Julius and the Soulcatcher (12 page)

Julius drew his fingers up and the pocketwatch rose up too. Without touching it he gently moved his fingertips as if to spin a top.

The pocketwatch began to spin.

‘Cor. That's amazing, 'iggins,' said Emily. ‘Wot else can it do?'

Emily didn't know about the time-travel capabilities of the pocketwatch. She knew it could be used to
summon the Guild of Watchmakers—she had seen the professor do it. But when Julius had told her he had time-travelled, Springheel was holding a blade to her throat. Had she been paying attention?

‘It can travel through time,' said Julius.

‘Frough wot?'

‘Through time.'

‘Wot do you mean, 'iggins?'

‘It's difficult to explain.'

Deep inside the mechanism Julius saw a point of blue light. It grew steadily and shone out from the pocketwatch. Suddenly the cogs and wheels were spinning faster. The clicking and ticking grew louder, and turned into a polyrhythm. Soon the wheels were spinning too fast to see.

Emily grasped Julius's shoulder. ‘Wot's 'appening?'

‘I think it wants to take us back in time,' said Julius.

‘Where?'

‘I'm not sure,' said Julius, ‘But Darwin wrote that he was indebted to two children.'

‘So?' said Emily.

‘I think the children might be us,' said Julius.' He grabbed her hand and shifted in his chair to face her. ‘Whatever happens, don't panic.'

‘Wot?'

‘And bend your knees when you land.'

‘Land where?'

‘We'll know when we get there.'

Julius tapped the side of the pocketwatch and clasped Emily's other hand.

Everything went black and silent.

The next thing Julius knew he was tumbling through space.

Ha, ha. You did it, Higgins.

In front of him was the pocketwatch, as huge as London. The mechanism stretched up like a mountain. The massive wheels and cogs moved so slowly that it took hours for each second to pass. With each tick, the universe quaked silently around him.

Both Julius's arms were stretched out hundreds of miles on either side, but he could see Emily's hand in his, as clearly as if it was next to him. He couldn't see Emily, though. She was floating on the other side of the gigantic pocketwatch, which flew through the eye of a galaxy faster than it took to sneeze.

You did it, Higgins.

They careered through galaxy after galaxy for what seemed like an eternity and a minute all at once.

Then everything went black again.

CHAPTER 10

Friday June 29th 1832

1:35 PM

Julius hit the ground and rolled over. All at once he knew he wasn't in London. Strange cries like whoops and whistles filled his ears. The air against his skin was warm and moist. Dancing points of bright light shone down around him. He snapped his eyes shut but the light burned inside his eyeballs.

Someone fell through foliage and swore.

‘Wot the bleeding 'ell just 'appened, 'iggins?' she said.

Well done, Higgins. All accounted for.

‘It's all right, Emily,' said Julius. ‘We've travelled through time.'

He blinked his eyes to accustom them to the light. Tints of brown and green swam before him. The
shapes resolved into large leaves at the base of a tree. The whoops and whistles in his ears clarified too.

It's monkeys and birds, Higgins. Just like at the zoo.

An arm's length away the pocketwatch spun in the air. Julius held out his hand and it flew to him. He clasped it and put into his pocket. Then he realised he was wearing only a pair of tatty shorts and a ragged shirt with its sleeves torn off.

He looked around. He was in a forest, but not like any forest in England. The air was so warm it tickled his skin. The trees were unlike any he had seen before. They towered above him, forming a ceiling of shifting patterns. He understood the dancing light now—it was speckles of sunlight falling through the ever-changing leafy roof of the forest.

‘Cor,' said a voice nearby.

Julius turned to see a very pretty native girl step out of a clump of giant leaves. She was barefooted and wore a tatty smock. Her black hair fell over her shoulders and her skin was the colour of copper.

It's the girl from the diary, Higgins.

‘Oi. Who are you?' she said to Julius.

‘Julius Higgins,' he said.

