Into the Woods Page 9

  Across the Frozen River

  She’s getting thinner, not fatter,’ screeched Bee Bumble furiously, poking Storm with a bony finger through the bars of the Hansel. ‘She must be forced to eat.’

  Aurora stood next to Mrs Bumble, holding the plate of madeleines, her eyes downcast.

  ‘Look, Storm, I’ve made your favourites,’ she said. ‘Do try one, please.’

  Storm scowled back at her with eyes like burning coals. ‘I wouldn’t touch anything you cooked,’ she hissed. ‘I wouldn’t trust you not to poison me.’

  ‘Now, now. Temper, temper,’ said Mrs Bumble. ‘Your sweet sister is only trying to do her best for you. Such a delectable girl and such a talented cook.’

  ‘I do my best to please, Mrs Bumble,’ said Aurora meekly, still keeping her eyes on the ground. ‘You have taught me everything. I’m very grateful.’

  Storm gave a snort of disgust. ‘Do please take this mutual admiration society elsewhere,’ she yelled angrily.

  Bee Bumble’s eyes flashed threateningly.‘Come, my little sweet pea, we will leave her. Clearly she’s still not hungry enough. But she will be. In a few days she’ll be begging us for food, and then we can stuff her full.’ Mrs Bumble waddled towards the door.

  ‘I’ll just leave her these madeleines,’ called Aurora, ‘in case the silly child changes her mind.’

  ‘Don’t bother,’ spat Storm.‘I wouldn’t eat them if they were the last edible thing left on Earth.’

  ‘But I made them especially for you, Storm,’ hissed Aurora. ‘As a surprise.’

  ‘I don’t want your surprises, Aurora,’ Storm hissed back. Mrs Bumble stood tapping her foot impatiently by the door.

  ‘I made them because I thought they might remind you of Eden End. Of our home,’ said Aurora, pushing the madeleines through the wooden bars of the Hansel.

  ‘Come on, Aurora, don’t dally,’ snapped Mrs Bumble. ‘I need you in the kitchen. We need to prepare extra cakes for breakfast. Dr DeWilde will be here before noon.’

  ‘Of course, Mrs Bumble, I am entirely at your service,’ replied Aurora.

  Storm watched them go. Angrily, she picked up one of the madeleines and threw it across the cage. It fell to the floor in tiny pieces. In a rage she picked up another. It flew across the cage, hit a bar and broke open. Storm jumped up, hardly daring to believe her eyes. Glinting on the cage floor, amid the crumbs of broken cake, was a small metal file.

  She picked it up and set to sawing through the bars. But then she stopped, a thoughtful look on her face. Tucking the file behind her ear, Storm turned to the sheets and began tying them together.

  It took Aurora two hours to escape Bee Bumble’s attentions in the kitchen. She snuck back to the tower room just as Storm was sawing through the last of the struts and helped her sister squeeze free of the Hansel.

  ‘Here, you’ll need these,’ she said, handing Storm her dress and cardigan. The temperature had plummeted that morning and outside it was snowing; flakes as big as teacups were falling from the sky. ‘I put everything back in your pockets,’ she added.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Storm, and as Aurora passed her the dress she took her sister’s hand and squeezed it. ‘I’m glad you’re yourself again.’

  ‘So am I,’ said Aurora, and she reached into her pocket and pulled out the little phial of murky liquid.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Storm.

  ‘Bee Bumble’s magic potion. She’s got half a dozen little bottles of the stuff hidden in the kitchen and a drop goes into every batch of cooking. Here, have a sniff.’ She held out the phial to Storm, who was enveloped in a fragrance of tangy vanilla overlaid with the scent of oranges and lemon rind.

  ‘Oh, it’s so delicious,’ said Storm, yawning languidly. She reached eagerly for the tiny bottle. ‘Let me have another whiff.’

  Aurora laughed and held the bottle away from Storm. ‘That’s what it does to you. It enchants you. It’s as if it makes you happy and sleepy at the same time, so you don’t care about anything.’

  ‘Not even being eaten,’ said Storm darkly, taking the phial from Aurora and pocketing it. ‘By the way, how did you escape the enchantment?’

  ‘You remember that boy with the mismatched eyes? Well, his name’s Kit and …’ Aurora trailed off suddenly, blushing furiously. ‘Um … Never mind – I’ll tell you later. Come on, let’s find Any and get out of here.’

