The Watching Wood (3 page)

‘You might want to hurry a bit. The Supremes don’t like lateness, and after your– Well, after yesterday …’

‘Oh yeah, thanks. Yesterday, yeah, we were a little–’ She rose quickly, her tray smashing into his, tossing plates and food everywhere.

‘Oh, fudge, sorry!’

‘Sorry!’

‘No, that was my fault, I’m so sorry. I’m always so–’

‘No, that was me. I’m too–’

‘–clumsy,’ they said at the same time.

‘My God,’ Jenny said quietly to Grace, ‘he’s Boy-Adie.’

‘You!’ a student prefect yelled. ‘Clean that up, immediately, and get to the arena.’

The girls scrambled to help with the icky mess, Grace nearly gagging on the stench of the algae slime all over the floor.

3

Bubble-Running

The girls didn’t catch Boy-Adie’s name as they hurried to join the rest of the crowd surging towards the arena – an oval space the size of a football pitch – that seemed far too huge to be an open courtyard in the middle of the castle. He trotted ahead of them, tripping over himself in nervous haste to reach his seat, occasionally glancing back anxiously as if to urge them to move faster. He slotted into place with the rest of his team, waving at Adie as the girls passed by.

‘Oh great,’ Grace grumbled, spotting that the only remaining seats in the bleachers were again next to the Hawk Falls team. ‘Think they’ll get up as soon as we sit down?’

She sighed as the pixie-cut girl slapped her hand on the seat next to her and sneered, ‘These seats are taken.’

Jenny grabbed Grace’s arm, squeezed past others in the
row, and practically sat on pixie-cut’s hand.

‘Thanks,’ she said, ‘for holding them for us.’

Grace couldn’t help grinning, and waved for the others to join them. The shrill voice of Lady Hecate rang out.

‘Forget what training you’ve had. Forget who you know and what spells you’ve cast. It is all in the past. One thing only matters from here on out. One number.’

Standing on a scaffold built above the bleachers at one side of the arena, she snapped her fingers. Timber struts broke free of the structure, speeding to hover in the centre of the field, forming a long frame. Within the frame wooden letters appeared, like those on the wall of the Venetian Room, to form the names of every team.

The list went on until, at the very bottom,

‘Wait,’ Rachel said, ‘how come we’re on minus five?’

There was a collective snicker from the girls in red uniform.

‘That’s what happens when idiot newbies don’t know how to behave amongst their betters.’

Grace felt Jenny’s body tense next to her, and knew something bad was coming.

‘Listen, Blondie,’ Jenny said.

‘My name is Victoria Meister,’ pixie-cut interrupted. ‘You should remember it. It will be engraved on this year’s trophy.’

‘Look,’ Grace said quickly, ‘we’re sorry if we got off on the wrong foot yesterday. This is all new to us, that’s all. We didn’t mean to upset anybody. Can’t we start from scratch and be friends?’

She reached out her hand. Victoria smiled sweetly, and shook it.

‘Ow!’ Grace screamed, snapping into the back of her seat as the Hawk Falls team erupted in laughter.

‘Surely even a witch-oag right out of the cradle knows what a Statica Ring is!’ Victoria sneered.

Jenny grabbed Victoria’s hand and snatched the ring from her finger, jumping a little with the same electric shock that had rushed through Grace. Victoria’s dark eyes flashed beneath the short blonde hair, and Grace could feel a worrying surge of energy around them.

‘Silence!’ Lady Hecate’s voice boomed. ‘As I said, the only thing that matters from here on is one number.’

She looked pointedly to the Trial-board in the middle of the field. St John’s had dipped another five points and Hawk
Falls, the name sliding all the way down to second-last place, had dropped to minus five. A gasp echoed around the arena, and Victoria Meister’s eyes nearly fell out of her head.

‘No!’

‘Guess we’re not so different after all,
Vicky
,’ Jenny said, grinning.

‘Jenny,’ Grace whispered, ‘don’t push it.’

But there was no time for another argument as the field in front of them suddenly sank a couple of metres and then surged with muck, becoming more and more liquid until it was filled with water. Madame Three tottered to the edge of the scaffold and raised her hands.

