Seven Sorcerers (10 page)

She swallowed hard, fixing her eyes on the glowing shape of her mudman, deep in the flames.

‘So, like, when we get to Hilfian and I leave you, will
you do me a map or something about how to get to the House?’

Jonas looked up from stabbing a portion of rabbit with his knife to see if it was done. He grinned. ‘Still thinking about that then, are you?’

‘You said that kids who get taken there are never heard of again, but that’s not the same as being dead, is it?’

‘It might be. The Terrible House isn’t a picnic, you know. It’s vast and rambling and full of bad things, the sort of place you get into and then never get out of again.’

Nin frowned. ‘And when I’ve found Toby and rescued him, then I need to find Skerridge so’s I can make him give me our lives back. And you said Skerridge would be at the House too, right?’

‘He’ll be in and out. But we are talking bogeymen here. Remember them? Scary Fabulous with red eyes and teeth, not to mention the firebreath. Oh and superspeed, don’t forget that. And then there’s Dandy Boneman, or should we call him Ava Vispilio. He’s out there somewhere, remember, and according to stories, Vispilio never lets an insult go unavenged …’

‘OK, I get it!’ Nin shrugged her shoulders. ‘I’m still going.’

‘I know you have to try,’ he said. ‘And for the record, just to take that scared rabbit look off your face, I was always going to take you there. I just wanted to know that you were really set on it, see. Because one thing
you’re going to need is determination.’

Nin stared, then beamed as his words sank in. ‘You’ll come to the House with me?’

‘Think I’d let a kid your size run around the Drift on her own! Besides, nerve like that has got to have a reward.’

Nin leaned over and gave him a clumsy hug, then settled back again. He took no notice apart from a shake of the head and a grin as he prodded the near-done rabbit. She found herself wondering about his past life, about who he had been once, before he was just Jonas.

‘Did you go looking for your life back?’

‘Nope. I just got on with living in the Drift, but then I’m a different person and I didn’t have anyone to look for, like you’ve got Toby. I think your mudman’s cooked!’

Nin looked back at her fire. The flames were dying and the embers were beginning to fall apart, revealing the mudman in their fiery heart. Stirred by the thought of making magic, she jumped up and hurried over, kicking the ashes aside.

‘Now what? Words to Wake, right? Tap it on the head and name it …’

‘Wait, Nin!’

She was already leaning over, tapping it in the middle of its lumpy head with one finger. The mud was not as hot as it might have been, as if all the fire had gone inside.

‘Jack,’ she said, using her father’s name. She was so
keyed up with hope and relief and fear that her voice came out as a squeak.

‘You’ve got to give it a task!’ said Jonas sharply. He dropped the plate he was holding and got hurriedly to his feet.

‘Um – I dunno – just – um – be alive.’

There was a moment of silence and then a deep, distant rumble. For a second Nin could have sworn that the Land trembled.

‘You said what!’ Jonas shook his head. ‘You’re supposed to give them a proper task to do! Not just … that! Galig knows what you’ve made now!’

Nin stared at her mudman. It was still lying on the ground.

‘Then again, maybe it didn’t work,’ went on Jonas cheerfully.

The mudman sat up. It looked at Nin with its redflame eyes.

Jonas sighed. ‘Look, you give them a clearly defined job, see. When the job is over, or you tell them to stop, they are fulfilled and go back to the earth. So how’s that one going to end?’ He glared at it. ‘Well, I suppose, if it’s a problem we can just throw a bucket of water over it.’

The mudman turned its glowing eyes on him. Jonas looked uncomfortable.

‘He’s OK,’ said Nin, hoping she was right. ‘He’s not going to hurt anyone. Are you?’ She looked sternly at the mudman.

It opened its mouth and said, ‘Jik?’

Jonas sighed and shook his head. ‘Let’s hope it just goes back to earth once it realises you haven’t done it right. And whatever you do DON’T go messing with Land Magic again, OK? Not till you know what you’re doing.’

‘All right! You made your point.’

The mudman was on its feet by now. It stood where it was and studied the view. Then it turned, this time staring down the hill. ‘Jik?’

‘It thinks that’s its name.’ Jonas began to serve up the roast rabbit. ‘Eat, Nin. It’s the last food you’ll get until tomorrow morning. I’ve got a couple of hunks of bread I’ve been saving too.’

Nin sat, accepting the bread. It was stale, but did very well as a base for the meat, which Jonas cut into chunks with his knife. The mudman watched them patiently while they ate.

‘Jik?’

‘Um – hello,’ she said through a mouthful of rabbit. She studied the mudman thoughtfully. Jik sat – or rather, fell on to his behind – next to her.

‘Jik? Jik!’

‘You’re gonna have to learn a few more words if you want a conversation,’ she told him. ‘Try my name, that’s easy. Nin.’ She pointed to herself with a greasy finger, feeling like she was in some corny Tarzan movie. ‘Me Nin.’

‘Jik?’

‘Nin. N – I – N.’

‘Jik?

‘I think you’re on a loser there,’ laughed Jonas.

He was already on his feet, stamping out the fires. Nin hurried down the last of her food.

‘Right. The worst part of the journey will be the Savage Forest. It’s pretty deadly if you don’t play it right. And Quick can’t survive the Heart either, so normally we’d have to walk all the way round it. Only I know this Quickmare just before you reach the Heart; it’s pretty nasty, but it brings you out into the Widdern south of London. With the money your Grandad so kindly gave you, we could get a train from London to Bury St Edmunds. Then, when we get to Bury, we find another gateway back into the Drift, see? Cut out the walk around the Heart, the longest part of the journey, straight away.’

