The Book of Lies (21 page)

“Yes, the tall one in black was leading them,” added another. “On the far side of the mountain, it was.”

Fergus was close enough to Marcel to risk a few whispered words. “These are the ones who stalked us. But how can they just appear out of nowhere like that?”

Appear out of nowhere!
Marcel knew someone else who had the same disconcerting habit. He looked more closely at the elves around him, at their nut-brown skin and wild unkempt hair, and marvelled at how much they reminded him of Bea. Yet for all their similarities, Bea had the gestures and the look of a human being which these elves somehow lacked.

Starkey broke the tension when he asked in his typically blunt style, “Which of you is leader?”

“Leader!” called an even deeper voice from the shadows. The humans’ eyes darted everywhere but they could not see who had spoken. “I am King of these proud folk, and an honour it is, too,” continued the voice, though the speaker still would not let himself be seen.

“King. Of course. Please accept my apologies, Your Majesty,” Starkey responded deferentially, ending with a gracious bow.

Marcel exchanged a surprised glance with Nicola and Fergus. Humility from Starkey?

“Majesty,” one of the elves whispered jeeringly. Then the word was repeated with a snigger by all of them.

Suddenly a new figure appeared among them. He carried no weapon, not even a sword hanging from his belt, which strained mightily to contain a massive stomach, disconcerting
on a frame so small. But the most startling feature of this new arrival was his beard. Thick and uniformly grey, it stretched almost to his knees.

“My name is Long Beard,” he said, observing their stares, “and this is what makes me King of the Elves,” he added, stroking his impressive growth with a stubby-fingered hand. “A long beard means I have had many years to grow wise. When I die, the elf with the longest beard will take my place, and my name as well, just as I took it from the King before me. Make no mistake, though: my subjects might laugh when you call me ‘majesty’ but they will riddle you with arrows on one command from me.”

His voice had been light, almost friendly at first, but he ended seriously to show this was no idle threat. Nevertheless, he ordered the intimidating bows lowered. “Now,” he continued, in the same harsh tone, “why won’t you heed our warnings and leave, the way you came?”

“We can’t,” pleaded Starkey. “We’ll be taken prisoner if we go back.”

“That is no concern of ours. We don’t want you travelling through our lands.”

“But this is a desperate matter, King Long Beard,” Eleanor urged him. “It’s not just our lives at stake. The kingdom down there in the valley is crying out for help. I am Princess Eleanor and this is Prince Damon.” She motioned to her cousin. “We are the rightful rulers of Elster, and are seeking
to regain our throne. Justice has deserted the Kingdom. People will die.”

“
People
, yes. It is a matter for human beings alone. We elves are happy and at peace, but only because we have kept ourselves separate from human affairs.”

Long Beard stood with folded arms and a firmly set jaw, waiting impatiently for them to retreat. The situation seemed hopeless.

It was then that a figure came to stand beside the Elf-king, a little figure Marcel recognised instantly.

“Bea!” he cried.

He was running towards her before the echo of his shout had died among the trees. Elves raised their bows in panic and aimed at this crazy human charging towards their king.

“Hold!” Long Beard ordered his warriors.

“Bea, Bea!” Marcel kept yelling, until he stopped only a step away from her and took both of her hands in his.

Marcel was suddenly aware of countless pairs of eyes upon him. His mother and the other adults were staring at him in astonishment. Even Nicola and Fergus were dumbfounded, since they too had not been told of Bea’s escape.

“What are you doing here?” Marcel asked Bea excitedly. “I was sure you went back to Fallside.”

She gave a little laugh and shook her head. “I couldn’t go back to Lord Alwyn! Not with Termagant ready to bite me in half.”

“But when I came back to look for you, you’d disappeared. I thought you were afraid of the forest.”

“Afraid! No. I tried to tell you, Marcel. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. I felt alive, at home, for the first time in my life.”

