Crystal by Rebecca Lisle

Author:Rebecca Lisle
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448187362
Publisher: Andersen Press Ltd

14

Prison

Crystal gazed at the ripples on the lake where the stone acorn had disappeared. I’m going as crazy as Mum, she told herself. As if there could be anyone at the bottom of the lake. As if there is anyone anywhere who can help me.

And yet she had thought for one fleeting moment that she’d seen a face a long way off, peering up at her through the water. But there couldn’t have been anyone … Could there?

She trudged back home, less hopeful without the feel of the smooth, cold stone acorn in her hand. She built up the fire in the living room, glad to have the crackle and hiss of the burning coal. What wonderful stuff coal was, she reflected. She knew it was made from ancient dead trees that had got squashed and gone solid. Those trees had captured the sun’s strength and now here it was being released as fire. Wood was wonderful stuff.

Seeing her mother’s little brown envelopes of powders and herbs drying near the hearth, she threw them on the fire too. No more of that, ever! Any herbs were strictly for the sly-ugg to eat and nothing else.

The sly-ugg was watching her closely.

‘Thank you for showing me where the acorn was,’ Crystal told it. ‘I’d never have found it. I don’t know what it means, but it made Mum happy and it made me happy. And listen, Sly-ugg, I know what Raek does and I’m never taking you back there. Ever. I promise. No more squeezing. OK?’

The sly-ugg’s eye-stalks danced and a golden glow began to creep over its skin.

‘Happy?’

The sly-ugg’s mouth curved into a wide smile.

‘Aha! I was right. You can smile! Well well, if I’d known that before maybe I’d have been nicer to you. Sorry, Sly-ugg.’ Crystal looked at the clock. ‘We’ve a long wait. The guards told me I’m not allowed in the prison to see Mum until four o’clock,’ she said. ‘Now it’s just you and me.’

The day dragged by. Crystal tidied the rooms, stared into the fire, talked to the sly-ugg, worried about her mum and wondered about the acorn.

At last it was time for them to go.

‘Come on, Sly-ugg!’ The sly-ugg obligingly oozed into its carry-box on its own. ‘Mum always said we were prisoners,’ she told the sly-ugg as she set off towards the prison, ‘but I didn’t believe her. Or rather I didn’t understand what she meant. But she was right. Grint trapped us. He’s made her forget everything so she can’t go home because she doesn’t know where it is.’

Nearer the Square there were more people on the streets and she noticed how the Towners avoided looking at her. Mrs Babbage was the only person who spoke to her. ‘Don’t worry, dear, your mum will be fine. Grint, Bless and Praise his Name, will see sense in the end. And in case you’re worrying, I’ve got the kitten,’ she said. ‘He seems to have moved in with me!’

‘Thanks,’ Crystal said.

Mrs Babbage patted her

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