Deep Amber (18 page)

“And the forest agents are the ones that look after all the worlds,” said Jem. “Can anyone become one? Even a commoner?”

Albert looked at Jem's eager expression and grinned. “Yes – why, do you want to try for the job?”

Jem's eyes sparkled. “I might think about it,” he said, airily. “So – what about this deep amber? How can it make stuff – people – go from one world to another?”

“The amber… Well…” said Albert, “that's not really for just anyone to know about. It's old, it's part of the World Tree. It has some of the tree's power. That means you can use it to move between the worlds, among other things. The amber has always belonged to the heirs of the kingdom, and they've generally worked with the forest to help keep the worlds balanced.”

“So, Cat's an heir,” said Jem, trying to get it straight in his head. “But Lord Ravenglass is an heir too, isn't he? He gets the queen's amber. So are there other pieces, and other heirs?”

“Yes,” said the Druid, turning as he heard Jem's question. “There were four bits originally, but they got scattered throughout the worlds. Lost.
Each heir to the amber knew where their bit was, but not the others. And of course, some heirs didn't even know they
were
heirs.” He looked over at Cat, apologetically.

Cat slurped her tea, and looked back at him. The six sugars had revived her, and she was beginning to feel that there were some people who had rather a lot of explaining to do. She pointed her teaspoon at the Druid with a frown. “Why didn't you
tell
us? And why did you just disappear?”

The Druid looked slightly sheepish.

“You were rather young when I left,” he said. “And I had no idea things would get this out of hand.”

“So if I'm an heir, and Simon is as well, does that mean Dad was too?” she asked.

He nodded, and leaned back in his chair, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “We grew up together,” he said. “In the kingdom. But we did a lot of travelling between worlds, one way and another. Got into a fair few scrapes…” He grinned, as if remembering some of them.

Great-Aunt Irene snorted. “Your father and Louis were a terrible pair. They got into all sorts
of trouble, in the kingdom and other worlds. I never knew from one day to the next where they'd be. But then they decided to settle down here, of all places. So here is where I came as well, to keep an eye on them.”

“It was so peaceful in this world,” said the Druid, dreamily. “No magic, and there were chocolate fudge sundaes and hot water and trains and electrical gadgets… And then your dad met Florence, and they got married and had you. It was all rather lovely. Until the accident.” He stopped, and ran his hands through his hair, and shrugged. “It was very difficult for a while, after that. I tried to help. And then… well, I had a terrible row with your mother, and she said she never wanted to see me again. I shouldn't really be here now.”

“What was the row about?” said Cat.

“I – well… I– I can't say. You'll have to ask her.”

There was a pause, and the Druid looked rather miserable.

“What I'd like to know, though,” said Jem, changing the subject swiftly, “is what Lord Ravenglass is up to.”

“I think we'd all like to know that,” said Albert, grimly.

The Druid exchanged glances with Great-Aunt Irene.

“Yes,” he said. “Well. It's something we've just been discussing. The thing is, I can't see any reason for him wanting this amber for himself unless he's thinking of gathering all four pieces. Remaking the crown.”

Albert choked on his cup of tea and had to be thumped on the back by Jem.

“Remaking the crown?” he spluttered. “After all these years?”

“I think so,” said the Druid. “It would explain a lot of things that have been happening in the kingdom recently. Since he took over as Regent, there have been very bad relations with the forest. And he's always been rather ambitious.”

“Sorry,” said Cat. “But what's the crown? And what would it matter if he did remake it?”

Albert picked up the sugar bowl, and spooned an extra three sugars into his mug. Then he added three more for good measure.

“It's an ancient crown of the kingdom,” he said, taking a slurp. “The story is, that in the far, far past, the creatures of the dark gained in power. The king at the time, Bruni, had a half-brother, who
was part-human, part-wolf, and a shape-shifter. This half-brother, Lukas, joined forces with the dark, and he became known as the Lord of the Wolves. He threatened all the worlds – not just the kingdom. To fight him, the king forged a magical sword, and he used it to cut into the World Tree, east, west, north and south. Four tears of amber sap dripped from the tree, and when they hardened, he forged an iron crown to hold them. With the sword, and the crown, he beat back the creatures of darkness and imprisoned the Lord of Wolves. But the crown was too powerful and dangerous to keep in one piece – so Bruni's four heirs took a piece of amber each. One stayed to rule the kingdom, and the others took their pieces across the worlds to new realms. But over the generations, they got scattered, and the bits of amber were lost… No one knew who had them. Except for the one in the kingdom, of course. That's the piece Queen Igraine has now. The thing is – with all four pieces, with the whole crown remade, there'd be no one who could stand against its bearer, not even in the forest. The person who had the crown would rule not just the kingdom but the World Tree and all the worlds in it. They would have
the power to destroy all of them if they chose.”

“Lord Ravenglass,” said Great-Aunt Irene with immense dislike. “He always struck me as a nasty piece of work. He's got to be stopped before he does something… regrettable.”

“Well, he can't have this piece,” said Cat firmly, holding the amber in her hand.

“No,” said the Druid, cheerfully. “And it was very well done, taking it before he got a chance. But he'll be after it again, there's no doubt of that. And besides, one piece is not going to be enough. If he manages to get the others we won't be able to hold him off for long.”

“Well then,” said Jem. “We'll just have to find the other bits before he does. Does anyone know where to start looking?”

But just then, there was a loud bang from behind the sofa and Simon and Dora scrambled out looking slightly singed. A plume of grey smoke shot up to the ceiling, and a few sparks whizzed across the room before burning themselves out on the Persian rug. Sir Bedwyr had his hand on his sword and was looking round rather wildly.

