“How do you know? He could mistake him for a deer or something!”
“The dog’s more like a donkey than a deer,” Fabian muttered.
At that moment Tanya would have slapped him if it hadn’t been for a further round of shots cracking in the air. She broke into a sprint. Fabian followed, pausing to use the stepping stones to cross the brook. Tanya ran straight through it, soaking her feet but not caring. They sped onward, Fabian eventually taking the lead. Gradually the trees grew thicker, taller, and closer together. It was cool and dark between them, and small creatures rustled in the undergrowth as they passed through and disturbed them.
“Oberon!” Tanya yelled. A flock of birds scattered above, squawking at the sudden noise.
“Do you think we ought to shout like that?” said Fabian. “Warwick’s bound to hear us.”
Tanya looked at him scornfully. “How else do you expect to find the dog?”
The woods were silent. They moved farther in, calling the dog’s name, twisting and turning through the densely growing trees, dead wood crackling underfoot. Whispering came from all around, and Tanya knew that it wasn’t just the trees. With each step she could feel unseen eyes upon them.
Looking up, she sensed movement above. On one of the lower branches, a birdlike fairy crouched at the edge of its nest, its bright black eyes fixed, staring straight at Fabian. From inside the nest, the cries of its young could be heard, demanding to be fed. Tanya quickly saw that, as with the goblins, her red T-shirt was shielding her from its attention. The creature saw only Fabian, and as he unknowingly blundered nearer, it began chattering a warning at him to stay away.
“We must be near a nest of some sort,” Fabian whispered, looking around for the source of the noise. “I can’t see a bird anywhere, though.”
As he drew closer to the nest, the fairy’s chattering escalated into a harsh, insistent threat. Tanya watched helplessly, knowing that to speak and warn him would betray her to the fairy and surrender the protection of her red T-shirt—but what followed left her with no choice. Momentarily, the creature left its nest and vanished into a nook in the tree bark. It reappeared seconds later armed with an assortment of ammunition that it proceeded to hurl viciously at Fabian’s head.
“Look out!” Tanya cried, lunging forward to push Fabian to safety.
A spray of objects flew through the air, narrowly missing them to become embedded in the ground. Pebbles, acorns, pinecones, balled-up litter, a heavy silver brooch, jagged shards of broken glass, and bottle caps lay scattered around them.
“What happened back there?” Fabian gasped, as Tanya pulled him out of throwing range.
“A magpie,” she answered. “We got too close. It must have disturbed the contents of its nest as it flew off.” She looked back at the nest as they hurried away. The fairy watched her coldly. Its fierce chattering had stopped, but it continued to call out. Tanya did not need to be able to understand it to know that it was issuing a warning to any fairies nearby in the neighboring trees, communicating her presence to them. She was now defenseless—and exposed.
“Come on,” she muttered. “Keep moving.”
They headed onward and away. Above them, Tanya was aware of the furious whispering and calling in the trees, as the word of her presence spread throughout the woods. She forced herself to try and be calm, but the panic inside her was rising.
“Listen,” said Fabian, stopping dead. “Do you hear that?”
“Voices?” Tanya whispered.
Fabian frowned and shook his head. “A dog.” Faint barking sounded from far away. “This way!”
Tanya battled to keep up with him; the sandals she was wearing were highly unsuitable for running through the woods. Already she had sustained several cuts to her feet. Branches snagged on her clothes and tore at her hair. The fairies in the trees mocked her.
“He went that way!”
“No, that way!”
“I saw him come this way!”
Tanya did not look back. She knew they were all lying. She did not dare to take her eyes off Fabian.
“There’s something up ahead,” he shouted.
Tanya saw him stop and stand still, and she quickened her pace until she drew level with him. An ugly metal railing was just visible through the trees. They walked toward it wordlessly, coming into a little clearing.
