The Turnarounders and the Arbuckle Rescue (51 page)

Chax Forest

Chase Fort X

The Fox Scar

Short Face X

Chafes Tor X

Fox Earth
C’s

They all stared but still had no idea what Seth was driving at. ‘Wolf! You’re the reader. Isn’t ‘X’ one of the least used letters?’

Ralf frowned. ‘Well, yeah, I suppose it is, but Gloria was writing it quickly so she used an ‘X’ in place of the word ‘Cross’. 

‘Yes,’ said Seth, ‘and that’s what I thought, but look! Traditionally Cross is used to denote where rivers, streams or paths cross. Look at the map. Only one of them is an intersection. Around here ‘Cross’ just means ‘
X
.’

‘Okay, but hang on...’ Ralf’s eyes ro
amed over the names again. ‘Now, that is weird! All the places are made from the same letters!’

‘Yeah’, said Seth ‘I should have cottoned on to it when you twigged about the Arbuckle boys.’

Ralf’s eyes met Seth’s, as he understood. A small part of Seth must have still hoped he was wrong but Ralf’s unspoken agreement crushed it and he hid his face in his hands.

‘No!’ Ralf shouted into the night. ‘No, no, no, noooo!’

The others crowded round in fear and confusion. ‘What is it?’… ‘What’s the matter, Wolf?’…‘Tell us!’

Cool night air rushed into Ralf’s face as he looked back to the tiny village behind them. He took a deep, steadying breath of it, but nothing could take away the note of despair in his voice as he explained.

‘It’s the Barrow! That’s where they imprisoned
Him
! That’s why there were artefacts from the Hidden there. They trapped
Him
there and sealed
His
power behind the Black Door. You heard what Urk Fitch said that day. The Shadow King was dead
‘But not gone’
! They knew that! They knew he was still a threat! He was never meant to be disturbed. The Barrow was supposed to remain sealed forever! They even posted warnings!

‘Warnings, Wolf?’

‘Warnings!’ Leo’s hands fell slack and the coin he’d been crawling across his fingers fell to the deck. It rolled and rolled in decreasing circles as Leo too made the connection. ‘No!’

Valen still didn’t understand. ‘Warnings about the monster?’

‘All the place names are warnings!’ Ralf wailed. ‘Over time they must have been muddled or forgotten but all the places signpost danger. This is
His
place! People were supposed to keep away but, instead, they built a village practically on top of it! All the places are the same letters! The places are his name! His name!
SCATHFEROX
!’

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Dunkirk

Leo spoke first, eyes closed as he struggled to remember. ‘There was a ceremony,’ he said. ‘Underground. It must have been in the Barrow...’

‘They didn’t find a skeleton down there, did they?’ Alfie asked no one in particular. ‘It wasn’t a grave.’

Seth shook his head. ‘It was a prison.’

‘That’s what the ceremony was for,’ said Leo. ‘Stone walls couldn’t hold him. They wouldn’t kill him. So they created a jail for him, deep underground and, and – outside of Time! Yes! They could do that! They banished him from Time.’

‘A fitting punishment for his crimes…’ said Ralf. It seemed that he was repeating something he’d heard someone say, long ago. ‘To exist in the void, without form and atone for his deeds for all eternity.’

‘But now The Door is open. Part of his soul has come through, somehow,’ said Leo.

‘So, what are we doing?’ asked Valen. ‘I mean, it’s pointless isn’t it? This – this thing has been going on for Centuries. We’re kids! We can’t possibly change this. It’s too big.’

‘No,’ said Seth. ‘I know what we have to do. Because it’s now, don’t you see? Like it said in the rhyme. It’s ‘A Time of War and Fear’. The Falls are getting bigger. That is what it’s all about! That’s what I could never understand before? Why someone would deliberately try to make people more afraid?’

‘To generate enough Fear to open a massive Fall!’ exclaimed Leo. ‘A Fall that Scathferox will use to return!’

‘And the Muntons have been trying to do just that!’

‘And they’ve almost succeeded,’ said Ralf. ‘The Black Door is open and Scathferox is nearly through. If the Natus don’t do what they’re supposed to do tonight, if the invasion goes ahead, the panic that will create…’

‘That’ll be the end of it!’ gasped Alfie. ‘A massive Fall will open and Scathferox’ll be back. It’ll all be over.’

‘That’s why I came back,’ said Seth, taking a deep breath. ‘During the Holocaust six million of my people will be killed. But Hitler, Pol Pot, Charlemagne, the World Wars, the Inquisition… all those tyrants and killers, those slaughters, however horrific, are like nothing next to Scathferox. Scathferox will persecute and he will kill but he won’t
discriminate
!’ Seth gave a bitter laugh. He stood and jabbed a finger back across the sea to Britain. ‘There are nearly fifty million people on those islands! He will kill them all! And he won’t stop there.’

‘What happens tonight, in the next few hours, will affect everything until the end of Time,’ said Leo.

