I shook my head; nothing Athair did would surprise me. ‘At least there are no signs of life. We should be able to get to the rear of the castle without too many problems.’
We’d already planned to enter the building the same way Hugo had done. It was the one known weak point in the castle’s defences. The only real problem was Athair’s current whereabouts. We couldn’t risk running into him.
‘Let’s go.’ Hugo led the way through the trees until we could go no further without crossing open ground. It was at least four hundred metres from here to the castle with nowhere to take cover but it was the only route. We had to take it.
I looked at Hester, who had already made a show of rolling up her sleeves and glaring at the castle like she was a thumb-sized seize engine, then I checked on Otis. He was grim faced but determined. ‘Ready?’ I whispered.
‘We were born ready,’ he said without a trace of humour.
‘We’ve got this,’ Hester agreed, and a moment later they were off.
My hand sneaked towards Hugo’s and I entwined my fingers with his. With my heart in my mouth I watched the brownies flit through the open air towards the looming walls of Culcreuch Castle. Their small bodies would be far less likely to attract attention if Athair or anyone else inside glanced out of the window at the wrong moment, but neither brownie was invisible. Someone with sharp eyes would still see them.
I tracked their progress, my stiff-necked tension only easing when the pair flattened themselves against the stone wall of the castle. The danger wasn’t over but step one was complete. That had to count for something.
I inhaled deeply; by the time my lungs were filled with air, Hester had flitted towards the first window on the ground floor and Otis was at the next window above. There were thirteen windows in total, which posed a risk to our venture. Hester and Otis were going to check inside each one before Hugo and I ventured across the open ground. It was a far from foolproof method of avoiding detection, but short of making ourselves the same size as the brownies it was the best we could come up with.
Hugo and I watched in tense silence as the small siblings moved from window to window, stopping by the edge of each frame before peering inside. They were surprisingly fast andit was less than a minute before they beckoned us forward. I nudged Hugo and, after briefly squeezing my hand, he abandoned the relative safety of the trees and darted forward. I stayed behind, scanning the windows and guarding the rear on the off-chance that someone appeared. If the worst happened, I could create some sort of diversion from where I was hiding.
In contrast to Hester and Otis, Hugo’s progress was desperately slow; instead of sprinting, he trudged forward. The loud squelches that accompanied his every footstep explained his lack of speed: the mud was thick and gloopy. Without a pair of wings, and needing to avoid using magic that might alert Athair to our presence, there was no choice but to move slowly. I held my breath for most of his journey, my gaze nipping between his back and Hester and Otis, who were still zipping from window to window to check that the coast was clear.
The relief I felt when Hugo finally reached the foot of the castle walls was immense. He turned around and offered me an ostentatious wink but I was too nervous to respond. I simply nodded, glanced at the brownies who waved their agreement, and followed in his footsteps.
The moment I was out in the open, I felt the cold breeze blowing in from the west curling around my body and making me shiver. I did my best to ignore it and focused on my feet. The mud was worse than I’d expected, and with every step my feet sank deeper and deeper into the foul-smelling goop. It required considerable effort to yank each foot out and proceed but I pushed on, determined to make it to the first wall as quickly as possible.
Squelch. I stepped one foot forward. Suck. I yanked my trailing foot out of the mud. Squelch. Forward. Suck. Out. I was wearing trainers and it wasn’t long before the mud seeped through and I could feel it between my toes. It was remarkably unpleasant, but at least it spurred me on and encouraged me tokeep moving and extract myself from the quagmire as quickly as possible. Squelch. Suck. Squelch. Suck. Squelch. Su?—
Cumbubbling bollocks. My right foot was stuck. I yanked my leg, trying to free it. When that didn’t work, I used both hands to grab my calf and provide extra oomph, but the mud was like quicksand. The more I tried to extract my foot, the deeper it seemed to sink.
I cursed aloud. I could use magic. A small, directed blast of earth magic would likely free me in an instant, or I could use water magic and draw the moisture out of the mud, but any magical power of any sort would be a terrible risk. Athair was inside those walls and he would no doubt sense even the tiniest flicker of my power. Magic had to be a last resort.
I gritted my teeth and tried again to free my trapped foot then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Otis waving at me in panic. He was by a window on the second floor, pressed against the frame where he couldn’t be seen from inside. His frantic gestures could mean only one thing: somebody had entered the room he was looking into. All they had to do was glance out of the window and they’d see me.
Hugo started forward. I hissed and waved him back as I pulled on my foot with all my might. Come on.Come on.
Otis moved slightly and peered through the glass into the castle. When he drew back, his signals were even more panicked. I had seconds at best, and I was still more than a hundred metres from the relative safety of the exterior walls where I would be hidden.
With little choice, I drew in a breath and threw myself to the ground. I landed face down, gaining a mouthful of foul wet dirt for my effort while the thick gloop started to encase my sinking body. I couldn’t worry about that; I could only hope that the sticky mud would be enough to hide me.
I held my breath and waited for as long as I could, only moving when my lungs were burning. When I reared up and gasped for air, I couldn’t see a thing – but neither could I hear anything. Nobody was shouting an alert.
As I heaved in another desperate breath, I heard Hester’s voice in my ear. ‘It’s okay. He’s gone. You can keep moving.’
Every inch of me was covered in thick mud. I tried to wipe the worst of it off my face but all I managed to do was spread the sludge around. I couldn’t see a damned thing and, with my hands covered in the stuff, I couldn’t clear my vision. At least my fall meant that my foot was free, although I’d lost my trainer. Attempting to retrieve it would be a wasted effort.
I grimaced then, caked in yuck, moved forward with my arms outstretched until I felt the hard stone of the castle walls and heard Hugo’s reassuring voice by my side. ‘You made it! You’re here.’
‘Mmmph,’ I said and spat out a mouthful of mud. It didn’t help much. ‘Mmmph?’
‘It was Athair,’ Otis said. ‘He walked right into the room. I don’t know what he was doing but he got very close to the window. I was sure he was going to see you.’
My heart skipped a beat. ‘Mmmph?’
‘No,’ he assured me. ‘He didn’t notice a thing.’
Thank fuck for that. I spat again, finally clearing my mouth of the last of the muck while Hester snickered. ‘You look like the creature from the black lagoon,’ she scoffed.
I smelled like it too.
