The Elderine Stone (9 page)

As Sherbit ran ahead, Jason and Emily smiled as they heard the small creature singing, or mumbling, they weren’t too sure which it was. They tried to listen to the small creature's pleasant tune, but he was either singing in a strange language or purposefully hiding his utterances so no one could understand. Even with his secretive habits, Sherbit really did look as if he was enjoying himself as he zigzagged along the path.

Jason took a deep refreshing breath, marvelling at the scents in the air. It just smelt like any spring day back home, in his world. "
Shouldn't it be different?
" he thought, "
shouldn't there be spices, or something to tell me it's not just a glorious, normal day?
Secretly, though, he was glad. He would have missed the familiar fragrance of spring, and summer, and even winter. He wondered if they had snow here. His thoughts wandered like the path they walked, the even pace of their steps bringing back memories of the homeward trek from school he had followed so many years of his life. This made him think of
all the things he
didn’t
miss. The insufferable acts of his aunt Florence, her crazy friends who often poked Jason with their knitting needles when they wanted his attention. School, well, he supposed he would have to get some sort of education here, but he'd never again be at a school like his old one. Things could really be different here, they could be
better
. But, where would he live, how would he earn his keep? What could he do here? The questions made him frown, but he shrugged them off, deciding he should just try to live one day at a time. The plans would come clear in time.

Emily too, had also been thinking as she walked, and now she broke the silence with a question.

"Sherbit, tell us a bit about your home. What was it like? You know, before the” She paused before continuing “before
it
happened. I know it must be hard, and if you don't want to tell me I'll understand. Gosh, I really shouldn't have asked, but I've never met an imp before, and I'd love to hear more about you and where you came from."

Sherbit stopped in front of the two teenagers. The wind blew gently passed them, with a very welcoming breeze. The midday sun was almost uncomfortable to walk in, but not so warm that they felt the need to move into the shade to cool down.

"It’s okay Miss Emily, I don’t mind talking about my home, and I have nothing bad to say about it. It was all good until those good-for-nothing Slaves traders came.”

Sherbit's voice held anger, but beneath that, there lay something more, something vaguely discomforting. It was almost as if his hatred for the slave traders masked another, darker emotion, as a pale scab might hide an ugly, infected wound.

“Those Slave traders sound like a nasty bunch," Jason said, "Who do they work for?"

Emily answered him, saying, “Nobody knows for sure, but many people think they work for the Dark Lady, keeping her supplied with slaves, so that she can cast terrible spells on them.”

“
I agree with those people,” Sherbit said, rubbing his watering eyes. “I have seen what she does to creatures, and people brought to her.”

He stopped rubbing his eyes and looked up at Jason and Emily. Noticing that Emily and Jason were now paying complete attention, he continued, wringing his tail between his hands so hard that Jason was sure it must have hurt the creature.

“
I was lucky enough to get away. But all the rest…” he began to cry uncontrollably.

“
It’s alright, Sherbit.” Emily said, in a soothing, gentle voice. “We’ll put a stop to it, don’t worry. And when we are finished you’ll be able to go back to your home.”

She knelt by the imp, stroking his head as one might soothe a child, or a cat. He fawned at her a little, and the tearful floods became the breathy little sobs and sighs, as he calmed.

Jason thought for a moment. How exactly were they going to put a stop to it? After all, he still wasn’t too sure exactly what it was they were going to put a stop to.

“
Are you going to be ok to carry on?” Emily asked, still stroking the small creature.

Sherbit managed to pull a brave smile.

“
Yes I am thank you. The sooner we go, the sooner we can stop all the bad things.”

Emily stood up and looked over at Jason, then back to Sherbit.

“
Well let’s go then.” Jason said. “Nothing will get in our way.”

As they started walking again, Jason noticed that Sherbit’s earlier activities must have exhausted him, as he tagged behind them. Instead of running ahead he was only just managing to keep up.

They walked in silence, each alone with their thoughts once more. Engrossed in their silence neither of the friends noticed the change in their surroundings. An eerie feeling drifted through the air hugging them like a dense mist. The birds were silent, and the temperature dropped to a cool skin tingling level.

Emily shuddered. Her actions startled Jason, and he began to look around, trying to pinpoint what was wrong. A cold breeze blew passed them, stealing his breath in a long streamer of vapour.

“
It has become cold all of a sudden,” Emily remarked, wrapping her arms around her body to keep the heat inside.

“
Yeah, it has.” Jason replied. “But the sun is still out and there are no clouds.”

They all stopped for a moment. Turning in small circles around each other, to try and spot anything out of the ordinary. Emily held her staff in an iron like grip, while Sherbit’s lower lip was clasped as hard, by his teeth, as his tail held tight in his hands. They stood still, listening. Listening for any sort of noise but the only sound was their breath.

Finally, their eyes met, and they grinned.

“
Look, at me! I’ve only been here a few days and I’m a paranoid wreck!” Jason joked, rubbing his hands to stave off the chill.

“The weather is very unpredictable you know,” Emily said, the smile on her face brightened by relief.

“Tell me about it” Jason replied with good natured sarcasm.

“
My grandfather once built an instrument that could tell you the weather that was to come!” Emily said with a laugh. “Crazy thought, isn’t it? Knowing what weather could be, a full week ahead!”

Jason smiled to himself, thinking of how everyone back home took weather forecasts for granted.

