Maze Running and other Magical Missions (8 page)

Catesby hovered over the waves, watching both the lizards and Lavender, who was higher up and to the east of the leathery circle. The lizards didn’t pay any attention to the fairy above them, as she scratched the rock face with a small pebble. Once she’d finished sketching, she flew up to Sylvie with last-minute instructions. Catesby shook his head. Lavender did have good ideas, but she loved to give everyone orders.

Then Lavender flew out to join the phoenix. She opened her tiny mouth, but he interrupted, “I know the plan, fairy. I know what clever code you’re going to use. You’ve told me twice already. Now get on with it.”

She pointed her wand at the cliff. The flat surface she’d been scraping started to glitter, then the fairy squealed to Sylvie, “
Oooh!
The buckle has moved. We scared it and it moved, but I can see it! It’s beautiful!”

Catesby flew to the west side of the headland, hoping the lizards’ attention was on the fairy’s overacting.

“
Oooh!
” she squealed again, “We could grab it now! Before those nasty little leather lizards work out what’s going on! Can you reach it, Sylvie? It’s just below you! Climb down for it! Oooh, it’s so
shiny
!”

Catesby could see Sylvie scrambling down, using her human hands and feet to cling to the cliff face, holding the stick in her mouth.

The lizards were in turmoil. As Lavender called out exaggerated descriptions of the buckle’s beauty and Sylvie inched down the cliff, the lizards kept creeping away from the real invisible buckle then scuttling back.

Lavender yelled, “Hurry, Sylvie. If you get it
now
we can rip it out of the cliff and take it away from Cromarty
forever
.”

The lizards’ circle broke. They all dashed up the cliff towards the false buckle and the scrambling wolfgirl.

Catesby dived towards the cliff. He hoped he’d fixed the circle’s location in his mind, but when he scraped around with his claws, he found nothing but bare rock.

There was a cloud heading for the moon, so he backed away from the cliff, not wanting the lizards to notice his interest.

Lavender yelled, “The little leather rejects are nearly there. You’ll have to rush, Sylvie, if we want to take the buckle away and leave this cliff dull and dark forever…”

The cloud covered the moon and the night turned black.

Catesby hovered, waiting.

Lavender was suddenly quiet and he heard the scrape of claws on rock high above him.

Then the moon lit the night again.

Lavender yelled, “Up a bit, Sylvie!”

So Catesby flew down, touching the cliff with one claw as he descended.

“Over to the east.”

So Catesby went west.

“Down an inch!”

So he went up an inch.

“You’re there!”

And he was. He could feel a cold metal corner.

He tugged. It didn’t move.

Lavender shouted, “Sylvie, can you reach it? Now is
exactly
the right time to reach it!” She was trying to keep the lizards’ attention on the false buckle and the wolf-girl.

Sylvie joined in the loud conversation. “I’ll use my stick! Look! I’m using my stick!”

Catesby tugged harder.

Lavender yelled, “They’re turning back, Catesby! They’re scuttling at you!”

Sylvie yelled, “Stay away from him!” and he heard her lashing out with the stick above him. He also heard the claws getting closer.

He thought of the lizards’ teeth and their weight on his wings. But he stayed by the cliff, tugging and pulling.

Suddenly the buckle jerked loose and he fell back into the air with the cold metal grasped between his talons. He flapped away from the cliff, much further than any lizard could jump, then looked down.

Away from the rock, the buckle glittered and gleamed. But Catesby didn’t have time to examine
it, because Sylvie was still on the cliff and the lizards were swarming back towards her.

He flew up to Lavender, who was shouting even louder, but this time it wasn’t over-acting. “Catesby has the token, so get out of there
now
, Sylvie!”

Sylvie had dropped the stick and was scrambling up the cliff with leather lizards hanging off her trouser hems.

The fairy and the phoenix flew nearer the cliff, Lavender yelling, “What can we do to help, Sylvie?”

