The Catastrophe of the Emerald Queen (17 page)

 “
Nope, those things dealt with the soldiers. Just what WERE
they?” 

“
Vagthunder
,” Challandra said from the boy’s bed, gently rocking the
crying child in her arms. “They are a final line of defense against
intrusion to this place. I never thought we’d have to use them. The
last time was before I was born.”

 
The boy smiled brightly and
clapped Bue on the arm. “Still, glad you made it
.” 

“
What
happened to the soldier who got out the window?” Bue asked peering
through the foggy diamond shaped patterns in the
glass. 

“
Took off just after Master Leppard took a shot
at him
.” The boy
chuckled. 

“
I need to
check on Madame Veer with the new boy.” Bue said, hoiking his
backpack into a more comfortable position on his shoulder.
 

Challandra sat up quickly. “No, you were told to wait! We
still don’t know if anybody else is in the
building
.” 

“
With those things out there? They didn’t mess
about
.”

 
Challandra decided to appeal
to Bue’s sense of reason. “They’ve gone Bue and look, if you wander
off then Leppard may have to come and look for you, meaning that
there will be more problems until he finds you. Just wait here like
we said
.”

 
Bue mused on this for a moment
then decided. “Fair enough
,”
he said, sitting down on the nearest bed. “But if they’re not back
very soon I’m going after them.”

Jared and Leppard rounded the corners cautiously. There was
one of the huge creatures in the corridor but, as if reacting to
some secret signal, it had ignored them and then walked into the
nearest wall and
disappeared
. The
corridor’s torches cast a flickering, yellow glow on the walls and
Jared was struck by the almost complete silence in the building,
after the chaos of only a few minutes ago.

 “
We
need to check her office first” Leppard whispered and motioned to
Jared to stay behind him. Jared moved quietly back to a position at
Leppard’s left so he could still fire his bow if anyone or anything
tried to attack them. 

As they moved forward a voice suddenly
said
. “There’s no need for
that.” 

They span round to find Madame
Veer behind them, her grey hair undone from its tight bun and
spilling over her shoulder. She was in a red night dress and held a
thin jewelled sword in her hands. 

Leppard lowered his bow and
exhaled heavily. “Ma’am. I’m so glad you’re safe. Is anyone else
hurt?”

 “
They knocked me
out
,” she replied, stepping
forward from the shadows to reveal a small cut on her forehead.
“Who summoned the Vagthunder?” 

“
You mean it wasn’t you?” Leppard said, his eyes
widening. “It must have been Challandra then
.” 

“
The girl has
presence of mind in a crisis” Madame Veer replied. She placed the
sword against the wall, tip down and sat on a chair outside her
office. The one usually reserved for errant pupils waiting to face
her wrath. 

“
I feel woozy. Young man, can you take the small
black bag from my office and hand it to me.
”

 
Leppard
moved off down the corridor towards the lodge. Jared glanced
worryingly at Madame Veer and then moved, remembering to hold his
bow out in front of him as he swung the door open. He glanced
around the office from the sputtering light in the hall and spied a
small leather bag by the large desk. He bent down to pick it up and
then returned outside where the stern principal sat holding her
head. She smiled weakly and took the bag from him.

 “
Thank you
Jared
,” she said before
opening it and removing a glass phial. It was like a diamond in
shape but contained a dark orange liquid. She removed the tiny cork
from the top of the vessel and a smell of pineapples sprang from
the neck as she passed it to him. It trembled slightly in his
hand.

 “
Now put one drop only on my
cut Jared, please be careful you do not use more
.” 

Jared raised the glass
cautiously and looked at the wound on her head.

 “
But the cut’s big, it won’t be
enough
,” Jared pointed
out.

 “
Just do as I ask. It will be
fine, trust me
.” 

Jared raised the glass and, while trying to still his
shaking hand, he ever-so-gently tilted the small bottle and saw the
liquid moved to the lip. Madame Veer sat perfectly still, her eyes
closed and Jared watched the liquid form in the small neck of the
glass before a drop fell from the tip. He was just about to pull
his hand back when the drip detached and landed on Madame Veer’s
forehead, missing the cut. He opened his mouth to apologise when
the liquid moved to the wound of its own accord and expanded
briefly to fill the cut on her scalp. With no sound at all the cut
sealed and close
d, the only
sign of injury being the blood on her head. Then that contracted in
on itself and
disappeared
too. 

She opened her eyes and smiled. “Thank you Jared, very well
done. You have a steady hand
.”

Chapter
10

“We can’t
stay here now it’s too dangerous.” Madame Veer said, glancing
around the hallway. There was no sign of the recent disturbance and
intrusion, the orphanage was peaceful again, the moonlight casting
deep, velvet shadows on the floors and ancient walls. Bue shuffled
nervously, his crossbow slung and the quarrel back in its quiver.
Jared was still astounded by what he’d seen and realised this world
had more surprises than he could ever have dreamed of.
 

Leppard was
checking the corridors adjacent to the one they were on. He came
back and nodded. “I agree. We need to leave, but it has to be all
of us.” 

Madame Veer
tied her long silver hair back with a ribbon from her breast pocket
and stood tall. She was an imposing figure even in her night gown.
“I can take three with me via Shimmer. The rest will have to walk
with you.” 

