Snowbone (30 page)

A bone-rattling roar rocked the cavern and split the tunnel floor. Blackeye spun round. The roof was raining stones, but he could see what he was fighting—the Spirit of Ashenpeake Island. An immense badger, bigger than a barn, with bat-black eyes and a mouth like a storm-cellar door.

Whoof!
The paw cuffed him again, and the world seemed to bend in on itself. The badger roared and reared again, and Blackeye was amazed to find himself still there, unharmed. But could his shadow take this beating? He didn't know. He was feeling weaker by the second.

Whoof!
The badger swiped again. Blackeye didn't see it coming. All he saw was the black-and-white muzzle, with the dead red eyes and the tombstone teeth. And as he gathered his strength and tried to find his breath, those terrible teeth seized him by the scruff of his neck. The badger shook him hard, back and forth, like a dog with a rat. Then it tossed him up into the air to break his back.

And that, for Blackeye, was enough. He closed his eyes, caught his breath and kept on flying. Out of the earth, into the sky, over the ocean. He stopped for nothing, thought of nothing, felt nothing but a burning desire to return to his body and the safety of himself.

And when he saw the mountains below him … and the wagon safe in the lee … and Figgis boiling water … and filling a pot for tea … Blackeye thought he would explode with happiness.

But he didn't. He simply fell back into his body and opened his eyes. Smiled at the anxious faces surrounding him and whispered,
“I've done it.”

“
ow do we know the spell works?” said Tigermane. “We can't try it ourselves—we might Move On!”

The friends were breakfasting outside, under the storm-washed sky.

“I don't want to be a tree!” said Filizar, sticking out his arms and tongue.

Everyone laughed—except Blackeye, who hadn't told them about Mouse, and Snowbone, who was looking thoughtful.

“I'll try it,” Snowbone said suddenly. “Right now. I have nothing to lose.”

“Snowbone!” cried Figgis. “How can you say that?”

“It's true,” she said. “I told you yesterday—I want to finish what I started. This seems the perfect thing to do. I wouldn't mind staying here, on the hillside. It's lovely—you've all told me so. Perhaps my sight will come back as I change. Who knows? I might be able to see it before I go.”

“No!” said Figgis again. “You can't Move On! You think you're doing a big thing, but you're not. You're being selfish.”

“Selfish?” Snowbone gasped. “Giving up my life as an Ashenpeaker to help end slavery is being selfish?”

“Ah, don't play the martyr with us,” said Figgis. “We know your game. You're scared. You can't see anymore, it terrifies the wits out of you, and you'd rather be the hero than have anyone's pity. Well, I'm sorry if my caring offends you, but the truth of the matter is this: we're your friends. We love you and we'd miss you if you weren't here. So that's why I say you're being selfish. If you would stop to think about us, just for one minute, you wouldn't be so quick to leave.”

Snowbone was flabbergasted. Would they really miss her? They'd miss Manu or Blackeye or Figgis, but not her.
Would they?

“I'm sorry,” she said in a small voice. “I didn't think.”

“No, you never do,” said Figgis. He looked at her, sitting on the step of the wagon. She was pale and frail. Forlorn as a fledgling. “Oh, come here, you daft lump!” he said, and he put his arm round her and hugged her close. And for the first time in her life, Snowbone hugged him back.

She didn't see what happened next. Figgis turned to the others, his face a wide mask of surprise. The friends grinned. They were as surprised as he was.

“If you want someone to try the spell, you could ask that girl at the quarry,” said Filizar.

“Daisy?” said Snowbone. “I suppose so. No, you're right! She'd be perfect. She could escape and spread the word at the same time.
Oh!”

“What now?” said Figgis.

Snowbone shrugged. “I just realized—I can't go back and tell her.”

“No, you can't,” said Tigermane. “But I can.”

t was after midnight, some days later, when Tigermane opened a skylight window and peered down into the gloom of a barrack room.

“Daisy,” she whispered. “Daisy.”

There was a movement down below. Daisy's sleep-bleary face looked up. “Tigermane? I thought you'd gone.”

“I had,” said Tigermane, “but I've come back. I want to help you escape.”

“Escape?” said Daisy, still half asleep. “Why? I mean—how?”

“Listen!” Tigermane told Daisy the plan.

Daisy shook her head. “I don't know,” she said slowly. “I would like to escape, that's true. But … well, I'm scared! Suppose it hurts. And what if the spell doesn't work properly? I could end up stuck between two worlds. Half-tree, half-girl. Never able to Move On. That would be just horrible. No. I'm sorry, Tigermane, I can't do it.”

“Please, Daisy!” said Tigermane. “Please! We must get this thing started.”

