The Hunter smiled and looked up at the wheelhouse of the chicken boat. He hadn’t expected it to be this easy. All three of them waiting for him like sitting ducks.
“Are you going to come down, or am I going to come up and get you?” he asked coldly.
“Run,” hissed Nicko to Jenna.
“What about you?”
“I’ll be okay. It’s you he’s after. Just go. Now.”
Nicko raised his voice and spoke to the Hunter. “Please don’t shoot. I’ll come down.”
“Not just you, sonny. You’re all coming down. The girl first.”
Nicko pushed Jenna away. “Go!” he hissed.
Jenna seemed unable to move, unwilling to leave what felt like the safety of the chicken boat. Boy 412 recognized the terror on her face. He had felt like that so many times before in the Young Army, and he knew that unless he grabbed her, just as Boy 409 had once done for him to save him from a Forest wolverine, Jenna would be unable to move. And if he didn’t grab her, the Hunter would. Quickly, Boy 412 propelled Jenna out of the wheelhouse, clasped her hand tightly and jumped with her off the far side of the chicken boat, away from the Hunter. As they landed on a pile of chicken dung mixed with straw, they heard the Hunter swear.
“Run!” hissed Nicko, looking down from the deck.
Boy 412 pulled Jenna to her feet, but she was still unwilling to go.
“We can’t leave Nicko,” she gasped.
“I’ll be all right, Jen. Just go!” yelled Nicko, oblivious to the Hunter and his pistol.
The Hunter was tempted to shoot the Wizard boy there and then, but his priority was the Queenling, not Wizard scum. So, as Jenna and Boy 412 picked themselves up off the dung heap, clambered over the chicken wire and ran for their lives, the Hunter leaped after them as if his own life too depended on it.
Boy 412 kept hold of Jenna as he headed away from the Hunter, around the back of the cottage and into Aunt Zelda’s fruit bushes. He had the advantage over the Hunter in that he knew the island, but that did not bother the Hunter. He was doing what he did best, tracking a prey and a young and terrified one at that. Easy. After all, where could they run to? It was only a matter of time before he got them.
Boy 412 and Jenna ducked and weaved through the bushes, leaving the Hunter struggling to find his way through the prickly plants, but all too soon Jenna and Boy 412 reached the end of the fruit bushes and reluctantly emerged into the exposed grassy space that led down to the duck pond. At that moment the moon came out from behind the clouds, and the Hunter saw his prey outlined against the backdrop of the marshes.
Boy 412 ran, pulling Jenna along with him, but the Hunter was slowly gaining on them and did not seem to tire, unlike Jenna, who felt she could not run another step. They skirted the duck pond and raced up to the grassy knoll at the end of the island. Horribly close behind them they could hear the footsteps of the Hunter, echoing as he too reached the knoll and sprinted over the hollow ground.
Boy 412 dodged this way and that between the small bushes scattered about, dragging Jenna behind him, aware that the Hunter was almost near enough to reach out and grab her.
And then suddenly the Hunter was near enough. He lunged forward and dived at Jenna’s feet.
“Jenna!” yelled Boy 412, pulling her out of the Hunter’s grasp and jumping with her into a bush.
Jenna crashed into the bush after Boy 412, only to find that suddenly the bush wasn’t there anymore, and she was tumbling headlong into a dark, cold, endless space.
She landed with a jolt on a sandy floor. A moment later there was a thud, and Boy 412 lay sprawled in the darkness beside her.
Jenna sat up, dazed and aching, and rubbed the back of her head where she had hit the ground. Something very strange had happened. She tried to remember what it was. Not their escape from the Hunter, not the fall through the ground, but something even stranger. She shook her head to try to clear the fuzziness in her brain. That was it. She remembered.
Boy 412 had spoken.
35
GONE TO GROUND
You can talk,” said Jenna, rubbing the bump on her head.
“Of course I can talk,” said Boy 412.
“But why haven’t you, then? You haven’t ever said anything. Except for your name. I mean, number.”
“That’s all we were meant to say if we were captured. Rank and number. Nothing else. So that’s what I did.”
“You weren’t captured. You were saved,” Jenna pointed out.
“I know,” said Boy 412. “Well, I know that now. I didn’t then.”
Jenna found it very strange to be actually having a conversation with Boy 412 after all this time. And even stranger to be having it at the bottom of a pit in complete darkness.
“I wish we had a light,” said Jenna. “I keep thinking the Hunter’s going to creep up on us.” She shivered.
Boy 412 reached up inside his hat, drew out his ring and slipped it onto his right index finger. It fitted perfectly. He cupped his other hand around the dragon ring, warming it and willing it to give out its golden glow. The ring responded, and a soft glow spread out from Boy 412’s hands until he could clearly see Jenna looking at him through the darkness. Boy 412 felt very happy. The ring was brighter than ever, and soon it cast a warm circle of light around them as they sat on the sandy floor of the tunnel.
“That’s amazing,” said Jenna. “Where did you find it?”
“Down here,” said Boy 412.
“What, you just found it? Just now?”
“No. I found it before.”
“Before what?”
“Before—remember when we got lost in the haar?”
Jenna nodded.
“Well, I fell down here then. And I thought I was going to be stuck here forever. Until I found the ring. It’s Magyk. It lit up and showed me the way out.”
So that was what happened, thought Jenna. It made sense now. Boy 412 sitting smugly waiting for them when she and Nicko finally found their way back, frozen and soaked after hours of wandering around looking for him. She had just known he had some kind of secret. And then all that time he had been walking around with the ring and never showing anyone. There was more to Boy 412 than met the eye.
“It’s a beautiful ring,” she said, gazing at the gold dragon curled around Boy 412’s finger. “Can I hold it?”
A little reluctantly, Boy 412 took off the ring and gave it to Jenna. She cradled it carefully in her hands, but the light began to fade and the darkness drew in around them. Soon the light from the ring had completely died.
“Have you dropped it?” Boy 412 asked accusingly.
“No,” said Jenna, “it’s still here in my hand. But it doesn’t work for me.”
“Of course it works. It’s a Magyk ring,” said Boy 412. “Here, give it back. I’ll show you.” He took the ring and immediately the tunnel was filled with light. “See, it’s easy.”
“Easy for you,” said Jenna, “but not for me.”
“I don’t see why,” said Boy 412, puzzled.
But Jenna had seen why. She had seen it over and over again, growing up in a household of Wizards. And although Jenna knew only too well that she was not Magykal, she could tell who was.
“It’s not the ring that’s Magyk. It’s you,” she told Boy 412.
“I’m not Magyk,” said Boy 412. He sounded so definite that Jenna didn’t argue.
“Well, whatever you are, you’d better keep hold of the ring,” she said. “So how do we get out?”
Boy 412 put the dragon ring on and set off along the tunnel, leading Jenna confidently through the twists and turns that had so confused him before, until at last they arrived at the top of the steps.
“Careful,” he said. “I fell down these last time and nearly lost the ring.”
At the bottom of the steps Jenna stopped. Something had made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“I’ve been here before,” she whispered.
“When?” asked Boy 412, a bit put out. It was his place.
“In my dreams,” muttered Jenna. “I know this place. I used to dream about it in the summer when I was at home. But it was bigger than this…”
“Come on,” said Boy 412 briskly.
“I wonder if it is bigger, if there’s an echo.” Jenna raised her voice as she spoke. there’s an echo there’s an echo there’s an echo there’s an echo there’s an echo there’s an echo…sounded all around them.