Chapter 23

Chapter

Twenty-Three

I had only ever been in the vicinity of Culcreuch Castle once, when I’d time-travelled back to 1994, lurked in the nearby woods and spied on the old building from a distance. Thirty years later, those woods looked much the same. There was a bit more litter caught in the undergrowth but the trees remained in place and were only slightly taller and leafier than I remembered.

We hadn’t travelled all the way by helicopter; after all, stealth from this point on would be vitally important. We’d managed to fly to the nearby city of Perth from Sutton Bridge, however, and Slim had driven us the rest of the way so we could approach Culcreuch without being noticed. We waited until daylight in order to avoid Athair’s vampires and then he’d dropped us a mile from the castle. We’d walked the final section but, before we arrived in the castle grounds, I made a silent promise. If I made it to Saturday morning, still alive and still free, then I was definitely taking flying lessons. I was a high elf now – hell, I was practically royalty. At the very least I ought to live up to my newfound status and zip around the countryside in my own helicopter.

‘Hours,’ Otis said, checking the time and causing my brief daydream to evaporate. ‘We’ve got mere hours until we need to meet Athair in front of the Royal Elvish Institute.’

‘Plenty of time,’ Hugo said.

‘Screeds,’ I agreed.

‘We’ll be in and out by lunch time.’

I nodded. ‘By noon, we’ll be in a warm, welcoming country pub and eating a hearty lunch. There will be hours left to prepare for tonight’s showdown.’

‘It’ll be great.’

‘We’ll be heroes.’

Hester and Otis gazed at us. ‘Will you say it?’ Hester asked her brother. ‘Or will I?’

‘It’ll sound better coming from me,’ he replied without missing a beat. ‘You’re both fucking crazy.’

‘And,’ Hester added, ‘we’re all going to die.’

I sucked on my bottom lip and my eyes met Hugo’s.

‘At least we’ll die fighting,’ he said. He smiled and his dimple appeared. ‘In case it’s not clear, Daisy, I have lots of regrets about what happened when we first encountered each other but the one thing I will never ever regret is that we met. My life is inordinately richer because you’re in it. No matter what happens today or later tonight, don’t forget that. I will always be yours. You told the Fachan that I belong to you and it’s completely true.’ He paused. ‘And I couldn’t be happier.’

‘That will be from the adrenaline caused by facing imminent death,’ Hester said.

I ignored her and kept my gaze on Hugo. ‘I feel the same. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.’

He smirked. ‘Naturally.’

I matched his expression. ‘Now you can admit the whole truth, darling.’

‘The whole truth?’

‘That you desperately love me.’

He nodded. ‘I do.’

‘Your desire for me is ardent.’

‘Yup. It is.’

I reached up and brushed a lock of his tawny hair away from his forehead. ‘And,’ I breathed, ‘I’m the best treasure hunter this country has ever seen.’

‘Let’s not be too enthusiastic, Daisy,’ he said, while the brownies rolled their eyes in exasperation.

I kissed him briefly, grinned and stepped back.

‘Is all the soppy shit out of the way now?’ Hester enquired.

Hugo’s hand reached for mine. ‘Never.’

She sighed. ‘Come on. Let’s get a move on and meet our gruesome death.’

We picked our way through the woods, doing what we could to stay well behind the tree line. There was every reason not to rush: we didn’t want Athair to know we were there – not yet, anyway. We wove in and out of the bushes and foliage until there was a break in the trees and we could see Culcreuch Castle .

Last time I’d thought the building and its surrounding landscape were awesome, but now the lush splendour I’d seen during that visit had vanished. ‘Wow,’ I whispered. ‘There’s no denying that a fiend is in residence.’

There was still a lake in front of the castle. Last time it had been a sparkling expanse of aquatic serenity complete with lazy ducks and shimmering blue water, but now it was a murky hole. The water was black rather than blue, there were oily ripples on its surface and certainly no quacking ducks.

The lake wasn’t the only difference: the once perfectly manicured lawns were a quagmire. I couldn’t see a glimmer of natural life; the landscape looked as dead as if we’d walked onto the set of a dystopian film. Unfortunately, this wasn’t Hollywood. Far from it.

