only.’

‘If you were setting up a community on the
Isle of Wight
, where would you start?’ asked
Georgia
.

‘Osborne House,’ replied Tracker. ‘It’s the perfect
place for Coldred: a grand house in a commanding position on the north coast,
as well as substantial grounds. I went there once.’

‘As a tourist, or were you visiting family?’ asked
Steven with a smile.

‘Definitely as a tourist,’ said Tracker understanding
Steven’s reference to Tracker’s link to the British royal family. Osborne House
had once been the holiday home of Queen
Victoria
and
Prince Albert
.

‘What about
Carisbrook
Castle
?’ asked Steven. ‘It’s very central and would make a
great headquarters.’

‘I think both places could work for Coldred. I still
think there would be a chunk of the community stationed at a port, probably at
Yarmouth
, where the boats dock that come from Lymington.’

‘What’s this place?’ asked
Georgia
as she stuck a finger onto a thin piece of land that
jutted out from the coast. ‘
Hurst
?’ she read.

Steven flicked through several other leaflets he had
picked up at the tourist office. Eventually, he stopped and read a section:

“
Hurst
Castle
. Built by Henry VIII as an artillery fortress to
defend the entrance to the
Solent
. It was later used to hold political prisoners during
the 17
^th
century.”

‘That may be the best place to get over without being
seen. If Coldred’s guards are stationed at the ports to make transportation
easier, the fortress may have been left unoccupied,’ said Tracker. ‘If we can
get to
Hurst
, we may be able to transfer over to one of the bays
around the coast.’

‘To cover every bay and port he would need to stretch
his community too thin. It makes sense that he would concentrate his resources
at the main port as well as his headquarters.’

‘It’s still going to be risky crossing the water in a boat.’

‘It’s the only way of getting there unnoticed,’ said
Steven. The look of doubt and concern went unnoticed by the other two, hidden
in the deep shadows cast by the flickering lamp light.