Rocking Horse War (14 page)

Pearl saw the triplets’ eyes fixed eagerly on Thomas as he stood up. “Grandfather, I’m sure you agree I will demonstrate our skills and power far more effectively with the Landlaw lorefast.” He walked towards his grandfather. “After all, I have delivered everything I promised you.”

He held out his hand.

The Earl hesitated.

Thomas said in a slow melodic voice, “With the lorefast, I can give them to you as willing participants. You know what that’s worth.”

“Clever,” whispered Emmie to Pearl. “He is very clever, isn’t he?”

“I gave him the perfect excuse to ask,” muttered Pearl. “Sorry.”

The Earl nodded his decision. “Of course, of course, dear boy. You’ve exceeded my expectations, and I’m sure you’re worthy of it.”

The Earl took from his jacket pocket, not a little notebook, but a wooden box the size of his fist. He opened it and offered it to Thomas, whose long fingers prised out a crescent-shaped black shell. After a quiet moment holding the shell on his palm, Thomas lifted it up high so the dull black flickered with stripes as wrinkles on its surface caught the light.

Pearl recognised it as a freshwater mussel from the pebbly beds of one of the local rivers, held closed with a thin piece of faded twine. When Thomas shook it gently, there was a soft rolling sound.

“There’s a pearl in there,” murmured Emmie.

Thomas strode over to the children and knelt down beside Pearl. With a smile like he had eaten 
all the jam in the pantry and found someone else to blame, he whispered so only Pearl could hear.

“Thank you, quiet girl, quiet Pearl. You and your petty little debate about destiny have given me what I always wanted. And you said your name meant nothing!”

Thomas lashed the delicate shell to his staff with one of Jasper’s reeds. He moved a few paces away and turned on the spot, looking first at the grass under his feet, then at the water snaking around them, and finally looking up to the mountains.

He laughed, then pointed his finger straight at the Laird. The Laird flinched; the Earl moved slightly away.

“Swanhaugh, you spend so much time flapping in air and splashing in blood that you’ve neglected your own garden. Let’s tidy it up for you.”

Thomas began to move his wooden staff. Pearl recognised the twisting motion of his wrist, but this time it was slower, gentler, and the pearl inside the shell was rattling and rolling softly, playing a high watery note. Thomas drew growing circles with the staff, and the shell’s music got louder.

He spoke clearly above it. “You’ve seen us use the power of the land in anger and fear, now let me show you how to use it with love and respect.”

He flicked the lorefast at the canal beside them. As the familiar boom reached her, Pearl jerked, ready to wrap her arms round her head. But the wave of sound wasn’t violent this time, 
it was warm and resonating, and it was joined by the light music of the shell. As they vibrated in unison, Thomas added his voice, flowing round the percussion of the staff.

As he sang, the weed-choked water began to flow in circles, in time with the twisting of the staff. As it moved, the clumps of leaves and algae sank to the bottom and vanished. The dark water cleared, until it was reflecting the pure blue of the late evening sky.

Thomas held out his free hand. “Jasper, will you help me?”

Jasper leapt to his feet, ran to grab Thomas’s hand, and joined his higher voice to the song. Thomas lifted his staff and drew in the air the shape of all the waterways in the meadow. Soon the sweet smell of clean water spread over the whole haugh.

“Ruby, would you like to …” Before he finished, Ruby jumped up and grabbed Jasper’s hand. Thomas changed the notes of his song and twisted his staff at the nearest canal again.

Stunted grey fish, so pale they were almost
see-through
, leapt out of the water. They flew in an arc through the air, growing longer and plumper, their scales shining with silvery rainbows. Then they dived back into the sparkling water, splashing Pearl, who was still sitting on the bank.

But there was no one beside Pearl to share her soaking. Emmie had already joined her brother and sister.

As Thomas, Ruby and Jasper sang colours and health into all the fish in the canals, Emmie called 
over the music, “I don’t like that,” pointing to the Laird’s castle.

“I don’t either,” laughed Thomas. “What shall we do with it?”

“Hide it,” said Emmie.

So Thomas thrust his staff into the grass and sang a different song, joined by all three Chayne triplets. He used both hands to draw branches growing from the lorefast, and a line of dark green appeared in front of Swanhaugh Towers. A hedge of pine trees grew up round the castle, sprouting as fast as the children could sing, hiding all but the tallest towers from view.

Thomas pulled the staff out, and dug his heel into the tangled grass. “Shall we make the grass dance?” he asked. “Yes!” cried the triplets.

