Clearheart (18 page)

‘Spirit Tree,' Humphrey humphed, squinting, for he hated the daylight. It was nearly time for class. The Moglin Flitterwig hoped no-one had missed them yet. It wouldn't do to get hauled up in front of Wheelbarrow again.

Thomas Brackenrack, Lord of Gommoronahl, made his way through the Earth towards Antarctica. His pinkie had tingled when Ella fell into the ravine. She had flown up out of it, satisfying the Giant that she primarily used her emotions, not her
learned skills, to access her magic, just as Sarafina always had. She also had wings much larger than a Flitterwig should, just like her ancestor. She was a Clearheart all right.

But it was not this that compelled the giant to shift across the continents. He had seen the Duke in his hideaway lying to Bolgus. He had seen his brother being fed sap delivered by the Dryad Flitterwigs. And the whole thing had got him thinking.

It was time to take action.

From beneath the Antarctic, right up through the Duke's hideaway, a head appeared, followed by shoulders and arms of such enormity that the foundations of the Duke's fine new home began to crumble.

Everyone within, Ella and Dixon included, was thrown up into the air with such force that many Troggles were completely knocked out. A giant hand, with Charlie clinging to it for dear life, snatched at the pixie and Ella, missing them by inches. Charlie's spectacles flew across the room and smashed against the wall.

The Duke yelled, flying up around Bolgus's face, as the hulking man pulled his feet out of the ground.

‘Stop this at once!' the Duke screamed, puncturing Bolgus's leathery skin with his dust. The Giant fell back, holding his arm, which had been pierced through by the Duke's attack. And then he lost his footing altogether.

For Thomas's great hand was wrapped around Bolgus's ankle!
The Lord of Gommoronahl was heaving his huge body out of the same crater from whence Bolgus had appeared, using his brother's ankle to steady himself. ‘I'm here, Bolgus!' he roared. ‘I'm sorry!'

But Bolgus didn't hear him. Bolgus hit the ground with an almighty smash, crushing every Troggle in his way. Smashing through the wall, he flattened the two fighter jets he had delivered earlier, missing Ella and Dixon by a millimetre. The Duke, caught in the fall, tried to prise his leg from under the Giant's forearm, but he was stuck. Thomas heaved himself out of the ground. Bolgus looked up at him, crushing the Duke's other leg as he turned, his face a picture of confusion. And then he kicked his brother in the leg so hard that the Lord of Gommoronahl fell over too.

Across the world, seismologists were shaken in their posts. Never before had such sudden and extreme earth tremors been measured. Stockholm called Zákupy. Zákupy alerted Bogatá. Bogatá could only contact Nairobi. And so on and so forth across the world.

Ella pulled herself up in time to see Charlie flipping out of Bolgus's hand towards them, like a doll. Dixon clung tightly to her hair as she ran to her Protector, pulling him to his feet with her one good arm.

‘Ow,' said Charlie, spitting dirt from his mouth and stretching in the fine, fresh air. As it refilled his body, Charlie swore to be grateful for every day he spent not being crushed. Ella threw her arms about him.

‘I have just had the worst time ever. Ever!' he told her. ‘Hi Dixon,' he added, his face breaking into a cheeky grin. Dixon was looking out from the folds of Ella's thick hair.

‘Hey, how come you can see me without your specs. Pecks?' said Dixon. Charlie looked about him and whooped. He could see magic without his spectacles! True, Dixon was a bit blurry—but so was everything else.

Then Dixon looked up. Charlie followed his gaze. A giant foot loomed above them. It was coming down, fast.

Ella looked at Charlie. Charlie looked at Ella. He noticed that her anorak hung off her shoulders. ‘You found your wings!' he said as they thrust out of her back, slapping him in the face. ‘Gosh they're big!'

Her shoulderblades, already burning, pulled and tugged. Not a minute too soon, for as Ella flew up past the Giant's leg,
dragging Charlie with her, Dixon wrapped tightly in her hand, the ginormous foot came down with a crash on the very spot where they had been standing.

Out across the Antarctic Ella flew, surprised at her own strength, bathed in the cool blue of the sky reflecting off the snow, her darling pixie tucked under her ear. Charlie clung tightly to her waist, yelling up to her about the ordeal he had just been through.

‘It was the scariest thing ever,' he called. ‘I thought I was going to die. I thought I was being suffocated. It was agony.'

Behind them, the Giants fought. Or at least Bolgus did, while Thomas tried to stop him. Despite their exhaustion, they tumbled across the snow, flattening the craggy landscape forever. The Duke and Ragwald were nowhere to be seen. Nor was the strange man in the fine overcoat with the big Adam's apple.

And then Ella hit an invisible barricade with such force that her wings retracted at once. The three friends fell out of the sky like hacky sacks.

‘The Dome of Inconspicuous Impenetration,' Dixon whispered weakly in her ear.

