Seven Sorcerers (39 page)

‘… second …’

He was in the untouched ground now, the foundations of the House where Strood’s servants had been forbidden to dig. Pushing aside stones and smashing through layers of shale and rock, Jik moved on with increasing ease, until …

‘… NOW!’ she finished, and opened her eyes again. She looked at the door and her heart sank as it stayed shut. She barely noticed the rumbling that came from beneath their feet.

Strood had moved to stand next to the work surface. As the rumbling began, he switched his gaze from Nin to the ground, a puzzled frown gathering on his face. Floyd, positioned between Toby’s cage and Nin so as to block the poor kid’s view of what was about to happen to his sister, shuffled backward as the floor began to tremble. Perched on a stool at one end of the work surface, Scribbins turned pale. The rumbling grew fast
to a sound that shook the room.

Toby yelled as the floor erupted sending tiles and mud flying through the air. Something rose up through it. Something angry with eyes that glowed like beacons.

Safe behind the glass door of the Distillation Machine, a shocked Nin watched as fragments of tile rained down everywhere. In their cages by the wall, Toby and Hss got the least of it. On the lower shelves, bottles and jars exploded as tiles smashed into them, scattering their contents everywhere. A stone ricocheted off a sealed bottle marked ‘LETHAL’ high on a shelf above the work surface. The bottle didn’t break, but there was a cracking sound that nobody heard amid all the yelling. A chunk of broken tile got Mr Strood in the face, cutting a line from cheek to chin. Blood spattered on to his white coat.

‘Jik!’ screamed Nin and the mudman charged through the debris towards her. Floyd could have stopped him, but had just breathed in a lungful of powdered goat intestines and was too busy coughing horribly. Red in the face, eyes bulging, he collapsed to his knees just as Jik reached Nin and pulled the tube from her arm. The first drop of Mafig’s fusion dripped harmlessly to the floor to be followed by the rest, leaving Nin giggling with relief.

Rigid with fury, Strood pointed a finger that trembled with rage in Jik’s direction. Already the slash on his face was healing, the edges pulling themselves together, the scar blending in with the others.

‘Rip it apart,’ he snarled.

The guard and the secretary leapt to obey. At least, Floyd staggered to his feet, still struggling to breathe, and Scribbins tumbled off his stool to run on wobbling legs towards the target. Floyd launched himself into a rugby tackle intended to crush the mudman to dust, but Jik did a neat somersault out of the guard’s grip, landed in front of the glass door and yanked it open. Scribbins got there a second later, but Jik had already gone, leaping at the wall, bouncing off it and grabbing the key ring from its hook as he went. Trying to follow, Floyd spun dizzily, lurched to a halt, bent over and made a loud whooping noise followed by a horrible retching one.

‘I said rip it apart not puke it to death, you pea-brained moron!’ howled Strood. He was white with fury and the scars on his face stood out in livid red. ‘If you can’t manage that lump of earth, at least GET THE GIRL!’

White with terror, Scribbins turned to grab Nin as she pulled her arm free of the sling and tumbled out of the machine. She shrieked and pushed him hard in the chest. He staggered, slipped in the puddle of sick and fell, bashing his head on the half-open glass door.

As she ran, Nin caught a glance from the doubled-up Floyd. He was pale and sweaty, but his eyes were focused and she was sure, really sure, that if he had tried he could have got her.

‘Thank you,’ she breathed and kept moving.

Strood had given up on his underlings. By now, Jik had unlocked the cages, pulled out Toby and the spider and
the three of them, followed by Nin, were headed for the way out. Over the other side of the room, Strood was too far away to grab Nin before she reached the door. Instead, he spun towards the cabinet behind him, throwing it open to reveal rows of neatly labelled drawers. As the door slammed back on its hinges, hitting the shelves next to it, the already damaged bottle high above Strood’s head exploded sending perfumed, green liquid spattering over half the laboratory.

A splash skated across the top of Floyd’s massive leather boots as he leaned against the work surface. Another splash sailed over Nin’s head, hit the wall and slithered down it leaving a melted groove in the tiles. Barely back on his feet, Scribbins began to scream and pull off his clothes as a dollop of the stuff ate rapidly through them.

