Furnaces of Forge (The Land's Tale) (24 page)

Both dogs were shaking and looking at their master with terrified eyes. ‘Find him!’ Hazlitt cried. Clash and Strike ran like greyhounds back to the stream.

‘What are you waiting for?’ he screamed at Chaos and Spite. ‘You too!’ Chaos and Spite wasted no time getting away from Hazlitt’s wrath.

‘I knew we should have let the dogs have her sooner,’ Edith said angrily.

‘Now is not the time, Edith,’ Hazlitt growled. ‘Let’s hope the Beadle has enough sense not to run away. If he has, I’ll make him sorrier than he could imagine when I find him.’ With Edith close behind, he followed the hounds to the stream.

The dogs scoured the bank, confused. Kevin’s scent stopped halfway along. Spite caught Crimson’s scent, but it, too, just stopped. Kevin and Crimson had vanished into thin air.

Hazlitt collapsed his small brass telescope. ‘There’s no sign of them on the plain but there’s nowhere else they could have gone. It’ll be dark soon. We don’t have time to waste searching for them. We’ll have to leave for Forge in a couple of hours if we want to be there by morning.’

‘Like I said, we should have let the dogs have her back at the other camp,’ Edith snapped.

Hazlitt gave a resigned sigh. ‘We’ve been through all that. We couldn’t take the chance.’

‘Amelia thought –’ Edith began.

‘Amelia was wrong, Edith. And not just about this,’ said Hazlitt tersely. ‘Crimson isn’t part Myrmidot. She’s not your “sister”, like Amelia imagined. If she’s sister to anything, it’s to the Land. But the other one, Beatrice – well, that’s another question.’

Hazlitt gazed across the plain. ‘We’ve been studying the blue fire too long not to know now what that damn Muddle is. She could undo everything. We have to make sure she doesn’t,’ he said.

‘Clash and Strike can pay for their mistake. Send those two to look for them. They can’t have gone far;’ said Edith. ‘We’ll whistle the hounds when we leave.’

Hazlitt called the dogs. ‘Find them,’ he ordered. ‘Find them. Kill them. Go!’

The hounds needed no second bidding. Hunting was what they did best. Their powerful legs took them out of the camp and on to the wide plain of Myrmidia.

Edith raised her eyebrows. ‘And the Beadle? After all the trouble we went to? Too bad. He would have made a very good example to the others. And Amelia had trained him rather well.’

‘Not well enough,’ said Hazlitt darkly. ‘Come, we’d better get ready.’

From the top of the western ridge across the stream, Crimson and Kevin watched Hazlitt and Edith walk back to the pavilion. Clash and Strike were two small dots in the distance.

‘We’ll wait here until it gets dark,’ said Crimson. ‘Then we’ll head for Forge. Let’s hope we can get there without the hounds finding us first.’

‘Wouldn’t it be safer to go to Home?’ asked Kevin.

‘It would take us a full day to get there, only half that to get to Forge,’ she answered. ‘Besides, we have to find out what they’ve done. And the answer is in Forge.’

Chapter 12

A Council

T
he streets of Home were silent and empty. As evening came, the animals had drifted from the town and headed north. The weary Muddles had made their way to their homes, thinking of dinner and of their beds.

Grunge walked through the quiet Common to the bandstand. The Mix had ended and he was glad to have his own legs back. He appreciated how difficult Leaf’s injuries were for her and promised himself he would visit her later.

He looked around the bandstand. The rats had left, scurrying north with the other animals. Grunge hoisted himself on to the railing and sat with his back against a carved upright. He watched a twilight mist spread across the Common, clinging to the trees and rolling across the few flowers that had not yet succumbed to autumn. The terrible sadness that he had felt earlier was still with him. He could not bring himself to believe that the Myrmidots would knowingly bring harm to the Land, or to the Muddles or the Beadles. Although the different peoples of the Land kept largely to themselves, it was a comfort, snugly tucked away in their lives, to know that the others were there.

He thought of Crimson. He knew he had to go with the others to Forge. He knew he had to wait to find her. And he knew that without Flyte to accompany him, he would stand little chance of getting Crimson and Kevin back. And Flyte had disappeared. In fact, every last Muddle animal had disappeared. Grunge wished he knew where they had gone. But he also knew that wherever they were, they had good reason to go.

