The Wee Free Men Read online

Page 6

 

  “Yes. ”

  They continued the staring match. But Tiffany could outstare a cat.

  “I see,” said Miss Tick, looking away. “Very well. In that case, please tell me…when you stopped outside my tent just now, you said ‘aha’ in what I considered to be a smug tone of voice. Were you thinking, ‘This is a strange little black tent with a mysterious little sign on the door, so going inside could be the start of an adventure,’ or were you thinking, ‘This could be the tent of some wicked witch like they thought Mrs. Snapperly was, who’ll put some horrible spell on me as soon as I go in’? It’s all right, you can stop staring now. Your eyes are watering. ”

  “I thought both those things,” said Tiffany, blinking.

  “But you came in anyway. Why?”

  “To find out. ”

  “Good answer. Witches are naturally nosy,” said Miss Tick, standing up. “Well, I must go. I hope we shall meet again. I will give you some free advice, though. ”

  “Will it cost me anything?”

  “What? I just said it was free!” said Miss Tick.

  “Yes, but my father said that free advice often turns out to be expensive,” said Tiffany.

  Miss Tick sniffed. “You could say this advice is priceless,” she said. “Are you listening?”

  “Yes,” said Tiffany.

  “Good. Now…if you trust in yourself…”

  “Yes?”

  “…and believe in your dreams…”

  “Yes?”

  “…and follow your star…” Miss Tick went on.

  “Yes?”

  “…you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy. Good-bye. ”

  The tent seemed to grow darker. It was time to leave. Tiffany found herself back in the square where the other teachers were taking down their stalls.

  She didn’t look around. She knew enough not to look around. Either the tent would still be there, which would be a disappointment, or it would have mysteriously disappeared, and that would be worrying.

  She headed home and wondered if she should have mentioned the little red-haired men. She hadn’t for a whole lot of reasons. She wasn’t sure, now, that she’d really seen them, she had a feeling that they wouldn’t have wanted her to, and it was nice to have something Miss Tick didn’t know. Yes. That was the best part. Miss Tick was a bit too clever, in Tiffany’s opinion.

  On the way home she climbed to the top of Arken Hill, which was just outside the village. It wasn’t very big, not even as high as the downs above the farm and certainly nothing like as high as the mountains.

  The hill was more…modest. There was a flat place at the top where nothing ever grew, and Tiffany knew there was a story that a hero had once fought a dragon up there and its blood had burned the ground where it fell. There was another story that said there was a heap of treasure under the hill, defended by the dragon, and another story that said a king was buried there in armor of solid gold. There were lots of stories about the hill; it was surprising it hadn’t sunk under the weight of them.

  Tiffany stood on the bare soil and looked at the view.

  She could see the village and the river and Home Farm and the Baron’s castle, and beyond the fields she knew, she could see gray woods and heathlands.

  She closed her eyes and opened them again. And blinked, and opened them again.

  There was no magic door, no hidden building revealed, no strange signs.

  For a moment, though, the air buzzed and smelled of snow.

  When she got home, she looked up incursion in the dictionary. It meant “invasion. ”

  An incursion of major proportions, Miss Tick had said.

  And now little unseen eyes watched Tiffany from the top of the shelf….

  CHAPTER 3

  Hunt the Hag

  Miss Tick removed her hat, reached inside, and pulled a piece of string. With little clicks and flapping noises the hat took up the shape of a rather elderly straw hat. She picked up the paper flowers from the ground and stuck them on, carefully.

  Then she said: “Phew!”

  “You can’t just let the kid go like that,” said the toad, who was sitting on the table.

  “Like what?”

  “She’s clearly got First Sight and Second Thoughts. That’s a powerful combination. ”

  “She’s a little know-it-all,” said Miss Tick.

  “Right. Just like you. She impressed you, right? I know she did because you were quite nasty to her, and you always do that to people who impress you. ”

  “Do you want to be turned into a frog?”

  “Well, now, let me see…” said the toad sarcastically. “Better skin, better legs, likelihood of being kissed by a princess one hundred percent improved…why, yes. Whenever you’re ready, madam. ”

  “There’re worse things than being a toad,” said Miss Tick darkly.

  “Try it sometime,” said the toad. “Anyway, I rather liked her. ”

  “So did I,” said Miss Tick briskly. “She hears about an old lady dying because these idiots thought she was a witch, and she decides to become a witch so that they don’t try that again. A monster roars up out of her river, and she bashes it with a frying pan! Have you ever heard the saying ‘The land finds its witch’? It’s happened here, I’ll bet. But a chalk witch? Witches like granite and basalt, hard rock all the way down! Do you know what chalk is?”

  “You’re going to tell me,” said the toad.

