Free Crystal by Rebecca Lisle Page B

mentioned the West Gate to Grint. She must have seen it in the icicle thing. A fortune, that’s what she’d said. And she’d told Grint about it just as she told Grint everything … and Grint, or Grint and Carter, had fixed for them to be arrested.
    They would never escape now.
    The sly-ugg slithered warily out of its box and waved its eye-stalks about. It oozed over the table and came and sat close to her.
    Crystal moved away. She wanted the kitten; she wanted to stroke his smooth warm fur and have him cuddle under her neck.
    The sly-ugg slimed over the table, keeping its eyes focused on Crystal all the time. Crystal watched it, vaguely wondering what it was up to. Then, as if it hadn’t noticed the table edge at all, the sly-ugg dropped into the kitten’s basket with a damp plop .
    ‘That’s not your bed!’ Crystal tipped the sly-ugg out and the kitten’s red cushion tumbled out with it.
    And something else.
    Something egg-shaped.
    Crystal knew immediately it was the thing from Lop Lake that her mother had caught.
    She picked it up and rolled it around in her fingers, examining it. It was a beautiful green stone acorn in an acorn cup. As she rolled it, the two sections fell apart. For a second she thought it was broken, until she saw the tiny roll of paper inside.

    Crystal’s knees gave way and she sat down with a thud.
    The sly-ugg had wormed up the table leg and was staring at her. It was smiling, she was sure it was smiling and yet she didn’t think they could, that they did. Had the sly-ugg shown her where the acorn was? Was that it? Of course, it probably had watched her mother when she came back from Lop Lake that day when the smoke had cleared. Of course it had seen what Effie had done with the acorn and yet it hadn’t revealed anything to Raek – even under torture. She looked at the sly-ugg again. It was definitely, certainly smiling. Had it come over to their side? Had she got a friend where she least expected it?
    Crystal got up and brought the sly-ugg a few leaves of loffseed. Its eyes gleamed and it gobbled them up with delight. She was sorry now; sorry for all the bad thoughts she’d had about it. She quickly heaped more herbs on the chair for the sly-ugg before picking the acorn up again.
    Somehow this was good, this acorn felt good – it felt hopeful. Greenwood, whoever he was, was hope. But where was he? How did he exist in Lop Lake? She never for one moment doubted that the acorn and its message were for Effie and her. They were. She knew it.
    She quite suddenly wasn’t sad any more. She actually felt optimistic and almost happy. It was bizarre.
    She turned the slip of paper over and wrote on the back of it. Carefully she put the message back inside the acorn and screwed the two parts tightly together.
    She paused at the doorway – the sly-ugg wasn’t going to stop her. It wasn’t going to cry out. It went on nibbling quietly on the leaves, looking up at her only for a second with a kindly look, before returning to its food.
    She was free.
    Outside, the sky was overcast and heavy. The trees’ shrunken leaves trembled in the wind and the smell of the lake came down to meet her.
    She stood at the water’s edge, breathing in the magical scent of water; and thinking of her mother, she threw the acorn into Lop Lake with all her force.

13
Questrid’s Plan
    Snow was falling in the Marble Mountains, large light snowflakes that drifted and clung to everything. As Questrid worked outside in front of the stables, he acquired a thin covering of white, too, like sugar icing.
    ‘What’s all that noise, Questrid? What are you doing?’ Robin cried, coming out into the yard. ‘Silver’s barking in sympathy.’
    ‘ Caw, caw ,’ the jackdaw on Robin’s shoulder cried.
    Questrid was kneeling in the snow. ‘Oh, nothing,’ he said, waving a hammer around.
    ‘When people start hammering and banging,’ Robin said, ‘and make a lot of noise which they don’t normally do, and then call it