The Serpent in the Glass (The Tale of Thomas Farrell) (22 page)

‘Where’s Treice?’ Jessica asked.

‘In the coach behind,’ Thomas answered, indicating toward it with his head.

Jessica looked back. ‘I guess he must’ve been tired. Maybe he wanted some sleep?’

‘Goibhniu!’ Stanwell called out and the Gate ahead slowly opened.

‘Is Goibhniu the name of the gatekeeper, Stanwell?’ Thomas asked.

‘Oh no, Thomas, there’s no one keepin’ any gates here,’ Stanwell replied, chuckling. ‘Goibhniu is — what would you call it — a sort of password you might say.’

‘Really?’ Merideah said. ‘Can I say it next time?’

Stanwell laughed again. ‘Well, the door do only open for those who’ve been approved like, and that doesn’t include any cadets I’m afraid. We couldn’t ’ave any ol’ Fintan, Fingal, or Flaherty opening the Gate, now could we?’

Penders, Merideah and Jessica exchanged puzzled looks, but Thomas looked back and studied the edges of the dark forest before it disappeared behind the huge wall that wasn’t there just moments before.

— CHAPTER FIFTEEN —

The Feast of Fires

A large pumpkin, wearing a sinister grimace carved out by Guth Roach, glowed menacingly at Thomas from a nearby table. Hallowe’en wasn’t a time of year the Westhrops celebrated. Indeed, they celebrated very little unless it involved the receiving or saving of a considerable sum of money. So Thomas had little experience of making pumpkin heads, which is why he’d chosen to help Penders rather than make his own. Penders’ pumpkin wasn’t as large as Guth’s, the mouth was uneven and one of the eyes lopsided. It certainly wouldn’t win the competition. Several teachers were acting as judges, among them Miss Havelock and the Headmaster.

Mr Trevelyan sat at the teachers’ table. He hadn’t so much as spoken a word to Thomas, or the others, since that day in the Grange a couple of weeks ago; though, of course, last week had been half term and spent back in Halten Layme in a household making absolutely no preparations for Hallowe’en, and doing its best to pretend the irksome event didn’t exist (the trick-or-treaters did so scare Mrs Westhrop!). Thomas thought the Headmaster might have forgotten. He’d told them they would start lessons at the Academy after Hallowe’en. And Hallowe’en had come, but still they’d heard nothing. He might have thought it all a dream if it weren’t for the fact that Jessica and the others spoke about little else.

After the winner (Georgiana Keavy, who’d styled a very creative pumpkin head with a gaping mouth) had been announced, all were invited to grab their coats and make their way out onto the field. Ten minutes later, Thomas stood watching Penders duck his head into a large plastic cauldron for the fourth time. Some distance away the fire crackled. Thomas looked up to see Stanwell poking a long wooden stick into the large bonfire in the middle of the field. Then he caught Jessica and Merideah walking toward him through the fire-lit night. Penders’ appleless face appeared from the cauldron just as Jessica and Merideah reached them.

Jessica ignored Penders as he wiped the water from his eyes. ‘We’re to be outside 2B in five minutes. Mr Trevelyan says we won’t need anything except our coats.’

‘What?’ Penders looked at his watch. ‘We’ll miss dinner!’

Merideah gave him a withering look. ‘You can stay if you want.’

Jessica spoke before Penders could reply. ‘Have you seen Treice? We couldn’t find him.’

‘I’ll look,’ offered Thomas.

‘I’ll be right there. I just wanna get at least one apple if I’m going to miss me dinner.’ Penders plunged his head into the water-filled cauldron again.

Merideah shook her head. ‘We’re going to get cleaned up. We smell of pumpkin. We’ll see you there.’

The number of stars he could see in the night’s sky surprised Thomas as he made his way from Cnocmorandolmen to the awaiting Darkledun carriage. The sky above Darkledun Manor, a location more remote than the village of Holten Layme, displayed myriad stars; but here the whole vault of heaven teemed with pinpricks of yellow, red, blue and many hues in between. It didn’t seem like the same sky, but it must have been. Or perhaps his eyesight really was better here?

