The Children of Hare Hill (6 page)

Chapter 14

Ben rubbed his eyes. For a few seconds, he had been blinded and he could see coloured spots in his vision as he focused on his surroundings. He saw the stone sculpture standing in the clearing; the Guardian's face had turned back to solid stone. All around him were the moonlit trees and bushes that he hadn't paid much attention to so far, but now the scene took on a feeling that was suddenly more eerie and troubling than he could have imagined. He was all alone.

Panic engulfed him. He spun round and round, searching for his sister, his mother, anyone who could comfort him and tell him everything was going to be okay. This had been without a doubt the strangest experience of his young life, but he hadn't been scared of the unknown up to this point. Charlotte had been there to help him on his way. Sure, they were a team, but they were a team of two with one of them very much in charge. Now he was on his own: a team of one with no one to turn to. He shouted "Charlotte!" over and over, but received only hoots from unseen owls in the trees in reply.

The only other time he'd felt as lost as this was when he lost his mother in a supermarket. He remembered the panic he felt then—like he would never see his mother ever again and he would have no choice but to live in the supermarket, eating food from the shelves while the staff weren't looking. But a member of staff found him crying, took him to the front of the shop, and made an announcement over the loudspeaker. Within seconds, his mother had run to him and given him the biggest hug he'd ever had. She told him that he had done the right thing. He should always find a grown-up to help him—someone in a uniform, not a stranger.

With that thought in his mind, he ran back to the stone sculpture in the clearing. The Guardian of Hare Hill was a grown-up, wasn't he? He was definitely in charge around here and, if anyone could do something like make a loudspeaker announcement in the park, it would be him. Then Charlotte or their mother—or both of them—would come running and give him a great big hug again.

But it wasn't to be. The Guardian's face was solid stone. Ben shouted for Charlotte again, and the silence surrounding him brought a tear to his eye. He looked at the Guardian of Hare Hill. They had spoken to him twice, and on both occasions it had been when he had wanted to tell them something to help them on their way. Why didn't he want to help Ben now? Was it because he thought Ben didn't need any help?

Ben thought of the last moment he'd been with his sister. They had rolled their dice—they added up to ten. Maybe this situation—this loneliness—was just another one of the challenges? From their trip through the park with their mother, he remembered that the tenth wooden hare was on the other side of the walled garden and, with no other idea available to him, he set off down the path, wondering if he would find his sister there.

* * *

Charlotte was also alone, standing in the same spot she had rolled the dice with her little brother, only Ben wasn't there. She had been through the same torrent of emotions as her brother. Fear and panic came and went—although not completely—and with no response from the Guardian, she also concluded that she should search for the tenth hare. As she made her way along the path that led round the outskirts of the walled garden, she thought back to the day Ben had got lost in the supermarket.

She had been at school that day, so she only heard about it when she got home, but she was awoken every night by Ben screaming in the next room, his nightmare of being left alone in the supermarket recurring for two weeks straight. She could only imagine the distress he was feeling now, and hoped he would work out that their isolation was almost certainly part of the puzzle that would lead them to the tenth wooden hare.

Hare number ten was actually two hares—a sculpture from a wide tree trunk showing two hares playfully boxing with each other. Charlotte emerged from the trees on the western side of the walled garden, expecting to see the sculpture sitting by the north wall, but it wasn't there. She took her backpack off her back and set it down on the wide step where the sculpture should have been, then took out the map. The tenth hare hadn't been drawn onto the map, but another hare was there, on the other side of the pond. She saw the number of the hare she needed to visit next and realised what had happened. Then she hoped Ben would work it out too.

Chapter 15

The wooden sculpture of the two hares wasn't there when Ben arrived on the other side of the walled garden. He had clung onto the thought that he knew what he was doing, and the fact that nothing was here waiting for him set him back to the edge of tears.

We rolled ten on our dice
, Ben thought.
Where has the tenth wooden statue gone?

He slumped onto a bench, throwing his backpack down next to him. For the first time in a while, he felt the cold air bite at his skin. He opened his backpack, hoping he had some extra clothes with him, but it had been a hot day when they had set off so his mother hadn’t packed anything more.

He didn't even have a map—Charlotte had it in her backpack. He thought of Charlotte and tried to imagine what she would do if she was in his shoes right now. Somewhere deep in his soul, he had a strong suspicion she was in exactly the same situation, trying to work out why the wooden hares had disappeared. He knew his big sister was very clever, but hadn't she been just like him only a few years ago? Would he be as clever as Charlotte when he got to eight years old? He saw no reason why that wouldn't happen. He also had a strong suspicion that she had already worked out what she needed to do, so surely he should be able to do it too?

