Seven Sorcerers (40 page)

The Maug came on. It might look like a dog, but that was all. It could not see or smell in the normal sense, but it could detect the glow of a living soul from a hundred yards. It liked the bright ones best, the ones that glowed with years of glorious life to come. The young ones.

Ahead it could see three glowing forms and one dusky one. The dusky one it wasn’t interested in, Fabulous life was no use to a Quick Death. Of the three glowing shapes, the nearest shone with a silvery radiance, and the furthest with a clear, golden light. But the Maug ignored both of them, because trailing just behind the golden one was another little life, one so bright it was dazzling.

And that was the one it wanted.

It took the ground in vast leaps, roses withering and dying as it passed, dropping their silky petals like crimson snow. Ahead, Jik turned, ready to face it.

It reached him and went to leap over his head. He jumped, grabbing for its darkness-dripping underbelly. For a moment everything went black and cold and then it was gone and Jik was left gripping nothing. The Maug, to the Fabulous at least, was as insubstantial as the darkness it was made of.

Bewildered, Jik spun around, feeling his inner fires chill with fear as the Maug headed for Nin and Toby. Hss dropped back and reared up, poised to attack. But the Maug leaped again, sailing over her upraised legs.

Nin and Toby had nearly reached the marble temple at the centre of the rose garden, but Toby couldn’t run any more and Nin knew it. She could hear his breath rasping in his throat and when she picked him up, he was shaking. With his weight slowing her down she knew it was hopeless, but she ran anyway. She didn’t look back, except at the end.

Even if he had conquered the Hound inside him, it would never be gone entirely and Jonas flew over the petal-covered ground, his eyes lightning white. Taggit charged after him, even his long legs barely keeping pace. Jonas sped past Jik and kept going, close enough now to see Nin’s eyes as she turned to look Death in the face.

As the Maug gathered itself for a final spring it looked less like a dog and more like what it was. Darkness incarnate. Before it could leap, Jonas covered the last few yards, throwing himself at the creature and catching it side-on. The force of his body colliding with it, knocked it off course, rolling it on to the ground with Jonas underneath.

The Maug sprang back on to its feet in a strangely fluid movement, but it was too late. Taggit had already
grabbed Nin and Toby and run with them up the temple steps and in through the marble columns. Two strides in he found that the temple had no floor and all three of them vanished, plunging out of sight into the vaults below.

With its target vanished, the Maug turned on Jonas, still on the ground, half-frozen from his contact with the Death Dog. Hss launched herself at it from behind, scrabbling up on to its back and digging in with her hook-ended feet. As the Maug tossed and twisted, trying to reach her, Jonas rolled to safety and staggered to his feet. He heard Jik yelling ‘thik wik!’ and saw the mudman charging towards them across the grass.

Hss could feel Death creeping into her blood, but she held on, too terrified to let go, while the Maug tried to shake her off, scattering darkness around it like rain. Jik reached them, running straight through the Maug and out the other side. When he got there he was carrying Hss on his shoulders, her legs wrapped around him. He looked like he was wearing some weird kind of cloak.

Before the Death Dog had time to realise that Hss had gone, the three of them had charged into the temple and vanished from sight through the missing floor, leaving the Maug bewildered and cheated. It gave a howl that made ice flakes fall from the air, then it turned back to the House.

in scrambled to her feet and turned to face what ever it was that had grabbed her and Toby. It was horrible. It was at least nine foot tall, had a face like a nightmare and was wearing baggy trousers and a T-shirt which said: ‘Looks Ain’t Everythin”.

A second later, Hss and Jik tumbled in, closely followed by Jonas. Fortunately, Taggit was quick enough to catch them.

Toby was staring around him.

‘Bubbles,’ he whispered.

They were standing at the foot of a well. From about halfway down, the circular walls of the well gave way to pillars that made a tight circle of arches. Beyond them was a huge vault, filled with the radiance from thousands of marble-sized spheres, hanging suspended in the air.

‘Not bubbles,’ said Nin, also whispering, ‘memorypearls.’

Toby held out his hand, reaching towards them. His movement made the pearls closest to him drift away, but
then, from deeper within the vault, a single pearl spun down through the air to land in his palm.

‘That one must be yours, Toby,’ said Jonas. ‘Keep it safe.’

Toby clutched the pearl nervously. Taggit bobbed down until he was on a level with the boy.

‘Why don’t you pop it in your pocket ’ere what buttons up.’

While the goblin helped Toby tuck his pearl away, Jonas stepped forward.

‘I always said I wouldn’t do this, but …’ He held out his hand. There was a pause while the pearls skimmed aside, leaving a space around his hand. The pause lengthened.

