Silver Hill (2 page)

PROLOGUE

Jack aimed the wand at his big toe and read the spell out again. He added his own sound effect as the single blue spark left the tip.

‘Kerpow!’

Long white hairs sprouted from nowhere. Soon his entire toe was covered.

‘Look Orin! Do you like my hairy toe?’

Orin scampered down from her cage and examined Jack’s foot.

‘You could try green hair next,’ she squeaked excitedly.

‘I’d better see if I can remove this lot first.’

Jack gave his hairy toe one last look before trying the reversal spell. As two blue sparks hit his toe the white hair disappeared. Jack sighed deeply as he flipped through the pages of his Book of Shadows.

‘This chapter tells me how to change the shape of my nose or ears, how to make warts appear and disappear, how to grow hair on different parts of my body but it doesn’t tell me how I can get rid of these spots.’

He went over to the mirror and examined his face. Seven days ago he’d had a spotty rash but now he looked like some strange creature with pale mottled skin. He was covered from head to foot in calamine lotion, which Nora insisted he had to use. Each itchy spot had been individually dabbed with a fingertip of the pink lotion, which had thankfully dried white. Nora said it would stop the itching, and it had, but it wasn’t speeding up his recovery. She’d refused to try any kind of magic to get rid of his chickenpox. Once Camelin knew he was
highly contagious
he’d decided not to fly over. The only message he’d written to Jack in his Book of Shadows had read…

… that was a week ago, and since then he’d not even tapped on his window.

Jack had felt too ill to even move for the first couple of days but now he was getting restless. Being confined to his bedroom until the blisters had gone wasn’t easy. The good thing was that he’d had plenty of time to explore the different chapters in his Book of Shadows and to write to Elan. He’d told her about the planting of the Hamadryad saplings, their rapid growth and how excited the Gnarles in Newton Gill Forest had been when he’d returned Allana to them. He’d sung his solo for them, the one he was going to sing at the end of term concert if he was better in time. Jack looked at his calendar and counted the days left ’til the end of term. He needed to be better soon. He smiled when he saw the big red circle around yesterday’s date when he should have gone to visit his new secondary school. He’d been worrying about it for weeks and now he’d missed it. The chickenpox had given him the best excuse in the world not to go but being ill had stopped him going out altogether.

He wasn’t exactly bored, but the days seemed endless and empty. After all the recent excitement and adventure it was hard having to act like an ordinary boy all the time. He longed to fly again and was missing Elan and Camelin. Elan had written and asked him how he felt but she’d not given him any real news. He’d spent hours reliving their adventures in Annwn, but the more he thought about it, the more he longed to return. A loud tap on his bedroom door made him jump.

‘Look who’s here to see you,’ said Grandad as he peered into the room.

It wasn’t hard to guess as Jack only had the one visitor. He smiled as Nora came in and put a basket down on his bed.

‘And how are you feeling today?’

‘I think I’m well enough to go out,’ Jack replied hopefully.

Nora inspected Jack’s spots and shook her head.

‘You might be able to pay us a visit in a couple of days but you won’t be going back to school until next week.’

‘When will I be able to fly again? I promised Charkle I’d help him look for his family.’

‘Flying is out of the question until you’re completely better.’

Jack sighed and sat down heavily on the bed making Nora’s basket wobble. She steadied it and smiled as she opened the lid.

‘I’ve got a surprise for you. I’ve brought you something to read, it might come in handy for when you go dragon hunting.’

Jack watched as Nora carefully unwrapped a rectangular package. She handed him one of her handmade books. It was red with an ornate clasp and decorated corners. The binding felt hard and almost scaly.

‘It’s my Dragon Lore book. It took me years to collect all the information inside and even longer to find a dragon skin to bind it with.’

‘Dragon skin!’

‘Yes, real dragon skin. Take good care of it Jack and learn all you can, I’ve got a feeling that if Charkle is to find his family he’s going to need all the help he can get.’

‘I’ll look after it, I promise.’

‘I’ll leave you in peace so you can study the book. You can return it on Friday. Your blisters should have gone by then.’

As soon as Nora closed the door, Jack opened the book and began to read. His spine tingled as he turned the pages. He could feel a new adventure was about to begin.

SECRETS

‘Let’s have a look at you,’ said Grandad as he inspected Jack’s spots. ‘Do they still itch?’

‘Not all of them. I can go over to Ewell House today, can’t I?’

‘Nora seemed to think some fresh air might do you good. She also said something about you having a book to return.’

Jack nodded and stood still as Grandad dabbed all his spots with calamine lotion.

