The farm was in mourning when Leo, Mimi, Bertha and Wizard Wurzle left it at last. The barn was scorched. The grass was charred. Bertha’s new balcony was a heap of ash. And Barbara, the little black sheep, was gone.
‘I’m – I’m so sorry,’ Bertha had said to Farmer Macdonald, her lips trembling. ‘Wolves and foxes I can fight. But dragons…’
‘Rogue dragons are rare, but they’re a fact of life, Bertha,’ Macdonald had answered gruffly. ‘Don’t blame yourself.’
But Bertha had refused to be comforted.
It was a subdued little group that trailed across the road and moved onto the narrow forest path leading to Flitter Wood. Bertha was trudging along in front, her head low. Wizard Wurzle was bent almost double, filled with shame because he had failed to extend the defence shield to cover Barbara as well as everyone else. Mimi was silent, her brow creased in thought. Leo wondered if she was still arguing with herself about whether she should have used the Key against the dragon.
‘I thought of using it,’ she’d told him miserably. ‘But I didn’t dare. What if one of the queen’s spies had been hiding somewhere near, and seen me? Then Wizard Wurzle shielded us, and I thought we were safe. But… oh, poor Barbara!’
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Leo had said, over and over again. But he knew it hadn’t helped.
Bertha slowed down a little. The path had narrowed, and delicate ferns now clustered at its edges like frothy green lace. Massive trees rose straight and tall on all sides. We’re nearly there, Leo thought. And for the first time since the dark shape had appeared in the sky above the farm, he remembered that Hal had a job for them, and wondered what it could be. Bertha clearly disapproved of it, and that was strange. Bertha usually felt that Hal Langlander, the hero who had ended the Dark Time, the Blue Queen’s last reign of terror, could do no wrong.
Leo was considering, and dismissing, the idea that Hal might want them to help him recapture the house by the river, when a low, ominous growl just ahead banished all thought from his mind.
Bertha stopped. A shadow was barring the path in front of her. Sweat broke out on Leo’s forehead as the shadow moved, black stripes flickered, and the growl was repeated.
‘Bertha, Wizard Wurzle, Mimi and Leo to see Hal and Tye,’ he heard Bertha say, very formally. ‘We are expected.’
There was no reply, but the next instant the path was clear, and over to one side there was the stealthy sound of fern stems snapping beneath the pads of heavy paws.
Bertha moved on, keeping her pace slow and even and looking straight ahead. Everyone else followed her example. As Leo passed the place where the shadow had barred the way, he felt hidden eyes watching him, and the back of his neck burned.
Ferns closed in around them, covering the ground. The trees were bathed in green light, their trunks and branches dappled here and there with golden coins of sunlight. The silence was complete, except for the sound of the walkers’ feet on the soft ground.
As Bertha led the way around a bend in the path, Leo saw Mimi start, and heard her catch her breath. He looked over her head, saw what she had seen, and felt his own throat close.
Hal and Tye were standing together in a ferny glade. Right in front of them, a dozen slender figures sat cross-legged on the ground, deftly braiding vines into thick rope. Some of the workers were adult, some were children, but all of them looked like Tye, with tiger-striped faces and spiky black hair. Behind them, in the overhanging branches of a giant tree, younger children were climbing, jumping and swinging.
But there wasn’t a sound. Not a sound, though the children were laughing, the tree branches were swaying, and the adults’ mouths were opening and closing as they chatted at their work.
Bertha had frozen. Wizard Wurzle and Mimi had stopped in mid-stride. Leo held his breath. For a long moment, the vision of the lost world of the Terlamaines held. Then it melted away, leaving Hal and Tye gazing at the place where it had been.
The silence lengthened. No one moved. Then, suddenly, Tye seemed to sense that she was being observed, and looked round. She saw the little group on the path and said something to Hal, who turned and beckoned.
Bertha, Wurzle and Mimi moved forward eagerly. Leo followed more slowly, feeling like an intruder who had blundered into a scene that should have remained private. There was no hint of awkwardness in Hal’s warm greeting, however, and Tye herself gave one of her rare smiles.
‘Did you see?’ she asked softly.
