The Troll Heart Page 3

  ‘These are delicious!’ crowed Max, biting off the head. Lizzie beamed. She picked up a bowl and began whisking the mixture inside, already working on her next creation.

  Anna glanced outside as she finished chewing. The ruined shed she had spied from her bedroom window sat slumped amid coils of mist, as if long, foggy arms were slowly pulling it apart. The rickety fence was there too, green and collapsing. Jamie Sparrow had been playing outside the kitchen just before he went missing. Anna wondered if she could convince Lizzie to let them have a look around.

  ‘We saw a goat when we came in,’ she said conversationally, taking another biscuit. ‘Does he belong to the hotel?’

  Lizzie frowned. ‘Those goats are always escaping,’ she said. ‘There’s a gardener here who keeps all sorts of barnyard animals out in the back field. I don’t know what he does with them. They’re always coming and going and startling the guests. It’s a real nuisance.’

  ‘Do you think we could go and have a look at them?’ asked Anna politely. ‘My brother has always wanted to pat a goat.’

  ‘No I haven’t,’ said Max, his mouth full of gingerbread. He caught Anna’s eye. ‘Oh. I mean, yes I have.’

  Lizzie stopped mixing. ‘Haven’t you been listening to a thing I’ve said?’ she exclaimed. ‘It’s not safe for children to go wandering around on their own! A boy has gone missing!’

  ‘But we won’t be on our own,’ said Anna. ‘We’ll be together, right Max?’

  Max didn’t look particularly keen to venture outside, but Anna knew he wouldn’t want to be left behind, either. She gave Lizzie her most winning smile, trying to look as responsible as she could.

  ‘This really is delicious gingerbread,’ she added, taking another bite.

  Lizzie crossed her arms. ‘You are a cheeky one,’ she said. ‘All right, then. You can go and look at the animals while I finish baking. I’ll be able to watch you out the window, so long as the fog doesn’t fall too low. But don’t you dare wander out of sight!’

  The mist was slowly lifting, but the afternoon was still a cold one. Anna and Max stole out through the kitchen door, their arms heaped high with plates of food lavished upon them by Lizzie: big fat sandwiches and a bottle of homemade lemonade, alongside a plate stacked with even more gingerbread men. Even if they didn’t find any clues, Anna thought, they were still going to have a rather spectacular feast.

  The kitchen door opened onto a mossy garden path, bordered on either side by tangled, trampled flowerbeds. A pocket of geraniums winked out from a battered garden plot, their stems bent and broken; a tall stem of foxgloves lay ruined on the ground. Anna supposed that the search party must have started at the kitchen and moved out from there, leaving a trail of stomped greenery in its wake. Where was it now?

  ‘I know what you’re doing,’ said Max.

  Anna stopped. ‘What?’

  Max stared at her accusingly. ‘You’re hoping we’ll find another fairy,’ he said. ‘You want to go looking for that creepy man who lives in the river.’

  Anna felt her face flush. ‘I’m hoping nothing bad has happened to that missing boy,’ she said hotly. ‘But for all you know, it could be a fairy. And if it is, who else will be able to help him? We might be the only people in the world who know that monsters exist.’

  Max shrugged. ‘The police are still out there looking,’ he said. ‘You shouldn’t interfere with their investigation.’

  ‘We wouldn’t be interfering, we’d be helping,’ said Anna indignantly. She lowered her voice. ‘Don’t you remember what happened to you?’

  Max scrunched up his face, but he didn’t reply.

  The conversation petered out as they arrived at the edge of the field. A sagging green fence bordered the pasture, but the planks had become so damaged by rain that they were beginning to rot away, falling among the knotted grass that carpeted the field. The slumping shed in the corner looked as if it had been forgotten about entirely.

  As expected, two goats stood grazing in the field, poking around the edges of a bushy hedge plant. But there were other animals too: Anna spied a sheep, a brood of chickens, and an old black pony with a long and dirty mane. She wondered how many other creatures were hidden out in the mist.

  The pony fixed the children with a cautious stare as they approached. Max put the plate of gingerbread down on the ground and picked some long, weedy grass from beside a post. He held it out over the fence.

