PathFinder (13 page)

Snorri looked up and smiled a welcome. “It is a beautiful morning, Tod,” she whispered.

Tod smiled. It
was
beautiful, even though all she could see was the mist surrounding them and the tops of trees poking out of it. But as she settled down next to Snorri, Tod saw a small gap between the mist and the water, which sat green and still. Everything felt so mysterious – just how it should be when you were on your way to a
Magykal
tower with a golden pyramid for a roof. A sudden
plip
of a fish breaking the surface made Tod laugh. “It’s so different,” she said. “I’ve never seen a river like this.”

Between Snorri and Tod lay Ullr: peaceful but watchful, as if waiting for something to happen. Tentatively, Tod rested her hand on Ullr’s back, feeling the strong muscles below the warm, smooth fur. She found it hard to believe that such a powerful beast was also Snorri’s daytime scraggy orange cat.

The mist was slowly clearing now and Tod could see the sky – a pale greenish yellow – and as she gazed towards a low, flat land Nicko had called the Marram Marshes, the first glow of the sun broke above the horizon and Tod felt a shudder pass through the panther. She snatched her hand away in surprise.

“Do not be concerned,” Snorri murmured, stroking Ullr’s head. “Ullr is about to
Transform
.”

Tod watched the orange tip to the panther’s tail begin to spread, changing Ullr’s fur from black to a brindled orange. With the tide of colour, Ullr began to change shape, shrinking before Tod’s eyes so that in no more than a few moments the creature sitting beside her was once again a small orange cat with a black-tipped tail.

Snorri patted Ullr. “Good morning, little cat,” she said.

Tod shook her head in amazement. This was the first
Magykal
creature she had ever been close to. Dimly remembered tales told to her by her mother began to come back to Tod – stories of
Magykal
Transformations
that Dan had laughed about, but Tod had always believed, however strange they had seemed.

An hour later, after a breakfast of eggs and bacon, the wind freshened and the
Adventurer
set off up the river once more. Tod sat in the prow, leaning against the bowsprit, watching the green water rushing past. The mist had disappeared in the early morning sunshine and Tod gazed dreamily as the scenery sped by. On the right was farmland with meandering tracks, wide green fields and orchards dotted with round, woolly grazing sheep. It was quiet, but occasionally Tod glimpsed a farmer going about his work or saw smoke emerging from a chimney of an isolated farmhouse.

On the left of the river a much less welcoming scene presented itself. Ranks of trees crowded the bank, dark and tall and so thickly set together that Tod could see no further than a few yards in. Every now and then the distant howl of a creature drifted across the water and set the hair on the back of her neck prickling. But sitting on the
Adventurer
, Tod felt happily secure. There would be no more lonely, fearful even­ings with Aunt Mitza, and although she still had a sad pit of emptiness when she thought of her father, she no longer felt that she was falling headlong into it.

The hours wore on, and as the sun rose higher in the sky a feeling of nervousness began to creep up on Tod. They were sailing ever deeper into a new country and she could not help but wonder what awaited her in the Castle. What were the people like? Where would she live? And
how
would she live? Nicko had told her not to worry, that he and Snorri would make sure she was OK, but it began to dawn on Tod that she had only met Nicko and Snorri two days ago. She hardly knew them.

By the time the
Adventurer
rounded the last bend and a tall, forbidding escarpment of rock reared up on their left, Tod had some very large and energetic butterflies in her stomach. But when the
Adventurer
cleared the rock and Tod saw a huge Castle, bright in the sunlight, spread out before her, the butter­flies vanished. Sitting on the bowsprit, her feet dangling over the water, Tod watched, spellbound, as the detail of the Castle began to unfold before her – the ancient walls surrounding it, with houses clustered along them, colourful and bright in the afternoon sun. As they drew closer Tod saw a long, low crenel­lated building of mellow old stone, which Nicko said was the Palace. Its lawns stretched down to the water, where a landing stage sported red-and-white-striped poles with gilded tops. And there, walking across the grass, Tod saw a young woman in red wandering down towards the river. On her head was a circlet of gold that flashed bright in the sun.

