Spell Spring: Earthaven, #2

Millennium Green Gazette

Friday April 22nd

MEMBER OF LOCAL KIDNAPPING RING BREAKS OUT OF PRISON

Claudia Fish, the only known survivor of a kidnapping ring who snatched local schoolgirl Natalie Marlins from a supermarket car park six months ago, escaped last night from the hospital wing of Greenwood Women’s Prison.

Ms Fish, who had been given a reduced sentence for co-operating with the authorities over a supposed biohazard (later believed to be a Halloween prank), surprised prison staff and inmates alike with her daring escape.

I never thought she would run, said prison warden Miss Geraldine Parks. Claudia has always been a model prisoner, and recently an illness had confined her to bed. How she got out of a second-floor window and over the wall in her weakened state, I’ll never know.

A cellmate sheds some light on Ms Fish’s state of mind: She had these terrible nightmares, and lately they’d got worse. She’d scream in her sleep and then she’d just sit on her bunk and stare at the door, all spooky like. I don’t know what was botherin’ her, cause she never talked much about her life outside. But she weren’t happy, I know that.

The question is: why did Claudia run when her actions will mean an extension of her sentence when she is recaptured? Ms Fish is thought unlikely to strike again, since the kidnapping ring she was involved with broke up after two of its members were found gored to death in Unicorn Wood and its reclusive leader – a man known locally as Lord Hawk – mysteriously disappeared. But as a precaution, police are advising parents to keep their children indoors until the prisoner is safely back in custody.

Chapter 1

SUMMONS

Scotland, Friday April 22

THE Boundary between worlds rippled just as Natalie stood up to get off the bus. She’d been on the phone to her best friend at the time.

Have you seen the news? Jo was saying from four hundred miles away. I’m—

Her friend’s voice cut off in mid-sentence. The bus shuddered to a stop on the track and stalled.

Natalie felt the air go cold. There came a low rumble like distant thunder and the hillside blurred. She stumbled in the aisle and the phone dropped out of her hand.

The bus driver gave her an impatient look. Embarrassed, she fumbled for her phone under the seats and frowned at the dead screen. It was the latest model, Dad’s way of apologizing for not being sober enough to help when she’d been kidnapped by Lord Hawk last year and found herself fighting for her life in a parallel world of magic – but, like all human technology, it had a habit of going wrong this close to the Boundary.

Trying not to worry, she snatched up her bag and hurried to the door glad that hers was the last stop. Jo was coming to stay at half term so her friend was probably just sending through her train times. She would pick them up later, when she got the signal back. At least none of her new classmates had witnessed her reaction. They didn’t know about her old life in Millennium Green, and she wanted to keep it that way.

As the bus pulled away, a joyful barking greeted her. Natalie’s bad memories faded at the sight of a white wolf bounding through the heather to meet her, his tattered ear flapping in the breeze and his tail waving madly.

K’tanaqui! she said, dropping her bag so she could fling her arms around the magehound’s neck and bury her face into his silver fur. He smelled sweetly of Earthaven, but his legs and belly were plastered in human-world mud. Look at the state of you! she scolded, picking a twig out of his tail. Have you been chasing unicorns again?

Horrrses with horrrns not live this side of Boundarry any morrre, the magehound said in the special place in her head.

Natalie smiled. She knew many of the creatures that lived in Earthaven were mere legend in this world now. But she liked to tease her mother’s old magehound.

What have you been up to today, then? she asked. I bet it was more exciting than double maths.

Keeping eye on Casterrrs, K’tanaqui growled. Someone use gateway between worrrlds.

Instantly, Natalie was alert. Was it my father? she asked. Is that why I felt the Boundary shake just now? Are the Thralls recycling spells today?

She gazed up the hill that rose above the ramshackle farmhouse Dad had found to be their new home – a mountain, really, compared to the gentler hills down south. A ruined tower stood on the top, its mossy stones crumbling. It had been some sort of watchtower back in the days when men used to slaughter each other with swords and crossbows. All through that history lesson, Natalie had wondered if the clans of Scotland knew their tower straddled the Boundary into Earthaven, and had been told off for daydreaming in class.