‘We did indeed!’ Wizard Wurzle burst out, before anyone else could speak. ‘What a privilege! To see Terlamaines as they really lived! I – I am overwhelmed! But by what great magic was the vision created? I have never seen its like!’
Suddenly realising that everyone was looking at him, he gulped and shrank back into the folds of his cloak like a tortoise retreating into its shell.
‘Hal –’ Bertha began in a high voice.
‘We heard about the dragon attack, Bertha,’ Hal said quietly. ‘The forest is alive with the news. I’m sorry about your friend.’
Bertha’s eyes filled with tears. Wurzle’s shoulders slumped.
‘Where are Conker and Freda?’ Leo asked, to break the heavy silence.
‘They should be back any minute,’ Hal said. ‘They went to see Peg at the camping shop. She sent a messenger mouse saying she had news for us. It might be the lead I’ve been waiting for.’
Bertha sighed and he glanced at her quizzically.
‘What’s this job you have for us, Hal?’ Mimi demanded.
‘First things first,’ Hal said, turning to her and looking straight into her eyes. ‘You need to get settled. Bertha will show you the way to our headquarters. Everything you need is there.’
In other words, Leo thought, seeing Mimi nod her understanding, somewhere at headquarters there’s a Safe Place where we can hide the Key. And Hal’s not going to tell us anything, or let us do anything, until the Key is safely stowed. But what about Wizard Wurzle? We can’t let him see…
‘Wizard Wurzle, you might prefer to stay here with us and wait for Conker and Freda,’ Hal went on smoothly. ‘If you’d like Tye to tell you a little more about the
Terlamaine vision, that is.’
‘Oh, certainly!’ gasped Wurzle, rising instantly to the bait. ‘Oh, yes, indeed!’
Bertha nudged Leo and Mimi and began leading them out of the glade.
‘The vision of my people as they lived before the Blue Queen destroyed them in the Dark Time was one of the memories of the Ancient One, Wizard Wurzle,’ Leo heard Tye say behind them. ‘As you have heard, Mimi and Leo spent time in the Ancient One’s cloud palace when it came to earth in Hobnob. They found that memories still clung to their clothes and hair, like tiny glittering flecks, when the Ancient One had gone. They collected the memories, and gave them to me.’
Leo glanced over his shoulder and saw the little wizard gaping in awe as Tye showed him the small, plump, drawstring bag that hung from her belt.
‘Tye is a bit – different, isn’t she?’ he said to Mimi when they were well away from the glade. ‘She’s friendlier. Sort of… softer. Do you think it’s because of the Ancient One’s dreams? Because she doesn’t feel so alone any more?’
‘Of course,’ Mimi said absent-mindedly. ‘Leo, have you seen any Flitters yet?’
‘No.’ Leo hadn’t thought about it, but now that Mimi asked, he realised that he hadn’t seen a single one of the tiny green fairy-like creatures that should have been swarming everywhere in Flitter Wood.
‘The Flitters are patrolling the treetops,’ Bertha called over her shoulder. ‘The tigers do a very good job on the ground, but they can’t do much about the queen’s blue butterflies. They’re the Flitters’ responsibility.’
‘But how can the Flitters stop the butterflies?’ Leo asked. ‘It’s not as if they can fight them.’ He smiled at the thought of the fragile Flitters doing anything warlike.
‘Lawks-a-daisy, of course Flitters can fight!’ Bertha exclaimed. ‘If they have to – and if the enemies are their own size, of course. They use thorns from the berry trees as weapons and they’re very fierce with them, too. There isn’t a wasp in Rondo who’d dare to invade Flitter Wood, I can tell you. And now that the Flitters know the blue butterflies are spies, they’re fanatical about keeping the wood clear of them.’
As she spoke, they reached a place that Leo remembered very well. A giant tree rose in front of them, its great boughs, spangled with hanging ferns, spreading wide from a tall, straight trunk.
‘The Flitters’ Nesting Tree!’ Mimi exclaimed.
Bertha sighed and nodded at a neat hut that stood at the edge of the Nesting Tree clearing. The hut was made of dead branches and sheets of bark, and was complete with a door that could be locked and two small windows. To Leo it looked very inviting, like a snug cubby house. On a cleared patch of ground in front of it was a small stone fireplace stacked with dry sticks.