Close to the grand front door of the castle was a battered wooden crate. It was empty now but I knew without asking that it was the same crate Hugo had mentioned that had contained chickens to feed Athair’s small army of vampires. There were bloodstains around it and, if I squinted, I could see trails of feathers and bones. The poor chickens hadn’t had an easy death.

Given the time of day, at least the vamps weren’t in evidence. There was a makeshift barn structure on the eastern side of the castle that definitely hadn’t been there before; the bloodsuckers were doubtless inside, sleeping away the day until it was safe to emerge. I shuddered slightly and told myself to be grateful that they were tucked away.

The castle building, which had stood for enough centuries to prove that it was made of strong stuff, was in better condition. There were some dark red stains on the stonework that I tried not to think too closely about, and a couple of broken windows on the upper floors, but it was mostly intact.

‘He’s not very houseproud, is he?’ I murmured.

Otis’s mouth was turned down in disapproval. Hester’s hands were on her hips.

‘It looks far worse in daylight than I realised,’ Hugo agreed. ‘He’s taken more care inside – it’s cleaner in there.’

‘Apart from the random corpses shoved into handy dungeons,’ I muttered.

‘Yeah.’ Hugo’s mouth flattened. ‘Apart from those.’

I shook my head; nothing Athair did would surprise me. ‘At least there are no signs of life. We should be able to get to the rear of the castle without too many problems.’

We’d already planned to enter the building the same way Hugo had done. It was the one known weak point in the castle’s defences. The only real problem was Athair’s current whereabouts. We couldn’t risk running into him.

‘Let’s go.’ Hugo led the way through the trees until we could go no further without crossing open ground. It was at least four hundred metres from here to the castle with nowhere to take cover but it was the only route. We had to take it.

I looked at Hester, who had already made a show of rolling up her sleeves and glaring at the castle like she was a thumb-sized seize engine, then I checked on Otis. He was grim faced but determined. ‘Ready?’ I whispered.

‘We were born ready,’ he said without a trace of humour.

‘We’ve got this,’ Hester agreed, and a moment later they were off.

My hand sneaked towards Hugo’s and I entwined my fingers with his. With my heart in my mouth I watched the brownies flit through the open air towards the looming walls of Culcreuch Castle. Their small bodies would be far less likely to attract attention if Athair or anyone else inside glanced out of the window at the wrong moment, but neither brownie was invisible. Someone with sharp eyes would still see them.

I tracked their progress, my stiff-necked tension only easing when the pair flattened themselves against the stone wall of the castle. The danger wasn’t over but step one was complete. That had to count for something.

I inhaled deeply; by the time my lungs were filled with air, Hester had flitted towards the first window on the ground floor and Otis was at the next window above. There were thirteen windows in total, which posed a risk to our venture. Hester and Otis were going to check inside each one before Hugo and I ventured across the open ground. It was a far from foolproof method of avoiding detection, but short of making ourselves the same size as the brownies it was the best we could come up with.

Hugo and I watched in tense silence as the small siblings moved from window to window, stopping by the edge of each frame before peering inside. They were surprisingly fast and it was less than a minute before they beckoned us forward. I nudged Hugo and, after briefly squeezing my hand, he abandoned the relative safety of the trees and darted forward. I stayed behind, scanning the windows and guarding the rear on the off-chance that someone appeared. If the worst happened, I could create some sort of diversion from where I was hiding.

In contrast to Hester and Otis, Hugo’s progress was desperately slow; instead of sprinting, he trudged forward. The loud squelches that accompanied his every footstep explained his lack of speed: the mud was thick and gloopy. Without a pair of wings, and needing to avoid using magic that might alert Athair to our presence, there was no choice but to move slowly. I held my breath for most of his journey, my gaze nipping between his back and Hester and Otis, who were still zipping from window to window to check that the coast was clear.

The relief I felt when Hugo finally reached the foot of the castle walls was immense. He turned around and offered me an ostentatious wink but I was too nervous to respond. I simply nodded, glanced at the brownies who waved their agreement, and followed in his footsteps.