Fatherrr-Thrrrall worrrk in yarrrd all day, the magehound said.

Who used the gateway, then? she asked, squinting at the tower. The sun was going down behind the ruin. Copper light flashed off her glasses, dazzling her.

K’tanaqui not see, her magehound admitted. Meet pup firrrst.

Natalie considered her options. She could go home and try calling Jo from the landline, but she could easily do that later. Tourists sometimes stumbled across the tower, unaware of its magic. She took a deep breath. We should go up and check, she decided.

*

As she climbed towards the tower, Natalie slipped a hand into her pocket. Since the events of last Halloween, she carried a live spell to school for emergencies. She hadn’t yet needed to use the spell, but it was hard to ignore the fluttering in her stomach that always started up whenever she approached the gateway leading to her birth mother’s world.

Mr Marlins had told his family the move up to Scotland would be a fresh start, and in a way it was. As far as Natalie knew, Dad had kept his promise not to let a drop of alcohol pass his lips. But at least part of the reason for their move north was because the old Thrallstone gateway into Earthaven from Millennium Green had been magically sealed after Lord Hawk’s son Merlin had transported his father inside the stone last year. Dad couldn’t do his job effectively without a way to get spells across the Boundary for recycling.

The sun was going down by the time she and K’tanaqui reached the summit. Shadows lurked inside the ruin. Ivy grew over the crumbling walls, and strange pale tendrils sprouted from the gaps between the stones. Natalie frowned at them. She had seen similar vines in Earthaven, but did not remember seeing them growing up here before.

Pup take carrre, K’tanaqui growled as they approached the tower.

Natalie fumbled in her pocket and brought out what she knew would look to most people like a shiny piece of litter. Only those of Earthaven blood could see its true nature. The spell glittered in the shadows as she brushed aside the ivy and ducked through the archway.

Cold oozed out of the stones, reminding her of winter, when the snow had lain up here so thickly that nobody could reach the gateway for weeks. The local Casters had been close to rebellion, blaming their new Thrall Mr Marlins for the lack of spells.

Natalie put the Scottish Casters firmly out of her mind. She hadn’t met them yet since she was meant to be keeping a low profile, but they were unlikely to cause trouble after the example the Spell Lords had made of Lord Hawk and his spellclave last year. She dropped her bag by the crumbling arch so she could grip K’tanaqui’s ruff with her other hand. The spell warmed her fingers, becoming warmer and brighter as it neared the gateway to Earthaven.

This particular gate had once been an arrow slit, accessed from a spiral staircase following the curve of the tower wall. The bottom two steps were still in place but the upper ones had fallen away. On the other side of the Boundary, Dad had told her, the gate came out at canopy level where treemages collected the dead spells for recycling in Earthaven and exchanged them for recycled ones of limited power suitable for Caster use. These days, on the human side, the gate was half way up the wall with no way of accessing it except by ladder or risking your neck climbing the crumbling stone.

Natalie squinted up at the arrow slit. It looked normal enough, and nobody seemed to be hiding inside the tower. Whoever had used the gate was long gone.

She relaxed slightly and lowered the spell... and something dropped out of the ivy above her head and landed, squeaking, in her hair.

Natalie couldn’t help a little scream. She batted at her head, where the creature had become tangled in her ponytail and was wriggling as it tried to escape. The spell, still in her hand, flared bright purple. Cast it! she thought desperately, reminded of Lord Hawk’s grip on her hair last Halloween before the needle had pierced her neck. But she couldn’t see her target, and it was never advisable to cast defensive spells at yourself. She closed her hand about the spell before she wasted its magic.

K’tanaqui growled as a plump white mouse with red eyes dropped to the ground in front of the magehound. The mouse picked itself up and ran in circles, still squeaking, its tail smoking.

Ow ow ow! the mouse complained. Fine welcome this is! You didn’t have to set my tail on fire. I’m only the messenger. It’s not my fault Merlin couldn’t open the gate wide enough to get both of us through... Call off your hound, Lady, before it eats me... Ow ow ow.