‘No you ain't,' said the native girl. ‘Wot 'ave you done wiv 'im?'

That's it, Higgins. The pocketwatch has made new forest versions of us.

‘It's all right, Emily. It
is
me, I promise.'

The girl eyed him suspiciously.

‘The pocketwatch did it,' said Julius.

‘Did wot?'

‘It sent our atoms back to the parlour at home and took our consciousnesses travelling through time and space. Then it landed us here—wherever that is—and wrapped the atoms of the forest around our minds to make local versions of us.'

The girl stared at Julius. Her eyes were darker, but the right shape, and her nose had that upturned end.

She stroked her arm. ‘I've gone all brown.' She looked Julius up and down. ‘'ave we travelled frough time?'

Julius nodded.

‘And frough space?'

Julius nodded again.

‘And landed 'ere?'

‘Yes. It looks that way,' said Julius.

Emily smiled. ‘This is ace, 'iggins. You've done a good job.'

‘You're pleased then?'

‘Not 'arf. Is this what Mr Flynn and the professor do? Time-jumping about 'ere and there whenever they feel like it?'

‘Something like that,' said Julius. ‘They do it sparingly, I think, and it's usually in pursuit of time-criminals.'

‘Yeah, yeah, wot ever,' said Emily, looking up at
the leafy forest canopy. ‘Wot 'appens now?'

‘The pocketwatch brought me, I mean
us
, here for a reason,' said Julius. ‘I'm sure of it. We've already been here—in the past, I mean. There is a drawing of you and me looking like this in the diary. I didn't understand at the time, but I think I do now. We did something to help Darwin. Something so wonderful that he said he'd be forever in our debt.'

‘So we're in the past, right now?' said Emily, ‘to do somefing we did years ago?'

‘Yes.'

‘But, 'ow will we know what that fing was?'

‘I don't know,' said Julius.

Emily patted the nearest tree and looked up. ‘Big, ain't they,' she said. ‘We should 'ave a look round, 'iggins. See wot's wot.'

‘I think that's a path,' said Julius. He pointed along a worn strip of dirt winding along the forest floor.

‘It goes that way too,' Emily said, looking in the other direction. She twitched her nose as she considered. ‘This way,' she said, and set off.

‘Why this way?' said Julius.

‘Why not, 'iggins?'

A few hundred yards along the path the trees began to thin. Up ahead the sunshine poured down like ghostly treacle.

Emily stopped suddenly. Julius bumped into her.

‘What is it?'

‘Did you 'ear that, 'iggins?'

They crouched and listened. A sound emerged through the screeches and squawks. Julius strained to make it out. It seemed out of place in the forest.

The sound grew louder. There were footsteps too. Something heavy, on two legs. And it was coming towards them. Julius peeped through the foliage. A large black creature was ambling in their direction.

Julius was just about to grab Emily's hand and run for it when the sound fell into place in his ears. It was a hymn—‘Abide with Me', if he was not mistaken.

Emily's eyebrows tensed as she recognised it too. The sounds of footsteps grew closer—the distinctive thud of boots on hardened earth. Julius peered through the bushes. The great black lumbering thing was whipping the bushes with a stick and coming closer.

Julius and Emily edged back into the forest greenery trying to make themselves invisible. A few yards away the thing broke out onto the path and strode towards them swinging its stick like a scythe.

Julius stared in disbelief.

It was an ageing clergyman with red orchids growing from each side of his mouth like tusks. He wore full black attire including a black felt hat. He was humming another hymn now. It sounded like ‘Rock of Ages'.

Julius and Emily stayed out of sight until he lumbered by.

‘Did you see 'is face, 'iggins?'

‘Yes, I did. Come on,' said Julius.

Julius jumped out onto the path in time to see the clergyman step out of the forest and into the sunshine. The light was so bright it seemed to subsume him, turning him into a black-coated shimmer, that grew smaller and smaller as he walked away.

Julius stepped into the sunshine and shaded his eyes.

