Maddigan's Fantasia, page 32
‘What happened?’ asked Timon.
It was too complicated to tell him. ‘I don’t know,’ she cried. ‘Well, I’ll try to explain later. Just run on.’
So they ran on into the wide embrace of the Fantasia – and there before her – there was Ferdy, up early. Just for a moment she thought she saw herself, hoisting up a bucket of water for her horse Samala. The sight of that ghost of future time terrified her, but she closed her eyes, ran on, only to feel herself, with a sort of horror, somehow dissolving into that other early self and taking her over. It was a sickening sensation. It felt wrong. Nevertheless she struggled to ignore it. Instead she flung her arms around her father, leaning against him. ‘Dad!’ she cried, hugging him hard, over and over again.
‘Steady on,’ he said, sounding surprised and a little impatient with her. He shook himself a little free of her. ‘What’s brought this on? What’s wrong?’
But Garland could not tell him. ‘I just love you,’ she said, ‘that’s all.’ She hugged him again.
‘Butter me up all you like,’ said Ferdy, ‘you’re not getting out of taking water to your poor horse. And then it’s practice. You know that.’ It was exactly what he would have said, back then in those happy days. But those happy days were not back then. They were now.
Ferdy looked past Garland and she felt him stiffen – grow angular and strong within the circle of her hug. ‘Where did you two come from? Who are you?’
‘They’re friends …’ Garland began, just as Timon said:
‘We’ve come to warn you …’
‘Road Rats!’ cried Eden getting in first. ‘Road Rats are creeping in on you.’
Ferdy pushed Garland to one side. Suddenly he had become quite a different man from the one he had been only a moment ago. He looked around, he listened.
‘How did you know?’ he asked.
‘My brother and I heard them,’ Timon said rapidly. ‘We saw them. They’re after your food and fuel.’
‘It’s true,’ Garland cried. ‘I heard them too. They’ve got motorbikes.’
Ferdy looked at the brothers, then back at Garland. She could feel him trying to work things out. The brothers were total strangers – could they be trusted? They might be telling the truth, but after all they could be Road Rats themselves and Garland might have been tricked. But the Fantasia did not take chances. Ferdy made up his mind.
‘OK you lot!’ he shouted, and the whole Fantasia, watching and working around him, stopped whatever it was doing to listen to him. ‘Attention! Attention! Listen up! Parley!’
Garland now saw the ripple of a different sort of movement spreading out through the Fantasia.
‘Get your bow!’ Ferdy told her. ‘You boys … have you got any sort of gun? Bows and arrows? No! Right! Well, you just keep your heads down, and heaven help you if you’re having us on.’ And then he was gone, racing over towards their van, shouting to Maddie, talking to her urgently, then giving her a hurried kiss. Garland watched, overcome with a sort of enchantment, while around her the Fantasia organized itself, as people somehow switched themselves from one activity to another … ran to arm themselves and pull the vans together. It was like watching one of the plays they put on in Solis.
Garland turned to Timon.
‘Thank you! Thank you!’ she cried under her breath. Yet as she said this she found she was not grateful in the way she had expected to be. There was the Fantasia: there was Ferdy, but …
‘Forget it,’ said Timon. ‘Just get ready! The Road Rats’ll be on their way.’
‘Wait and see what happens this time round,’ mumbled Eden, but he was talking to himself rather than Garland or Timon. ‘Where’s Goneril? I’d better ask her to hold Jewel for a bit. I think life’s going to get dangerous.’
And when, only a few moments later (or so it seemed), the sound of motorbikes suddenly filled the air and Road Rats roared into the Fantasia, the space in the circle of vans was completely empty. Their bikes reared back like noisy horses. This space was not what the riders had expected, and within moments they had all come to a standstill, their bikes snarling under them.
Looking out from the darkness under her family van Garland saw them, in a way she hadn’t before. There had not been time. Now she noticed the different shapes of the bikes and the men astride them. The bikes which had made them seem so powerful and threatening then, now seemed like noisy encumbrances. Some of the men wore their hair and beards so long they looked as if they must have had goats or bears for fathers. Not that they were all hairy. That huge man there didn’t have a hair on him. And he must be their king. She remembered him from the last time … he had a crown tattooed on his bald head … a bald head that shone as if he had just polished it.
