Alfie Bloom and the Talisman Thief (11 page)

“Close the doors!” he yelled as he ran into the castle. Amy and Robin swung the castle doors shut and bolted them. Galileo shot off up the stairs the second he was released.

Alfie
grabbed the receiver from the phone in the hall and tried to remember how to call Muninn and Bone's offices. Glancing at the symbols on the strange old phone, he dialled the star and moon then tapped his fingers frantically on his leg as it rang and rang. It was nearly midnight, would anyone even be there? Robin was looking out through the hatch in the door watching the mist pouring from the tree.

At long last there was a click at the other end of the line and Emily's voice crackled out of the receiver. “Muninn and Bone's offices. Emily Fort—”

“Emily!” shouted Alfie. “Something's happening. Ashford wasn't Ashford. He tried to take the lens. He opened the portal; there's mist coming through!” The line was crackling so much that Alfie couldn't make out Emily's reply. “Emily!” He shouted over the noise, “Can you hear me?” More crackling. “Tell Caspian the portal is open!” With that the noise fizzled down to a soft hiss. The line was dead.

“You'd better see this, Alfie,” said Robin. “Something's happening.”

Alfie dropped the receiver and joined Robin on tiptoe at the hatch. The portal was starting to swirl again.

“
Something's coming through.” The words had barely left Alfie's lips when the fierce-looking elf that had led the raid on the castle stepped through. He was dragging something with him – a man. He tossed the wretched figure to the ground.

“Ashford!” screamed Alfie. Amy and Madeleine rushed to help unbolt the entrance. The butler looked up as they swung open the door, his face was drawn and bruised.

“Get back inside!” he cried. “Lock the doors and don't open them … no matter what!” The final raven circling the courtyard cawed and shot up into the last patch of clear sky as mist closed over it, sealing off the castle.

“Quiet.” The elf shoved Ashford with his foot, as though he were a toy he was growing bored of.

“No!” shouted Alfie as Robin and Amy grabbed his arms. “We've got to help him!” The elf smiled and began to walk towards them. More elves spilled from the tree behind him as Alfie was dragged backwards into the castle

“Maddie, hit the switch!” shouted Robin, slamming the door and bolting it tight.

“Stop!” cried Alfie. “Ashford's still out there.” Pale faced, Madeleine looked from Alfie to Amy
and
Robin who were pushing their backs to the door as the elves began to pound the other side.

“Sorry, Alfie.” She flicked the security switch. Alfie heard the internal bolts sliding into place and the heavy crossbar dropped down across the huge doors, securing them fast. Iron grates rattled down in front of the stained glass windows and the torches on the walls flared to life as the castle barricaded them in.

Alfie turned on the others. “Why did you do that?” he shouted “You left him out there! With
them
!”

“There's nothing we can do right now,” said Robin, nervously putting his hand on Alfie's shoulder. “Calm down. You saw the ravens leave. I bet they went to tell Caspian what happened. He'll send help.”

Alfie pulled away from Robin, not wanting to admit that his cousin might be right. He couldn't bear it. Ashford was trapped on the other side of the castle doors and there was nothing he could do to help him.

“We should call Dad,” said Madeleine, her voice still croaky from the pressure the sprite had put on her throat. “He's got his phone with him. We should warn them before they come up here.”

“
We can't,” said Alfie, picking up the receiver. He clicked the hook down a few times but there was no dial tone, just faint eerie static that seemed filled with whispering voices.

“What's wrong?” asked Robin, “Did they cut the line?”

“There isn't a line to cut,” said Alfie, passing him the phone. “But they've done something.”

“What if it's the mist?” said Robin. “Maybe it's blocking the signals.”

They all stared silently at the useless phone as the elves hammered on the doors.

“We could light the beacons at the top of the towers,” said Madeleine, “Or flash an SOS with our torches.”

“No one will see,” said Alfie. “The mist has surrounded the whole castle.”

“There must be
some
way of getting a message to our parents,” said Robin.