Natalie’s heart steadied. She giggled in relief. Redeye? Is that you? She’d never heard Merlin’s mouse talk in her head before, but his familiar sounded exactly how she had always imagined it would. Where’s Merlin? she asked, fighting a smile. It had been too long since she’d seen the Caster boy who had defied his father Lord Hawk to help her escape last Halloween.

Mouse-pup still in Earrrthaven, K’tanaqui reassured her, flipping his tattered ear and using his teeth to pick up Redeye delicately by the tail.

This caused the white mouse to wriggle and squeak even louder. Ow ow ow! it complained again. Put me down, you big bully, or I’ll nibble your fur tonight when you sleep and you’ll wake up bald as a Caster’s backside!

K’tanaqui twitched an eyelid at Natalie in query. She nodded, and he dropped the mouse as asked. Redeye landed on his back, rolled over and immediately started scolding again.

Natalie scooped him up with little smile. Shh, she said, checking K’tanaqui’s tongue had put out the spellfire she’d accidentally started on the mouse’s tail. You’re not on fire, you silly mouse, and K’tanaqui’s not going to eat you. Did Merlin send you here to find me? What’s the message?

The mouse checked its tail. Only then did it look at Natalie and remark, Lady Atanaqui’s daughter look older.

Thanks, Natalie said, pleased, pushing a blonde curl behind her ear. She’d had her hair restyled when they moved, though she couldn’t bring herself to have it cut short, as Jo had suggested, so nobody would be able to grab it and kidnap her again.

But not grow very much, added Redeye. Be shortest member of soultree Council.

Natalie frowned. Just give me Merlin’s message. I can’t hang around up here. Dad and Julie will worry if I’m not home for supper.

Redeye twitched his nose at her. Merlin says you must come to Earthaven. You can carry me so I don’t get trampled by unicorns. Quick, before it gets dark.

Natalie frowned up at the arrow slit the mouse had fallen out of, which she could barely see in the dusk. Much as she wanted to see Merlin again, she couldn’t simply climb up there, open the gate and vanish into Earthaven with Redeye without telling her family where she was going. She probably couldn’t climb up there at all without Dad’s ladder, and he always took that back to the farm with him as a precaution after recycling spells.

I can’t come to Earthaven now, she said slightly alarmed.

Daughter of Atanaqui must complete Council of Oq! Redeye insisted, nipping her.

Ouch! Natalie almost dropped the mouse.

K’tanaqui pushed at her hand with his muzzle. Pup want K’tanaqui to swallow mouse-pup’s familiarrr? growled her magehound. Make good rrreplacement for spellclave memberrrs lost in Battle of Rrraven, help give daughterrr-pup Powerrr of Thirrrteen.

Natalie’s blood chilled.

Power of Thirteen... she’d last heard that phrase when she had been Lord Hawk’s captive. He’d tried to bond Natalie as the thirteenth member of his spellclave by letting his goshawk swallow her pet spider Itsy, mistakenly assuming the spider to be her familiar. K’tanaqui’s comment reminded her that when she joined the Council of Oq she’d need that power, too – one part of becoming a Spell Lady Natalie didn’t like to think about too much.

Luckily, though, Redeye did not seem able to hear her magehound.

Don’t even think about it, she told K’tanaqui, lifting the mouse out of reach.

She stood on tiptoe and placed Redeye back into the ivy on the wall as high as she could reach. Run back to Oq, little mouse. Tell Merlin I’ll come as soon as I can, she promised, putting the spell safely back into her pocket. Maybe at half term, when Jo visits... that’s only three weeks away.

Redeye twitched his tail in annoyance and squeaked at her again. But now she wasn’t holding the spell any more, Natalie could no longer hear the mouse’s words. It was something of a relief.

Rrrude little mouse say thrrree weeks too late, K’tanaqui reported with an agitated flip of his ear. Oq needs Atanaqui’s daughterrr to join Council before this yearrr’s Blossoming.

Blossoming? Natalie said with another frown. When’s that?

