The Battle of the Sun Read online

  ‘Would you still defeat me, Jack? Would you?’

  Jack said nothing. The Magus was pacing the library.

  ‘I had thought you cleverer than to trust Wedge,’ said the Magus.

  Jack said nothing.

  ‘I knew that you had visited my chamber. What did you find there, Jack?’

  Jack said nothing.

  The Magus reached inside his cloak and pulled out the golden casket that had contained the Egg.

  ‘Well I know that you were searching for the Cinnabar Egg, and well I know that no man alive can open this casket unless that man is myself. Yet you betrayed me, and I warned you what would be the consequences of your betrayal.’

  ‘Punish Wedge,’ said Jack. ‘He was the one who allowed me to escape.’

  ‘He allowed nothing,’ said the Magus. ‘Do you yet imagine that anything happens in this house unless I allow it to happen? You did not escape. Now you shall be punished. Perhaps you had better embrace your mother – it will be for the last time.’

  The Magus left the room and Jack ran into his mother’s arms. She held him close, and said bravely, ‘I’m not afraid, Jack. Don’t you be afraid, my best boy.’

  Jack said, ‘Mother, whatever spell he casts will be broken when he is defeated, and his defeat is near at hand.’

  Before Jack could speak further, Wedge came hopping into the room, dragging Crispis behind him.

  ‘Jackster!’ said Wedge. ‘Don’t go telling the Magus you gave me the Egg. He’ll kill me for certain, but I’ll kill this one!’

  Crispis struggled to get away, but Wedge was strong.

  ‘You betrayed me!’ said Jack.

  ‘Not that I did,’ said Wedge hotly. ‘I’d be glad to see the back of you, and your mother and that dog. I said as much to Mistress Split, and SHE was the one who told tales, because of that dog! She believed that She would lose the dog! Follow you it would, She said! All lost for a dog!’

  ‘I’ll tell him about you and the Egg,’ said Jack.

  Wedge’s face went white then green then purple. He leaned forward, his half-nose on Jack’s whole nose.

  ‘Say nothing about the Egg! Say nothing, I say! When I have power you and your own shall go free, yet if you say to Master that I have the Egg, all of us is lost!’

  ‘I am not afraid,’ said Jack.

  ‘This one is!’ said Wedge horribly. ‘Look at him tremble.’

  And it was true. Crispis was trembling.

  Now Jack knew that he would say nothing to the Magus about the coconut he had given Wedge, because there was only one place that he, Jack, could have got the coconut, and that was from the Dragon. Jack did not want anyone except himself to start thinking about the Dragon. Tomorrow was the day when the Dragon had promised to prepare the Bath for the Sunken King. Jack knew he had to be clever. He had to duck and avoid, and let the time pass until he could free the King.

  The Magus came back into the room.

  ‘Wedge! There is no need to punish Crispis. He may go back to the other boys in the bedchamber. Leave him there and do not call him for work today. He will not be fit for the great Opus.’

  Crispis didn’t look at all like he would be fit for any Opus of any size. He could hardly stop his teeth chattering in his head.

  Wedge let Crispis go, and the little boy fell to the floor, then scrambled up and ran off. Jack was glad. He wanted to protect Crispis, and vowed silently in his heart that Crispis would come and live with him and his mother when all this was done.

  ‘Jack!’ said the Magus. ‘Did you try to bribe Wedge?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Jack, and Wedge’s face went the colour of a bowl of beetroot soup, but Jack knew what to say. ‘Wedge caught me searching for the Cinnabar Egg, and to avoid punishment I tried to make him help me escape.’

  ‘And why would he help you?’ said the Magus in a tone like lead.

  ‘I said I was the only one who could get rid of the dog for him. I said that if he let me go, and Crispis, and Max and my mother, he would be happy again, because Mistress Split would not have the dog.’

  ‘It’s true, it’s true!’ cried Wedge. ‘Didn’t She betray me to keep that dog?’

