Clearheart (5 page)

‘You think you're so special, don't you?' The voice came out of nowhere, almost scaring Ella out of her skin in the dark loggia. Gloria Ulnus appeared from the shadows, sliding along the stone wall. Her arms spread along it in a peculiarly tentacular manner. Ella was late for dinner. She'd been late for everything today!

‘You think you can turn up in class whenever you feel like it, just because you're of elven stock. Well let me tell you something for nothing, Ella Montgomery. Dryads are just as powerful as elves, whatever anyone says. And I'll prove who is the better Flitterwig in the Skateboarding Championship. Because I'm going to beat you.'

If Ella hadn't got such a fright at the girl's appearance she would have liked to have said, ‘Derr, of course you'll beat me. I can't even make my wings appear!' But she was caught unawares and her throat had gone quite dry.

Gloria was always doing this. Sneaking up on Ella when she least expected it. Taunting her about her inability to fly, teasing her for being behind in class, goading her about the Skateboarding Championship, hassling her about the oak tree. But tonight, like in Aeronortics, there was something in Gloria's dark eyes and black hair that glinted like steel. The moonlight shining through the long windows of the loggia cast shadows across the stone floor and Ella thought she saw the silhouette of someone she recognised but wished she could forget. Gloria looked down her stiff little nose at Ella with superior disdain.

Ella tried to pass the girl, giving her as wide a berth as she could. But as she moved to the opposite side of the loggia, she felt an arm wind around her shoulder. The arm came from the girl. Which was impossible, because Gloria's arm couldn't possibly reach right across the width of the loggia. But it had, and it looked decidedly
like a branch! A twiggy finger patted her upper arm. Ella did a double-take. It had claws! She spun her head back towards the girl, her hair flying up around her defensively, her shoulderblades burning. The branching arm twisted around Ella's back and pulled her towards the Dryad Flitterwig. Gloria's nose had flattened against her face. Ella pulled back against the branches, twisting and turning in the gnarled boughs, but she couldn't stop them drawing her towards Gloria. Ella's ears burned, her heart pounded. Every instinct inside her came alive.

‘Come to me,' hissed a voice that bore no resemblance to Gloria's, but ever such a lot to someone Ella had almost met before. The Duke. He had Possessified Charlie a few times, months ago, in just the same way. Was he back? The possibility made her hair spin.

‘Never,' said Ella, with a force so potent that her breath seemed to knock the wind out of the creature holding her captive, never mind Ella herself. Ella's eyes flashed dangerously. She stared into the creature's black eyes. ‘Never,' she repeated with absolute certainty. The force of the girl's words flung the creature back, its branches retreating back into their sockets. Letting out a piercing cry, Gloria fell to the floor, a tail sliding up inside her skirt. Ella caught her breath. She was shaking so hard her knees gave way.

‘I will get you,' Gloria whispered, looking up and coming to. She blinked repeatedly as if she had just emerged into the sunshine from a dark room. ‘I will,' she said, shaking her head as she stood up. What had just happened? Gloria eyed Ella suspiciously, trying to recollect. She had followed Ella into the loggia to warn her to stop practising her skateboarding where the Spirit Tree stood. That's right. But then what? She shook her head again. Gosh she felt odd.

‘Um, don't even try to sit anywhere near us in the dining hall, right?' said Gloria, trying to muster as much vehemence as she could, although her voice was hoarse and shaky. ‘'Cause if you do I'm going to take that stupid yellow skateboard of yours and smash it into a hundred pieces,' she added, but she wasn't sure that she sounded terribly convincing. What had happened? What had she been saying before? Was Ella doing something weird to her? Enchanting her? It gave Gloria the heebie-jeebies.

Ella had no idea what to say and no opportunity to say anything anyway, for Gloria could not wait to get away. Ella's hair continued to swirl about her head wildly, blocking her view. She rubbed her right shoulderblade, for it was tingling so fiercely it hurt, and shook out the burning in her ears and neck.

As quickly as Gloria disappeared, Charlie appeared, zooming
across the loggia floor with such speed she could hardly see him move. He stood before her, his feet still zipping back and forth on the spot. Four white elves who had been hiding in the shadows flew out of the loggia in a flurry, bumping into one another as they went. They had been frozen to the spot by what they had witnessed, every fibre of them sensing danger—but on account of a bar of chocolate they had been given earlier by a very friendly goblin (oh, the temptation had been too much!), not one of them had been able to get their wits about them in time.

