The Opal Quest (4 page)

‘The High Witch Yordis wishes me to teach you how to be a grooming maid.' She rolled up her sleeves and Tia saw lots of bruises. Y
ordis must've done that – no wonder Katinka's afraid of her
, Tia thought, and felt sorry for the girl. She felt even sorrier for her when the bear batted at her several times for snagging brushes in her fur.

‘Now you try.' Katinka handed a brush to Tia.
Good luck
, she mouthed silently.

Tia was used to grooming the Traders' shaggy little horses with their long manes and tails and had no difficulty with the bear's fur. Yordis waved Katinka away and turned over with a snort. Tia wanted to laugh as she went on grooming. This bear with its dirty, tangled fur was her aunt! What would she think if she knew that her niece, a DragonChild from Drakelow, was picking burrs and fleas from her coat?

The bear's eyes closed and she began to snore. Tia grew bolder and brushed nearer and nearer to the collar; she wanted to have a close look at the magic opal.

All of a sudden the bear rolled over and pinned Tia to the floor with her huge paw. ‘Do not touch my collar, Trader brat,' she snarled.

Tia could hardly breathe with the paw pressing into her chest. ‘I've done something wrong,' she wheezed, trembling as growls rumbled deep inside the bear. ‘I'm sorry. Perhaps you don't like to be groomed near to your collar?'

The growling increased.

‘I'll be careful not to do it again, O great one,' Tia said quickly.

The bear lifted her paw. ‘This girl's quick to work out what I mean. She keeps her wits about her and she grooms well. I'll keep her.' She flopped down again.

Tia sat up and gulped in air. Yordis wasn't very bright but she was dangerous and cruel. Tia was going to have to be very, very careful.

When Tia had finished grooming the bear, she was taken for a meal in the castle kitchen. After that, Katinka showed Tia to a small room next to Yordis's chambers. It had two tiny, sealed windows. An unlit fire set was set into one wall and a little alcove next to it had a washing area. There was just enough space for a bed and a wooden chest where Tia stowed her bag.

Katinka told her, ‘The High Witch says you have to stay here till tomorrow, then she wants you to tell her some story about a prince and a bear.'

Tia had forgotten about that! She sat on the bed, hoping Katinka liked to gossip.

‘Yordis can't always be a bear. I mean, she must be a human being sometimes, otherwise she couldn't tell you what she wants.'

‘The
Lady
Yordis chooses when to be herself. At those times she usually stays in her room.'

‘Why?'

‘You ask too many questions,' Katinka snapped, and Tia decided not to ask where the High Witch kept the collar when she wasn't wearing it.

‘I'll bring you some food later,' Katinka said, and left.

Tia got out her book and pen and scribbled down a map of the parts of the castle she remembered. She'd add to it as she learned more. Then she thought about the story she was going to tell Yordis next day.

Much later, the door opened and Katinka came in with a tray of cold left-over food and drink. Tia hoped she'd stay to chat but the girl only said, ‘I'll come for you in the morning and take you to the High Witch,' then went away.

Tia poked her fork into some cold meat. She was stuck in a room with windows Loki couldn't fly through; how was she going to get a message to Finn?

She shivered. It was growing dark and the room was so cold! She hurried to the fireplace and found a box with moss and flints inside. She pushed the moss among the sticks and fire-rock in the hearth
and struck the flints together, but the moss was slightly damp and the sparks wouldn't catch.

‘I wish I
was
a hedge witch!' Tia grumbled, snapping her fingers as Halla had done to ignite the sticks under her cauldrons of water.

Whoosh! Fire ate up moss and sticks, turned the black fire-rock to glowing red, and roared up the chimney, scattering handfuls of sparks like little red sprites.

Tia fell back in shock. No hedge witch could have conjured up fire like this. Tears stung her eyes. The dragonets had been right after all: she was a witch-brat.

She sat for a long time, turning over and over in her mind what to do. Eventually she decided to keep her new-found ability a secret: she wouldn't even tell Finn, and definitely not Loki. No-one was going to compare her to her evil aunts, the High Witches of Tulay.

The fire had begun to die down. Cautiously Tia added more fire-rock and blew gently to fan the flames. To her relief they flickered and danced quite normally. She'd just have to be very careful not to let this unexpected magic ability show.

She yawned and stumbled into bed and instantly fell asleep

Katinka woke her the next morning. ‘I see you found the flints,' she said nodding towards the embers in the hearth. She put Tia's freshly laundered Trader clothes on the chest. On top of the clothes was a small tray with a mean breakfast. ‘Hurry up and get ready. The High Witch wants her story.'

Tia looked gloomily at the bread and cheese on the tray; it wasn't going to take her very long to eat that!

Yordis was in her own form, sitting in bed, lolling against heaped-up pillows with a large plate of food on her lap. Tia could see the High Witch was very like her sister, Malindra, but much broader and not so beautiful. She wasn't wearing the opal.

‘Sit on the bed, Trader girl, and tell me the story of Prince Kaspar and the Great Bear,' Yordis said.

Tia obediently climbed onto the enormous bed and sat cross-legged. Katinka curtseyed. ‘Is there anything more, Lady Yordis?'

‘Who asked you to speak?' Yordis threw a chicken leg at the girl, who scurried out, glaring at Tia.

It's not my fault if Yordis likes stories
, Tia thought.