Sylvie climbed onto an outcrop, crouched down and flickered into a wolf. The lizards clinging to her human clothes fell off. She snapped her jaws at the nearest lizards, then howled, “Go back to the dragon with that buckle. Don’t risk the token to help me. I’ll follow when I can!”

They both flew up to the clifftop, where Catesby hesitated. “I know she has strong jaws and long fangs, but she can’t take on hundreds of lizards while perching on a little bit of rock. We can’t leave her there.”

Lavender fluttered above him. “We have to! If we lose the buckle in a fight, we could lose Yann. The token is our priority.”

He shook his head. “We can’t leave Sylvie to be eaten by lizards, or fall off a cliff, in order to save Yann. We can’t abandon one friend to save another.”

The phoenix flew back off the cliff, buckle tight in one talon. The buckle felt strange in his foot, not as solid as before, but he ignored that as he dived towards Sylvie.

And Lavender dived with him.

Sylvie was balancing on the rock, snapping at lizards, biting them off her shoulders and paws, knocking them into the sea.

“I’m fine,” she panted. “They aren’t getting through my thick fur! Really, I’m fine…”

One of them bit her nose. “Ow! Really, I’ll be fine. Get that buckle away from here!”

“
No!
” they both said.

Then Catesby yelled, “Here’s the buckle!” The lizards turned, all their leather heads pointing at him like arrows.

He flew closer. “If you want it, come and get it.” He held it out, stretching his talons towards them. The diamonds on the buckle flashed like stars in the moonlight.

The phoenix flew even closer.

Every single lizard, on the cliff face and on the wolf’s fur, stared at the buckle.

Catesby swung his foot, so the buckle moved from side to side.

They all swung their heads.

He moved one wingbeat closer.

And they all jumped.

Every single lizard leapt off the cliff, off the wolf, all leaping for the phoenix.

But this time he was ready, and the moment the lizards were in the air Catesby flicked his wings and flew backwards, so the lizards all missed him and fell in a tangle towards the sea.

All except one big black lizard, which jumped
furthest and grasped Catesby’s leg, nipping the thin skin over his bone.

Lavender flew right up to the black lizard and jabbed it with her wand, muttering under her breath.

Catesby felt a terrible weight as the lizard suddenly got much heavier. He struggled to keep his position in the air, then the lizard let go and fell into the sea with a splash.

“Weight spell,” explained Lavender. “Don’t worry, it’ll wash off. He’ll float to the surface in seconds.”

“I wasn’t worrying about the lizard! But thanks.”

They watched Sylvie climb to the top of the cliff as a girl. Then she flickered back to a wolf, and sprinted away.

By the time Catesby and Lavender arrived at the top of the slope, Sylvie was speaking with careful politeness to the dragon, suggesting that they take two minutes to get their breath back, then leave.

Jewel stretched her wings. Sylvie ducked, then trotted over to Catesby and Lavender.

“Thanks for coming back!” she said, flickering into a girl and hugging them both.

“Just as well those leather lizards don’t have very big brains,” said Lavender, “or they wouldn’t have fallen for that false buckle.”

“Or for your terrible over-acting!
Ooooh!
” Catesby laughed. “But well done, honeybunch, that was an excellent plan.” He waved the buckle in the air. “We have the gems! We’ve saved Yann!”

“Don’t speak too soon,” warned Sylvie. “We still have to get it back to the Borders.”

“No problem,” he cawed. “We have a dragon taxi service.”

Then he looked down at the buckle. It wasn’t glittering and gleaming as brightly now. He looked closer. It was going dark around the edges, almost black at the corners. “The metal is changing! It’s corroding! We’d better get it home as fast as we can.”

Lavender peered at the buckle. “It’s corroding so fast you can see the tarnish move across the metal! We may not have time to get it home. Give me a minute to think.” She flew off in a distracted zigzag.

Sylvie put out her pale hand and Catesby gave her the buckle. They both looked at it.

