The Serpent in the Glass (The Tale of Thomas Farrell) (18 page)

Eventually the children began to drift down the hill to explore the area. Thomas hung back, still in wonder at the new sharpness to his senses. It was as if his ears had had water in them all his life, and now they’d suddenly been cleared. He’d always had good eyesight of course, but even that seemed sharper. Perhaps it was just a trick of the night. He noticed that Treice had turned his powerful torch back on and the group was moving away from him. Thomas moved to catch up.

‘Where’d you suppose we are?’ Penders asked as Thomas fell in beside him.

‘I don’t know,’ said Thomas. ‘I think we need to find some kind of landmark.’

‘Like that you mean?’ Merideah said from about ten paces in front of the boys. She’d stopped and shone her torch at something up ahead.

Penders stopped in his tracks. ‘Whoa! That mountain’s made of huge stone bricks!’

Jessica scanned the structure. ‘It’s not a mountain, it’s a wall!’

Before them arose a stone wall made of the biggest blocks of stone Thomas had ever seen. He couldn’t imagine how heavy they were, or how they had been placed one upon another.

‘It must’ve been built by giants,’ Penders said, not content with his first announcement.

‘Treice,’ Merideah said, as she tried and failed to see up the wall with her own small torch. ‘Shine that fog light of yours up the wall.’

Treice moved forward and swung the beam of his powerful torch up the stonework, but the strength of it failed before it reached the top — if it had a top.

‘Look there,’ Jessica said, pointing. Treice moved the beam back to a section of wall to which Jessica had pointed.

‘It’s a snake,’ Treice said.

Thomas froze. A snake? He looked up and sighed. It was just a carving. ‘No, it’s a serpent.’ He held up the Glass. It was glowing only faintly now. The serpent shape on the wall bore a strikingly similar pose to that of the serpent in the Glass.

‘What’s that?’ Merideah spun around and looked into the trees to their left, the narrow beam of her torch strobing the silver barks.

‘What?’ Jessica asked, somewhat nervously.

‘I thought I saw something move,’ Merideah said.

Thomas was the first to hear it, a sort of metallic noise as if someone was carrying a lot of pots and pans.

‘There!’ Penders said, pointing into the darkness.

Merideah and Treice immediately swung their torches back toward the place Penders indicated. Not twenty yards from where they stood, a figure had appeared. A figure dressed entirely in bronze armour. Thomas couldn’t make out a face behind the metal visor, but upon its head sat a flat helm, and in a gauntleted hand a long spear that now pointed directly at them.

‘Run!’ said Merideah. ‘Back to the hill!’

They ran, but as they neared the hill they found two more armoured figures blocking their way. They looked identical to the one following them. Seeing this, Merideah tried to lead them another way to circle around the slow-moving figures, but before they could do so, more of the armoured figures appeared and soon had them entirely encircled. Their pursuers moved in to form a circle around them, each an exact replica of the other. They lowered their spears and pointed them at the five children.

Thomas stared at them as he and his friends huddled back to back. As Merideah’s and Treice’s torches darted about the circle, Thomas saw that each figure had the same red-lettered Roman numeral crafted into the front of its flat helm: the numeral VII. It was a strange thing to notice at such a time, but Thomas hoped it wasn’t the last thing he ever noticed. Treice’s torch lingered on the head of one of the figures. Thomas swallowed hard. There were no eyes. There was nobody in the suit of armour! Or, if there was, they were headless!

‘This isn’t looking good,’ Penders whimpered.

‘Disengage!’ came a stern and yet familiar voice from the top of the hill.

The spears surrounding the children were lifted in one synchronized move, their blunt ends hitting the ground as one as the suits of armour froze to attention. All clinking and clanking ceased. The children looked up and saw Mr Gallowglas descending the hill. Thomas’s heart sunk, but he still had the presence of mind to conceal the Glass.

‘Stay back!’ Merideah shouted at Gallowglas.

‘And just what do you propose to do, Miss Darwood?’ Gallowglas lifted his hand and the armoured figures parted to let him through.

Penders balled his hands. ‘Are you going to get rid of us the same way you did with Mr Goodfellow?’

‘Goodfellow was a snoop. He suspected too much, so we got rid of him,’ Gallowglas announced quite casually.

Jessica gasped. ‘You and McGritch murdered the science teacher?’

‘No one said anything about murder, Miss Westhrop,’ came another familiar voice from behind Gallowglas.