Peering out from her hiding place, Garland could see not only bulging Road Rat shoulders and forearms, but a whole range of weapons too – the bikes were slung around with swords and clubs, clubs and sling-shots. However the shuddering motorbikes were rather hard to control and the Road Rat warriors were using all their energy to hold onto their precarious machines. But that tattooed chief had managed to draw out a club made of greenstone, and was waving it in the space around him. Garland knew this sort of club was ancient – a treasure really – and wondered how the Road Rat King had come by it.
After those first arrested moments the King made a sort of beckoning movement with his club, and his followers moved again, but wheeling forward very carefully this time.
Suddenly, Ferdy leapt out in front of them. Then the whole Fantasia burst out of hiding and closed in around the Road Rats, knives in hand, arrows drawn, guns aimed, courage strong. Garland remembered how once they had been taken unawares. Now, she was thrilled with a Fantasia that was armed and ready.
Ferdy spoke.
‘You have one chance and one chance only. Drop your weapons! And get away while you can! Get away.’
The Road Rats looked around the circle … looked at the drawn arrows, the knives and the guns.
The King hesitated, swung himself off his motorbike, holding out his club as if he were about to surrender it, then swung it around and dived at Ferdy.
‘Attack! Attack!’ he yelled.
All at once everything was rattle and battle. And all at once everything was exploding too fast and fiercely for Garland to be sure of just what was happening. She saw blows falling, saw Bailey tumbling backwards. No escape for Bailey, even in this other time. But then she saw another man falling. The King of the Road Rats stopped abruptly, an arrow in his throat, and, as Garland stared, her mouth hanging open, another arrow came from somewhere to strike in beside the first. Those Road Rats that were close to the King spun around, screaming, but unable to do anything except to watch him tottering. They half-leapt to catch him, but then let him fall for they had to guard themselves. Those further away were fighting blindly on. Penrod struck his opponent to the ground, Byrna and Nye closed in on either side of a wildly whirling Road Rat, and Nye half-lured him while Byrna smashed in on him. Old Shell suddenly flung up his hands and tumbled sideways. But now, in spite of themselves, most Road Rats were staring down at their leader, convulsing in his death throes.
‘Go! Get out!’ Ferdy was shouting. ‘Get out while you can. Get your miserable hides out of here. Go!’
As he yelled this, Nye and Byrna both fired arrows, both aiming at the same man, who fell sideways, his bike shooting away from under him. And indeed the Road Rats did not really need to be told again. They turned. Some Road Rats screamed away immediately. The men on their feet dashed for their bikes and kicked them into life once more. Engines roared. The Road Rats fled.
Garland could not restrain herself.
‘We did it. We did it! And you’re all right!’ she screamed, dancing madly in the sunlight and shadow of that Fantasia camp.
‘Well, it would take more than a few Road Rats to bring your old man down,’ said Ferdy, grinning. ‘Those motorbikes – they’re more trouble than they’re worth when it comes to hand-to-hand combat.’
He turned to Timon and Eden who were coming out of hiding. ‘You boys were right on the money. I won’t forget it.’
Over by the fallen body of Bailey, Goneril was shouting.
‘He’s in a bad way. Give me a hand over here.’
Ferdy, Maddie and Bannister rushed over. Garland hesitated, and then turned to Timon.
‘Bailey’s not supposed to die just yet!’ she exclaimed, hearing herself sounding indignant. ‘And old Shell – Shell’s dead this time round.’
‘But Ferdy’s alive,’ said Eden. ‘We managed to change what we wanted to change. But we can’t change everything.’
This time Bailey was dead almost immediately and would have to be buried along with old Shell. Garland was having to go through Bailey’s funeral for a second time.
Standing among the Fantasia people, all familiar yet somehow oddly strange to her, Garland finally had time to think about what had happened, and found she was not as happy and grateful as she had imagined she would be. The people around her were real … they must be real. There they were and there was not one of them she did not know. Her father, Ferdy, was standing just over there saying the last words over Bailey, and he was exactly as she remembered him. But to her dismay she suddenly found she did not believe in him. She did not believe in any of them … she did not believe in this different time. She turned to Eden.
