PathFinder (37 page)

“He’ll be fine, Lu,” Simon said soothingly.

But as Lucy watched her son go running across a slender bridge that climbed precipitously up to the tallest tower, she knew that from now on she would always worry about William. She felt a sudden sympathy for Sarah Heap, with
seven
boys to fret about. Hand in hand, Lucy and Simon wandered along the promenade, Lucy stealing glances up at two small figures cavorting on the bridge. Entranced by the glittering scene, Lucy and Simon stopped to gaze at the the graceful towers of opalescent ice, tall and thin with pointed roofs, each one topped with an elegant blue-and-gold finial. The sun shone down on the frosted snow, for the
Enchantment
that kept the snow for ever
Frozen
had not been destroyed here. As Simon looked up, Lucy caught a flash of blue in his right eye.

“Si,” she said. “Hold still. You’ve got something in your eye.”

Simon put his hand up to his eye. He had hoped Lucy wouldn’t notice – at least not until she stopped being so nervous. “I know I have,” he said. “It’s lapis. From the palimpsest of the Orm.”

“Well, let’s get it out, then,” Lucy said.

Simon shook his head. “No, Lu. It’s part of my eye now. The iris is solid lapis.”

The enormity of what Simon had done began to dawn on Lucy. “Can … can you still see through it?”

Simon shook his head. “No. But it was worth it, Lu. Worth it to get our William back. And I’ve still got one eye left.” He grinned and Lucy saw a glint of gold in his lapis-blue eye. It suited him.

“Oh, Si …” she said.

Later that day, wrapped in Driffa’s best furs, Tod and Dan too were wandering the vast Snow Palace. Still in a daze from finding her father alive, Tod was revelling in the beauty surrounding them. From that day onward she would always feel a profound happiness in the presence of snow.

They followed strings of sparkling lights strung along the suspended walkways, explored delicate ice turrets suffused with deep blue shadows and took winding stairs of blue down into lapis caves where hot springs bubbled up, filling the air with steam and heat. And as they roamed, Dan told Tod about the day he disappeared.

“It was a perfect fishing day. I was laying crab pots on the far side of the headland where the stream comes out of the Far, when I saw Mitza on the beach. She was waving and – well, you know how clearly sound travels over water – I heard her yelling, ‘Dan, Dan, come quick. Alice is hurt!’ I set the sails and turned for home but Mitza got even more frantic. ‘No!’ she screamed. ‘She’s here. In the Far!’

“I was so worried that I didn’t question it. I took
Vega
up on to the beach and Mitza met me. She looked terrified, and that really scared me. I begged her to tell me what had happened but she just grabbed my hand and dragged me into the Far.” Dan shook his head. “Suddenly I was surrounded by guards and creatures from a nightmare.”

“Garmin,” said Tod. “Oh,
Dad
.”

“They took me to the Far Fortress and then here. Mitza told me you would be next. It was some old feud she had with Cassi – which she reckoned she’d well and truly won. Tod, I was
so
worried for you. Every day I thought of you being at home with that awful woman and those terrifying creatures coming for you. And there was nothing I could do.
Nothing
.” Dan shook his head, and Tod saw tears spring into his eyes.

Tod linked her arm through Dan’s and together they walked in silence for a while, simply happy to be together again. After some time Tod said, “Dad … when you dived in, did you know you had gills?”

Dan shook his head. “No. But as leader of the Circle it was my duty to go first.”

Tod nodded. She’d thought as much.

They wandered along to the promenade and joined the watchers gazing out anxiously at the Blue Pinnacle. Overnight it had tilted and now looked very unstable. The words “collapse” and “any minute now” could be heard from the gathered crowd.

Far below, a handsome silver-and-blue sleigh pulled by four white horses was setting off. In it rode the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, the Deputy Castle Alchemist, the ex-ExtraOrdinary Wizard and the Snow Princess.

As Dan looked out across the SnowPlain, he felt nervous – and it wasn’t about the Blue Pinnacle. There was something he had to ask Tod. “Alice,” he said rather formally. “So. Would you like to come home?”

Tod didn’t know how to answer.

Dan did not press her. He stood quietly beside his daughter, who he thought had changed so much in the past two long months. Apart from growing at least two inches taller, she had become self-assured and so very much reminded him of her mother. He had noticed also the change in her eyes – a
Magykal
green was beginning to break through. Dan watched Tod’s gaze follow the sleigh and he thought sadly that he knew the answer she would give him.

Five Magyk

Under a clear blue sky
, with a bright sun blazing down, four figures – one in white, one in purple, one in black and one shimmering in a cloak of many colours – stood beside the dangerously tilting Blue Pinnacle. They stared down into the pit before them, and far below they saw the empty Orm Tube drained of water, which had poured out through the cracked base where Simon had forced his way through the rock. And although they could not see it, at the very bottom of the Orm Tube was an empty, egg-shaped hollow, where for many thousands of years, the Egg of the Orm had lain.

“It’s a disgrace,” said Marcia. “To plunder a
Magykal
creature’s birthplace in this way.” She shook her head. “It makes me ashamed to call myself a Wizard.”

Princess Driffa stared down, shaking her head sadly. “This place has nothing. No future. Just a collapsing Pinnacle and a dead Orm, cracked and broken.”

“Not necessarily,” Septimus said.

The Princess looked at Septimus, her blue eyes the colour of the sky above. “How so?” she asked.

“Because we will restore the earth and the lapis below. We will remake the Chamber of the Orm. We will set the Blue Pinnacle straight once more and renew its
Enchantment
.”

Driffa looked at Septimus in disbelief. “No one is that powerful,” she said.

“No
one
,” agreed Septimus. “But there are four of us here. Each one of us has a different kind of
Magyk
. But I believe we will need five to make this kind of
Magyk
. Do you agree, Marcia?”