It was silvery metal, with a line of bright white diamonds all around the square. But the edges were black and, if he looked carefully at one corner, Catesby could see the darkness blooming and creeping across the buckle. At that speed the whole buckle might turn black and disintegrate before they even got back to Cauldhame Moor, let alone before the Three arrived at sunset tomorrow.

Had they found the token which could save Yann, only to watch it die even faster than their friend?

Lavender fluttered back. “It’s our heat! We’re corroding it by holding it and breathing on it. The buckle has been held cold and still in solid rock for thousands of years. Now that it’s in our hands or claws, it’s warming up and time is catching up with it.”

Sylvie placed the buckle on a stone and the moving black stopped. But it didn’t retreat.

“So how do we get it home?” demanded Catesby.

Suddenly the dragon spoke above their heads. “I could carry it,” said Jewel. “I am a reptile and my claws are as cold as the stone that bauble is used to, so I won’t corrode it as fast as you warm-blooded mammals and birds.”

Lavender bobbed in the air. “Thank you, noble dragon. If you carry the token to Cauldhame Moor, the elders may have the skills to preserve it. Thank you so much.”

The dragon picked the buckle up delicately between two pearly claws, then the friends climbed her white scales and settled on her back. Catesby was aware of little bites and scratches all over, and he could see a nasty bite on the end of Sylvie’s nose. But he crowed, “We got it! We got it, we got it, we got it…”

“We’re not home yet,” said Lavender. “Don’t count your dragons before they hatch.”

“This dragon is proving pretty useful,” whispered Sylvie, as Jewel took off. “And not as daft as she seemed.”

Once Jewel was flying south at cruising speed, they murmured to each other about the cliff, the lizards, the great age of the buckle and how wonderful it would be to see Yann up on his hooves again.

Then they heard the unnatural mechanical buzz of a human engine. The dragon below them jerked in shock.

“An aeroplane!” screamed Jewel. “A plane! At night! I’m not very good with…”

The plane’s roar got louder and the dragon dropped out of the sky.

Sylvie screamed, Lavender shrieked and Catesby just concentrated on holding on as the dragon fell towards the mountains and lochs below.

The plane passed far above them and Catesby yelled, “It’s gone, Jewel, calm down!”

If the dragon didn’t regain control, Catesby and Lavender could let go and stay in the air, but Sylvie couldn’t survive a fall to earth.

“Use your wingtips, Jewel! Angle upwards!” Catesby screamed. “Slow your descent! Get a grip on the air!”

The dragon frantically flapped her wings, sculling against the air rushing past them.

They were falling towards a long thin loch between two lines of jagged mountains. In the moonlight they could see their reflections getting larger as the dragon twisted and fell.

Finally, she got control, and swooped back up again.

But something kept falling. Something fell out of her claws and kept falling towards the loch.

Catesby launched off Sylvie’s shoulder and dived down, trying to catch the buckle before it landed in the loch.

But he heard it splash. He watched as the buckle fizzed and fell apart. And he saw the diamonds sparkle as they sank into the loch.

Jewel was flat out on the ground when Catesby flew to the loch shore. She was moaning, “I’m sorry! I don’t like planes and I panicked! I’m so sorry!”

Lavender called to Catesby, “Did you mark the place where it fell?”

“No point,” said Catesby. “It’s gone.”

Sylvie said, “No it isn’t. Someone will be able to search underwater. Rona, Tangaroa … If their quest doesn’t succeed, they can dive for it.”

“No. It’s
gone
. When it hit the water, the buckle disintegrated and those tiny diamonds sank into the water. They aren’t much bigger than grains of sand. It would be impossible to find them all, and there’s no buckle left to set them in. It’s gone.

“We’ve failed. We’ve failed Yann.”

Tangaroa and Rona stood together as they listened to Lavender’s final hurried instructions. “The healing power will be transferred to the flower by the washing action of seven waterfalls in new clean sunlight, so be careful not to get the water dirty as the flower goes down.”

Rona’s cheeks were pale as she nodded, but Tangaroa wasn’t worried about the selkie’s apparent nervousness. She often
looked
nervous, but it must be her way of dealing with tension, because he knew she was a fearsome fighter and powerful athlete, as well as a fast thinker.

