Deep Amber (8 page)

“Caractacus at your service. Forest agent. You've got yourselves deep into the wrong bit – so they sent me to sort you out. But as I said, it's taken a while. Wherever you go, bits of other worlds keep getting mixed up all around you.”

“Other worlds?” said Jem, looking up eagerly from Dora's shoulder.

The caterpillar gave him a disapproving stare. “It's the objects you've got in your packs. They're pulling things in and out of this world – probably trying to get back where they came from. And this close to the World Tree, things are always a bit mixed up.”

Dora could see Jem already had his mouth open to ask another question, and she glanced sideways at him with a frown. Sir Mortimer had told them not to discuss the objects with anyone. But Jem was far too curious to care about Sir Mortimer's instructions.

“Where did the objects come from, then?” he said.

“Dear me, boy,” said Caractacus with a sigh. “Use your head. One of the other worlds. It stands to reason. They're not from here, after all – where
else did you think they would be from?” Caractacus shook his head, as if he couldn't quite believe how ignorant Jem was. Then he nodded at Dora's pack. “I imagine you're taking them to the palace.”

Dora hesitated. They were not supposed to talk about where they were going either – but Caractacus seemed to already know about the objects, and it was generally a good idea to stay on the right side of any of the forest folk.

“The Druid said we should take them to Lord Ravenglass,” she said. “Umm – sir.”

“The Druid, eh?” said Caractacus. “So that's where you're from. I think maybe we'd better all sit down and have a little talk.”

He slipped off his branch and flew down to sit on the ground next to them. Dora blinked. Now he was closer, he still appeared to be some kind of blue caterpillar, but he was somehow bigger, and his face was slightly more human-looking. He gestured with one of his legs, and immediately a warm, friendly little fire burst into life in front of them. An orange glow filled the clearing, and the darkness of the forest seemed to recede. He gestured again, and a basket appeared filled with bread, cheese, sweet red apples and a bottle of water.

Jem whooped. “Food! I'm starving. Let me at it.”

He scrambled up into the basket and headed straight for a piece of cheese the size of his head. Just before he started to get his teeth into it, he turned to Caractacus.

“So you're a forest agent? What's one of those, then?”

Caractacus put his head on one side, as if considering how much to tell Jem.

“The forest agents keep the worlds stable,” he said, eventually. “There are many worlds, and they all originate here. They're part of the World Tree. We look after the balance of those worlds, deal with any problems that come up.” He snorted. “Of course, this particular agent is meant to be
retired
. Four hundred years of service – you'd think it would be enough. But no – you two come blundering in, pulling the energies every which way, and suddenly everyone else is just too busy to deal with it.”

He picked up a long green stem and began to chew it absently. “Of course, now I'm here, I can see that it's just as well it was me that came. I'd better contact our agent in that world. We may
have a serious rift developing, and that would mean there's deep amber at the bottom of it.”

“Deep amber?” said Dora. She had a feeling she'd heard the words before, somewhere.

Caractacus looked at Dora, and sighed. “Don't you know
anything
?” he said. “Maybe I'd better begin at the beginning. Get yourself something to eat before the boy finishes it all off, and I'll tell you both the story of the forest, and the World Tree, and all the worlds.”

He settled himself against the tree trunk he was leaning on, stretched out his multiple legs, and took a deep breath. As he spoke, the firelight dimmed, and the green shadows of the forest grew closer.

“In the beginning, there was nothing but snow and ice and darkness, and in this darkness lived the wolves and ice giants, the shape-shifters, the crow karls and creatures of the dark.”

Dora shivered. She could almost see the cold waste, and the dark creatures roaming across it. And now that Caractacus had started, she knew she'd heard this story before, from her grandfather. It was the story of how the world began.

“Then,” Caractacus said, with a little flick of
one of his feet, “a small crack appeared in the ice, and light flowed from it like a river. A little plant pushed its way out of the crack, and this plant grew until it became a great tree, gathering light and warmth and life around it.”

Dora gasped as the fire seemed to glow more brightly, and a little finger of flame rose up from it into the air. A shimmering tree shape grew out of the flame, right in front of them. It got bigger and bigger and branches started to spread out from it.

Caractacus continued in a low voice, and as he spoke, they could see the story unfold in front of them in the fire.

“The surrounding lands became warm and bright and full of other trees. The first humans appeared, along with the first dwarves and elves and other magic folk, and they all sheltered under the Tree and lived in the forest around it. As the Tree grew tall, other worlds grew from it, like fruit from its spreading branches, and humans and others learned to travel freely between all the worlds. Everywhere the ice and darkness was pushed back.”

The scene in front of Dora and Jem was beautiful. There were tiny creatures flitting
around the tree in the spreading forest, and on each branch they could see misty worlds in which were more tiny people. But then at the edges the scene suddenly started to darken, and tendrils of shadows started to invade the picture.

“But at the edges of the worlds, the shape-shifters and wolves, the dark crow karls and the ice giants remained. The creatures of darkness were jealous of the warmth and life of the worlds,” said Caractacus sadly, “and they wanted to destroy the Tree and the worlds it sheltered so that everything would become cold and dark once more. Over the years they tried many ways to invade the worlds and harm the Tree – but the forest folk, with those of the humans who had some magic, gathered together to protect the Tree, and with it the balance of the worlds. So far they have always succeeded in pushing back the forces of the dark.”

He made a gesture with a few of his feet, and the images faded. Then he blinked at them both. “So that's the forest agents – they watch over the worlds, and push back the dark wherever it tries to gain a foothold.”

