The Secret of Zanzibar, page 5
She held her breath as her father ran towards the cliff, and as he dropped from sight her heart dropped with him. But suddenly the lines went taut and the wing of his paraglider billowed, filling with air.
Then Emmeline, a look of concentration on her face, ran and jumped. As the wing inflated she banked steeply to the right, following Rebus. Alice watched with an ache in her chest as the figures of her parents grew smaller and smaller, the blue wings merging with the deepening sky.
‘Alex?’ It was Solomon.
‘I’m ready,’ said Alex. He looked confident, but serious, too, as he ran towards the edge of the cliff and over.
Alice’s heart began to pound and for a moment she felt so dizzy with fear that she thought she might faint.
‘Alice,’ said Solomon softly.
On trembling legs, Alice stumbled forward over the uneven ground.
‘Come on, Alice,’ Solomon urged. ‘Faster.’
Alice drew a deep trembling breath then began to sprint towards the cliff edge. Don’t look down, she told herself. Don’t look down. Instead she fixed her eyes on the billowing wing of her brother, moving steadily through the air about fifty metres ahead. Suddenly the ground beneath her dropped away and her breath caught in her throat. Her feet were still moving, as if trying to reach stable ground, and she felt a moment of panic. Then there was a tugging at the harness strapped around her chest and shoulders as the silk behind her filled with air and began to lift.
So this was what it felt like to fly. The wind swept through her fur, currents of cool air washing over her like water, as she soared over a patchwork of fields and trees. There was the same weightless feel as swimming, too, suspended beneath the giant canopy. She glanced to the right, but couldn’t see her parents; perhaps they had landed already. What had Solomon said about landing? That’s right: you used the toggles to fold in the wingtips. And she should be using them to steer, too. She grasped the toggles and squinted into the wind to see where Alex was, then adjusted her course slightly to the left.
She tried to match her descent to his, pulling at the toggles, but she must have pulled too hard, for she came in so low over the Winns her feet almost skimmed the surface of the river. She hit the ground and half stumbled, was half dragged through a field of wet grass, the momentum of her flight carrying her faster than her legs could move. Finally she fell to her knees clumsily and the wing fluttered to the ground ahead of her.
Alex, who had already shrugged off his harness, squelched through the sodden field towards her. He had streaks of mud on his white fur, Alice noticed, pleased to know that she wasn’t the only one who had had an awkward landing. He helped her undo the harness and Alice flexed her shoulders as they both turned to watch Solomon’s approach.
There was nothing awkward in his descent at all. The giant wing seemed like an extension of his body as he floated gracefully to earth, loping across the grass as easily as a long-legged bird, unbuckling his harness as he slowed to a stop.
‘Quick,’ he said, beginning to talk at once. ‘Get your gliders. We’ll carry them with us and hide them in the swamp. We need to get out of sight.’
‘Swamp?’ said Alex, as the three of them hastily gathered silk and strings and harnesses into untidy bundles.
Alice hugged hers to her chest and set off after Solomon across the watery field towards a forest on the far side.
‘Serpentine Swamp,’ said Solomon. ‘We’re going to cross it. From there we can follow the river north to Cornoliana.’
They stepped into the forest and it seemed to Alice that they were immediately enclosed in a different world. Instead of arching over open grassy fields, the sky was hidden by a dense canopy of leaves which allowed only a trickle of green light. Moss dripped from trees growing straight out of the water that lapped against the muddy path on which they walked. Instead of the fresh river smell of the Winns, the air of the swamp was at once ripe and sour and musty.
‘Pee-uw,’ said Alex behind her. ‘This place stinks. I’m going to hold my breath until we’re out of here.’
‘How long will it take us to cross the swamp?’ Alice asked Solomon.
‘We should reach the other side by around lunchtime tomorrow,’ said the rusty orange and white mouse.
‘Tomorrow?’ squawked Alex. ‘I’ll have suffocated to death by then!’
‘Sorry, kids,’ said Solomon. ‘I wish there was another way, but it’s the only part of Gerander I know where there’s no risk of running into Queen’s Guards, and that’s an advantage we can’t afford to ignore.’
