Spellfall (6 page)

“I’m suggesting you’re acting very strangely for someone whose twelve-year-old daughter has just gone missing,” the policewoman said, calmer. She was young and slim with light blonde hair. Her back was turned to Tim but he could tell she’d be pretty. Mr Marlins always got upset when confronted with a pretty woman who had hair that colour.

Don’t underestimate her
, Tim thought. According to Gaz, women police constables were the worst. He reckoned WPCs are really nice to you then suddenly, when you’re least expecting it, they spring a trap.

“Was Natalie having any problems at home?” she asked.

“What sort of problems?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

The two stared at each other.

“Look, I’ve had just about enough of this!” Mr Marlins clenched his fists and took a step towards the policewoman. With a peculiar sort of thrill, Tim wondered if he was going to hit her. But at that moment Mr Marlins noticed his wife and stepson hovering by the door.

He stared at Tim’s head for a full thirty seconds. His face flushed crimson as he shoved past the policewoman. Tim braced himself. But Mr Marlins didn’t touch him. One hand on the door handle, he turned and growled, “Just do your job and find my daughter!” On his way out he hissed at Tim, “I’ll deal with you later, my boy.” He shook his head at Julie and slammed the door.

The policewoman considered Tim with her pretty blue eyes. He could almost see her categorizing him. He straightened his shoulders and faced her defiantly. If she asked where he’d been last night, he’d deny all knowledge of the public toilets. The others wouldn’t tell. Death Heads never told the police anything.

She didn’t ask. She made him and his mother sit down on the sofa, took the armchair for herself and chatted to them as if they were friends. Tim relaxed a bit. “No,” he said innocently when she asked if he’d seen Nat go out. “I was in bed. Sleep like the dead, me. I didn’t hear no one creeping about the house.”

This earned him a sharp glance from Julie. She didn’t say anything even though she must have known he’d been out later than usual last night. He felt a bit bad about lying. But it couldn’t be important, could it? After all, Jo had been with Nat since he’d seen her leave the house.

“I see.” The policewoman double-checked the time he claimed he’d gone to bed, wrote “half past midnight” in her notebook, then asked him how he got on with his new family and how he liked living in Millennium Green after the big city.

“Mr Marlins don’t like me much,” Tim said finally, to shut her up. “Which is fine by me, ’cause I don’t like him much neither.”

His mother told him off for being cheeky and apologized to the policewoman, who looked at Tim’s head and gave her a sympathetic glance. Tim set his jaw. Then the policewoman’s radio crackled and she excused herself while she held a quiet one-sided conversation over by the French window.

Tim stole a look at his mother. She was curling the ends of her hair round and round her fingers. She’s really worried, he thought with a jolt.

After a few minutes the policewoman came back, a peculiar look on her face. Julie jumped up. “What?” she demanded. “What is it?”

The two women stared at each other. Julie went deathly pale. Uneasy prickles worked their way up and down Tim’s spine.

“They’ve found the dog,” the policewoman said gently. “In the river. I’m afraid it was dead.”

Tim turned cold. “What about Nat?” he said but no one answered.

His mother flopped back on to the sofa with a little moan. The policewoman sat beside her and held her hand, saying soothing things.

Forgotten, Tim fiddled with his earring. “Nat can swim,” he said stubbornly. “Don’t worry, she’ll be OK. I bet she’ll be back in time for tea.”

*

In her dream, Natalie was drowning. She’d been skating with Jo but she’d fallen into the river in the fog. The water was freezing and stole her breath away so she couldn’t even scream. Dad, Julie, and Tim were on the bank but they didn’t see her as the river carried her further and further downstream. She tried to swim against the current but the skates were too heavy. They were dragging her under. It grew darker as the river plunged into a haunted wood where huge trees reached for her with gnarled fingers and whispered strange secrets into her ear—

She woke with a gasp, drenched in sweat, to find herself tucked up in bed and the room in darkness. She rolled over with a sigh of relief and reached for her bedside lamp. Just a nightmare, that was all.

The lamp wasn’t there.

In a cold rush, it all came back. The supermarket car park, the fog, the needle in her neck. She jerked up and stared around in terror.

Her captors had taken her glasses – the room was blurred. But she made out bars across the moonlit window, their shadows falling across unfamiliar furniture, sloping attic ceilings, and a chair in which a small figure slumped, his head resting against the wall.