Tangaroa knew Rona’s abilities far too well, because she’d beaten him in the Sea Herald contest last year: overtaking him in a race, then answering a riddle, fighting a giant eel and escaping a killer whale much faster than he had answered his riddle and fought his monsters.

As they walked towards Nimbus, the dragon who would take them to the waterfalls, Rona was knotting her smooth dark hair round her fingers. Tangaroa grinned. He wasn’t fooled. If he tried to match her skills and courage on this quest, she would probably embarrass him all over again.

He gestured for her to climb the dragon first. Then he followed her, and sat right behind her, wrapping his tattooed arms round the waistband of her
sea-coloured
dress. She murmured, “If you sit further back, you can grab the next set of dragon spikes. You don’t have to use me to hold you on.”

He sighed and slid round another set of spikes. “I just thought it would be useful to be closer together, so we could discuss our strategy.”

“We’ll have hours on the ground before the sun rises,” she called back as the dragon leapt into the air. “We don’t have to talk on the way.”

Tangaroa shrugged and sat silent during the journey. He’d never been on a dragon before and he was fascinated by the landscape below: towns glowing underneath them, roads traced by cars’ lights, rivers lit up by the moon.

Tangaroa was an expert navigator by sea, but the potential for finding his way around the land using flight and light fascinated him. He could tell by the stars that they were flying northwest. But he wasn’t absolutely sure where they were headed.

Lavender had consulted many elders and they’d all suggested different waterfalls. There was so much rain in Scotland, so many burns falling down so many mountainsides, that there were hundreds of possible locations.

Tangaroa, as a coast-based blue loon who knew every island and cave round the Hebrides but knew very little about mountains and glens, had almost nodded off during the long argument about which
seven waterfalls to choose.

All he knew was that they were heading for Glen something, to a burn called Allt something else. Lavender and the dragon Crag had chosen these particular seven waterfalls because the foliage in the glen meant there should already be flowers growing upstream from the falls, and the angle of the glen meant the team would have a good view of the sunrise.

Remembering the long discussion made him yawn. But he couldn’t fall asleep or he might fall off the dragon. So he gazed at the dark land passing below to keep himself awake.

Finally Nimbus descended into a long glen, calling over his shoulder, “Where do you want me to land?”

Tangaroa yelled, “Apparently it’s a burn coming down the highest mountain on the north side.”

Rona added, “It’s called Allt Ban, because the waterfalls make it look white from a distance, so it will probably be the burn we see clearest in the moonlight. Please fly up the glen slowly and we’ll look out for it.”

The dragon flew westwards along the glen, as Rona and Tangaroa looked carefully at the mountains on their right.

They both called out at the same time, “
There!
” when they saw a ribbon of silver against a black mountain. As the dragon landed on the heather, Rona turned round to smile at Tangaroa. He grinned back. She didn’t look so nervous now.

They slid down the dragon’s bumpy side, stretched their stiff arms and legs, then Tangaroa said, “First we need to find the seven waterfalls.”

“There are two here,” said Rona, stepping close to the steep side of the burn, “and I hear more further up. We might be at the right place already.”

She crouched down, unwrapped her sealskin cloak and took out two fist-sized shell lamps.

“Don’t light those!” Tangaora said.

“Why not? I don’t want to sit around in the dark.”

“You’re not
scared
of the dark, are you?”

Rona shrugged. “I’m used to unlit water in my seal form, but in my human form, I get hairs rising on my arms in the dark. I’m not very brave as a girl.”

“You’re brave enough for me in either form, Sea Herald. Please let me see the location in moonlight, before your lamplight ruins my night-vision.”

He stepped away from the dragon’s bulk, stood on a rock at the side of the burn and looked round.

The glen ran almost directly east to west, which was why it had been chosen. They would see the sun rise earlier here than in most Scottish glens, because there weren’t any high peaks to the east, just a line of distant rounded hills.

