Snakes & Ladders by Barbara Gaskell Denvil

Author:Barbara Gaskell Denvil [Denvil, Barbara Gaskell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gaskell Publishing
Published: 2017-11-20T23:00:00+00:00

18

Sam was half suffocated curled with Mouse, and his face snuggled into her fur. “Wake up,” Granny called. “Dinner time, young man. Aren’t you hungry?”

“Umm,” mumbled Sam, wiping wisps of cat fur from his mouth. “But Nat and John and the others aren’t back yet.”

“Indeed, they are shockingly late,” Granny said. “They must have found the old palace of particular interest. I have already asked Jassle and Hermes to go after them, and tell them to hurry back.”

The faint melody of the lute echoed from a smaller room. The pluck of the strings seemed to encourage bird song from outside, and Peter was oblivious to everything else.

Messina and Bayldon were sitting together in the cottages’ large living room, discussing both past and future. Since Bayldon was stretched out and any sudden fainting fit was unlikely to tip him any further down, Alan was asleep on his feet, lounging by the window. “It is,” Messina was saying, “time to muster our supporters, I believe. If we wait longer, we run the risk of Clebbster gathering those we had supposed would come to us.”

Bayldon blinked. “But my dear, we’ve been imprisoned in a frozen vacuum for years. We have no idea who will support us, and who will support our enemy. Remember that the Hazletts frighten the timid into following them, whereas we have only our call to loyalty.”

“Those already frightened, will come to us when they can,” Messina disagreed. “No one wishes to live under a tyrant’s intimidation if they can escape.”

“Our beautiful children will win us support,” Bayldon smiled.

Which is when Granny rushed in. “Messina, my dear, Hermes and Jassle have scoured the old palace and the countryside around, and have seen nothing of Poppy, nor Nat and his friends. I believe we have a problem.”

Bayldon leapt to his feet, and immediately tumbled over backwards in a faint. Alan, who was nowhere near, shook his head with a faint apology.

Messina rolled her eyes upwards. She did not look at her husband, she was gazing into the ceiling beams but what she saw was something else entirely.

“What do you see?” demanded Granny, quickly understanding.

“The massacre of the Epilogs,” Messina whispered, wrapping her arms around herself and shivering. “The cruelty, the misery is terrible. But they are there.”

“Who? Bayldon sat up suddenly with the urgent question.

“They have crossed time,” Messina said, and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she stood in a hurry and spoke in a rush. “Nathan and Poppy have crossed the time veil. Their friends are with them, but one of their friends is an Epilog, and that puts them all in danger. They have slipped back three hundred years, and are seeing one of the most terrible times in our history. We have to fetch them home.”

“Travel back, and take me with you,” Granny said at once.

“Take me, my love,” said Bayldon, looking faint.

“I must go alone,” Messina said, “or the strain of taking someone else with me will weaken my capability of bringing all of them back.

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