‘Why aren’t there any Queen’s Guards in here?’ Alice wanted to know.
‘Because of the snakes,’ said Solomon Honker casually.
‘Snakes?’ yelped Alex.
‘That’s right. Serpentine Swamp is full of them. But don’t worry. You know what they say: snakes only attack when they’re hungry.’
‘What do snakes like to eat?’ Alice asked uneasily.
‘Mice,’ said Solomon Honker.
‘Mice?’ Alice repeated in horror.
‘Well, I’ve never met these particular snakes before. Maybe they’re allergic.’
‘So what do we do if we see a snake?’ Alex wanted to know.
‘Avoid it,’ Solomon advised.
And with that they moved into the cover of the trees.
Alice felt as if her senses were on hyper-alert as she splashed through the ankle-deep water, her feet sinking into the soft mud below the surface. The rustling of leaves sounded like hissing and occasionally a strange cry rang through the tree tops to remind them that they were not alone. The vines creeping up the trunks looked like the sinuous forms of serpents. The slimy mud beneath her feet felt like it was moving, alive, sucking at her toes. Her skin quivered beneath her fur with a sense of dread. She didn’t like this place. She would almost rather be taking her chances with Queen’s Guards along the road – anything would be better than this eerie, oozing swamp.
A movement in the trees above startled her and Alice turned her gaze upwards. ‘Aaaah!’ she screamed when she saw a huge thick brown snake coiling itself around a branch only an arm’s length away.
The snake stared back at her, its gleaming eyes unblinking, and flicked its tongue.
Alice, her heart pounding like a drum, put a hand to her chest.
‘Everything all right back there?’ Solomon called.
‘J-just a s-s-snake,’ Alice called back.
‘Did it seem allergic?’ asked Solomon.
‘N-n-no.’
‘So much for that theory,’ said Solomon.
Too frightened now to look around, Alice did her best to ignore the slitherings in the reeds, the murmurings in the trees, and instead fixed her eyes on the path ahead so as not to trip on the vine that twisted across it like …
‘Solomon!’ she cried, her voice shrill, as the vines on the path moved suddenly.
‘Hmmm?’ Solomon started, then: ‘Oh!’ He sprang backwards, almost colliding with Alice as the snake on the path slid into the water.
On they sloshed through thickening mud. It seemed to Alice that the stench was getting worse. She tried breathing through her mouth but then it seemed to her that she could taste the rot and decay on her lips and tongue.
‘This place is giving me the creeps,’ Alex said behind her. ‘And this mud stinks.’
‘I know,’ said Alice, wrinkling her nose. ‘But maybe that’s a good thing. It might keep the snakes away. Do you think snakes have a sense of smell?’
Alex didn’t say anything.
‘I said do you think snakes have a sense of smell?’
When her brother still didn’t respond Alice turned around. He wasn’t there. She peered through the tree trunks. ‘Alex,’ she said crossly, ‘this is no time to be fooling around.’
No answer.
‘Alex?’ she called uncertainly.
A strange gurgling sound to the left of the path made her look down. The surface of the shallow water was rippling. That was odd. Suddenly the tip of a white nose shot out of the swamp.
‘Alex!’
Alice took a step towards him, her hand outstretched, only to be yanked back abruptly. Solomon Honker had her arm.
Alice struggled to free herself. ‘Let me go!’ she cried. ‘A snake has got Alex. It’s dragged him under water!’
‘Don’t move,’ Solomon said as Alex sank from view. ‘That’s not a snake. It’s quicksand.’
7
Recaptured
‘We have to get out of here,’ said Feast Thompson urgently.
He and Alistair looked around wildly for a path to take, somewhere to hide, but there was nothing. They were trapped.
‘Alistair, we’ll have to climb. Can you stand?’
‘I think so,’ said Alistair, though he really wasn’t sure.
Feast helped him to his feet. Alistair swayed unsteadily for a moment, then staggered as the ground seemed to undulate beneath him. He leaned against the canyon wall for support.
Feast looked up at Slippers Pink and Tibby Rose and shrugged helplessly.
Alistair tipped his head back too. Slippers was still perched on the cliff edge, but he couldn’t see Tibby. Where had she gone?