“Hey – Jen!” Nicko yelled.

The young woman stopped dead. She stared as if in disbelief, then she let out a piercing shriek and broke into a run, hurtling down to the landing stage, waving and yelling, “Nicko! Nicko!”

“My sister, Jenna,” Nicko said to Tod with a smile. “Very undignified behaviour for a Queen, if you ask me.”

Tod nearly fell off the bowsprit. “A
Queen
? So you’re a prince?”

Nicko laughed. “Oh, I must tell Jen that. No, I’m not a prince. It’s not like that.”

“Hey, Nik!” yelled the Queen, running along the landing stage, her red-and-gold cloak flying out behind her. “Tie up here, Nik!”

Nicko looked at Snorri. “OK?” he asked.

Snorri grinned. “OK!”

“Hey-ho,” Nicko said, pushing the tiller across. “Around we go.”

Tod scrambled on to the deck to help Snorri with the sails and the
Adventurer
swung in gently towards the landing stage, the sails flapping as they lost the wind. Snorri threw the ropes to the Queen, who caught them easily and tied them around the gilded poles, pulling the
Adventurer
alongside the landing stage as she did so.

Snorri put down the landing ladder and to Tod’s amazement, the Queen hitched up her long red silk tunic – revealing a pair of very sensible brown leather boots – clambered aboard and threw her arms around Nicko. “Nik, oh, Nicko, you’re back safe after all this time. We thought you were gone for ever. Oh, I can’t wait to tell Mum! Oh,
Nicko
!”

Suddenly, something caught Tod’s eye – something very big, green and shiny was moving behind a tall hedge on the far edge of the Palace lawns. Tod heard frantic shouting and a young man wearing a leather jerkin came running through a gap in the hedge, dragging a fat hosepipe towards the river. Behind the hedge, flames were rising.

“Oh,” Snorri said. “It is that wretched dragon. I hope he is not coming near the boat.”

“Spit Fyre!” the Queen gasped. “He’s set light to the Dragon Kennel.
Again
. ’Scuse me –” she flashed an apologetic smile at Tod – “got to go!” The Queen leaped from the boat and raced towards the flames, but the young man – who Tod rightly took to be the dragon’s keeper – stepped into her path to stop her.

“Barney, let me pass!” Tod heard the Queen shout.

The young keeper stepped aside and Tod saw the most magnificent dragon, the sun shining on his smooth green scales, his head held high, his huge, leathery wings slowly moving up and down, rising up into the clear blue sky.

“Come down, Spit Fyre, you bad dragon!” the Queen yelled, jumping up and down. “Come down
right now
!”

Tod saw the dragon tilt his head to one side, as if considering the matter. Then he opened his mouth and a great stream of flame came roaring out, dancing up into the sky. To Tod’s excitement, the dragon swooped down low across the Palace lawns and headed straight towards the
Adventurer
.

“No!” yelled Snorri. All on board threw themselves on to the deck but at the last minute, the dragon curved upwards, his pale green tummy no more than a few inches above the top of the mast. And then he was gone, flying out across the river, leaving behind a strong smell of underwing dragon sweat.

“Come back!” the Queen yelled. “Spit Fyre, come back, you stupid dragon!”

But Barney Pot, the dragon keeper, knew his charge was not coming back. “Queen Jenna,” he said, “it is seven years now since Spit Fyre grew his adult spurs. He has gone to find a mate.”

Jenna sighed. “I know, Barney. You did warn me. But we’ll miss Spit Fyre so much.”

“Aye, that we will,” said Barney. He threw the end of the fire hose into the river and then raced away to start turning the pump, leaving the Queen gazing sadly up at the sky.

On board the
Adventurer
, they picked themselves up off the deck and Nicko chuckled. “Welcome to the Castle, Tod,” he said.