“
Well?” She was all business now. “We’d better not hang around; we certainly don’t want to be caught in a thunder storm. You never know how the weather could change.”

She brushed down her cloak, turned south and started walking again.

Jason raised his eyebrows, shook his head and looked at Sherbit. The imp still seemed uncertain, so Jason stooped to scratch him behind the ears before standing to start after Emily.

She was standing still only a few steps ahead.

With a gasp, he started to run. He was panicked by the look of concentration on her face as she stared at the ground.

She held out her hand and cried “Whoa!”

“
What is it? What’s wrong?” Jason asked. He looked at the ground around her, trying to see what she saw. There was nothing. He started to walk to her, slowly and quietly, so he wouldn’t startle her. She could be casting a spell.

“Stop!” she screamed, “Don’t come any closer!”

Her eyes were wild, wide and afraid.

“
Why? Emily what’s
wrong
?”

He took another step closer, and suddenly he felt the ground start to weaken under his feet. Emily looked up at him, frustration mixed with fear, and the ground collapsed beneath them. The shock of the fall caused Emily to release her staff into the air, and it clattered woodenly along the path ahead of them. They fell quickly and untidily into a deep, freshly-dug hole. Branches, leaves and copious amounts of soil fell down on top of them, and for a moment Jason feared it would bury them alive.

When it stopped, and he had worked out which way was up, and aligned himself with that, he almost wished it
had
buried them. Emily was furious.

“
Does ‘don’t come any closer’ mean something
different
where you’re from? How are we going to get out of here, may I ask?”

“
I don’t know,” Jason replied. “Where is ‘here’, anyway?”

Emily looked at him. Then she looked at the pit, in a very obvious manner, and looked at him again. When she began, her tone was even, if exasperated, and Jason realised she was trying her best not to shout.

“
We have fallen into a trap, Jason. Weak ground and a
hole
underneath? This is the typical trap used by the slave traders that we’ve been hearing about. If we don’t get out soon, we’ll get to meet them for ourselves.”

Jason gulped at the thought of being made a slave, or worse yet, being sold to the Dark Lady. Their adventure could be over very soon if they didn’t find a way to escape… and quickly.

“
Why not ask Sherbit to help us?” Jason said in what he hoped was a reassuring and calming tone. “After all, he is up there, and we’re down here. He could throw your staff down and you could cast a spell, couldn’t you?’

“
Yes of course I could. That’s exactly what I had in mind.” Emily pulled herself up, and started calling Sherbit, who quickly ran over and peered over the edge of the hole.

“Yes, Miss Emily?” They could see that Sherbit was finding this situation very funny, as hard as he was trying to hide his giggles, a number of large grins made it through.

“
Sherbit, this is
not
funny! Now go get my staff and throw it down to me.”

Sherbit turned and went to fetch Emily’s staff, allowing himself a little giggle as he went. Those humans! The looks on their faces were
priceless
. As he bent to lift it, he felt a funny, yet familiar feeling. The air rippled behind him, and a cloaked figure emerged. Sherbit gasped in shocked recognition as a heavy bag came towards him. He didn’t even have time to squeak before he was scooped into it. The bag was hefted and securely tied. Sherbit moaned helplessly as he struggled uselessly, trying to escape. He felt the air ripple again and an unseen voice joined the figure.

“
Ah, that has to be the fifth time we’ve caught
that
little fella! I wonder what the Mistress’ll say this time. Maybe we shouldn’t be too rough on him, you know.”

Meanwhile still i
n the pit, Emily and Jason had stopped brushing soil from their hair and clothes as they felt the disturbance in the air. They waited, not daring to speak, trying hard not to breathe, knowing only too well who had arrived.

Footsteps neared the trap, and then a face looked over.

“
We’ve two more in here! They are pretty young too. They should make good subjects for the Mistress’ experiments.” He looked over to his companion. “She’ll have some fun with them, no doubt of that.”

His gaze returned to the captives. “Wouldn’t like to get in her way on a bad day.”

“That’s for sure,” the other voice replied.

Jason gulped as Emily grabbed his arm. The other man’s face appeared. Jason and Emily watched as he held up a small bag. The slaver put his hand in and brought out some shimmering dust, which he sprinkled over Jason and Emily. They blinked once, and dropped unconscious to the ground.

Whatever the dust had been, it was effective. Regaining consciousness felt like swimming upward through cotton wool. With a gasp, Jason opened his eyes and peered into darkness. He rubbed them, and decided that it was dark because it was night rather than blindness. Gingerly he sat up. His stomach heaved. He closed his eyes again to fight the nausea. When his body felt like it belonged to him once more, he stood up and looked around. He was in some form of camp surrounded by a dense copious covering of trees. He could hear laughing and talking - there was a campfire not far from him with a few people sitting around it. Then he realized where he was, or rather, what he was in. It was an enclosure large enough not to be confining, allowing him to stretch out on the ground, but regardless of the freedom it permitted it remained a sturdy wooden cage. He shook on the bars, and then tried to push and pull them, but he couldn’t move them at all. He looked down at Emily, still lying on the ground. She was very still. He couldn’t see Sherbit anywhere. Emily stirred and groaned as she came to.

“Oh, so you are still with us,” Jason said, trying to mask his relief.

“
That’s rather cheeky,” Emily replied, “any ideas about where we are?”