SandRider (19 page)

The floor of the Pit was deep in snow and shadow. The winter sun never reached here and the chill struck through Tod's fur-lined cloak. Silent and fast, the silky-smooth golden runners of the
Wiz
gave it the advantage; it left the
Grot
behind and drew so close to the two leaders that their spray covered Tod in an icy dust. The steep incline out of the Pit now approached. All three slowed, but the
Wiz
less so. In the race up the incline Tod very nearly caught the leaders, but as
they emerged into the warmth of the sun and the course leveled out, Oskar performed a very sneaky turn and cut across the line Tod was taking. Doran followed him, dropping back into second place, and Tod had to throw the
Wiz
sideways. Quickly she flung the sled back on track, slipped in front of the
Spurius Fatuus
and was away, hurtling after Oskar, heading for the shadows between the Infirmary and the Forest.

At her First Aid Post on the Infirmary veranda, Ferdie was relieved to see the
Beetle
and the
Wiz
emerge safely from the Pit. She watched the sleds rocketing along the darkest part of the course—the straight beside the escarpment at the edge of the Forest. The
Wiz
was close on the tail of the
Beetle
, and the
Spurius
was close behind. The
Grot
had just emerged from the Pit, the
Spit Fyre
and
Bucket
were still in it and the
Sarnie
was way back, teetering on the edge of the Pit in a fit of panic. Ferdie saw Tod take the
Wiz
to the edge of the straight and in a breathtaking turn of speed, she overtook Oskar in a daring loop. In another swoop, Oskar overtook Tod and they both hurtled on, and then Tod was once more ahead—the race was turning into an exciting duel.

“Go, Oskie, go!” Ferdie yelled.

As if in response to Ferdie's yell, Oskar once more took the
lead. As he sped toward the sharp right-hand turn that would take him onto the drawbridge lead-up, Ferdie saw once more a flash of silver from the shadows of the oak. At the same time she saw Tod's sled suddenly slew across the track, hurtle over the snowbank and shoot into the trees beyond.

“Tod!” Ferdie yelled. Her fight with Tod forgotten, Ferdie leaped from the veranda and ran toward the course.

Out of the corner of his eye, Oskar had seen Tod's sudden change of direction and he knew from the way she was struggling to control the
Wiz
that all was not well. Without even thinking that with Tod out of the running he was very likely to win the race, Oskar skidded the
Beetle
to a halt and turned around, very nearly crashing head-on into the oncoming
Spurius
. Doran zoomed past with a whoop of triumph.

Ferdie ran toward Oskar, yelling, “Oskie, Oskie, wait for me!” In seconds she had jumped onto the back of the
Beetle
, yelling, “There's something in the Forest, Oskie. Something waiting for Tod!”

A chill of fear went through Oskar. He took the
Beetle
through the break in the snow embankment where the
Wiz
had ploughed through and headed into the trees.

On the course behind him, a nervous
Sarnie
wobbled by.

All along the straight, Tod had felt the
Wiz
wanting to pull toward the Forest and as they drew near an ancient oak, she saw a flash of silver in the shadows below the tree. A stab of fear shot through her—
someone
was waiting for her
. Tod leaned forward to force the
Wiz
onward, but suddenly realized she no longer had control of the sled. And then it happened—the
Wiz
shot across the track and through the snow embankment. The next moment Tod and the
Wiz
were bumping along the Forest floor and as they sped past the oak tree, out of the corner of her eye Tod saw a witch beneath the tree, watching her—but when she turned to look straight at her, Tod saw nothing but thick green shadows.

Tod felt very scared indeed. All the stories of the Forest that were told at night in the Junior Girls' Apprentice Dorm came back to her. As the
Wiz
slalomed through the trees, Tod clung to the sled
,
unsure whether she was more scared of falling off or staying on. The
Wiz
hurtled along, bumping over the stony ground, which was covered with only a thin layer
of snow. A sheer rocky escarpment, dark and dripping with snow-covered moss, now rose up before her, and it seemed to Tod as though the sled was heading straight for the rock face, intent upon its own destruction. As she readied herself to jump off—a frightening prospect, as the sled was going extremely fast—Tod saw a fissure in the rock straight ahead and she knew that was where the
Wiz
was going. She must jump now . . .
now
. . . And then it was too late. The
Wiz
shot into the deep, dark narrowness of a sheer-sided canyon and Tod was with it. Where they were going she had no idea, but wherever it was, she and the
Wiz
were going together.

