"Are you goblins?" she repeated, but still they would not acknowledge that she had spoken. She thought quickly. "If I put my words to rhyme, will you answer me this time?"
For a moment she did not think it had had any effect, but then the toad-faced creature responded.
""Tis not for mortals to question the fey. With our own kind our secrets stay."
Tanya racked her brains, struggling for another question. Usually she was quite good at making up poems, but trying to think of them instantly for use in a conversation was far more difficult.
"I ask again, I"d like to know, are you goblins, yes or no?" she said after a couple of minutes had elapsed. She was unable to think of anything else, especially anything that rhymed with the word "goblin".
"Ask away! I cannot say! The answer lies with us today!" sang Toadface, and the other two creatures guffawed, dancing to the rhythm of his words.
Not to be outdone, Tanya pondered for a moment.
"I"m tired of playing your silly game. I"ll never bother you again."
She made to move past them, but the hunchback blocked her path.
"This is no game, as you will see. We do not trust mortals easily."
Tanya retrieved a notebook from her pocket and scribbled some words down, trying to make sentences rhyme.
"Fairies lie and fairies steal, but humans think and humans feel," she began, looking in her notebook again. "I do not think what you say is just. In fairies I do not place my trust."
The creatures stared at her, seemingly taken aback that she was able to keep up with them. The one with the bruises stepped forward.
"You ask too much, we cannot tell. We goblins hide our secrets well."
"I see," said Tanya. "So you are goblins!"
The goblin looked stricken the moment he realised his error. His companions rounded on him, their eyes wild with anger.
"Foolish cretin! Stupid fool!" said Toadface. "Trust you to break that simple rule!"
"Forgive me, it was not my intention to make this accidental mention!" said the culprit, trying to back away, but there was nowhere for him to go he had backed up against the garden wall.
"Spare us your whines, half-breed. A good hard kicking"s what you need!" The hunchback grabbed the bruised goblin"s arms and pinned them behind his back. "Hold still! Stop squirming, and take your beatings! Maybe this will stop your bleating."
The goblin howled as Toadface drove a heavy fist into his stomach.
Tanya flinched. "Stop it!"
But Toadface did not stop and Tanya did not know how to make him. She watched, helpless as he delivered blow upon blow on his poor companion. The hunchback held him fast, shrieking with excitement every time the goblin cried out. When Toadface had finished, panting and sweating from the exertion, the bruised and battered goblin was left weeping in a heap on the ground. He had sustained several cuts to his face and was bleeding profusely, his lower lip split and swollen. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, mingling with the blood congealing in his beard.
"You brutes!" said Tanya, as the bleeding goblin"s sobs gradually subsided into whimpers. Setting her book down on the rockery, she pulled a crumpled tissue from her pocket and knelt down in front of him. He shrank back in fear.
"There"s no cause for alarm. I don"t mean any harm," she said, reaching for his bloodied face. He allowed her to dab at his cuts but continued to whimper softly.
Tanya handed the crimson-stained tissue to the goblin. It was quite clear now where the other bruises had come from. She stood up and turned to face the other two goblins.
"Touch him again and my dog will bite. And then we"ll see how well you fight."
Oberon gave a timely growl, but remained hidden behind her all the same.
"Brunswick is not worth defending, his stupidity is never-ending," said the hunchback.
Toadface scowled. Tanya watched, waiting for him to attack the hunchback for letting the name slip, but he didn"t, and she realised that though he was the leader, he was also the kind of coward who chose the easy target. He saw her eyeing him disgustedly and grinned.
"You may be smiling smugly now, but you"ll get what you deserve somehow," said Tanya, the words popping into her head from out of nowhere.
Toadface stopped smiling and there was a horrible hawking noise in his throat. He spat in Tanya"s direction, the yellow-green phlegm missing her by only inches.
"You"ve said quite enough today. Now leave us and be on your way."
Tanya looked into his hateful face and decided to leave. She picked her book up and flung the wooden gate open, sidestepping the goblins, and headed onwards towards the forest. She had taken only a few steps when a hesitant voice called after her.
