PathFinder (29 page)

“Of course I will,” Tod promised.

“Oh, thank you,” said the rat. “Thank you so much. I’m Florence. If you find anything out, please get a message to the Rat Office. I … oh, I’d be so grateful.” With that, the rat jumped off the boat and Tod watched it scuttle away through the boatyard.

The sun rose over the Castle rooftops, and in the prow of the
Adventurer
, the Night Ullr
Transformed
into the Day Ullr. A few minutes later, Tod, Nicko, Snorri and a small orange cat walked down Wizard Way, heading quickly for the Palace. At the entrance to Measel’s Ope, Tod stopped. She recognised the dead-dog scent of Garmin.

“What is it, Tod?” Snorri asked.

“Garmin,” Tod said. “They’ve been here.”

“Here?” Nicko looked shocked.

As they walked towards the Palace, bathed pink in the light of the rising sun, everything seemed so quiet and peaceful. But Tod remembered the burning remains of her village, the wreck of her house stinking of Garmin, and she felt suddenly afraid. Suppose it was
her
who had led the Garmin to the Castle?

Together Again

Tod was the first to arrive
for the Queen’s Council. Nicko and Snorri left her sitting in a quiet corner of the Palace ballroom, talking to Queen Jenna. The Queen asked her to tell her all she knew about the Ancient Ways and Garmin. Tod knew little about the Ways and there was not a lot she wanted to say about the Garmin. Jenna made notes as she talked, although Tod noticed that when she began to talk about what had happened to her village, Jenna’s pen stopped moving and she kept glancing up at the ballroom doors. Soon the Queen excused herself. She left Tod eating toasted sweet Palace buns while she joined the Chief Hermetic Scribe – an impressive sight in his dark-blue-and-gold robes – and waited for new arrivals.

The early morning sun began to stream through the tall windows of the ballroom, sprinkling squares of colour from tiny pieces of stained glass across the polished wooden floor, and through the ancient wavy panes Tod could see the dew-covered Palace lawns sweeping down to the misty river. Her fear of the Garmin evaporated in the beauty of the morning and Tod was thankful that she was not now on her way home. She looked at the opulent surroundings – the long, white-clothed table piled high with anything one could possibly wish for breakfast; the delicate little red-and-gold chairs scattered around the room in groups; the deeply luxurious red velvet armchairs – and began to appreciate what a big and varied world it was outside the PathFinder village. A buzz of excitement came over her, which was swiftly followed by a wave of guilt – where were Oskar and Ferdie now? Certainly not anywhere as comfortable as this. She had deserted her friends just when they needed her most. What was it her father used to call people who behaved like that? A “fair-weather friend”, that was it. The sweet Palace bun turned sour in her mouth and Tod put down her plate. She felt sick.

Tod watched Marcia and Alther come in. They exchanged a few words with Jenna and wandered over to join her. To Tod’s relief they sat and chatted like the old friends they were, leaving her to her thoughts. Occasionally Tod sneaked a look at Alther just to see him floating a few inches above the arm of the chair. Once he caught her eye and winked.

The white-and-gold double doors to the ballroom opened once again and Tod saw the ExtraOrdinary Wizard walk in with the Snow Princess hanging on his arm. Behind them followed a neat little man with orange hair and thick spectacles. Tod watched the Queen greet them.

“We meet again,” Jenna said. She held out her hand to the Snow Princess, who took it with a limp, cool grasp.

“So we do,” Princess Driffa replied, her gaze flicking away from Jenna and travelling around the ballroom. “You have a pleasant little Palace here, Queen Jenna. Tiny, yet quite
charming
. In its own way.”

Falling back on her Queen training, Jenna managed a smile through gritted teeth. “How kind,” she replied. Then she greeted Septimus with a formal “Good morning, Extra­Ordinary Wizard”.

Septimus returned it in kind. “Good morning, Your Grace,” he replied. “Good morning, Chief Hermetic Scribe. May I introduce to you Mr Benhira-Benhara Grula-Grula?”

Jenna raised her eyebrows at Septimus. “Oh?” she said.

“I will explain,” Septimus said apologetically.