They were on the lower slopes of a mountain on the north side of the glen. Tangaroa glanced up at the peaks, then shifted his focus nearer, examining the darker than black blur of a line of trees to the west and a shadowy jumble of large rocks to the east.

He jumped back down, and walked towards the dragon and the selkie. “It’s not a very secure location. There are too many places for enemies to hide.”

“What enemies are you expecting, Tangaroa?” Rona glanced behind her.

He laughed. “I’m not, but we have to be prepared.” He turned to the dragon. “Hey, Nimbus. Do you mind helping with a quick recce, then taking turns with us keeping watch? And while we’re getting the token, could you perch on that rock there as our sentry?”

Rona whispered, “Lavender said the dragons offered to transport us, not to actually help us get the token.”

Tangaroa grinned at the dragon. “We’re all on the same side, aren’t we? You’d get bored waiting to be a taxi. You’ll muck in and help, won’t you?”

The dragon looked at him. Stone-coloured scales, stony hard eyes.

The blue loon wondered if he’d pushed too hard, been too familiar. He wasn’t good at diplomacy.

Then the dragon grinned. “Of course, small blue swimmer. I am glad to help.”

“Great. Thanks,” said Tangaroa. “First we should make sure we aren’t being watched. Rona, you’re the most experienced at quests, so could you go upstream, see if anyone is about, count the waterfalls, check for likely plants and also for any obstructions? Dead sheep or whatever they have up here.”

Rona muttered, “If I find a dead sheep, I’m not touching it. One of you can move it.”

Nimbus laughed. “If you find a dead sheep, I’ll happily move it for you. Into my stomach!”

Tangaroa smiled. “So, Rona will go upstream. I’ll go to that band of trees. If you don’t mind, Nimbus, you could check those rocks. And we can all scan the heather as we go.”

Rona asked, “Can I light my lamp now, and does anyone else want one?”

Nimbus said, “I don’t need one,” and blew a fountain of flame into the night air.

Tangaroa sighed. “Thanks, everyone. Now my night-vision has been blasted away, I’ll take a lamp. What is it? Seal oil?”

Rona shuddered as she lit the lamps. “Of course not. It’s fish oil. I wouldn’t use seal oil!”

“No. Sorry. But seal oil burns better. Smells better too.” He sniffed as he took a lamp and jumped over the burn.

The blue loon walked towards the trees, wondering if the selkie was being such a wet blanket because she was worried about Yann. Tangaroa was worried about Yann too, but he also thought this was an opportunity for adventure in a new and scary environment. Rona just seemed to be seeing the scary and not enjoying the new.

Tangaroa was also a little nervous so far from the sea. He was less experienced than Rona at inland quests, even though he was totally human, because his all-over tribal tattoos made him too eye-catching out of the water.

After a five-minute walk, his lamplight glinted on metal. A high fence, as if someone was trying to stop the tall trees running away. The blue loon smiled. He didn’t know a lot about trees but he did know they only walked in stories.

He tugged at the fence and it wobbled. It was too flimsy to hold back a walking tree or anything else
hefty. He moved along the fence to a post, climbed up and jumped over onto the strip of grass before the trees.

As he stepped forward, he was glad of Rona’s lamp. He wouldn’t have been able to see without it, because no moonlight reached under the trees. The blue loon pulled his fishing spear from its holder on his back. Its three barbed prongs should deter most forest animals from attacking.

If he was exploring a kelp forest, a sea cave or an underwater wreck, he would know from the local sounds and smells, from the movement of the water, whether there were any threats.

But in this narrow forest, these small creaks and green scents might be normal, or warning of an attack. He couldn’t tell. This was Sylvie’s environment, not his. They’d picked the wrong quests. She was probably on a clifftop right now, smelling the sea, and he was here, smelling pine bark.

He kicked his foot into a shadow. Nothing there. He couldn’t search every shadow under every tree. Tangaroa turned to go. If anyone was watching them, at least they knew he was armed.