‘Now, girl, begin – and make it a good tale,' Yordis ordered.

Tia told her made-up story. She acted out the voices and made big gestures as she described Prince Kaspar's fights. The further she got into the story the more she liked it; she added details as she went along and time flew by.

Suddenly Yordis screeched, ‘Vermin!' She reared up and flung her plate at a little mouse scampering by the wall. Tia nearly fell off the bed with shock as the plate smashed into pieces and the mouse disappeared through a crack in the wall. Yordis, pale and trembling, sank back into her pillows.

‘Mice!' she shuddered. ‘I hate them!'

Tia bit her lip to stop herself from laughing out loud. Yordis, the mighty High Witch of Kulafoss who stalked her lands as a great and fearsome bear, was afraid of a tiny little mouse!

‘I've heard enough for now!' Yordis said. ‘We will continue the story tomorrow. Go to your room – and stay there.'

Tia did as she was told. She sat on her bed and wrote down more ideas for her story of Prince Kaspar. After a while she heard snuffling outside her room; Yordis was a bear again and checking on Tia.
She can't have gone far to change back so quickly
, Tia thought.
Perhaps the opal's in her chambers somewhere
. The snuffling stopped and she heard the heavy flump, flump, flump as the bear stamped away down the corridor.

Tia opened her door carefully and peered out. There was no sign of the bear.

For the next few days Tia continued telling Prince Kaspar's story to Yordis, who didn't seem to mind that the tale had no ending. She was never left alone in the witch's rooms and when she wasn't storytelling or grooming the bear, Katinka kept a close eye on her.

At night Tia explored and mapped the castle. She got to know its tower rooms, its cellars, its hall, kitchen and workrooms. She explored the weaponry and practised swinging heavy swords and lifting spears. She decided she preferred the sling she kept in her pocket: it was lighter and easy to hide.

By the time she finished her map she could find her way around the castle without any difficulty.

In the daytime, when she wasn't busy with Yordis, she chatted to the other servants and the guards in
the big kitchen where they gathered in their spare time.

Two things puzzled Tia: firstly, how did the bear come and go from the castle? It was far too enormous to use the cage lift. Even in her human form it would've been difficult to fit Yordis
and
her bodyguard into it. Yet she somehow managed to enter and leave the castle without anyone seeing her.

The second puzzle was where Yordis kept the collar. Tia quickly learned people didn't like talking about it. One afternoon, when she spoke to the chief guard, he looked around furtively then answered in a low voice, ‘You ask too many questions about things that don't concern you. It'll get back to the Lady Yordis if you're not careful, and she won't be happy to know you're interested in the opal. She keeps it hidden – even I don't know where it is.'

Though he was fierce, it was clear he meant well.

‘Thank you,' Tia said. ‘I was just curious but I won't mention it again.'

The guard patted her shoulder. ‘You remind me of my little girl, Laufey. She's about your age. I don't see her so much now she's down the crystal mines.'

He sounded very sad.

‘Why do you let her work there?' Tia blurted out.

‘The Lady Yordis wished it – and if I had refused
she would've… done something very terrible. As she will to you if you continue to ask questions. Now, I see Katinka wants you.'

The maid had just finished filling a pail with corn and scraps; she pushed it at Tia. ‘I'm too busy to feed the hens – you do it.'

Tia's heart beat a bit faster. The hens were outside in the courtyard; she might see Loki there. She took the pail and sauntered off, trying not to look too eager. ‘Stay in sight!' Katinka warned her.

‘All right,' Tia called back, though she didn't see how she could escape from the high-walled courtyard unless she grew wings.

The yard was busy with servants running about or gossiping and guards practising sword-fighting. The hen coop was open and the chickens were scattered about, rooting for food. Tia scanned the towers and the walls. There was a bird perched on top of a flagpole, looking down into the courtyard. She was almost sure it was Loki.

She rattled the pail and called loudly, ‘Here chickens – food!'

At the sound of her voice the bird turned in her direction and the hens surged towards her, squabbling and gurgling, with the cockerel scolding them to behave.

The bird flew down and perched on top of the roost. ‘Hens are stupid creatures,' he said scornfully. It
was
Loki.

Tia scattered the feed as far away as she could and when the hens ran after it she slipped behind the wooden coop; the fowls wouldn't hear her and Loki talking there.

‘I've been hanging around this castle for a week,' Loki complained. ‘You disappeared from the washerwoman's, and there was no sign of you in the town, so I decided the witch had got you.'

‘You're very clever,' Tia said, and smiled as Loki puffed up with pride. ‘I knew you'd find me somehow.'

She reached into her jacket and pulled out a little wad wrapped with a leather strip from the ball she'd forgotten to give back to Halla. ‘I've done another message for Finn.'

Loki sighed and stretched out a leg. Hastily Tia knotted the packet to it. ‘I've written that the Water Traders will be here any day now. Yordis is herself when she trades. I'm going to try and find the opal then and steal it while she's busy.'

Loki liked shiny things. ‘Where is it?' he asked eagerly.

‘I don't know yet – but I'll find it,' Tia said firmly.

‘Nadya! Nadya!' Katinka was in the courtyard searching for Tia.

‘I've got to go.' Tia squeezed out from behind the roost; from the corner of her eye she saw Loki soar away into the sky. She ran up to Katinka. ‘I thought a hen was stuck behind the coop,' she said.