"The colour red protects you here, but in the woods there"s more to fear."
Tanya spun round. Brunswick hovered just inside the gate, still holding the bloodied tissue to his face.
"What do you mean? Is it something you"ve seen?" she called, but the hunchback forced Brunswick back into the garden and slammed the gate shut. She stood unmoving for a moment, but knew it would be pointless going back to question them. The warning had probably already cost Brunswick another beating.
The morning dew glistened as Tanya kicked through the gra.s.s, the wetness seeping through her sandals and onto her toes. She settled beside a hazel thicket, listening to the trickling of the brook close by. Oberon flopped down beside her, panting heavily, and she fondly scratched his head.
From the depths of the woods a gunshot sounded. She looked up and knew it to be Warwick out hunting. More shots followed, fading further into the distance. Behind her an animal rustled in the hedge. Oberon"s ears twitched. He ambled over to the little stream and lapped at the crystal clear water. Tanya yawned and stretched, then opened the book. Remembering what she had read before, she went straight to the index then frowned. What should have been a coherent list of contents and their corresponding page numbers was now a meaningless ma.s.s of words and figures, none of it making any sense. With increasing anxiety she thumbed through the book. Every page was the same: full of jumbled text. The entire contents of the fat volume with its invaluable information on fairies had been completely scrambled. With a groan of despair, Tanya recalled placing the book down for those brief moments when she had tended to Brunswick. The hunchback must have tampered with it whilst she was preoccupied.
The book was useless.
A twig snapped crisply in the bushes and she started.
"h.e.l.lo?" she called.
Silence.
Tanya shook herself mentally. It must have been some wild animal, a deer perhaps. There was another snap, nearer now, followed by a rustle. Oberon sniffed the air, his ears p.r.i.c.king up.
A rabbit shot out from the bushes, darting right under the dog"s twitching nose, then through the shallow part of the brook. Oberon barked delightedly then took chase, dashing through the stream and into the forest.
Tanya sprang to her feet, still clutching the book in distress.
"Oberon! Get back here!"
But Oberon had no intention of returning, not until he had caught the rabbit at least. Then someone stumbled out from the bushes, startling her a second time.
"You!"
A sheepish Fabian brushed gra.s.s and leaves from his hair and clothes, his normally pale face flooded pink.
"Why are you spying on me?" yelled Tanya.
"I wasn"t spying. I was looking for, er . . . b.u.t.terflies and things."
"Is this what you call observation? You were watching me!" With an angry yell, Tanya flung the useless book to the ground. Fabian watched her, an eyebrow raised.
In the distance, another gunshot sounded. She looked towards the forest in alarm, giving Fabian one last glare before stalking in the direction of the trees.
"Surely you"re not going in there?" he said.
"Thanks to you I don"t have a choice," said Tanya, her temper rising further. "My dog is in there, and so is Warwick with a gun!" She quickened her pace, leaving a stunned Fabian behind.
"Thanks to me? What did I do?"
Tanya turned back and rounded on him.
"I"ll tell you what you did. You were so busy spying on me that you startled a rabbit in the hedge, and now Oberon has chased it into the forest!"
"Well . . . he didn"t have to chase it," said Fabian, but then his voice trailed off. For a moment he looked as if he were struggling to make a decision, then he began to jog after her.
"I"m coming with you. But if Warwick finds out we"ve been in these woods-"
"You"ll have a lot more than Warwick to worry about if anything happens to my dog! I"ll . . . I"ll . . ."
She broke off as tears began to sting her eyes.
"We"ll find him," said Fabian. "Warwick wouldn"t shoot him anyway . . ."
"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 onwards, 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sortment of ammunition which 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 gla.s.s and bottle tops 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 neighbouring trees, communicating her presence to them. She was now defenceless and exposed.
"Come on," she muttered. "Keep moving."
They headed onwards 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 wood. 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 in. 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 towards it wordlessly, coming into a little clearing. The railings went round in a circle, with a diameter of about four metres. Inside, there was a huge hole in the ground roughly three metres wide. A small tree was growing beside it, tilting inwards. 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."