The Dreamsnatcher (25 page)

‘What’s the first virtue?’ Moll asked glumly. ‘Because if it’s being polite or thinking before speaking or dressing proper then we’re not going to find these
amulets fast.’

Ferry laughed. ‘The first amulet stands for courage. For being brave no matter how bad things get – because you’re not going anywhere in life without bravery.’

Everyone was silent. And then Ferry said, ‘Oak, you’ve been brave fighting to keep Moll and the whole camp safe since the day I left. Alfie—’ Alfie leant in closer,
‘—you’ve been brave helping Moll when it meant risking everything.’ Ferry’s voice became a whisper so that only Alfie and Moll could hear. ‘And in finding the
amulets you
will
learn the truth about your past.’ Alfie’s eyes widened. ‘And Siddy—’

Siddy bit his lip. ‘It’s not my fault I’m scared of bats – Ma borned me that way.’

Ferry laughed. ‘Siddy, you showed courage taking my bone reading and leading everyone to the heart of the forest when no one would believe you. Gryff’s protected Moll’s every
move even though there are Shadowmasks out there waiting to take him too.’ He paused. ‘And Moll, my own Moll, you’ve shown bravery in so many ways. Sneaking to Skull’s camp,
then escaping, following my bone reading, fighting the Dream Snatch and keeping going every single day, no matter how frightening things have been.’

Moll felt the tears rolling down her cheeks. The wildcat’s paw squeezed tighter on her wrist and, for a second, the turquoise eyes flashed brown – a deep, dark brown like polished
leather. Moll looked into her pa’s eyes and smiled. And then the burning blue eyes of the wildcat returned.

‘All of you – you’ve won the amulet fair and square and in a few moments it’ll be yours.’

‘What’ve we got to do to beat the Shadowmasks?’ Moll asked through gritted teeth.

‘Find the last two amulets and destroy the Soul Splinter. You do that and you crush the Shadowmasks and the Bone Murmur is saved – the old magic will keep turning.’

Moll clenched her fists. ‘There’s something else, Pa. Why did the Shadowmasks shave your heads when they came for you? There’s something important about that, but I can’t
work out what!’ But at that moment there was a crunch and the wildcat’s paw lifted from her wrist. Moll could feel her pa slipping away. ‘Don’t go!’ she cried.

Her pa’s voice was quieter now. ‘You haven’t much time, Moll. The amulet’ll be yours in a few seconds and later you’ll know what to do with it.’ He paused,
his voice quieter still. ‘Moll, never forget you’re part of Oak’s camp – you
do
belong. I loved you more than any father could love a daughter, but I wasn’t
given much time. The others have time and they’re longing to give it to you. So, for me, let them in.’

‘But – but I only just got you back!’ Moll stammered, fresh tears welling. ‘Don’t leave me now!’

‘You’ve a journey in front of you, and a journey’s two things: a moving away and a moving towards. In moving away there is only what is known, and in moving towards there is
hope. This is a journey of moving towards. I’ll never really leave you, Moll. I’m around you every day.’

And then the wildcat’s eyes closed. The chamber blackened and Moll stepped backwards, feeling for Gryff. He snuggled close, then the carved wildcat opened its eyes and the chamber was
flooded with blue light again.

A strange grinding noise sounded and, very slowly, water began to trickle from the wildcat’s mouth into a wooden basin beneath it. It fell like rumbles of faraway thunder and then there
was another sound, and it cut into the rumble as clear as a wind chime: the clatter of something hard dropping into the basin.

There, glittering under the carved wildcat, lay the most spectacular jewel Moll had ever laid eyes on. Cinderella Bull had rubies as red as royal robes and emeralds as deep green as the
forest’s leaves, but this jewel was something else.

‘The amulet!’ Moll whispered, hardly daring to breathe.

