Willow looked from Moreg to Umbellifer. What was going on?
The Queen of the Undead stood up. ‘Never mind that for now,’ she said, conjuring what looked like a tiny bird made from shadows in her palms. It flew at once into Moreg’s mouth, and the witch thrashed her head from side to side, unable to speak.
‘What have you done to her?’ cried Willow, attempting to rush forward. But the wraith at her side held her back.
The queen cocked her head, waving a set of long, thin fingers that looked like birch bark. ‘Nothing to worry about – she’s safe. She’s rather useful to me,’ she said, looking at the witch, who was still fighting against her restraints, trying wordlessly to help.
There was a faint ‘Oh no,’ from the carpetbag at Willow’s feet.
‘Come forward, my child,’ commanded the queen.
Willow blinked, confused, and took a step forward.
The queen shook her head. ‘Not you, girl.’
Willow turned to look in shock as Sprig stepped up. There was a gasp from Essential as a smaller throne appeared next to Umbellifer’s.
The queen smiled her ghastly grin. ‘You have earned your seat at last, child.’
21
The Boy Made of Shadow and Feathers
‘I knew we shouldn’t have trusted you!’ Feathering growled. Smoke curled from the dragon’s mouth as he made to launch himself at Sprig.
In an instant, the queen spread her hands and a great beast with wide antlers and gleaming red eyes rose up from the shadows. It charged at the dragon, and with a thunderous roar they began to fight.
Willow watched with wide, fearful eyes, then turned to Sprig. Her heart felt like it was tearing apart.
‘Sprig – I don’t understand. What’s going on?’ It seemed like the queen was implying that Sprig was working for her, but that couldn’t be true … could it?
He shook his head rapidly at Willow’s baffled expression, taking a step back away from the queen. ‘Willow – I – I can explain. It’s not how it looks …’ Sprig gazed back up at the queen, his dark eyes beseeching hers. ‘You don’t have to do this,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t have to be this way.’
The queen steepled her long fingers. ‘But I do. Don’t turn back from your path now, child. You did well. You led her right to me.’
Moreg managed somehow to free herself from the wraith holding her, and the queen frowned in annoyance, then curled her fingers so that ropes of ghostly weeds crawled out of the ground and restrained the witch more securely. Moreg began to thrash, her voice still silenced by the shadow bird, but she mouthed a wordless scream for Willow to run.
The queen looked at the witch, her dark eyes glittering. ‘Ah, Moreg. She did all she could to prevent you from coming here. Even now she thinks she can change her fate. She’s strong, I’ll grant you that,’ admitted the queen. ‘But that is sometimes a weakness, especially when you can’t imagine that someone would dare to cross you … She thought that Sprig was doing her bidding, diverting you away, using his raven friends to blow you off course so that you wouldn’t be able to come. He played his game carefully, slowly, to throw her off the scent – what with her ability to see things before they happen – but he was working for me all along.’
Willow blinked, then looked up at Sprig, who couldn’t meet her eyes. Her heart plummeted to her toes.
‘You tricked us?’ she gasped. Anger and sadness washed over her, and she felt her fists clench at her side. She’d thought that Sprig had saved her from the Brothers of Wol out of kindness, but he’d only been trying to keep her alive so that he could bring her here to Umbellifer. This whole time, while her friend’s life hung in the balance, Sprig had known where he was and let them go on a wild goose chase across Starfell … well aware that they would eventually meet the same fate. He must have been laughing at her the entire time.
‘I’m sorry,’ whispered Sprig. Then, with a pained look in his eye, he changed into a raven and launched into the shadowy sky, vanishing from sight.
Willow saw spots before her eyes as tears misted them, and a bloodcurdling scream lodged itself in the base of her throat at his betrayal. She thought of Essential, of Oswin and Feathering, of Holloway, her friends that she had advised to trust this boy … the boy Oswin and Feathering had tried to warn her about from the start. Were they all doomed now, trapped here with no escape, because of her? Anger, shame and pain all clashed together, and Willow was soon finding it hard to breathe.
Amid her panic there was a loud popping sound, followed by a strange silence that should have been filled with the sounds of Oswin’s panicked wailing and Feathering’s roars.
Willow opened her eyes, only to fall to her knees in horror. Oswin, Feathering and Essential had all disappeared. She’d made her friends vanish into thin air.
She felt as if her heart had been torn from her chest.
‘No!’ she screamed.
The only ones that remained were the queen, her wraiths and the helpless figure of Moreg, still bound in vines.
Umbellifer floated above Willow, her hair studded with pale blossoms, shifting and billowing in an imperceptible wind. She’d moved so fast that Willow hadn’t even had a moment to see how she’d done it. All she knew was the terrifying, thunderous sound of her own heartbeat pounding in her ears, and the feeling of being utterly alone. The weight of her grief was heavy and pressing down on her.
‘He did well in bringing you here … I believe you may be useful for us, in the days and weeks to come, for what we may need to fight. Your magic ability is useful,’ said the queen, who seemed pleased. ‘Rarely do I keep souls for my own purposes, but there are times when even I must set aside the rules.’
Willow felt the blood rushing into her ears, her fear so thick she could smell the stench of it, like rotten fruit. Her mouth was dry, but somehow, despite a lead weight on her shoulders, she stood up slowly to face Umbellifer. ‘Is that why you took Nolin Sometimes? You wanted his power for your own?’
The idea that the queen would come up to Starfell to snatch souls she thought were useful was a horrible thought.
Umbellifer’s form shifted and flickered like a candle against the wind. ‘That is just an added benefit. I can only commit a breach when the reasons are compelling enough. The only other way to draw a soul down here is for them to decide they should come. Like you did.’
Willow was confused. ‘So why did you take him then, if it wasn’t to steal his magic?’
The queen’s face was inches from hers as she said, ‘Because I needed to know what he saw.’
Umbellifer flicked a wrist and a swirl of mist coiled round them both. Willow hardly had time to gasp in shock as it carried them to the top of what looked like the Great Wisperia Tree in an instant. When the mist dispersed, Willow found herself in an echo of Nolin Sometimes’s moon garden. All the colours were gone, all the life sucked out. It was filled with concentric circles made of shadows.
‘This world is a mirror,’ Umbellifer explained, ‘of the one above. What has gone on before trickles down here eventually, through the souls of those who have departed – whether human, animal or plant. I have been listening to these memories, paying attention to the signs … just like your witch,’ she said, with what looked almost like a smile. ‘I have seen that something is coming … something to threaten us all. I needed to know more. And then I found this.’