Hss raised a leg, pointing to a disturbance in the pearl-filled air above and to the left. A pearl spun through the horde, dropping neatly into Jonas’s hand.

Nin stuck her hand out. Five minutes later, while they all stared with dismay at the undisturbed air, she put it down again.

‘It’s not here,’ she said blankly. ‘Skerridge lied.’

‘We carn’ ’ang about with Strood on our ’eels,’ said Taggit firmly a short while later, when Nin had stopped crying into Jonas’s shoulder. ‘We’ll ’ave to deal with the lyin’ bogeyman problem when we’re out of danger. The good thing is, it’ll take all the guards ’e’s got to get the Maug under control when it’s in that mood. Which’ll give us some time, like.’

‘It’s no use.’ Nin sniffed hard, rubbing her wet face on her pinafore. She felt so disappointed it was eating at her spirits. ‘Jonas said the tunnel to the sanctuary is gone, the roof ’s fallen in …’

‘What about Seraphine’s Secret Way?’ Jonas gave her a reassuring hug. ‘According to Gorgle it’s beneath the main house. He thinks it might run from the garden.’

‘It figures.’ Taggit looked thoughtful. ‘Apart from the roses, everythin’ ’ere’s the way she left it, more or less. ’Cept the temple we’re in. Gan Mafig put that up just after Seraphine ran away, an’ just before Strood took over. It ’ad a statue of Seraphine in it, but Strood must ’ave got rid of it when ’e took away the floor an’ started usin’ the vault to store memory pearls.’

‘A statue,’ said Nin, pointing. ‘You mean like that one?’

It was behind them, framed in the curve of the arches and almost hidden by the memory pearls. The marble figure wore a hooded robe over a long dress and was holding a lamp high in one hand. Around her neck hung a diamond-shaped pendant.

‘She was one lovely lady,’ sighed Taggit. ‘The sort o’ person who always made you feel better about things.’

Nin had to agree. And if the statue of Seraphine was anything like the original then she had been kind with it, and strong too. It must have taken strength to leave wealth and security behind for the sake of love. Feeling slightly better about things, Nin squeezed Toby’s hand and smiled down at him.

‘It says something!’ Jonas read the inscription around
the base aloud. ‘Let … love … light the way.’

‘Sounds like a clue t’ me,’ said Taggit firmly. ‘The Way. Must be the Secret Way, right? So the statue ’as somethin’ to do with the Way.’

‘It was in the temple, over this vault. So maybe the Secret Way is down here.’

They stared around. Jik frowned at the marble floor, trying to feel the Land behind it. There was definitely something there. Or rather nothing there. Hollowness.

‘Yik!’

‘Right, so where’s the way in?’

‘What’re you lookin’ at, kid?’ asked Nin.

Toby was staring at the ground underneath the statue. He pointed. At the back, the base of the statue was not level with the floor, tipping her slightly forward.

‘There’s something making her crooked.’

Taggit was already putting his arms around the statue, shifting it easily over to the left to uncover the metal ring of a trapdoor. He pulled up the marble slab and peered into the darkness below.

‘Looks like we found our way out! Well spotted, kid.’

Jonas was already digging into his pack, looking for his tinderbox and a candle.

‘I’ll go first. Nin, stay right behind me. Everyone else can see in the dark, right?’

There was a chorus of grunts, yiks and yssses. Nin watched anxiously as Jonas lit the candle, then went ahead, stepping down into the darkness. She had a nasty feeling it was all a bit too easy.

Strood paced the laboratory, walking round and round the hole left by the mudman’s unexpected arrival. He had retrieved the throwing star that had missed Ninevah Redstone and was clutching it as if waiting for another chance. Bits of him lay scattered about the floor. Other bits of him, the ones that were still roughly in the right place, were trying to heal in spite of the venom eating at his flesh. His face was half gone and he still only had one eye. Scribbins had been sick already and even Mrs Dunvice was wishing she hadn’t had breakfast.

‘Sho,’ slurred Mr Strood coolly. ‘Let me get thish right. My chief bogeyman and my gravedigger have turned traitor. All my guardsh have had to leave their poshts to deal with the eshcaped tigersh and the Maug, caushing a riot in the Engine.’

He paused as the lights flickered, just to demonstrate the point.

‘One guard ish trapped in a packing cashe, two have been mauled by the tigersh and one hash been eaten by the Maug, which you have only jusht managed to get under control.’

The Housekeeper’s yellow eyes watched her master warily as another chunk of flesh dropped off to join the mess on the floor. There seemed to be so much of it, but then it would keep trying to grow back.

‘Sssho, tell me, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GIRL?’

Mrs Dunvice swallowed hard. ‘It’s possible, sir, that she and her friends have found Seraphine’s Secret Way.’