Blossoming is firrrst day of sprrring, when soultrrrees make flowerrrs that grrrow into spells afterrr trrreemages ferrrtilize them with unicorrrn dust, K’tanaqui informed her. Strrrong magic, gateways open all overrr worrrld. Casterrrs celebrrrate with spellfirrre.

You mean Beltane, don’t you? The first day of May? Natalie had taken an interest in pagan festivals after discovering her mother was a Spell Lady. She counted off the days on her fingers. That’s next Sunday! I can’t complete my spellclave by then... I haven’t found anyone to join me yet.

She wondered how she was going to break the news to Julie and Dad. They had agreed she wouldn’t take up her mother’s seat on the Council of Oq in Earthaven until she left school. If she went next week, she wouldn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to her best friend.

Chapter 2

ESCAPE

Earthaven, Friday evening April 22

AS dusk fell in Earthaven, the trainee treemage known as Squirrel looked around the nest that had been his home for as long as he could remember. The others had already gone, obediently following the Spell Lord who had summoned them to the Council Chamber. Bits of their green uniforms lay discarded among the leaves, but they had taken their familiars with them so they could be tested for magic.

His little squirrel pressed against his neck, bushy red tail twitching. I am scared.

I know you are, Chatterbox, Squirrel whispered. That’s why we’re going this way.

He squeezed through the twigs and vines at the side of the nest, leant over the edge and gazed down into the deep green shadow. Oq’s highest leaves glowed copper-gold in the setting sun, but it was already dark at ground level.

Below, in the hollow branches that served as Oq’s corridors, he could hear his friends’ excited voices as they followed the treemage. He saw some of their familiars flitting in and out of the knotholes in an agitated fashion as they went. A bright orange butterfly caught his eye. It belonged to a dark-haired girl who had been kind to him when he’d woken screaming from his childhood nightmares. Squirrel’s heart twisted when he imagined a magehound swallowing Butterfly’s tiny familiar in a single gulp.

He didn’t know how many of them the Council needed, but he wasn’t going to wait around to find out. He took a deep breath and swung his legs over the edge of the nest.

Don’t jump! Chatterbox squirmed closer in sudden concern, and Squirrel got another mouthful of red tail.

I’m not jumping, silly, Squirrel mumbled, clinging on to a vine while he found his first foothold. Get your tail out of my face and find us a safe route down so we won’t be seen. Preferably one where I won’t break my neck, he thought, although that might be better than being caught by a Spell Lord in the act of escape and having his familiar fed to the magehounds as punishment.

He swung down through the branches as fast as he could, while Chatterbox scampered headfirst down the great knobbly trunk ahead of him, urging him on. He didn’t have a plan, other than getting as far away from Oq’s trunk as possible before the bonding ceremony.

They had not been expecting the summons to come so soon. Lady Atanaqui’s daughter was not supposed to take her seat on the Council for another two years, at least. Squirrel hadn’t even planned his escape route, let alone had a chance to put it into action. When the time came to run away, Squirrel had imagined taking a supply of live spells with him and using an organazoomer to cross Earthaven in the blink of an eye. Now he realized the root system wouldn’t have worked for him, anyway, unless Oq wanted to be rid of him – and then the tree would hardly give him some of her precious spells as a parting gift. She would more likely shrink the organazoomer on route to crush him and Chatterbox, and deliver them both to the Boundary as fertilizer.

The soultree’s leaves rustled as he descended, almost like laughter. Squirrel shuddered. Rumour claimed that the Spell Lords and Ladies of the Council could talk directly to the tree. If so, Oq was bound to report his escape soon.

Not that way! Chatterbox warned.

Squirrel parted the leaves and peered down. Oq’s branches grew further apart here and were getting hard to see in the shadows. But on a broad branch directly below him stood a magehound, its coat pale in the dusk and its muzzle raised to sniff the wind. The hound yawned, showing sharp yellow fangs.

Squirrel froze, plunged back into his old nightmare. The huge magehound’s jaws clamped around his small body, carrying him helplessly through the moonlit trees of a strange world with blood dripping from its fangs...