Marissa almost cried with relief as she watched Tod and the
Wiz
disappear into the gulley. She had forgotten to
Bind
Tod to the sled and had been afraid that the Apprentice would throw herself off it at the last minute, but it had turned out fine. Anyway, Marissa wasn't sure that she could remember the right
Bind
—there were so many different ones. Marissa's knowledge of
Magyk
was sketchy; she could never be bothered with the boring books that other witches seemed to enjoy reading. A smug smile spread across Marissa's face. Who needed stupid books anyway?
Her
OverRide Enchantment
had worked like a dream.

A sudden yell of “Tod! Tod!” wiped the smile away fast. Marissa leaped back into the shadows of the Guardian and watched in dismay as a small wooden sled came rocketing through the trees in the tracks of the
Wiz
. On it rode a couple of wild-looking redheaded kids who Marissa did not recognize. She stared at them in panic. What should she do? She had enough to think about. She had the Witch Mother to fix, and the scary sorcerer was expecting her to deliver on her promise at midnight. There was no way she needed any more trouble, and those kids looked like trouble on runners.

Marissa looked across to the Castle. She saw the last stage of the sled race being played out along the top of the Castle Walls—the
Spurius
was in the lead—and she heard excited shouts drifting toward her. A feeling of wistfulness for the companionship and safety of the Castle swept over Marissa. Her deal with the sorcerer was going frighteningly wrong. First Morwenna Mould, the Wendron Witch Mother, had stuck her nosy beak in and demanded to be part of it and now these screaming kids on a sled had suddenly appeared. Marissa's plans were getting out of control and she dreaded to think what the sorcerer would do if they didn't work out.

Marissa heard cheering from the Castle and it took all her willpower not to run for the drawbridge and hurry back to her cozy little attic room. But then Marissa thought of what awaited her back in the Castle:
that loser Jo-Jo Heap, a dead-end job in Gothyk Grotto and a load of idiots who treat you like rubbish. But if you get this right,
she told herself,
they'll all be terrified of you. And serves them right, too. So just get after those sleds and make sure it all works out
.

And so Marissa turned away from the lights and the cheers and hurried through the silent trees, heading toward the gulley into which two sets of sled tracks now ran. Using
FleetFoot
—the
Enchantment
that allowed a witch to move as fast as those she was following—Marissa covered the ground at speed, her feet a blur beneath her cloak. As she headed into the canyon she heard a roar greeting the winner of the Apprentice Race: the
Spurius Fatuus.

The
Sarnie
crossed the finish line, and still Septimus and Beetle stood waiting for their sleds to finish. Their disappointment that they had not won—or even made a creditable showing—began to be replaced with a gnawing worry. Where were Tod and Oskar?
What had happened to them?

While Septimus and Beetle were discussing what to do, Larry from Larry's Dead Languages rolled up to demand of his triumphant scribe whether all his teaching had gone to waste
—surely by now she could manage a decent insult in Latin? Any fool knew that
“spurius”
merely described a person whose father was not married to his mother.
“Nothus”
was what she should have used: someone whose father was unknown. The infinite subtleties of the Latin language were clearly lost on his idiot apprentice.
Larry stomped off again, leaving Doran wondering if maybe her tutor did have a sense of humor after all—albeit one a little different from most.

As Larry disappeared down Wizard Way, Septimus said, “Beetle, something's gone very wrong. We need to find them.” Beetle needed no persuading. Accompanied by the two seconds, they hurried off along the course.

But the sleds and their riders were already deep in the Forest—and going deeper every second.