  And the Magus knew that this was so, and he believed the story. It was the first time that Jack had got the better of him.

  ‘Wedge, you are a fool,’ said the Magus, ‘but now that this matter is clear, I shall not punish you.’

  ‘Yes, Master. No, Master,’ said Wedge, his eye gleaming with relief.

  ‘Destroy the dog yourself if that is what you want to do.’

  ‘No!’ shouted Jack.

  The Magus laughed. ‘Jack, there are powerful reasons why you must quell your dislike of me and assist me in the Work. The dog is but a dog. You also have a mother. Behold!’

  The Magus turned to Anne, Jack’s mother.

  ‘Anne,’ said the Magus, ‘did you dream one night that you were alive yet could not move at all, yet could not lift your arms nor feel your heart beating?’

  ‘I have dreamed that dream, sir,’ said Anne.

  ‘Then dream it now,’ said the Magus, and before Jack’s eyes his mother’s warm soft body began to harden. It had been the folds of her skirts – now it was her blouse and jacket, her strong arms that always held him when he was afraid. Anne caught her breath as she felt the cold change steal over her. Instinctively, she held out her arms, and in the position, her arms turned to stone, her arms outstretched, her palms open. The strange stone, the lifelike statue-making ceased at her neck, and Jack could see the cords of her neck throbbing as the blood still flowed there.

  ‘Jack!’ said Anne.

  Jack went towards her. He touched her cold arms with his warm hands and he felt the smooth hard folds of her clothes. Then he touched her face, still warm, still full of love for him. It was as if she had heard his thoughts, and she said, ‘Though my body is turned to stone, my heart is alive because of you, Jack, and, look, how my lips may still smile when I see your dear face.’

  Jack stood looking at his mother, as still as stone himself.

  The Magus came forward. ‘You have done this, Jack. This is your disobedience. Now look carefully at your mother – once and twice she has been punished for you. The third time will be the last time and she will not speak to you again, but be as a statue in the street, and you will never know her more.’

  ‘You said you would free her when the Work is completed!’ cried Jack.

  The Magus nodded. ‘The power is its own power. Once, and twice, I may free her, but when she is stone and nothing but stone, then I may not free her more. Think well, Jack, think carefully what you do next. Other lives depend on you now.’

  ‘What must I do?’ asked Jack.

  ‘You must assist me,’ said the Magus. ‘It is dawn. Tonight the alignment of stars and the new moon demands the beginning of the Work. In twenty-seven days’ time, at the full moon, there will be an eclipse of the sun, and then the Work can be completed and the City of Gold will be mine!’

  ‘And then?’ said Jack.

  ‘And then indeed!’ repeated the Magus. ‘And then your power will be no more, and you may return to the world you long for, with those you love.’

  The Magus turned. ‘Wedge! The boy will rest. Feed him and rest him, and secure him well. I want no further escapes – he must be ready for tonight. Do you understand?’

  Wedge nodded. With his heavy hand on Jack’s shoulder, he led him away.

  THE DRAGON PREPARES A BATH

  The Dragon was busy.

  The Dragon was the Moat and the Moat was the Dragon, but the Dragon was also not the Moat and the Moat was also not the Dragon.

  Confusing.

  A Dragon is a very confusing creature. But the Dragon himself is not confused.

  The Dragon was busy filling the Moat with what might have been water, and was but wasn’t. Not water to wash in or water to drink. This was no common or ordinary water; it was the only water in the world that could free the Sunken King.

/>   The Dragon had this water in three enormous wooden barrels, and he carried the barrels one by one to the Moat.

  He poured in the first barrel, and the Moat filled with this liquid; blue like mystery.

  He poured in the second barrel and the Moat filled with that liquid; red like blood.

  He poured in the third barrel and the Moat filled with a liquid that was clear like thought.

  But when the three liquids from the three barrels mixed

  together they made a Water that was seething, troubling, boiling black and sulphurous and stinking. This fourth Water was the Water the Dragon wanted.

