The Book of Lies (9 page)

Still no response from the Book. Bea closed her eyes and Marcel guessed her story was about to change. “But after a year or two, when I could walk and talk, the nuns became afraid of me. If I stood perfectly still in the shade of a tree, it was like I’d vanished into thin air. They thought I was bewitched and complained to the priest about the child he had brought them. The priest had no answer for their questions, but it was clear the nuns didn’t want me among them, so he brought me to Mrs Timmins.”

Now that she was finished, she dared to open her eyes and look at the Book. It cast a golden glow into the kitchen’s dim light. Her story was not in Lord Alwyn’s Book of Lies. It hadn’t given her this life to replace her own. What she had just spoken aloud was the truth.

Bea sat before the silent, unmoving Book and the hope seemed slowly to leave her body. “I’m not like you,” she sighed.

They could not delay any longer. It would soon be light, and they had to return the Book. Bea shook herself free of her sadness and ventured out into the damp night air, making her way to the far side of the house. Marcel followed Bea as best he could, using his ears more than his eyes. Then she disappeared altogether into the overgrown shrubs beside the house.

He waited anxiously, scouring the darkness, expecting to see Termagant at any moment, until suddenly Bea was back beside him and he could breathe again. Then they crept noiselessly into the house once more, up the stairs and into their beds.

A
S EACH DAY PASSED
quickly on to the next, Marcel soon found he had been with Mrs Timmins for a week and the routine of life in the orphanage had begun to settle around him. That was the strange thing about routines. After seven, or was it eight days – he wasn’t sure – he felt as though he had been there for a year.

Nicola wouldn’t speak to him the morning after they had huddled together over the Book of Lies, and she seemed even more wary of Bea. Marcel could hardly blame her, and in fact he was quietly pleased. It seemed to have brought her down a peg or two. She might have gone back to her haughty ways, but he detected an uncertainty behind her sullen glares.

“She’s confused,” he whispered to Bea. “I’ll bet she doesn’t know what to think.”

He felt sorry for her too, because he knew what misery she was going through better than anyone. “It’s even harder for her than it is for me. I’ve got nothing to remember, but the life Lord Alwyn put into her head must seem pretty real to her.”

“Yes, you’re right. If she’s going to believe us, then she has to forget the life of the pampered girl that she remembers. That must be a hard thing to do,” said Bea.

Marcel noticed the sympathy in her eyes. It was when her face warmed like this that she was easiest to see.

But if Nicola was avoiding
him
, Marcel couldn’t seem to avoid Fergus, no matter how much he wanted to. Mrs Timmins threw them together at every opportunity, whether it was chopping wood or hauling water from the well. Perhaps she thought they might come to like each other.

When she sent the older boys into the orchard with Albert to collect apples one day, Marcel and Fergus competed to see who could retrieve the highest fruit. But apple trees aren’t much good for climbing. It was clear that one of the pair would come crashing to earth sooner or later. The younger children gathered to see who it would be.

Marcel felt a branch straining under him. He didn’t know whether he had been afraid of heights in his earlier life, but as he swayed precariously in the apple tree, he certainly knew he was now.

He was saved when Albert came looking to see where all his workers had gone. “Get down from there, you fools!” he bellowed angrily. “I don’t know what it is about you two. First you ride wild horses like a pair of madmen and now you’re determined to break every bone in your bodies. Seems I’ll have to keep you apart until you learn some sense.”

He ordered Fergus off to the woodpile. “As for you, Marcel, there are plenty of apples down the end of this row.” He tossed two empty sacks at his face and waved him away, calling to the rest of the boys to follow him back towards the house.

Marcel wandered miserably towards the stone fence. It was the limit of his world and a reminder of what Lord Alwyn’s powerful magic had done to him. On the far side of the wall lay a stretch of tall grass and blackberry bushes that separated the orphanage from the dense green and black of the forest. Even the colours recalled the wizard and his robe, and as Marcel stood staring into the trees, fighting a deep despair, once more he turned the golden ring on his little finger with the tip of his thumb.

