The Sapphire Quest (4 page)

‘All you subjects of the mighty High Witch, the Lady Skadi, are ordered to gather before her at the gates of the castle,' he announced. He blew his
trumpet again and led the waggon towards the castle. The crowd surged after it, leaping and cheering.

‘I wonder what Skadi wants now,' Ingvar said.

Tia wondered that too.

‘It's too dangerous to follow,' Bryndis said. ‘We have to get back to the cellar.' She reached out her hand to her little brother. He wasn't there.

‘Where's Sindri?' Bryndis looked round wildly.

Tia pointed at the end of the procession. ‘There he is!'

Sindri was skipping into the crowd hurrying to the castle.

‘You should've held onto his hand, Bryndis,' Ingvar said.

‘And you shouldn't have left the cellar in the first place,' his sister blazed back.

Tia knew they were angry because they were scared, but arguing wasn't going to do any good. ‘I'll go and get him,' she said.

‘We'll all go. It'll give us a better chance of finding him,' Ingvar said firmly.

Leaving a safe gap between themselves and the end of the crowd, the three children followed until the waggon lumbered to a stop in front of the castle. They hid behind a cart and watched as the men driving the team of horses climbed into the waggon and cut the ropes keeping the statue from toppling over. The throng fell silent. It waited anxiously. Tia wondered what for.

Then a gasp rippled through the gathering. Skadi had appeared out of nowhere to stand in front of the waggon. She had her hand on the arm of a man who'd appeared with her.

Tia gasped too, not just at the sight of her beautiful aunt with a streak of white zigzagging through her dark hair like a bolt of lightning, but also at the man.
He was shorter than Skadi, and very strong-looking. And he resembled the portrait of Tia's father that she carried in her locket: his eyes were as dark, his hair as black and curly and he had the same curving nose.

The crowd began to cheer and call out, ‘Long live the Lady Skadi!'

The witch held up her hand and the gathering instantly stopped shouting. ‘My people, as you can see, Master Zeno has completed his tribute to me.' She gestured at the statue and then at the man beside her. He bowed and helped Skadi onto the waggon. She put her hand on the statue.

‘He has brought this to me but cannot take it to the place where all can see and admire it.' She pointed to an alcove cut into the stone above the castle gates. Before Tia could even blink, the statue was inside the alcove with Skadi standing on the ledge next to it. In the time it took Tia to draw breath in amazement, the witch was back beside Zeno.

She smiled in the cruel way the statue did. ‘The Master Sculptor will accompany me to dinner where he will be my guest of honour.' The witch laid her hand on Zeno's arm again and they vanished.

The crowd let out a final gasp, this time of relief. Skadi wasn't coming back, at least for now. Little
groups formed, chatting and laughing or talking solemnly, shaking their heads and pointing up at the statue.

Tia leaned against a cart. No wonder everyone in Iserborg was jumpy and tense! Although she'd known Skadi used the sapphire to transport herself from place to place, she hadn't known the witch could carry people – and statues – with her. That was what people meant when they said Skadi ‘took' men for the quarries or women and children for servants. Tia wondered what had happened to her friends' mother. Where had Skadi ‘taken' her?

Bryndis elbowed Tia. ‘There's Sindri,' she whispered. The little boy was near the front of the crowd, gaping at the statue, entranced. ‘You stay here,' Bryndis ordered. ‘We'll get him.' She and Ingvar moved off.

‘Where've you been?' a voice said close to Tia's ear. She nearly jumped out of her skin.

‘Loki!' The jackdaw was perched on the cart. Tia quickly explained where and why she hid in the daytime and what she'd discovered about Skadi and the sapphire. ‘I'm going to get into that room as soon as I can and steal it.'

She pulled a fat wad of paper out of her pocket.
‘I've written it all down for you to take to Finn. It's quite a big message, I'll need to tie it on.'

With a shake of his head, Loki held out a leg and Tia fastened the package on with twine she'd found in the castle. ‘There, it's done. Thank you, Loki.' Tia stroked the bird's grey head.

‘I'll be back to keep an eye on you,' he said. ‘At least you haven't been captured again – yet.' He took off and was soon out of sight.

Tia sighed. She missed him, and she missed her DragonBrother even more.

When Tia and the children were safely back in the cellar Ingvar insisted they make rules. ‘It's the best way to stay safe,' he said.

Tia agreed, though she knew she wouldn't be able to keep all the rules, not if she was going to steal the sapphire.

‘We need to be responsible for each other,' Ingvar said. ‘And us older ones have to look out for Sindri especially.'

‘No-one must be late leaving the castle.' Bryndis glared at Tia. ‘If they get left behind, Skadi might capture them and make them tell where the others are.'

Ingvar nodded in agreement. Tia did too, but her face went hot with embarrassment. Bryndis made it sound as though Tia had been late deliberately. But
even if she had been captured by the High Witch she'd never have told Skadi about Bryndis and her brothers.