‘Good old Grandad, I must remember to thank him when I get back.’ Nin rolled her pyjama bottoms up in her top along with Monkey, tying the arms in a knot to make a bundle. She felt like Dick Whittington only without the stick. Jik trailed along at her heels, like Whittington’s cat.

‘If ! Just because I’m taking you there doesn’t mean I think you’ll succeed. Is that thing following you?’ Jonas grinned. ‘Well, he might come in handy, I s’pose.’

‘Jik?’

‘Yeah, I’m talking about you.’

‘Yik!’

‘So,’ she asked as they headed across open heath
towards a cluster of trees in the middle of a field of daisies. ‘What can you tell me about the Terrible House of Strood. Like, why’s it called that?’

‘Because it’s terrible. Oh yeah, and it belongs to Mr Strood.’

‘All right, Mr Smarty Pants. I want detail.’

Jonas sighed. ‘Look, Nin, the thing about the House is that people who go in there don’t tend to come back out again, so that kind of puts a damper on the exchange of information. See what I mean? Apart from the BMs, of course. They come and go, but then they don’t spend a lot of time gossiping to the Quick.’

‘What about Mr Strood? Don’t you know anything about him either?’

‘Nope.’ Jonas shrugged. ‘There are tales about him, but a lot of them are made up. Some people say he’s a kind of demon. Others that he’s a bewitched monster who eats souls.’

Nin turned the stories over in her head. She guessed she would find out the truth eventually, if they ever reached the House. Right now, with the sun on her shoulders, Jik at her heels and Jonas leading the way, she was almost sure they would succeed. Almost.

She had been lucky so far, she knew that. She had Jonas, her boots and Grandad’s money to prove it. Perhaps her luck would hold. After all, she had already survived more danger in two days than she had faced in her whole life until now.

‘I’ll just have to trust to luck,’ she said cheerfully,
‘because that’s all I have.’

Their path took them through a cluster of twisted trees standing in a ring like a circle of dancers turned to wood as they swayed and bent. Shadow dappled them and the air was suddenly cool on their faces and hands.

‘Luck!’ said Jonas. ‘You need to come up with something a bit more concrete than luck if you want to survive the Terrible House of Strood, find Toby
and
get your life back.’

‘I’ve got a plan,’ said Nin, as the path took them out again into the sun and alongside the whispering river. ‘I just don’t know what it is yet.’

Underneath a nearby shrub a sinister patch of shadow with blood-red eyes couldn’t believe its ears.

Skerridge watched patiently as Right Madam and Obstacle, followed by the mud creature, wandered past him at the painfully slow pace anything that wasn’t a BM always used. He didn’t move until he thought they were far enough down the path that if they glanced back the trees would be just a shaggy blot on the horizon. Then he exploded.

He rolled out of the shrub and back into his own shape, shaking with laughter. He lay on the ground and roared, accidentally setting fire to a patch of feathery bracken. Scalding tears of mirth steamed on his cheeks.

Skerridge had never heard such a good joke in his life. When he had laughed himself into acid hiccups he
calmed down and thought about it.

Skerridge had been worrying about how to get Right Madam to the House, but there was no need to worry any more because she was WALKING TO THE HOUSE OF HER OWN ACCORD!

And if that wasn’t mad enough, the kid even thought she was going to get out again. Alive. Some chance! Not if Mr Strood had anything to do with it. Right Madam was destined for the same terrifying end as all the other kids over all the many years. Or then again, she might just end up as one of Strood’s horrible experiments.

Skerridge sniggered. Main point was, the Quick would cross the Drift on their own. No need for Skerridge to do a thing. But it was a long haul and a dangerous one and at some point they would run into trouble, get separated or simply leave one another alone for a moment. Then he could snatch Right Madam and run, leaving Obstacle to whatever horrible fate awaited him. After all, there were so many horrible fates in the Drift that sooner or later one of them was bound to get him.

Skerridge grinned. He grinned so fiercely that a rabbit shivering under a bush nearby had a heart attack and dropped dead of fright on the spot. Skerridge’s sharp ears picked up the soft sound of its crumpling body. Licking his lips, he grabbed a twig, speared the tiny body through and picked it up. Then he gave it a light roasting with his firebreath and popped it in whole.

When he was finished he yawned, scratched himself, straightened his waistcoat and disappeared.

o when do we get to the Savage Forest?’ asked Nin.

It was late in the afternoon. They had left the river behind and were crossing a stretch of open meadow. The wall of Raw was still visible behind them, looking smaller now and less threatening, like a beached cloud on the horizon. A red-painted barn dominated the field to their left, its doors slightly open on to darkness. From the waves of energy that came off it, Nin knew it had to be a gateway. Beyond the fields to their right lay a swathe of woodland, covering a range of low hills like green fur.

‘Tomorrow. Tonight, we need to get to Hilfian by sunset because we don’t want to risk the tombfolk. Indoors they can’t smell you. Out in the open your scent will travel on the air.’

‘There isn’t exactly the chance of a wash out here,’ grumbled Nin.

‘Not that scent, idiot! Life has its own aroma. A Quick wouldn’t smell it. A tombfolk will pick it up from miles away.’

Nin glanced over her shoulder to where Jik was trotting along at her heels. Her eye caught something on the horizon, a band of purple clouds that boiled against the sky, travelling swiftly towards them.

She sighed. ‘Look at those clouds! We’re gonna get soaked.’

‘A drop of rain won’t hurt you,’ said Jonas briskly, barely glancing at the sky.

‘Yeah, but what about Jik? I mean, won’t he kind of melt? Get washed away like a mud pie?’