He thought about what they had learned so far. They had to complete challenges and puzzles to break the wooden hares out of their spells—spells cast by a witch, or maybe by someone else. Then, when they had broken the spell, they would roll the dice. A new hare would then appear—on the map and in the real world, or whatever world this was—and they would move on to the next challenge. The riddle the Guardian of Hare Hill had told them popped into his head, but he decided not to think about it for now.

He thought again about the question that had gone through his mind when he got there:
Where has the tenth wooden statue gone?

They had rolled ten with their magic dice. But what if it wasn't ten between them—what if it was a six for Charlotte and a four for Ben?

* * *

The quickest path to the sixth hare was over the island in the pond. As Charlotte made her way, the words of the Guardian's riddle repeated over and over in her mind. She had solved this type of problem before, and she was sure that Ben could work it out, but she just needed some quiet time to think about it. That was time she didn't have right now—she had to complete whatever challenge was in front of her and hope it would bring her little brother back to her.

She hesitated at the bridge that led to the island in the pond. It was safer to follow the path on the shore to the sixth hare, but it would take more time. Again, she told herself she didn't have time, and stepped onto the bridge that she had earlier seen collapse into the water. The boards creaked as she walked across, but she safely made it all the way to the island. She followed the path on the island, which forked to the left, leading over a bridge towards the fifth hare, and to the right, leading over a third bridge to the sixth hare. She took the path to her right and was about to set foot onto the bridge when she heard a shout from behind.

"Charlotte!"

* * *

Ben made his way through the trees in search of the fourth hare. He remembered it was on the path that led to the bird-watching hut at the northeast corner of the park, and felt pleased with himself when he saw the wooden hare sitting in the grass as he approached. He had been thinking about the Guardian's riddle. He knew that Charlotte would be able to solve it, and maybe he would be able to help her, but he had to find her first. If he could complete whatever challenge was waiting for him here and free the fourth hare, he hoped it would lead him back to his sister.

They had bickered and fought so much over the past two years. Almost all of his living memories involved some kind of confrontation with his sister. Their mother kept telling them that they used to play so nicely together and, while he believed it, he couldn't remember it. He decided that when he found her again, he would try really hard to be nice to her. Somehow, he knew she was thinking the same thing about him.

The fourth hare offered no clues about the challenge that lay before him. The inanimate wooden hare sat in the grass, surrounded by a ring of his father's ashes. There were no marks in the path and no tools lying in wait for his arrival. He scanned his surroundings and saw only trees, bushes, and flowers in the moonlight that felt like it was going to last forever. Then he looked down the path to the bird-watching hut and saw through the crack in the door that the light inside had been turned on.

* * *

Charlotte spun round in shock.

"Charlotte!" the voice shouted again. It was the voice of a woman, but not her mother. She crept back along the path until she saw a hand waving to her from the other side of the bridge that had taken her and Ben to the fifth hare.

"Ah, there you are, Charlotte," said the woman. She was probably about the same age as their mother and she was dressed in a suit that made her look like she was a member of an official group—maybe the police—but there were no indications what that group might be. Her long black hair was tied back and she wore spectacles, giving her a trustworthy air of authority.

Charlotte stood firm and said, "Who are you?"

"I know where you brother is," the woman said. "Come with me."

Ben!
Charlotte thought.
She knows where Ben is!
She was about to set foot on the bridge to run over to the stranger when she realised that's exactly what this person was—
a stranger
.

"Wait a minute," Charlotte said, "you didn't answer my question. Who are you?"

"I'm just someone who can help you get your brother back. How did you get stuck in the park like this? It's the middle of the night!"

Charlotte didn't know how to explain her situation. The sudden appearance of a stranger—another real person—made the whole experience feel like a dream, like the search for the hares to break them out of their spell hadn't really happened. How could she even begin to explain that to this woman? She would think Charlotte was crazy!

"I don't know," Charlotte said. "We fell asleep in the day and woke up here in the night time. We're trying to find our mother."

"Your mother? Alison?" Charlotte nodded at the woman's question. "I know where she is as well. Quick, come with me and I'll take you to both of them."

Charlotte hesitated. Something in her soul told her to slow down and think about things before going anywhere with this woman, but the stranger was persistent. The tone of her voice was becoming more and more urgent.

"Come on, Charlotte. We need to go now or you'll never see them again."

