The Serpent in the Glass (The Tale of Thomas Farrell) (31 page)

Thomas gave one of the reins to Thayer to see if he could do something with it. They seemed to have no control over the horses at all. They were running out of sheer fright, following the only path they knew. And it didn’t look like they were going to pay any heed to anything Thomas or Thayer did with the reins.

‘Did we lose it?’ Penders said, as his head popped up out of the sunroof and cast his eyes about wildly.

Thomas looked back. The creature jumped as it ran, its powerful legs propelling it forward and closer to its quarry.

Penders gripped hold of the coach. ‘It’s ugly.’

‘It’ll be uglier if it gets any closer!’ Merideah said, as she poked her head through the hole. ‘Can’t you go faster?’

Thomas shook his head. ‘The horses just bolted — and they’re still bolting! We’ve got no control over them.’

Merideah shook her head as the Darkledun carriage hurtled past two Darkledun Guards who, had they faces, would’ve had shocked expressions upon them. Thomas glanced back as the Guards noticed the creature and attempted to stop it with their spears. The creature swatted one of them into the trees and trampled over the other one with its hooves. Still, they’d slowed it down a little, and now Thomas thought they might have a chance of reaching the Inner Gate.

The Gate! How were they going to get through the Gate? Thomas looked directly ahead. They were already nearing the huge wooden portals.

Merideah bounced as they hit a bump in the road. ‘I wonder what sort of creature it is?’

‘An angry one if you ask me.’ Penders made room as Jessica and Treice’s heads emerged either side of him.

Ahead almost a dozen Darkledun Guards stood gathered near the Inner Gate.

‘Slow us down, Thomas!’ Jessica shouted. ‘The Guards will deal with it!’

‘I can’t slow us down!’ said Thomas, as the wooden portal loomed before them.

‘Goibhniu!’ shouted Merideah. Nothing happened. It was quite pointless of course. Stanwell had said the password for the Gate wouldn’t work for cadets. Nevertheless this didn’t stop them all from trying, all except Thomas who was desperately trying to rein in the horses before they hit the Inner Gate and splintered the carriage into a thousand pieces, leaving them all to the mercy of the beast. And it didn’t look very merciful.

The Guards were stirring now. They’d seen the creature and were raising their spears in response.

‘Open the gates!’ Merideah shouted to the Guards, but they didn’t seem to hear or understand.

The horses continued along the track. Why weren’t they stopping? Surely they could see the Gate now? Perhaps they were so used to it opening that they didn’t even consider that it might not. There was no time left, unless the door opened now they were going to crash into it.

‘Goibhniu!’ Thomas shouted in a voice that didn’t sound quite his own.

The Inner Gate swung open a little faster, or so it seemed, than it normally did, almost as if responding to their need. The carriage rushed through, almost clipping the sides of each of the great portals.

They all looked at him, but he shook his head. ‘The Guards must’ve opened it.’ But he knew inside that the Gate had opened because he’d told it to. Stanwell’s words came back into his thoughts.
We couldn’t ’ave any ol’ Fintan, Fingal, or Flaherty openin’ the Gate, now could we?

Thomas still held one of the reins. ‘Thayer, pull your rein as hard as you can, after three! One — two — three!’

They yanked on the reins with all their strength, but only managed to cause one of the horses to neigh and veer the carriage off onto the grass where the ride became decidedly more bumpy.

‘Ouch!’ said Penders as he hit his head on the roof of the coach. ‘That was my head!’

‘Never mind your head,’ shouted Jessica. ‘Look behind!’

The creature had left a littering of battered Darkledun Guards in its wake, the few that were still up were running after it, but all too slowly to be of any assistance to Thomas and the others. What was more, the carriage now moved slower on the grass. The creature was gaining on them! Thomas knew their only chance was to get back on the road if they were to keep ahead. The carriage would go a lot faster on a flat, hard surface. But try as they might, Thomas and Thayer couldn’t get the horses to obey. They moved further and further away from the road and nearer and nearer to the dense trees on the edge of Muddlestump Wood.

Suddenly there was a thud and the whole carriage seemed to strain. Thomas heard Jessica scream and he looked back. The creature had leapt onto the end coach, smashing the roof to pieces.

The horses seemed to sense the closeness of the danger and became even more wild, sending the carriage one way and then the other. The creature struggled to keep a grip, but eventually tore its way up to the next coach. Fortunately the beast lost its footing and crashed through the roof where it proceeded to tear up everything in an effort to get free so that it could get to its prey.

