The Opal Quest (5 page)

‘Lady Yordis is asking for you,' Katinka said. ‘Hurry up.' Fear of the High Witch made her speak sharply.

‘She won't eat you if I'm a bit late!' Tia said.

‘She might.'

Tia started to laugh then realised Katinka meant what she'd said. As they hurried to Yordis's chambers Katinka told Tia that before Yordis took the opal she had been harsh but fair. ‘And she was beautiful, too. But now she's spent so much time as the bear she's turning into a monster – ugly, greedy and cruel.'

Tia shivered as she remembered how the bear had caught her in the forest and towered over her, its fangs dripping, its fearsome claws gripping her tightly. The very thought of being eaten was enough to make anyone obey Yordis.

Tia made a decision: she was going to search Yordis's rooms for the opal as soon as she could. So, when the High Witch had heard enough of Prince Kaspar's adventures Tia returned to her room and waited.

When she thought enough time had passed she went to Yordis's chambers and knocked on the door. There was no answer. Carefully she turned the handle and peeked inside. All was still and silent; Yordis had definitely gone.

Tia explored each room including the ones she hadn't been into before – the bathing room and the library. There was no trace of the collar. She searched again, more urgently. This time she noticed that a big tapestry, stretching from floor to ceiling in the library, swayed a little as though a slight draft was blowing from behind it. When she looked there she saw a door. It creaked as she opened it. Behind the door was a dim passageway.

Tia stepped inside and pulled the door to. Instantly all was darkness.

Tia's hands touched rock on either side. She kept them against the walls as she stumbled forward a few steps. ‘This is silly,' she said, her voice sounding very loud in the still darkness. She concentrated hard and then very, very gently clicked her fingers. To her relief one cold, little flame sparked into life and danced on the tip of her forefinger. She held it up like a candle and used it to illuminate the tunnel. It went down steeply, winding round and round, for a very long way. Gradually it levelled off and opened into a gigantic cavern.

Tia gazed in awe as crystal sparkled from the walls and roof. She carefully willed her little flame to grow brighter, and as it did, crystal lit up all over the cavern. It glittered from everywhere. There were even pieces scattered over the cavern floor like fallen stars, so lovely that she picked some up and put them in her pocket.

She gazed around, sure Yordis's collar must be kept somewhere in the cavern.
But it's so big
, she thought.
It might take me for ever to find the right place!

She searched and searched till her arm ached from holding the flame up to look into shadowy crevices, behind pinnacles and along ledges.

‘Oh, this is hopeless,' she muttered and slumped against a cluster of pinnacles. She was too tired to concentrate on her flame and it dwindled to almost nothing. But as it dimmed another light began to fill the cavern.

Tia peered round the spikes of rock and saw a glowing ball of light drift into view, followed by the bear. Yordis had come back much sooner than Tia had expected!

She drew back a little but could still see the bear as it shambled to a stop in front of a sheer drop of crystal and shook itself. It shivered and blurred and Yordis appeared in its place. She unlatched the collar, reached high up and slid aside a panel of polished crystal. No wonder Tia hadn't noticed the hiding place: it was impossible to see in the sheet of crystal.

Yordis put the collar carefully into a space behind
the panel and slid it closed. Then she sighed and began to stretch and shake her limbs as if she had to get used to her human form again.

While Yordis was stretching, Tia tiptoed back to the tunnel entrance, pressing herself against the wall and slinking silently through the shadows. Just as she slipped inside to safety Yordis followed, the glowing ball lighting her way.

Tia ran as fast as she dared, burst into Yordis's library and closed the door quietly. She tiptoed to the central chamber door and was about to open it when someone knocked from the outside.

‘Lady Yordis,' a voice said. It was Katinka! Tia was trapped between the High Witch and her maid!

She heard the door in the library bang shut, and Katinka knocked on the door again. She looked around wildly for a way out, and remembered the fireplace in Yordis's bedroom. It was wide; she could climb up inside it – if it wasn't yet lit.