‘There you go, get yourself dressed. You can have your breakfast downstairs today then get straight off to Nora’s. She said you could stay for lunch if you wanted to but if you don’t feel well enough you can come back. I’m not going anywhere.’

Jack waited until Grandad closed his bedroom door then did a victory dance around the room before feeding Orin.

‘Do you want to come too?’

Orin shook her head and started squeaking. Jack held up his hand for her to stop.

‘Hang on, let me get my wand. Now, what did you say?’

‘They’re too busy to play with me.’

‘Who are?’

‘Fergus and Berry, the last time we were there they told me off for following them and said I wasn’t allowed in the herborium.’

‘What do you think they’re up to?’

‘They wouldn’t tell me. They just said it was important.’

‘Does Nora know?’

‘They made me promise not to tell her. They said it was a secret and the less I knew about it the better.’

‘That doesn’t sound right. I wonder what Motley’s asked them to do?’

‘I don’t think it was Motley. He’s been doing an important job for Nora with the rest of the Night Guard. Fergus and Berry were cross because he wouldn’t let them go along. They were grumbling about being left out. Fergus said it’s because they’re the youngest and smallest. I know they were given some jobs to do and told to guard the house but I don’t think Motley said anything about the herborium.’

‘Are you sure you don’t want to come?’ ‘I don’t want to see them. Berry said to mind my own business and Fergus told me to stay away.’

‘Don’t worry. I’ll try to find out what’s going on. I think I might know who’s behind all this.’

Jack was grateful there was a shortcut to Ewell House. It meant that no one would see him with a spotty, blotchy face. As he walked through the hedge at the bottom of Grandad’s garden he breathed in deeply. The trees and air smelt good. He couldn’t wait to tell Camelin everything he’d learnt about dragons from Nora’s book. He wasn’t sure how it was going to help them look for Charkle’s family but at least he felt prepared. In fact, he couldn’t wait to begin.

Even though Jack was eager to see Camelin again, he didn’t rush. It felt so good to be out and about. The bright sunlight almost blinded him as he stepped out of the shady tunnel. Before going up to the house he went round to the back of the rockery and put his head into Camelin’s secret cave.

‘Saige! Are you there?’

A load croak came from a pile of leaves at the back.

‘I’ve got a question for you.’

Jack waited until Saige hopped to the opening.

‘How many chickenpox spots have I got?’

The little green frog didn’t answer straight away and Jack was about to ask her again when she croaked the answer.

‘Four hundred and twenty-eight.’

‘Four hundred and twenty-eight! Wow! Are you sure?’

Saige turned and hopped back to the leaves repeating the answer each time she leapt.

‘Four hundred and twenty-eight, four hundred and twenty-eight, four hundred and twenty-eight.’

As Jack stood up a familiar voice came from a nearby tree.

‘Four hundred and twenty-eight what?’

‘Chickenpox spots.’

‘Well don’t come near me I don’t want any of them.’

‘I’m not contagious anymore.’

‘You don’t look too good, you’re all blotchy.’

‘It’s only lotion. Besides, Nora said ravens don’t catch chickenpox.’

‘You might give me ravenpox. That’d be much worse than chickenpox.’

‘There’s no such thing as ravenpox.’

‘We’re both raven boys, you don’t know what we could catch.’

Jack decided to change the subject.

‘What have Fergus and Berry been up to in the herborium?’

‘Shhh! Don’t shout so loud.’

‘I wasn’t shouting, I just asked you a question.’

Camelin glided down to the top of the rockery. He nodded his head towards the trees and glowered before hopping down to the cave.

‘Perhaps we ought to go and visit Saige, see how she’s getting on.’

‘I’ve just been. She was fine.’

Camelin pecked Jack’s shoe.

‘Ow! What was that for?’

‘I think we need to visit Saige. Now.’

Jack realised Camelin had something to say that he didn’t want the trees to hear. He bent down and shuffled into the cave behind Camelin.

‘What’s up?’

‘I don’t want anyone to know about Fergus and Berry. They’ve been doing a little job for me.’

‘Job?’

‘A very important job, I’ve been very busy this week.’

‘Too busy to write? You didn’t answer any of my messages.’

‘I couldn’t.’

‘It wouldn’t have taken long. Just a
hello
would have been nice.’

‘I told you I couldn’t. I haven’t had my wand all week, not since you got the spots.’

‘Did Nora find out about the dustbin you materialised in your loft? Does she know how many sweets you ate?’

‘One hundred and sixty-two,’ croaked Saige.

Camelin strutted over to the back of the cave and addressed the pile of leaves.