“Then you didn’t ride Gadfly back to Mrs Timmins’, like Starkey said?”

Starkey’s ears pricked up at the sound of his name and he finally understood. “So this is the little girl you mentioned, Marcel,” and he turned to recount the story to Damon and Eleanor.

In the meantime another thought had occurred to Marcel. “Bea, Gadfly… is she still out there, roaming around in the forest?”

“No, she’s here, with me. The elves don’t have much use for a horse. They wanted to eat her but I told them about… well, you know,” she concluded with a wink, in case anyone was listening. “Come on, I’ll take you to her now.”

She led the way across the rugged terrain of the mountainside until at last they arrived at a secluded clearing, where they found Gadfly contentedly cropping grass. She fixed Marcel with a look that said, About time you showed up.

He went over and affectionately smoothed her mane. Then he turned back to Bea, able to question her alone at last. “What happened back there in the forest?”

“I saw them, Marcel. They thought I wouldn’t, but I caught them out.”

“Who?”

“Two elves who were hunting a long way from this mountain. They were used to humans who can’t see into shadows, but they hadn’t counted on me.”

“Bea,” he murmured, barely believing what he was about to say. “You’re one of them. You are an elf.”

“
Part
of her is elfish,” Long Beard interrupted. He had followed them to the clearing on silent feet. “You are the famous Marcel, is that so? This one has told me a lot about you,” he said warmly, nodding towards Bea. “It is hard to make her speak of anything else. Cruel wizards, forgotten lives and a boy who saved her from a snarling monster.”

“Oh, but she’s braver than me,” Marcel objected. “Believe me, I know as much about her as you do.”

Long Beard laughed heartily. “I’m sure you do, but it’s time I told you something about Bea that you
don’t
know.”

“How she became the way she is?”

“In a manner of speaking.” Long Beard nodded, causing the grey cascade of hair streaming down from his chin to flop against his ample chest. With a glance at Marcel’s eager face, he sighed and began his tale.

“I once had a daughter, a beautiful girl, who liked to roam in the forest, much further from this mountain than she should. She would sit and watch humans felling trees. One of these men caught her eye. She thought herself in love and did what no elf should ever do. She showed herself to him. The
man took her to his village, where she lived as his wife until a baby was born. Soon after that, the man set out to seek his fortune, leaving my daughter and the little one with his family. But these folk were afraid of her and thought she practised witchcraft. They forced her out of their village and the baby with her. Too ashamed to come home to her own kind in the forest, she strayed from village to village, until at last she was too weak to go on and all she could do was lie down by the side of the road to die.”

He paused, his own throat tight with a father’s grief. His next words were heavy with sadness and regret. “We know this because she was found by elves on a forest track, and before she died, she was able to tell of her trials.”

“The baby,” Marcel breathed. “The baby wasn’t with her?”

“No,” Long Beard answered solemnly. “All we have ever known about that baby came from my daughter’s dying words. A church, she said. She had left her baby at the door of a church.”

Marcel gasped. “Bea, the story you told me, back in Fallside. You were found on the steps –”

“Yes, of a church,” said Long Beard with a tear clouding one eye. “You humans called her a foundling. Well, now she has been found by her real family at last.”

“Don’t you see, Marcel? He’s my grandfather,” said Bea.

Long Beard put his hand lovingly on his granddaughter’s shoulder. “Bea lives with us now, in her true home, here on
our mountain and in the forest where you humans are not welcome. So,” he said, putting his hands on his hips, “shall we return to your friends and see whether they are ready to leave?”

“But Grandfather!” Bea protested. “Can’t you let them pass through the forest?”

“Quiet, Bea. This is no concern of yours.” He led the way back to the party of humans with the other two trailing dejectedly behind, leading Gadfly by the mane.

As they approached they heard a heated argument in full swing.

“No, you can’t!” Damon was yelling. “It’s too dangerous!”