  The girls crept down the twisting stairs, along the landing and up towards their room. Storm pushed open the door and rushed in to gather Any in her arms and smother her in kisses.

  But the cot was empty. Any was gone. The only sign that she had ever been there was the tartan ribbon that had been tied around Ted Bear’s neck. It lay on the sheet like a reproach.

  As Aurora reached for the ribbon, Storm put her hand in the cot. The sheets were still warm. The sisters stared at each other with white, frightened faces and raced for the stairs. Stealthily they crept down the final flight. Then Storm ran towards the dining room. A crack of light shone through the door, which was slightly ajar. Through it she could hear Mrs Bumble and Dr DeWilde’s voices. Storm peered through the crack. Laid out on the table were a dozen small children, trussed and gagged. The smallest and nearest child was Any!

  Storm twisted her head to whisper to Aurora, but her sister wasn’t there. Then Storm heard a noise from the kitchen and, cold with fear, she crept down the corridor. Bursting through the open door, ready for anything, she found Aurora busy wrapping up a golden-crusted pie in a clean tea towel.

  ‘Aurora, what on earth are you doing?’ she hissed angrily. ‘How can you possibly be thinking of food, when your baby sister is lying trussed up on the diningroom table and is about to be made into a sausage.’

  Aurora pocketed the parcel and followed her sister back into the hall.‘Do you have a plan, then?’ she whispered.‘How are we going to rescue Any?’

  Storm didn’t have time to answer because at that moment the diningroom door swung open. The sisters caught a glimpse of Any’s helpless, beseeching eyes, and then Dr DeWilde was striding towards them.

  ‘My dear Mrs Bumble,’ he growled.‘I fear there has been a serious lapse in your security arrangements.’ He reached for the girls.

  Storm kicked him hard on the shin and he doubled up with a yelp. Then she dragged Aurora towards the front door. Half-expecting it to be locked, she pulled as hard as she could. It swung open. And she quickly slammed it shut again in horror. A wolf stood sentry under the porch, its teeth bared. There was no escape that way.

  ‘Lock all the doors,’ yelled Dr DeWilde. Storm grabbed Aurora’s hand and headed for the stairs.

  ‘Any!’ cried Aurora.

  ‘Later,’ said Storm.‘Let’s save ourselves first,’ and she took the stairs two at a time, pulling Aurora behind her. They ran upwards, aware of the thump of feet behind and Mrs Bumble’s wheezy breath. On the first landing Storm turned and pushed a huge box of freshly-folded chocolate blankets back down the stairs behind them. Dr DeWilde and Bee Bumble had to squeeze themselves against the wall as it crashed past, breaking into great chunks as it went. Meanwhile the girls galloped up the next flight, heading for the tower room where Storm had been imprisoned in the Hansel.

  ‘There’s no escape this way,’ gasped Aurora, but Storm took no notice and continued up the twisting stairs. Their pursuers were only a couple of bends below them and they could hear Dr DeWilde’s furious shouts.

  As they staggered into the Hansel room, Storm slammed the door behind them and wedged the chair against its handle. ‘That should keep them out for a few minutes,’ she gasped. Then she pulled a sheet from the cage, tied one end to a bar she hadn’t had to break, and hurried to the window, a fat snake of knotted linen trailing behind her.

  ‘Over here, Aurora. This is our way out. I tied the sheets earlier in case I had to make a quick exit. We can climb down.’ And she smashed the sugar-pane with her fist.

  Aurora blanched.

  ‘You’ll have to do it,Aur
ora. There isn’t any other way. And if we don’t get down, we can’t save Any!’

  Aurora peered out of the narrow window. The frozen ground looked very far away. Storm saw the panic in her sister’s eyes. ‘Be brave, Aurora.’

  ‘I can’t,’ her sister whispered.

  ‘You’ll have to. You haven’t got a choice, unless you’ve just sprouted wings. Come on – I know you can do it.’

  ‘I wish I did,’ said Aurora in a small voice.

  Storm busied herself with the linen rope. ‘Ready?’

  ‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’ Aurora was shaking as Storm helped her onto the window sill. The handle on the door began rattling furiously.