Marcia did not answer straight away.
Five Magyk
was an Ancient Art and was highly suitable for anything to do with the earth. It was a little bit
Darke
, a little bit Witchy, but Marcia was rapidly getting over her objections to both. It seemed that nothing was as clear-cut as she had once believed. She smiled at Septimus. “You’re the ExtraOrdinary Wizard,” she said. “And I agree with you.
Whatever
you say.”

Septimus looked startled.

But old habits die hard and Marcia could not resist adding a little advice. “Of course, ideally the fifth will be a novice. Talented but untainted. First
Magyk
is powerful
Magyk
.”

They both looked back to the glittering towers of the Snow Palace. Marcia smiled. “I’ll go and fetch her, shall I?”

Septimus, Simon and Driffa watched Marcia take the sleigh back, showing the skill that she had learned as a girl of seven, when she would drive her itinerant
Magykal
father across the
Enchanted
Plains at breakneck speed. Simon shielded his eyes against the glare. The shard of lapis felt sharp and hot in the sun. But he thought nothing of it. His son was safe and he was needed for his own, personal
Magyk
. Nothing could be better.

F
rom the promenade, through a pair of eyeglasses, Dan watched his daughter make her first
Magyk
. He saw her, barefoot on the bare earth, being part of a spectacularly powerful
Five-Star Enchantment
, and he felt immensely proud. And when Tod returned, buzzing with the excitement of being part of such potent
Magyk
, Dan saw her eyes had turned a brilliant green and he knew that Cassi TodHunter Draa had been granted her dying wish. Alice TodHunter Moon was becoming part of the world of
Magyk
.

Home

But for all her
Magyk
, Tod was still a PathFinder. A few days later when everyone was rested, Driffa escorted Tod, Dan and the PathFinders down through the
Re-Enchanted
walkways. With them came a new villager: Samuel Starr had decided to return to the home of his forebears.

Silently, they followed Driffa along the Sacred Ice Walk, filing down the steps into the beautiful blue Chamber of the Orm. The
Re-Enchanted
chamber possessed a delightful echo. The PathFinders’ murmurs of amazement travelled around its smooth lapis walls, until the air was filled with a happy hum.
Five Magyk
had restored all to as it had been.

Except for the Orm Tube, which lay empty and dark.

“Castle
Magyk
will return the Egg of the Orm to us,” Driffa said with a smile, thinking of a moonlight promise that the Castle’s ExtraOrdinary Wizard had made.

Beneath the two golden eyes of the palimpsest of the Great Orm, Tod waited for the villagers to join her. She lifted the
PathFinder
from its lapis box and slipped the hollow lapis dome over its onyx sphere, then she took her pet rock from her pocket and touched the top of the
PathFinder
to its nose – at least, Tod hoped it was its nose. The arrow swung around and pointed to Way IX, which Tod knew would be the first of many.

A few Grula-Grulas were hanging around – just as they had always done before the Garmin polluted the Ways. The colour of their fur varied from dull brown through to brilliant red, but all possessed tiny, shining pink eyes. A glittering of pink pinpoints watched the villagers join hands and followed the long line as Tod led them into the silver-and-lapis arch of the Way. The pink eyes exchanged approving glances. It was good to see the Ancient Ways being used once more.

When the last of the PathFinders had gone, an orange Grula-Grula performed an elaborate farewell bow to his companions and disappeared into Way VI. He had decided to return to the Castle. He thought he might pay another visit to a shop that sold cloaks, of which he had strangely fond memories.

Tod and the PathFinders travelled through five Hubs before they stepped into the Hub of the Far Fortress. Rosie Sarn recognised it immediately. She grabbed hold of Torr, Ferdie and Oskar – she was not letting go of them in such a terrible place. But the Far Fortress was deserted. The Lady and Aunt Mitza were gone and all that was left of the Garmin were dried-up white skeletons – Oraton-Marr’s
Enchantment
had deserted them, too.

Oskar led the PathFinders home through the Far. When Marni Sarn saw them emerge from the trees she thought she was dreaming, but Jerra knew better. He ran to meet them, laughing. “I knew it!” he said. “I
knew
you’d be back.” And he picked Torr up and swung him around and around until they both fell to the ground, laughing.

Later that night, beneath the Bell, the PathFinders met to talk about rebuilding their village. But before the meeting, Dan had something to say to Oskar and Ferdie. “You know our PathFinder secret now,” he said, “but I am asking you not to tell the little ones. It is too dangerous for them to know. Does Torr understand what happened?”

“No,” said Ferdie. “Torr thinks it was all
Magyk
.”

“In a way he is right,” Dan said. “Things we don’t understand
are
Magyk
.”

“Anyway,” said Oskar, “Ferdie and I are going to forget all about the secret. We want to hear it properly from you next summer in the Circle.”

“And so you will,” Dan said with a broad smile.

“Will … will Tod be there too?” asked Oskar.

Dan’s smile faded. “I don’t know,” he said. “You will have to ask her.”

But no one did ask Tod, in case she said she wouldn’t be.

Over the long, warm autumn, the PathFinders built their homes anew and Tod and Dan cleared their house of wreckage and the smell of fear. At the night of the equinox the village met beneath the Bell to hear the story of what became known as the Great Escape. And Tod realised with a thrill that the name Alice TodHunter Moon would be spoken of for generations to come.

The PathFinders began to reclaim the Far. A wide track was made to the Far Fortress and the villagers knocked down the cells that had held them and their ancestors prisoner. Tod, Ferdie and Oskar made many visits to the Castle, taking the shortcut through Way VII. Ferdie and Oskar spent good times with Lucy, Simon and William, and Tod got to know Dandra Draa and the Wizard Tower until it felt almost like home, just as her mother had hoped it would.