  “It’s the shells of billions and billions of tiny, helpless little sea creatures that died millions of years ago,” said Miss Tick. “It’s…tiny, tiny bones. Soft. Soggy. Damp. Even limestone is better than that. But…she’s grown up on chalk and she is hard, and sharp, too. She’s a born witch. On chalk! Which is impossible!”

  “She bashed Jenny!” said the toad. “The girl has got talent!”

  “Maybe, but she needs more than that. Jenny isn’t clever,” said Miss Tick. “She’s only a Grade 1 Prohibitory Monster. And she was probably bewildered to find herself in a stream, when her natural home is in stagnant water. There’ll be much, much worse than her. ”

  “What do you mean, ‘a Grade 1 Prohibitory Monster’?” asked the toad. “I’ve never heard her called that. ”

  “I am a teacher as well as a witch,” said Miss Tick, adjusting her hat carefully. “Therefore I make lists. I make assessments. I write things down in a neat, firm hand with pens of two colors. Jenny is one of a number of creatures invented by adults to scare children away from dangerous places. ” She sighed. “If only people would think before they make up monsters. ”

  “You ought to stay and help her,” said the toad.

  “I’ve got practically no power here,” said Miss Tick. “I told you. It’s the chalk. And remember the redheaded men. A Nac Mac Feegle spoke to her! Warned her! I’ve never seen one in my life! If she’s got them on her side, who knows what she can do?”

  She picked up the toad. “D’you know what’ll be turning up?” she continued. “All the things they locked away in those old stories. All those reasons why you shouldn’t stray off the path, or open the forbidden door, or say the wrong word, or spill the salt. All the stories that gave children nightmares. All the monsters from under the biggest bed in the world. Somewhere, all stories are real and all dreams come true. And they’ll come true here if they’re not stopped. If it wasn’t for the Nac Mac Feegle, I’d be really worried. As it is, I’m going to try and get some help. That’s going to take me at least two days without a broomstick!”

  “It’s unfair to leave her alone with them,” said the toad.

  “She won’t be alone,” said Miss Tick. “She’ll have you. ”

  “Oh,” said the toad.

  Tiffany shared a bedroom with Fastidia and Hannah. She woke up when she heard them come to bed, and she lay in the dark until she heard their breathing settle down and they started to dream of young sheep s
hearers with their shirts off.

  Outside, summer lightning flashed around the hills, and there was a rumble of thunder….

  Thunder and Lightning. She knew them as dogs before she knew them as the light and sound of a storm. Granny always had her sheepdogs with her, indoors and out. One moment they would be black-and-white streaks across the distant turf, and then they were suddenly there, panting, eyes never leaving Granny’s face. Half the dogs on the hills were Lightning’s puppies, trained by Granny Aching.

  Tiffany had gone with the family to the big Sheepdog Trials. Every shepherd on the Chalk went to them, and the very best entered the arena to show how well they could work their dogs. The dogs would round up sheep, separate them, drive them into the pens—or sometimes run off, or snap at one another, because even the best dog can have a bad day. But Granny never entered with Thunder and Lightning. She’d lean on the fence with the dogs lying in front of her, watching the show intently and puffing her foul pipe. And Tiffany’s father had said that after each shepherd had worked his dogs, the judges would look nervously across at Granny Aching to see what she thought. In fact all the shepherds watched her. Granny never, ever entered the arena, because she was the Trials. If Granny thought you were a good shepherd—if she nodded at you when you walked out of the arena, if she puffed at her pipe and said, “That’ll do”—you walked like a giant for a day, you owned the Chalk….

  When she was small and up on the wold with Granny, Thunder and Lightning would baby-sit Tiffany, lying attentively a few feet away as she played. And she’d been so proud when Granny had let her use them to round up a flock. She’d run about excitedly in all directions, shouting “Come by!” and “There!” and “Walk up!” and, glory be, the dogs had worked perfectly.

  She knew now that they’d have worked perfectly whatever she’d shouted. Granny was just sitting there, smoking her pipe, and by now the dogs could read her mind. They only ever took orders from Granny Aching….

  The storm died down after a while, and there was the gentle sound of rain.

  At some point Ratbag the cat pushed open the door and jumped onto the bed. He was big to start with, but Ratbag flowed. He was so fat that, on any reasonably flat surface, he gradually spread out in a great puddle of fur. He hated Tiffany but would never let personal feelings get in the way of a warm place to sleep.

  She must have slept, because she woke up when she heard the voices.

  They seemed very close but, somehow, very small.

  “Crivens! It’s a’ verra well sayin’ ‘find the hag,’ but what should we be lookin’ for, can ye tell me that? All these bigjobs look just the same tae me!”

  “Not-totally-wee Geordie doon at the fishin’ said she was a big, big girl!”

  “A great help that is, I dinna think! They’re all big, big girls!”

  “Ye paira dafties! Everyone knows a hag wears a pointy bonnet!”