Mr Trevelyan appeared and, with him, Stanwell Clear. The latter held a lantern on a pole in one hand, briefly reminding Thomas of a carol singer. But Thomas didn’t think the three of them would be singing any carols. Was the Headmaster part of this too? Thomas couldn’t believe it. Thomas had looked to him as someone he might go to when all else failed, someone who would keep him safe from Mr Gallowglas. Now all that sense of security came crashing down. Thomas moved closer to Jessica. They, at least, had always been there for each other. Perhaps they’d been foolish to trust anyone else. Whatever happened, Thomas wasn’t going to let anyone hurt Jessica.

Trevelyan blinked. ‘Miss Darwood, would you kindly stop shining that torch in my eyes. Mr Clear’s lantern is quite adequate I think.’

‘Sorry, Headmaster,’ Merideah said weakly, and pointed the beam back toward the suits of armour who didn’t have any eyes.

Trevelyan and Stanwell walked through the opening in the fence of spears and flanked Gallowglas. ‘Well, Mr Gallowglas, we seem to have captured our quarry.’

Gallowglas looked at the five of them grimly. Thomas couldn’t tell what he was thinking though. He always looked at everyone grimly.

‘We know about the missing students too,’ Penders said suddenly. ‘I suppose you’re going to just bump us off as well!’

Thomas felt terrible. He’d started all this. If it wasn’t for him, none of them would be here now. ‘Please sir, it was my fault. I wanted to know what was inside the tower and —’

‘Yes,’ Trevelyan interrupted Thomas, ‘I guessed as much, though I’m sure Jessica and Merideah played their part too, eh?’ A smile played upon the Headmaster’s lips, then, to Thomas’s surprise, Mr Trevelyan winked at him.

On hearing her name Merideah turned the torch toward Trevelyan, but immediately swung it away again when the Headmaster threw her a deep frown. He looked at each of them in turn before he spoke.

‘It’s never happened before.’

‘What’s never happened before?’ Merideah asked, keeping the torch firmly on the armoured figures.

‘First-year students in the Grange,’ Trevelyan replied.

‘The Grange?’ Jessica said.

‘Yes, you are in Darkledun Grange,’ the Headmaster explained. ‘But that is besides the point. Now, Mr Penderghast, it was I, not Mr Gallowglas, who ‘got rid of’ Mr Goodfellow. His services were no longer required. I believe he already has an offer of a job at another school in England, which is probably best for all concerned. And, you will be glad to know, we’ve not done away with any students either. ‘Blige me, after years of trying to teach them something, we’re not going to then ‘bump them off’, as you so eloquently put it. What a colossal waste of time and effort! I’m sure you’d agree?’

Trevelyan paused and cast his eyes over the five children before him. ‘Now, Mr Gallowglas, what shall we do with our guests?’

Gallowglas grunted. ‘Have them swear to tell no one of this place and to never return, or else.’

Thomas gulped, and thought he heard Penders do the same.

Trevelyan brushed at his tie. Thomas couldn’t quite tell the colour in the light of the lantern, but it looked as if it might be bright yellow. ‘Or else what? We can hardly lock them up. I think their parents might notice if they didn’t return for Christmas.’

Gallowglas didn’t respond.

‘I says we do give ‘em a very long detention with Miss Havelock. That oughta do it,’ Stanwell chimed in, but he smiled and cocked his head toward the children afterward.

Gallowglas sighed.

Trevelyan looked up at the star-filled sky for a moment before answering. ‘No, there’ll be no detentions. I think we shall go with an ‘or else’. We shall, I think, give them a tour of Darkledun Grange, and answer their questions, ‘or else’ I’m sure their curiosity will never be satisfied, and we shall have to mount a constant vigil on the tower.’

‘I would exercise more caution.’ Gallowglas eyed the children suspiciously. ‘They’re too young.’

Trevelyan shook his head. ‘Sometimes caution makes one go backward when one needs to go forward.’

Gallowglas folded his arms, his face unreadable.

‘Mr Clear,’ Trevelyan began, ‘have the carriage ready for Saturday morning will you?’

Stanwell grinned. ‘I will do, sir! Oh, yes most certainly I will do!’

Trevelyan approached the children and extended his hand toward Jessica. ‘I think we’d better get those keys back to Miss McGritch so she can finish locking up, Miss Westhrop.’

Jessica handed over Miss McGritch’s keys. ‘We were just borrowing them.’ She smiled weakly.

‘Of course, of course,’ Mr Trevelyan said, as he took the keys and passed them to Gallowglas.

With one final stare at the children, Gallowglas turned around and headed for the hill. He didn’t seem very pleased. Thomas watched as he disappeared though the stones, though he saw no flash of light.

‘Return to your posts!’ Trevelyan shouted, and the suits of armour started to shuffle off. Thomas watched them walk stiffly away into the trees until they were lost in the gloom.

