Maddigan's Fantasia (37 page)

They had a moment of precious time.

‘Go, Garland!’ Boomer was screaming, and Garland, clasping Jewel to her chest, and deciding that climbing down into the tunnel was too much of a risk, dodged this way and that, stumbled round the edge of the cave, and raced towards daylight and the outside world.

Once outside she would be able to smell the forest – to see the trees, could run between the leaves and branches.

She looked back over her shoulder and saw Maska holding Eden in one hand and Boomer in the other. He grinned at her, though only half his face was working.

‘You’d leave your friends?’ he asked her. And, as Garland found herself hesitating, Ozul ran to stand to between her and that wonderful, beckoning freedom. She knew that even if she ran back towards the tunnel at the back of the cave it would take a few desperate moments to squeeze herself and Jewel down through its narrow opening. Ozul would catch her easily.

‘Give her back to me,’ Ozul said, ‘and we just might be merciful to your friends.’

Garland stood there, holding the baby close to her. She could not surrender Jewel to Ozul and Maska. Yet she could
not desert Eden, and certainly not Boomer, who had been her friend ever since she could remember, and who, she suddenly realized, was precious to her. And, anyhow, she certainly did not believe that half-promise of mercy.

‘Give her back to me,’ repeated Ozul, advancing carefully, his hands spread wide.

And then something bounded out of the green forest in front of the cave … something that sprang into the cave like some sort of wild creature, crying out, even as it leapt, in a familiar voice.

‘Let her alone!’ said Timon. ‘She belongs to me.’ And he struck Ozul a blow that sent him tumbling backwards across the cave and crashing against the wall. Maska immediately dropped Boomer and Eden, and reached for this transformed Timon. Grabbing Timon’s shoulder with his left hand, he swung his right hand back to deliver a blow. But the blow never fell. Maska began to convulse once more. Sparks sprang from his joints, and he began a mad drumming dance across the cave.

‘Run!’ Timon shouted to Garland and the boys, speaking in a strangled voice, as if he were being twisted and tormented by powers that could not be seen. ‘Run before I lose myself …’ his voice faded.

Garland did not want to go near Maska, who was jazzing and sparking. There was time now. Thanks to what was left of Timon there was time. She made for the tunnel, and, holding the baby against her chest with one arm, struggled along it, followed by Eden and Boomer.

‘Once we get the converter to Solis,’ gasped Garland. ‘Once it is installed there we’ll be free of all this. We’ll go back to being the Fantasia we used to be.’

‘Didn’t you hear what he said?’ cried Eden. ‘The Nennog has friends there in Solis. There are people there who might take the converter over. And we don’t know who they are.’

They came out of the tunnel into the ruins of the Outland, then walked back through the forest to the old road the vans had taken. Solis seemed close – so close – but they stood staring towards it, hesitating like desolate lost children, confused about what to do next.

‘How can the Nennog have friends in Solis if he lives hundreds of years on ahead of us?’ cried Boomer, struggling to fasten his wings back into obedient folds so he could stare around them at the city. ‘It doesn’t make sense.’

‘He can’t come and go himself, but he could send his servants back through time,’ said Eden, ‘and they could work for him. And he had his beginning back in your time. I should have thought of that.’

‘Let’s warn Yves!’ shouted Boomer.

Garland looked sadly down at the sleeping Jewel and then at Boomer, shaking her head.

‘If we ran all the way we’d still never be there in time,’ she said. ‘Unless …’ She looked at Eden. ‘Could you magic us there?’

Eden sighed. ‘My strongest magic comes to me through the Talisman,’ he said looking at Jewel. ‘But they’ve given her something to make her sleep very deeply. I can’t get much of a connection.’

‘What can we do?’ asked Boomer. ‘There must be something we can do.’

‘There is,’ said a voice, and there was Timon, green-scaled and ghastly, yet somehow still partly Timon, struggling to be himself, half walking, half sliding down towards them from the bush.

‘Don’t trust me too much,’ he said. ‘I can’t be trusted. But I’ve found I can steal some of the Nennog’s knowledge just as he can steal from me. Some of his strength too.’

With an eerie power he hoisted aside part of a tumbled wooden frame, and rolled a rock away to reveal something like
a manhole cover in the track in which they were standing. ‘There used to be a drain here, back in the old times.’ He lifted the cover easily, though it had been jammed closed for perhaps a hundred years.

