Shadowgate

12 – The Chase

Jasmine exclaimed with interest, and craned her neck to see the words Lief had written. But Steven’s frown had become a scowl.

‘Ah!’ he said in disgust. ‘So now we know whose wagon stayed so long! Laughing Jack never leaves a place until he has wrung it dry.’

He shook his head. ‘No doubt most of the other tracks were made by the poor fools who came to do business with him.’

‘What is so wrong about lending money?’ Jasmine asked, puzzled.

Steven snorted. ‘Nothing, if it is done fairly,’ he said. ‘But Laughing Jack preys on those who are desperate.’

He saw that his companions did not understand him, and raised his voice slightly as he explained.

‘Laughing Jack lends his victims what they ask, or more, and makes them sign a paper that half of them cannot even read,’ he said. ‘A season or two later he returns, demanding that the loan be repaid.’

He paused. Dark shadows flickered in his golden eyes.

‘And then?’ Jasmine prompted.

Steven’s fists clenched.

‘And then his victims discover that they have sworn to pay back ten or twenty times as much as they borrowed,’ he muttered. ‘If they do not pay, which most often they cannot, Laughing Jack takes possession of their homes, their beasts, their furniture—everything they own.’

‘I have not heard of this!’ Lief exclaimed.

Steven shrugged. ‘Laughing Jack has been a plague in the land for years without number, and dark rumours have gathered about him. His victims are too afraid to complain to anyone in authority.’

‘Afraid?’ Lief murmured.

Steven grimaced. ‘He is an evil man, and when they have given him all they have, and it is still not enough, what else can he take from them, but their lives?’

As his companions exclaimed in horror, he shook his head.

‘I am wasting our time by speaking of things that we cannot change at present,’ he said gruffly. ‘Lief, what are we to do now?’

Lief spread his paper out before them on the ground. He had drawn borders around all the notices, shaping them as he remembered.

‘Now it is your turn to test your memory, Jasmine,’ he said. ‘See the Happy Vale board in your mind. All the notices were pinned into place, were they not?’

Jasmine nodded. ‘Pinned untidily, too,’ she said. ‘The people who put them up had taken little care.’

‘I think they took a great deal of care,’ Lief said.

As she raised her eyebrows in surprise, he gave her the pencil. ‘See if you can remember where the pins were placed on each notice,’ he said. ‘Mark the places with a dot.’

He crossed his fingers for luck as Jasmine bent over the paper and began to mark it.

She finished the first notice, and then the second. Now and then she would close her eyes, as if seeing a picture in her mind, before going on.

By the time she had finished marking the third notice, Lief knew he had been right.

He glanced at Steven. The big man’s eyes were bulging with astonishment. He seemed about to speak, but Lief shook his head warningly. He did not want Jasmine’s concentration to be disturbed.

Jasmine moved on with increasing speed. In moments the work was done. She threw down the pencil and pushed the paper away.

‘There,’ she muttered. ‘I have done it. Though I cannot see why—’

She glanced up and saw their faces.

‘What is it?’ she asked blankly, looking down at the paper again.

‘Read the words beneath the dots aloud,’ said Lief grimly. ‘Read them in order.’

Shaking her head, Jasmine began to do as he asked. ‘The… three… are… with… you…’ she read, and caught her breath.

‘Go on!’ Lief urged.

‘Follow orders,’ Jasmine went on, her voice rising. ‘Send goods… to… Laughing Jack… at Riverdale signpost.’

‘And that was how it was done,’ Steven exclaimed, slapping his knee. ‘The simple cunning of it! A message in plain sight, but perfectly disguised. “The three are with you. Follow orders. Send goods to Laughing Jack, at Riverdale signpost.’”

Lief was only half listening. He was staring at the paper.

Something about it was still nagging at him. But what? The hidden message had been revealed. What further secrets could the notices hold?

‘The “three” are you two and Barda, of course,’ Steven went on excitedly. ‘The “orders” must be Zerry’s standing orders to steal the Belt of Deltora if you crossed his path. The “goods” are the Belt itself.’

He shook his head. ‘This guardian of the north must be well organised indeed, with a secret network of allies who go about their usual business unless and until they are needed. Zerry was used because he was with the Masked Ones. Laughing Jack was used because he was plying his evil trade in the north. No doubt he himself put the notices on the board just before you arrived.’

‘But how did the guardian learn that we were with the Masked Ones in the first place?’ Jasmine frowned.

Steven was not interested in more mysteries. The one that had already been solved was enough for him.

‘So Laughing Jack is in league with the Enemy,’ he muttered. ‘Why does that not surprise me?’

Abruptly he turned and strode towards the caravan.

‘Let us be on our way,’ he called over his shoulder. ‘We must make haste. Our quarry’s wagon, I hear, is as fast as the wind.’

‘Then we will never catch him!’ Jasmine cried anxiously, scrambling to her feet.

Steven reached the van, jumped up to the driver’s seat, and began fossicking in a sack crushed into one corner.

‘Certainly we will,’ he said, without looking up. ‘I have a trick or two up my sleeve.’

He pulled a small green bottle from the sack, and nodded with satisfaction.

By the time Lief and Jasmine reached him, he had climbed down and was whispering in the horse’s ear. The horse snorted eagerly and whisked her tail.

Steven smiled. ‘I am looking forward to this,’ he said softly. ‘My brother and I have long wanted to meet Laughing Jack.’

He opened the green bottle and emptied it into the horse’s bucket. The unmistakable apple smell of Queen Bee cider filled the air. The horse plunged its nose into the bucket and drank eagerly.

‘Your horse drinks Queen Bee cider?’ Jasmine asked in astonishment.

Steven was removing the strings of bells attached to the reins. ‘Only on special occasions,’ he said. ‘And, of course, Mellow is no ordinary horse.’

Lief and Jasmine glanced at one another. Mellow certainly looked ordinary. Very ordinary indeed.

As if she knew what they were thinking, Mellow pawed the ground. She had nearly finished the cider in the bucket. They could hear the sound of her tongue rasping on the metal sides as she licked up the last few drops.

‘I would climb into the van at once, if I were you,’ Steven said quickly. ‘Make sure the doors are locked.’

‘Steven, I think that Jasmine, at least, should ride with you,’ Lief objected.

Steven smiled without humour. ‘She would be very sorry if she did,’ he said.

Mellow raised her head. She bared her long, yellow teeth and neighed.

Every bee in the clearing seemed to stop in mid air. Then the swarm rose in a black cloud. Kree squawked, and soared high into the sky.

‘Make haste!’ Steve said urgently. He snatched up the bucket, threw the empty bottle and the bells inside it and swung himself up to the driver’s seat.

Lief and Jasmine ran to the back of the caravan. Jasmine jumped in. Lief was about to follow when Mellow neighed again. He looked around, and the hair rose on the back of his neck.

The swarm was upon them. The horse’s head and neck seethed with bees. The reins were heavy with bees. And like a thick, black carpet unrolling, bees were swarming back, back, towards the van.

‘Shut the doors!’ bellowed Steven.

His heart beating wildly, Lief leaped into the van and slammed the doors behind him. In moments the dimness had became darkness, and the walls and roof were vibrating with frenzied humming.

‘The bees,’ Jasmine whispered.

And then they were moving. Slowly at first. Then faster, faster, faster—until all Lief and Jasmine could hear were the faint, clicking sounds of hoofs that seemed barely to touch the ground, and the wild humming of the bees.