He sighed and began to pick apples. He soon had one of the sacks bulging with the fruit he could reach from the ground, then, putting this aside, he climbed into one of the trees. He was still only a short distance from the ground when an odd whooshing noise caught his ear, not loud and lasting less than a second. It stopped suddenly when an arrow
thudded into the ground only inches from the sack he had just filled with apples.

The shock made him lose his grip. He fell out of the tree, landing painfully on his bottom, which had only just lost the bruises after his fall from Gadfly. His first instinct was to lie still. His second was to flee. He was about to do the latter when he realised there was something wrapped around the shaft of the arrow. It looked like the page from a book, lashed tightly into place with coil after coil of black twine.

With a desperate lunge, he darted out into the open and snatched the arrow from the ground before retreating like a lizard to the meagre protection of the apple trees. There, he used his teeth to snap the twine, and instantly, the paper spiralled open in his hand. It wasn’t a page from a book but a letter.

Marcel,

Yes, I know that is your name and that you do not belong in this orphanage. I have horses waiting in the forest. Join me now. Tell no one and be sure you are not seen.

From a friend of your father’s.

My father’s! Marcel gasped. It was true, then. Everything he had discussed with Bea, everything he had guessed at and hoped for was real. He had a father and most likely a mother too, both living. He rushed to the boundary wall and readied himself to leap over.

Be sure you are not seen
, the letter had warned. He turned back towards the house and to his relief found that none of the other children was in sight. But at the last moment, he caught a glimpse of the grey stones that formed the very top of the tower. Termagant. The enchanted ring. He fell back into the orchard, shoulders slouching helplessly as his eyes scoured the forest with a longing that almost burst his heart.

What could he do? How could he signal whomever had sent that message? All he could manage was to spread his hands wide in futility and wave the letter pathetically.

Minutes passed, and he was ready to turn away, aching with disappointment, when he saw a sudden movement. Someone dressed in black broke from behind a tree. Moments later a second figure emerged. They were in the open for only seconds before they disappeared again behind some sprawling blackberry canes.

“Marcel,” came the call soon afterwards. It was a furtive whisper, pitched to reach his ears and no further. “Marcel, don’t be afraid. Come with us into the forest.”

In the same carefully gauged whisper he replied, “I can’t. If I jump the wall, Lord Alwyn will know straightaway.”

“The great wizard!” came the deep voice again, clearly alarmed now. “He is here…?”

With a glance over his shoulder, Marcel confirmed it. “He lives in the tower above the house.”

This news brought silence, a silence so long that Marcel feared the men had backed away into the forest, leaving him to his fate.

“Please, tell me who I am!” he called, as loudly as he dared. “If you are a friend of my father, then you can at least tell me who he is! Where is he, and where do I come from? Please tell me
something
!”

The men had not retreated – or at least one of them had not, for after a further pause that seemed to Marcel to stretch out for a lifetime, a tall figure all in black stepped out from his hiding place so that Marcel could see him. That is, he let his body be seen, neatly dressed in a stylish woollen cape and splendid leather boots that came almost to his knees. His face, however, was hidden beneath a fine wide-brimmed hat topped by a large and jaunty feather.

The man kept low, but even so, the dozen strides he took to reach the stone wall were measured and confident. A sword slapped against his thigh but the object that caught Marcel’s eye was the dagger tucked into his belt, the rich red of rubies glinting on its handle. He halted and asked softly, “Are you saying that you don’t know who you are?”

“Only my name. Lord Alwyn worked his magic on me, on the night I arrived. I can’t remember a thing from before then.”

“No memory,” the stranger repeated to himself. Still he hesitated, weighing this startling news in his own mind, as
though it were a heavy stone he did not want to pick up. Slowly, he tilted his head back until the face, unseen until now, was finally revealed.

