Crystal (14 page)

‘Of course not. It
is
old-fashioned down here, isn’t it? Medieval even!’ Questrid said. ‘But, listen, to do this horrid test will mean they have to take her out of prison. When she’s not locked up we at least have a chance of rescuing her. Let’s hope they do it soon.’

‘
What?
’

‘Crystal, listen, I don’t know how long the Gateway will be open. A day? Less than a day? We need to get out of here, all three of us, as quickly as possible. To get back to the other side – to get us
home
– we have to go back into that horrid dirty water, right through the middle of it – off a boat or a raft or something – but first … The pixicles’ eye-cycle! Where is it? I’ve got to steal it.’ He grinned at Crystal. ‘Hey, this is turning out quite exciting, isn’t it?’

Crystal shook her head. ‘The eye-cycle is in Grint’s house, probably locked up. We’ll never get it.’

‘Course we will. Now, before we get started, have you got anything I could eat? I’m starving!’

Grampy and Squitcher sat cross-legged on the ice, staring into the still, clear water of Pol Lake.

‘Not a splash,’ Squitcher said, shaking his head gently. ‘Like he was jumping through an invisible hole.’

‘Maybe he was. Brave boy,’ Grampy said.

‘It’s your faulty-blunder that he’s had to go down there!’ Squitcher snapped. He was worried about Questrid.

‘But now he is doing a good thing for Greenwood too,’ Grampy said calmly. ‘We’ve both made mistakes and the Lanky One is putting them right. That is like magic. Real magic.’

They were silent again. Then …

‘Do you hear something?’ Squitcher said, cocking his head on one side. ‘A scritching noise? Scratching. Icifying.’

Grampy smoothed his little hand over the ice. ‘Yes. Ice is creeping-growing,’ he said. ‘It’s coming sneaking in.’

The blue circle was getting smaller.

Squitcher nodded. ‘Our Lanky Boy hasn’t got much time.’

Effie stared at the grey walls and the metal bed of her prison cell. Not so bad, rather like home, she thought with a small smile.

A key screeched in the lock and Grint came into the cell. ‘Wait outside,’ he ordered the guard.

Effie ignored him and stared out of the barred window at the clouds.

‘Effie.’ Grint pulled up a stool close beside her and studied her profile silently for a long time. ‘I don’t want to keep you in here,’ he told her. ‘I didn’t want this to happen. The Elders and Raek – especially Raek, they don’t understand. They insist you undergo this ordeal. I can’t stop them. I have little power while I haven’t got you and the eye-cycle working for me.’

Effie shrugged at the window.

‘I expect you’ll be all right,’ he added. ‘I
know
you’ll be all right – Effie, are you listening to me? It might help to know this … You are from the Water Clan and water can’t harm you. You need not worry about drowning. You’re not a witch. You’ll be fine.’

Effie’s shoulders stiffened. ‘
Water Clan?
’ she repeated.

‘Yes. You’re a Water person. Water – that fluid stuff, you know. Don’t you remember anything about the past?’

‘I do. Something has shifted and my brain is clearing. Yes!’ She spun round. ‘
You
are from the Stone Clan! It’s coming back, slowly, bits and pieces. You pulled me down here! You kidnapped us!’

Grint grinned. ‘How alive you are all of a sudden! You seem to gush, just like your name –
Fountain
! Remember your old name? Yes, I called you down here, I reeled you in like a fish through the ice, through the Gateway, to read the eye-cycle. Greenwood didn’t deserve you, I’d always admired you …’

‘
Greenwood?
What’s that? I left something behind,’ Effie said, looking round her cell as if it might be there. She plucked at her skirt. ‘I left something important, but I don’t remember what. I remember the snow and the cold and the snowflakes falling so fast you couldn’t see and the sun glinting on the ice …’

‘The Marble Mountains. It was my home too,’ Grint said. ‘Sometimes I think about that place … But Granite – my so-called friend and cousin who now abides in Malachite Mountain – he took everything! The thieving, skiving, conniving rat! He left me no choice!’ He stopped; got up and strode round the cell. When he sat down again he took a deep breath. ‘Let’s not talk about him. I had to get away and make my own empire. And here it is. The Town was a perfect place to set up. Everything I needed was here, and when the eye-cycle appeared by chance, well, better and better. Only I couldn’t see the fortunes. I needed a reader, didn’t I? A pixicle or a Water person.’

‘A pixicle would die here,’ Effie said, still looking outside.

‘Quite. But a Water person, like you, wouldn’t. You were fine. And now it’s all ruined. I need you to read the eye-cycle. I will have no power unless you do. You
have
to survive the ducking, Effie, you must!’

Effie smiled dreamily. ‘Have you forgotten, Morton Grint, that if I drown I am innocent, but if I survive it proves I’m a witch and they will burn me at the stake. Either way you won’t have me!’

‘I will. I’ll think of something—’

They heard voices and scuffling noises outside. The door suddenly opened and Raek burst in. The skin on his face was a fiery red and covered with spots.

‘What do you want?’ Grint snapped, facing Raek defiantly. ‘I am questioning the prisoner. You have no right to barge in!’

‘Excuse me,’ Raek said, ‘I only came to see … I was looking for – aha!’ He lunged at Effie who cowered back, afraid. ‘Don’t be scared!’ Raek cried. ‘I just wanted
this
!’ He pulled her shawl off with a flourish, revealing the sly-ugg curled on her chest like a large orange-coloured brooch.

