The man suppressed a burp and moved on, knocking into a harassed-looking figure carrying a battered suitcase who was coming in the opposite direction. Tanya was just on the verge of looking away when she spotted something: a glimpse of grizzled hair flying out from beneath the dark hood. The figure gave an angry growl at the man, then turned swiftly into a dark little side street.
Instinctively, Tanya began to follow.
‘Where are we going?’ Turpin asked, still trying to extract herself from the chewing gum.
‘I think we just found Solomon,’ Tanya said in a low voice.
There were fewer people on the side street, which consisted largely of shops interspersed with one or two latenight cafés. The figure stopped up ahead, fumbling in a shop entrance. Tanya slid into a nearby doorway, tugging Oberon and Turpin in with her. She listened hard and heard a creak as the door opened, then closed after the figure slipped through it.
Tanya emerged from her hiding place and approached the shop into which the figure had vanished. Through a small glass pane in the door she could just make out a dim light coming from the back of the shop, but the windows either side were dark, and a sign hanging up said CLOSED.
‘
Tempus Fugit
,’ Tanya read from the sign jutting out of the wall. ‘What does that mean?’
‘It’s Latin,’ Don announced. ‘It means “time flies”.’
‘Time flies,’ Tanya repeated. She peered into the window at a cluttered display of antique watches and an old grandfather clock. ‘But why would Solomon come here?’ she wondered. ‘Perhaps I was mistaken and it wasn’t him.’ She went to move away, but a squeak from Turpin stopped her.
‘Look,’ the fairy hissed, her nose pressed to the glass of the second window. ‘Look!’
In amongst an equally jumbled display of clocks and watches, a cluster of hourglasses sat in one corner of the window. They were various shapes, sizes and colours, some simply designed while others were more intricate.
‘Hourglasses,’ Tanya whispered. ‘Of
course
. Solomon knew Ratty had taken the hourglass, so if he was trying to track it down this is exactly the sort of place he’d come looking for it.’
Don poked his head out of the pocket and examined the sky. It was still full of cloud, with no stars in sight. ‘Be careful.’
Tanya tested the door, but it had shut firmly.
‘I wonder if there’s a back way,’ she said.
‘No need for a back way.’ Turpin elbowed her aside and dug something out of her sleeve – a plastic hairpin, probably stolen from Tanya’s mother’s make-up bag. She inserted it into the lock. With a jiggle and a click, the door was open.
‘You’re far too good at that,’ said Tanya, half admiringly and half appalled.
Turpin beamed.
Cautiously, Tanya pushed the door open, holding her breath as it creaked softly again. Beyond it, the shop lay in darkness except for a few small lights that had been left on in display cabinets. There was no sign of the dark figure, but another door at the back marked PRIVATE was ajar. She closed the front door quietly and headed towards the other one, listening.
A muttered voice drifted through it, so faint that Tanya could not make out the words. She pushed the door open soundlessly.
‘Careful,’ Turpin murmured.
Ahead of them were three more doors, the first of which opened on to a storeroom full of boxes and the second to a small kitchen. To Tanya’s left was a set of stairs leading down. Yet another stack of boxes, empty this time, was piled up beside it. ‘There must be a cellar,’ she whispered. The third door was open a crack and, from there, the muttering could be heard. Tanya and Turpin crept closer, then Tanya felt a light nip on the back of her ankle. She bit her lip and turned round. Oberon sat by the stairs, his tail wagging gently.
‘He’s trying to tell us something,’ Tanya mouthed. ‘I think Ratty’s down there!’
‘We must go to him—’ Turpin began, but a loud thump from the third room made them both freeze.
‘No, no, NO!’ Each word was punctuated with a smashing sound. ‘None of these is it!’
Recovering herself, Tanya edged her way to the door and peered through the crack. The room beyond was crammed full of shelves of dusty or broken items, a few of which were clocks but the vast amount were hourglasses. Hundreds of them, lining the walls and stacked up in haphazard piles. In the corner of the room, a man with grey hair and thick glasses sat hunched over a table, glowering at a pile of smashed hourglasses.
Solomon.
With a sweep of his arm, he sent the fragments flying to the floor, where they shattered on a pile of previously discarded hourglasses.
Solomon leaned back, removing his spectacles to massage the bridge of his nose. ‘It’s out there somewhere,’ he murmured to himself. ‘Haunting me. Eluding me. I can
feel
it.’