He swung back for one last look, in case something was creeping up behind him. As the lamplight shifted, he saw a shape sway over his right shoulder.

Not at tree height, but lower, the height of a tall man or a bear.

Tangaroa whirled round, aimed his spear, and lifted the lamp higher.

It was a small hillock, and the movement was tall
purple flowers on the top, nodding in the moving air. Foxgloves. Purple and beautiful, but their essence could save life or take it.

He’d only learnt basic land-based herb lore, but he didn’t think this plant should be in such heavy bloom at this time of year. The flowers were open all the way up to the top of the stem. Was it left over from last year? Was it a trap? Was it a gift?

He reached out with his gutting knife, and cut the top four blooms off the tallest stem. He would give them to Rona to cheer her up. Perhaps they would bring luck and life to their quest.

With the knife in its sheath, the spear on his back and the flower in his hand, Tangaroa walked out of the trees, and tried to pretend that his deep breath wasn’t a sigh of relief; it was just him enjoying the cool still night air.

Once he was over the fence, he scanned the heather as he returned to the falls, but didn’t see anything threatening.

Nimbus was back already, crouched on the widest rock by the burn, and Rona appeared from downstream, in a circle of warm fishy light, just as Tangaroa sat down.

“I counted seven waterfalls,” she said. “We’re at the third here. There are two above us and four below. I dropped a twig in and it travelled safely down all seven falls. Do we want to camp by the top fall?”

Tangaroa looked around. “No, I think that rock is best for Nimbus, and we can be comfy here on the heather. What else did you see?”

“There’s a sheltered dip a few dozen steps up from the first fall. It’s got as many flowers as Lavender promised, almost like it’s been planted. There are a couple of birch trees, some alpine flowers already in bloom and a few of last year’s heather blossoms. There are no obstructions between it and the falls. What did you both find?”

“The rocks are secure,” said Nimbus.

Tangaroa nodded. “Nothing in the trees either, except this.” He handed her the foxglove. “I saw it and thought of you.”

Rona frowned. “What? In the wrong place, at the wrong time, and potentially poisonous?”

“Em. No. I didn’t mean that. I just thought you were worried about Yann and it might cheer you up.”

The selkie smiled. “That was a kind thought. I am worried about Yann. But nothing will cheer me up until I’m back at sea. There’s no salt in the air here.” She sighed. “I was daft to volunteer for this quest. I can’t swim as a seal in this shallow water. We’re both out of our element.”

“I thought that too in the trees. But we’re not really out of our element, Rona. We have legs and arms, and we shouldn’t limit ourselves to the sea. This is our Scotland too. Let’s enjoy it.”

He leant back and looked at the stars framed by the mountains. He could learn to find it beautiful. He could just fall asleep here…

But it wasn’t safe for all of them to sleep at the same time. He sat up abruptly. “Nimbus, you’ve done more work than the rest of us tonight. Are you tired?”

The dragon yawned.

“So do you want to sleep first?”

“I need to rest before I fly you back,” the dragon answered, “but I want to sit for a while and relax my wings. Why don’t I take first watch?”

The blue loon nodded. “If Nimbus takes the first watch, Rona could take the second watch and I’ll take the final watch, so I can wake you both up in time for sunrise. We’ll need to check the perimeter again before dawn, then be up at the top waterfall before the sun is up. Let’s split the watches equally.” Tangaroa pointed at the sky. “Nimbus, do you see the star at the bottom of that line of three? When that star touches the peak of that mountain, wake Rona up. And Rona, when the star at the top of the line hits the horizon, wake me up for the last watch. Alright?”

They both stared at him.

“Don’t you tell time by the stars?” he asked.

Rona shook her head. “I tell time by the tides, which is no use here.”

Nimbus shook his head too. “I tell time by how hungry I am. You two little ones go to sleep. I’ll guard the waterfalls until the blue loon’s star hits the edge of the earth.”

Tangaroa and Rona settled down and tried to sleep, with the strange feel of dry heather under their heads.