  The Moat was filled.

  TRAPPED

  Wedge had but half a brain, yet it was a brain that could work twice as hard when he wanted it to.

  Wedge knew that with Jack locked up and the Magus preparing for the Opus, he would have all day to hatch the Egg and win the power for himself.

  SHE would be occupied with the DOG.

  He had to make sure though that Jack could not escape and Wedge knew that Jack was very good at escaping.

  Wedge mused on Jack’s capacity to escape, and reasoned it thus: ‘If there is a door, then Jackster opens it. If there is a lock, then Jackster springs it. If I imprison him where there is neither lock nor door, then escape he cannot.’

  And with that in mind, or half in mind, Wedge marched Jack into the kitchen and opened a hatch in the wall, where there was a small sturdy platform hanging by four ropes.

  ‘Pull yourself up, Jackster!’ said Wedge. ‘Go on with it!’

  Reluctantly, Jack began to pull. Up he went, up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up until he thought his arms would break.

  At the last second of his strength, he tumbled out through a second hatch, into a small sealed turret room. There was a window but there was no door.

  Down below, Wedge deftly released the ropes that secured the pulley, and the platform shot back down, fast and furious, and Jack, panting and staring down the shaft, saw that there was no way out.

  He heard Wedge’s voice, faint and far off. ‘The Magus will come for you, Jackster, never fear!’

  Below, below, Jack heard the faint hop-hop of Wedge departing. He looked around him.

  The turret room was comfortable and furnished. Once upon a time someone had used this room for sleeping – there was a small heavy bed by the wall; and for reading – the round walls were lined with books. An armchair had been placed by the window, but the wood was wormy and the leather had long since dried and torn away. No one had been here for a very long time.

  Jack looked out of the window. In the nest of the Phoenix he had been high up, at the top of the house, or so he had thought, but here was so high that the clouds floated in through the window like white smoke, and only sometimes, when the wind blew them away, could he see anything below.

  Below was much below, another country called Below. The Thames was so far underneath his gaze that it looked like a silver thread drawn through a dark cloth, and not like a mighty river at all.

  He could not climb down and he could not use his iron tool because there was no door, or if there was a door it was not one that Jack could find by any ordinary investigation.

  He leaned sadly out of the window.

  And that was when he saw someone else leaning sadly out of the window two turrets away. It was a girl. It was the girl in the Book of the Phoenix.

  DOG DOES IT AGAIN!

  In the kitchen, Max slid out from his hiding place behind the woodpile, and seeing that Mistress Split was still snoring on her truckle bed, he used his paw to pull open the heavy kitchen door and set off by himself through the Dark House. He was a dog. He knew where he was going.

  First, Max slid like a silent shadow into the library and ran to Jack’s mother, and jumped up on the table so that he could lick her nose.

  ‘Max!’ said Anne. ‘Do you know where they have imprisoned Jack?’ Max wagged his tail, and jumping down, he went softly to the door into the laboratory, where his quick ears could hear the Magus giving orders to the boys to chop and fire and stoke and fill.

  Then, turning his friendly intelligent face to Anne, to reassure her, Max set off again through the house.

  He went up the stairs and put his nose round the half-door of the Creature’s chamber. Sure enough, there was Wedge, with the coconut in front of him, and a very large hen.

  Max ran at top speed up the turning stairs until he came to the boys’ chamber, where he knew he would find Crispis.

  Yes, there he was, sitting disconsolately on the edge of his stone bed, swinging his thin legs. He was talking to a flower pot, where, just starting to grow, was a sunflower.

  Max barked and Crispis got up and came over to pat the dog. ‘Where’s Jack?’ asked Crispis. ‘I wish I was an all-seeing eye so that I could find him.’

  But Max was an all-smelling nose, and he knew where Jack was, and he wanted to show Crispis. Tugging at the boy’s jacket, running a few feet, then tugging again, Max made Crispis understand he had to follow him.