‘When the city stood here it was a city of tunnels,’ he said.

‘Too many tunnels,’ said Eden. ‘I just – I just can’t do another one. I mean I’d be shut down there in the dark again with the world sort of pressing down on me, and I’d be there with
you
, and you’re – well, you said not to trust you.’

‘Scared of being shut in?’ Timon mumbled. ‘Fight it! You have to. I mean I’m fighting this …’ He touched his green throat, and the scales on his cheeks. ‘I’m not doing too badly, am I?’

‘Well, I’m not going down there,’ said Boomer. He touched a button and his wings unfolded. ‘I’m going to fly.’

‘You could take Jewel,’ suggested Garland, looking at Timon, but he shook his head.

‘I can’t trust myself,’ he said, ‘but I think this old drain is the quickest way into Solis. For some reason I seem to remember something – an old plan of some kind. I think it leads to the very heart of the city, so we wouldn’t have to wind our way through markets and streets of houses. I’ll come with you but I – well, you mustn’t give me Jewel.’ Then he looked at Garland. ‘Do you trust me?’ he asked.

‘You told me not to, so I don’t. But I have to, don’t I?’ she replied, looking down into the drain. There were steps like old iron staples vanishing into the dark. Eden was already finding his way down. He reached the bottom and held up his arms. Garland passed the sleeping baby down to Eden, then began climbing down herself.

In the ruins of Outland, Maddie, Goneril and Lilith wandered, searching for Garland … calling her name but getting no
response except the curious mocking reply of the echoes.

‘What have I done to deserve this?’ groaned Maddie. ‘A runaway daughter. And it’s not as if we were stick-in-the-mud-stay-at-homes. She gets to see a lot of places.’

‘What’s that sound?’ said Goneril. ‘It sounds like some sort of a …’

As she spoke an old Jeep suddenly surged out from between two roofless houses leaning towards one another as if they were trying to peer deeply into each other’s windows. The Jeep drove down the street towards them and they stood back to let it pass, but instead of swinging by it drew up beside them and a man leaned out smiling broadly and holding out his hands.

‘Fantasia people?’ asked the driver. ‘Yes! I can tell you are. We have been sent to pick you up and drive you into Solis.’

‘Well, our own vans have gone on ahead of us,’ began Maddie, ‘and …’

‘We would like to give you a ceremonial welcome,’ the man said. ‘Please get in. The other Fantasia people are waiting for you.’

‘Yes,’ said Maddie, ‘but you see we’ve lost some children … a girl and two boys …’

‘And a baby!’ said Goneril quickly.

‘Ah yes,’ the man said. ‘They are waiting for you too. We picked them up earlier.’

Lilith was delighted.

‘They’ve found Jewel!’ she cried, and flung her arms around Goneril. ‘They’ve found Garland and Boomer. We’re going to have a great welcome. And we’re going to end happily.’

‘Thank goodness,’ said Maddie, sighing with huge relief. ‘Take us quickly before something else goes wrong!’ They scrambled into the vehicle. Maddie in the front, Goneril and Lilith in the back.

‘All this great struggle and we’re back in Solis,’ Maddie said
over her shoulder. ‘It’s over. Well, almost over. And then we’ll be free to be nothing but ourselves again. Nothing but the Fantasia. Wonderful.’

She did not know – couldn’t know – that at that very moment Garland was
not
in Solis but was feeling her way along a drain, followed by Eden, carrying Jewel, who was followed by Boomer. Timon, now walking ahead of them, seemed in a strange way to be as black as night yet somehow casting just a little light around him.

‘Nearly there,’ Timon said.

‘How can you see in the dark?’ asked Garland.

‘One of my new talents,’ Timon replied. ‘Look ahead.’

Garland did as she was told, without seeing anything but Timon’s shape – a shape which was not entirely his own.
I mustn’t trust him,
she told herself.
He said I mustn’t trust him. But which ‘him’ do I believe?
How could he give off light, that light that seemed to be playing around her feet like an affectionate pet?

‘I can’t see a single thing,’ said Boomer.

‘Well, take my word for it,’ said Timon. ‘We’re about to climb a staircase and when we get to the top we will be in Solis. Now … just kick a bit! There! Can you feel the bottom step.’

Garland kicked, and – yes – she could feel it. It was just ahead of her, a stair shrouded in shadow. She had no idea where it might lead to.

