Free Maddigan's Fantasia by Margaret Mahy Page B

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She looked up at those men standing by the stones high on the side of the gorge, and imagined more rocks crashing down on them. Yet she certainlydid not want to hand Timon and Eden over to Ozul and Maska. Where were the boys anyway? They had disappeared. Well,
of course
they had disappeared. She had heard them go. And if she had been the one Ozul and Maska had been demanding she would have disappeared too.
    Garland suddenly saw her bow and quiver hanging on the side of the van. Nobody noticed as she unhooked it. The argument was raging on and on, Fantasia people arguing with other Fantasia people. (‘Fantasia people are true to each other,’ Maddie was declaring yet again.) Nobody noticed as – one! two! three! Garland stepped backwards … nobody except Maddie that is.
    ‘Garland!’ she shouted. ‘Garland! Don’t you do a runner!’ But there was so much distraction it was easy for Garland to pretend that she had not heard her mother. Sliding around the back of the wagon she looked up into the forest on the opposite side of the gorge. Where were Timon and Eden? Where
were
they? They must be hiding up there somewhere. It might be hard to see Eden, that bush-coloured stick boy, but Timon’s golden hair should flare out like a soft flame. His blue eyes might even light up some shadowy hiding place. If he were hiding up there, not wanting to be found, he might have to close his eyes. But even if he screwed his eyes tight and clapped his hands across them, she would still find him. Sliding into the bush herself, Garland began climbing, leaving the Fantasia below her.
    She climbed upwards on a series of rough wide steps under the tangle of trees and ferns clinging onto the gully wall. Scrambling up from one step to another certainly was hard work, but there were resting places in between. Garland paused, panting a little and listening hard.
    ‘Timon?’ she said aloud. ‘Eden?’ She was sure that there would be too much noise down below for anyone to hear herspeak. The boys
must
have gone this way. They
must
be close at hand. ‘Where are you?’
    She heard a movement and turned gratefully towards it. But the figures that now came sliding out of the bush, closing in on her … reaching out for her, were not the figures of the boys. Suddenly Ozul and Maska were looming over her. Only a few minutes ago they had been standing down below, a step or two behind the giantess Ida … but then, only a few minutes ago, she too had been standing down there, half-hidden by Maddie and Yves.
    No time to turn and slide away. No escape.
    ‘Where are they?’ asked Ozul.
    ‘I don’t know,’ cried Garland. The sounds of argument drifted up from below. ‘I’m looking for them too. They … they just disappeared.’
    ‘Where are they?’ Ozul repeated.
    Maska spoke. ‘Destroy her!’ he said. He had a curious voice. The words were clear yet sounded as if they were being cranked out of some kind of machine that almost needed oiling. ‘Destroy her! Then throw her out down there among them. That will send a message.’
    He meant it.
    And then suddenly everything erupted. Stones came flying out of the green curtains that hung around them. One struck Maska with a curious clanging sound. Ozul whirled, and, as he did so, yet another stone flew in at them, striking him full in the face. The very ground seemed to tilt. ‘Run!’ That was Timon’s voice. ‘Don’t just
stand
there!’ But Garland was already running – leaping away rather than running – diving in a frantic, stumbling dive, into that greenness behind her with no idea of where her dive might be taking her. All that mattered was getting away. Twigs tore at her. She could not tell if they were pulling her into hiding or pushing her away.
    ‘Get them!’ she could hear Maska shouting. ‘Get them!’ But now Garland had the advantage, being so much smaller. Shooting from one gap to another, she scrambled across those ferns, and under those clawing branches, in