Natalie clutched the blankets to her chin and stared at the boy. Even without her glasses, there was no mistaking that unruly hair, those awful clothes. Without stopping to think, she fought off the blankets and clambered out of bed. “You little slime-bag!” she yelled, thumping him. “You deliberately tripped me!”

The boy jerked awake and jumped off the chair, arms over his head. “No, don’t get up! He took your—”

Natalie’s fury died in a flood of embarrassment, confusion and fear. Sometime while she’d slept, her jeans and anorak had been replaced by a thin cotton shift that barely came to her knees. She grabbed the blanket she’d just discarded and wrapped it tightly around herself.

“—clothes,” the boy finished, staring fixedly at his feet. “It wasn’t my fault. Don’t hurt me, please.”

Did he really think she was going to hurt him? Like this?

Movement had revived all the bruises she’d suffered in the car park when she fell. Her legs were wobbly, her ankle stiff, her mouth felt like sandpaper. She was standing on bare boards, freezing air whispering up the backs of her legs. There was no sign of a radiator. She shivered and looked round more carefully: ancient chests of dark wood, a couple of cupboards, no rug, just the one chair. The door had been cut at an angle to fit the sloping ceiling and was firmly closed. “Where am I?” she whispered. “Who are you? Why have you brought me here?”

She pulled the blanket closer, tiptoed to the window and squinted through the bars. Everything outside seemed blurred by rippling silver, like trying to see through frosted glass, but she made out a crumbling wall smothered in ivy, a garden choked with brambles, high iron gates, black trees losing their leaves... “The wood,” she whispered, remembering her dream. “We’re in Unicorn Wood, aren’t we?”

Electric light suddenly flooded the room, making Natalie jump. Somehow, she’d expected candles. The light brought her fully awake. She sprang past the boy and made a dash for the door. It was locked. She rattled the handle, tears in her eyes, then took a deep breath and turned back to the boy. “Let me out?” she said. “Please.”

The boy stood awkwardly by the wall, his hair brushing the low ceiling, watching her. “Can’t,” he said simply. “It’s bolted on the outside. And I’m not supposed to tell you where you are.”

Was he a prisoner too, then? Her arms were a rash of goosebumps. She couldn’t think straight. She returned to the bed and tucked the covers around her cold feet. “Don’t you ever wash?” she said, uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her. “Those clothes look like they’ve come out of a bin.”

The boy rubbed his elbow and said nothing.

Natalie sighed. At least he
had
clothes. She tried again. “Look, I’m thirsty and my head hurts. I don’t understand any of this. Can’t you just tell me what you want? If you’ve kidnapped me, you’ve got the wrong person. My dad hasn’t got any money. He hasn’t even got a job, not any more, and all Julie’s money goes to buy food.” She squinted at the boy. “What’s your name? What school do you go to?”

The boy chewed his lip. “Promise you won’t laugh.”

The last thing Natalie felt like doing was laughing, but she said, “Promise.”

“My name’s Merlin, and I don’t go to school. I’ve got my computer instead.
Encarta
, and lots of other stuff. Father gives me lessons in spell casting. Least, he used to before he started all this Earthaven business.”

In spite of everything, Natalie spluttered. “Merlin? As in the great wizard, you mean?”

He coloured. “You said you wouldn’t laugh! It’s a joke of my father’s, ’cause I’m so useless. We’re sort of like wizards, you see, even if we don’t have the power of the Earthaven Spellmages. But we still keep familiars and most of us use their names like in the old days. When I was little, Father got me a real merlin and made me take it out into the forest so we could bond.” He gave her a hesitant look. “It’s a kind of hawk.”

“I know what a merlin is. I’m not stupid.”

“Sorry. Then you know a merlin’s much smaller than a goshawk, which is what Father has for his familiar, but its claws are just as sharp. I was scared and let it go, so he bonded me with a mouse instead. I think that was supposed to be a joke too, ’cause I play with my computer so much. It’s got a plastic mouse, see?” Catching her expression, he rushed on. “Of course, I expect you know lots about computers if you go to school. But I don’t care. I’d much rather have a mouse than a silly bird, anyway. He’s called Redeye.” The boy’s face softened but his smile soon disappeared. “I’m supposed to show him to you, only Father’s still got him locked in the cellar.”

Natalie shifted uneasily on the bed and a spring
poinged
. Merlin was obviously as crazy as the rest of his family. The blonde woman who had stuck the needle in her neck must be his mother. With parents like that, she’d be pretty loopy too. And yet, her own father had reacted strangely when he’d seen that wrapper.