‘Hold my hand,’ said Timon, and his fingers brushed the fingers of her own hand, which she was holding out in front of her, so that she could feel her way. Garland snatched her own hand back to her side.

‘No way!’ she cried softly. ‘You did tell me not to trust you.’

‘Well, climb!’ commanded Timon. ‘Climb and hitch onto that rhythm. Not much longer now.’

High above the city
of Solis the Duke of Solis and two of his attendants stood, looking lordly and remote.

At the other end of the room stood a whole deputation of Fantasia people, looking triumphant, distressed and exhausted all at once … looking triumphant because though the converter was not in the room with them it was in the city at last and would soon be safely delivered by Maddie and Yves to the experts who would know what to do with it, looking distressed because Garland, Boomer, Timon, Eden and Jewel had disappeared, and looking exhausted as well, because they had worked through the night without sleeping. And they would not be able to sleep again until the others were safely home in the heart of the Fantasia once more.

‘To think they struggled and bargained and had so many adventures bringing it to us,’ murmured the Duke to his attendants. ‘They are heroes. Heroes!’ (He spoke rather more loudly, looking up and beaming at the Fantasia people.) Then his voice dropped down once more. ‘But of course most heroes are fools as well. All that struggle – all that work – and the result will be very different from one they anticipated and desired.’

‘Solis will die?’ asked one of his companions, murmuring too.

‘Solis will be put out of its misery,’ agreed the Duke. ‘But it
will be reborn in a different form, and I will be its midwife.’

As he said this the door at the other end of the room suddenly swung open. The Duke spun around, looking furious.

‘I said we were not to be disturbed!’ he barked.

‘Oh, but you will want to see us,’ said a voice, and Timon came boldly into the room, followed by Garland and Eden.

‘Garland!’ exclaimed Penrod, and the Fantasia deputation tried to move forward, their faces breaking into smiles of relief. However the Duke’s guard moved in on them holding them back.

The Duke stared at Timon unable to believe in him. He glanced at Garland, arms sagging under the weight of a sleeping baby, a strange bedraggled creature with red hair burning out around her weary face, and at the pale and grubby stick-like boy who was Eden. Then he looked back at green-scaled and threatening Timon.

‘Why do you think for a moment I would want to see you, you filthy creatures?’ said the Duke haughtily.

But it was Garland who spoke first. ‘Where’s Yves? Where’s my mother?’

‘They are taking the converter to the technologists,’ Tane said. ‘In a little while the city will have its power restored to it.’ He smiled at the Duke, like a man who expects a smile of gratitude in return.

The Duke frowned. He looked at his companions. ‘Do we know an Yves?’ They shrugged and shook their heads. ‘I don’t think we do. Are there more of these gypsies in my city? As for the converter, I want it brought to me personally. I just wanted to look it over – before I had it destroyed.’

The Fantasia people all shouted out in a chorus of astonishment and anger.

‘Destroyed!’ cried Garland. ‘But you
wanted it
. It has to save Solis.’

The Duke smiled again. ‘No one tells the Duke of Solis what he can or can’t do,’ he said, ‘least of all an urchin from that gipsy trash they call the Fantasia.’

Garland stared at him in alarm. ‘But if you don’t make use of the converter,’ she cried, ‘you’ll change. You’ll die in darkness. Or you might become something you can’t imagine … something green and scaly like – like
him
–’ she pointed at Timon ‘… only he’s kind and strong under his scales. You might turn into the Nennog.’ She did not know quite what made her say this. She just wanted to frighten the Duke.

‘My dear,’ said the Duke. ‘I haven’t time. I haven’t time to play children’s games with you. I am Edward, Duke of Solis, and I will remain Edward, Duke of Solis until the time comes for my son to take over. One of my sons. I do have more than one …’ A door to his left burst open and he turned towards it looking furious. ‘This is too much. Too much. I am going to reinforce the guard.’

Garland stared at the newcomer – at Ozul, carrying what was left of his slider, half folded in on itself, and at Maska, now looking more like a huge battered toy than a man – or even a clever robot – sparking a little at his joints, but still terrifying.

Timon stepped forward. ‘At last,’ he said. ‘You have been rather leisurely about putting in an appearance, haven’t you? Unplait what’s left of the slider, Ozul. Maska, we may need you to locate the technologists and the converter out there in the city power house. The Duke is right. That converter must be destroyed.’

Garland spun around staring at him in horror.