PART VII

T
HIRTY
-S
IX
H
OURS TO
H
ATCHING

T
he
Wiz
hurtled along the
narrow gulley. The sheer rock rose up on either side and was sometimes so close that it was hardly wide enough for the sled to fit. Tod was terrified—the
Wiz
was traveling with no care for her safety or for its own. Utterly reckless, the sled hurtled onward like an iron filing pulled toward a powerful magnet.

Even though she was only few a months into her Apprenticeship, Tod knew that the
Wiz
was under an
Enchantment
, and the way it was being hurled from rock to rock made her fear it was a
Darke Enchantment
. She remembered Septimus telling her about a
Darke Summons
that had once happened to his eldest brother, Simon. Tod also remembered that Septimus had told her that many people did not survive a
Darke Summons
. Tod knew that he had been
warning her that being an Apprentice was not all bright, colored lights and happy
Magyk
, that it had its dangers, too. And now she was facing them for the first time.

With no choice in such a confined space but to cling on to the
Wiz
, Tod was bumped and shaken along the gulley like a marble in a box as the sled headed ever deeper into the Forest. The sharp rock walls bruised her as she was thrown against them, and low-level twigs and branches snagged and grabbed at her like snatching hands. Snow covered the ground, but it was thin in places and the rocks below jarred the
Wiz
, sending shockwaves through her.

It felt as though the gulley was going on forever, but Tod knew that it must eventually come to an end. Pushing aside her fear that the end would simply be a blank wall of rock that the
Wiz
would smash headlong into, Tod decided that as soon as the sled came out of the gulley she would throw herself off it, wherever she was. Anything was better than being dragged helplessly toward something
Darke
. Tod knew she was not
Bound
to the sled, she could lift her hands from the bar and even stand up—if she dared. But for now she crouched down over the front bar of the
Wiz
, staring ahead, waiting for the moment the canyon would come to an end.

Tod had no idea that some distance behind her Oskar and Ferdie were on the
Beetle
, following her tracks. Oskar propelled the
Beetle
as fast as he dared, hoping to get a glimpse of Tod, but always she was just out of sight. However, the swinging branches and the showers of snow falling from them told Oskar that Tod was still ahead. But the
Wiz
was drawing ever farther away and—fearless sled racer though he was—Oskar did not dare push the
Beetle
to the limits that the
OverRide
was taking the
Wiz
. He had Ferdie to consider too.

Far behind Oskar and Ferdie came someone who was used to considering no one but herself: Marissa, out of breath, disheveled and footsore. Marissa stumbled along, cursing her bad luck.

Far ahead of Marissa, Tod was gripping the front rail of the
Wiz
and staring ahead in horror. Just visible through the overhanging branches and getting closer by the second was a sheer wall of rock cutting across the gulley. It was the end of the road.

Tod was about to hurl herself backward off the sled when she saw an opening in the rock, the round mouth of a tunnel with a light at the end. Tod dithered—should she risk throwing herself onto the ground, or stay on the
Wiz
? In
that brief moment of indecision the
Wiz
left the gritty snow of the gulley and entered the cold, still darkness of rock. Its runners hit pure ice and the sled shot through the tunnel at breathtaking speed. Ahead, Tod now saw a circle of light—not dull greenish-white filtered through snow-laden trees, but bright yellow firelight. Tod had heard enough stories about the Wendron Witches to know that Forest firelight is not always a welcoming sight. Fire in the Forest usually meant the gathering of the Coven.

The
Wiz
careered out of the tunnel into the Wendron Witches' winter quarters—a wide, open space enclosed by the steep-sided rocks of an old quarry. The sled's runners hit bare rock and it ground to a halt.

Tod was welcomed by the collective
Scream
of the Wendron Witch Coven.

A coven
Scream
is a powerful weapon. When timed right, in perfect unison and disharmony—as the Wendron Witches'
Scream
was—it renders the victim helpless.