‘Yeeehaaa,' Dixon whooped, swinging off the back of the boy's T-shirt (for he and Charlie had been off interviewing rabbits together for Charlie's Animumble project) and falling to the stone floor with a bump. ‘You are fast! Fast. Dynamo blast!' he sang. Harold popped his head out of Charlie's shorts pocket and frowned disapprovingly.

Charlie often appeared when Ella felt threatened. Usually though, a minute or two late, unfortunately. A strange feeling he'd get, is how he explained it.

‘So sorry, Ella, got caught up with the animals again,' said Charlie. Ella waved away his apology graciously.

‘Charlie,' said Ella breathlessly. ‘Gloria Ulnus can grow branches for arms.' Charlie took Ella by the elbow and pulled her towards the dining hall.

‘Well, there's a boy in my dorm who wakes up sprouting leaves out of his bum every morning. Anything's possible here,' said Charlie reassuringly. Ella pulled out her inhaler and took a big puff.

‘She reminds me of the Duke,' Ella said quietly. Charlie spun around and stared at her.

‘Really?' he said, his white hair standing even more on end than usual.

‘Really,' she replied.

At dinner, Ella picked silently at her parsley omelette. Dixon, clearly feeling guilty for having been off with Charlie instead of close to Ella at all times, was being quite annoying. He kept poking his head out of the top of her dungarees, winking and giving her the thumbs-up signal every two minutes.

Samantha giggled delightedly at the pixie, the tight blond curls on her head bouncing about as if they had a life of their own. She reached out to poke him playfully, knocking her glass of water all over Humphrey. She pulled a sprig of pussy willow
out of her pocket and passed it to him to dry himself off.

‘Careful there Samantha, Panther,' Dixon whooped, jumping up out of Ella's front pocket into the remains of her omelette. He wiped a sprig of parsley from his boot and popped it in his mouth. ‘Not very co-ordinabled, are you?'

‘Oh, isn't he just a darling?' cried Samantha, leaning across the table to touch him again and tipping Ella's plate over in the process. Dixon ran swiftly on the spot to keep himself from falling over. Samantha grinned broadly at him and pulled at a curl. Ella gathered Dixon up in her fist and stuffed him in the pocket of her hoodie, zipping it up before Samantha could reach out for him again and knock anything else over.

‘Cute, but annoying,' said Ella, looking over at Humphrey, who, Ella noticed, was as quiet as herself.

Samantha picked up on this at once. ‘Humphrey's feeling sorry for himself,' she said to Ella, forgetting Dixon. Seeing that this meant nothing whatsoever to Ella, she went on.

‘Moglin Flitterwigs love the night-time, you see. That's why he's so incredibly pale. And I think his distaste for daylight has stunted his growth,' she explained. ‘They are terribly rare, you know. Humphrey's the only Moglin at Hedgeberry, haven't you noticed? It's a full moon tonight. So he's wishing he could be with his family right now, celebrating in the moonlight. Gosh,
you really don't know anything, do you?'

‘I really don't,' said Ella, smiling distractedly over at her new friend. ‘But thanks for explaining stuff to me.' Samantha glowed with pleasure. There was something about Ella that made Samantha veritably shine whenever she paid her a compliment.

Ella poked at her omelette a bit more. She felt disturbed. Twice in as many days she had felt more than a little threatened, in a very familiar way, by Gloria Ulnus. Not in the way she felt when Gloria was just plain mean, but in a different, somehow more sinister fashion. ‘Hey Samantha,' said Ella, looking up. ‘How come pure humans haven't ever questioned what goes on here at Hedgeberry?'

‘Because there's a Dome of Inconspicuation over the grounds,' said Samantha, folding up a bandage that had fallen out of her pocket. ‘It makes anything out of the ordinary unseeable to pure humans. There's one over the Flitterwig Hospital in Cornwall too, and the Flitterwig Court and Gaol in London, where the Rooniun is.'

Ella nodded her thanks, deep in thought. ‘But anyone can just come to the school whenever they want?' she asked.

‘Oh yes,' said Samantha. ‘If you can find it. Except on certain dates, like the End of Year Carnival, when a Dome of Inconspicuous Impenetration is put up so no-one can come in
unless they know the password.'

‘Thanks,' said Ella, her hair flaring a little. She looked at Charlie, who looked back at her meaningfully. So the Duke really could still get to her. They shuddered at the thought.

‘Perhaps you'll let me practise my new toe healing spell on you later?' Samantha blurted, moving on. ‘I'd have to hurt it first though, is the only problem.'

‘Hmm. Maybe,' said Ella, eager to oblige, but not terribly sure that she liked the idea at all.