In a trice, the hags had leapt from their seats and to the cavern entrance. Ulva and Aila brandished their claws and Lee had taken what looked like a carved, wooden pole from beneath the folds of her cloak… it was something he had seen her work on earlier. She had carved a hideous, leering face into the wood. She glared into the tunnel and with a thrill of horror, Karl thought he saw the leering carved face twitch…
The dreadful barking was louder now and his heart thudded. His mother gave an ear-splitting scream and launched herself into the corridor, her long red hair streaming behind her. He heard a smack, sort of a wet thud like he had heard once when a servant whacked a side of beef in the palace kitchen followed by the sound of animal snarling that chilled his blood.
Ulva and Aila ran out. Ulva gave a cry and Aila’s voice could be heard: “Yeah! Take that you ugly mutt.”
His stomach lurched as a hound leapt in from the passageway. A hound with blue-grey fur and pupil-less eyes that glowed a ghostly white. It appeared to have a bloodied breast. There was dried blood caked on its fur, but whose? It turned to him and gave a terrible bark, with a sound like evil laughter…
Then Lee was there with her carved stick, her blue eyes furious and fixated. She gave the hound a terrific swipe. There was a flash and a cracking sound and the beast’s jaw broke clean off, spittle and blood flying everywhere. Ulva and Aila, their claws steeped in blood followed her into the cavern and dragged the wounded animal away. Their voices echoed from the tunnel:
“You’re not planning to eat this, are you?”
“Don’t be disgusting, Aila.”
“Thought not. Dogs are so messy. I bet they’re dirtier than rats.”
Lee was breathing hard through her long nose, her nostrils dilating. Then she dropped the ugly stick and gathered Karl in her arms, holding him tight as he clung to her, her red hair getting in his eyes.
“It’s OK, Karl, mummy’s here.” She kissed him on the forehead, her musty scent invading his nostrils.
“Is it – is it the PLATs, mum? Do they know I’m here?”
“No darling, I think not.”
Aila sidled back into the cavern. “This place can only be reached by those with magic in their blood and hearts, Karl. Had you forgotten? We’re supernatural beings. Lee brought you here. You could never have found us yourself. The Gut Hounds are supernatural animals, but I can’t see them carting Steel or any of that lot around on their backs.”
Karl gazed at Aila over Lee’s shoulder. Aila
held up her clawed hand to the pale light of the cavern’s ceiling. “It’s a bit like the Gut Hounds were already dead. Their blood sort of seeps out of them instead of gushing.”
“Alright, that’s enough of that,” admonished Lee. “As long as no Gut Hound escaped, the PLATs will have no idea we exist. But it’s appalling that they let those things rampage around Ostinia.”
Aila wrinkled her shiny green nose and shook her head. “They act in the best interests of the people. No matter how much the people must suffer for it.” She made a grand, sweeping gesture with both arms, and waved her bloodied claws in the air. “Under the PLATS, the people are free to do exactly as they’re told.”
Karl laughed at her mock-pompous tone and Aila grinned at him. “This little man is on it!”
Despite the Gut Hounds intruding, the hags decided to resume their meeting. Ulva seemed more uneasy than Aila did. “So, I was right. The PLATs will stop at nothing.”
Lee nodded, her grey lips set and her blue eyes hard. “And I was right too. Nothing gets to threaten my boy.”
Lee’s carved stick lay on the stone table, the horrible carved face still twitching. It looked awful, but Karl could hardly tear his gaze away from it.
“That thing worked pretty well,” said Aila pointing a claw at it. “I almost wish I could carve now.”
“You’re not sensitive enough to carve like Lee does,” said Ulva brusquely.
“Neither are you,” retorted Aila.
Lee gave a wry smile. “Would you want to be sensitive though, sister?”
“Would I have wanted to have your existential crises? Not really.”
Lee gazed at the stick and cupped her chin in her hands. “He still needs a lot of work.”
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That night Lee showed Karl a new toy she had made for him. It was a krell made from felt. A krell is a type of blue furred monkey with six limbs, that come from the jungles of a magical land far away.
