Soul Splinter (15 page)

‘You can stay,’ Moll smiled, stroking the soft white fur on his throat.

Gryff purred and slunk to the far corner of the alcove while Moll clambered into the hammock, crossed her legs and rested the bone tablet on her knees. She listened to the silence inside her alcove. This was her chance to prove to everyone that she was the Guardian of the Oracle Bones, that even though she had no family alive she was part of something ancient.

Minutes passed and Moll sat in silence, tracing the symbols with her finger, searching for the answers deep inside her. She tried not to think of all that rested on it, but when she closed her eyes she saw Alfie’s desperate face and Oak lying in his hammock. Could the amulets really help them both? She thought harder, willing the code to make sense. The candles flickered around her, the silence swelled and then her breathing quickened. She looked at Gryff. ‘I’ve – I’ve done it, Gryff. I’ve translated the bone reading! I’ve actually done it!’

The wildcat made a noise, soft and wild, as if disclosing a precious secret.
Noine, noine, noine.
Moll smiled. It was the sound Gryff made when he was happy.

There were excited whispers coming from behind Moll’s hanging sheet, then a mop of brown, curly hair poked itself inside. ‘Well?’ asked Siddy.

Moll watched as they all clustered by the entrance, her thoughts skittering inside her. She looked at Cinderella Bull. ‘I’ve translated it, just how you taught me.’

‘I
knew
you’d do it, Moll!’ Hard-Times Bob cried. ‘Oak would be proud of you right now.’

Cinderella Bull stepped forward. ‘And? What did the bones say?’

Moll took a deep breath.

‘They said:
FOLLOW THE SILENCE TO THE BLINKING EYE
.’

T
hey rose early the next morning, everyone except Oak, who lay inside his hammock, his forehead gleaming with sweat. From the bags under Mooshie’s eyes, it was obvious she hadn’t slept, but still she mixed another dressing by the tunnel to draw the curse from her husband’s wound.

Moll peeped round the sheet hanging over her alcove and watched curiously as Alfie helped Siddy fill a water bucket for the cobs. She hadn’t expected Alfie to run away in the night – she felt sure he’d stay with them now – but she was still cautious and, although she knew deep down she’d do anything to make him real, a little part of Moll wanted Alfie to show her he’d never let her down like that again. She crept out of her alcove and walked across the cave towards the boys.

‘Did you two come up with any ideas about the bone reading?’ she asked.

‘No,’ Alfie said. ‘Follow the silence . . . It just doesn’t make sense. How can you
follow
nothing?’

Siddy nodded. ‘And the blinking eye? What on earth are the bones harping on about?’

Moll chewed her lip. ‘Maybe there’s a message hidden inside the words. Like the last time?’ She sighed. ‘If only Mellantha was here to help us.’

‘We’re on our own with this one,’ Alfie said flatly.

‘Then we need to figure out a plan.’ Moll lowered her voice. ‘Last night, after I cracked the bone reading, Cinderella Bull told me she heard the sea spirits murmuring. She said they seemed afraid.’

‘I’m not surprised with the Shadowmasks opening up thresholds left, right and centre and letting all kinds of dark magic in.’ Siddy stood up. ‘Come on; let’s get some fresh air. We’re safe in the cove with Cinderella Bull’s protection pebbles on the cliff top. We can make a plan while we’re watering the cobs.’

Outside the cave, Moll drank in the fresh, salty air. Fleecy clouds drifted across the sky and the morning sun cast a dazzle of light on to the sea. Gryff leapt up on to the rocks to prey on fish in the rock pools, but Moll walked towards the shore with Siddy and Alfie. She let the tide wash over her feet, pushing and pulling as the waves rolled.

Beyond the jutting rocks at the far side of the bay, a pod of dolphins arched out of the sea before spiralling down into their underwater world. Moll walked on. Any other day she would have raced across the beach, scampered over the rocks and leapt into the sea with them. But the bone reading was pressing in on her thoughts, the answer to it whirring just out of her reach.

They walked over the beach towards the cobs by the gorse, but, when Alfie laid his bucket at Raven’s hooves, he tossed his head from side to side then whinnied. Alfie reached out a hand to still him, but the cob backed up and flicked his tail.

‘What is it, boy?’ Alfie whispered. He raised his hand and this time Raven let him stroke his mane, but his eyes were wide and wild.

Moll flinched. ‘Something doesn’t feel right; Raven’s never jumpy like this.’

‘Maybe he heard the sea spirits moaning, like Cinderella Bull,’ Siddy said.

Jinx was further down the beach, but when Moll whistled she trotted over. Once more Raven backed up, away from the children, then he blew hard through his nostrils.

‘Easy, boy, easy,’ Alfie soothed.

Jinx took several loud slurps from the bucket in Moll’s hand and Moll frowned as she stroked her neck. ‘I could’ve sworn I took Jinx’s halter off yesterday.’ She shook her head, then, when Jinx had finished the water, she turned to Alfie and Siddy. ‘I can’t think straight in the cave; I’m going to ride out across the beach and see if the bone reading becomes any clearer.’

She swung herself up on to Jinx’s back, dug her heels into the cob’s flanks and, before Alfie or Siddy could reply, she was off. Moll let the wind course through her long dark hair and pummel inside her dress. But, as the sand sped past beneath them, she realised something was different about the way Jinx was moving. Moll knew her cob’s movements by heart, but her strides seemed unfamiliar today and, however hard she tried, Moll couldn’t settle into them. She leant forward and rubbed the white hair between Jinx’s ears, the place where sensitive cobs keep their souls. And, as she did so, a coldness fastened round her chest. This cob looked like Jinx, but she knew the rhythms of Jinx’s soul. And this cob wasn’t Jinx.