“I know who we can ask,” said Alfie.

Artan's roar of fury almost shook his tower when he heard about the return of the elves. All four of them had to hold on to his fur to stop him swooping down to the courtyard to take them on by himself.

“
We need to get a message out,” said Alfie. “Can you think of a way?”

“It's a message you need delivering, is it?” growled the bear. “Well I've got a message to deliver to
them
!”

“Artan, stop!” said Alfie, grabbing the bear again. “We need to send for help.”

“Why?” asked Artan. “I could fly you all out of here right now!”

“No,” said Robin immediately. “We don't know enough about that mist. It's blocking signals and we don't know what it might do to us. No one has come through it yet. Maybe they can't.”

Alfie hadn't even thought about this, but Robin had a point.

“You know your problem?” said Artan. “You're alive! I'm not, so I can take your message. There isn't much that mist can do to harm me, is there?”

Alfie didn't like the idea, but with the elves camped out in the courtyard, Artan was their best hope.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked, flicking a switch to raise the security grate over Artan's tower window.

“Sure? I'm only sorry you won't let me take a crack at them myself! Now, what's the message?”

“
Find a way to speak to Caspian. Tell him to send help, and to let Dad know we're OK.” Alfie really wanted to get a message straight to his dad, but knew it wouldn't be the best time for him to meet Artan.

“You can rely on me.”

“Thanks, Artan. Good luck.”

The bear shot out of the window, punching a hole through the mist, which closed behind him.

“Come on,” said Alfie. “Let's see what they're up to.”

He led the way to the eastern tower and into the small armoury. He left the torches on the wall unlit in case the light alerted the elves. The two windows here were cross-shaped slits indented deep into the thick castle wall, too narrow for security grates to be necessary.

The four chain-mail tunics in the centre of the room seemed to make sense now.

“Do you think they were left for us?” asked Robin. “Maybe Orin somehow knew we would need them?”

“I don't think I want to know,” said Alfie as he slid along the wall to one of the windows. He could make out roughly half of the courtyard through it.

“What are they doing?” asked Robin, silently
fighting
Madeleine for a place at the other window. “Can you see Ashford?”

Several elves were pacing the courtyard, examining the grates over the windows while avoiding contact with the iron. A few had climbed up to the lower battlements and were trying to find a way into the castle. The rest had lit a fire and were sitting around it, checking their bows and the flights on their arrows. The tall leader paced among them, occasionally barking orders, which were instantly obeyed.

“They're looking around, but they don't seem in much of a rush to get in,” said Alfie. “Maybe they're waiting for something?”

Ashford had been dragged over into the courtyard garden where he lay weakly against a stone bench. The blue light from the portal mingled with the flickering flames, giving the whole scene an unearthly appearance.

Suddenly all of the elves looked up into the misty sky above them.

“What are they looking at, Alfie?” said Madeleine. “I can't see from this side.”

Alfie hardly needed to look at the shadow in the sky to know what it was. “Come on, Artan,” he muttered under his breath as the shape darted in and out of the mist. “Get out of here!”

“
Why is he flying in circles, Al?” asked Amy, pressing her head close to Alfie's to stare through the same horizontal slit. “Did you ask him to do that?”

“Of course not,” said Alfie, watching Artan dart purposefully into the mist for a third time. “What is he up to?”

The elves had all leapt to their feet and several had nocked arrows to their bows. Their leader was holding his arm aloft, and he dropped it suddenly as the bear floated dazedly back out of the mist.

“
Artan!
” screamed Madeleine as the elves released their arrows. The leader immediately turned his gaze to the window and another flurry of arrows bounced off the stonework. One made it through the narrow opening to thud into the wooden rafters.

“Away from the windows,” shouted Alfie. They all slammed their backs to the curved wall and edged along it towards the door.

“Did they hit him?” whispered Madeleine as she inched along by Alfie's side. Alfie wished he knew.

“I don't know. He flew towards his tower. We need to go and see if he's—”

Alfie was cut off by a cold voice shouting up from the courtyard.

