The Bone Quill Read online

  BONE QUILL

  ‘Then a powerful demon, a prowler through the dark, nursed a hard grievance.’

  Seamus Heaney, Beowulf

  First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Buster Books,

  an imprint of Michael O’Mara Books Limited,

  9 Lion Yard, Tremadoc Road, London SW4 7NQ

  www.busterbooks.co.uk

  www.hollow-earth.co.uk

  Text copyright © John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman 2013

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  Illustration copyright © Buster Books 2013

  Illustrations by Andrew Pinder

  Cover design by Nicola Theobald

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN: 978-1-78055-031-2 in paperback print format

  ISBN: 978-1-78055-182-1 in Epub format

  ISBN: 978-1-78055-183-8 in Mobipocket format

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Designed and typeset by www.glensaville.com

  With love

  to

  Bud and Lois

  and

  Gavin

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  John Barrowman is a presenter, a singer, a dancer and an actor, best known for playing Captain Jack in the television series Doctor Who and Torchwood.

  Carole E. Barrowman teaches English and creative writing at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She also writes for newspapers and regularly appears on television to talk about books. Carole and her brother have already written several books together. Bone Quill is the sequel to Hollow Earth, their first novel for children.

  Contents

  THE STORY SO FAR

  PART ONE

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  PART TWO

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  TWENTY-NINE

  THIRTY

  THIRTY-ONE

  THIRTY-TWO

  THIRTY-THREE

  THIRTY-FOUR

  THIRTY-FIVE

  THIRTY-SIX

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  THIRTY-NINE

  FORTY

  FORTY-ONE

  PART THREE

  FORTY-TWO

  FORTY-THREE

  FORTY-FOUR

  FORTY-FIVE

  FORTY-SIX

  FORTY-SEVEN

  FORTY-EIGHT

  FORTY-NINE

  FIFTY

  FIFTY-ONE

  FIFTY-TWO

  FIFTY-THREE

  FIFTY-FOUR

  FIFTY-FIVE

  FIFTY-SIX

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  FIFTY-EIGHT

  FIFTY-NINE

  SIXTY

  SIXTY-ONE

  SIXTY-TWO

  SIXTY-THREE

  SIXTY-FOUR

  PART FOUR

  SIXTY-FIVE

  SIXTY-SIX

  SIXTY-SEVEN

  SIXTY-EIGHT

  SIXTY-NINE

  SEVENTY

  SEVENTY-ONE

  GLOSSARY

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  THE STORY SO FAR

  Present Day

  The events of the last couple of months for twins Matt and Emily Calder have been life-changing. Fleeing London with their mother for their grandfather Renard’s protection on the Scottish isle of Auchinmurn, they learn that their mother Sandie is an Animare and their father Malcolm a Guardian, giving the twins an explosive combination of talents. Malcolm, increasingly obsessed by his ambition to free the beasts of Hollow Earth, was bound into a painting when the twins were young, but villains have already tried to use the twins’ powers to free him. Thanks to the intervention of the white peryton – a magical creature tied to the history of Auchinmurn – the plot failed. But now the twins’ mother has disappeared ...

  The Middle Ages

  Fifteen-year-old novice monk Solon has helped the old Animare Brother Renard to free the magical white peryton from the sacred cave paintings on the small island of Era Mina. They strive to protect the monastery on Auchinmurn Isle and defeat Rurik the Red – a Viking leader in pursuit of a sacred relic he claims was stolen from his people. But the animation of the peryton has come at a cost, and Brother Renard’s imagination is fractured. And now, as the stonemasons are building a tower to keep Brother Renard safe, there are mutterings of rebellion among the other monks ...

  Turn to the Glossary here for further information.

  PART ONE

  ONE

  The Abbey

  Auchinmurn Isle

  West Coast of Scotland

  Ten Years Ago

  The battle for control of the Calder twins’ imaginations began on the afternoon of their third birthday. Sandie was enjoying the last slice of Jeannie’s double-decker chocolate cake when Malcolm raced into the kitchen.

  ‘I’ve found it!’ he said, waving a red leather journal in front of Sandie in feverish excitement. ‘Proof that Hollow Earth is real!’

  Sandie’s fork clattered to her plate. ‘What?’

  ‘It’s all in this diary! “The key must not be found” – but this is the exciting part. Listen to this.’ Malcolm flipped to another page. ‘“After all that I have witnessed, after the horrors that have been revealed to me in Hollow Earth, I know this. The powers within are too terrible for man to control.”