Mr Benhira-Benhara Grula-Grula held out his hand to Jenna, who took it gracefully and then found that the Grula-Grula was unwilling to let go. At last, after some interminable small talk, Jenna managed to excuse herself, leaving Beetle to carry on the conversation. It took her five long minutes in the bathroom to scrub away the stickiness.

Jenna returned to her business of talking to people and making notes. Every now and then she cast an irritated glance at the huge gold-and-blue clock at the end of the ballroom – affectionately known as the Pumpkin Clock for as long as anyone could remember. Now, due to Jenna’s repairing and refurbishment of the Palace, the clock no longer always pointed to twelve but told the correct time: twenty-seven minutes past six. Jenna began to pace impatiently.

“Who do you think Jenna’s waiting for?” Alther whispered to Marcia.

“Don’t ask me, Alther,” muttered Marcia. “No one tells me anything now. Mind you, that’s no different. Aha, this must be whoever-it-is now.”

The big white-and-gold doors opened.

“Gosh,” said Marcia. “I wonder what Lucy Heap has to do with all this? And Simon, too. And who are those children – Tod, whatever is the matter?”

Tod had leaped up with a yell. And then, before Marcia could stop her – for it was not the thing to interrupt the Queen when she was welcoming visitors – Tod had broken into a run and was shouting out, “Oskie! Ferdie! Oh, it’s you. It’s
you
!” And a moment later a huddle of young PathFinders were hugging one another and jumping up and down as if they were on springs.

Queen's Council

The Queen's Council Room
was a small, dark panelled chamber upstairs near the Throne Room. It contained an old round table with twelve ancient oak stools – uncomfortable enough to encourage quick decisions. All the places were taken, and as Queen Jenna took the last seat, she surveyed the strange mixture of humans, ghost and
ShapeShifter
gathered that morning. Sitting on her right was the ExtraOrdinary Wizard and next to him was the annoying Snow Princess, who was inspecting her long blue nails and already looking bored. Next to her was the sticky Mr Grula-Grula, then Simon and Lucy, both hollow-eyed and pale. Then came the two PathFinder kids who had turned up with Simon and Lucy, then Tod, Marcia, Alther and back to Beetle, seated on her left.

Jenna was nervous. She had been Queen for seven years and had never had anything particularly important to do. But now the Castle was in peril and this was a huge test. She dared not fail. Jenna coughed a little anxiously and began to speak. “Welcome to you all. Last night my brother Simon came to tell me some shocking things. The Castle is under a grave threat and one of our Castle people, William Heap, is in imminent danger. From my conversations both last night and this morning, I understand that our troubles stem from a sorcerer named Oraton-Marr.” Jenna glanced over at Marcia. “That is his name?”

“It is,” Marcia confirmed.

“Many months ago,” Jenna continued, “this Oraton-Marr arrived in Princess Driffa's homeland – the Eastern SnowPlains – and began to desecrate a sacred site by digging for, the Princess believes, an … er …
egg
.”

Some amused glances were exchanged around the table.

“A mythical sacred egg from a mythical worm that makes lapis lazuli.”

“The Egg of the Orm is not mythical,” Driffa said indignantly. “It is real.”

“Princess Driffa,” Jenna said icily, “please keep your comments until after I have finished.” Princess Driffa raised her delicate white eyebrows in exasperation and Jenna continued. “Mythical or not, Oraton-Marr has been abducting people – sometimes whole villages – to use as labour to dig for this egg. This would not affect us but for the fact that through the system of Ancient Ways, our Castle is linked to the very place where he is digging. I heard last night that William Heap, who we feared had drowned, has in fact been taken by those serving Oraton-Marr. And I also heard that two nights ago Garmin abducted our guest here, Alice TodHunter Moon, from the Wizard Tower courtyard.”

“No!” gasped Ferdie. All eyes turned to Tod, and she stared stonily down at the table. She didn't want to think about that night ever again.

“Luckily, they were intercepted,” Jenna said. She looked at Septimus disapprovingly. “Although, ExtraOrdinary Wizard, no one thought to tell me.”

Septimus looked nettled. “It was Wizard Tower business, Jenna. I mean, Queen Jenna. What happens in the Wizard Tower stays in the Wizard Tower.”