‘Mr Trevelyan, what are those?’ Jessica asked, as the clank of the flat-helmed figures disappeared into the night.

Trevelyan gave a satisfied smile. ‘They, my dear, are the renowned Darkledun Guards. They watch over this place, help keep it safe.’

‘But there’s no one —’

‘No one in them?’ Trevelyan interrupted Jessica, a boyish grin on his face. ‘Clever, eh? Now, children, there’s something I must have your word on. Mr Gallowglas isn’t wrong to employ caution, though he may choose to pay it a rather higher sum than I myself would. What I’m about to tell you must never be shared with anyone outside of this place. Do you agree to this?’

The children nodded.

‘Right then, now where shall I begin?’ Trevelyan said, as he put his hands behind his back.

‘Perhaps by telling us what those are?’ Thomas said, pointing back at the stones on the hill.

‘Ah,’ Trevelyan said, turning to look at the standing stones. ‘That’s as good a place to start as any. Cnocmorandolmen it is called, a rather long name, but a pleasant hill all the same. Those stones are Way Gates. They lead to certain places. The one nearest to us, as you know, leads to the tower at Darkledun Manor.’

‘Exactly how far are we from the Manor?’ Merideah asked.

Trevelyan frowned. ‘Exactly is a very difficult word. All I can say is that we are a lot closer and yet a lot further than any of you could imagine.’

Merideah’s brow puckered at the answer, but it was Jessica who responded. ‘Are we still in Scotland?’

Trevelyan surveyed the surroundings. ‘We are in the realm of Avallach, Miss Westhrop.’

‘I’ve never heard of it,’ Merideah said.

Trevelyan nodded. ‘You won’t find it on any map you’ve ever seen. You see, Avallach isn’t part of your world, though it once was. It lies hidden and separate, yet in places the two still touch. The Way Gate you just came through is one such place.’

‘Why do you say
your
world? Don’t you mean
our
world?’ Jessica asked.

‘No, I’m not from your world, though I have rather enjoyed exploring it these last few years. Indeed, it’s given me quite a few ideas I must say.’ Trevelyan nodded to himself. ‘But we’ll save the rest of this conversation for daylight. We’ll meet in Stanwell’s office at the Manor at nine o’clock on Saturday morning. Now, I have your word, that you’ll tell no one what you’ve seen?’

The children nodded eagerly.

‘Good,’ Trevelyan said. ‘Then I think it’s time to return to our beds. I have some marshmallows and a cup of hot chocolate waiting for me, and it’s very likely now a cup of lukewarm chocolate.’

‘Dinnsenchas!’ the Headmaster said, as they approached the Way Gate. The stones shimmered and hummed as they’d done when the children had first come through. Trevelyan ushered the children through the stones in a flash of golden light. After they’d departed, Cnocmorandolmen stood still and silent once more in the moonlit night. Yet something new hung in the air, something that hadn’t been there for many years had returned.

— CHAPTER THIRTEEN —

Darkledun Grange

Thomas sat in the Caretaker’s office. He’d arrived with Penders and Treice just before nine o’clock, and found Jessica and Merideah already there. Ten minutes had passed and still there was no sign of Stanwell Clear. Mr Trevelyan had told them to wear ‘old clothes’ rather than uniforms, but Merideah and Treice didn’t seem to have any. They had only very new clothes. Treice wore his very white pair of trainers that looked like they’d just come out the box. Merideah wore her khaki combat trousers (with more pockets than Thomas cared to count), and a pair of petite hiking boots. Penders’ jeans were definitely old, as at least a couple of holes attested. He wore them whenever he wasn’t in his uniform, and Thomas suspected he had no others. Thomas had two pairs of trousers, neither had holes in them, but both were second-hand. Today he wore his corduroys and a light blue woollen jumper that Aunt Dorothy had given him in the middle of the summer a couple of years ago. The gift served him well this morning; outside Stanwell’s window an early frost clung to the Manor’s grounds.

No one had said anything since they’d arrived, except for Penders announcing ‘Isn’t it exciting?’, to which he’d received no reply. They had, of course, spoken a great deal to each other since their strange experience a couple of days ago. Although they were all looking forward to the day, Thomas also sensed some concern in the others. Questions still remained unanswered after all, such as the reason for the disappearance of the students, and the nature of Gallowglas’s involvement with Prothero’s injury. Still, thought Thomas, if they wanted to do away with him and the others, they could have done so easily that night in the place Trevelyan called the Grange. There was something more to it all for Thomas, of course. This Grange had some connection with the Glass, and that meant that Avallach must have some connection with his father. That thought alone swept aside any real apprehension from his thoughts. In fact, he felt quite excited.