‘But that’s what I mean,’ groaned Valen. ‘Scathferox has been planning this for thousands of years and all of a sudden we are supposed to just solve everything? What are we supposed to do? It’s impossible!’

Alfie got to his feet. ‘Fight!’ he yelled. The others stared at him and he threw his hands in the air. ‘Or are the rest of you happy to get owned by some rude boy freak from the dark ages who ain’t even properly alive?’

‘He’s right,’ said Seth. ‘We mustn’t forget who we are.’

‘Yes,’ said Leo, moving to stand next to him. ‘We’re The Athra
ig. The Turnarounders. We have the Power!’

Valen’s eyes flashed as she too got to her feet. ‘Yes, we do,’ she said, striding to stand next to them by the cabin. ‘And so much is starting to come back to me – th
e sadness, the loss, the fire, the battle. I remember all of it, except the one thing I really need to!’ Without warning, she pulled back her fist and punched a neat, round hole in the cabin wall. ‘How we beat the evil sleaze the last time!’

Looking at them standing there together, Ralf knew what they must do. He stepped in to join them, completing the circle.

‘We fight,’ he said. ‘Whatever happens, we keep going.’

Abruptly, a squall hit them, rocking
The Sara Luz
in the water. The wind had come from nowhere and the previously glassy sea chopped into waves.

‘Swear it!’ Ralf had to shout to make himself heard over the sudden howling of the wind. ‘Swear it now. Even if one of us is hurt – or worse – the rest carry on and finish the job… even if we have to leave people behind. Swear!’

A wave hit the boat, sending water sheeting over them in a cold, salty arc. High in the reddening sky above them came the harsh cry of seabirds and in the wind there seemed the echo of dire and angry voices.

Ralf got out his penknife and they held out their hands. A small nick in each palm. Then they were moving together, exactly as they had done all those centuries before, to clasp hands. They did not speak their promise, but each of them felt it. And each thought of what the promise might cost them.

They broke apart and the wind died as suddenly as it had come. Ralf walked to take the wheel. Alfie rearranged his ever present tam o' shanter. Leo pocketed his dropped penny and began shuffling his cards. Valen set her lips into a thin line and clenched her bloody fist. Seth stumbled to the prow to look across the flame-tinged sea towards France. It was five o’clock.

‘So do we have anything resembling a plan?’

It was over an hour later and, from the way she paced the deck going through intricate karate kata, Ralf could tell Valen was getting fidgety.

‘We should get to Gloria first,’ said Ralf. ‘Everything points to her being in the most danger. Gadd’s aboard
The Sea-Hawke
and he’s desperate enough to do anything.’ He stopped and laughed. ‘Other than that, get there, find the Arbuckles and Walter Sedley. Help them do what they have to do. Try to stay alive.’

The fierce expression on Valen’s face dissolved into a smile. A second later she was sniggering

‘It ain’t much of a plan, as plans go,’ Alfie chuckled, ‘but at least it’s simple!’

At that the others fell into helpless fits of giggles. Minutes later when their laughter had died to sighs, Valen got to her feet. ‘Got a change of clothes aboard, Wolf?’

Alfie hooted, wiping tears from his eyes with his grubby hat. ‘I don’t think it’s gonna matter how you look!’

Valen gave him a withering stare. ‘Ralf?’

‘Last bulkhead on the left,’ he said. ‘But seriously, why?’

Valen sighed and made for the stairs. ‘Because, whatever we’re going to be doing tonight, I’m pretty sure it’ll be easier in trousers...’

‘Have we got anything to eat on board?’ Leo asked. ‘I don’t know about you lot but I’m starving.’

‘Me too!’ Alfie piped up. ‘Val?’ He looked at her expectantly and she grinned back over her shoulder from the hatch.

‘Cheers,’ she said impishly. ‘Whatever you’re having.’

‘Oh!’ Seth exclaimed. ‘I forgot to mention it. Urk Fitch came by with a basket of food while I was waiting. I just shoved it where there was space.’

‘Urk? Did he say anything?’

‘No. Just handed me the basket and shuffled off.’

The Sara Luz
ploughed onwards across the channel as the sun slowly set. By the time Valen and Alfie came back on deck, the sky was shimmering red-gold and the sun a ruby half-disc dissolving in a sea of molten copper.

Alfie unpacked the basket on the bulkhead with a bewildered look on his face.

‘Okay, bluds,’ he said eventually. ‘We got some kinda seedy type bread, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, some apples and berries, honey and bottles o’ water.’ He rummaged hopefully in the bottom of the basket one more time but his hand came out clutching only hay in which the food had been packed. ‘No meat, though. Soz.’

The others
clustered round, breaking off hunks of bread and cutting cheese with their pocketknives. They hadn’t eaten for hours and hadn’t realized how hungry they were until the first few swallows hit their stomachs.

‘Good old Urk,’ said Valen, tucking in to an egg.

‘Here,’ said Alfie handing her a ball-stoppered bottle. ‘Taste that.’

Seth chugged down a couple of gulps from his own bottle. ‘Just water,’ he said smacking his lips. ‘But it so hits the spot.’