Chapter 16

The door of the bird-watching hut creaked as Ben edged it open. Peeking inside brought back a long-forgotten memory of an Easter egg hunt around Hare Hill. On the Easter Sunday before their father died, they were given a map upon their arrival at Hare Hill—much like the maps their father made for them—with the instruction that if they found all the hares and noted down the names that had been pinned to each one, the Easter Bunny would be waiting in the bird-watching hut, ready to give them their reward of a chocolate Easter egg. Even back then at three years old, Ben knew the Easter Bunny was actually some poor unfortunate member of the park staff who had drawn the short straw to wear a pink rabbit suit for the day and hand out chocolate eggs to every kid who walked through the door.

Now the hut was empty, apart from a bench that ran the length of the opposite wall under the open shutters. On the bench sat a pair of binoculars and a clipboard with a sheet of paper clipped to it and a pencil tied on with a piece of string.

Confident there was nothing in there that could cause him harm, Ben stepped into the hut. He sat down on the bench and picked up the clipboard. The piece of paper had eight squares drawn on it, with a message written along the top.

Can you find all the wildlife in the park?

The first square contained the silhouette of a hare and the other seven were empty. Ben pulled the cord to turn out the light in the hut and picked up the binoculars. He looked through the open shutters, into the clearing outside, scanning the surroundings but seeing only empty bird tables. He adjusted the dials on the binoculars and was amazed how powerful and clear they were. One dial made his view zoom in so far that he could see the individual leaves on the trees that must have been at least fifty yards away.

He zoomed out again, then took the binoculars away from his eyes to take in the whole scene. Suddenly, there was a rustling in the bushes. He looked through the binoculars and zoomed in. He saw the leaves moving back and forth, then a hare appeared from under the bush, wriggling its nose on the ground, foraging for something to eat. Then, as soon as the hare had appeared, it ran away again, back into the undergrowth.

Ben lowered his binoculars, picked up the pencil, and marked the picture of the hare on the clipboard with a tick. A moment later, the silhouette of a kestrel appeared in the second box.

* * *

"Come on, Charlotte," the woman said. "You need to come with me now."

Charlotte didn't know what to do. This woman, who seemed like she wanted to help Charlotte when she first appeared, was becoming more and more threatening in what she was saying. She seemed to duck out of answering any of Charlotte's questions. "Who are you?", "Where did you come from?", and "How do you know where my mother and little brother are?" had all been met with a reply of "It doesn't matter—we need to go now!" or were just plain ignored.

It didn't feel right. Charlotte couldn't explain it, but she had an overwhelming feeling telling her not to go with this woman. She had always been told to only trust grown-ups in uniform when she was in trouble but, on a night where she had seen all kinds of magical things, this was the first time she had felt in real danger.

The woman took a step towards the bridge. Alarm bells sounded in Charlotte's mind.

"No!" she shouted, and edged back, away from the bridge.

"We're wasting time, Charlotte," the woman growled as she set foot on the bridge. "If you don't come with me, you'll never see your mummy or your little brother ever again."

"No!" Charlotte shouted again, louder this time. There was a rustle in the bushes around her and out of the corner of her eye she saw movement in the grass at her feet. Then there was movement all around her. She took her eyes off the woman who was stalking across the bridge and saw hares sitting at her feet: seven of them—the seven hares Charlotte and Ben had freed from their spell so far. All at once, they sat upright, as if they were soldiers standing to attention, and looked directly at the woman crossing the bridge. Charlotte looked up and saw the woman on the bridge. She was only a few steps from the island.

To Charlotte's amazement, the woman’s appearance was changing. Just moments ago, she had appeared to be the same age as Charlotte's mother, but now she was ageing before her eyes. Grey and white streaks shot through her hair; her skin became pale and wrinkled; her eyes narrowed and, with each step across the bridge, her body stooped further until she had the undeniable look of a wicked witch.

"Come with me, Charlotte," she snarled.

Without thinking, Charlotte raised her hand and shouted, "No! Go away!"

The next few seconds were a blur. All of a sudden, Charlotte was surrounded by a golden glow. It was the hares: all seven of them were shining with the same magical light they had emitted when they were broken from their spell. She had barely a split-second to register the phenomenon before her arm recoiled from a blast of golden light that shot from her palm, heading towards the bridge.

The wooden planks of the bridge burst into a million tiny pieces in an almighty explosion of splinters and golden light, sending the woman tumbling into the pond, screaming "Charlotte!" until she sank, coughing and spluttering, beneath the surface of the water.

Charlotte blinked, and once more all was calm. The glow from the hares had been extinguished. Their task complete, the hares scurried away.

Was that woman the witch?
Charlotte wondered.
Have I killed the witch who cast her spell on the hares of Hare Hill?

Then she thought of Ben and how he might cope in the same situation. She found the bridge that led to the sixth hare and pressed on.