Every blue – sapphire, cobalt, cerulean, navy, indigo, azure, iris, teal – sparkled from the jewel and danced up and down the walls of the chamber, like a turquoise rainbow trapped
underground. The jewel was encased in silver and not moon silver this time, but the
real
thing. There was a chain – with links as fine as spider’s silk – fashioning the
whole thing into a necklace.

Moll reached into the water and held it in her hand. It was cold and heavy, as if many untold secrets had been locked inside it. She slipped it over her head – a part of her pa right there
with her.

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Now we’ve got it, we’re going for Skull.’

That’s when the footsteps started: hesitant at first, then louder, faster, like a torrent of water rushing towards them.

M
oll’s eyes darted round the chamber. They were at the end of it. There was nowhere left to run. Gryff snarled through clenched teeth and Oak
whipped out his dagger, pushing Moll, Alfie and Siddy behind him.

The footsteps charged on through the darkness towards them. Moll’s pulse hammered in her ears and her skin crawled with sweat. It was over. There was no way out. She reached for Gryff and
felt his heart beating with hers.

‘Oak!’ came a cry from the shadows.

Terror gripped Moll’s throat. The Dream Snatch had started inside her again – slow and steady. She watched in horror as three dark shapes loomed out of the shadows. Skull? Hemlock?
Gobbler?

‘Oak!’ the voice cried again.

Siddy had closed his eyes, prepared to be eaten alive by whatever was coming for him, and, beside him, Alfie felt for his dagger. Oak strained his neck towards the advancing shapes, his dagger
outstretched before him.

And then he lowered it and smiled.

One after the other, Domino, Wisdom and Noah shot out of the shadows into the light.

‘Sorry if we caused a fright,’ Domino panted, hands on his knees. Though he was the smallest of the brothers, he’d outrun them both. ‘Mooshie sent us after you as soon as
she saw it.’ He wiped the sweat from his brow. ‘You’re not safe down here.’

Oak took a step forward. ‘Saw what? What’s happened?’

‘Skull’s coming back,’ Wisdom said, ‘with Hemlock, Gobbler, Brunt – all of them. Cinderella Bull read it in her crystal ball. Skull knows we lied about Moll
searching for the amulets far from the camp. He must’ve used some kind of dark magic now he knows her name, to find out where she is.’

Domino nodded. ‘They’ll come back to our clearing, Cinderella Bull says.’

‘With the hounds?’ Oak asked.

Noah shook his head. ‘Cinderella Bull saw them in her crystal ball too. The Lull’s healing properties worked, because when the hounds woke up they were just harmless strays. Skull
let them loose when he realised, but we’ve wheeled the wagons out of the clearing and hidden them in the forest—’ He paused. ‘Because Skull means to burn Moll and Gryff out
of Tanglefern.’

Gryff dug his claws into the ground, his fur bristling with anger. Beside him, Moll clenched a fist round the amulet.

‘Well, Skull and Hemlock aren’t going to smoke us out because we’ve found the amulet and – and . . .’

Moll uncurled her fist to show the glowing amulet, but her words crumbled into silence. And
what
? What did she think they’d be able to do with a necklace against the power of the
Shadowmasks?

But Wisdom, Domino and Noah were staring at the amulet now, transfixed.

Wisdom straightened himself up, running a hand over his ponytail, and then he noticed the carved shapes of the silver stags all around them. He looked at Moll. ‘You’re right. Skull
isn’t going to smoke you out, Moll, because these stags and that amulet are worth ten times the power of the Shadowmasks.’ His eyes shone. ‘We got a chance now, Pa, haven’t
we?’

Oak nodded. ‘Are all the camp safely away from the clearing?’

‘They’re up in the Sacred Oaks already,’ Noah said. ‘Most are armed with daggers and Jesse’s got a pistol. When Skull comes, they’ll let him have
it.’

Oak took a deep breath. ‘Then we’ve got to go fast because I won’t let my camp fight Skull alone.’