  ‘You’ll be fine,’ her sister assured her. ‘Just lean out, don’t look down and don’t let go. When you get to the bottom, run for that old stone bridge we came across on the way here. Remember? And make sure you’re not seen! I’ll meet you underneath it. Right, off you go.’

  Aurora stood on the window ledge, clasping the twisted sheet so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She didn’t move.

  ‘I said go,’ said Storm impatiently.‘Do you want your sister to be made into a pork pie? Do you want to end up as pâté yourself ?’

  Aurora was frozen to the spot. ‘I can’t, Storm, I just can’t—’

  Before she could finish Storm heard the heavy thud of a door being rammed. She looked wildly around, and with one swift gesture and a whispered ‘sorry’ she pushed her sister off the ledge. Aurora gave a gasp of terror and her mouth formed a perfect O of surprise. But she clung to the twisted sheet and, with trembling legs, her brain in neutral, she somehow made it down the side of the building – buffeted by the icy wind.

  She was almost at the bottom when she felt a tug and an added pressure on the twisted sheets. Storm was zipping speedily down the rope and catching up fast.

  Just as Aurora’s feet touched the wonderfully solid ground and sank into fresh snow, she heard an angry shout and, looking to her left, saw the door of the Ginger House burst open and Dr DeWilde emerge. From the other side of the house came a heavily perspiring Bee Bumble.

  For a moment Aurora was frozen with indecision, then Storm landed beside her and was pulling her away from the orphanage and through the garden of lollipop flowers.

  Their pursuers were converging upon them from different directions and although Storm was confident that she and Aurora could outrun either of them, she knew that together the adults would have a good chance of cutting off their escape route. Storm’s brain went into overdrive. ‘Do exactly as I say, Aurora,’ she panted as Dr DeWilde and Bee Bumble bore down upon them. As the two adults came closer, to Aurora’s surprise Storm jolted to a halt and stood completely still. Dr DeWilde and Bee Bumble were now so close that the children could hear the latter’s wheezing.

  ‘Right, Aurora, on the count of three we duck … One … Two … Three!’ The children ducked down just as Dr DeWilde and Bee Bumble reached out to grab them. There was an almighty thwack and the crunch of bone on bone as the heads of the doctor and the matron collided. Then they slid to the ground and lay in the deep snow, quite still.

  Storm and her sister headed off at a gallop, through the gate in the picket fence and along the too-quiet cobbled lanes of the town. Not daring to look back, they pounded through the outskirts, then took a zigzagged short cut across a field and through a small coppice, not slowing until they reached the road leading to the old arched stone bridge that straddled the frozen river.

  Storm took a good look around to check that nobody was watching and then slid down the steep, nettle-covered bank to the cobwebby darkness beneath the bridge. Aurora followed wearily and they both lay down, gasping for breath.

  After a few minutes Storm managed to croak, ‘We’ll stay here until dark and then go back for Any.’

  ‘It was hard enough getting out,’ Aurora protested weakly. ‘How will we get back in?’

  ‘I think I can get in through the liquorice pipes,’ Storm replied, just as the air was cut by the long mournful howl of a wolf and an answering melancholic cry.

  Storm sat bolt upright. ‘Why is it that I am living my life like a girl who has got lunch written all over her?’

  Another howl split the air, much nearer this time.

  ‘I think we’d better cross the river, and try to find a very tall tree,’ Storm decided.

  The children got up wearily, ready to scramble back up the bank, when they heard the warning rumble of an approaching wagon. They waited as it trundled overhead, then they scrambled up the bank and onto the bridge.

  A sixth sense made Storm race after the wagon. With a superhuman effort, she gained on the vehicle. Reaching out, she managed to loosen one of its canvas doors. Suspended on hooks around the sides of the vehicle were a dozen little orphans trussed and bound like sides of bacon. The smallest and nearest was Any, who stared out at Storm with desperate, terrified eyes.

  The wagon began to move faster. Her muscles aching, her throat on fire, Storm put on another spurt of speed.‘Where … ? Where are they taking you?’ she gasped.

  From Any’s gagged mouth came an indistinct noise that sounded like ‘Pie Man’s Squeak’. Then the wagon accelerated and Storm was left behind.

  She stumbled back across the bridge and fell blindly into Aurora’s arms, tears thick in her eyes. She feared they had lost Any for ever.