  ‘Here,’ he said. ‘Don’t be scared. This is for you!’

  The pony walked slowly towards them. It grabbed the grass with its mouth, exposing teeth that were big and yellow. For a moment it looked like it was going to bite off Max’s fingers as well, but he pulled them back just in time.

  Anna watched as Max bent down to pull out more grass. For the longest time she had been begging the Professor to buy them a pet – preferably a cat, which she hoped would be allowed to sleep on her bed at night. Rather annoyingly, the Professor had so far ignored (or forgotten) all of her requests. Anna frowned, thinking. Now she had a mystery to solve, and a whole collection of animals to choose from. The policemen and the search parties were probably using sniffer dogs. Could one of the animals in the field help them find a missing boy?

  The goats were sniffing close to the fence, their curved horns looking very strange as they bent their heads down low. Neither of them was paying the children any attention.

  ‘Here, goat,’ called Anna. ‘Come over here!’

  The goats ignored her.

  The pony chomped down on Max’s handful of grass, its lips flapping as it ate. It sniffed warily at his decaying fingers as he patted it on the nose.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘It’s just a bit dead. It won’t hurt you.’

  Anna glanced back towards the kitchen window. She knew a very special way to get the goats’ attention – but Lizzie had said she would be watching them. Could she take the chance?

  Max fed the pony another clump of grass. Anna quickly reached under her coat, stretching her fingers down to the sheath by her side. The hilt of the knife felt very warm, even in the cool English air. Sparks of heat seemed to flow into her hand, racing up her arm and into her chest. Anna squeezed the hilt tightly, focusing all her attention on the goat she had met outside the hotel.

  The goats looked up. The sheep looked up too, as well as the chickens. The pony swung its head around to face Anna, pulling its nose away from Max’s hand.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ said Max to the pony, confused.

  Anna hadn’t been expecting such a large reaction. She quickly locked eyes with the goat, keeping her hand pressed firmly against the burning hilt.

  ‘Come here!’ she whispered sharply.

  And then she took her hand out from beneath her coat before anyone could see what she’d done.

  The goat with the longest horns stood up very straight. Its body shivered, just as it had done beside the car. Its ears twitched up and down, as if it was batting away a swarm of invisible flies. With a start, it let out a mighty bleat – and then trotted straight over to the children. All of the other animals lowered their heads and began behaving normally once more.

  Anna reached through the fence and patted the goat between the ears. She ran her hands over its black horns, tracing her fingers between the ridges.

  ‘Good boy,’ she said.

  Max gave Anna a suspicious look. Anna shrugged her shoulders, trying very hard not to smile.

  ‘All good mystery-solvers need a pet,’ said Anna to the goat. ‘And I think you’ll make a very good pet indeed. You’ll help us find Jamie Sparrow, won’t you?’

  The goat pushed its head against her hand. Anna smiled. He didn’t look quite as fearsome as a bear, but his body was strong and his horns were sharp. If there really were dangers lurking in the mist, she was sure the goat would do its best to protect them.

  ‘You scared away my pony,’ said Max, annoyed. He took a step up onto the fence, carefully balancing his weight. ‘I’m going to go and look
at the chickens.’

  But at that moment there came a loud, angry voice from further down the field.

  ‘Hey, you children! Get away from those animals!’

  Anna jumped. Max, who had managed to climb atop the rickety fence, almost fell to the ground in fright. A large man had stepped out from behind a hedge plant, huffing and puffing as he made his way up the hill. He was dressed very warmly, even for England. His grubby old coat was the colour of earwax, and his long black gumboots stretched up to his knees. His hair was very blond, perched atop his head like a flame. Anna thought the man rather resembled a fat, squat candle.

  ‘Get away from those animals!’ said the man again. ‘Don’t you go annoying them!’

  He spoke with an up-and-down accent that didn’t sound English at all.

  ‘We weren’t annoying them,’ said Anna. ‘We were just looking at them.’

  ‘Go and look at something else,’ said the man. ‘I’m in charge of those animals. I won’t have you here making mischief.’