‘Weird how the one person we thought was mad had it right all along, innit?’ Alfie commented, spooning honey onto a hunk of bread.

‘And it wasn’t just Urk,’ said Ralf. ‘Hettie had it half right too. Brindle
was
up to something, just not what we thought.
Listen to those that are unheard
, Ambrose said.’

‘You couldn’t have known,’ said Leo. ‘Hettie thought Brindle was a witch and Urk didn’t make sense most of the time. Let’s face it; they’re both a few sandwiches short of a picnic.’

‘Ambrose told me there was truth in madness. I should have paid attention to them. I should have realised sooner.’

‘Don’t beat yourself up, Wolf!’

‘And we ain’t done too badly considering, have we?’ Alfie pulled off his hat, wiped his forehead with it and stood, clutching it in his palms. ‘I mean to say, bruv, we saved Kemp, right?’

‘I’m sure he was one of
the Natus,’ said Ralf. ‘His colour was amazing.’

‘And we busted the Muntons’ game and banged Oyler out!’

‘And we discovered Brindle was a spy,’ Leo added. ‘Her and her little book are with Burrowes now.’

‘And don’t forget the blood, cuz,’ said Alfie. ‘That was well grimy!’

Valen sniggered. ‘Oh, Seth,’ she spluttered. ‘You should have seen her! It was hilarious.’

Alfie nodded. ‘See? We ain’t been doing too bad!’

‘And Ralf  – er – I think you may have got Winters a job at Bletchley Park,’ said Seth. ‘That crossword competition you put him in for. It was all a big Government ruse to recruit code breakers to work in British Intelligence.’

‘Of course,’ said Ralf, thinking back to all that reading he’d done with Gloria. He should have guessed as much. ‘I’m glad he’s okay.’

‘See?’ Alfie exclaimed. ‘One crim behind bars, a spy caught and maybe a couple of Natus safe. Only three or four to go. How hard can it be, eh?’

Now the others really did laugh.

‘I imagine very hard, indeed, actually,’ said Seth drily. ‘There are thousands of soldiers waiting to be rescued. The English Channel is choked with boats and as soon as the moon’s up the sky will be full of aircraft. All it would take is a bomb from a rogue Heinkel, a submarine...’

‘Or a wave,’ said Ralf, darkly. ‘It wouldn’t take much to flip the boat.’

‘Yeah, that’s well positive!’ said Alfie. ‘The point is we could get wiped out any minute.’ He drew himself up to his full height of three foot six. ‘He cursed us before with early deaths and considering I’m a Brigantes and am already an adult in their eyes, I reckon I’ve been living on borrowed time for over a year now anyway.’

Ralf had never thought of it like that and said so. He chuckled. ‘And what a year it’s been!’

‘It’s not been that bad,’ said Seth, smiling sadly. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I could have done without that faule socke, King...’

‘Yeah,’ said Valen. ‘It was good in King’s Hadow until Mr Hatcher went loco. Apart from the frocks, of course.’

Ralf turned to Leo. ‘I suppose, you’re going to tell me that living in 1940 has been a bed of roses for you too now are you?’

Leo scratched his head. ‘It was hard at first, I admit. But it’s getting to be okay at school now and that plaguesome old scrow Brindle won’t be bothering me anymore,’ he said, using an expression Old Bill was fond of. ‘I was kind of looking forward to going out fishing with the Arbuckles. Maybe joining the theatre when I got older. There’s loads of tricks that I know that haven’t even been invented yet. And think what Shunning would look like on stage. I’d be loaded!’

‘How about you, Alfie? Life of crime lost its appeal yet?’

‘Farmin’s for me, mate,’ he said, shoving his
tam o' shanter back on his head. ‘I could make a real go of it,’ he laughed. ‘If I wasn’t prob’ly gonna die later tonight, that is...’

This sent the others into fits of helpless laughter and Ralf marvelled at how their mood had changed.

The Sara Luz
ploughed onwards across the channel in the gathering darkness. They didn’t dare risk lights so had to maintain a sharp look out – it wouldn’t do to go bumping into any other boats before they even got there. But they saw no other vessels.

‘I thought this was supposed to be a massive rescue operation,’ said Leo. ‘Shouldn’t we have seen some other boats by now?’

Ralf shook his head. ‘It’s the first night. The call doesn’t go out on the wireless until early tomorrow.’

‘So Ron, Tom, Walter and the others just decided to go and help without being asked?’ said Valen.

Leo grinned at her. ‘Of course they did. They’re the Natus. It’s what makes them special isn’t it?’

An hour later, a dark black lump appeared on the horizon in front of them. It was coming up to ten o’clock. They were sailing blind but the night was clear and they were just about able, from the moon’s pale glow, to make out land ahead.

‘France,’ Val whispered in awe.

‘Cap Griz-Nez,’ said Ralf. ‘At least that’s what the chart says. We need to follow the shore from here. Dunkirk is along this coast to the east somewhere.’