Penders traipsed behind Thomas, finishing the last few bites of the apple he’d eventually managed to win from the cauldron’s depths, whilst Jessica and Merideah stuck close behind Stanwell as he lolloped forward at some speed. Treice walked a few paces up ahead, his face pointing skyward. Thomas hoped he didn’t trip and fall. He’d eventually found Treice lying on the Manor’s field, just far enough outside the fire’s glow to avoid being recognized. Jessica and Merideah hadn’t been happy at the boys being late, though none of this ire had been directed at Treice despite it being largely his fault. The Club members, Jessica had informed them, had already gone through.

The carriage awaited them on the dirt path, its horses eager to pull away. A number of cadets stood gathered by the middle coach, each wearing the fawn-coloured uniform Thomas had seen on the cadets in the library on his first visit to the Grange.

‘Ah, changed already, that do be good,’ Stanwell said to the group as he approached the carriage.

Thomas now recognized the faces of the Club members in the light of the carriage’s lanterns. They acknowledged Thomas and his friends, a couple of the girls among their number waving at Jessica. But any word of greeting was quickly cut off by Stanwell.

‘We do be late, so all in please! You’ — Stanwell looked at Thomas and his friends — ‘young’ns will ‘ave to get changed on the way. Your uniforms do be in the first coach!’

The Club members jumped into the five back coaches, leaving the first coach free. Penders’ concerned expression mirrored Thomas’s. Treice looked like he was going to faint.

‘Mr Clear!’ Merideah sounded shocked. ‘We can’t all get changed in the same coach!’

Stanwell pulled himself up onto the driver’s seat and placed his black tricorn on his head. ‘You can use the ol’ changin’ rooms.’

‘Changing rooms?’ Jessica repeated.

Stanwell took up the reins. ‘Yes, in the Undercarriage. Now on you get, the ’orses be chompin’ at the bit. We’ll ’ave to make like an ’ound after a coney we will!’

The carriage started moving as soon as Thomas shut the coach door. Five packages wrapped in brown paper lay on the seats, and each had been labelled with a name.

Jessica picked up the one bearing her name. ‘What did he mean by Undercarriage?’

‘That, I assume,’ Thomas said, pointing to the floor where lay a small hatch door about two by three feet. He hadn’t noticed it before, as it blended into the dcor of the coach quite well. A small wooden ring protruded from one end of it.

‘We’re not opening that!’ Merideah said, but too late. Penders had grabbed the ring and given it a tug.

The hatch popped up and the children stepped back, expecting to see the ground rushing past beneath them. Instead, however, they saw a flight of wooden steps leading down.

Penders eyed the steps as they shook from side to side. ‘Well, I’m not going down there.’

Merideah raised an eyebrow. ‘You opened it.’

Suddenly the carriage leapt violently, as if they’d just driven over a large bump in the road, and the children were thrown to the floor.

‘Sorry ‘bout that,’ came Stanwell’s voice from above. ‘The Guards don’t be movin’ fast enough sometimes.’

‘He ran over a Guard?’ Penders asked as he grabbed the seat and hauled himself back up.

Jessica stood and looked around. ‘Where’s Treice?’

They all looked down at the wobbling steps.

‘Oh dear,’ said Merideah. ‘Treice! Can you hear us? Are you OK?’

There was no reply.

Jessica started down the swaying steps. ‘Come on, he might be hurt.’

The rest followed warily. Thomas came last, glad when his feet reached the relatively firm floor at the bottom of the short flight of steps. He found himself in a chamber about twice the size of the coach above, illuminated by four lanterns swinging erratically from the ceiling. Beneath one of these lanterns stood a somewhat shaken, but otherwise uninjured, Treice, though whether his state was due to his fall or the attention Jessica and Merideah were now giving him, Thomas couldn’t tell.

Five doors were set in the wooden walls of the Undercarriage. Penders moved to the nearest one and opened it as Thomas came up behind him. Inside lay a room slightly smaller than the coach above. A tall mirror had been fixed to one of the walls, and a bench with a shelf underneath sat opposite a coat stand that moved a little every time the carriage hit a bump in the road. A single lantern hung from the ceiling.

‘How’s this possible?’ Merideah asked. All five of the children now stood staring into the changing room.

Penders chewed intently on his gum and then shook his head. ‘No idea, but there’s one each. I’ll grab the uniforms!’

Thomas and Penders were the first to appear out of their changing rooms in their new cadet uniforms, although the girls had been the first to disappear into their own.

Penders held up his arms and examined the clothes. ‘I like it!’