‘For your very first Trial, choose two members to compete in the Paired Bubble-Run Race. Let the Trials begin!’

The arena buzzed with excitement as the other teams began picking their two competitors.

‘What the hell is bubble-running?’ said Una.

‘I read about it once,’ Delilah replied. ‘It’s like flame-running, I think, but on water. You have to kick your feet back more so the water spins around you. If you get it right, you’ll end up running inside a big bubble.’

‘Right,’ said Grace, ‘it’ll have to be you and Adie then. You guys ready?’

‘But what are the rules?’ Adie asked worriedly. ‘Do we just run and that’s it?’

‘The others are lining up holding hands,’ said Grace. ‘What
do you think, Delilah? One big bubble?’

‘Yes, I think so. That’s going to be hard – we’ll have to keep perfect time together.’

‘On your marks,’ Madame Three shrieked.

‘Woah, they’re starting already,’ Jenny said, pushing Adie and Delilah towards the steps. ‘Hurry.’

‘I don’t know,’ Adie said, trying to turn back. ‘I don’t think I can do this.’

‘You
have
to … I mean, of course you can. And give those Hawk harpies a good run for their money while you’re at it.’

Grace gently took over, leading Adie down the steps as Delilah trotted ahead of them.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said, ‘we’re not here to win, okay? We’re just biding time ’til we can find a way out of here.’

That seemed to relax Adie a little, and she smiled. ‘Okay. Just get through it, go through the motions.’

‘That’s it. Good luck.’

‘Get set!’ Madame Three’s voice warbled with excitement.

Adie and Delilah levitated and pushed into their place in the line of pairs hovering just above the water.

‘Go!’

A siren rang out in tune with Madame’s Three’s voice and there was a flurry of action. No-one moved forward at first, but dozens of feet pedalled madly, throwing growing waves of water behind them. Within a few seconds several teams had formed bubbles, but it was the Hawk Falls team that
surged forward first. Victoria and a shorter red-haired team-mate ran in perfect time, rolling the bubble along the water like hamsters in a plastic ball. Adie and Delilah were already well behind the others. When they finally managed to form a bubble, Grace and Jenny let out an almighty squawk.

‘Go Delilah! Go Adie!’

The two friends moved tentatively, looking a little wobbly as they tried to keep their feet in sync.

‘Move it!’ Jenny yelled, jumping on the spot. ‘Come on, you can do it!’

‘Take it easy,’ Grace said. ‘They’re not trying to win, remember?’

‘Why not? They’re down there, they got themselves moving and … they’re really picking up speed. Look at them go!’

Adie and Delilah had obviously found a rhythm, and were making steady progress. Despite her intentions, Grace found herself becoming caught up in the excitement.

‘They’re gonna pass out that lot,’ Una said, punching the air. ‘We won’t be last!’

But the two girls in the bubble were even more ambitious. Grace could see Adie smiling as they passed another team, then another, and another.

‘They’re flying!’ Rachel yelled over the cheering racket of the arena. ‘We could win this!’

Jenny’s boisterous applauding got louder and more urgent
as the St John’s team raced on, getting closer and closer to the Hawk Falls bubble. They were now in fourth place and closing fast on the boys in third. Grace recognised one of them, with thick hair tied back, as the captain of Aura’s team. The second boy was smaller in build, but able to keep up with his leader. Adie and Delilah skirted around the pair, but the boys swerved towards them in an effort to smash them into the wall enclosing the water.

‘Hey!’ Jenny shouted. ‘Cheaters! Didn’t anyone see that? Isn’t there a referee?’

‘Ha!’ One of the more athletic of the Hawk Falls’ girls snickered, and tossed her shock of wild hair, which was an unnatural shade of purple. ‘You think you’re at play-school? It’s first over the finish line, idiot, no matter what. Get with the programme.’

‘But they could really get hurt!’

Grace was talking to herself, but there was a cackle from the girls in red uniform and their purple-haired second-in-command.

‘So what if they do? Will one of your teachers kiss the boo-boo and make it all better?’