The moment I was out in the open, I felt the cold breeze blowing in from the west curling around my body and making me shiver. I did my best to ignore it and focused on my feet. The mud was worse than I’d expected, and with every step my feet sank deeper and deeper into the foul-smelling goop. It required considerable effort to yank each foot out and proceed but I pushed on, determined to make it to the first wall as quickly as possible.

Squelch. I stepped one foot forward. Suck. I yanked my trailing foot out of the mud. Squelch. Forward. Suck. Out. I was wearing trainers and it wasn’t long before the mud seeped through and I could feel it between my toes. It was remarkably unpleasant, but at least it spurred me on and encouraged me to keep moving and extract myself from the quagmire as quickly as possible. Squelch. Suck. Squelch. Suck. Squelch. Su?—

Cumbubbling bollocks. My right foot was stuck. I yanked my leg, trying to free it. When that didn’t work, I used both hands to grab my calf and provide extra oomph, but the mud was like quicksand. The more I tried to extract my foot, the deeper it seemed to sink.

I cursed aloud. I could use magic. A small, directed blast of earth magic would likely free me in an instant, or I could use water magic and draw the moisture out of the mud, but any magical power of any sort would be a terrible risk. Athair was inside those walls and he would no doubt sense even the tiniest flicker of my power. Magic had to be a last resort.

I gritted my teeth and tried again to free my trapped foot then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Otis waving at me in panic. He was by a window on the second floor, pressed against the frame where he couldn’t be seen from inside. His frantic gestures could mean only one thing: somebody had entered the room he was looking into. All they had to do was glance out of the window and they’d see me.

Hugo started forward. I hissed and waved him back as I pulled on my foot with all my might. Come on. Come on.

Otis moved slightly and peered through the glass into the castle. When he drew back, his signals were even more panicked. I had seconds at best, and I was still more than a hundred metres from the relative safety of the exterior walls where I would be hidden.

With little choice, I drew in a breath and threw myself to the ground. I landed face down, gaining a mouthful of foul wet dirt for my effort while the thick gloop started to encase my sinking body. I couldn’t worry about that; I could only hope that the sticky mud would be enough to hide me.

I held my breath and waited for as long as I could, only moving when my lungs were burning. When I reared up and gasped for air, I couldn’t see a thing – but neither could I hear anything. Nobody was shouting an alert.

As I heaved in another desperate breath, I heard Hester’s voice in my ear. ‘It’s okay. He’s gone. You can keep moving.’

Every inch of me was covered in thick mud. I tried to wipe the worst of it off my face but all I managed to do was spread the sludge around. I couldn’t see a damned thing and, with my hands covered in the stuff, I couldn’t clear my vision. At least my fall meant that my foot was free, although I’d lost my trainer. Attempting to retrieve it would be a wasted effort.

I grimaced then, caked in yuck, moved forward with my arms outstretched until I felt the hard stone of the castle walls and heard Hugo’s reassuring voice by my side. ‘You made it! You’re here.’

‘Mmmph,’ I said and spat out a mouthful of mud. It didn’t help much. ‘Mmmph?’

‘It was Athair,’ Otis said. ‘He walked right into the room. I don’t know what he was doing but he got very close to the window. I was sure he was going to see you.’

My heart skipped a beat. ‘Mmmph?’

‘No,’ he assured me. ‘He didn’t notice a thing.’

Thank fuck for that. I spat again, finally clearing my mouth of the last of the muck while Hester snickered. ‘You look like the creature from the black lagoon,’ she scoffed.

I smelled like it too.

‘Are you okay, Daisy?’ Hugo asked.

I’d had better days but I wasn’t going to complain. ‘Yep.’

I felt something rub at my face. I stayed still as he wiped away the worst of the mud before using the water in his bottle to clear the rest. It was a relief when he came into focus and I could see again.

‘Well,’ he said, ‘you’re certainly well camouflaged now.’

I stuck out my tongue. ‘I’ll have to get cleaned up before we go inside. I can’t leave a trail of mud.’

Hugo nodded. ‘We’ll sort it out. I’ve got a spare T-shirt you can wear.’

It would be better than nothing, I supposed. I looked down at my mud-caked body. ‘Still love me?’ I asked.

‘More than ever.’

‘Want a hug?’

His mouth crooked up. ‘I’ll pass.’