“Not when it affects the well-being of the Castle,” Jenna said severely. She turned to Lucy. “Unfortunately the ExtraOrdin­­­ary Wizard is not the only person here who has been keeping secret matters of threat to the Castle. Is he, Lucy Heap?”

“I had no choice,” Lucy said, her voice trembling.

“We all have a choice,” said Jenna. “You could have come to me and told me what was happening but you chose not to. Instead you deceived us all – including your husband – and went running off to help this servant of Oraton-Marr.”

Everyone looked at Lucy in shock.

“No!” Lucy was aghast. “No, it wasn't like that. Please, it
wasn't
.”

“That's enough, Jenna,” said Simon, angrily getting to his feet.

“Sit down, Simon,” Jenna said. “I will not be interrupted. Our ex-ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Madam Marcia Overstrand, has access to the recently discovered Ancient Ways.
She
has kept me informed about these at every stage.” Jenna smiled at her new stepmother – Marcia had been unexpectedly considerate in the past year.

“Now, Lucy tells me that she has been given a choice by this servant of Oraton-Marr. She must provide twenty people from the Castle to dig for this egg or her son will die.”

Lucy began to sob.

“I'm sorry to be so blunt,” Jenna said. “But I have to make things clear. How long do we have until this threat is carried out?”

“Seventeen hours,” Lucy replied bleakly.

“So.” Jenna stopped and looked around the table, aware that all eyes were upon her. “I believe our only chance of saving William and indeed keeping the Castle safe from future invas­ions of Garmin, and whatever other creatures this Oraton-Marr has at his disposal, is to beard the lion in his den. We must go into the Ancient Ways and, with the help of our talented team of Wizards, we must, er … remove him. I see no other option. We must act at once. Today. If we do not, William Heap will die.”

Simon clutched Lucy's hand so tightly that his knuckles were white.

“If we do not do this,” Jenna said sombrely, “we, too, will become slaves to this evil Wizard. We have no choice. Does anyone disagree?”

There was silence around the table. No one disagreed.

“Any questions?”

“There is one big problem,” said Marcia. “We know that Oraton-Marr is at the Heart of the Ways, but we do not know how to get there. We could end up anywhere in the world at all.”

“Forgive me, Marcia, for leaving this until last,” Jenna said. “I wanted to make sure I had all the facts before I asked Mr Grula-Grula to speak.” She turned to the little man with spectacles, who was gazing at her in admiration. “Fair Grula-Grula, I pray you tell us your wisdom.”

The Grula-Grula gave an apologetic cough and launched into a high, rapid monotone. “I, Benhira-Benhara Grula-Grula, greet you. I wish you nothing but well, my friends, for you have treated me most respectfully. I fled to your great Castle when our Heart of the Ways was overrun by Garmin. This was a day of despair for all Grulas, for many were hunted and killed by the Garmin as sport. We Grula understand the Ways. We know how to switch and change, how to twist and turn, duck and dive; we know the Ways of the World. And so I came to safety in your beautiful Castle. I found myself on a perilous ledge beside some water and I fell in. But just in time I
ShapeShifted
into a small duck. After swimming for a while my feathers became itchy, and I came on to the land and
ShapeShifted
into human form. In this guise I entered an establishment selling cloaks. Unfortunately I became trapped by some kind of ancient
Magyk
in one of the cloaks and was rendered helpless. I lay among these ancient cloaks becoming ever more desperate until Mr O. Beetle –” here, the Grula-Grula bowed his head and Beetle returned the compliment – “tried to assist me in my sad predicament. But even his wisdom was not enough for the ancient
Magyk
in which I found myself ensnared. But when this most
ExtraOrdinary
of Wizards” – the Grula-Grula bowed to Septimus, who bowed in return – “attended me, the
Magyk
was vanquished and I was able to return to my desired state. I was treated with such hospitality and such politeness. It is my great pleasure to place myself at your disposal as a guide through the Ways in your time of trouble. I, Benhira-Benhara Grula-Grula, will take you to the Sorcerer Oraton-Marr.” The little man closed his mouth tightly shut in an oddly mechanical fashion and bowed his head.