Siddy glanced at Moll’s and Alfie’s daggers, then he tapped Oak’s back. ‘I haven’t got anything to fight Skull with.’

‘You can borrow my catapult,’ Moll replied, handing it to him, along with a sharpened stone she’d kept tucked in her pocket since the night she’d been rescued from the
heath. ‘If the rocks are sharp and the aim’s keen, it’s as good as a dagger.’

They turned from the wall of stags and Moll threw a last glance at the carved wildcat, hoping that somehow, somewhere, her pa would feel it. Using the light from the amulet to guide them, they
sped through the chamber, raced up the staircase, then hauled themselves out of the well.

The domed door was open just a fraction and beyond it there was darkness and silence.

Wisdom looked at his father. ‘We need to climb this oak – from there we’ve got a better position to fight.’

Oak nodded to his sons. ‘Use your daggers wisely on Skull’s three lads – to wound, not kill.’

Siddy felt for Porridge the Second and muttered a last goodbye.

Fear snaked round Moll’s throat. Inside the heart of the forest she was safe. But out there were Skull and Hemlock. And the Soul Splinter.

She thought back to her pa’s words:
you’re not going anywhere in life without bravery
. And, with that, she tiptoed towards the door and crept outside.

While they had been inside, night had fallen in the deserted clearing and the sky was full of stars. Gryff slunk in front of Moll and leapt up the Sacred Oak. Moll felt for the ridges, scoops
and bulges in the bark and twisted up after him. The others followed, spreading out across the branches.

Moll clung to the trunk, her body trembling. In the distance, there were lights – and they were crossing the boundary, snaking through the river in a line of fire.

Oak clutched his dagger, then turned to his sons. ‘Skull, Hemlock and Gobbler are souls rotted in hell – do as you like with them. No one’s going to mind them gone from
Tanglefern.’ He clasped each son by the hand. ‘Now split up among the branches and take aim.’

Moll shuffled out along a branch, but Oak grabbed her arm and yanked her behind him. ‘They can’t be allowed to see you, Moll. You’re to stay back. Understand?’

‘But it’s all because of me this is happening!’ she whispered. She felt for her pa’s dagger. ‘I want to help fight back!’

‘If we lose you, we lose everything, Moll: the forest and the Bone Murmur. That’s what this is about.’

And so, flanked by Gryff and Alfie and shielded by Oak, Moll could only watch as Skull’s gang drew nearer and nearer.

Oak cupped his hands to his mouth and let out an owl call. And, from every Sacred Oak around the clearing, owl calls answered. The camp knew Oak had come back for them and now it was time to
fight.

S
kull’s gang rode into the clearing, holding torches that blazed with fire. The scars marking Brunt’s face glowed in the torchlight and
Gobbler’s running eye gleamed like a beetle. But what frightened Moll most, what made the blood course through her veins, was not the two masks lit up beneath the hoods.

It was the strange creature that prowled between the Shadowmasks.

It moved like oil, stalking into the clearing with blazing red eyes and a scaled body. It was no bigger than a hound, but the head that hung from its black body was the unmistakable face of an
ape.

Oak gasped. ‘It
can’t
be . . .’

Moll’s face twisted with terror. ‘What – what is it?’

‘Cinderella Bull was wrong,’ Oak said. ‘Not all of Skull’s hounds woke up as harmless strays; this one woke as – as— ’ he gulped, ‘an Alterskin.
Witch doctors are known for cursing the spirits of animals in their power – and when they curse their spirits they shift their appearance too.’ He paused. ‘This Alterskin will
have a mind of pure evil now; it’ll do
anything
Skull commands.’

Moll clutched Gryff tight.

Gobbler hurled a torch towards the base of an oak and its light illuminated his broken smile. ‘Come out of the trees and fight!’

Within seconds, a path of fire had ripped through the undergrowth and Skull’s gang cheered. Oak’s gypsies leapt higher within the trees.