PathFinder (26 page)

The young woman came reluctantly, like a dog pulled across the room on an invisible lead. She caught Ferdie’s eye and a glance of sympathy passed between them.

“Yes, my Lady?”

The Lady launched into a torrent of abuse. “You, you trumped-up piece of
nothing
, are a sulky little madam and no use to me at all. You were meant to get those people away hours ago, and instead I find myself dragged into a
sordid
fight.” She put a handkerchief to her throbbing nose. “It’s disgraceful!”

Ferdie saw fear jump into the young woman’s eyes. “I – I did my best, my Lady,” she stammered.

“Your best is not good enough,
Madam
. You have one last chance to prove yourself and then you can forget about your precious son for ever. Understand?”

Ferdie saw the young woman press her lips together to try to stay in control.

“One last chance,” the Lady steamrollered on. “Our quota this month is twenty short. And you, Madam, will provide the shortfall.”

The young woman looked horrified.
“Me?”

“
You
, Madam. You live in a well-populated Castle, do you not? They will not miss twenty fools from there, I am sure.”

“No! Oh no … please,
no
.”

The Lady shrugged, as if bored with the conversation. “Well, Madam. I hear your boy is still alive. However, I cannot guarantee he will stay that way.”

The young woman was as white as a sheet of paper. “I … I’ll do it,” she whispered. “I just need to … to work out how … to get them.”

“You have until this time tomorrow.”

“No!” the young woman gasped.

“Yes! If I do not have twenty people right
here
by then, I promise you will never see your son again.” The Lady smiled. “Because, Madam, there will be nothing left of him to see.”

The young woman turned grey.

“You have a choice,” the Lady said coldly. “I leave it up to you.” Another movement on the stairs caught the Lady’s eye. “A boy! There’s a boy left behind!”

Ferdie stared in horror. Unnoticed by Oskar, the hood of his cloak had fallen back and his red hair was shimmering in the dimness of the stairs. Ferdie saw Oskar’s eyes wide and dark, staring out from his pale face, like a rabbit caught in a beam of light.
“Run, Oskie. Run,”
she muttered under her breath.

But Oskar knew he couldn’t leave Ferdie. There was only one thing to do – he ran straight at the Lady. In a moment he was at Ferdie’s side. The Lady went to grab him, and Oskar, truly his mother’s son, landed another punch.

The Lady’s hands flew up to her nose and blood began dripping between her fingers, soaking into the silk of her dress in angry, dark patches. Oskar looked shocked at the effect – he’d never punched anyone before.

“Quick! This way,” the young woman whispered urgently. To Ferdie and Oskar’s surprise, she turned and hurried into one of the archways with the letters
VII
carved into it. Ferdie grabbed Oskar’s hand and they ran.

“Dop!” the Lady screamed out from beneath a rapidly reddening handkerchief. “Dop!”

Inside Way VII, Ferdie and Oskar ran along a tunnel, following the young woman towards a shimmering white mist. And when she disappeared into it, they hurled themselves after her, no longer caring what lay beyond. Whatever it was, it had to be better.

Orders

The Lady stared into
Way VII in dismay. She dared not follow. The last time she had
Gone Through
there she had fallen straight over a precipice and very nearly drowned. She hoped that the little madam would fall in tonight, just as she had. She swore and tugged violently on a bellpull.

In her tiny room – known as the kennel – at the far end of the Garmin cages in Cell Block Two, Mitza Draddenmora Draa was summoned by the screeching of a bell. A few minutes later she arrived breathless into the Hub to find the Lady holding a bloody handkerchief to her nose.

“You rang, my Lady?” Mitza’s voice trembled.

“Send Garbin into Way Sebben!” the Lady yelled through her dripping handkerchief.

“How many, my Lady?” Mitza asked anxiously. The Garmin terrified her.

“All.”

“All?”
Mitza asked faintly.

“All. I’ll show that Madam and her precious Castle. They’ll be sorry!”

The Outside Path

In a tall, ancient castle
wall some twenty feet above a dark, slow-flowing moat, the outline of an archway began to glow with a dim purple light. If anyone had been standing on the far side of the water they would have seen the eerie sight of the archway appearing out of seemingly solid stone, and a strange white mist swirling within its depths. But it was late in the evening, the Castle drawbridge was raised and no one was foolish enough to walk the Forest edges at night.

Suddenly, from out of the mist, a wild-eyed young woman came running. Just in time she grabbed hold of the edge of the arch to stop herself from falling headlong into the Moat below. She turned and shouted a warning: “Slow down! There’s a steep drop!” She stood in the entrance while two smaller figures appeared from the depths. They stopped dead – breathless and confused.

“It’s really narrow,” the young woman whispered. “I’ll move along a bit. You must lean back against the wall, OK?”

“OK,” said Ferdie. She didn’t care how narrow it was. She was free of the Lady once more. She took a deep breath of unfamiliar, damp air. Above was the night sky, scattered with stars; ahead, the darkness of trees; and far below, dark reflections in water, slowly moving. Shuffling sideways, Ferdie made room for Oskar.

Oskar could smell the earthiness of land, the wet woodiness of trees and the sharpness of water – but not seawater. This was fresh, but muddy. He knew at once they were far away from home.

“Come on, you two, let’s get going.” Oskar recognised the voice of the young woman. “Be careful,” she said. “There’s only a ledge here and the stones are loose. Hold on to the wall, OK?”