  Crispis was quite frightened to be leaving the chamber without permission, but then, he thought, he was usually frightened, whatever was happening, so this was probably all right. But he took his sunflower just in case.

  Down they went, creeping past the Creature’s chamber, and in one brief half a second half a glance, Crispis saw Wedge on top of a large brown hen and the hen on top of a small brown coconut.

  THE TRUTH ABOUT SUNFLOWERS

  What’s your name?’ called Jack to the girl, but every time the girl replied, her answer was caught ‘ by the windy clouds and carried away.

  But Jack knew she was the Captive.

  And he knew she was the Golden Maiden.

  But he wanted to know her name.

  In the laboratory, the Magus had made ready. The fearful heat of the furnace had caused some of the boys to faint, and Robert was reviving William and Anselm with water. The two giant alembics bubbled and boiled and filled with steam. The Magus ran from one to another, drawing off a silver liquid that immediately hardened into a solid silver ball. Yet when William dropped one of these small round balls it splintered into a thousand tiny replicas of itself, like ball bearings.

  The Magus cursed, and sent the boys on their hands and knees to find and collect the tiny drops of mercury.

  ‘The Spirit Mercurius is essential to the Work,’ shouted the Magus over the boom and boil of the alembics. ‘Lose no part of him, for he is liquid and solid, matter and mind.’

  Round and round the laboratory swooped and dived the

  Eyebat, but often it threw itself at the skylight, making chattering noises, like a cat when it sees a bird.

  And beyond the laboratory, silent and motionless as ever, were the stone boys.

  ‘Make ready,’ said the Magus, ‘and leave me. The Work is begun . . .’

  And the Sunken King turning and turning in his tank like a child in its mother’s womb.

  And the Dragon that held the Cinnabar Egg like a world that holds a star.

  And the Dark House waiting like a baleful thought.

  And now, and now, and now.

  ‘Woof,’ barked Max at the foot of the shaft. ‘Woof. Woof, Woof.’

  Up above Jack heard, and ran from the window and looked down. But it was such a long way down.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ said Crispis. ‘I wish I was a bird and then I could rescue him.’

  Crispis sighed and put down his sunflower, in its pot, on the floor, in the shaft. Then, for no reason that he understood, he went to the vast stone sink that stood in the kitchen, and drew off a jug of water from the water barrel kept beneath. Mistress Split snored on.

  Crispis went back to his sunflower and watered it. And it grew – about two feet, all at once.

  ‘Oh!’ said Crispis. And he watered it once more, and it grew another two feet, and now it had begun to grow its way up into the shaft and up it went, and up it
went and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up.

  And Jack suddenly realised that something was coming towards him, and he stood back, and watched, amazed as the sunflower grew into the room.

  But it did not stop when it reached the room. What the sunflower did was this: it grew over towards the window, and then and only then, when its top was in the fresh air and the white clouds, did it stop growing.

  And then, like the sun itself, the sunflower sprung a great golden head and shone so bright from the window, that a woman polishing a copper pot in the street miles below, saw the light of it beaming, and looked up. ‘Lord,’ she said, ‘the sun so visible, twice in the sky at once! Certainly strange happenings there must be in some place.’

  And she hurried inside.

  Jack didn’t hesitate. Testing the sturdy stem of the plant just once, he shinned right down it at such a speed that his head went dizzy, and in a few seconds: there he was. Landed in the kitchen on his bottom, and Max standing on him and licking every bit of him and Crispis dancing for joy.

  ‘It was the Dragon’s sunflower!’ he said.

  Jack felt in his pocket and gave Crispis another of the six remaining seeds. ‘Keep it safe in case you need it again,’ he said, and Crispis nodded solemnly and stowed the seed away in his stocking top.

  The boys were just tiptoeing across the kitchen when Mistress Split woke up with a vast yawn. There was half a pause of hesitation, then Max bounded into her arm, and in the bounding and the ‘Boojie Boojie Boojie!’ that took up the next half minute, Jack and Crispis slipped out of the door.