‘Don't stop, 'iggins, we'll lose 'im,' Emily said.

Julius grabbed her arm and pulled her back. ‘Wait.'

Emily twisted impatiently. ‘Wot?'

Julius pointed to the ground. ‘Look. Soulcatchers.'

Small red orchids were growing up through the grass all around them. Some were only inches from their feet.

‘Do you notice something, Emily?'

‘No. Wot?' she said, shading her eyes, too.

‘They're all leaning towards us,' said Julius. ‘It's like they're watching us.'

Julius held Emily to stop her from moving. ‘Remember the soulcatcher in the kitchen,' he whispered.

Emily nodded. They stepped as slowly and cautiously as frightened snails into the clearing where the soulcatchers thinned out. The orchids tilted their petals, as if keeping them in sight. But none of them
tried to pull itself out of the ground.

Julius breathed a little easier.

‘I fink they're all right,' Emily whispered.' She gingerly approached one.

‘Be careful,' said Julius. ‘Don't touch it.'

‘Why not?'

‘I don't know,' said Julius. ‘But Rapple was terrified of one of those, even when it was in a cage. So I think we should be too.'

Emily squatted down. ‘'ello, little fing,' she whispered. ‘You wouldn't 'urt me, would you?'

Julius leaned over her shoulder. ‘They're not as wild as the ones in London,' he said.

Emily held her hand out as if the soulcatcher might be a dog who wanted to sniff it.

‘Careful,' said Julius.

‘I know,' said Emily.

As her hand came closer the soulcatcher's tendrils slowly lifted and reached out to her. Emily drew back. ‘Friendly little fella, ain't 'e.'

‘We shouldn't be out in the open,' said Julius. ‘They'll see us.'

‘Who'll see us, 'iggins?'

‘I don't know.'

Up ahead they saw a row of native huts. When they got closer they saw that they were spread along a riverbank. Some of the huts stood over the water. They were all built on stilts with ladders leading up
to the doors. The clergyman was nowhere to be seen.

Nothing moved. The village was silent. But flame-red flowers grew out through the doors and windows of the huts and up through the roofs, and across the ground. They even entwined themselves around the stilts. The whole place had the feel of a giant funeral wreath.

A memory stirred in Julius's mind. Something in Darwin's diary about a damned village.

‘This is the Village of the Soulcatchers,' he said. ‘We're in Brazil, I think, in the jungle.'

‘I ain't never been to a jungle before,' said Emily. ‘Where do you fink everyone is?

‘Did you see a painting in Darwin's diary?' said Julius. ‘Of red flowers, growing from a man's face.'

Her eyes lit up. ‘Yeah, I seen it. It's just like that cove who just walked past. But 'e ain't got so many.'

‘We need to be very careful, Emily,' said Julius.

‘You already said that, 'iggins.'

Before Julius could reply there was a shriek further along the shore and a man's voice called out angrily. He stepped out from the forest pulling a small boy by his arm. The boy screamed and struggled as he was dragged towards a jetty. The man shouted something, as if trying to call for assistance. Julius could not understand what he said.

Emily leapt up. Julius grabbed her and pulled her back.

‘Wait,' he said.

‘Oi.' Emily pushed him away. ‘This could be wot we're supposed to do,' she said. ‘Maybe we're supposed to save the nippa.'

‘We don't know what's going on yet,' said Julius.

Emily glared at him. ‘Mr Flynn would 'ave dropped that cove by now if 'e was 'ere.'

‘But he's not,' said Julius. ‘I am. I got us here, and I'm in charge.'

As soon as he said the words he knew he had made a mistake.

‘Who says you're in char—'

‘Shush,' said Julius. ‘Look.'

The clergyman appeared at the doorway of one of the huts. He called out and waved his arms. Again, Julius could not understand what he said. The clergyman climbed down the ladder with difficulty and lumbered to the jetty. Julius could hear someone else's heavy boots running towards them from behind. A man ran past panting and calling out as he went.