The turret room looked like a tableau from Madam Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors.
Jeannie was sitting on a bale of hay against one wall, her wrists and ankles in iron cuffs that were soldered to rings and mortared into the stones behind her. But the worst thing was the great iron mask encasing Jeannie’s head, with only a narrow letter box opening for her eyes. The mask was cuffed round Jeannie’s neck and, like her wrists and ankles, soldered to a heavy ring attached to the wall behind her. The air in the room was thick with dust. It was lit with one stinking tallow candle.
Jeannie stopped singing the moment she saw Matt at the arrow slit.
‘Mattie, I’m OK. Don’t fret, son,’ she said in a hoarse whisper. Her love fluttered through the crevices in the stone tower and brushed Matt’s skin like a warm breeze. ‘And so are yer mum and Em. They got home fine.’
Relief washed over him, but then such sadness that he could barely find his voice. He bit hard at the inside of his cheeks, determined not to cry. ‘I’ll get you free, Jeannie,’ he said. ‘I promise. I have help.’
Jeannie stirred. ‘No, son, you won’t risk your life to save mine. What’s about tae happen, I set in motion the moment I came back to these early days and called up that wave from beneath the islands. I upset the balance of things, and I roused Albion.
‘The hollow in the earth far beneath the islands is a sacred enchanted place, a place out of time. The most powerful among our kind – those of us born on the islands and of the islands – are connected to this place in unique ways. Albion was the first, and he dwells now and forever with the beasts in Hollow Earth. During dangerous times, his descendants can communicate with him.’ She began coughing with a wretched wracking sound.
Solon rattled the ladder beneath Matt’s feet. ‘Torches coming across the bay,’ he called. ‘Hurry. We need to flee this place.’
Matt gripped the ladder more tightly. He couldn’t leave Jeannie like this.
‘But, Jeannie, if you’re such a powerful Animare, can’t you imagine a way out?’ he asked in desperation.
‘I’ve tried, son, but I think Malcolm has been poisoning me. I’ve stopped taking his food and water, but for the moment I can’t imagine anything fer tuppence and my hands are useless.’ She rattled her wrists against the iron rings on her wrists and fingers.
Poison? Matt struggled to stay focused, to keep the terror at bay. ‘How is my dad doing all of this? He’s a Guardian, he can’t animate anything. He’s been bound in a picture for over ten years, for God’s sake!’
Jeannie’s body was wracked again with another coughing fit. For a second the clouds shifted, and the little cell was illuminated by a shaft of moonlight piercing the arrow slit above Matt’s head. Upended on the hay next to Jeannie was a bowl and tankard. The hay under the tankard had turned purple.
‘Matt, you must come down,’ yelled Solon. ‘Our enemy is almost upon us.’
‘I won’t accept that we’re helpless against him,’ shouted Matt to Jeannie through the arrow slit. ‘There has to be some way to stop him. If we don’t, he’ll find the book and use the bone quill. Then he’ll control the beasts in Hollow Earth. It’ll change the future. It’ll change everything!’
‘I know, son, I know.’ Jeannie’s words were slurring a little. ‘There is only one way you might stop him.’
‘Tell me, Jeannie! Please!’
Jeannie tried to turn her head, but it was impossible. ‘Trap the Grendel,’ she said. ‘Lead it into Hollow Earth. Finish The Book of Beasts. Complete the mission of the monks of Era Mina.’
Matt thought he was going to be sick. ‘Jeannie, I can’t… I don’t know how to do that.’
‘When the time is right, son, you’ll know… you’ll know what you must do. Albion will help you. He’ll get you home.’
Matt could hear oars now, splashing across the water towards the tower.
‘I want ye tae ken that I hoped when you and Em finally came home tae us, that we’d have much more time together,’ Jeannie whispered. ‘I’m awful sorry, son.’
Matt shoved his hand through the arrow slit, desperate to reach Jeannie even though he knew it wasn’t possible.
‘Matt!’ Solon hissed. ‘There’s no more time!’
‘I have to go,’ Matt choked. ‘I must leave now. I’ll be back for you.’
Jeannie’s head was drooping. The weight of the mask was too great for her to hold up for much longer. Her eyes seemed to grow smaller through the slit. Matt knew that behind the iron mask, she was smiling goodbye.
‘Be brave, son. And always know that I love you and Em like my own.’
Tears streaming down his cheeks, Matt climbed back down the ladder.