Havoc!: The Untold Magic of Cora Bell Page 2

  ‘Or a demon,’ murmured another, hiding his words behind a small, hairy hand.

  Cora swallowed. Demon? The feeling of so many eyes on her was more uncomfortable than being covered from head to toe in sticky, green gremlin goop.

  Tick and Tock, also still covered in what remained of the gremlins, flew next to her.

  ‘That was amazing!’ said Tick when they entered the royal hut. ‘Cora — 1. Gremlins — 0.’

  ‘You should have seen you!’ said Tock.

  Cora gave her friends a small smile. She didn’t feel amazing. Not even a little bit. She had just exploded a hundred gremlins. She had killed creatures without wanting to, without meaning to. Without needing to. Her hands had moved on their own. She looked down at them, a terrified shiver prickling over her skin.

  Inside, the royal hut was empty. Tick and Tock flew over to the table of food and began helping themselves to the berries and nuts. The fairies took turns throwing berries in the air and trying to catch them in their mouths.

  ‘Cora!’ Tick called to her, throwing a blueberry in her direction. It bounced off her forehead and dropped to the ground.

  ‘Almost,’ said Tock.

  Then three loud POP!s of magic filled the hut. Cora looked down and was relieved to find herself no longer covered in green goo. And neither were Tick and Tock.

  King Clang had entered the royal hut. He flew past them without a word and over to his throne. But he didn’t sit down. He flew back and forth in the air, his mind affixed on something.

  ‘And it was gremlins that previously attacked the avian kingdom?’ queried King Clang.

  ‘Yes,’ said Cora. ‘It’s the silver-haired man. It has to be. They’re working with him.’

  Tick and Tock had stopped throwing fruit and flew over.

  ‘The fairy guards searched the forest and found no sign of a silver-haired man or a giant,’ said King Clang shaking his head.

  Cora paused, confused.

  ‘Gremlins are vicious and uncontrollable creatures. For years they have been kept detained in the Sap Caves by a witch’s enchantment,’ said King Clang. ‘It seems someone has freed them.’

  ‘The silver-haired man,’ said Tick.

  King Clang nodded.

  ‘Why would they attack The Hollow?’ asked Tick.

  ‘A few days ago there were reports of a similar gremlin outbreak west of here, just beyond the Beetle Bridge. They seem to be running wild.’ King Clang turned and looked at Cora, his mouth set in a firm line. ‘Thank you for . . . defending The Hollow,’ he said. ‘Now you must get some rest. The three of you.’

  The sun had set over The Hollow but Cora felt like it had been days since she had slept or ate.

  Tick and Tock arched their hairy eyebrows at the king.

  ‘It’s only five o’clock,’ said Tick.

  ‘You need to rest. Especially if you are to head north tomorrow,’ said King Clang, looking down at his feet.

  ‘North?’ Cora asked. What was north?

  King Clang sighed.

  ‘There have always been rumours. Small murmurings. Nothing worth the council’s time,’ King Clang said softly. ‘Murmurings that . . . syphons were hidden in the northern towns.’

  Syphons. Cora’s heart leapt. She would have jumped in the air if she wasn’t so tired.

  Tick and Tock flew up into the air, clapping their hands excitedly.

  ‘You must promise me you will be careful,’ said King Clang, pointing at Tick and Tock.

  ‘We’re always careful!’ said Tick.

  ‘Careful is my middle name!’ said Tock.

  ‘I thought it was Lawrence?’ replied Tick, confused.

  Cora didn’t care that they were just rumours or that they were from years ago. It was something. And they could start with something. She stepped forward. ‘Thank you,’ she said to King Clang. She wanted to hug him, but she had the feeling he wasn’t the hugging type.

  The king nodded. ‘Look after them.’

  Cora watched Tick and Tock twirl happily with one another in the air. She nodded.

  ‘And don’t destroy any more cities.’

  Cora lay in her hammock. The yellow bedding was strung up from one post to another inside Tick and Tock’s hut.