‘What’s going on?’ she said at last. ‘You’ve been on our side. You tricked them … damaged them …’

‘I have been more than one person,’ Timon said in a voice that was no longer Timon’s. ‘He fought against me far more valiantly than I imagined he could. But the battle is won. I am
a single entity at last. And my wishes will rule.’

‘Boomer said you were treacherous!’ screamed Garland.

‘That simple honest Boomer,’ said Timon. ‘He’s waiting for you at the main door, isn’t he? Those folded wings of his make life a bit difficult for him, don’t they, when it comes to going upstairs and around corners. Well, he will have to wait for a long time for you.’ He laughed hideously. ‘And I have let Timon exercise power. What he did not know was that he was exercising it on my behalf.’

The Duke, who had been too astounded to do or say a thing for a moment, seemed to come to his senses finally.

‘Who are you?’ he yelled. ‘Guards! Guards! Get this monster out of here.’

‘You fool,’ cried the transformed Timon. ‘I am
you
. I am you as you will be in the future, with powers and riches you can only dream of in these primitive days. If your guards strike me down, it is you they will be striking down. If you destroy me, you will be destroying yourself and your own future.’ The Duke stared at him, his expression slowly changing. ‘You do not recognize me?’ the Nennog asked. ‘Time brings about changes we cannot imagine.’ He leaned forward and whispered some words in a language than none of the other listeners could understand, but these soft words caused the Duke to leap back as if he had been stung.

‘Yes!’ the Nennog said, speaking through Timon. ‘Only you know the meaning of those words. You and your future self. You and me. You see you finally achieved what you wanted, riches and power and immortality of a kind. And I am your immortality. And to achieve all I stand for, you must do as I tell you. Do it now and without hesitation. Do it now, because we are one.’

And only a little later in that the top room looking out over the whole astonishing city of Solis the Duke watched Ozul
fitting, slotting, connecting once more. ‘Technology! Fascinating!’ he said.

‘It will all be yours,’ promised Timon smiling. Two of his attendants held Eden and Garland but Garland could still shout.

‘When you’re like
him
… a cross between a cockroach and a lizard … some of it might be yours!’ she screamed. ‘Is that what you want?’

The Duke looked over at Timon, and an expression of uncertainty crossed his face.

‘Don’t be weak!’ Timon told him. ‘And I promise you unlimited pleasure. So take advantage. Take it now and always.’ He turned to Ozul and Maska. ‘Time to go,’ he said.

‘Timon!’ called Garland. ‘Timon! Please!
Please!
Listen to me.’

‘Don’t call me by that name,’ Timon said, but looking into that green-scaled face that had so little about it that was familiar, Garland nevertheless saw something she recognized and knew that the golden-haired prince was not entirely dead. He was locked somewhere in that monster confronting them, living and listening but also helpless for the Nennog was indeed dominating him.

‘Don’t destroy that converter,’ she cried. ‘Let the Solis technologists set it going and maybe you will be cured.’

‘Forget the converter,’ Timon said. ‘Now, pass over that wretched baby. After all, she is my sister.’

‘She is
Timon’s
sister, not yours!’ yelled Garland, clasping Jewel to her. ‘Timon! Are you there, Timon? Listen to me.’

‘Give her to me before I become truly annoyed with you,’ said the Nennog, his eyes glowing ferociously, as Garland, holding Jewel, wrapped in her blankets, backed away from him. The Nennog advanced on her.

‘You will be sorry,’ he said, ‘and so will your whole Fantasia.
Your leader – Yves, is it? – is in my power. All your friends are here in Solis and I only have to say the word any my guards will grind them to powder and bloody paste. The baby is nothing to you – nothing at all compared with your mother, for example. Now give me that Talisman.’

But, still clutching Jewel, Garland did the only thing that seemed possible to her. Suddenly she ran through a pair of double doors only to find herself on a wide balcony. She jumped up on the low wall, and glanced at the great fall into the streets below. There was no escape to the left, no escape to the right. But down below … down below …

‘Why not jump?’ asked the Nennog. ‘Why not dash yourself and the baby to pieces on the stone below. It is the only way out for you.’

But as he said this Garland
did
jump. The Nennog did not so much scream as howl with fury. The sound rang through the whole city of Solis, springing back at him from the walls as if a whole pack of transformed Timons were howling … He ran to the edge of that wall and stared down into the void.