Thomas cast an eye over his own uniform. It fitted well and felt comfortable. It had obviously been made to measure. The fawn-coloured tunic hung low over the belt, covering most of the similarly-coloured trousers. Upon his wrists, the cuffs of the tunic were lost beneath bracers of black leather, the latter a complement to the ankle-high black leather boots. Lastly, a long, hooded cloak, also fawn-coloured, with short sleeves hung from his shoulders. Although comfortable, Thomas couldn’t help thinking he looked somewhat strange. He hated dressing up. It was one of the reasons he disliked the various school plays he’d been dragged into as an extra over the years. Standing in front of people was bad enough, but doing so in home-made costumes made it all the worse. Still, the Academy uniform was far from homespun. It had been made well and with good material. He looked at the badge emblazoned on the right breast of his tunic and cloak — the emblem of the ringed serpent; somehow it just seemed fated that the symbol would always be with him.

Treice stepped out of his room, his uniform covering well his tall, athletic frame. He looked around nervously. ‘Are the girls out yet?’ Thomas didn’t think Treice was going to like looking silly in front of Jessica and Merideah. If Thomas was honest with himself, he felt the same way.

As if by some unseen signal, Jessica and Merideah appeared together, but they remained silent about their new outfits, which only differed from the boys’ in that instead of trousers they wore long skirts that ended just above the ankle. After an exchange of glances, they all made their way out of the Undercarriage and back up into the coach. Thomas entered last and shut the hatch door firmly.

‘No “sunny roofs” tonight,’ they heard Stanwell shout incorrectly from above. ‘There be no sun anyway, but the lanterns’ll do.’

‘I hope it’s warm in the Hall,’ said Jessica, as she pulled her duffle coat closer about her. She turned and stared at the lantern on her side of the coach as if it might offer some warmth.

Thomas wasn’t bothered too much. Girls were always cold. It was a little chilly, admittedly, but not as cold as it should’ve been at this time of year — in their world at least. He looked out the window. They’d passed the Inner Gate some time ago and were now on the paved road heading south. Not much could be seen at night-time, but Thomas’s eyes felt drawn to the dark mass of Muddlestump Wood looming in the blackness. It was as if the trees were gathering all the darkness of the world into their unmoving canopies. He shivered and pulled his eyes away from the window to idly examine the coach in the lanterns’ light. His eyes fixed upon a black box above his seat. He’d seen it before, but had never given it much thought; after all, he’d been more interested in what he could see outside of the carriage on his first visit than what lay inside it. Thomas absently flipped down what appeared to be the cover of the box. A panel opened revealing a large dial with various marked positions around it. It currently pointed in the ‘off’ position. A small slide lever, also with settings marked along its length, sat beneath the dial. Merideah, and then the rest, turned to look at Thomas’s discovery.

‘What d’you suppose it does?’ Penders said, reaching a hand out toward the box.

Merideah pushed his arm aside. ‘Don’t touch! Read first. Men never read the instructions!’

Penders scowled as the rest of them looked at the panel more closely. Above the dial were the words
SEASONAL SETTING
. The various positions around the dial read
SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN,
and
WINTER
.

‘Fascinating,’ said Merideah as she spun the dial carefully to
WINTER
. Immediately the coach grew colder and ice started to appear on the windows. Jessica looked as if she was going to freeze on the spot. Merideah frowned and switched the dial to
SUMMER
at which point a wave of heat swept through the coach. She looked around, confusion on her small face. ‘Where are the heaters?’

‘I don’t see any,’ said Thomas. ‘It’s just sort of warm all of a sudden.’

Penders, determined to have his go, switched the dial to
AUTUMN
and the heat diminished immediately. The windows were shut, so Thomas was surprised to see a few brown leaves come fluttering from out of nowhere and settle on the floor of the coach.

Jessica pulled at her hair. ‘I wonder how it works?’

‘And I wonder what this does?’ Penders said, as he slid the slider to a position that, too late, Thomas realized read
REALLY WINDY
. Immediately gusts of air blustered through the coach, scattering Treice’s golden locks about his face.

‘Push that back,’ said Merideah as she pulled Penders out the way and reached for the slider. As she did so however, Treice — who’d been leaning innocently next to the panel — got knocked by Penders and, holding out his hand to steady himself, accidentally spun the dial and pushed the slider all the way to the left.

When the children arrived in the Gardens of Arghadmon they stepped out of a coach filled with thick fog. Interestingly, it never followed them but hung at the door as if not daring to pass.