‘And Sindri,' Ingvar spoke sternly to the little boy, ‘you must promise not to wander off. Always tell one of us where you want to go and ask permission.'

Sindri nodded. ‘And you mustn't wander off either,' he said earnestly to Tia.

‘All right,' she agreed, feeling terrible because she didn't mean what she was saying.

They spat on their palms and linked hands to seal the promise.

Sindri yawned. It made Bryndis laugh. ‘Let's get some sleep before we go to work tonight.'

Tia wanted to sleep but she tossed and turned, trying to think of a way to steal the sapphire without breaking her promise to her friends. She couldn't think of a thing and it was a long time before she dropped off to sleep.

That night the children were in for a shock. When they reached the castle kitchen they were just in time to see a servant woman, carrying a tray, bustling out of the door.

‘What's she doing?' Bryndis asked quietly as the woman turned a corner at the end of the corridor.

‘No idea,' Ingvar said. ‘Let's check there's no-one else in the kitchen.' It was empty.

Tia picked up a note lying on the kitchen table and read it out:

Noble Elves,

Master Zeno, the sculptor, is carving a marble fireplace in the great hall for the lady Skadi. He often works late and we have to take him food and drink.

We will knock on the kitchen door and wait a while before we enter.

We do not wish to offend you. Please do not leave the castle.

‘That explains it,' Ingvar said. ‘It shouldn't interfere with our work if we're careful. Let's find a place where we can hide quickly when we hear the knock.'

They decided on a large cupboard where the brooms were kept. ‘She won't go in here if she's just serving food,' Bryndis said.

‘Especially if we sweep the floor clean first!' Tia grinned.

The four children worked silently at their tasks in case the servant woman came back, heard them chatting, and realised they weren't elves at all, only lost children.

Sure enough, after a while, there was a tap on the door and a voice said politely, ‘O elves, I must enter.'

The children squashed into the cupboard and closed the door. There were little ornamental holes carved in the wood and they were able to spy through them.

‘I am entering now,' the voice said and the servant woman came in. She glanced around, the firelight reflecting on her anxious face. Bryndis and Ingvar drew a quick breath of surprise.

They've recognised her
, Tia thought.
I wonder who she is?

The woman put her tray on the table, hurried to the door, turned and curtseyed. ‘Thank you, elves. I shall leave you in peace till tomorrow.' She went out and the children tumbled from the cupboard.

‘Who was she?' Tia asked.

The older brother and sister exchanged a glance. ‘It was our Aunt Tinna,' Ingvar said, ‘our mother's sister.'

‘She looked nice,' Tia said. Tinna had a round, friendly face and if she hadn't been worried Tia was
sure she'd have been smiling. ‘Couldn't she care for you?'

Ingvar shrugged. ‘I think she wanted to after Mother was taken – she was always very kind – but it would've put her in danger so we didn't ask.'

She won't be in danger after I take the sapphire
, Tia thought. She was relieved to know there'd be someone to care for her friends once she'd stolen the sapphire and left Iserborg. But first she wanted to know more about Zeno, the Master Sculptor. He looked so like her father, he had to be from over the Southern Sea. He might even know Elio, or at least have heard of him.

She paused in her work and patted the locket under her shirt where she kept her father's picture. It might be risky but if she spoke to Master Zeno alone, if she was ready to run at the first sign of danger, then surely it was worth taking a chance to find out about her father?

She scrubbed away at a muddy boot, more determined than ever to speak to Master Zeno as soon as she could.

Her chance came a few days later. They were in the cellar, waiting for night to fall, and Sindri was drawing a wolf. He'd used Tia's silverpoint pen and a sheet from her book.

‘That's very good,' Ingvar said. ‘You'll be an artist one day.'

Sindri beamed. ‘I can be like Master Zeno and make carvings. Can we go and see his new ones in the Great Hall?'

His brother and sister exchanged a glance.

Please say yes!
Tia thought.

‘I don't see why not,' Bryndis said. ‘Aunt Tinna always brings back Master Zeno's tray at the same time. We could wait until she's done that and then go and look at the carvings.'

Ingvar agreed. Tia heaved a sigh of relief and set her plan in action.

She'd decided to leave the emerald behind. No matter how kind Master Zeno might be, he was bound to be suspicious of a girl who owned a huge jewel set in a gold ring. She'd already prised up a stone in the floor under her bedding and scooped out some soil. Now she took the ring off her chain, wrapped it in a piece of rag, dropped it in the hollow and replaced the stone.

Hurriedly she tidied her blankets and re-fastened her chain.

Ingvar was unbolting the trapdoor. ‘Hurry up, snail!' he said to Tia.

‘I'm coming.'

Tia followed the others through Iserborg town and into the castle. Her heart beat fast. Tonight, at long last, she might hear news of her father.

The children peeped out from behind one of the columns running down the two long sides of the Great Hall. At the far end sat Master Zeno, looking intently at the marble fireplace.