The railings went around in a circle, with a diameter of about four meters. Inside, there was a huge hole in the ground roughly three meters wide. A small tree was growing beside it, tilting inward. Half its roots were exposed and it looked unstable, as if a heavy gust of wind would send it tumbling into the cavern below. Fixed to the railings was a worn wooden sign that said DANGER! DO NOT ENTER!
They had found one of the catacombs.
Fabian began to circle the railings, his scientific mind automatically trying to estimate how deep the thing went into the ground. When he had done a full lap he stooped and picked up a pebble, then hurled it over the railings. They both listened as it plummeted soundlessly. Neither of them heard it hit the bottom. Fabian gave a low whistle, and then a strange look crossed his face.
“What?” said Tanya. Her heart missed a beat as she followed his gaze. Her worries about the fairies were forgotten instantly.
One of the metal posts was missing, leaving a gap in the railings large enough for a small person to squeeze through. Large enough for a dog to get through.
“No!” Tanya’s voice choked in her throat. Suddenly her legs would no longer support her, and she sank to the ground in despair. Fabian stood rooted to the spot, his eyes glued to the gap in the railing.
“He… he wouldn’t have gone through there… would he?”
“He might have. If he was chasing the rabbit, he might have…”
“Oberon!” Fabian shouted.
The woods remained silent.
“Let’s keep looking.”
Tanya shook her head, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. She didn’t even care what Fabian might think.
“I can’t. What if he’s down there, injured? I can’t leave him.”
Deep down she knew that if Oberon had fallen into the hole there was no way he could have survived it, but she could not bear to leave the spot.
Fabian studied the gap in the railings, chewing his lip. “He’s not down there.”
Tanya looked up through her tears, sniffing noisily. “You’re just saying that.”
“No, I’m not.” He knelt beside her. “Think about it. He’s a big dog. The gap is wide enough for him to get through, but only just. If he did come this way, he would have had to slow down to squeeze through it, and so he would have seen the hole in time. Dogs are intelligent animals, especially Dobermans. And the leaves and twigs around the hole are undisturbed. If he’d fallen down it there would be claw marks.”
He gave her an encouraging smile.
Tanya gave him a rather watery smile in return, feeling a ray of hope. She scrambled to her feet and wiped her face, leaving a streak of dirt on her cheek.
“Come on, then,” she said.
They had been walking another twenty minutes when Tanya noticed something.
“Listen.”
Fabian stopped and cocked his head to one side. “I can’t hear anything.”
“Exactly. The gunshots have stopped. Warwick must have gone back to the house.”
“Good,” said Fabian, looking relieved. “That means we can shout as loudly as we want. Oberon!”
They yelled until their voices were hoarse and their throats were sore, but still there was no sign of the missing dog. The hope that Tanya had felt earlier was steadily diminishing. She had been certain that they would have found him by now. All she wanted to do was find him and get out—the longer they remained in the woods, the more the chances of another attack by the fairies increased. Then another alarming thought occurred to her.
“Fabian? Do you know the way out of here?”
“I was hoping you would remember.”
They stared at each other dumbly.
“Of course I don’t know the way out,” she said at last. “I’ve never been in here before.”
“Neither have I,” said Fabian.
“So we’re lost then,” said Tanya, feeling weak again as the clarity of the situation hit her. She envisaged wandering in the woods all day, then still being trapped at nightfall, and suddenly, she was glad she was not alone.
“We’ll follow the stream,” said Fabian. “The stream will lead us out at some point.”
“At some point? Do you know how big this forest is? I can’t even remember the last time I saw the stream; it was ages ago!”
“Have you got any better suggestions?” said Fabian testily.
Tanya scowled and shook her head.
They set off in search of the stream, ducking under low branches and listening for any sign of running water. As the minutes ticked by, even Fabian was beginning to look worried as the truth finally dawned. They were lost: completely, utterly, and hopelessly lost.
