Spellfall (27 page)

Before she had time to think about it too much, she slithered into the trench and grabbed the canister. The Casters swung their bows round in alarm. Claudia’s eyes went wide, betraying astonishment and then fear. Hawk whirled, his stick unravelling spells. Natalie made a leap for the edge but the sides were too steep and high to climb without hands, and the canister too heavy to tuck under her arm. Also, the cap wasn’t properly screwed on. As she scrabbled desperately at the loose soil, black liquid leaked out and splashed her hand.

Burning.

She cried out as a hand grabbed her ankle and pulled. Still clutching the canister, she sprawled at Lord Hawk’s feet. Her glasses flew off, and there was a crunch as Hawk deliberately stamped on them. She rolled clear, fixed the cap and raised her burning hand to her mouth.

“No, Natalie!” Claudia shouted. “Don’t lick it! It’s poison!”

Her heart fluttered. She squinted at the edge of the trench, trying to focus, and made out Jo jumping up and down clapping her hands. “Throw it up here!” her friend shouted.

Natalie checked the cap and took careful aim. Before she could throw, Lord Hawk’s stick smashed across her shoulders. All the wind whooshed out of her, and she sprawled on top of the shrivelled soultree root. A Caster aimed an arrow at Jo, who danced out of range. Then there was a furious snarl as a silver blur launched itself at Lord Hawk.

“K’tanaqui!” Natalie gasped in relief that turned to alarm as she remembered what had happened to Bilbo. “Be careful!”

Pup crrrazy! Pup rrrun! Quick!

Lord Hawk fended off the magehound with his spell-wrapped stick and laughed. “If it isn’t my little Spider! Found yourself a familiar with teeth, I see. You’re too late. Your precious tree’s dying.”

“That’s not true!” But her stomach clenched. The root was cold and black.

“What did you do with my son?” Lord Hawk went on. “Did your hound eat him? Or is he hiding like the little coward he is?”

Natalie’s blood rose. “Merlin’s not a coward! He—”

She didn’t have a chance to explain. One of the spellclave shouted, “Look out! They’re charging again!”

The Herders must have seen her jump into the trench and decided to take advantage of the distraction. As the Casters hurriedly scrambled back to their positions, a unicorn reared at the edge of the trench and a spear hissed over Natalie’s head straight for Lord Hawk. She caught her breath but he casually deflected the spear with his spell-wrapped stick.

“Do I have to do everything myself?” he said. With an equally casual flick of his wrist he cast one of his spells at the unicorn. Purple lightning cracked across the night. The Casters covered their eyes. The air filled with the smell of burnt sugar. When the smoke cleared, the unicorn and its rider had vanished.

K’tanaqui growled, snarling and snapping at any Caster who came too close to Natalie.
Spell strrrong to trrransporrt unicorrrn. Pup rrrun now!

Natalie backed to the side of the trench, hugging the canister to her chest. Her hand was on fire. She could barely keep her grip, let alone throw.

Hawk’s yellow gaze followed her. “Make a spellrope, Claudia,” he said. “We’ll take Spider here with us. Bind her hound – that’ll keep her quiet.”

Something flickered across Claudia’s face but she raised a hand to the weal on her cheek and her eyes went blank. Slowly, she unwrapped two spells from her supply of arrows and twisted them together. She chanted under her breath and the spells began to glow. Between her dancing fingers, they slowly lengthened into a rope of bronze and green light that writhed in the night with a life of its own. As Natalie watched in horror, the spellrope formed a noose and floated towards K’tanaqui.

Spell rrrope verrry bad
… As the noose tightened around his neck, the magehound’s voice faded and he pressed himself against Natalie’s feet, whining. Her own legs turned weak.

“Nat!”
Jo screamed, jerking her back to her senses.

With the last of her strength, she threw the canister as hard and as high as she could. Everyone ducked as it whizzed above their heads, even Lord Hawk. This gave Jo the few seconds she needed to leap into the air, catch the canister and run. She wasn’t centre forward on the school netball team for nothing.

Lord Hawk gave a cry of anger. “After her!” he roared.