Thomas abandoned the rein and turned around just as the creature leapt onto the coach next to Jessica and the others. Jessica screamed again and disappeared back down into the coach along with Treice, Merideah, and Penders. The carriage bumped again and the creature swayed, but it soon recovered. Leaping, it landed on the first coach and smashed the roof in with its huge hoofs.

Thomas watched in horror as the creature flattened the coach containing his friends. ‘NOOOOO!’

But his scream was cut off as the coaches behind the creature broke off, causing the remaining coach (or what was left of it) to jolt violently. Something below Thomas snapped and the team of horses raced free of the carriage. He turned around wide-eyed as they all hurtled between two large trees, the branches whipping viciously at his and Thayer’s face. Then, a second later, what was left of the carriage hit a grassy mound and they were all, creature included, catapulted through the air into the gloom of Muddlestump Wood.

— CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE —

Muddlestump Wood

Thomas landed spread-eagled in a bush that, thankfully, proved remarkably springy and devoid of sharp, jutting branches. Thayer, however, wasn’t so fortunate and came down heavily on the forest floor next to the splintered trunk of a large fallen oak.

‘Thayer!’ Thomas scrambled out of the bush toward the boy just as the other started to move. ‘Are you all right?’

Thayer sat up. ‘Oh, yes. Fomorfelk are almost as tough as the Dwerugh —’ He broke off, staring at Thomas. ‘What happened to your eyes?’

Thomas put his hands to his eyes to see if they were bleeding. ‘What do you mean?’

Thayer stood up. ‘They have turned bright green.’

Thomas blinked hard. His contact lenses! They must have come out when he’d hit the bush. ‘Oh, it’s nothing. I wear contact lenses.’

Thayer stared blankly at him. He obviously didn’t know what contact lenses were or why Thomas wore them. There’d be no chance of finding them now, even with his sharp eyesight. Thomas looked around. ‘We must’ve been thrown further than I thought. I can’t even see the coach.’

‘I think we came over that small ridge,’ Thayer said, pointing up at a dense gathering of bushes and small trees that sat upon a small, steep area of raised ground.

After dusting themselves off, they climbed out through the foliage and over the small ridge and found themselves amid thick-trunked trees.

Thomas looked around, confused. ‘Where’s the coach?’

Thayer shrugged. ‘Maybe we climbed out a different way to the way we came in. I cannot see the edge of the forest from here.’

The two boys skirted the ridge, but neither found the broken coach or their friends.

Thayer shook his head. ‘I am glad we lost that creature.’

‘Yes, me too, but we seem to have lost everybody else too, including ourselves.’ He had to find the coach. If they were still alive, Jessica and the others might be trapped in the wreckage. He looked around again. Surely they hadn’t been thrown very far into the trees when they crashed? Yet the eaves of the forest were nowhere to be seen.

A scream suddenly filled the forest. A scream of terror. And yet it filled Thomas with hope. Jessica, at least, was still alive!

‘That’s Jess!’ Thomas took off in the direction of the sound. He heard Thayer’s heavy footsteps following close behind.

Thomas ducked as he ran under a tree with low branches. When he looked up again he saw a strange sight. In the clearing up ahead Treice lay sprawled out unmoving on the ground beneath a large tree, and Jessica, Penders and Merideah were staring wide-eyed at an enormous creature. But it wasn’t the one that had chased them into the wood. This creature stood covered from head to foot in brown hair from which poked twigs and leaves. Its teeth and claws — which it was bearing menacingly — looked razor sharp, and its eyes were wild with fury. It stood in a patch of low-lying brambles and flattened bushes, growling and gnashing at them. It looked as if it wanted to eat one of them. The creature stood just feet away from them, but Jessica and the others didn’t run. Perhaps they were too scared, or perhaps they were protecting Treice. If he was alive.

What had he done? It was his idea to try to heal the Northern Way Gate. They’d almost been ripped apart by a giant green creature with a horn on its head, wrecked the Darkledun carriage, and been involved in a rather unpleasant crash. Now Treice might be dead and his friends in imminent danger of being eaten by some wild, hairy monster. Well, Thomas thought, enough is enough!

Without thinking about his own safety, Thomas darted into the clearing and placed himself between his friends and the dangerous-looking beast. The creature seemed utterly shocked on seeing Thomas. Indeed, so surprised that its eyes seem to bulge and its growling immediately stopped. Then, to everyone’s surprise, it began to sway and then shrink, as if it were a balloon deflating.