He rose to his feet and left the bandstand. It had been a busy day and he thought it best to go home, have dinner and get an early night. The Beadles, of course, would be punctual. As usual.

≈

Beams of blue moonlight pierced the canopy of the trees, creating eerie patches of blue on the forest floor. Dark shapes, dappled by the shadows of the branches and leaves, moved through the moonlight. The forest was alive with the silent figures. They came from all directions, but each had the same destination: a flat-topped, treeless hill above the rushing Salvation River.

It took a while for them all to assemble. The first to arrive stood on the hilltop. From here, they could see the plains of Myrmidia across the river. And each figure to join them did as those before, until they were all gathered, all gazing, spellbound, at the blue, glowing town of Forge.

It was Miniver who broke the spell. She moved to the centre of the crowd and rose on her hind legs, looking at those who were standing before her. Satisfied that every Muddle animal in the Land was there, she began to speak.

‘They are returning,’ she growled. She raised a massive paw and pointed to the north. Several kilometres away, clear in the bright blue moonlight, they saw Welcome Bridge, and approaching the bridge, a dark, moving mass: the animals of Myrmidia.

‘They are not returning to their forests and fields, to their paddocks and yards; they are not going back into their dens and burrows or their stables and barns. They are marching against Forge.’

Not one of the hundreds of Muddle birds and beasts staring at Miniver was able to comprehend what her words meant.

‘How’s that work, then?’ ventured Shades the meerkat.

‘Marching, like in a parade?’ asked Clark the penguin.

‘Do they get there and then march back again?’ wondered Bray the donkey. ‘You know, make their point and then call it a day?’

‘What if the people of Forge don’t want animals walking through their streets and flying over houses? What if they just tell them to go away?’ asked Jules the eagle.

Question after question flew around the hilltop. The Muddles asked Miniver and they asked each other. There were scores of questions. But there were no answers.

Edward sat, thinking. The fox’s tail curled up over his back like a question mark. ‘How will the Myrmidots know what the animals want? Even the animals don’t know what they want. They just feel frightened,’ he said when the questions began to die out.

‘Anyway,’ said Burrow the badger in his low, gruff voice, ‘animals can’t talk.’

‘And even if they did, Myrmidots aren’t the ones they should talk to. Myrmidots can’t even understand us,’ said Clark.

Miniver asked for silence.

‘The blue fire should not have been brought into the Land. The Beadles and the other Muddles will go to Forge to persuade them to get rid of the stone. I fear that the animals are frightened enough to attack Forge. That could be as bad for the Land as the blue fire. We cannot let it happen.’

‘How do we stop them?’ asked Flyte. ‘There are ten times as many animals as us.’

‘I’m not sure. Whatever it is we do, we can’t do it standing here. We have to follow them to Forge. At least if we’re there, we might be able to calm them,’ said Miniver. She looked out across the moonlit landscape. ‘Although, maybe there is something . . .’ she added. Her eyes darted across the Muddles until she spotted the one she wanted.

‘Calamity, what exactly did Hazlitt and Edith say about Crimson and what the Myrmidots had done?’

‘Well, I don’t know if I can remember exactly,’ replied Calamity. ‘Edith said that, without Crimson, nothing can change what has been done.’

Miniver nodded her head. ‘We need Crimson,’ she said in a low rumble. ‘Flyte!’

The wolf came from the pack and stood before Miniver.

‘You have to find Crimson. Bring her to Forge as quickly as you can.’

‘She could be anywhere in Myrmidia,’ said the wolf. ‘With all those animals crossing Welcome Bridge, I’ll not be able to get her scent.’

‘Quick!’ growled Miniver. The little brown swift darted between the Muddles and perched on Flyte’s back. ‘Quick, will you go with her and scout for Crimson?’

‘I’ll find her,’ sang Quick.

‘I’m going with Flyte, too!’ yapped Calamity.

‘I’m sorry, Calamity,’ said Miniver gently. ‘You’ll slow her down and we haven’t time to lose. Besides, we’ll need everyone else at Forge.’