The Druid looked at Dora with one eyebrow raised.

“Um – sorry,” she said, but she was clearly stifling a bad case of the giggles. “Accident with a shrinking spell.”

“Shrinking spell?” said Jem, in mock horror. “You don't want to let Dora anywhere near you with a shrinking spell! She tried that on me in the forest, and then she couldn't turn me back.”

“It's okay,” said Simon, rubbing soot out of his eyes. “It's under control. So – what were you all talking about?”

“We were talking,” said the Druid briskly, “about how to get you all back home. And Albert and I will need to consult with a few others – try to decide what to do about Ravenglass. He's still the queen's nephew, and he's still in charge of the kingdom. We're going to have to be very, very careful.”

Chapter Twenty

A fine drizzle of rain was falling on the garden of Sunset Court as they emerged from the main door. The Druid looked up and adjusted the collar of his jacket.

“Always raining in this world,” he said cheerfully.

They had just been chased out of the lounge by the matron, who had a queue of residents waiting to watch the TV.

As they walked away from the house, Dappletoes, who'd been patiently waiting outside, eating the pot plants, trotted up to them happily and nudged Sir Bedwyr. The knight stroked his horse's nose fondly.

“So,” said the Druid, looking for a suitable place to conjure a portal. “I think it's time to get
Sir Bedwyr and the rest of the rabble back to the castle, eh Albert?”

“Rabble?” said Jem. “Do you mean us?”

“You and Dora, yes,” said the Druid. “Much as I'd like to leave you in an entirely different world, Jem, Sir Mortimer is very keen to talk to you. Something to do with the squires' undergarments.”

“The lads did it, then?” said Jem, looking delighted. “Brilliant! Although… um… I have no idea what you're talking about, you know. Did you say undergarments?”

Dora laughed. She was surprised to find that she was quite looking forward to getting back to the castle and a bit of normality. And after coping with several days of Jem, to say nothing of other worlds, magic battles and general mayhem, she had a feeling she wouldn't be quite so worried about Violet Wetherby and her bunch of cronies any more. She grinned at Jem, and then turned to Simon.

“Good luck!” she said, with a meaningful look.

Simon raised his sword, wrapped back up carefully in its towel and bin bag, and gave her a wink. “See you soon!” he said.

“Or not,” said the Druid, giving Simon a hard stare. “I'm leaving you the sword, Simon, because it was your dad's. It seems right that you should have it. But I really hope you're not planning any kind of attempt at portal magic with it. Because that would be exceedingly unwise.”

Simon met the Druid's brown eyes steadily.

“Of course not,” he said, with his most innocent expression. The Druid held his gaze for a moment, and then turned away.

“Albert?” he said. “Are you with me?”

Albert Jemmet hooked his thumbs into the belt loops of his blue overalls, and nodded.

“Yes,” he said firmly. “I'll come to Roland Castle first, then get my report to the forest. We can get a few people together and make plans.”

“But what about us?” said Cat, waving at herself and Simon and the ghostly outline of Great-Aunt Irene. “Aren't we going to help? What are we supposed to do? What do we tell Mum?”

“Nothing,” said the Druid swiftly. “Nothing at all. It's probably best if you don't even mention you've seen me, in fact. You mother… um… I don't think she'd be very happy about it.”

He didn't look very happy about it himself, but he tried to give Cat and Simon a cheerful smile. “I'll be back – when we've sorted out a few things. But Florence would really never forgive me if I let you get involved in all this. I need you to stay here and stay safe.”

He looked across at Great-Aunt Irene. “Mother?” he said, meaningfully.

Great-Aunt Irene looked rather mutinous.

“The amber has passed on,” said the Druid, firmly.

“I know, I know. Time for me to go,” said Great-Aunt Irene. She gestured to the Druid to bend down, and planted a silvery kiss on his forehead. “Be good,” she said. “Look after them all.”

She unclasped a small silver locket from around her neck, then turned to Cat. “Here you are, my dear,” she said, and put it into Cat's hand. As she did so, the locket turned quite solid. “I have to go, really – but I don't like to leave you completely with so much going on. So, I'll just fold myself up into the locket for now – if you need me, just open it.”

She started to shimmer, and become more transparent. When she seemed to be no more
than a collection of silvery dust, the dust gathered itself together and whooshed into the silver locket, and then Great-Aunt Irene was gone.

For a moment, the Druid continued to look at the place where she'd been, then he shook himself and clapped his hands. “Come on then,” he said. “Better get on with it. I've got the key to my room somewhere, should be able to conjure a portal back with that…” He rummaged around in his clothes, shrugging off the railway inspector's jacket as he did so.

“Umm – we've got a silver cup Lord Ravenglass gave us,” said Dora, offering it to him. “For getting back.”

Albert gave a wry grin. “I don't think so,” he said. “That would take us back to Lord Ravenglass's apartments – which is probably the last place we want to be arriving just now.”

“Ah, got it!” said the Druid triumphantly, holding up a rather battered metal key. He made a complicated series of hand gestures over it, and a misty portal appeared between two rose bushes.

“Sir Bedwyr?” he said, gesturing to the knight.

Dappletoes trotted eagerly towards the white
mist, and as he did so Sir Bedwyr threw himself into the saddle and raised his sword in salute at them all.

“Farewell! May we meet again on another such fascinating quest!”

“Not if I can help it,” muttered Albert darkly, and Simon laughed.

“Jem?” said the Druid. “Dora?”

Jem thumped Simon on the back and bowed to Cat with a flourish that made her giggle. Dora turned rather pink and gave them both a big hug.