  He stopped next to the fence and stared at them. He didn’t scowl or purse his lips, but Anna didn’t think he needed to. His face was mean enough already.

  ‘We’re not here to make mischief,’ said Anna. ‘We’re here to have a picnic, see?’

  She pointed to the plates of sandwiches and biscuits. The man’s eyes narrowed.

  ‘Looks like you’ve stolen those from the kitchen,’ he said. ‘I’ll be having a word with your parents!’

  The man’s eyes narrowed.

  ‘No!’ protested Anna. ‘We didn’t steal –’

  But the man was already striding up towards the hotel. He whistled an eerie tune to himself as he stomped along the garden path, crushing the flowers beneath his boots.

  ‘Who was that?’ asked Max.

  ‘I think that must have been the hotel gardener,’ said Anna. ‘I don’t think Lizzie said what his name was. We’ll have to keep an eye out for him. He should be easy to spot, with a funny candle-head like that.’

  Max giggled. ‘Mr Candle! That’s a good name.’

  But even though the man looked rather unusual, it wasn’t pleasant to have been yelled at. Anna picked up the plate of sandwiches, still feeling a bit shaken. She hoped a full stomach would cheer her up.

  ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s start the picnic. We can have it over there. The grass here is too wet to sit on.’

  She pointed to the dilapidated shed. The roof was overgrown with a shaggy carpet of moss and vines, and one of the windows had been smashed. The door appeared to have been made from the same water-damaged planks as the fence. Parked beside the shed was an empty cart, which looked as if it might make a good seat for two hungry children.

  The sandwiches proved to be just as delicious as they looked, with too many fillings to count. Anna ate in wolfish bites, grinning happily.

  ‘Where do you think Mr Candle had been?’ said Max, chewing hard. ‘What’s down the bottom of the hill?’

  Anna looked out into the mist. She thought she could just make out the tops of the willow trees swaying gently in the easy wind, down where the river flowed. Was that where Jamie Sparrow had gone? Was there really another monster hidden by the riverside? Anna sighed. The river seemed like the best place to go looking for clues, but there was no way Lizzie would ever let them explore that far.

  She was just about to take another bite of her sandwich when she saw something else.

  Two yellow eyes were staring out from beneath a nearby hedgerow. They were closer now than they had been on the stairs, and brighter, too – brighter than eyes should be. Anna froze, her mouth hanging open, unable to warn Max, unable to look away.

  Then she blinked, and the eyes were gone.

  5

  A MIDNIGHT DEPARTURE

  SEARCHING FOR CLUES IN THE HOTEL GARDEN was a cold, damp, miserable job. Anna found herself shivering as she poked around a bed of purple bellflowers, her woollen socks soaked through to the skin. Max was frowning into every hidey-hole he could find. Anna hadn’t told him about seeing the yellow eyes again. If she had, she doubted she could have convinced him to stay outside for another moment.

  Fortunately, their new friend the goat had also decided to join the search. He was such a funny companion that the children began to cheer up, smiling as the goat jumped back and forth through a gap in the ramshackle fence. He seemed very eager to help sniff out clues, and jumped high in the air when he accidentally uncovered a squawking parakeet in a cage beneath a rose bush. However, despite the goat’s help, their search proved fruitless.

  ‘Anna!’ called Lizzie from the kitchen window. ‘Max! Are you there?’

  Anna sighed. ‘It must be dinner time,’ she said. ‘What a shame! I did hope we’d find something.’

  ‘We can keep looking around inside,’ said Max hopefully, his teeth chattering. ‘But I suppose we’ll have to leave Billy behind.’

  Billy seemed a fine name for their dog-with-horns. The children gave him a good pat as they led him back to his pen.

  ‘We’ll come back tomorrow, we promise,’ said Anna. ‘Goodbye, Billy!’