“Nonsense!” returned Eleanor. “It’s the only way.” Marcel was astonished to see the Book of Lies clutched tightly to her chest. The book she was so afraid of!

Fergus and Nicola cowered to one side, appalled by their parents’ bickering.

“Marcel, the Book!” cried Bea. “You’ve still got Lord Alwyn’s book!”

“Even here, where humans are not welcome, we know that name,” said Long Beard with a touch of awe.

The Book heard him and began to glow in Eleanor’s arms, drawing a gasp from the King and the other elves who looked on.

“Sometimes, when humans and elves are hunting in the same part of the forest, we listen to the strange tales they tell
one another. That is how we know of this Lord Alwyn. He is said to be a great sorcerer. But what is this strange book?”

Eleanor spoke up. “King Long Beard, this is the Book of Lies, and it glows whenever the truth is spoken. Let me tell you what kind of man it is we seek to overthrow and perhaps you will understand the urgency of our mission.”

She ignored the angry stares of Damon and Starkey and locked her eyes on to Long Beard’s face instead. “Some months ago, before the entire royal court, King Pelham passed a cup of wine to his Queen, a woman he claimed to love dearly. He stood smiling as she drank it, yet only minutes later she lay dead, her lips turned blue by a deadly poison.”

As they watched, the Book began to glow its familiar gold.

Starkey seemed to recover from his rage and addressed the King forthrightly. “What do you say now, Long Beard? Will you let us pass?”

Damon had also regained his composure, and added his plea to theirs. “Would you send us back to a man who murders those he loves?”

The Elf-King was wavering but he still could not quite bring himself to agree.

“Please, Grandfather. Won’t you let them pass?” Bea implored, startling all but Marcel why she addressed Long Beard in this way.

Marcel could see how Long Beard doted on his granddaughter, and knew this love was their only hope. The Elf-King’s heart was softening before their eyes and it was all because of Bea.

“Very well,” he said at length. “Since Bea pleads so hard for your cause, I will grant her a special favour. You may have safe passage through our territories. I will even send an elf to guide you.”

The humans breathed a huge sigh of relief. But despite her grandfather’s change of heart, Bea still looked unhappy. Her eyes hadn’t left Marcel’s since she had last spoken. Now she addressed him again. “Grandfather, I want to go with them.”

The King recoiled as though she had pushed him. “But you’ve only just come to live with us. No, Bea, I want you here with me, so that I can watch you grow up among those who love you.” A hint of hostility returned to his elfish eye, to reveal what he thought of human beings.

“You don’t understand, Grandfather. If it wasn’t for me, Marcel would still be at the orphanage. I’m part of what is happening, whether I like it or not. I have to go.”

After a minute’s tense silence, Long Beard spoke again. “This girl is more stubborn than her mother was,” he told them with a mixture of pride and exasperation. “I’ll let her go with her young friend here,” he said, slapping Marcel good-naturedly on the shoulder, “but I’m not ready to let her out of my sight so soon. I promised you a guide through the forest. Well, here he is,” he announced, tapping himself on the chest. “King Long Beard himself.”

T
HEY SET OFF IMMEDIATELY
. Gadfly had permitted Hector to load their provisions on to her back, replenished with extra supplies from the elves.

“Sorry,” Marcel had whispered into Gadfly’s ear. “For the time being, you’re our pack horse. Just remember, if we left you behind they might eat you.”

She rolled her eyes and snorted her disapproval but let him lead her into the forest all the same. Nicola, Fergus and Bea stayed with them, forming their own troop ten paces behind the adults.

“The forest is a different place now, don’t you think?” observed Nicola.

“I know what it is. We’re not afraid any more,” said Marcel, and the other two agreed with a smile.

Bea grew excited when she heard these words. “Do you understand now what I felt when we first arrived in the forest, Marcel, with all those shades of green and the peaceful silence?”

“You’ll live here with your grandfather once this is all over, won’t you, Bea?”