Several Casters scrambled out of the hole, more afraid of their leader than they were of the unicorns.

Natalie flung herself on the spellrope, tearing at the horrid noose with her nails while her poor magehound shivered and sweated. “Hold on, K’tanaqui!” she sobbed. “I’ll get you free.”

From a long way off, Jo was screaming for her to run but how could she leave poor K’tanaqui like this? Above them, the remaining unicorns were locked in furious battle with the Casters who had gone after Jo. Arrows hissed, screams and bitter purple smoke filled the night – no, night no longer. With a shiver, she realized the sky was paling.

Lord Hawk smiled down at her. “I’ve won, you know. Your friend won’t reach the Boundary before it closes; nor will she be able to get through the Thrallstone without help. We’ll pick her up later. My Raven is already killing your soultree and nothing anyone can do will stop it now.” He bent to stroke the captive magehound who trembled under his touch. “Soon the entire Council will crawl at my feet like this. I think they’re going to be very sorry they banished me, don’t you? Now then, Spider, are you going to be sensible or do I have to waste spells on you too?”

She clenched her fists, tears coming. “I’ll never join your horrible spellclave!”

Even as Hawk’s yellow eyes glittered with anger, K’tanaqui gave a whimper and said very faintly,
Spells die soon. Then K’tanaqui be frrree. Find pup.

Natalie shuddered. With an effort she unclenched her fists.
Play along.
“I’ll be sensible,” she whispered, hanging her head. She peeped through her hair to see if she’d succeeded.

Hawk’s smile broadened. “See how easy it can be when you try? Now then, I think it’s time we left these unicorns to their own devices, don’t you?” He called the Casters and started to wrap two extra spells around his stick. Very slowly, Natalie backed away. Claudia’s blue eyes followed her but she didn’t say a word. Quietly, Natalie pulled herself out of the trench, biting her lip against the pain in her hand.

She was almost clear when Hawk noticed her. He looked startled for a moment. Then his brows lowered. “Where do you think you’re going, young Spell Lady? I’ve got your magehound, remember?”

Heart thumping, Natalie kicked loose soil into his eyes and scrambled free. The goshawk
caaa-ed
, making her neck prickle. Without her glasses, the wood was a confused blur and for a horrible moment she didn’t know which way to run. Then Jo shouted, “Over here!”

She raced towards the voice, her breath coming in gasps. The trees swayed around her, making her feel ill. She thought she saw Jo mounted on a unicorn. Then light and shadow flashed and another unicorn trotted out of the wood. Natalie slithered to a stop, not at all sure it would count her as a friend after last time. But it lowered its proud head and huffed at her as its rider smiled and reached down a hand.

Pups rrride,
came K’tanaqui’s voice, so faint Natalie could barely hear it.
Rrride like the wind.

As the Herder caught her round the waist and swung her up in front of him, Natalie cast a final anguished glance at the trench. “Hold on, K’tanaqui,” she whispered, her words lost in an ocean of almond-scented mane. “I’ll come back for you, I promise. Soon. Soon as I can...”

Chapter 18

POWER OF THIRTEEN

Sunday morning, November 1

~~*~~

The six unicorns raced through spinning leaves and snapping twigs beneath pale stars, their hooves trailing mist, their legs a silver blur. Riding them was marvellous and exciting and terrifying, all at once.

Nothing moves faster than a unicorn.
As the creature’s powerful muscles rippled under her, Natalie hoped this was true. Its warm almond scent made her dizzy and trees blurred at the edges of her vision as they leapt ditches, sprang up ridges and plunged recklessly down the other side. She buried her hands in the soft mane and glanced at the brightening sky.

“Faster!” she whispered.

Did the Boundary shut at first light or at sunrise? How long would it take for the spells that bound K’tanaqui to die? Could she open the Thrallstone without his help? She wanted to ask so many things but the terrible speed pushed the questions back down her throat.

Then the ground rippled under them like the sea, causing their mount to stumble. Natalie’s heart leapt into her mouth but the Herder merely tightened his arms about her and laughed as he urged the creature to go faster. She heard Jo laughing, too, and in spite of everything couldn’t help a smile. Her friend would talk about nothing else for weeks.