  Although Anna had wanted to search for longer, they realised as they walked inside that the sky had grown quite dark. Despite the lateness of the hour, the Professor had still not returned. It was lucky that Anna and Max had met Lizzie, for they were allowed to sit in the kitchen with her and enjoy a dinner of sausages and roast potatoes. Lizzie told them lots of jokes and funny stories while they ate, but Anna noticed that she kept glancing at the telephone, as if she hoped someone would call. Anna got the feeling that the day’s search party had not been successful.

  The siblings had been worried that Mr Candle might really try to find the Professor or Mr Collins to complain about them, but for the rest of the night they saw no sign of him. Anna wondered what he might be up to. Judging from the state of the grounds they had spent the afternoon exploring, he certainly wasn’t doing much gardening.

  ‘Well, I suppose I’ll see you both tomorrow,’ said Lizzie, as Max finished off the last of the gingerbread. ‘I’m sure we’ll find something fun to do.’

  As long as we don’t disappear as well, thought Anna. But she didn’t say it out loud, and soon they were bidding Lizzie goodnight. The children suddenly felt quite tired, and were glad to see their beds once more.

  ‘Do you really think it could be vampires again?’ asked Max, scooping a forgotten humbug off the floor and popping it into his mouth. ‘We know they like to steal people.’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Anna. She wondered how many vampires there were in the world. What were the chances of them meeting another one?

  Max sucked thoughtfully on his sweet.

  ‘If it’s vampires, then we can’t tell the police,’ he said. ‘That’s the rule, isn’t it? People have to choose to know about fairies, because the fairies will make trouble for them if they do.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Anna.

  Max yawned.

  ‘I hope it’s not vampires, then,’ he said, climbing into bed. ‘I hope something nice happened to Jamie Sparrow. Maybe he’s trapped in a box of lollies, and he’s slowly eating his way out.’

  And he slid under the covers and closed his eyes without even brushing his teeth.

  Anna switched on her bedside lamp. She didn’t really think that Jamie could have been taken by a vampire, but there were plenty of other fairies who might have stolen a child. She unzipped her bag and pulled out two very battered books. The first was old and thin, with a red cover emblazoned with the words FAIRY TALES FOR DARING CHILDREN. The second was an emerald green notebook with a bent spine – the secret journal where Anna, Max and Isabella had recorded all the details of their last adventure.

  Anna and Max had foreseen the day when a mystery might enter their lives again. The journal had been Isabella’s idea: a diary to send between the three of them, to record any new discoveries or adventures. Until now, Anna hadn’t had anything to write in it – but the mystery of the miss
ing boy seemed like the perfect way to begin a new chapter.

  But first, she would need to know what they were up against. Anna began to flip through the book with the red cover. This was the book she’d had since she was very small, the book that had taught her everything she knew about dealing with fairies. The chapter about vampires had helped her defeat the monster in Transylvania. Would the book be able to help her now?

  ‘Rivers,’ she muttered to herself. ‘Rivers and missing boys. What could that be?’

  Words began to leap off the page as she skimmed through the book.

  Hags are witches who have made their homes along riverbanks, waiting to snatch children who come to play by the water. Their skins are often dyed green.

  Anna flinched at the word witches. She remembered the toll-woman’s sharp face staring into their car, her raven hair sticking out around her head. But the woman’s skin had been pale, not green. Could she and a river hag be working together? Anna made a note in the journal.

  Water horses are mischievous creatures that delight in drowning those who have agreed to ride upon their backs. They live in creeks and rivers and are known by many names, including kelpies, sihuanaba, bäckahästen and brag.

  Anna remembered the black pony from the animal pen. Its mane had been long and very dirty. Could it have come from the river? She made another note.

  A light rain began to patter against the window.

  Numerous bogeymen can be found lurking beneath the surface of lakes and rivers. Their hides are often composed of rocks, slime and shells, all the better to disguise themselves when unwary travellers come wandering by. These knuckers go by many names …

  There were indeed a lot of names. Anna closed the book, disheartened, feeling even less prepared than she had before she’d started reading. It seemed as if Jamie Sparrow could have been taken by any number of monsters.

  Max was snoring quietly. Anna sighed and reached for the lamp switch, hoping that tomorrow’s investigation would be more successful.

  The room went dark.