  The inside of the fairies’ home was messy. Food that looked like it was weeks old lay half-eaten in piles on the grass floor. When she entered, Cora had stepped on a total of three plumdrops after only taking two steps inside the hut, and well-worn socks lay strewn across tabletops, chairs and cups of cold tea. Cora even saw some underwear hanging from a lamp. Tick and Tock’s hut reminded her a little bit of the abandoned houses she and Dot would search in Urt. Except it had more food . . . and socks.

  It didn’t take Cora long to pack what she needed for their journey because she didn’t have much. Only what she had kept in her pack when she left Urt. Tick and Tock had magicked up a spare set of clothes for her and given her one of their jars of gooseberry honey. They had said it could come in handy if she was ever in a sticky situation.

  Thankful, Cora added these to her small collection of possessions.

  Tick and Tock, on the other hand, had thrown their belongings around, tried clothes on and searched for what to bring with them on their adventure for most of the evening.

  ‘Do I need this?’ asked Tick, holding up what looked like a bright yellow flute.

  Cora shook her head.

  ‘What about this?’ he asked, holding up a tiny, red hat. He placed it on his fairy head. ‘It’s fashion.’

  Cora shook her head at the hat and most of the other things Tick had wanted to take on the journey with him, until at last three small bags lay packed next to one another by the hut’s door.

  As she lay in her hammock, heavy lumps of guilt and fear squirmed inside Cora. She had killed gremlins with her magic. The creatures had died at her hands. She glanced down at her fingertips. Cora didn’t recognise them anymore. What was happening to her? And what . . . what would Dot say if she knew she had . . . killed? Cora lay in silence, thoughts of becoming a monster crowding her mind until the fairies turned to look at her from their matching hammocks strung up nearby.

  ‘Are you alright, Cora?’ asked Tock.

  Cora nodded, trying to shake the guilt and fear away. But they stayed, lingering like a dense fog.

  ‘I can’t wait to see the northern towns,’ said Tock.

  ‘Bilg. Berlg. Borlg. Brolg and Broolg,’ said Tick peering out from beneath the small red hat. He had refused to take it off.

  Cora had no idea where Bilg or Berlg or Borlg or Brolg or Broolg were but she hoped they wouldn’t run into any more gremlins.

  It wasn’t long until Tick’s and Tock’s loud snores filled the hut. Cora stared into the dark, her mind still cluttered with thoughts. She looked down at her bare wrist. When Dot had found her alone on the streets of Urt five years ago, all Cora had had was an ice-stone bracelet on her wrist. A witch had told Cora the bracelet had been protecting her, protecting her from others, but also from herself. Cora swallowed as she remembered Archibald Drake destroying the bracelet in Jade City. She had wanted to tell Tick and Tock about her bracelet being destroyed but everything since Jade City had happened so fast. She remembered Tick’s and Tock’s words. Too much magic and it can . . . tear you apart. The magic inside of her did feel . . . changed. Now that she was still, she could feel it slinking around in parts of her.

  Cora pulled out Dot’s pocket watch from her coat and traced her hand over the cold surface. She hoped Dot and Scratch were alright, wherever they were.

  Chapter Four

  Cora opened her eye. Worn and cracked buildings sat lopsided and grey in front of her. She could smell the swirling scents of smoke and sea as they tousled the air. Beneath her brown boots lay a rough stone street, broken, bumpy and uneven.

  Urt. She was back home. As she gazed out at the drab and withered city, her heart leapt. She had missed it.

  Ahead of her, traders lined both sides of the stre
et, selling their wares to the crowd: gold jewellery, hats with ornate feathers, books. Cora watched as one man pulled out an entire chandelier from his top pocket.

  Cora politely pushed through the crowd of people in the direction of home. She wondered what Dot was doing. She couldn’t wait to tell her everything that had happened since she had left Urt. The Jinx. Tick and Tock. The warlock. The princess. Artemis. Her magical abilities. About being a syphon. She hoped Dot would understand why she had had to leave. And she hoped Scratch, her cat, hadn’t been too much trouble.

  Then a voice entered her ear.

  You don’t belong here.

  Cora whirled around, looking for the owner of the voice. But the crowd moved on either side of her.

  Then a shatter of lightning ripped through the sky above her. Cora looked up. The lightning was black. She had never seen anything like it. It spread out like splintered tentacles across the sky, breaking and shattering until it completely covered every inch of the grey Urt sky. Above her a black blanket sizzled and sparked.