But most of the fluid went over Mr Strood, who had just found the drawer he wanted and pulled it open. The stuff ran down the left side of his face and body. The perfume was replaced by a horrible smell of barbecue. Strood froze.

‘That,’ he hissed, ‘was the last ever bottle of distilled faerie venom. The LAST EVER, do you understand!’ He spun around, clutching something in one hand that looked like a metal star

‘Nik tik wik KIK!’ Jik threw open the door and Hss headed through it.

Toby looked back for Nin who had paused to throw a horrified stare at Strood as a thick dribble of venom ran
down his face. Or maybe it was his eye. The sleeve of his white coat had burned away and his skin was beginning to smoke.

Strood raised the thing in his hand, the razor-sharp teeth glinting as he aimed for Nin’s heart. He had a clear shot and his arm was in motion, his fingers uncurling to release the star.

Floyd lurched into Strood’s line of fire, cold sweat breaking out on his corrugated forehead and his ruined boots flapping about his feet as he threw himself towards the escaping captives. Strood howled, for a split second he faltered. Then he let the star go, spitting fire as it blazed through the air.

Jik shoved Toby through the door, grabbed Nin and towed her out of the laboratory.

The door slammed shut in Floyd’s face.

The star slammed into the door where it stuck, burning a deep gash and showering sparks everywhere. There was a smell of scorched guard.

Mr Strood went nova.

‘RELEASE THE MAUG!’

Floyd gulped. ‘Do ya mean … let it loose?’

Strood turned a look on him that made him flinch.

‘Do it,’ he hissed, ‘and do it NOW! Or I’ll feed to you the tigers piece by piece and MAKE YOU WATCH.’

Having made it to the up-house, Jonas and Taggit were wondering which way to go next when they heard the
thunder of many feet running at speed up the corridor. Jonas grabbed Taggit and pulled him out of sight under the stairs.

When they were past, Jonas peered round the corner, too late to see who it was. Then he heard someone yelling from somewhere down the hallway.

‘What was that?’

‘Sounded like “release the Maug” t’ me.’

‘It’s got something to do with Nin, hasn’t it?’

‘Wouldn’t put it past ’er to ’ave got up Strood’s nose some’ow.’

‘Come on, then. Follow me.’

‘Right y’are,’ said Taggit, grimly.

With Toby hanging on to her free hand and Jik and Hss at her heels, Nin ran as fast as she could, trying to remember the layout of Polpp’s map. She reached the door to the Maug’s courtyard and yanked it open.

The Death Dog turned its heavy head to look at them. Toby gasped, clinging on to Nin, and Hss bunched up nervously as it galloped towards them, only stopping when it reached the end of its chain. They ran past it, across to the arch and through into the gardens beyond with the Maug’s icy howl at their backs.

‘Now …’ Nin stared around her. Polpp’s sketch had shown something that looked like a big, blurred cabbage. ‘Gotta be!’ she said, and headed across the grass towards Mr Strood’s rose garden.

A second later, Floyd staggered through the door. He gazed at the Maug with horror as it howled after the escaping Quick, its unseeable eyes, darkness in darkness, fixed on the retreating shapes in the distance. It howled again, turning the air to frost.

Already pale, Floyd went the colour of cottage cheese. He lurched a few steps towards it, then a few more, not wanting to do what he had to do. Muttering to himself, he unclipped the chain from the collar around the Maug’s neck.

It took off through the archway at a horrible speed.

As he watched it go, the door behind him burst open on a Quick with eyes that glowed and a Fabulous goblin several sizes larger than Floyd. The guard raised his fists, ready to fight, but they had already gone, thundering past him, hot on the tail of the Death Dog.

They ran, but Toby was only small and he was weak from his long stay in the cage. Nin couldn’t carry him without slowing down, so they could only go as fast as he could.

Behind them the Maug was gaining. It loped over the grass like a bundle of night-time that had got loose in the day, leaving a ripple of darkness in its wake that swirled like ink in water until it dissolved in the light. Nin ran on, towing Toby behind her, across the neatly cut lawn, through a gap in the dividing hedge and into the rose garden.

In front of her, row upon row of dark red rose-bushes all led straight to a marble-pillared temple in the centre. She headed for that. Toby was white with effort, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes, but he struggled after Nin, trying to go just a little faster. Jik dropped back behind them.