“OK.”

“OK.”

“And don’t look down. By the way, I’m Lucy. Lucy Heap.”

“Ferdie,” said Ferdie.

“Oskar,” said Oskar.

“Sarn,” they both said together.

The path was precarious. At times it was so narrow that all they could do was to edge along crab-wise; at other times it would widen but be covered with slippery gravel. Oskar was last and he kept glancing back to see who – or what – was following. To his relief, he saw and heard nothing. He hurried along, following Ferdie and Lucy Heap by the dim light of the moon, which was sinking towards the treetops on the far side of the water.

After a frighteningly narrow section of the path, Ferdie and Oskar saw a light ahead. Lucy sped up and soon they were picking their way down some precarious steps, which took them down to a slipway where dark water gently lapped. Here was the light that Ferdie had seen – a lantern illuminating a sign that read:
Rupert’s Paddleboat Hire
.

Lucy looked anxiously back along the path. “Not far now,” she whispered, hurrying them up the slipway.

The slipway led into a street with tall, thin houses on the left-hand side and lower, smaller houses on the right. After the dark of the pathway it was bright and cheerful – many of the houses had lights in the windows, and one had a blaze of candles burning at every window. It was to a little house opposite this that the young woman took Oskar and Ferdie. She opened the front door and they followed her inside to a narrow passageway cluttered with boxes and bags.

“Simon,” Lucy called out softly. “Si, are you there?”

A door at the end opened and a young man dressed in black appeared. He looked, thought Ferdie, both anxious and relieved at the same time.

“Lu!” he said, hurrying towards them. And then, suddenly noticing the shimmer from Ferdie’s and Oskar’s hair, he stopped. “Who are they?” he said suspiciously.

“It’s …” Lucy hurled herself into Simon’s arms. “Oh, it’s awful. Just
awful
.”

William

Ferdie and Oskar were sitting
beside the fire in a small front room lined with books. While Simon placed some mugs full of something hot on the table in front of them and Lucy put down a plate of biscuits with trembling hands, Ferdie looked at the books. They were an odd mixture of knitting patterns,
Magyk
, building construction manuals and Alchemie texts. The lower shelves were full of brightly coloured children’s books and some well-worn toys.

The mugs contained herbal tea, which smelled like old straw. But Ferdie and Oskar were glad of the warmth, and they sat cradling their mugs, listening to the story of how the Lady had invaded the lives of Simon and Lucy Heap.

Lucy began. “Two months ago our little boy, William, disappeared.”

Ferdie and Oskar exchanged glances – so it wasn’t happening only to them.

“William … he was – I mean, he
is
– only six.” Lucy stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and continued. “William loved to sail his toy boat in the Moat. One day after school I let him go to the slipway with his friends to play with their boats. It was a lovely, warm evening and it was still light, and he was perfectly safe – well, I thought he was – because his uncle, my brother Rupert, has a boathouse there and he was working outside, keeping an eye on them. Well … oh, it was
all
my fault … I just didn’t notice how late it was getting – I was busy working on a design for a stupid tower thingy. Suddenly I realised it was nearly dark and William wasn’t home. I ran out of the house and there was no one at the end of the slipway – no little boys and no Rupert. It was deserted. I raced down to the water and shouted for William. Rupert came out and said he thought that William had gone home when all his friends did. I yelled at Rupert for being so
stupid
and then I saw William’s favourite toy – a little white knitted sheep his granny made him – up on the Outside Path – you know, where we just walked along.” Lucy gulped. “I knew then that something terrible had happened. I ran along the Outside Path so fast you wouldn’t believe it. It curves around with the Castle walls, so you can never see very far ahead, and it was really dark by then because there was no moon that night, but as I got around the bend I saw something.” Lucy shuddered. “A huge animal, white and horrible, with a head like a snake. Standing up on two legs.
And then I saw it go through the wall
.”

Simon sighed. He looked wretched and Ferdie felt sorry for him. She could tell he did not believe Lucy – but Ferdie believed her, all right. And so did Oskar.

Lucy continued with her story. “I raced towards where the white thing had disappeared but there was no sign of anything. The wall was … well, it was just a wall. And it was dark by then too.”

“We searched all night,” Simon said quietly.

Lucy nodded dismally. “People were wonderful. So many came to look for him. The next day Rupert found William’s toy boat floating in the Moat, and everyone began to say he must have fallen in the water and drowned. They went out searching for his … well, you know, for
him
, but I knew he hadn’t drowned.
I just knew
. The next day Simon and I walked along the Outside Path looking for clues. But we found nothing.” Lucy looked down at the crumb-covered rug in front of the fire. “Simon, there’s something I haven’t told you.”

Simon leaned forward, his green eyes fixed on Lucy. “Lu – what haven’t you told me?”

“Er. Well. Every day, while you were at work –” Lucy broke off and said to Ferdie and Oskar proudly, “Simon’s the Deputy Castle Alchemist, you know. Every day I walked the Outside Path to where I’d seen the white things. I would stare at the wall for hours – I was so sure that something had to be there. And then, one day, I saw it: the outline of a filled-in archway with some faint letters carved into the keystone: ‘IV’. I was so excited – I’d found it! I
knew
that was where the Garmin had taken William.”

“Garmin?” said Simon dismissively. “That’s a mythical creature. Garmin don’t exist.”