There was a silence, the dimness that had
surrounded them lifted, and then the fire started to crackle again.

“My grandfather used to tell a story a bit like that,” said Dora, slowly. “I'd forgotten it till now… About the heroes who travelled to different worlds and fought the creatures of darkness. But the creatures of darkness don't exist, do they?”

Caractacus looked grim. “Oh, they exist all right. Although we've been mercifully untroubled by them for a long time. However, it's always best to be on your guard.”

“Was that monster that attacked us – was that a creature of darkness?” asked Jem, sounding slightly awed.

Caractacus nearly choked with laughter. “No, no! That was an elephant. A creature from the world your objects come from. The objects have been pulling the energies around, like I said, pulling you and other things back and forth between the forest and their world. I wonder…”

He hesitated for a moment, and then seemed to come to a decision. He briskly waved the little fire and food into non-existence.

“I was still eating that!” objected Jem loudly. Caractacus rolled his eyes.

“Pick the boy up,” he said to Dora. “I think it's time we were getting you to the other side of the forest. This rift is serious and I'm almost certain there's amber at the bottom of it. There's an agent I can contact in that world, but it might be as well to get word to the palace, too. I'll escort you, and make sure no more elephants turn up.”

He twisted slightly and unfurled his wings again, hovering by Dora's head.

“Come along,” he said. “This way.”

It took less than ten minutes for Caractacus to guide them back to the path, although Dora was convinced they'd travelled quite considerably further than it seemed. The trees slid past them in a disconcerting way and quite often it felt as if a single step had taken them to a different part of the forest entirely. When they reached the path, Caractacus settled down on a branch, and yawned loudly.

“Off you go then,” he said. “Not too far from here to the edge of the forest, and you can pick up a cart ride to the city from the first village you get to.”

Dora bobbed a curtsy. “Thank you, your – er – magnificence,” she said.

The caterpillar graciously inclined his head.

“Um – any chance you could turn me back to the right size before we go on?” asked Jem hopefully.

Caractacus squinted at him. “You look fine to me,” he said. “Very useful, being small, I find. It suits you. I'd stay that way if I were you.” And he rolled up into a very final-looking ball and went to sleep.

“Rats,” said Jem. “Suppose I'll be stuck this way till we get to the palace then. But still – Dora – other worlds! The things we've got come from
another world
! Do you think we could go there somehow? I wonder how you become a forest agent?”

But Dora wasn't listening. She had suddenly remembered the letter of introduction to Lord Ravenglass – the letter that they needed to get into the palace. It was in Jem's pack – and Jem's pack was now no bigger than her thumbnail. Dora's insides felt as if they were plummeting into a deep hole, as she realised that the letter of introduction would now be approximately the size of an apple pip, and any writing on it would be completely impossible to decipher.

Chapter Eight

“Got it!” said Cat, slapping her hand down on the book of symbols.

“Got what?” said Simon, startled.

It was the morning after Albert Jemmet's fumigation, and it was an inset day, so Mum was at work. The two of them were huddled in Simon's bedroom, and working hard on the box problem. The internet had proved less than useful for information on how to get into the box – apart from anything else, Simon had complained, how do you type a symbol into Google? And even when he'd tried to describe them, he'd just ended up with tons of weird stuff on crystal healing or people who acted out Viking battles in their spare time.

But Cat had been luckier. She had spent
every spare minute studying the book of ancient symbols, and comparing them to careful copies she had made of the symbols on the wooden box. Now she was sitting on the floor of Simon's bedroom, the big book open in front of her, and her eyes were shining.

“I went through the whole book twice,” she said. “And I realised something… Each symbol on the box is actually a combination of symbols – there's a Norse rune and two alchemical symbols. This first one has the rune for fire just below the alchemical symbol meaning
dissolve
– and they're both surrounded by the alchemical symbol for water. So I think that means we have to surround the box in water that has fire dissolved in it.”

Simon raised one eyebrow. “Dissolved
fire
? As in…?”

Cat waved her hands excitedly. “I know, it sounded ridiculous to me, too, at first. But I think what it's saying is to immerse it in a kind of liquid fire…”

She looked at Simon expectantly, but he shrugged, bemused.

“Think of Christmas puddings,” she said, encouragingly.

“
Christmas puddings?
” he said. “Um – are you sure you're feeling all right, Cat?”

She grinned. “I'm feeling like a genius,” she said. “Because that's what I am. When you pour brandy all over a Christmas pudding and then set light to it, what happens?”

“Er… Not sure… It burns, I guess…” Suddenly Simon's face cleared. “Of course! The brandy is liquid, but it flames if you set it alight… So the pudding is surrounded by
water that has fire dissolved in it!
Wow! Do you really think that's it?”

“I think it's worth a try,” said Cat. “Maybe the heat is what unlocks part of the mechanism inside the box. And then there are obviously two more things you have to do, which look like mixtures of symbols too. Now I know how the first one works, I should be able to get the other two quite easily.”

Simon took the book, and leafed through a few pages, looking back and forth between the symbols and Cat's drawing. She was right, the first symbol on the box was a combination of the Norse rune for fire and a curly shape at the top that looked like the sign for dissolving,
inside the alchemy triangle that stood for water. The other symbols looked like they would be the same. He traced his finger over them thoughtfully. Despite Cat's attempt at a sensible explanation, he didn't think she really believed there was a simple heat-sensitive mechanism inside the box. The sword had come from the
other side
, Jemmet had said, and that meant the box probably had, too. Appearances, disappearances, strange energies – none of it fitted into the ordinary world of locks and bolts.