Tod sat numbly on the
Wiz
, the
Scream
echoing around the quarry. Her hands were clamped firmly over her ears, but still the high-pitched drilling of the
Scream
bored into her head, drowning out all thoughts of escape. Tod could see nothing but a circle of faces with dark, wide-open mouths. On and on went the
Scream
, ricocheting off the rocks, while Tod sat in the center of a whirlpool of noise, feeling as though she were made of glass and that any moment now she might shatter into a million splinters.

But even witches in
Scream
eventually run out of breath, and slowly the decibels began to drop, the echoes weakened and the sound began to drain away. When at last the gaping mouths were closed Tod was left shaking, feeling as though her ears were filled with glue and her muscles turned to jelly.

In the brief hiatus that always follows a
Scream
, Tod's surroundings began to sink in. Beyond the circle of witches in their dark green cloaks, beyond the roaring fire behind them, Tod saw the darkness of rock rearing up, topped by a fringe of Forest trees. If she had looked behind her, Tod would have seen a rock face peppered with small caves, some with ladders leading up to them, which was where the witches spent the long, dangerous Forest winter nights. But Tod did not need to
look, she knew where she was; Septimus had described it to her in her Forest Knowledge tutorial. She was in the winter quarters of the Wendron Witch Coven.

Blinking as though they had just woken up and rubbing their ears, the circle of witches enclosing Tod shook themselves out of their
Scream
trance. Tod felt as weak as a newborn puppy; she could do no more than sit on the
Wiz
and watch. The circle began to open up and through the gap Tod saw a large witch swathed in a thick cloak of green, walking slowly toward her. She was flanked by two younger witches, on whom she leaned her not inconsiderable weight. Tod knew who this must be—Morwenna Mould, the Wendron Witch Mother.

Morwenna Mould stopped in front of the
Wiz
and looked down at Tod with an air of disappointment. “Is this it?” she said scornfully.

“It must be, Witch Mother,” one of her supporters ventured.

“It looks very . . .
young
.”

“It is quite new, I think, Witch Mother,” said the other supporter.

“It's too new to know much,” Morwenna snapped. “I thought she was getting one of the older ones. He won't like
it.” Surprisingly light on her feet when she needed to be, Morwenna swiveled around to stare at the Circle. She raised her voice angrily. “Where is that Marissa girl, anyway?”

Her reply was a yell of surprise from the Circle. She turned, expecting to see the errant Marissa, and saw two small figures on an old wooden sled come bumping into the quarry. They were covered in snow.

Morwenna reacted quickly. “
Grasp
them!” she yelled.

Ferdie and Oskar were too chilled to react. The Witch Mother's helpers leaped forward, grabbed a twin each and held their shoulders in a
Grasp
. The coven stared menacingly at Oskar and Ferdie. There had been a rumor that Snow Sprites had been sighted in the Forest, and many of the witches—including Morwenna—assumed they had now made a successful sprite snatch. It was, the coven thought, turning out to be a good day, however new and useless the Apprentice might be.

Tod saw the look in the witches' eyes as they stared at Oskar and Ferdie and it frightened her. She stood up unsteadily and at once felt the weight of Morwenna's heavy hand descend upon her shoulder. A moment later she too felt the iron chill of the witch's
Grasp
leach into her bones and a
feeling of fuzziness invade her mind, but Tod fought it, using a very basic
MindScreen
that Septimus had taught her.

Morwenna pointed at Oskar and Ferdie. “Take them to the cell cave,” she ordered.

There was a shocked silence among the coven. The two witches who had Ferdie and Oskar in their
Grasp
looked at each other in dismay. Their job was to advise the Witch Mother—and it was a dangerous one. Morwenna Mould in her declining years did not take kindly to advice. However, Morwenna also did not take kindly to witches who were too frightened to give advice. Being chosen as a Witch Mother Supporter was seen as a poisoned chalice. The two current Supporters, Bryony and Madron, were close friends—unusual among witches—and had agreed to always act together.

“Ahem. Witch Mother,” murmured Bryony.

“What?” snapped Morwenna.

“The, er, Snow Sprites,” said Madron.

“Yes? What about them?” asked Morwenna.

“It is usually considered safer . . .”

“With Snow Sprites . . .”

“Who always hold a grudge . . .”