And it’s closer than you know
, Tanya thought, dread creeping through her. She backed away, tugging Oberon and Turpin into the storeroom as Solomon got up and stomped to the door. They waited as the sound of his footfall faded down the cellar steps.
‘What do we do now?’ Tanya asked. She slipped the rucksack off her shoulders and turned it to look at Don. ‘If Ratty is down those steps, Solomon is with him. And you’re still a toad! Solomon’s not going to bargain with me – if I go down there and hand him the hourglass, he’ll take it off me and probably keep me prisoner with Ratty, too. We need to get you turned back.’ She peered round a stack of boxes. ‘Look, here’s a window.’ She thought quickly. ‘If I put you on the window ledge, you can watch for a star. In the meantime, Turpin and I can create a diversion to find Ratty and get him out.’
‘What kind of diversion?’ Don asked. He looked hopefully at the window. A ribbon of navy sky was visible between the cloud, but no stars.
‘By using this.’ Tanya pulled the hourglass from the rucksack. ‘If I can get Solomon to play a little game of hide-and-seek, Turpin can sneak into the cellar and free Ratty. By the time Solomon finds the hourglass, you’ll hopefully be . . . well,
you
again and you can tackle him.’
‘And if I’m not?’ Don said. ‘If I’m still a blasted toad?’
‘Then we grab the hourglass and run,’ said Tanya, feeling far less brave than she sounded.
‘Is dangerous,’ said Turpin. ‘Very risky.’
‘There’s no other way,’ said Tanya. ‘Unless we leave it another night and come back for Ratty—’
‘No,’ Don interrupted. ‘We only got here because of your wish. If he’s here, I can’t go without him. If Solomon leaves this place and takes Henry, there’s a chance we might not trace him again, not without giving up the hourglass. Even then I don’t think Solomon would hand Henry over – his gift is too powerful.’
‘Then we have to do it now,’ said Tanya. ‘Turpin, you wait by those boxes by the stairs. I’ll sneak down and surprise Solomon. When he chases me back up the stairs, push the boxes into his path. That’ll give me time to hide the hourglass.’
‘What if he catches you?’ Don whispered. ‘What if he does something magical? You could be a toad in two seconds flat!’
‘He won’t catch me. I’m faster than he is and I’m protected. Whatever he does, he’ll know there’s a chance I could drop the hourglass and break it. I don’t think he’ll take that risk.’
‘Where will you hide the hourglass?’ Don looked around. ‘What about in one of these boxes?’
‘No.’ Tanya shook her head. ‘That’ll probably be Solomon’s first thought. I’m going to hide it in plain sight.’
‘In the shop?’ Don gasped.
Tanya nodded.
‘By the time Solomon makes it up the stairs and past the boxes, I’ll have hidden the hourglass in amongst the others, then I can join Turpin and help get Ratty out.’
Don took a deep breath and nodded at the window ledge. ‘All right. Let’s do it. Put me up there.’ He lowered his voice even further. ‘And pray that I see a star.’
Tanya pulled out her mother’s red shawl from the rucksack and threw it round Oberon, tucking the ends into his collar. Provided he stayed quiet, it should hide him from Solomon until she was ready. She placed Don on the sill, then took the hourglass, trying to steady her suddenly shaking hands. ‘Turpin, get ready,’ she whispered.
Turpin gave a fierce nod. Then the two of them crept out of the storeroom and towards the cellar steps. Turpin took up her position behind the stack of boxes.
‘Wait until I’ve cleared the stairs and you’ve got a clean shot at Solomon,’ Tanya whispered. ‘Then shove as many boxes his way as you can.’
‘It will be many,’ Turpin promised. She reached up and gave her horns a little stroke as if for courage or luck.
Tanya readjusted her grip on the hourglass. Her fingers were damp with nervous sweat. Then she edged closer to the narrow stone steps and started down them as quietly as she could.
23
Captives
W
ITH EVERY STEP TANYA TOOK FURTHER down into the cellar, a musty, damp smell grew stronger. She paused, pinching her nose to press the tickle away, and felt Oberon’s nose bump into the back of her leg. The hourglass in her other hand felt warm and, now she was touching it again, the whisperings of the memory had begun once more. She forced herself not to listen. She could not afford to be sucked into it this time.