“
I am Merioch, the Queen's lieutenant. We have your servant, and you have something of ours. The solution is obvious.”

“Alfie, get back here,” called Robin as Alfie darted back to crouch by the window. He could see Ashford kneeling by the tall figure who was holding him up by his stained shirt. He barely looked conscious.

“Leave him alone!” Alfie yelled.

“Hand over the lens and he is yours,” called the elf. “Are you so cruel as to leave him with us when you could easily set him free?”

“We don't have it,” called Alfie. “Your spy took it when he opened the portal.”

Merioch let go of Ashford and the butler slumped to the ground. “Lies,” he spat. “The Queen's pet might be a trickster, but he is loyal.” He put his foot on Ashford's injured shoulder and pushed down. The butler let out a ragged cry of pain. “STOP!” screamed Madeleine, shaking off Robin's grip and rushing over to join Alfie. “You're going to be
so
sorry you did that!”

Merioch ignored her and pointed up at Alfie. “The Queen will arrive tomorrow. If we do not have the lens by then, we will take the castle, and everything in it.”

Alfie
fought to think up some threat that might make the elves give up Ashford, but Amy grabbed his arm and dragged him from the room together with a furiously flailing Madeleine who was being pulled along by Robin.

“We've got to help him,” said Alfie, as Robin closed the door to the tower.

“I know,” said Amy. “We will. But first we need to check on Artan.”

Panting his way up the spiral stairs, Alfie could hear a groaning and a flapping noise coming from Artan's room. A cold dread gripped his stomach as he entered. Artan was flopping around on the floor, snapping his jaws at an arrow that was stuck halfway through his back. A second arrow lay next to him, snapped in two by the bear's jaws.

“Artan!” yelled Alfie, rushing to the bear and breaking the remaining arrow in two to remove it without causing any more damage. “Are you OK? Does it hurt?”

The bear raised his head weakly. “I feel as though I should be in heaven,” he croaked.

“What do you mean?” cried Madeleine, grasping at the bear's paw. “You said you're not alive, so how can you be dying? Please don't leave us!”

“Let me guess,” said Amy as Artan let out a
long
wheeze. She stuck her finger through one of the holes in his fur. “You're feeling holey, aren't you?”

Artan seemed to recover immediately and flew up into the air so that the flaming torch on the wall shone through the two holes in his fur. “That's right!” he guffawed.

“Seriously?” cried Alfie. “Puns? At a time like this. You still can't help yourself! What happened to you out there? You didn't seem to know what you were doing.”

The bear floated down a little sheepishly.

“I didn't. Well, not all the time. I knew I had to get help, but as soon as I flew into the mist, I forgot what I was doing and where I was going. I kept finding myself heading back to the castle, and then I'd remember I was supposed to be getting help. It happened every time I tried to leave.”

Madeleine pulled the bear across her lap and touched one of the holes in his fur. “Does it hurt?” she asked.

“Not one bit. But it might make our flights a little breezy!”

“I think I can help,” said Madeleine. “I've got a sewing kit in my bag. I'll get you fixed up.”

“
You've
got a
sewing
kit?” asked Alfie, as if she'd
just
told him the sky was green. “And you know how to use it?”

“Mum said she won't buy me a new quiver if I ruin any more clothes, so I've been patching up holes for months.” She patted Artan's fur. “I'll have you looking as handsome as ever in no time.”

“This mist,” said Robin. “There's no way through it.”

Alfie looked out of Artan's window. The mist was rolling around on all sides of the castle about twenty metres beyond the walls. He felt as if they were under a white dome. The more he stared into it, the harder it was to believe the world still existed beyond the grey wall.

“There's got to be something we can do,” said Madeleine, jumping to her feet. “Couldn't Orin's magic blast a hole in it the way it blasted Murkle and Snitch?”

“It didn't blast them,” said Alfie. “It fed on their change magic.”

“So feed it on the mist then!”

“It doesn't work like that.”