“I understand that,” said Daisy. “But I don't want to go first.”

“I don't mind,” said a voice. Another girl, looking up. “I'll try,” she said. “I'm not scared. I would do anything to get out of here.”

And Tigermane looked down at the girl's hopeful little face and thought,
If I can save just this one, it will all have been worth it.
“OK,” she said. “This is what you must do.”

The girl listened carefully. “Right,” she said with a reassuring smile for Daisy. “Here goes!” She took a deep breath and covered her eyes with her hands. “I wish to Move On,” she said. She covered her ears. “I wish to Move On.” She covered her heart. “I wish to Move On.”

Tigermane watched her, hardly daring to breathe. “Can you feel anything?”

“No. I feel exactly the same,” said the girl, bitterly disappointed. She looked up and Tigermane saw her eyes were bright with tears. “It's not working.
Oh!”

“Is it starting?”

“Yes. Yes!” Suddenly the girl was smiling, and holding her belly. “I feel … tingly. All over, but especially here. Oh!” She began to breathe deeply. Steady, satisfying breaths. “Oh! Daisy! It's really nice. I feel really good!”

The hoot of an owl drifted through the night. Manu, on guard outside, was sending a warning.

“I have to go,” said Tigermane. She had never felt less like moving in her life. “Please, please,
please
tell the others. Daisy, promise me you will.”

And Daisy looked at her friend's radiant face and said, “I promise. Tomorrow, I will tell everyone I meet. And tomorrow night … I'll be brave. I'll say the words and join my friend.” She took hold of the girl's hand and kissed it.

Manu hooted again.

“I
have
to go,” said Tigermane. “What's your name? My friends will want to know.”

“I don't have one,” said the girl.

“Then I'll call you Snowdrop,” said Tigermane. “Because it's the first flower. It's brave and beautiful. It blooms while it's still winter and brightens the darkest of days. Thank you. Thank you both.”

Tigermane melted into the shadows and, with Manu by her side, ran back to the wagon.

“Did she try it?” asked Manu once they were safely out of the quarry.

“No, but her friend did,” said Tigermane.

“Does it work?”

Tigermane pictured Snowdrop: her dark, excited eyes; her luminous face; her wonderful smile. “Oh, yes,” she said. “It works!”

he friends returned to Farrago cautiously. Slavery was far from over; they had to be careful. Manu drove the wagon to the airfield, then ran back into town. He had another of Filizar's rings in his pocket. With luck, it would raise more than enough money to get them all home.

The others waited in the wagon. They were supposed to be hiding, but Filizar couldn't resist peeping out between the flaps. The airfield was such an extraordinary place, with people arriving from every part of the world. Affluent traders, stylish in velvet and fur. Prospectors and trappers with weather-beaten faces and horny hands. Adventurers and dreamers with holes in their boots and hope in their hearts.

“There's Stellan!” he cried suddenly.

“Don't let him see you,” said Figgis. He dragged Filizar away from the opening.

“Why?” said Filizar. “Stellan's OK.”

“Said the rabbit as the wolf went by,”
said Snowbone, instantly angry. “There's no way I'm flying back on the
Stormrunner.
N o
way! I wouldn't care if it were the last machine on this earth, there's no way I'd—”

“Shh!” said Tigermane, peering through a hole in the canvas. “Oh! Stellan's seen us! He's coming over!”

Suddenly the flap was pulled back, and there was Stellan, looking them over. “Hey!” he said. “I didn't expect to find you here!”

“If we
are
here, it's no thanks to you,” said Snowbone.

“Nay, wait a minute!” protested Stellan. “I wasn't there, remember? Skua sent me on an errand. By the time I came back, you had gone. I was mortified! Skua had done some bad things over the years, but that was outrageous. I left him, there and then, and I haven't seen him since. On my honor! You must believe me! I thought you were legal. Skua said you had Papers.”

“Papers?” said Figgis.

“Ya, Papers. To show you are freeborn. Nay?”

Figgis was shaking his head.

“Have you never traveled?”

“No,” said Figgis. “I walked as far as Kessel once, but other than that … no. There was no need.”

“Ah!” Stellan smiled ruefully. “I wish I had known! If you are an Ashenpeaker and you want to travel, you need Papers. Legal papers that show you are
freeborn
, not a slave. You get them in Kessel. It's easy. There's an office by the harbor. They don't cost anything. But you can't travel to the Nova Land without them. Well, you can, but … you know what can happen! Anyway, what are you doing here? Do you need a flight?”

“No,” snarled Snowbone.

“Yes,” said Figgis. “We do.”

“Well, you have one!” said Stellan. He grinned broadly. “My friends, you will not believe what happened to me after I left Skua.”