“Your father gave me something he called a spell,” she said slowly.

Merlin nodded. “Right! To test you. We can use spells, see, but we can’t recycle them. The Spell Lords have to do that for us in Earthaven. Father hates having to buy spells from them but he’s got no choice.” He licked his lips and ventured out from the corner. “Uh— I don’t suppose you remember what happened in the supermarket?”

Memory momentarily banished her fear. “That firework, you mean? You were so stupid! Don’t you know it’s dangerous to let them off indoors? You’re lucky no one was injured.”

Merlin frowned at her. “It wasn’t a firework, it was the spellflash. So you didn’t cast it, then?” His voice had a strange edge.

She stared at him. “Oh, stop it! I’ve had enough. There’s no such thing as spells, everyone knows that. This isn’t funny any more, Merlin. I want my clothes back and I want to go home.”

It had never been funny. Waking up in a strange house after being drugged and kidnapped wasn’t funny at all. But maybe if she kept thinking of all this as an elaborate Hallowe’en prank, the fear would stay away.

Merlin sighed. “I’m glad I don’t go to school. You don’t seem to learn much there.”

“At least I don’t think I’m some sort of wizard!”

He coloured. “Don’t call us that – it’s rude. We’re Spellmages, least that’s our proper name. In Earthaven they call us Casters but that’s rude too. You’re one of us. Father tested you and he’s never wrong.”

“Well, he is this time,” Natalie said firmly. “So you might as well tell him to let me go.”

The boy chewed his lip. Then he asked in a small voice, “Aren’t you worried about your spider?”

She frowned. “So you
did
steal him! I thought you were after something, you little rat.”

Merlin cringed. “Mouse,” he whispered. “My familiar’s a mouse, not a rat. And please don’t shout. Father’s got your spider in the cellar with Redeye. He’s down there now. He’ll hear us.”

“I don’t care. You can keep Itsy if you want him that badly. Just let me go.”

Merlin blinked. “Without your familiar? But don’t you
feel
it?”

“Feel what?”

“The things—” He swallowed and glanced at the door. “The things Father does to your spider to control you.”

His words reminded Natalie of the needle in the car park. She shivered and clutched the blanket closer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “I’m cold. Where are my clothes?”

“I’m not allowed to tell.”

They watched each other warily.

“Can I have my glasses back, at least?” Natalie asked. “I can hardly see you.”

Merlin chewed his lip, glanced at the door again and shook his head. “Father thinks you might try to run away.”

Her blood rose. “I can run away without them just as well! I’m not
blind
, you know.”

This earned her a very strange look. “I know. But you’d need your shoes. You won’t get far in the woods barefoot.”

True enough. And getting worked up obviously wasn’t going to help get them back. She took a deep breath. “How long have I been asleep?” she asked.

“All day.”

No wonder she was so thirsty! She shivered again.

“Look,” she said as reasonably as she could. “I know none of this is your fault. From what I’ve seen of your father, I don’t blame you for doing what he says. But surely he doesn’t watch you all the time? You said you had a computer?”

He nodded.

“E-mail?”

“No.”

Natalie sighed. It had been too much to hope for. “Telephone?”

Merlin shook his head.

“There must be
some
way you can get a message out. If you help me contact my folks, I’ll tell the police you had nothing to do with all this.”

Merlin shook his head wildly, rolling his eyes at the door. “I can’t! Father’ll find out, then he’ll hurt Redeye.”

She twisted the blanket in frustration. Then she had an idea. “I know! You can slip something into the ransom note.”

“There won’t be a note.”

Ice crawled down her spine. She hardly dared ask. “Then why am I here?”

Merlin stared at his feet. “You’re going to be the thirteenth member of Father’s spellclave,” he mumbled. “Then he’ll be a Spell Lord and have enough power to invade Earthaven.” He glanced up and gave her a little grin. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. If Father hadn’t found you in time he’d have used me instead, only I’m so hopeless the spellclave thought I’d be a liability. He probably wants to steal some spells, that’s all. Don’t worry, you won’t have to use the Thrallstone. Next Saturday between midnight and dawn, the Boundary opens. It passes right by our gate; that’s why Father bought this place. After he’s got his spells I expect he’ll leave you alone. We can play games together on my computer. It’ll be fun.”