‘That’s where Hal and Tye are living,’ Bertha said, with obvious disapproval. ‘Though why Hal decided to set up his headquarters here, I do not know. He and Tye would be far more comfortable if they stayed in the tavern with me. But they insist that they prefer this.’
Mimi wrinkled her nose, but Leo could understand Hal and Tye’s point of view. ‘Here they don’t have to see other people, if they don’t want to,’ he pointed out. ‘It’s quiet. And they’re in the open air.’
‘That may be,’ said Bertha loftily, ‘but as far as I’m concerned a room supplying hot baths and a comfortable bed is far superior to a forest hut with a gang of tigers as bodyguards!’
She seemed very ruffled. Clearly her loyalty to Hal was warring with her doubts about his common sense. Leo hastily asked her where the Safe Place was.
Bertha gave herself a little shake as if recalling herself to duty, and trotted to the Nesting Tree. ‘Member of the Ancient Order of Safe Places, please show yourself,’ she said.
With a wet, sucking sound a slab of damp, fern-covered earth between two of the Nesting Tree’s enormous roots opened like a shaggy trapdoor, revealing a velvet cushion as richly green as a pad of moss.
‘At your service,’ said a soft, mellow voice.
Leo and Mimi kneeled beside the trapdoor. Bertha discreetly moved away and turned her back.
‘Please state your password,’ said the voice.
‘Marion,’ said Mimi, glancing at Leo, who nodded. No one else in Rondo knew Mimi’s real name, so as a password it was ideal.
‘Marion,’ repeated the Safe Place. ‘Please be aware that I will not open again until this password is repeated. If you wish to continue, place the object to be guarded.’
Mimi took off the Key to Rondo and put it on the cushion. The ugly old pendant and its silver chain gleamed dully against the rich green velvet for a split second. Then the cushion sank rapidly into darkness.
Leo felt the same slight prickle of panic that he had felt the first time he’d seen the Key, his only way home, disappear into the depths of a Safe Place. He told himself not to be stupid. He told himself that entrusting the Key to a Safe Place was far less dangerous than carrying it around. But he still felt strangely hollow as he stood up, brushing leaves and dirt from his knees.
‘Thank you for using the services of a Rondo Safe Place,’ said the voice from deep inside the black hole. ‘Please mind your feet.’ The shaggy trapdoor squelched shut, sealing itself so perfectly that it was impossible to see where it had been.
Feeling worse than ever, Leo glanced at Mimi. She grimaced and shrugged. ‘It feels bad,’ she said. ‘But we had to do it. After last time…’
After last time, when the Key nearly fell back into the Blue Queen’s hands, and Rondo was a breath away from another Dark Time.
‘Mimi! Leo!’ a familiar voice bawled from the trees.
As they shouted back they heard the sounds of tramping feet, and in moments Conker was bursting into the clearing, short, chunky and full of energy, his hair and beard wilder than ever, his fang earring swinging. Freda the masked duck was beside him and Tye, Hal and Wizard Wurzle were close behind.
‘Oh, my heart and lungs, it’s good to see you!’ Conker bellowed, clapping Leo and Mimi on the shoulders. ‘The old team, back together again! And just in the nick of time, too! The quest is on!’
‘What do you mean?’ Bertha asked sharply. ‘Has Peg seen –’
‘As good as!’ Conker led the way to the fireplace, shrugged off his bulging pack, and squatted to light the fire. ‘She checked out the Tavern of No Return for us late last night. It was all locked up, but one of the top-floor windows was wide open, and a rope made of sheets knotted together was hanging out of it, down to the ground.’
‘So?’ Bertha asked coldly.
‘So Grim and Misery Merk were holding him prisoner last night, and he escaped!’ said Conker. ‘Ah, if only Peg had got there earlier! I knew he’d try to get help from his old pals the Merks eventually. And it was dabs to dibs the Merks would lock him up so they could sell him to the highest bidder. You know what they’re like.’
‘Who are we talking about?’ Leo asked blankly.
‘Who?’ roared Conker. ‘Oh, my blood and bones, Leo, who do you think? The villain Hal wants to find! His no-good thieving brother! Spoiler!’