Purple-hair had raised her voice deliberately, and laughter was spreading up the bleachers, but Grace was too worried to care. Her friends in the bubble had made it past Aura’s team-mates, but only after another close call with the edge of the arena. The boy and girl in second place looked like
twins – both tall and skinny with matching mops of raven-black hair – and although they didn’t look powerful, they moved over the water with amazing speed and grace. They glanced back occasionally, keeping an eye on the approaching St John’s team, and Grace hoped their more elegant style meant they’d be less aggressive.

She was wrong. As Adie and Delilah pulled up behind them, the Raven twins suddenly jumped in perfect unison, bouncing their bubble over the one behind. It rebounded on the St John’s bubble, dunking it into the water, before bouncing ahead again. Adie and Delilah tipped forward, their hands gripping each other, trying to maintain their balance and speed as their bubble flipped back into the air and skidded across the surface of the fake lake, out of control.

‘Oh no,’ Una grabbed Grace’s hand. ‘They’re going to crash into the wall!’

But the two girls were catching on quick. Delilah seemed to be giving fierce instructions as they sped towards the curved wall and, just in the nick of time, mimicking the Raven twins, she and Adie jumped in unison, bouncing backwards onto the track. Two more epic bounces forward, and they were in third place again. The Ravens zig-zagged in front, trying to block them overtaking, but the two girls slipped next to them, barely glancing off their bubble. The twins were off balance for a split second, but it was long enough for Adie and Delilah to sneak into second place.

‘Woohoo!’ Jenny was almost leaping into the next row with excitement. ‘They’re gonna win! Come on, Adie! Come on, Delilah! Move it! Just one more!’

It was infectious. Grace could feel her heart in her mouth as her friends closed the gap between them and Hawk Falls. She couldn’t help herself.

‘You can do it! Go Adie, go Delilah. You can do it!’

And then – a hiccup. Not even a hiccup. A momentary loss of concentration. Maybe they were tired, or nervous. Maybe it was just that they were inexperienced, but for a second Adie and Delilah lost their rhythm. They fell out of sync, their feet fumbling, their gaze fixed downwards as they tried to match up again. But at the speed they were going it was more than enough.

The bubble careened across the track, going even faster as they tripped and tumbled inside it, and smashed straight into Victoria Meister and her red-haired team-mate. Both bubbles burst in a halo of liquid, and four girls toppled into the murky water of the arena. Spluttering to the surface, Victoria leaned on Delilah’s head, pushing the tiny girl under as she and her team-mate tried to struggle out of the lake. Adie and Delilah were narrowly missed by a speeding bubble, and all four girls were swallowed in its wake.

‘They’re going to drown!’ Grace cried.

Jenny leapt into the next row and Grace followed, but they couldn’t make it through the roaring crowds.

‘Rachel!’ Grace yelled. ‘We can’t get through. Can you fly down there?’

‘I’m on it.’

Rachel took off into the air, graceful as ever, soaring towards her friends in the lake with arms outstretched, until she smacked into nothing and landed in a heap at the base of the bleachers. Dazed, she looked up at Grace.

‘There’s something there. Like a wall, but invisible. I can’t get to them.’

‘Cheating,’ Madame Three’s voice echoed through the air, ‘will not be tolerated.’

The raven-haired twins had crossed the finish line and the Trial-board above the arena was fluttering again, but all Grace could see were the flailing limbs of her friends, trapped like bumpers in a giant pinball machine.

The water was suddenly sucked from the edges of the arena, rising in the centre to form two seats, one holding Adie, the other Delilah. With a sweep of her hand, Adie raised another two, rescuing Victoria Meister and her red-haired partner. The remaining teams finished the race as the watery chairs travelled to one side, depositing the girls safely on the edge. Grace heaved a sigh of relief, remembering the feeling of being pulled from the river back home by one of Adie’s watery creations. Her friend really did have a flair for that kind of thing.

Grace raced down to meet her soaking friends and hugged
them tight. She did not miss the look of pure venom from Victoria. The Trial-board had settled and St John’s were now at minus fifteen. Hawk Falls was still in second last place, with minus five. Grace felt a growing knot of dread in her stomach. There was something about Victoria’s glare that sent shivers up her spine. The Trials were dangerous already, and she now had no doubt that vengeance would come from Hawk Falls. She had to find a way to get her friends out of this strange and frightening world, and back home where they belonged.