She was still smiling when they galloped into cold air and everything around them blurred. Her ears popped, the trees darkened, and the ground shook a second time. “Moons and stars!” exclaimed the Herder as their mount skidded to a sudden, lurching stop with its muzzle almost touching the Thrallstone.

Natalie was thrown forwards, banged her nose on the unicorn’s neck and tasted blood in her mouth. Shakily, she pushed herself upright. A short way off, the other five had skidded to an equally abrupt halt. Jo was lying flat on her back in the grass, the canister still clasped to her chest.

“Jo!” she shrieked in alarm.

“Don’t panic, I’m not hurt. That was
amazing
!” Her friend sprang to her feet, laughing, then raised a tentative hand to her face. She blinked a few times and her laughter died. “My eyes—”

Natalie breathed easier. “It’s all right, Jo, there’s nothing wrong with them. It’s the Boundary closing, that’s all. I’ll have to open the Thrallstone.”

She slipped to the ground and stumbled to the stone on wobbly legs, closed her eyes and thrust her arms inside the hole. The unicorns snorted nervously at the diesel smells that wafted through. Natalie’s left hand began to hurt again where the Raven had splashed her. She thrust the pain to the back of her mind and sighed in relief as she felt the edges of the hole begin to melt.

Jo, clinging to the back of her tunic, caught her breath. “Who are all those people? What are they doing? There’s a helicopter!”

Natalie opened her eyes. It might have been only a few days since she’d seen cars, yet already they seemed alien. On the other side of the Thrallstone, blue and amber lights flashed in a grey November dawn. Uniformed men and women ran back and forth shouting into radios, and a monstrous machine hovered over the trees, blades chopping noisily. As the hole opened further, some of the people turned, calling and pointing excitedly. “Hold it!” came a voice over a loud hailer. “Identify yourselves!”

Natalie stepped aside. “You first,” she said, giving Jo a little push. Her friend hesitated. “Go on! I have to hold the gateway open. I’ll be right behind you.”

It wasn’t quite a lie. She kept the hole open long enough for Jo to duck through, long enough to hear a voice call, “It’s one of the girls, sir!” Then a unicorn snorted behind her and one of the policemen stared straight at the creature and breathed, “My God! What’s
that
?” and she quickly withdrew her arms.

“Natalieeee!” came Jo’s anguished cry from the other side.

“Tell Dad and Tim and Julie I love them!” she called as indistinct figures surrounded her friend. Then the lights and noise receded as if down a long tunnel and she staggered backwards.

Straight into the arms of Lord Hawk.

At her scream, the Herders wheeled their unicorns and levelled their spears. Hawk laid his stick across Natalie’s throat, cutting off her breath. “Don’t be stupid,” he said. “This child belongs to your soultree Council. I can kill her long before you kill me.”

The Herders stared at Natalie in dismay. “He must’ve transported,” they muttered as the goshawk flapped across and landed on top of the Thrallstone.

Its master chuckled. “But of course! Did you really think I’d risk getting trapped in Earthaven? We planted a few spells near the Thrallstone, just in case. You seem to have deprived me of the Raven, but even a single infected root is enough. Your precious soultree is dying as we speak.”

“No!” Natalie squirmed in his grip, choking on the words. “That’s not true!”

Another chuckle. “Oh, but I’m afraid it is and we’ll all wait nice and quietly just here until the Raven finishes its work. I knew you’d be back, Spider. You’ll be my insurance. In the meantime, let’s see if we can’t finish what we began last week.”

He glanced at the goshawk, which beat its wings and
caa-ed
loudly. One by one, the spellclave stepped out of the trees. Last of all came Claudia, dragging the shivering, sweating K’tanaqui at the end of that cruel spellrope. At the sight of him, Natalie’s struggles died. The exhausted K’tanaqui flopped to the grass in the shadow of the stone, flanks heaving, and gazed at her with dull amber eyes. Taking advantage of the Herders’ hesitation, the rest of the spellclave joined their leader and formed a defensive ring around the Thrallstone, bows drawn, spell-wrapped arrows aimed at the unicorns.