Escape from Wolfhaven Castle (9 page)

The tail? Quinn looked up and saw a rope dangling above her. It ran through a pulley to the grate. She stood up, reaching for it.

‘What are you doing?’ the boys called. ‘We’re about to crash! Get down!’

Swaying precariously, Quinn ignored them. She grasped the rope and yanked it hard. With a rusty roar, the iron grate swung up and out of the way, and the boat shot out into the expanse of water. Quinn was
knocked off-balance and fell back into the boat, her landing softened by the cushions and blankets. The grate swung down and closed with a shudder behind them.

The boat spun and slowed and eventually came to a stop against a stone wall. Tom caught hold of an iron ring, to stop the boat from sliding away again.

‘How did you know to do that, Quinn?’ Sebastian wanted to know.

‘I just … I just saw the end of the rope approaching and thought maybe it would lift the grate,’ Quinn lied. She was too exhausted, and too puzzled by the mysterious voice in her head, to even try and explain.

It was almost dawn. The water was now a pale grey under the swirling mist, the sky above even paler. Quinn saw a low dark archway to either side, and, beyond, the black silhouette of trees and hills and the pointed roofs of houses. She realised they had come out under the bridge. To the left was the harbour with the town of Wolfhaven crouched on its shores. To the right the river wound its way through meadows
and forest, heading north-east. The tide was going out, which meant the boat was being dragged towards the harbour.

Quickly Tom tied the boat up to the ring in the stone wall, then blew out the lanterns. ‘We don’t know if the town has been taken over by the invaders,’ he explained. ‘Until we find out, we don’t want anyone to see us. All the river traffic would go under the central arch, so we’re completely hidden here.’

‘What shall we do?’ Elanor asked. Her face was white in the dim dawn light, her hazel eyes enormous.

‘Let’s see what’s happening in the town,’ Quinn said, taking a telescope from the cupboard. She looked through its eye-piece at the town. It was hard to see much, the mist was so thick, but every now and again it swirled away, giving her a glimpse of the streets.

Everything was strangely peaceful. She saw a woman on her knees scrubbing her front steps. A milkmaid led her cow from door to door, a yoke with two pails set upon her shoulders. A baker was setting out fresh rolls in his window.

‘It’s like nothing has happened,’ she said, baffled.
Sebastian tried to seize the telescope from her, but she shoved him away. ‘Wait!’

She trained the telescope on the castle, sweeping it along the battlements. Suddenly she stiffened. A tall black form in a helmet with boar tusks stood on the castle ramparts. He was issuing orders with a forceful fist. The skeletal shapes of bog-men scuttled away, thousands of them.

‘The tusked knight,’ she whispered. ‘I think he’s looking for us.’

‘We need to get away,’ Tom said. ‘Hide out in the forest.’

‘Hide?’ Sebastian said scornfully. ‘We should be rousing the town, and gathering an army.’

‘No, it’s smart,’ Tom replied. ‘If we try to rescue anyone now, we’ll only get caught ourselves. No-one in the town can stand against that tusked knight and his bog-men. We’ll only get them and ourselves killed. No, we need to get help first.’

‘Tom’s right,’ Elanor said. ‘What can we do, four of us alone?’

Fergus gave a little whuff and she rubbed his ears.
‘I’m sorry, Sir Fergus. Four children and one brave dog.’

‘We should go now, while there’s still mist to hide us,’ said Tom. ‘It might burn off as the sun comes up and then we’d be seen.’

‘The tide’s against us,’ Quinn said. ‘We’ll have to row.’

Everyone groaned. They were all so tired, no-one really wanted to spend the next few hours rowing against the tide.

‘We mustn’t be caught,’ Elanor said. ‘If we are taken prisoner too, then who shall rescue my father and his people?’

‘We’ll just have to bend our backs to it,’ Sebastian answered, flexing his arm muscles.

‘You’d best be quiet,’ Tom said. ‘If that’s possible.’

Sebastian reddened and seized one oar. ‘I’ll go first!’

‘No, I will!’ Tom seized the other.

‘You’re both as noisy as cats in a fight,’ Quinn said. ‘
I’ll
row!’