For a moment Miniver thought Calamity was going to refuse. At last the puppy gave a resigned bark. ‘OK. But Flyte – you tell Crimson I wanted to go with you!’

‘I will,’ promised Flyte. ‘Ready, Quick?’ The little bird chirped once, then rose into the night sky like an arrow. And even before Quick was lost in the darkness, Flyte had gone.

The rest of the Muddles stared into the darkness where the wolf had disappeared.

‘Let’s go,’ said Miniver. ‘It’s a long walk to Forge.’

≈

Quick flew fast and low over the Land. She flew down the hillside and over the long column of animals streaming across Welcome Bridge. She would have liked to have flown higher, but even with the unnatural blue glow of the moon, her keen eyes were hampered by the night.

By the time Flyte reached the bridge, there were only a few stragglers crossing. The wolf weaved through the animals and into Myrmidia. She knew it was pointless trying to pick up Crimson’s scent after the great horde of animals had just crossed the bridge, so she raced straight on into the heart of great plain.

≈

‘This cheese is quite good, really,’ said Kevin, swallowing his last piece. ‘I’ll have to get some when I’m back in Mint.’

‘I’m glad you thought to bring something to eat,’ said Crimson, taking another hunk of bread. ‘I didn’t even think about it.’

‘Too busy thinking about everything else, that’s why,’ said Kevin. ‘That’s what us Factotums are best at: thinking about all the things everyone else takes for granted or forgets about because their minds are on bigger things. But without the smaller things, the bigger things can’t happen. Brian taught me that.’

‘You couldn’t have had a better teacher. He’s a very special Factotum.’

Kevin carefully brushed the crumbs from his shirt, then lay back and looked at the evening sky. ‘When Brian was teaching me all the things I had to do to be Mint’s Factotum, I couldn’t help but think how similar they were to a lot of things that I used to do for Amelia. Things I like doing. But even though I liked them, I didn’t enjoy doing them when I did them for her.’

Kevin stared into the darkening sky. Softly, he said, ‘I don’t want them to take me back to The Place, Crimson. I never thought about it when I was there, but it would be horrible never to have any joy in doing what you want to do.’

‘That would be horrible,’ Crimson agreed quietly.

‘Muddles seem to enjoy everything they do,’ he added.

‘Being a Muddle seems so simple to me,’ said Crimson. ‘You’re born something but that’s not who you are. Muddles do whatever they choose to do while enjoying what they are. Slight is a magician, he’s also the finest watchmaker in the Land. Grunge is a musician but he likes figuring things out and could be a teacher. Reach is a ballerina but she’s good at fixing things. Whenever there’s a problem with the bus, Reach fixes it.’

‘What about you, Crimson. What else are you good at?’

For a long moment, Crimson didn’t answer. Then she said, ‘I don’t know, Kevin. I’ve wondered about that myself. Just being a Muddle, I suppose.’

‘That would be enough for anyone, I’d imagine,’ said the Beadle.

‘Kevin, I think I know what Hazlitt and Edith are planning,’ Crimson said. ‘Remember what Amelia wrote in her journal, that the first Myrmidots who came to the Land were defeated by the High Mountains? It wasn’t the High Mountains. It was what was in the High Mountains. It was the blue fire.’

Kevin waited for Crimson to go on. She shook her head sadly.

‘Amelia thought the fire stone was the Guardian. I said she was wrong. I thought the blue ice was the Guardian because it protected us from the blue fire. We were both right. The blue fire and the blue ice together are the Guardians. The blue fire protects the Land from those who do not belong; it changes them, making them feel despair. And that makes them unhappy with themselves and with others – that’s what Amelia said happened to the first Myrmidots who tried to come here. The blue ice is the balance to the power of the blue fire. It protects those of us who are here from the fire.

‘But in the Land, without the balance of the ice, the fire will infect the people near it. I think that’s what Hazlitt and Edith want. They wanted the blue fire in the Land so that it would corrupt the Myrmidots. Maybe they aren’t sure what will happen after that. Perhaps the Myrmidots will turn against the Muddles, and then the Beadles. Or perhaps, like the first Myrmidots to come here, they will give up in despair and return to The Place.’