“This is impossible,” said Tanya, sitting down on a tree stump to examine a bulging blister on her foot. “We’re never going to find our way out.” As she spoke, she saw, to her horror, a small mound of grassy earth scurrying along the ground to reposition itself at the base of a fallen tree. Moments later, a clump of weeds and tuft of wildflowers scuttled across her path to switch places.
She stifled a terrified sob. The fairies were deliberately losing them, drawing them farther and farther into the woods by confusing them. They must have begun doing so the moment she and Fabian had entered the forest.
“We’re lost,” she said in a small voice. “We’re not going to find the way out!”
“We will,” said Fabian. “It just might take a little longer than we expected.”
“You don’t understand,” said Tanya. She battled to keep her voice from rising, and failed. “Before you know it there’ll be a search party out looking for us. Then we’ll be in even deeper trouble!”
Fabian sighed and looked at his watch. “We’ve still got plenty of time before it gets dark. Let’s keep going.”
Tanya hauled herself to her feet, and limped after him. As she did so a glint of silver caught her eye. “Wait.”
Fabian paused, looking mildly irritated.
She pointed. “I think it’s another one of the catacombs.”
The metal railings came into view as they drew nearer. This hole was significantly smaller than the first, and did not look nearly so threatening. Tanya was relieved to see that the railings were intact the whole way around. There were no gaps in this, dog-sized or otherwise.
“How many of these are there, exactly?” Tanya wondered aloud.
“Seven.” Fabian craned his neck to peer into the cavern. “I’d love to know how deep this thing goes.”
Tanya made a face. “I wouldn’t. Just think of all the—”
“Quiet,” said Fabian, holding his finger to his lips. “There’s someone over there. Look—in the clearing!”
A girl in a green dress with long, dark hair was walking slowly toward them, bending down every now and then to add a wildflower to the bunch in her arms. For a moment Tanya thought the girl had not yet realized she was no longer alone, but then she looked straight at Tanya, smiling as she approached.
Tanya’s initial relief at seeing another human being was short-lived, replaced with suspicion as she recalled the passage on glamour in her grandmother’s book. She scrutinized the girl, searching for any clue that this might be some fey disguise, but there was nothing about her that suggested anything out of the ordinary.
“Why do you think she’s here all alone?” Tanya whispered, trying not to move her lips in case the girl saw that they were speaking about her.
Fabian did not answer right away. “I don’t know. She looks like she could be a gypsy—she might be a relation of the old gypsy woman. She lives in these woods.”
“Mad Morag?”
“That’s right. The one who gave you the compass. Which, by the way, I looked up in an antique book of Warwick’s. It’s worthless.”
Tanya looked toward the girl. “Shall we ask her if she’s seen Oberon?”
Fabian nodded. “Even if she hasn’t she might be able to help us find our way out. She seems to know her way around pretty well.” He stepped away from the railings and toward the girl, Tanya behind him.
The girl eyed them and smiled again. She looked to be in her early teens, with creamy skin and thickly lashed dark eyes. “Are you lost?” she asked softly.
“We’re looking for our dog,” Fabian said. His voice was quavering and unusually self-conscious. “He ran off, and we can’t find him. And now… yes, we’re lost,” he admitted finally.
The girl nodded. “I saw a dog come this way.” Her voice was quiet and well spoken, somehow sounding older than her years.
“When?” Tanya said urgently.
“Not long ago,” the girl replied. “Just a few minutes.”
“Was he all right? He didn’t look hurt, did he?”
The girl trained her dark eyes on Tanya. “No, he looked fine. Come with me, I’ll help you look for him. I know these parts well. Once we have the dog I can lead you out of the forest.”
Tanya shot a relieved glance at Fabian; then they began to follow the girl, who was moving quickly ahead, weaving in and out of the trees. Once or twice Tanya thought she saw faces in the bark of trees, or the limblike movement of a branch, but no longer felt able to distinguish between that which was fey and her own paranoia.
She noticed that this part of the forest was very quiet, and the trees seemed bigger and older somehow, the colors richer and the woodland scents heavier. They neared a huge tree, with a hole in its trunk wide enough to walk through.