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“It was an interesting place to visit,” Lee told him. “The warm jungle swamp gave me the idea for the Blob game. The wall of death won’t always be there and when it’s gone, I’ll take you on a holiday to the jungle. We can see it all. Maybe my treehouse is still there.” She grinned as she held up the toy. “Those naughty krells though. They do like to pinch things.” She handed it to him. “Now settle down, darling. It’s storytime.”
Karl lay back on his bed of furs while his mother enacted the final part of the bed time story she had been telling him. The story in question was about a Prince – Prince Stefan – who had lost his kingdom to an evil magician name Arachnos. Stefan eventually reclaimed his birthright by returning to his kingdom and challenging Arachnos. The wizard had had an army of animated skeletons and other horrors which had hampered Stefan at every turn, and Karl was eager to hear how the showdown would go.
His mother used tiny marionettes she had carved herself to enact dramatic parts of the story. The moonlight was brighter here in the mountains than it had been down on the ground and its cold radiance lit up the entire cave. Lee looked even more other-worldly in its ethereal light as she loomed above him. Her yellowish-green face seemed almost to shine and her eyes were wide. The strings of the marionettes were wrapped around her long fingers and she could move them in a way that seemed fluid and strangely realistic.
The marionette of Arachnos, the evil mage, was wrapped in a black cloak and hood. Lee curled her grey lip and tried to do a gruff voice to show it was Arachnos speaking:
“Last member of a ragged house long bereft of dignity, you are as weak as an oyster out of its shell. I will crush you like a bug!”
Karl sat up, his eyes wide.
Lee continued to grate on in Arachnos' scratchy voice: “No one breaks free of my web. My Spider-Swarm will eat you like a fly.”
She flicked another marionette out from her sleeve, this one consisting of lots of tiny spiders on strings that looked like gossamer – that might actually have been gossamer.
Lee carried on reciting in her normal voice. “But Stefan was clever. Arachnos had been just a mortal man by birth. He had not realised how draining the spell would be of his energy. Stefan was clever and he could guess.”
Lee had crafted the prince puppet with loving detail. His hair looked like spun gold and his face was perfect and painted pink and white. Lee grinned at it. “Your reign of terror ends now, Arachnos. I will take my rightful place as King.”
When she had finished enacting her story, Karl settled himself back on his bed. “Stefan was not really weak.”
“Indeed not. That was wishful thinking on the part of Arachnos. It’s amazing how evil men can fool themselves into believing what they want to believe.”
Karl gazed up into her familiar bright green face. “The doctors used to say I’m weak. They said that I tire too easily.” He thought back and recalled their exact words. “They said that my sisters were vigorous, but that I never would be. Anna always said I need a lot of looking after.”
Leevana’s grey lips twitched to form a small smile. Her blue eyes were strangely bright. “Could that be why I love you so much?”
Karl blinked. That was a strange thing to say.
She lightly stroked his hair with her long fingers. “It’s all a part of who you are. I love everything about you, my precious boy.”
He smiled back at her. “I don’t think I could do all that running and jumping like Stefan did when he was fighting the spiders. He had so much energy. It didn’t even matter that Arachnos knew magic.”
Lee tapped the side of her long nose and smiled. “You’ve got me by your side, my little love. If it was just Arachnos who was your enemy, that would be so much simpler. I could take him out any day of the week. He was a bungler, using a spell he hadn’t researched. That sort of blunder would have supplied Aila with jokes for a week. Mortals tampering with the supernatural… it’s dangerous. You all have limitations.”
Karl lay back, for the moment just enjoying her presence. The strong stench of her body was now a source of great comfort and it was unmistakable, even after she had washed. Ulva did not smell like that and Aila didn’t have any body odour. When Lee entered a cavern or chamber, there could be no doubt about it. She was the only one who made him feel fully relaxed and happy just by being close by. It seemed ridiculous that his mother had seemed frightening when they first met!
His Grandmamma had had a distinctive smell too. A smell of peppermint. She had said she put peppermint oil on her hands for some reason. He associated the smell of peppermint with her and whenever he had a peppermint he would miss her if she had gone away to Rosewood Castle. He told Lee the part about peppermint once again and she grinned just as she had done the first time he’d told her.