Feast looked like he was about to say something, but closed his mouth again as a voice nearby said, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we found them trapped in Dead End Gully?’
A second voice replied sceptically, ‘Did you really hear them, Wilco? I haven’t heard a peep.’
‘I heard them – I’m sure of it,’ Wilco protested. ‘Come on, it’s not much further.’
A surge of panic rose in Alistair’s chest. At any moment the Queen’s Guards would see them. He had to climb. He had to! Bracing himself against the wall Alistair raised a trembling leg to the rock face opposite. But when he tried to lift his other leg off the ground, his first leg buckled, unable to bear the weight.
He looked at Feast. ‘You have to go without me,’ he said quietly.
Feast shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m not leaving you.’
‘You have to, Feast,’ Alistair said. ‘There’s no sense both of us being caught.’
Feast looked uncertain. ‘Alistair, I don’t –’ He jerked back as something landed on his head. ‘What …?’ he said, brushing the thing away. Then his face lit up and he grasped it in both hands. It was a rope, with a doubled line tied in a large loop.
‘Alistair, quick, it’s a bosun’s chair.’
‘A what?’
But instead of answering Feast dropped the loop over Alistair’s head. ‘Sit,’ he ordered.
Alistair sat on the loop of rope and almost immediately began to ascend, pulled from above by Slippers and Tibby.
Feast quickly positioned himself between the two rock faces of the crevasse and began to climb the chimney.
They were a little more than halfway up when Alistair saw a flash of red below. The Queen’s Guards!
The others must have spotted them too because the rope jerked to a halt and Alistair saw Feast stiffen. They had to keep perfectly still to avoid attracting the attention of the guards.
One, two, three, four of them came to a stop in front of the vertical cliff face.
‘So where are they?’ demanded a grey mouse.
Don’t look up, don’t look up, don’t look up, Alistair willed them.
‘I heard them,’ a voice insisted stubbornly. It was Wilco.
‘I hate to state the obvious,’ said a sharp voice, ‘but they’re not here.’
‘Maybe you did hear them,’ the fourth mouse soothed. ‘But perhaps they’re in a different part of the canyon and it just sounded like their voices were coming from Dead End Gully.’
‘Didn’t we pass the turn-off for Last Chance Gorge a little way back?’ the sharp voice asked. ‘Could the voices have been coming from there, Wilco?’
‘I suppose so, Wilma.’ Wilco sounded deflated.
The Queen’s Guards turned and filed out of the canyon.
For several long minutes no one moved; Feast was still frozen in position, wedged between the two rock faces, while Alistair dangled from the rope, his knees scraping the rock. His neck was itchy beneath his scarf but he didn’t dare raise a hand to scratch it.
When the voices of the Queen’s Guards could no longer be heard, Feast gave a small grunt and resumed his progress up the chimney. Alistair too began to ascend once more as Slippers and Tibby resumed hauling. In no time, Alistair was sitting on the cliff top looking into their worried faces.
‘How are you feeling?’ Tibby asked as she helped him remove his rucksack.
‘Sore,’ Alistair confessed. ‘And a bit dizzy. But I’ll live.’
There was a groan as Feast heaved himself onto the cliff. He lay panting for a few seconds, his fur damp with sweat. ‘That was close,’ he said, when he could speak again. ‘Tibby Rose, where did you learn to tie a knot like that?’
‘It was just a double bowline,’ said Tibby. ‘Charlotte Tibby used it when one of her friends fell down a crevasse.’
‘If I ever get to Grouch again,’ Feast said, ‘I’m going to put a big bunch of flowers on Charlotte Tibby’s grave.’ Then he added, ‘But I hope I’m not in Grouch anytime soon.’
‘We can probably see Grouch from here,’ Slippers observed.
Alistair, with Tibby’s help, got to his feet and looked. The Eugenian Range stretched away in all directions, hard bare rocks with sparse vegetation rising and falling in ridges like the creases in a blanket.
‘I can’t see Grouch,’ said Tibby, who had wandered off a little way, ‘but look over there.’