“When captured . . .”

“Or confined . . .”

“In any way . . .”

“For Forest's sake!” Morwenna Mould yelled. She flashed a look of exasperation that would have floored a witch acting on her own. “What are you trying to say, you mumbling idiots? Spit it out!”

Bryony and Madron glanced at each other, then they took a deep breath and said in unison, “Witch Mother. With respect. With captured Snow Sprites it is usually considered safer to . . .
kill them
.”

“They're not Snow Sprites!” Tod yelled. “Let them go!”

Ferdie and Oskar, already numbed by the cold, were now falling into the trance-state that is an effect of a powerful
Grasp
. With Bryony's and Madron's hands lying heavy on their shoulders, they stood stone-still, their eyes unfocused.

The coven turned its stare on Tod. “They're just covered in snow, that's all,” she faltered.

“Of course they are covered in snow,” said Bryony, who had
Ferdie in her
Grasp
. “Snow Sprites generally are.” A chorus of laughter greeted this.

“They're not Snow Sprites, they're my friends!” Tod yelled.

“Snow Sprites as friends, eh?” said Morwenna, whose hearing was not good. “Well, well. Maybe we underestimated you, Apprentice. Maybe you have a little more
Magyk
than it seems. Maybe you are not quite the mistake I took you to be.
Maybe
the sorcerer will be pleased to have you after all.” The Witch Mother smiled. “And I'll have a few sprite bones to give him too, ha-ha. As long as we rake them out of the fire quickly.”

The shock of Morwenna's words hit Tod like a blow:
Bones?
Fire?
“Ferdie! Oskie!” she yelled. “Wake up!”

But neither Ferdie nor Oskar responded. Bryony and Madron grinned at each other. Their
Grasps
were clearly a lot more effective than that of the Witch Mother, and from Morwenna's sour expression they guessed she knew it too.

Desperately, Tod struggled to get free, but every movement made Morwenna's
Grasp
grow tighter and more painful. Soon Tod's shoulder hurt so much that she had no choice but to stay still. “You have learned your first lesson: do not fight the power of the Forest,” Morwenna hissed at
her. “Now your sprites will learn theirs.”

“They are not sprites!” Tod screamed out. “They are human! Ferdie! Oskar!
Wake up!
”

But Ferdie and Oskar stared blankly into space.

“More wood for the fire!” Morwenna yelled.

In the center of the quarry floor a fire crackled and spat. Now the witches scattered to the margins of the quarry where fallen branches lay stacked and hurried to bring them to stoke the flames.

From the margins of the Forest above, two young witches watched the activity below. These were Jenna's spies, Ariel and Star. They had just escorted their Queen safely to Galen's treehouse and had been waiting for a chance to rejoin the coven without being spotted. The frenzied fire-stoking gave them the perfect opportunity. As the flames rose higher, they ran quickly down the rocky path that led down to the quarry floor. Ariel and Star slipped through the narrow gap in the rocks, picked up a branch, lugged it across to the fire and hurled it onto the flames. They grinned at each other in relief. No one had noticed.

As each witch added her fuel the flames rose higher, roaring up into the darkening sky. The heat was such that even
though they were some distance from the fire, caked snow began to fall from Oskar and Ferdie and Tod at last began to feel warm. But the warmer Tod felt, the more scared she became. She watched her friends staring vacantly at the flames and she wondered if they had any idea what the witches intended to do. But most of all, she wondered how on earth she was going to stop the witches from doing it.

It wasn't every day that two Snow Sprites got thrown onto the fire, and the coven now began to form an excited Witch Circle around the fire and its victims-to-be. Star and Ariel joined them, unsure what was happening but doing their best to look as though they knew.

Like the drone of a swarm of bees, a low, rhythmic humming began—the renowned Wendron Witch Circle
Hum
. Something about its steady, expectant rhythm made Tod feel very afraid. The
Hum
, however, had a different effect on the Witch Mother—it was something Morwenna had noticed recently but had kept secret, for it was a sure sign of waning powers. It made her feel sleepy.