Raek grabbed the sly-ugg and held it up by its tail end. It dangled from his hand, twisting and coiling.

‘It went missing in the visiting room, Grint. It had to be hiding somewhere,’ Raek said. ‘You’ll pay for this, Sly-ugg!’ He shook it until the sly-ugg’s eyes were spinning and it had turned a sickly green.

‘I didn’t know it was there,’ Effie said. ‘I swear I didn’t!’

‘No?’ Raek rammed the sly-ugg into the carry-box he’d brought. ‘Perhaps not. I’ll soon see when I read its miserable little mind.’ He stormed out of the cell but was back again almost instantly. ‘Oh, Effie, thought you’d like to know; we’re going to put you to the drowning test first thing tomorrow morning. Sleep well –
Witch
!’ The door slammed behind him.

‘Tomorrow? Well, I’m glad I shan’t be staying here much longer,’ Effie said. ‘The bed is really very narrow.’

‘Don’t joke about it, Effie!’ Grint got up and went to the door. ‘You will survive the ducking and then I shall have to make sure they stop this persecution. You will not drown, Effie, but don’t imagine there is any escape from me. I will never let you go!’

Raek hurried back to Grint’s house swinging the carry-box roughly. The sly-ugg bounced and somersaulted and its eye-stalks bumped and bent against the sides.

Raek went straight to his laboratory and put the crumpled sly-ugg into the squeeze-box. The sly-ugg screamed like a banshee but Raek barely heard it, he was so intent on getting every morsel from his spy.

‘My dear slime-ball, keep still, keep still. How gooey you are today! You know I’ll get it all out of you in the end. Best to give it up quickly. Don’t fight it. Come on. Come on, you snotty little slug; cough it up. Spit it out!’

At last the sly-ugg gave up its struggle. A stillness settled over it and it began to glow and shine. Very soon a white circle appeared on the wall and Raek watched it with a dreamy expression.

‘Good, good sluggy. Now what did Grint, Bless and Praise his Rotten Name, say to Effie in that cell? Come on.’ He squeezed the screws tighter. ‘Spit it out!’

Raek did not see the sly-ugg swivel its eyes round and glare at Raek with a most particular look; if he had he might have been more careful.

Effie and Grint appeared in the white circle. Raek listened intently as their conversation was replayed. He jumped up and down when he heard how Grint was from the Marble Mountains.

‘Always knew he was different,’ Raek said. ‘A Stone person, whatever that is. From beyond the Lake – Marble Mountains, eh? This is good information, very useful. My spy is spying on the Master, the Great and Wonderful Morton Grint, Rot and Blast his Stinking Person!’

The soundtrack began to crack and bleep. Raek shook the squeezing machine. ‘Pull yourself together, Sly-ugg!’

Grint’s voice was cracked and slurred so it was hard to hear the words.

Raek heard his own name. He leaned close to the sly-ugg, straining to catch every word. ‘I will save you, Effie … You and I will be together … witchcraft … I will kill Raek … throw him into the swamp … or a skweener … end of them!’

Raek was listening so intently that he did not notice the sly-ugg had turned a startling shade of pink and was now panting with the effort of the image it had produced. Its eye-stalks drooped. It was drenched in slime.

Raek knew very little about sly-uggs, and cared less. He did not know that when pushed to its limit a sly-ugg could invent images and distort language.

A sly-ugg could lie.

‘So Grint plans to get rid of me, does he?’ Raek said out loud. He paced round the table. ‘Double-crosser! Well, not before I get rid of
him
. I’ll show him I’m smarter than he is! I’ve got you, Sly-ugg. And I’ll get that eye-cycle thing too. I’ll steal it and then he won’t be able to use it. I bet I can see into it myself if I try. I’ll get Crystal to do it. I bet she can. Then I will be the new leader of the Town! Hail Raek, Worship and Honour his Wonderful Name!’

He released the screws and the sly-ugg flopped weakly onto the table like a wet sock.

‘What’s wrong with you?’ Raek dropped the sly-ugg into a velvet drawstring bag. ‘Bit over squeezed? Sorree! In you go and stay there.’ He pulled the strings tight. ‘I haven’t finished with you yet! I’m going to plant you on Grint and you must spy on him. One-step-ahead Raek, that’s me!’

Questrid was standing at the apartment door with his hand on the doorknob. ‘We must go and find the eye-cycle. Now!’

‘We can’t,’ Crystal said. ‘There’s a night curfew. The Town Guard would pick us up straightaway. There’s nothing we can do till morning.’ She popped a Minty Moment into her mouth and offered him one. ‘Sorry, I can’t stop eating these – my last few.’

‘They’re not very nice,’ Questrid said. ‘We have much tastier things in the Marble Mountains. Snowbombs. Icepoppers. Mountain Mints.’ He paced round the room sucking the sweet. ‘We can’t do
nothing
!’

‘We wouldn’t stand a chance at night. There! Listen!’ They both went still and concentrated as the marching feet suddenly clattered down the road outside. ‘There they are! The Town Guard,’ Crystal told him. ‘All night. Every night.’

‘Well then, tomorrow, really early, as soon as it’s light,’ Questrid said. ‘But the lake may be frozen over by then. It’s nerve-racking! I’ll never sleep.’

‘We’ll go first thing. But what about Mum? I still don’t …’