The Palace

Tod spent the rest of
the day at the Palace, meeting more new people in one afternoon than she had ever met in her life. By the evening, when Nicko’s family were gathered together in a large room overlooking the lawns that swept down to the river, Tod’s head was spinning. It seemed to her that Nicko had a very large family indeed, and he had introduced her to every one of them. “Except my little brother, who can’t get away from work,” he explained. “You’ll meet him tomorrow when we go to the Wizard Tower.” Nicko smiled. “I’ve booked you in for a tour.”

They had a noisy, happy supper at a long, narrow table. At either end were Nicko’s mother and father, both with curly straw-coloured hair, just like Nicko’s – except a little faded with age. Sarah and Silas Heap were surprisingly scruffy for parents of a Queen, Tod thought. But everything in the Castle seemed a little odd to Tod – surely as the Queen’s parents were still living,
they
should be the King and Queen of the Castle?

At supper, Tod sat next to Sarah Heap. Sarah was ecstatic at having her second-youngest son home after four long, uncertain years and she was very talkative. “You see, Alice,” said Sarah – who thought Tod was a very strange name for a girl – “my seven are lovely boys, but boys will be boys. I hardly ever have them all here, safe with me. And for the first ten years I thought my youngest was
dead
– yes, it was shocking, Alice, shocking, poor little Septimus – and then just as I found him, my eldest, Simon, went a little bit wild. You know, like they do at that age sometimes. And by then my other four were living in the Forest with some
very
disreputable witches. It was not ideal, I can tell you. And then Nicko got trapped in another Time and I thought I’d never see him again. But he came back eventually, thank goodness.”

Tod stared at Sarah in amazement, her spoon suspended in mid-air. She was rendered speechless, which was fortunate, because Sarah Heap still had a lot to say.

“For a while, Alice, all my boys were doing really well. The twins, Edd and Erik, they were Apprentices at the Wizard Tower. Simon had married a lovely girl, Lucy; Nicko worked at the boatyard; my fourth son, Jo-Jo …” Tod saw a flicker of dis­approval cross Sarah’s face. “Well, Jo-Jo got himself a job at a very interesting shop here, and my second oldest, Sam, decided to go out to the Marram Marshes and help young Marwick out there. And of course my youngest, Septimus, he’s always done
very
well; we’re very proud of him indeed. But nothing lasts, does it? Nicko decided to go over the seas and find his old girlfriend, Snorri – who is a lovely girl, Alice – but he was gone for
four whole years
. Can you imagine? We thought he was never coming home. And then to top it all off, Sam and Marwick disappeared. Gone.
Gone
. And now poor little William. I still can’t believe it … I was such a proud Grandma … Oh dear.” Sarah got out a large white handkerchief and blew her nose loudly. “
So
sad …” To Tod’s relief, the flow was stopped by the Queen passing Sarah a bowl of something stodgy floating in custard.

“Mum! Look, here’s your favourite pudding.”

While Sarah protested that she couldn’t eat a thing and passed the bowl down to Silas, the Queen turned politely to Tod. “So, Tod, what would you like to do now you have come to the Castle?”

Tod’s head was spinning and for a moment she had no idea why she was at the Castle at all. And then she remembered Rosie Sarn’s note. “Well … my mother wanted me to come to the Wizard Tower.”

“Well, that doesn’t surprise me. Your mother must realise you have some
Magyk
about you,” the Queen said.

“Really?” Tod said, pleased.

“Yes. You really do have that
Magyk
something. And I should know – I grew up with a whole
ton
of
Magykal
brothers, and I can tell.” The Queen shook her head and looked puzzled. “It’s a strange thing. It’s not just the green eyes, it’s something else too. I don’t have it, of course.”

“But I don’t have green eyes!” Tod said, dismayed.

Queen Jenna peered at Tod in the candlelight. “So you don’t. But that doesn’t matter.”

Tod was confused. “But I thought you said you had to have green eyes.”

“Not right at the beginning,” the Queen explained. “If you have that
Magykal
thing – whatever it is – then your eyes will begin to turn green when you are exposed to
Magyk
. And I don’t suppose you had any where you come from, did you?”