“
We’ve got
Shimmer HERE?” Makeo said looking flabbergasted. “How come we
didn’t know?” 

“
Because you
weren’t meant to know young man,” Veer replied
icily. 

Leppard spoke
to Bue. “Get the three smallest boys and bring them here, tell them
to bring clothes, shoes and no more. Tell the others to wait for us
in the dorm.” 

“
Where are we
going?” Bue asked looking confused. 

Leppard was
about to tell him to do as he’d asked but thought better of it.
“With Madame Veer to the Cherubs. It’s the safest place we can
think of.” 

Bue thought
about this for a moment then tapped Jared on the arm. “Come on
fella,” he said grinning and led the way. 

Leppard turned to Madame Veer.
“Why the walk?” he enquired curiously. “Why don’t we all just go
with you?” 

“
The Shimmer
won’t work with more
than four, won’t work without me and once I’m gone; can’t be used
until I come back and reset it. If everyone could use it this world
would be in chaos.”

 “
Why
not take Jared with you?” Leppard asked, looking
confused. 

“
The smallest
boys are too young to walk and the Shimmer’s signal may be picked
up if Jared uses it.”  

Leppard
smiled brightly. “Fair enough, I could use the exercise
anyway.” 

“
You need to
take the woodland trails and DON’T use magic unless you have no
choice. You will leave a trace that whoever is trying to find that
boy will be able to use to track you. You should make it in just
over a day.” 

Bue and Jared
returned with Challandra. They had the frightened small child who
was clutching Challandra’s hand tightly and staring with scared
eyes at Madame Veer and the others. The other two children were
about seven or eight years old and seemed less upset by the night’s
events but still uneasy. Madame Veer smiled reassuringly. “Don’t
worry children, it will be ok. We are going to visit our friends in
Cherub mansion. You remember that Mr Cherubsayl came here before as
our guest?” 

The three children nodded
silently. 

“
Well he’s
going to look after us now for a little bit. You three are very
lucky as you are going to use the Shimmer with me to get
there.” 

One of the boys brightened at
this and looked up at Leppard then at Madame Veer. “Cor!” he
exclaimed. “Does it hurt when you do that?” 

Madame Veer
smiled. “No Mispyn, it’s just like closing your eyes and opening
them again.” 

“
Oh,
brilliant. I’ve never seen one of these before!” 

The boys had
small leather bags with them with green straps and they were
clutching them tightly. Jared glanced at the smallest boy. The
child still looked bewildered and was clearly scared out of his
wits. Jared caught his eye and winked at him. After a moment’s
pause the boy started to cry and put his arms round Challandra’s
waist. She said gently, “it’s ok Getruhl” and Jared blushed,
grateful no one had seen his unsuccessful attempts at being
reassuring. 

“
Wait here
for a few minutes while I get changed,” Madame Veer said and moved
to a red doorway opposite her office.

 
Jared
looked at Bue. “One day?” 

“
Yep,” Bue
replied grinning wildly. “Should be fun with a capital
F.”

 
After a few minutes Madame Veer returned.
Her hair was tied back in the usual tight bun. She was wearing a
black, formal tunic and black trousers with shiny, polished black
boots, the type a woman would wear to ride a horse.
“
Elegant but also very
scary”
, Jared thought. Over her shoulder
was a larger version of the bags the children had.
 

“
Once we’re
gone go to the kitchen, grab what food you can for yourselves.
Don’t be greedy but then don’t take too little and make sure you
have enough water.” Madame Veer said to
Challandra. 

 
She
turned to the small children. “Ok then boys, come with me,” and
moved off to a large blue door near the cloakroom they were
standing next to and took a key from her pocket. The wood squeaked
in protest and removing the lit torch from the wall, she went in.
The air was musty and the room smelled like it hadn’t been used in
ages. “Once we go, lock this door and put the key in my office,”
she instructed Leppard. 

Mispyn ran forward as the door
swung open and barely paused to brush the cobwebs from his face and
shoulders that had grown across the door frame, before hopping
about excitedly. 

“
This is
brilliant, never thought I’d see one.” 

Jared looked
on puzzled. This wasn’t a platform like he’d expected with devices
to move them individually with some kind of magical control panel.
It was just a large, shallow indentation in the floor that was grey
and unassuming, like the rest of the room. There were a couple of
old, unlit lanterns on the walls and a window, high up on the back
wall behind the dish in the floor. The moonlight shone through the
grimy glass, casting spattered shadows around the room where the
dust span and turned lazily in the air. 

Jared looked around and
wondered why this room, so boring and basic would have to be
permanently locked up and kept secret.

 
Mispyn
was hopping up and down and excitedly shouting, “oh boy, oh boy, oh
boy,” running around and through the centre of the recessed
platform. 

Madame Veer
took another crystal from her pocket and turned to a small bracket
in the wall. It was purple, elegantly engraved and carefully she
placed the jewel in a square slot then stood back. After a few
seconds the jewel glowed brightly.

 
Getruhl
was staring wide eyed and while appearing less frightened than
before was holding tightly to Challandra’s hand as they entered the
room. Mispyn was still jumping about, his shaggy black hair
tumbling over his face.