  You don’t belong anywhere, the voice returned to her ear; it was rough like rocks scraping against stone. Cora whirled around once more but this time instead of finding a crowd, she found nobody. The street was empty. Everyone had gone. The traders. The crowd. She was alone in the dark and stormy Urt street.

  A loud crack of thunder rippled through the black sky. Cora jumped at the sound. Ahead, she noticed a man standing at the other end of the street, watching her. A man with silver hair. It whipped about behind him dangerously.

  ‘Cora?’

  Cora turned around and standing at the other end of the street was Dot. She held Scratch in her arms.

  But something wasn’t right. She looked different somehow. Then Cora realised what it was. It was Dot’s eyes. They were completely black.

  You left her here. Alone, the voice returned to her ear.

  ‘But I–I . . .’ spluttered Cora.

  Suddenly, the ground beneath her feet rumbled. The street cracked and shifted, breaking apart in sections. Beneath the street, bright red flames shot up through the cracks.

  Cora stepped back and watched wide-eyed as the crack continued down the street, splitting all the way to the ground below Dot’s feet.

  ‘Dot!’ Cora cried.

  She raced towards her, jumping over the cracks, fire rising up from between the cracks and licking her boots.

  The street below Dot began to crumble apart.

  ‘Cora!’ Dot cried.

  Then Cora remembered. She had magic. She held onto the princess’s power and tried calling up the air around her. But nothing happened. The magic slipped through her fingers like smoke.

  The ground opened beneath Dot. Dot held out a hand to Cora. But Cora was too far away. All she could do was watch in horror as Dot dropped into the fire below.

  Cora dove, arms outstretched, she threw her hands into the flames, reaching for Dot. She cried out as the flames burnt the skin on her hands. She held nothing but air. She was too late. Dot and Scratch were gone.

  It’s just you and me now, said the voice.

  Then Cora felt something push her forward, sending her tumbling headfirst into the flickering, red flames below.

  Chapter Five

  Cora sat up so quickly that she was flung out of the bright yellow hammock and landed face first onto the grass floor below.

  ‘Ow.’

  She rubbed her head, her mind a blur of lightning and fire. Where am I? Then she heard the soft, tinkling sound of wind chimes and remembered. Tick and Tock’s hut. The Hollow. She relaxed. It was just a bad dream.

  Cora brushed away the food crumbs that stuck to her face from the floor but she couldn’t quite brush away the lingering feeling of unease.

  ‘Cora?’

  ‘Why are you smelling the ground?’

  She heard the familiar ruffle of fairy wings nearby and looked up to find Tick and Tock fluttering above her, confused expressions on their faces.

  ‘Does it smell nice?’ asked Tick.

  ‘It shouldn’t,’ said Tock. ‘We have never, ever cleaned.’

  Cora sat up straight. ‘I wouldn’t recommend it,’ she said, scrunching up her nose and dusting off more food crumbs from her front. She looked down at her hands. They still felt hot from the flames in the nightmare. How was that possible? Then she paused. Running down her right wrist, below her palm, were two, small, squiggly lines. They were black . . . like the lightning in her dream.

  Cora swallowed.

  ‘What is it?’ Tock asked.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Cora, pushing her hands out of sight as she stood up.

  ‘We made breakfast,’ said Tick, handing her a plate.

  Cora noticed that Tick and Tock were dressed in matching aprons. Tall white hats sat on top of their heads and soot dusted their noses.

  ‘Oh, thank you,’ said Cora. On the plate sat a pile of irregular-shaped, sloppy, red cakes.

  Tick and Tock held plates of their own, stacked high with the same red cakes.

  ‘Berrycakes,’ said Tick proudly, shoving one into his mouth.

  Cora was picking up a sloppy red cake when a thought occurred to her. ‘How are we travelling to the northern towns?’ she asked, biting down on the berrycake. It tasted a lot like warm strawberries and only a little bit like grass.

  ‘We will use a gateway to get to Vanir,’ said Tock, munching on his own berrycake.

  ‘And then fairy travel to Bilg,’ added Tick, licking juice from his fingertips. His plate was already empty.