  Then Aurora broke away, pointing back down the road towards Piper’s Town. Five wolves were racing towards them.

  Storm knew at once that there would be no time to flee for the trees. But she thought she could perhaps distract the beasts long enough for Aurora to escape. She looked nervously at the river with its thin layer of ice. The snow had ceased and a weak sun was trying to break through the clouds. Storm didn’t think it was strong enough to melt the ice, but it was impossible to tell exactly how thick the ice was under its dusting of snow. She looked back at the wolves. They were gaining fast. She had no choice.

  ‘We’ve got to split up to get across the river,’ she told Aurora. ‘It’s our only chance. See that twisted old oak tree down the bank on the far side?’ Her sister took her eye off the wolves long enough to nod. ‘Cross the bridge and then head into the forest and hide, preferably high up, somewhere on a line with that tree. Keep an eye out for me and I’ll join you there when I can.’

  Aurora was shaking. ‘What about you? How are you getting across the river?’

  ‘Oh, I thought I’d do a little walking on water,’ said Storm with deliberate casualness.

  Then she added lightly, ‘I’m going over the ice.’

  Aurora gripped her arm. ‘Don’t be a fool, Storm. The ice isn’t thick enough!’

  ‘I’ll take my chances,’ she insisted. ‘The wolves will hunt as a pack and they can’t go two ways. If we split up there’s a chance that one of us will make it and be able to save Any.’

  Aurora opened her mouth to protest, and Storm laid a silencing finger tenderly across her sister’s lips. ‘Hop it, and quick.’ She pushed her sister towards the bridge and, after a final worried backward glance, Aurora set off at a steady run. Storm turned to face the approaching wolves. Her stomach cramped with fear and she had to resist the urge to run. She had to be sure that the wolves followed her, not her sister. They were so close now that

  she could see their white teeth: rows of savage pearls, beautiful and lethal. Storm yelled at them to be sure they were focused on her and not Aurora, then she spun and slid down the bank, and stepped gingerly onto the ice. It creaked but held firm.

  Picking her way across the surface, more skating than running, Storm headed upstream and away from her sister. The icy surface groaned under her weight, but she was quick and light, and her beady eyes picked out the more solid patches of ice as she hopped from one to another.

  The wolves raced down the bank and out onto the ice in pursuit. The animals were lean and lithe and sniffed out the more solid patches by instinct. They quickly gained on her. She could hear their
thick panting breath.

  There was a snap of a jaw, and a gaping hole appeared in the back of her skirt. Storm cried out and took a desperate leap. Her feet hit the fragile ice and crashed straight through. She was plunged into the icy water – so cold it was like a lethal hug, squeezing all the breath out of her. For one terrifying moment, as the current tugged her down, Storm thought she would be trapped under the ice, but her fall had caused the surface to crack and splinter, and she was whirled downstream amongst the jagged chunks.

  The wolves plummeted too, and were soon drifting as helplessly as Storm. They snarled and gnashed their teeth at her, but the current pulled them away from where she floundered and carried them downstream at speed. Every time a wolf was hit by a loose piece of ice it would growl in surprise and anger.

  Aurora, meanwhile, had reached the twisted oak. She was about to clamber up when she saw the wolf-pack drift past in the increasingly swift current. Horrified, she looked for her sister and spotted Storm struggling in vain to reach the bank. She was in slower-flowing water than the wolves but Aurora knew she couldn’t survive long in such freezing conditions.

  Aurora cast desperately about and spotted a long branch on the ground. Storm was bobbing ever nearer. Unless she hurried she would be too late. Aurora heaved the branch towards the bank and, as fast as she could, pushed it out over the water.

  As Storm drew level with it, Aurora gave one last mighty push. But her lack of physical prowess made her misjudge her thrust and she accidentally bopped Storm on the head. Her sister went under, rose again spluttering and coughing, and just managed to grasp the branch before she was swept away. Awkwardly, Aurora started heaving the branch back towards the riverbank.

  At last she got the exhausted Storm lodged between two tree roots and, more hindering than helping, aided her sister onto the bank.

  For a few moments Storm lay panting and shivering in a puddle of water. Then she looked up at Aurora and said a little testily, ‘What were you trying to do, hitting me on the head like that? Help me drown?’