She took the oars and began to manoeuvre the
boat out onto the misty river. Slowly, they glided away from the bridge.

A shout rang out above them. Two knights had been standing guard on the bridge. They must have seen the shape of the boat through the mist. ‘Ahoy! Over here!’ one shouted.

‘Look, they wear my father’s wolf insignia!’ Elanor cried in excitement. ‘They can help us!’ She stood up and waved at them.

The two knights suddenly lifted their bows and aimed at the boat. ‘Watch out!’ shrieked Quinn. One arrow whizzed so close to Elanor’s face, it raised a thin red welt along her cheek. She stumbled back, her hand to her face.

‘But … they’re my father’s men …’

‘Must be the invaders in disguise,’ Tom said, as the sound of galloping hooves disturbed the mist. ‘Everybody down!’

The knights began chasing them along the harbour’s edge, little more than dark, racing shapes in the fog.

‘Quick, let’s put up the sail,’ Quinn cried. Then,
when everyone else looked around, worried and confused, she said, ‘Here, Tom, take the oars and row, while I do it. We need to get away!’

Quinn lifted the mast up from where it lay in the bottom of the boat, and set it in its socket. Sebastian held it steady for her while she secured it with pins, and then together they unfurled the brown sail. Tom, meanwhile, had been gallantly rowing while Elanor kept an eye on the riders, who were drawing closer to them with each stride. The first rider released the reins as he lifted high a bow and arrow. The arrow had been set alight. ‘Fire!’ cried Elanor, as it soared toward them, leaving a stinking trail of smoke and ashes.

A wind sprang out of nowhere, and the sail bellied out. The boat sprang forward, and the arrow fell into their wake, sizzling as it hit the water. The rider aimed another fiery arrow, but it was too late. With the wind behind them, the boat surged ahead, and the galloping riders were left far behind.

The children shouted with relief and Sebastian pumped his fist into the air.

‘Goodbye,’ Tom called. ‘Hope to never see you again.’

‘Thank you, Owl-Eyes,’ Quinn said, and patted the side of the boat as if it was a dog or a horse.

‘Thank you,’ Elanor said, her eyes shining. ‘Thank you, all of you.’

The boat sailed on into the mist. The rocking motion lulled the exhausted children. An hour passed, and then another, and still the boat sailed on up the river. One by one, the children laid down their heads on their arms. ‘I’m so tired,’ Elanor murmured.

‘Me too,’ Tom said, huddling the grey cloak close about him. ‘But we should push on. We’re still too close to the castle.’

But then Quinn yawned, and they all yawned with her. Even Fergus, showing a lolling pink tongue and sharp pointed teeth.

‘Need … to … rest,’ Quinn said. She was so tired her whole body ached. She yawned again, so widely her jaw made a cracking sound, and drew her shawl closer about her.

‘Maybe we can stop … just for a little while,’ Tom replied. He steered the boat towards the shore and tied it to a low-hanging branch.

‘One of us should stand guard,’ Sebastian said, lifting his head from his arm.

‘Fergus will,’ Tom said. Fergus’s ears pricked up. ‘Fergus, guard,’ Tom added.

‘Good dog,’ Elanor murmured.

The wolfhound’s tail thumped in response.

‘All right then. Just for a minute or two.’ Sebastian lay down again, his arm flung across his eyes.

The only sound was the
lap, lap, lap
of the river against the boat’s wooden sides. Fergus yawned again and stretched out across Tom’s feet. His ears slowly sunk. He shut his eyes and began to snore.

Nobody heard him. They were all fast asleep.

13

ARGUING

E
lanor stirred and opened her eyes. She looked up into leafy fronds. She stared in wonderment. Where was her four-poster bed, with its velvet curtains?

Slowly her memory returned to her. The battle with the bog-men, the escape through the caverns under the castle, then the wild ride through the underground river on the boat with the eyes of an owl.

Elanor sat up. She was still in the boat. The other three were fast asleep, under blankets. Fergus lay with his head on his paws, one ear cocked. He lifted his head and gazed at her as she looked around.