  Cora was about to take another bite out of her berrycake when Tick asked, ‘Are you going to finish the rest of those?’

  After breakfast, the three of them grabbed their packs and stepped out into The Hollow. Tick and Tock’s hut sat on top of a hill that looked out over the wide, blue lake. Cora remembered the first time she had seen the lake. It was right before she had accidentally brought the Jinx to The Hollow. The warm sun glinted off the lake’s surface making it shimmer like a jewel.

  ‘Race you!’ cried Tick and Tock, and before Cora could answer, the fairies had darted off in the air down the hill, laughter trailing behind them.

  ‘Not fair,’ Cora said through puffing breaths when she had caught up to the fairies at the bottom of the hill. ‘You both have wings.’

  ‘You should think about syphoning some,’ said Tick, spinning in the air. ‘They’re very useful.’

  Cora looked at the fairy’s paper-thin wings, imagining herself clumsily flying in the air with a pair of her own.

  Tick realised what he had said and stopped spinning. He squinted at Cora and pointed a finger. ‘Don’t get any ideas.’

  Cora laughed. Even though it looked like fun, she wasn’t in any hurry to learn how to fly on top of learning how to control her magic. Especially after the dream she’d just had.

  Tick, Tock and Cora followed one of the well-trodden paths that led to the centre of the fairy kingdom. Huts of all different shapes and sizes filled the valley. They had rounded, brightly coloured roofs and were made from neatly woven branches, vines and flowers. Cora was happy to see that all the huts had been mended and rebuilt since the Jinx had destroyed them.

  Fairies flittered by them as they walked. Some nodded to Tick and Tock, others glanced at Cora and smiled. They made their way to the edge of the valley, following a small path that wove through the village. Soon they came to the large arch at the entrance to the fairy village. Cora remembered it. It sat taller than anything else in the village and was made from many intricately woven branches and flowers.

  King Clang wasn’t waiting by the arch to see them off. Instead, it was his fairy guard, Fizz, who waited for them.

  ‘Where’s Father?’ Tock asked.

  Cora heard the disappointment in the fairy’s voice.

  ‘He left last night to meet with the council,’ said Fizz.

  Tick nodded. ‘Did he say anything?’

  ‘Be careful,’ said Fizz.

  ‘Aww, Fi
zz,’ began Tick.

  ‘We didn’t know you cared,’ finished Tock, trying to give the fairy guard a hug.

  ‘I don’t,’ said Fizz, swatting Tock away.

  Cora gazed out ahead of them into the lush green forest that bordered The Hollow. Deep down in her boots, excitement tickled her toes.

  ‘Are you ready to find your family?’ Tick asked.

  Cora nodded. Her family. It felt strange to hear someone else say it. She couldn’t help but think of Dot and Scratch.

  Then with a final wave to Fizz and The Hollow, Cora and the fairies set off, into the forest, unsure of what they would find.

  Chapter Six

  Cora jostled her pack on her shoulders. They had walked until the forest became thick with trees and Cora could no longer hear the lilting wind chimes of The Hollow. The forest stretched on in front of them for what Cora thought looked like days, but she didn’t mind. The thought of finding syphons, people like her, kept a small spring in her step.

  She ran her hand over the lush green fronds by her side and the rough bark of the wide, twisting oak trees. She felt the small bumps and the sharp, pointed tops. Everything was a beautiful shade of green, the kind that Cora would never have been able to find in Urt. She wished she could take some of it with her, bottle it up somehow, to show Dot. Green, she thought with a heavy heart. Dot’s favourite colour.

  Cora felt worry cling to the back of her mind like a bumpy barnacle. Slowly, she pulled her right hand out of her jacket pocket and looked down at her wrist. The two black lines stared back at her, jagged and squiggly. As she stared, Cora thought they looked more and more like . . . cracks. Like in her dream.

  ‘Remember the last time father went to the northern towns?’ Tock asked. He and Tick flew about somewhere behind her.

  ‘A woman had turned into a Havoc,’ said Tick.

  ‘A what?’ Cora questioned.

  ‘Magical beings who have lost control of their powers,’ explained Tick.

  ‘Their skin turns dark as night, and their teeth become sharp as knives,’ said Tock. He put two fingers near his open mouth like fangs.