She yanked at the halter, but the cob twisted its head free and galloped on. Moll made to leap from its back, but her body seemed welded to the cob’s and she couldn’t fling herself off. And then slowly the cob’s appearance began to change. Its palomino coat dimmed to a dull grey, like dirty steel, and its glossy white mane stiffened into strands of rotted seaweed. The cob’s nostrils flared, foam began to drip from its mouth and its coal-black eyes fixed on the sea at the far side of the cove, where the current was at its strongest. Moll’s stomach lurched. This was the Shadowmasks’ magic and she could feel their darkness closing in around her.

She struggled to free herself, but her body was still locked in place, just as it had been by Ashtongue in Inchgrundle. Her gut twisted as she remembered Cinderella Bull’s words – about water spirits called kelpies who claimed the bodies of well-loved cobs to lure their riders into the sea and drown them. There was a way to stop kelpies – Cinderella Bull had told her – but, as the sea loomed closer, Moll’s mind was a terrified blank. She snapped her head back, the only part of her free to move, and yelled to Siddy and Alfie back over the other side of the bay.

‘Help me! It’s not Jinx!’

Within seconds, Alfie was up on Raven, speeding across the sand, and behind him Gryff leapt down from the rocks.

But Moll could feel the kelpie’s power growing. It thrashed through the shallows, driving Moll on to meet her fate, and as the water grew deeper it rampaged through the waves and plunged downwards, nosing its ghastly head beneath the surface and dragging Moll deeper towards the churning current.

She scrabbled with her arms, clawing at the surface with ragged breaths, but the kelpie pulled her under. Water gushed up Moll’s nose and beat at her lips, but the more she struggled, the deeper the kelpie sank. Its seaweed hair moved in ghostly wisps and all the while its black eyes searched for darker waters.

Moll jabbed with her legs and bucked with her body, but the kelpie’s hold was fast. Her eyes widened, blinking with panic. There was no breath left in her lungs; she was going to drown . . .

It was then that she glimpsed the dark shapes moving in a blur above her: four black cob legs shredding through the water towards them. Raven. And were those Alfie’s legs dangling down, his head just above the water? Moll’s heart leapt. In the next second, Alfie ducked beneath the surface and stretched out frantic arms towards Moll. She reached out with the last of her strength and their hands met, clasping tight. Moll felt the kelpie’s hold weaken as Alfie hauled her upwards, then she broke through the surface, gasping in shuddering lungfuls of air.

‘Grab my waist!’ Alfie yelled.

Moll reached out, but the kelpie’s strength swelled again and it smashed its weight against her, sending her spinning down into the sea. For a moment, the kelpie was gone from sight, then it rose from the depths beneath her, sliding under her body so that she was fixed once again on its back, and Moll understood: no amount of hauling would free her. She had to remember Cinderella Bull’s secret to escape the kelpie.

Paws powered through the sea behind her, then Gryff was beside her, shunting his weight against hers, trying to shove her free. But the kelpie sank lower and the sea grew colder; the current was closing in. Gryff’s claws beat faster towards Moll, then Alfie dived deep behind her. But, as the blood roared in her ears, Moll knew the kelpie was heading to a place the others could not follow.

The sea below her was dark and cold and still and Moll’s eyes grew heavy. The others had vanished and Moll felt herself sinking with the kelpie as she gave in to its pull.

And then, out of the corner of her vision, there was a flash of colour: something red moving through the sea towards her. Moll’s eyelids slid closed, then they flickered open for a second, long enough to see someone – something – reaching for the kelpie’s halter.

A memory stirred inside Moll, and Cinderella Bull’s words floated back to her:
You can only master a kelpie if you take off its bridle
.

There was a terrible moan, then the kelpie’s whole body shuddered. Its mane flaked away, floating round Moll as dead seaweed, then its body shrivelled like haggard skin before dissolving completely into the sea. Moll felt herself hang for a second in the cool dark waters, then hands plucked at her, lifting her up, up, up . . .

M
oll felt the sand beneath her body – tiny, dry grains under her legs and back. Her head was raised, on someone’s lap perhaps, but before she could open her eyes her breath was forced into spasms and she choked up mouthful after mouthful of stinging salt water.

A pair of ringed hands pushed her hair back from her face and pulled a blanket up round her shoulders. Moll’s eyes fluttered open and rested on Mooshie’s face, then she groaned as she spewed another mouthful of seawater on to the sand.

‘It’s all right, Moll,’ Mooshie said. ‘It’s all right.’

‘I – I thought it was Jinx and—’

‘Shhhhh now.’

Moll’s eyes flickered open again to see Gryff, Alfie and Siddy standing over her in front of the rocks at the far side of the bay. Gryff bent low and nosed her cheek.

‘What happened?’ Moll croaked.

Mooshie drew the blanket tighter round Moll. ‘One of the cobs must have nudged Cinderella Bull’s pebbles aside. The protection charm was broken when she went to inspect it a moment ago. My guess is that Darkebite conjured a kelpie from the Underworld which slipped inside.’ She paused. ‘The Shadowmasks must know you’re back in the cove; they’ll have hoped their kelpie could drag you to a place so deep only they could follow. But the kelpie failed and, although Cinderella Bull has renewed the protection pebbles, sooner or later the Shadowmasks will break in.’

‘Is Jinx OK?’ Moll asked.

Alfie nodded. ‘We’ll need to leave as soon as we can and work out the bone reading as we travel.’

‘But how did I escape? Even you and Gryff couldn’t haul me off that beast.’

Siddy and Alfie looked at one another, then they stepped aside to reveal a small child sitting with her arms crossed on a rock behind them. Moll blinked several times and struggled up so that she was leaning against Mooshie.