His grip on the vine weakened.

Don’t fall here! Chatterbox nipped his ear, bringing Squirrel back to the present with a jolt. That’s Lord Pveriyan’s hound.

The magehound had been joined on its branch by a silver-haired Spell Lord carrying a purple spellfire torch. He dropped a hand to the hound’s head and muttered, Where’s the damn boy got to? We can’t delay much longer.

Squirrel let the leaves spring back to hide him and Chatterbox. The Council must already be looking for him!

Run, Chatterbox! he hissed. Get as far away from the trunk as you can, then even if that magehound sees me, it won’t catch you...

The words choked off in his throat. He felt sure the magehound had scented them. But then a redheaded boy wearing ill-fitting human clothing stumbled out of the root system, making the hound growl. The boy squinted at Lord Pveriyan, as if he couldn’t see the Spell Lord very well.

Caster! Squirrel thought with a jolt. Only mages banished from Earthaven to live on the other side of the Boundary had trouble seeing on this side. What if the Casters had invaded Earthaven again? He stiffened, ready to fight the boy if the magehound didn’t devour him first.

That’s Merlin, silly! Chatterbox said, nipping his ear again. The Hero of Earthaven, remember?

Squirrel blinked at the redheaded boy in his outgrown human clothes. Merlin? he repeated in disbelief. Could this tousled, breathless boy really be the famous Caster lad who had fought and killed the rebel Caster Lord Hawk during the Battle of Raven to save Oq from Spellfall? He only looked a couple of years older than Squirrel and he had a hole in his jumper – though if he had defeated a Caster lord, his magic must be strong. Probably best not to underestimate him.

Lord Pveriyan scowled. About time, Merlin! the Spell Lord said. It’s not the Blossoming yet, thank Oq – though no doubt you’ll be late for that, too. Is Atanaqui’s daughter on her way? He looked hopefully at the sparkling entrance to the root system.

Not yet, Merlin said. But I sent Redeye through the Scottish gate to find her. I’m sure Natalie will come as soon as she knows you need her.

Squirrel breathed easier. If Lady Atanaqui’s replacement was not in Earthaven yet, then he and Chatterbox still had time to get away.

You came back without her? Lord Pveriyan’s voice was deceptively quiet. I’ve already summoned the young treemages for testing. They should be in the Council Chamber as we speak. I was hoping to bond them to Natalie’s spellclave tonight. K’tanaqui’s got two vacancies to fill before she’ll have Power of Thirteen, and it’s her first bonding. She isn’t going to be much use to us straight afterwards, and we need the Council restored to full power before the Blossoming this year. Why didn’t you go to this Scottish place and fetch the girl yourself? He glanced up at Oq’s highest branches.

Seeing the Spell Lord’s eyes reflecting the purple spellfire, Squirrel shuddered. He drew further back into the leaves, shielding Chatterbox from the torch.

I couldn’t get through the gate, Merlin admitted.

The Hero of Earthaven couldn’t get through a gateway into the human world where he was born? Lord Pveriyan’s tone dripped scorn. But Squirrel saw him frown.

Merlin straightened his shoulders and shook his red curls out of his eyes. You know my father’s Raven-weapon damaged Oq’s roots last year, he said. It’s difficult to tell exactly what’s going on at the gateways, but there’s something blocking the Scottish one. Redeye’s not come back yet. When he does, I’ll need more time in the Heart to assess the damage.

Lord Pveriyan’s silver brows drew further together. You’ve had six months. We can’t delay any longer. We’re vulnerable while Lady Atanaqui’s seat remains empty. We need to complete the Council of Oq as soon as possible. The last thing we need is another jumped-up Caster lord like your father thinking Earthaven is easy prey.

Merlin flushed. Father never thought it would be easy...

Lord Pveriyan dismissed this with a flick of his fingers and glanced up at the branches again. "I’m needed in the Council Chamber. We’ll discuss this later. Go and find your mouse. Oh, and keep an eye out for a treemage boy with a red squirrel