The boat was now rocking gently against the bank
of a round green pool, under the shelter of a willow tree. Elanor could see little beyond its leafy fronds, but she could hear the roar of what sounded like a waterfall. She frowned in puzzlement. Where were they?

She spent little time wondering about it. A more pressing problem was bothering her. Elanor was in desperate need of a chamber-pot. She realised with a sinking heart that she was going to have to crouch down behind a tree and relieve herself there. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment. What would Mistress Mauldred say about that?

Ladies do not pee behind trees!

Elanor had to smile at the thought. She wriggled out from under the blanket and did her best to climb out of the boat without waking anyone else up. It was impossible not to set the boat rocking, though. The other three all stirred and yawned and stretched, then looked at her, half-in and half-out of the boat.

‘Where are we?’

‘What are you doing?’

‘Where are you going?’

The other three spoke almost simultaneously.

‘I … I’m just … I don’t know,’ said Elanor, as she made it to the shore.

‘How did we get here?’

‘What time is it?’

‘Did we drift upstream?’

‘I don’t know,’ she answered again, crossing her legs awkwardly.

Sebastian turned to Tom. ‘You can’t have tied us up very securely.’

‘But I did. I know I did.’

‘Perhaps the boat brought us here to safety,’ Quinn broke in. ‘Perhaps we tied up too close to the town, and perhaps the bog-men would have sniffed us out.’

Everyone was silent, caught between amazement and unease.

‘Well we’d better work out where we are,’ Tom said and jumped out of the boat, ‘but first I need to pee!’ He strode off behind the tree, and Elanor’s face turned even hotter. She covered her ears so she didn’t have to hear him.

Quinn grinned at her. ‘Let’s find another tree.’

The two girls went off in the other direction and
stood guard for each other, then washed their hands in the pool. It was set among willow trees, with steep rocky banks behind. At the far end of the valley was a waterfall that plunged in long, white ribbons down a cliff. To the north, mountains rose up, grey and forbidding under a heavy mantle of cloud. Mist lay over the trees in faint wisps, growing thicker to the south.

Quinn and Elanor met the boys back at the boat. Tom was busy getting out more food from the knapsacks. Fergus wagged his tail eagerly, and Tom tossed him a sausage.

‘Don’t eat it all,’ Quinn suggested, jumping back into the boat. ‘We’re in the midst of the forest, we might have trouble finding more food.’

‘There’s always food in a forest,’ Tom responded blithely, taking a huge bite of a pork pie.

All four children and the wolfhound busied themselves eating. No-one was able to stop themselves finishing every last crumb. It must be after noon, Elanor thought. It was hard to tell since the sun was hidden behind the fog. They must have slept the morning away.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Sebastian burst out. ‘Someone must have unlocked the gate to let all those black knights and those leathery bog-creatures into the castle. How else could they have got in so easily?’

‘I saw someone unlocking it,’ Tom said. ‘With the key from the great hall.’

‘Who was it?’ Sebastian demanded.

‘I didn’t see their face,’ Tom answered. ‘They were wearing a hooded cloak, and it was dark.’

‘It had to be someone from inside the castle,’ Quinn said. ‘Else how did they get the key?’

‘Oh, no, surely not,’ Elanor whispered.

No-one liked the thought of a traitor in the castle.

‘No-one would,’ Elanor repeated. ‘I can’t stop thinking of my father, taken prisoner, and all the castle folk too. What if they’ve been hurt? We have to rescue them.’

‘But how?’ Sebastian asked.

‘We have to go and find the four magical beasts,’ Quinn said. ‘Then we can wake the sleeping heroes and defeat the enemy.’

‘That witch of yours is wandering in her wits,’
Sebastian retorted. ‘There are no sleeping heroes under the castle. It’s just an old story. Like dragons and unicorns. Everyone knows they don’t really exist.’

‘But what if they do? Arwen said the world is full of magical things and we just need to have an open heart to see them.’

‘She also said stones could sing,’ Sebastian answered.

‘Maybe they can,’ Quinn replied stoutly. ‘After all, who could ever imagine that Wolfhaven Castle would be stormed by men made of leather and bone?’