“But Grandmamma doesn’t know I’m still alive,” He added.
“I know, darling,” Lee’s voice quivered. “She believes she’s lost you forever. I – I can’t even imagine how that must feel…” She shook her head and her long red hair rippled and bounced. “If we get the chance to escape the PLAT realm, we must get word to her somehow. The moon knows she must need comfort.”
Karl wondered how Grandmamma would react to Lee. He decided that she would have to love her, just like he did. He tried to picture his hag mother in the Royal Court, as it had been in the old days before the fall… she would certainly stand out. She was bigger than nearly all the men for one thing.
“Now is your tooth tucked under your pillow?” she asked. “A night-hag’s coming to collect it.”
“Will she see me if I stay awake and hide?” asked Karl, diving under the covers.
“I have no idea,” said Lee with mock gravity. “Come here.” Karl peeked out.
Lee brushed her red hair away from her face. “A night-hag’s going to grab you!” She gathered him up in her arms as he giggled madly and kissed him. “Now it’s time for this little prince to go to sleep.” She tucked him in a second time. “I love you.”
“Love you too.”
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Lee fashioned his baby tooth with remarkable skill into a tiny, ivory carving of a steam train that she kept in a little niche beside the snow globe. She mentioned that she wanted to make more toys to give to human children and one day at a meeting of the hags, Lee proposed that she and Karl disguise themselves and pay a quick visit to a rural market place.
Aila raised an eyebrow. “You want to try and peddle your toys to the humans again, Lee?”
“I want my son to see a rural market. They can be so charming,” said Lee. “Of course we have to travel in disguise.”
“As long as you know what you’re about,” said Ulva stiffly, her arms folded.
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Back in the cave, Lee spent a while with her back turned, pressing something that looked like a rubber sheet to her face making a strange, scrunching sound. When she turned round, Karl gave a start of shock. It now looked like she was wearing a flesh-coloured mannequin face.
“What’s wrong, darling?” The lips of the mask moved slowly and awkwardly as she spoke.
“I – I wish you didn’t have to wear that.”
“Of course,” she said tenderly, stroking his cheek. “But we have to travel in disguise, even in the remote, rural areas. I’m afraid you have to cover your pretty little face too.”
She had made him a rubber mask too. It felt a little bit heavy, but it wasn’t as bad as he had thought it would be. She flew them both with a basket of toys away from the mountains and the journey did not take long. The landscape beneath them became broader and more distinct as she swooped down and when they reached the market, no one remarked on her strange, plastic appearance. Her disguise worked then. It was a winter day and he was wrapped in furs. She had a fur coat too, not that she needed one, but she had to pass as a human lady.
As a prince, Karl had had no need to go to the market place, so this was his first time. Lee showed him the different stalls. Some of the vendors accepted toys from her and others didn’t, although Lee did not ask for any money in return. The fruit vendor had a little girl with her. She was of Karl’s own age with long red hair.
The little girl glared at them in suspicion. “Why are you wearing masks?”
“Ssh, don’t be cheeky, Cintia” said the fruit lady.
“It’s quite alright,” said Lee, touching the cheek of her rubber mask.
Cintia pouted. “You can’t see anything mum. Grown ups never can see anything.”
“How about a present, Cintia?” asked Lee holding out her basket. “How about a felt bat?”
Cintia wrinkled her freckled nose and shook her head. She grabbed one of the wooden dolls. “I only want the soldier doll.”
“He’s an explorer doll,” said Lee, smiling with the lips of her mask. “He looks like a brave explorer who would make his way through the magical mountain mists to visit a lonely night-hag and make her happy.”
“I can decide who he is,” said Cintia.
Cintia’s mother let them share her stall for a while. While their mothers were talking, Cintia leaned her freckled face close to Karl. “You are wearing a mask,” she hissed.
“Alright, I’ll trust you not to tell anyone,” said Karl.
Cintia nodded, her blue eyes wide. “Please let me see your face?”
Karl dropped his mask for a moment, then replaced it. “Pretty,” said Cintia. “I’ll keep your secret.”