At the bottom of the steps, an old wooden door was half open, hanging crookedly on its hinges. She crept nearer, trying to steady her breathing, and peered through the gap in the door into one side of a dimly-lit room. It looked very similar to the room she had seen in the memory, for there was all sorts of equipment and magical paraphernalia crammed everywhere. Dusty books teetered in piles, crates jammed with jars of nasty-looking ingredients were stacked up on top of one another, and a huge, black cauldron stood at the centre of it all. Exactly how long had Solomon been here? Tanya wondered. Several months at least, from the looks of things.
She drew back on to the staircase as heavy footsteps sounded on the other side of the room. Then Solomon’s voice came in a low growl.
‘Wake up, boy!’
Holding her breath, Tanya moved forward again and slunk to the edge of the door, looking round it on to the side of the room she had not yet seen. It was all she could do not to gasp, for there, just a short distance away, stood a large, silver cage. Inside it, shivering and sleepy-eyed, was Ratty.
Tanya pressed a hand over her mouth. Poor Ratty looked dreadful. He was thinner, and his brown skin had taken on a grey look. His eyes were sunken and dull and even from where Tanya stood she could see they had lost their sparkle.
Solomon stood on the other side of the cage bars, but he was not alone. A hulking figure lurked just beyond him in a shadowy alcove. It wore plain, dark clothes and its face was hidden by a gruesome mask that looked like it had been painted by a child. It had two black holes for eyes and a thin, red slash for a mouth. Though the mask was different to the one she had seen before, Tanya recognised the figure as the same one she had seen at the fairground. Confusion and panic swept through her. What was Morghul doing here, with Solomon? And, more importantly, how would Turpin get past him to uphold her part of the plan?
Solomon took the bars of the cage and rattled them. ‘I said wake up!’
At the sound of his voice, Tanya felt Oberon’s body go rigid beside her. She looked down and saw that the fur on the back of his neck was standing up.
Ratty rubbed his eyes and glared.
Solomon eyed him nastily. ‘Are you hungry enough to talk yet?’
‘Hungry enough to eat a dead dog,’ Ratty answered, coughing weakly. ‘But I’ll never talk to you.’
‘Just tell me where the memory is hidden!’ Solomon snapped. ‘Where did your thieving father put it?’
Ratty’s mouth set in a determined line. ‘If I told you, would you let me go?’
‘Of course.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘You don’t have much choice,’ said Solomon. ‘No one knows you’re here. And your wretched father somehow escaped from where I left him, not that much good will come of it in his present form.’
‘What do you mean?’ Ratty asked. ‘What have you done to my pa?’
Solomon gave a thin smile. ‘Let’s just say I’ve cut him down to size. Now, are you going to tell me what you know? Where is that hourglass?’
‘I don’t know,’ Ratty said. Hatred burned in his eyes. ‘And, even if I did, I’d never tell you.’
Tanya screwed up her courage and stepped beyond the door into the cellar room. ‘You’re asking the wrong person.’
Solomon spun round, his eyes wide with shock. ‘
You!
’
‘Tanya?’ Ratty gasped. He jumped to his feet. ‘What are you doing here?’
Tanya swallowed, her knees suddenly wobbly. ‘I’ve come to give Solomon what he wants,’ she said. ‘In exchange for you.’
Solomon stared at the hourglass, transfixed. ‘That’s it,’ he whispered. He lifted his hand, taking a slow step towards her like she was a bird he was afraid to frighten away. ‘That’s the one. How . . . where did you . . .?’ He shook himself slightly. ‘Give it to me, girl. Give it to me and I’ll release him.’
Morghul shifted in the shadows. Even though there was no face to read, Tanya sensed his longing. It was as strong and as greedy as Solomon’s, and every bit as terrifying. Perhaps she could lure them both out of the cellar, leaving Turpin to release Ratty from the cage. She took a tiny step back, waiting. ‘No. Let him go first.’
Solomon’s lip curled back. He took another step towards her. ‘Now listen, girl. Don’t be stupid. Give me the hourglass or it will be taken from you. Forcibly.’ He snapped his fingers and Morghul lurched out from his shadowy corner.
‘No,
you
listen,’ said Tanya. She brandished the hourglass, noticing how Solomon’s outstretched hand shook. ‘I know how this works. So if either you or that thing—’ she jerked her head at Morghul, ‘—does anything that makes me nervous, and I happen to drop this, the memory will be lost forever. And I don’t think you want that.’ Beside her, Oberon gave a growl that sounded almost convincing.
Solomon blinked, noticing Oberon for the first time. Then his face drained of colour. Tanya silently congratulated herself on putting him in his place, but it was only when he spoke next that she realised that what she had mistaken for fear was in fact rage.