And far below, there on a thick wire, strung as a brace between a ruined tower and a neighbouring block, balanced like a burning candle and still holding a sleeping Jewel was Garland, a true Fantasia girl. She looked up at the top of the wall and saw the transformed Timon, the Nennog, looking down at her. Then she looked ahead of herself, and began walking along the wire as if it were nothing more than a familiar tightrope … something she had walked along many, many times.

The hideous figure of the Nennog stared down as if he could scarcely believe it, then whirled on Ozul and Maska.

‘Stop her! Intercept her!’ he shouted.

They, too, peered down at Garland walking the wire – walking it serenely. Ozul looked up and licked his lips.

‘Lord!’ he began. ‘I can’t! And Maska – he can’t either. The last few weeks have twisted him, and …’

‘You are bound to do with I say,’ the Nennog declared. ‘Do it.’

Maska ran for a back door in his unwieldy way while Ozul made for the door in front of them. But before he reached it, it burst open, and suddenly the room was flooded with Fantasia people. In sprang Yves. Penrod, Byrna and Nye followed him. Maddie came in shouting. ‘Garland! Garland! They say she was seen here. Where’s Garland?’

Eden sprang forward to point to the battlements and Maddie ran towards the wall, pushing Timon off to the right, without so much as glancing at him. The guards jumped to protect the Duke, but Yves raised his crossbow. He pointed it not at the guards, but at the Duke. ‘Put down your weapons, gentlemen!’ he shouted. ‘Down! Down! Put them down or your master dies.’

‘Do it,’ the Duke told them. He looked over at the Nennog. ‘From, what you say if I am killed you, too, will cease to exist,’ he said.

Meanwhile, down on the wire, holding Jewel as if the baby was a balancing rod, Garland stepped carefully. After the first shock she did not feel frightened because, after all, she had walked the wire almost all her life. It was true that the space under her on this occasion was much greater than she was used to, but that wire beneath her feet and her feet themselves were old companions. As this wire ran towards the building it was bracing, it passed a long line of windows on the right-hand side, and suddenly Garland saw a dark shadow moving in one of those windows. Maska. But she must not be distracted. She must not lose her nerve. She walked on almost placidly.

Only a moment later, she felt the wire suddenly shifting under her feet in an unfamiliar way. Carefully she turned sideways
on the wire, so that she could look both forwards and backwards. Behind her Maska had climbed out onto one of the windowsills and was now stepping out on the wire himself. Garland smiled. She turned carefully, and walked on, for she had no choice and besides, she
knew
the wire, which was like the same wire she walked in a Fantasia performance, and perhaps Maska did not. Onward, onward!

And then she saw Ozul moving out onto the wire where it connected with the building ahead of her. Garland knew at once that he was filled with terror. She did not know why he was taking this terrible risk, but she was suddenly sure that it was because the Nennog had ordered him to do so, and he feared the Nennog more than he feared a fatal fall.

Things seemed so desperate – so dangerous. She was trapped. Yet, suddenly, Garland had a great feeling of confidence … she was at home on the wire, and they, for all their powers, were not.

‘So you want to try the high wire act?’ she called to Ozul. She looked over her shoulder. ‘Can you bounce,’ she called back to Maska and laughed … a desperate laugh, but a laugh, all the same. Then she bounced lightly on the wire. She had done this so many times, and a wire was only a wire regardless of the space beneath it.

‘Don’t!’ yelled Ozul frantically. ‘Please don’t! Let’s … let’s discuss this. Let’s …’

Garland carefully edged around to stand sideways yet again. Once again she could look back towards Maska.

‘Do you want to discuss it too?’ she asked.

‘Discussion is always good,’ said Maska in his grating, damaged voice.

‘Right! I’ll open the discussion!’ shouted Garland, and now she bounced wildly on the wire, knowing she could, for she was a child of Maddigan’s Fantasia.

Ozul pitched forwards, screaming as he fell. Maska toppled backwards, making a noise like some protesting machine.

Garland watched them fall away from her without a second of regret. Then, very carefully, for even when you knew how to walk the wire you always had to be careful, she turned and stepped forward once more. A few more steps and she would be able to step off onto a balcony of that building the wire was helping to support.

Just then she felt the wire move abruptly and turned to see that, once again, she was being followed. The Nennog, that changed Timon, was moving along the wire towards her rapidly, using both hands and feet, looking like some sort of green spider. He scuttled with the unnatural skill of the Nennog until he was within two or three feet of her. Then he stopped.