‘What now?’ she asked him. ‘Do we go back? I mean forwards.’ She shook her head. ‘You know what I mean?’
‘Do you know what you mean yourself?’ asked Eden, rather gloomily.
‘You’re such a downer,’ Timon said to Eden. He looked at Garland. ‘Hey, you’ve got what you wanted, haven’t you?’
Garland did not want to meet his blue gaze in case he read the doubt in her own eyes. She turned her head, and there – there riding openly in on them – were Ozul and Maska. Of course! Back then – that back then which had become right now – Maska and Ozul had been watching them. How were they going to fit into this changed, present time? Ferdy stepped forward to intercept them
‘What can we do for you?’ he asked. ‘Probably not much. This is a bad time for us. We’re burying one of our people.’
‘Deepest sympathies,’ said Ozul, using his friendly voice, and indeed he did manage to sound sympathetic. ‘I don’t want to intrude, but we absolutely must. You see you have our runaway rascals with you …’ He aimed a finger at Timon and Eden almost as if it were a loaded gun.
‘Those boys?’ Ferdy turned in bewilderment to look at them.
‘They’re runaways,’ said Ozul. ‘You know how it is with youngsters. A little family fight and they took off. Their mother, our poor sister, is in a terrible state over it all.’
‘He’s lying, Dad, he’s lying!’ cried Garland. ‘He wants to kill them.’
Ferdy turned and stared at her. ‘How on earth do you know?’ he asked her in a low voice, and Ozul interrupted.
‘The child is mistaken … is lying herself,’ he said, sounding rather less friendly. Ferdy looked up at him.
‘That’s my daughter there,’ he said. ‘She might make a mistake or two, but she doesn’t lie.’ He looked over at Timon and Eden. ‘Well, you kids. Do you want to go with these – these gentlemen?’
‘No,’ said Timon.
‘No way!’ agreed Eden. ‘They’re our enemies. They do want to kill us.’
Ferdy turned back to Ozul and Maska.
‘That’s that then,’ he said. ‘Simple! On your way.’
Ozul smiled again.
‘I should mention that there is a reward,’ he said. ‘A large reward …’ and he took out the bag, that very bag which Boomer had stolen from him at the booth outside Gramth. But that was in that other time. It had not happened yet. It might never happen now.
‘Clear off!’ Ferdy said. ‘It wouldn’t be much more work for us to have another funeral right now. We’re geared up for it.’
Ozul and Maska looked around and saw the Fantasia rippling a little, filled with excitement because, after all, Timon and Eden had warned them of the Road Rats. Thanks to that warning they had beaten the Road Rats, and were still feeling they could take on any enemies. They edged in towards Ozul and Maska, preparing to defend the children.
‘You will regret this,’ said Maska in his metallic voice. ‘You will be sorry.’ But having promised this, those two servants of the Nennog turned and rode away.
‘Dad, you were wonderful!’ cried Garland. ‘You believed us.’ Of course she meant it, and yet at the same time she found herself wishing she could really believe in this altered time. Somehow there was no room in her head for the things that were now happening around her, for her head was already filled with that other version of things. Ferdy was looking rather sternly at Timon and Eden. ‘But you boys, you do have a story to tell, haven’t you?’ he said. ‘No time to listen to it now, but later on I’ll want to hear every little bit of it.’
And later on, after Goneril had taken over Jewel, after the Fantasia had packed up and travelled on down the road and then camped in the Horseshoe yet again, the boys did tell their story – or part of it, how they’d come from the future, that they knew about the Fantasia’s quest for the converter and how they wanted to help. Eden juggled, whirled and turned the flames of the fire into animal shapes, making them dance around the Fantasia. But they did not mention to Ferdy that in an alternative time in which they had also lived and danced, Ferdy had died, and that the Fantasia had gone on without him … had gone on without him and had done well.