Now the beat of the staff and the notes from the shell played faster, more cheerfully, like a military march. Pearl thought it just needed bagpipes to sound like the local regiment recruiting farm boys at the Highland Games. Then the Earl stood behind Thomas and played skirling notes on the bull’s horn. Pearl snorted in amusement.

When they started to sing this new tune, the triplets didn’t wait for Thomas. They all knew the song, or they made it up together.

As Pearl crouched by the side of the newly fresh canal, she saw the grass start to move, ripples flickering across it like tiny waves on a loch. At first she thought the grass was blowing in a sudden breeze, then she realised the grass was rippling because the ground underneath was crawling and jumping. 

Pearl remembered the terror of the shifting rocks on the Keystone Peak, and how Emmie had saved her there. Pearl watched Emmie now, her mouth a perfect circle, working with Thomas to move the earth. Who would save her this time?

Thomas had one hand flat, holding a piece of ground behind him steady for the Laird and the four horses, who were shifting their hooves nervously.

Thomas and the Earl were lifted and swung carefully by the earth as if it held them in its hands. They smiled at the triplets, who had stepped onto the most vigorously moving grass.

The children kept losing their place in the song, shrieking with laughter as they bounced and bumped into each other. Ruby fell over and pulled Jasper down with her. Emmie kept her footing with her arms out like wings.

The circle of moving grass widened towards Pearl. As she stood up, she caught Thomas staring at her. He pointed to the still island behind him, but she didn’t want his help. She placed her feet wide apart, held her head up, and rode the pulsing waves of earth. She was flung upwards, then the earth vanished and she dropped down, but she didn’t lose her balance.

The waves sweeping through the grass were like a brush through matted hair, smoothing and tidying the green blades. Moss, nettles and dandelions vanished, replaced by buttercups and daisies, already closing for the night.

Thomas murmured, “Shshsh.” The triplets stopped shrieking and singing, the Earl blew a last 
note on his horn, the grass shivered and lay still.

Pearl stood steady on her feet and crossed her arms.

Thomas flung his arms wide and cried, “See what we have done!”

Pearl looked reluctantly round at a beautiful pleasure garden: fresh water, smooth lawns, a mature wood with a couple of towers peeping above the trees.

“Did you enjoy that?” he asked the triplets.

They were breathless, but nodding.

“If you want to feel that glorious power again, come with me and crown the Earl.”

Before they could answer, Thomas held up a hand. “It’s only fair to let your sister have her say first.” He sat down, folding his long legs, and putting his staff and its shell carefully beside him.

“Your turn, Pearl.”

The triplets tumbled happily into a heap beside Thomas. The Laird and the Earl stood watching Pearl critically. The horses wandered off, the black and the grey already nibbling at the fresh new grass.

Pearl felt grubby, sweaty and exhausted, in no state to save her brother and sisters with clever words. However, the argument she wanted to present had been forming in her mind all day as she travelled through the mountains.

She faced Emmie, Ruby and Jasper. “I’m going to persuade you there’s no such thing as destiny. I don’t have any fairy tales or magic tricks or family singalongs.

“But I do have a witness.”

That caught the triplets’ attention. They looked round, confused.

“I call as a witness our brother, Peter Chayne.”

She swept her hand behind her, as if to usher someone forward. When no one appeared, she looked puzzled and searched over her shoulder.

“Oh, of course. Peter can’t be here, can he? Peter can’t give evidence to you about destiny and the people who tell you what your destiny is, because Peter is DEAD.” 

There was a moment’s silence. The triplets had stopped tickling and giggling; they looked up at Pearl’s tense face.

“Peter is dead because when he was only sixteen years old, he was told it was his destiny to fight for his country. Told by politicians in the newspapers, by ministers in the church, by women in the street who gave white feathers to schoolboys. He was told it was his destiny to kill people he didn’t know, on the orders of other people he didn’t know.

“Because he believed it was his destiny, and because he believed destiny was glorious, Peter lied about his age, joined a Glasgow regiment where no one would recognise him and was killed in his first week in France, probably shot by someone who thought he was fulfilling his own destiny.

“Peter died because he was told it was his destiny to go to war. But it didn’t have to be his destiny. If he had waited until he was eighteen, until he was old enough to join up without lying, the Great War would have been over. Then he could have told you himself that you make your own destiny.