“I wonder if this is the tree,” Fabian said. “It’s sturdy enough.”
“What tree?”
“You know, the tree!” He pulled a ghoulish face. “The one people used to be hanged from. There must be one. How else do you think the forest got its name? Go on, you go through first.”
“I don’t want to,” Tanya protested, but Fabian’s hand was between her shoulder blades, urging her through. Inside it was dark and smelled musty and damp, and she could hear the scuttling of creatures that were nesting there. In her haste to get out quickly she caught her foot on a root, and stumbled back through into the light.
A rough hand grabbed her shoulder.
Tanya yelled and kicked out as hard as she could. There was a horrible thud as her foot made contact, and her assailant gave a low groan. Fabian stumbled through, reaching for her blindly, then stopped dead.
“Warwick,” he gasped.
Tanya looked up into Warwick’s face. He was rubbing his shin with his free hand. Sitting meekly behind him was Oberon, a length of thin rope joined to his collar as a makeshift leash.
“That hurt,” Warwick told her through gritted teeth. “Don’t do it again.” He turned to Fabian, eyes flashing with anger. “And it’s Dad to you.”
Tanya wrenched herself free of his grasp and fell upon Oberon. The dog licked her lovingly, not quite sure what all the attention was for but enjoying it all the same. Fabian reached over and patted him, relieved.
“How did you find him?” Tanya asked.
“You’re both in big trouble,” Warwick growled, ignoring the question. It was clear he was seething.
Tanya felt a sudden jolt of fear. She had never seen the man so angry.
“How many times have I told you, boy? These woods are dangerous!”
“It’s my fault,” said Tanya, before Fabian had the chance to speak. “Oberon ran off, and I panicked. I—I asked Fabian to come with me.”
Warwick eyed her coldly. “You should have waited for me. This forest is no place to be if you don’t know your way around.”
“I’m sorry,” she replied, hanging her head, which seemed to placate him a little.
“It’s lucky you were wearing that,” he said,
jerking his head toward her red T-shirt. He gave Fabian a scathing once-over. “If you were wearing green like this idiot I wouldn’t have spotted you so easily—even though you were making enough noise to wake the dead.”
“Oh,” Tanya muttered. For a moment she had thought Warwick had known the real reason she had chosen to wear red—not that it had done her much good in the end. Fabian looked down at his brown and green clothes uncomfortably.
“Best be getting back,” said Warwick, although his tone was marginally less angry now. He turned and began to walk briskly.
She exchanged glances with Fabian behind Warwick’s back. He was looking glum, and although she was glad he had been with her, she was sorry that he was going to get into trouble.
“Hang on a minute,” said Fabian suddenly. He turned back to look the way they had just come. “Where did that girl go?”
Warwick spun around. “What girl?”
“There was a girl,” said Tanya. “She saw Oberon a few minutes ago—she offered to help us find him.”
“She can’t have seen him,” said Warwick. “He’s been with me for the best part of an hour.” He scanned the trees. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know,” Tanya replied. “She must not have seen that we stopped, and kept on walking.”
“What did she look like?”
“Pretty,” Fabian said, a hazy look in his eyes. “Really pretty.”
Warwick said no more. Instead he turned and continued to stomp through the woods. Tanya and Fabian plodded after him in silence. Tanya watched as a tiny fairy, much like the one she had buried, landed gently on Warwick’s back and collected a downy feather caught in his hair, then flew back up into the trees to make its nest. Tanya stayed close to him, feeling safer, but her dislike of Warwick left her confused and a little resentful of the feeling.
The journey back to Elvesden Manor was long and weary, but thankfully the fairies troubled them no more. For the second time in as many days, Tanya was glad to see her grandmother’s house.
7
As soon as Warwick had closed the garden gate behind them, Tanya untied the rope from Oberon’s collar, and then the four of them battled through the overgrown weeds toward the house.