Mordicax by Mark McKerracher

Author:Mark McKerracher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mark McKerracher

Chapter 12

‘Lawks,’ whispered Charlie. ‘They’re big dogs, ain’t they?’

I shook my head. ‘They’re not dogs, Charlie. They’re people.’

‘Eh?’

I backed away from the creature snuffling at me. I fumbled for the jar in my satchel, dipped my finger in and smeared the stuff on my muddy hands and cheeks.

‘People? What do you mean, Hattie?’ said Alice.

‘Don’t you remember what she said, that woman at The Nightingale? At Wolfern, she said, they’re turning people into animals. But you won’t do that to us, Adam!’ I said, with no idea where he was. ‘We’ll go back up there. We know Lady Hawkes. We’ll turn you in, and be on her side. Why does she want you, anyway? What have you done?’

‘I don’t know,’ came his voice. ‘Who is Lady Hawkes?’

‘The Lady of the King’s Physick,’ said Charlie. ‘That’s who she is. Lady of the King’s Physick, and leader of the Mordant Sleepers.’ Then he chuckled – I guessed one of the creatures had tickled him with its snout.

‘Who are the Mordant Sleepers?’ said Adam. ‘And who’s turning people into animals? I don’t know how to do that. I don’t think it’s possible.’

‘Well, you’re one of them, aren’t you? With those weird eyes of yours, just like an animal.’

‘He’s just a boy, Harriet,’ Alice said in my ear.

‘These are tamba wolves,’ said Adam. ‘And I’m a person, just like you.’

‘Are you? Then tell us. Where were you born?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Who were your father and mother?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘How old are you?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know anything about yourself! So how do you know that they haven’t done anything to you at the Priory? That they haven’t made you… unnatural?’

‘I can only tell you what I know. One morning, about three years ago, I woke up at Wolfern. It was sunny and warm. I was in the gatehouse. Geoffrey gave me a drink…’ He swallowed a sob, and my chest tightened. ‘…then the Prioress came in. They said I’d be safe there. I don’t remember anything before that, and nobody has ever told me anything. I don’t think they know where I came from. Maybe the Prioress knows… maybe she knew.’

That horrible image flashed in my mind: the Prioress falling over the parapet.

‘Harriet,’ murmured Alice. ‘Everything back at the Priory. The burning, the screaming. Geoffrey and the Prioress. That was all her doing. Lady Hawkes did all that – she got the soldiers to destroy the place. We can’t be on her side, can we?’

‘Adam is wicked,’ I muttered. ‘Evil, evil…’

‘Why do you keep saying things like that? What does it mean? It doesn’t sound like you. He’s just a novice. Just a boy. He helped us to escape. He saved my life, Harriet. Don’t you remember?’ She hugged my arm. ‘What’s got into your flyn, Harriet?’

‘Why don’t you ask Adam? He can see it, so he says.’

‘When you attacked me, there was something flickering blood-red in your flyn,’ said Adam. ‘It’s not normally there. And there’s something still and dark, too, like a stain. That stain wasn’t there when I came to Witherbey.

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