An attractive face it was too, with a handsome nose and chiselled cheeks diminished only by the first shadow of stubble on its pointed chin. Standing to his full height at last, he was taller than any man Marcel could remember seeing. And there was no mistaking the proud bearing. This was a man whose orders were obeyed.

His sharp blue eyes demanded Marcel’s attention the very moment they fell on him. He seemed to be looking for something in Marcel’s eyes too, and after a moment the boy guessed what it was. Recognition – yes, this man expected him to know who he was.

“Who… who are you?” Marcel asked tentatively.

The question finally settled the man’s doubts and he answered then without hesitation. “My name is Sir Thomas Starkey, but it was a true queen who knighted me, Madeleine herself. Now that a usurper sits on her throne I refuse to use the title she gave me. People call me Starkey, and nothing more. I prefer it that way, until the false king is overthrown. I have dedicated my life to that end.”

His compelling eyes bored into Marcel as he paused. “Are you sure you haven’t heard of this king? His name is…” Again he halted, watching Marcel’s face while he pronounced the word. “His name is Pelham.”

“No, I have never heard the name before,” Marcel assured him immediately.

“What of Princess Eleanor, then? Does that name mean nothing to you? Or Prince Damon?”

He was supposed to know them, or why else would the man ask? Marcel’s misery narrowed his throat, so that he could answer only with a shake of his head.

“This is an amazing thing,” said Starkey, stroking his chin.

A movement behind Marcel made him spin around, afraid that one of the orphans had strayed into the orchard after all.

“Hector,” Starkey whispered urgently, “join me here and don’t say a word.”

To Marcel’s surprise, a man appeared from among the apple trees behind him. This was the second dark figure he had seen scamper from the forest, a much shorter man but strongly built like a fighting dog and, it must be said, with a face to match. Heavy brows hooded his eyes, which were little more than slits, and half of his left ear was missing. A longbow protruded from behind his shoulder, and hanging from his waistband, beside his sword, was a quiver full of arrows, each fletched in the same colours as the one that had so nearly pierced the sack of apples. The man lingered and Marcel heard him take a sharp breath, as though he intended to speak in defiance of his master. But he changed his mind and climbed silently over the wall to stand behind Starkey, scanning all directions at once.

Starkey’s hand continued to work at his stubbled chin.

“This is a terrible crime Lord Alwyn has committed against you. I can barely believe it, even of him. Such an evil spell could only have been ordered by Pelham himself, I’m sure of it.”

“But why has he done this to me – and how did you know where to find me?” Marcel pleaded.

“The second part is easy to explain. Rumours of missing children have been whispered for weeks now. Then a traveller sympathetic to my cause heard your name, here in the nearby village. He spoke of a wild horse race, though I hardly listened once he had described you. But enough of this. I will tell you the rest once we are on the road.”

“But I’ve told you, I can’t leave. If I try, Lord Alwyn will track me down.”

“We have horses. With a good start, we can outrun Alwyn’s magic.”

“Can you outrun a huge cat, black as coal and more dangerous than a lion?” Marcel demanded.

Starkey’s eyes widened in alarm. The bowman, Hector, had listened to the rest stony-faced, as though the wrath of God himself would not frighten him, yet now even his rugged features creased uncomfortably.

“Lord Alwyn calls her Termagant,” Marcel went on. “See this ring?” he said, holding up his right hand. Once more he pushed and tugged at it with all his might. “It won’t come off, and if I cross this wall, Lord Alwyn will know and send
Termagant after me. She would cut you two to ribbons before you could even draw your swords.”

“I don’t like the sound of this, Starkey,” said Hector, speaking for the first time. His voice was a low rumble from deep inside his powerful chest.

Starkey seemed thwarted and went back to stroking his chin. “I’ll confess to you, boy, I’d hoped to steal you away from here without any bother. I need you if I am to right the great injustice that has been done. That’s why I have come all this way.”