“The future is not written anywhere, and even if it was, why would we trust
them
to write it?” She pointed at Thomas, the Earl and the Laird. “We don’t know these people, but we know what they do. They destroy buildings, they rip up mountainsides, they mutilate animals, and they try to kill each other and their neighbours’ children.

“We can’t know what they want with you in that castle tonight, because even if I asked all three of them straight questions, we couldn’t trust their 
answers. We don’t know whether it’s a midnight feast or a violent sacrifice. All we do know is they’ve planned your part in it without asking you.

“When someone tells you they know your destiny, it means they want you to do something for them, and they don’t think you’ll like it. There is no such thing as destiny, there is only the result of the choices you make.

“So your choice is: follow these people who’ve caused so much destruction and fear in just one day; or refuse to have anything to do with any of them, Horsburghs or Swanns, and come home with me to your own lives.”

Pearl walked slowly along the line of triplets.

“Emmie, Jasper, Ruby. I don’t have Thomas’s spectacular power, but I do love you. They want you to be their tools. I just want you to be my brother and sisters. Please come home with me for supper.”

Her voice cracked, and she stopped. She had no more words.

Thomas stood up. “Finished?” She nodded.

He started to say, “So my precious …” but Pearl interrupted.

“No more speeches. They know what they have to decide.”

Three faces, pink-cheeked and framed with curls, glanced at each other then looked back up at the two older children.

Ruby sniffed. “I want to go home. You’re lots of fun, Thomas, but Pearl’s right. I don’t think I trust you.” She hid her face in a hanky.

“Emmie?” asked Pearl tentatively. If Emmie 
voted with Ruby, perhaps Jasper would simply go along with his sisters.

“Let Jasper decide next,” said Emmie, leaning back on her hands.

Jasper looked at Pearl, then at Thomas, then at the huge chestnut rocking horse. The horse whickered at him.

Jasper spoke clearly. “You might be right, Pearl. Perhaps there is no such thing as destiny.” Pearl began to smile.

Her brother raised his voice. “So, if we do have free choice, I choose to be with the Horsburghs and learn to wield the power I deserve.”

Thomas breathed a sigh of relief. “One! I only needed one, and they all have to come.”

Pearl felt like her skin was crawling over suddenly freezing bones. She gasped, “Emmie! What do you vote?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Emmie. “If Jasper goes, we all go. We have to stay together.”

“But what would you have voted?” asked Pearl desperately.

Emmie looked calmly at her. “It’s probably better if no one knows.”

Ruby sobbed, “Pearl, will you stay with us?”

Pearl really didn’t want to go up to that dark, jagged stronghold and witness the Horsburghs’ ceremony. She glanced at Thomas, who shook his head very slightly. But she said firmly, “If you need me, Ruby, I’ll be there.”

The Earl instructed the horses to follow the river round the mountains and to go to Horsburgh Hall. Thomas ordered the Laird to start walking. 
And in the fading light, Pearl climbed back into the mountains.

As Pearl trailed up the slope, Thomas caught up with her. She slowed down to let him get ahead, but he slowed down too and walked beside her.

He nodded at Jasper, striding out at the front, humming a tune and offering to carry the Earl’s jacket. “He has betrayed you at least three times today.”

He jerked his head back at Ruby, blowing her nose in a soggy hanky, and he lifted his lip in disgust. “Why don’t you just walk away? Why are you doing this for them?”

“Because I’m their big sister.” She looked coldly at him. “Why are you doing this
to
them?”

“Because it’s my destiny just as much as it is theirs.”

“Do you really believe that, Thomas?”

“Yes. Your only witness today was a ghost. I produced real people and real power. I won the argument because destiny is real and you can’t fight it.”

“We don’t know how Emmie would have voted. Perhaps I won.”

“You didn’t win! You’ll never win against me! Emmie didn’t tell you how she would have voted because she didn’t want to hurt your feelings. I won. They’re moving towards their destiny, and if you don’t want to watch, you should just go home.”

“Thomas, I’m not sure I’ve understood anything you’ve said today. But if you really believe the music you sing stops the land decaying, then you don’t believe even erosion is inevitable. Nothing 
is written in stone, not even the future of your rocks. If the earth’s destiny isn’t fixed, how can the triplets’ destiny be fixed? How can yours be, Thomas?”

Pearl took a few faster steps, leaving Thomas frowning behind her. As she strode on, Pearl heard a deep drumming, and looked down at the shining gardens. A flock of swans, elegant at this distance, were flying back to the Laird’s lands, beating the air with their wings. They settled down on the dark clean water, fluffing up their pure white feathers.