She ran to it and saw with relief that it was swept and laid ready but not lit. She scrambled up the chimney. The rough bricks in the flu provided plenty of hand-holes and higher up there were some metal rungs to climb.

By the time Yordis returned to the bedroom Tia was out of sight. She heard Katinka knocking again
and the bed creak as the High Witch threw herself onto it. ‘Enter!' Yordis called.

There were the sounds of the door opening and closing and Katinka's voice saying, ‘I've come to attend to the fire, Lady Yordis.'

Tia yelped in shock. She tried to stifle the sound with her hand and it came out as, ‘Eeek!'

‘There are mice in the chimney again!' Yordis said. ‘Get that fire going, girl, and drive them away before I have to do it myself!'

Tia hastily scrabbled higher up the rungs. They passed a square hole, the entrance to a vent that she thought went in the direction of her room. She crawled inside it. There was no light so she snapped the tiny flame onto her finger again. The vent stretched away in front of her, narrow and thick with soot. She worked her way down it, levering herself along on her knees and one elbow so that she could hold out her flame with the other hand. It was hot in the tight passageway and a smell of smoke made her cough. She grimly crawled on.

A waft of air and a faint gleam of light told her she was near a flue. Surely it led to her room? She made the flame die away and crawled on as fast as she could. There was the flue! She eased herself into it and dropped into the cold hearth in her room.

Coughing and spluttering, she banged at her clothes. Soot puffed up in clouds. She scrubbed at her hair and more soot wafted out. How she was going to explain herself to Katinka?

Tia found Katinka in the kitchen. ‘What have you been doing?' the maid exclaimed.

‘I heard something in the chimney,' Tia said, ‘and when I poked my head up to have a look, a load of soot fell on me.'

Katinka found the grey boys' clothes again and gave them to Tia. ‘Have a good wash, change into these and bring me your Trader things to launder.' She sighed extravagantly.

Poor Katinka had to cope with Yordis and keep an eye on Tia. It was hard for her when Tia gave her extra work. ‘I'm sorry,' Tia said.

‘I know you don't mean to be a nuisance, you're a good girl really – most of the time.' Katinka smiled. ‘I've heard that the Water Traders will definitely be here tomorrow so you'd better hope I can get these washed and dried tonight.'

‘The Water Traders!' Tia danced up and down in excitement.
While Yordis is busy trading I can steal the opal!
she thought. Out loud she said, ‘I wish I could see them.'

‘I'll ask the Lady Yordis,' Katinka said. ‘She gives us time off when the Traders are here, even the miners – so I think she'll do the same for you.'

That night, Tia sat on her bed and lined up the crystals she'd picked up off the cavern floor. She put the biggest in her bag and selected a smaller one that she tied a long strip of leather to. It was easy to tie the strip firmly to the crystal's jagged surface. When she'd finished she put it in a pocket in her bag, next to her sling and a small collection of smooth, round pebbles.

Now she was ready; tomorrow she would steal the opal.

The lift was kept very busy next day as people left the castle, eager to meet and barter with the Water Traders. Tia was given permission to go down into the town too.

‘Promise me you won't try and run away,' Katinka said.

‘No, of course not – I don't want to get you in trouble with the Lady Yordis,' Tia said.

‘Here.' Katinka gave her a mark. ‘You work hard – you should have something to trade with.'

Tia thanked the maid and put the coin in her pocket. She felt guilty taking it from her because she'd soon have lots of marks of her own.

For once the town was busy: families with children filled the paved streets running along the riverside with its little stone-built quays and berths. The boats rode the river's current and the Traders skilfully skipped from the swaying decks to the riverside and back again as they laid out their wares.

Many of them greeted Tia as she hurried by in her bright, freshly-laundered Trader clothes. She longed to stop and talk to them but first she had to see Hannes, the crystal shaper.

‘Why, it's Nadya!' he said with a smile. ‘What are you doing here?'

‘I've got a crystal to trade,' she said and showed him the largest of the ones she'd found on the cavern floor.