It shrank and shrank until it stood no more than two feet in height. Then it looked at Thomas and opened its sharp-toothed mouth. ‘Og Tiarna!’ The whispering voice seemed filled with wonder. The creature then began snivelling about on the ground as if it had just been well and truly told off.

Penders, Jessica and Merideah all looked at Thomas who shook his head.

‘What happened to your eyes?’ Merideah said.

Thomas opened his mouth to explain, but then changed his mind and turned back to the creature. ‘What are you?’

‘Og Tiarna use that tongue? Strange yes, very strange,’ the creature said, still in awe. ‘But Ghillie Dhu go along with Og Tiarna. Yes he does.’

‘Your name is Ghillie Dhu?’ Merideah said.

The creature eyed her cautiously. ‘Ghillie not speak to Bumbleclogs.’

‘Bumbleclogs?’ Penders looked at Merideah.

‘I think he means Humbalgogs,’ whispered Jessica.

‘Well, really!’ Merideah said, giving Ghillie Dhu a hard stare. ‘You were ready to eat us a moment ago. You could at least apologize! And I’m not a Humbalgog!’

‘Eat YOU?’ Ghillie exclaimed. ‘Ghillie not eat horrible Bumbleclogs. Yuck! Ghillie prefer nice mouse.’

‘You scared us!’ Jessica said.

‘Running into Ghillie’s patch you were. Try to scare me with your strange clothes and screeching noises,’ Ghillie rasped defiantly.

‘We were screaming because there was a monster chasing us,’ Merideah explained.

Ghillie looked from side to side. ‘A monster?’ He bent down and pulled a white stick from the undergrowth. It had a hook on one end, like a stunted shepherd’s crook. He held it tightly as if someone might try to steal it.

Merideah zipped up her small coat. ‘Yes, it was as big as you before you er ... deflated. It had green fur and a large horn on its head.’

‘Fachan,’ Ghillie said.

‘Pardon?’ said Thomas.

‘A Fachan it was, yes Og Tiarna. Nasty creatures. Like to rip things apart, and no taste: Eat Bumbleclogs! Not like us Gruagachs at all. No, Gruagachs sensible and not eat people,’ Ghillie explained.

Penders pulled a twig from his hair and then looked at the dozens in Ghillie Dhu’s fur. ‘What’s a Gruagach?’

Ghillie eyed him suspiciously. ‘I am a Gruagach.’

Penders looked at Thomas, as if hoping he might get some sense from the creature.

‘Ghillie?’ Thomas asked.

‘Yes, Og Tiarna? I am here to serve,’ Ghillie said, his voice fluctuating between rasps and whispers.

‘What happened to our friend?’ Thomas said, nodding his head toward Treice. Jessica, clearly having forgotten all about Treice, gasped and ran over to where he lay.

‘See tree?’ Ghillie said, pointing at the tree below which Treice lay.

Thomas nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Friend didn’t,’ Ghillie said.

Merideah gave the Gruagach a final wary look before joining Jessica by Treice’s side.

‘He’s coming around,’ Jessica announced.

‘My head hurts,’ Treice said, as Penders, Thayer and Thomas rushed over to join the girls. ‘Thomas, is that you? What happened to your eyes?’ He turned to look at the others and found himself staring into the wrinkled, furry face of Ghillie Dhu who’d ambled over to his side to see what all the fuss was about.

‘Ugh!’ Treice scrambled backwards. ‘What’s that?’

Ghillie backed away slightly and looked offended. He held his stick up as if to defend himself.

‘Er, this is Ghillie Dhu, Treice. He’s a Gruagach,’ Thomas explained.

‘Oh,’ Treice said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. There were girls around after all, and he couldn’t let them see he was scared. ‘What happened to the thing that was chasing us?’

‘It’s gone,’ Thomas said.

Treice let out a sigh of relief and then stood up.

Ghillie backed off a little more. ‘Clumsy One is tall.’

‘Well,’ said Merideah, ‘we’d better leave before this Fachan finds us.’

‘He not find you,’ Ghillie said.

‘How can you know that?’ Merideah asked.

Ghillie looked around and held his hands up. ‘Muddlestump Wood! Even the cunning get lost here. Fachan not known for having much brains. I say he lost for good.’

Thomas looked at his friends. ‘I thought we’d lost you — I thought you’d been crushed in the coach.’