They all stared in the direction she indicated. In the distance, just visible behind a series of slopes, was a shimmer of deep blue.
Slippers let out a gasp of delight. ‘It’s Lake Eugenia.’ She looked at the position of the sun. ‘If we walk until dark tonight, then set out again at daybreak, we should reach the lake by tomorrow afternoon.’
‘And then we’re almost to Templeton,’ chimed in Tibby Rose. She sounded excited, Alistair thought.
After a quick meal of bread and cheese, washed down with water, they set off again.
Alistair was feeling much better after a rest and, though the afternoon’s walking was hard, with many treacherous ascents and descents, he felt energised by the thought of the mission ahead.
That night, they camped on top of a high ridge. After an early dinner – more bread and cheese – Alistair and Tibby took first watch.
‘It’s like walking through a maze,’ Tibby observed, looking out at the winding canyons, twisting and turning, some forking, some intersecting and others finishing abruptly in dead ends. ‘Even with a compass it would be impossible to navigate with any accuracy.’
‘If you wanted to see where you’d been you’d have to leave a trail of breadcrumbs, like Hansel and Gretel.’
Tibby shivered. ‘Didn’t they almost get eaten by a witch?’
‘Yeah.’ Alistair laughed. ‘Do you suppose Queen Eugenia wants to eat us?’ Thinking of the power-hungry Queen, he grew serious. ‘I never thought I’d return to Souris,’ he said. ‘But it’s your home, isn’t it, Tib? After everything we’ve been through, don’t you sometimes wish you’d never left?’
‘I don’t regret leaving Templeton,’ said Tibby Rose. ‘How could I? I’ve become friends with you and continued the work of my parents. And even though I still don’t know much about them, fighting for the cause they believed in makes me feel close to them somehow. But I do miss Grandpa Nelson and Great-Aunt Harriet. I wish I’d been able to say goodbye to them. Especially now that I know they’d been hiding me in order to protect me.’
It was true. Tibby’s grandpa and great-aunt had devoted their lives to protecting her, then Alistair had fallen out of the sky and onto her head and changed everything. He felt a pang of guilt imagining the two old mice alone in the big white house on top of a hill, desperately worried about their beloved Tibby Rose. And for the first time he felt glad to be back in Souris. Alistair had his brother and sister, his parents, his aunt and uncle – three uncles, he realised, now that he knew Zanzibar and Timmy the Winns were his mother’s brothers. But apart from those two old mice in Templeton, Tibby was all alone in the world …
They rose early the next day and walked through the blazing sun, the glare of it on the bare rock making Alistair’s eyes swim. After hours of squinting, he was relieved to leave the Eugenian Range behind for the more cultivated landscape of fields and vineyards, even if it meant their chances of meeting patrols of Queen’s Guards increased. Fortunately, Slippers Pink and Feast Thompson knew of all kinds of small tracks and trails that kept them away from the main roads and the towns and villages that lined Lake Eugenia and then followed the river north to Templeton.
As evening drew in, Alistair was so tired that he felt like he was sleepwalking, but Tibby’s pace was growing brisker as they neared Templeton.
‘Alistair,’ she said, ‘don’t these fields look familiar? I’m sure we sailed past them on our raft.’
‘Maybe,’ said Alistair. One field looked much like another to him.
‘That tower,’ said Tibby excitedly. ‘It’s the bell tower of Templeton, I’m sure it is. Can’t you three walk any faster?’
Slippers laughed. ‘You’re practically running, Tibby.’
They had just reached the outskirts of Templeton when a small brown mouse stepped into their path.
‘Excuse me,’ he said shyly. ‘Are you Slippers Pink?’
‘That’s a funny name,’ said Slippers. Alistair noticed that she hadn’t answered the young boy’s question.
‘I know,’ said the boy. ‘The owl told me to look for a pale mouse with big black boots but then he said her name was Slippers Pink. And I said that her name should be Boots Black.’
Slippers smiled. ‘What else did the owl say?’
‘He said that if I saw Slippers Pink I should give her this note.’ He held out a slightly grubby note, and Slippers took it. ‘And he said he was sorry he couldn’t wait for you, but you’d have to make your own way there.’