‘Oh no,' said Ella, her body so battered all she wanted to do was curl up and cry. ‘I've gone the wrong way. Don Posiblemente and Samuel aren't here.'

Checking that his froggy friend was okay (he seemed to be breathing, if still rather stiffly), Charlie opened up the huge hanky Thomas had given them. Thank Magic he had tied it fast around his waist.

There was a thud on the ground. Dixon had fallen off Ella's shoulder. He lay prostrate and emaciated in the snow. Ella gathered him up onto her lap, and wrapped him up in a corner of her anorak.

‘He needs food, Charlie,' Ella said. ‘Quick, feed him. I think he is starving to death.'

Charlie lifted the sap into his palm and, with his pinkie, dabbed a little at the pixie's mouth. ‘Think of something you'd like to eat, Dixon,' he urged gently.

‘Cookies with milk. Rhymes with silk,' whispered Dixon, sitting up shakily. He stuck his tongue into the globule of sap. ‘Euck!' he said, spitting the taste out of his mouth.

‘Well silk can't be very tasty, you silly thing,' said Ella gently, relief flooding her voice. She stroked the rip in his cap. She broke off a little bark and held it against the damage. Broke off a little more and placed it on her arm.

‘Aaah,' said Dixon. ‘Feels nice. Sugar and spice.' Then ‘Aaaaaaaargh,' he cried, in not quite the same way at all. Ella and Charlie looked at him. His eyes were bulging out of his head.
They turned to what he was staring at. Troggles. Lots of them, approaching at speed!

‘We need to get out of here,' yelled Charlie, looking at Ella for an answer as to how. But Ella's eyes were closed as she tried to find the wisdom inside her.

Ella smelt the lime and spice of the Spirit Tree at Hedgeberry and the eucalyptus and sage of the Great Gum in the Nullarbor. ‘Let's plant the root Thomas gave us,' she said.

It was really getting very late indeed for Samantha and Humphrey to still be out in the Hedgeberry grounds trying to communicate with a tree they couldn't see and weren't even sure was there anyway. They had already missed Animumble and Gardening.

‘I think we should get to class,' said Humphrey. He had been trying to Bongle them both for a while now, but his powers were exhausted. He was only eleven, after all, and he hadn't had breakfast.

Samantha looked out across the poppy field, its magical blooms rich with colour. Scarlets, clarets, cherry reds. She sighed and nodded.

Charlie shoved the root into the snow. Ella passed her hand across it. She felt her shoulderblades tingle. She held her ear and closed her eyes. The Troggles were closing in. The root began to grow and grow and grow, spreading itself up and out into the sky. As it grew, it began to disappear, to Charlie at least. But Ella could still see it. It was majestic. It spread its branches out and elegant leaves appeared here and there on its boughs. Upon each leaf was a solitary dewdrop, as large as a beach ball, shivering and still all at the same time.

‘Asquemi,'
the tree whispered, just as the Gum of Gommoronahl had. Just as the oak tree at Hedgeberry had.
‘Asquemi.'

‘It's a Spirit Tree,' Ella said gently to Dixon, who had tucked himself into the pocket at the front of her dungarees. ‘Can you see it?' Dixon peered out and nodded. His little mouth hung open in awe. He disappeared back inside her pocket, warm and snug against her heart.

The Queen hovered before the Dome of Inconspicuous Impenetration. Wrinkles stood on the snow beneath her. They had come as soon as they had been contacted. She glittered, golden and perfect, so tiny and yet so incandescently potent. Samuel
and Don Posiblemente stood beside Wrinkles. They knew that the Queen was risking her life gravely by coming to Earth, a planet too polluted for a pure Royal elf to visit lightly. But this was Antarctica, and probably cleaner than anywhere else she could visit. And she did not seem to mind the cold. After all, Magus was known to be rather fresh.

She pointed her finger elegantly at the Dome and closed her eyes. When she opened them, a shot of fine, luminescent elf dust flew from her finger and struck the Dome with a force that belied her fragile figure. It shattered at once. Turning her exquisite face to the Flitterwigs below, the Queen tipped her head and sighed.

‘We are supposed to be friends again,' she said, and her voice twinkled through the air. ‘The Ban forbidding us to have contact was lifted when the Clearheart bridged the divide between us.' She sighed and both Flitterwigs' hearts lurched to hear its defeated timbre. ‘Look at the lengths Ella has gone to for her friend,' said the Queen. ‘And yet your human pride stopped you from reaching out to me. It will be the undoing of you, you know.' The Queen pointed her finger at the snow and melted a patch. She nodded to Wrinkles, who tapped his fingers upon the liquid surface. White elves appeared one by one out of the Waters. Hundreds marched into the shattered Dome, while
hundreds more flew above them, their quivers of arrows shining across the dying day.