Garland watched in silence as Goneril cuddled Jewel, complaining about her, but holding her tight. Goneril said the same things that Garland remembered her saying, wearing the same expression on her face as she said them, and yet Garland did not really believe in what she was seeing. Of course Yves was there, being a background man, a second-in-command, just as he had always been. Maddie was there too, but quieter in this time, letting Ferdy talk for her as well as for himself. Ferdy was just as he had always been … out there in the front of things, setting the Fantasia’s world in order. Garland joked with him and hugged him tightly. And yet – and yet, even when she had her arms around him, and was able to feel his muscles and bones under his red jacket, she could not, she just could not, believe in him.
32
Saying Goodbye
Then … WHOOSH. They all jumped up. Only inches away from them, a flaming arrow quivered in the ground. WHOOSH! There was a second one. Suddenly the air seemed full of them. Yves came running towards them shouting, ‘We’re under attack! We’re under attack!’ although they could all tell that already.
‘Dad!’ Lilith was screaming from somewhere.
‘To the vans!’ Ferdy shouted, leaping up. ‘Move it up! Let’s go!’
Everyone was already heading for his or her van. ‘You boys, take your sister and cram into the van with Goneril! Ferdy cried over his shoulder. ‘Go! Go! Go!’
And within minutes it seemed the Fantasia was bumping along the narrow track, pursued by Road Rats on their curious motorbikes and other more fantastic machines, put together from thousands of pieces of junk. Garland rode in the family van (Maddie at the wheel saying ‘Don’t worry! We’ve got through worse than this.’), while Ferdy kneeled on the roof of the van, his own bow in his hand. But this can’t be true … it just can’t she was thinking. This is me, but those people out there can’t be the real Maddie, can’t be Ferdy. These vans can’t be the vans of the true Fantasia.
Goneril’s van rattled along with the rest. Eden kneeled at one window, Timon at another, watching a strange version of a motorbike drawing alongside them. The rider clapped a weapon to his shoulder. A ball of fire came spinning towards the van then shot across its roof, narrowly missing them.
‘A gun! He’s got a gun,’ said Timon, turning towards Eden. ‘A sort of cannon. Do something!’
‘I’m trying,’ said Eden, ‘but it’s hard to focus like this.’
They hit yet another bump and bounced up in the air. Jewel began to cry.
Another fireball shot towards them. Eden closed his eyes. The fireball swung around, curving like a burning boomerang and headed straight for the fantastic motorbike. The driver and the man behind him shouted and threw themselves off, one to the right one to the left. The fireball struck the machine and exploded. Behind them the other Road Rats set up a cry of ‘Utu! Utu!’
‘Garland!’ Ferdy shouted, hanging over the edge of the van and shouting in through the window ‘You’re quick on your feet. Can you slide back to the van behind us and tell Yves we’re going to climb that ridge on ahead, and make a stand there. Run along on the far side of the vans. There’s good cover there.’
Garland grabbed up her bow and her quiver of arrows and slotted an arrow onto the string.
‘Now!’ Ferdy cried. ‘Quickly, while there’s a bit of a gap.’
‘Quickly! Quickly, darling!’ screamed Maddie.
Garland kicked the far door open and was outside, being splashed with mud as the van rattled on by.
‘Quickly!’ yelled Ferdy yet again, and Garland began to run, bow at the ready.
As Ferdy shouted yet another Road Rat came swerving in at them. ‘Utu!’ Utu!’ he was yelling, and threw an axe that narrowly missed Garland and buried itself in the side of the van. Garland wondered why she was not terrified, then realized yet again, that she just did not believe this was really happening. And, thinking this, she spun around and fired the arrow from her bow which struck the Road Rat in the leg. He let out a howl as his bike veered away to the side.
‘Run!’ yelled Ferdy yet again from somewhere behind her. ‘Run!’ And Garland did what he told her to do, thinking as she galloped on ahead, how strange it was to be following the orders of a father she loved, but could not quite believe in, and thinking, too, that the Ferdy of her own time would not have asked her to do anything quite as dangerous as this.
He’s Ferdy but he’s not quite my Ferdy. I’m in this other time and I asked to be here.
Horses were being driven past, but the Road Rats would not fire at the horses. They were hoping to take the horses over as part of their loot.