  ‘All these months of searching, and finally this!’ He began to pace in front of the French doors. ‘With Matt and Em’s help, I—’ He stopped, then turned and smiled at Sandie, ‘We will control Hollow Earth and then everything will be ours.’

  ‘You’re mad, Malcolm,’ sputtered Sandie, dread creeping up her spine. ‘I don’t want everything.’

  A part of Malcolm had always been wild – so focused on his own obsessions that he ignored the feelings and opinions of others. Sandie had hoped marriage would calm him, but since the birth of the twins, this obsession with Hollow Earth had been eating away the Malcolm she’d fallen in love with.

  ‘I don’t care how you squander your powers or your life, but you can’t use the twins to further this madness!’ she went on, her pulse quickening. ‘They’re too young, practically babies. Their powers are not yours to control.’

  Malcolm gripped Sandie’s shoulders. She flinched. ‘I won’t be stopped by you or anyone else,’ he said coldly. ‘To master Hollow Earth is my destiny.’

  The next morning, Sandie was glad of the chance to breakfast quietly with Renard, while Malcolm played with the twins outside. But as she gazed out of the window at the great glass sculpture in the Abbey grounds, she noticed something strange.

  The sculpture was a massive mobile of mirrors suspended from the trees at the western point of the grounds, shimmering and spinning in the changeable winds that ran along the isl
and’s coastline. Matt and Em were sprawled under the installation on a blanket with their dad, painting. But what was reflected in the mirrors was not the cosy scene that it should have been. Instead, each shard was reflecting the swirling greens, browns and yellows of a mysterious cave mouth.

  When the wind caught the mobile, the mirrored glass spun, and Sandie saw the tell-tale glow of an animation. A stabbing awareness pierced her mind.

  She recognized the image.

  Lasers of light suddenly shot from the cave mouth, every fragment of mirror multiplying the effects, creating a criss-crossing grid of light encasing the trees, trapping Malcolm and the twins inside.

  ‘Renard!’ Sandie screamed. ‘Stop him!’

  Renard Calder appeared at his daughter-in-law’s side. He stared in shock at the scene unfolding on the lawn.

  ‘My God, what’s he doing?’

  ‘I think he’s using the mirrors to increase the twins’ powers,’ replied Sandie, her voice seared with panic. ‘Malcolm has Duncan Fox’s painting of the entrance to Hollow Earth, and the twins are animating it!’

  ‘Impossible!’ gasped Renard. ‘That painting is locked in the vault.’

  ‘When have locks – or even you – managed to stop your son?’

  She raced through the French doors and across the wide lawn towards the trees that had lit up as if candles burned from their branches, with Renard close behind her.

  ‘Stop!’ Sandie screamed at the grid of light surrounding her children. She jabbed her finger into one of the light beams, yelping and drawing back when a shock shot up her arm and exploded in a million red dots in her head. Desperately searching for a way through the grid to reach the twins, she called out: ‘Mattie, Emmie! Come over here to Mummy!’ Once. Twice. Each time louder and more insistently.

  The twins never budged, never looked up, never stopped painting. Malcolm was crouching next to them with his hands resting on their shoulders, his head close to their ears, whispering to them.

  Renard pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘He’s inspiriting them. I can feel him.’

  ‘How could he?’ Sandie raced up and down, frantically scanning the neon cage, searching for a way inside. ‘It’s against everything we stand for. Everything!’

  Matt and Em’s tiny fingers were flying across their shared sketchpad. The gilt-framed painting of the cave mouth was propped next to them, beside another Fox painting of a scaly, hairless demon. Malcolm’s knuckles were turning white, his fists clenched on the twins’ slumped shoulders, holding them in place.

  ‘What will his inspiriting do to them?’ cried Sandie.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Renard’s face was white.

  ‘Malcolm! Stop!’ Sandie was crouching at the tree line, trying to catch Matt’s or Em’s attention, to break Malcolm’s spell. ‘Please! They’re too young. You’ll hurt them!’

  The twins painted on, oblivious to the danger looming over them.

  Malcolm slowly lifted his head. With eyes blazing, he looked over at Sandie, his handsome face contorted, his skin pale. Lifting his hand from Em’s shoulder, he held a finger to his lips.

  For Sandie the next seconds unfolded in horrifying slow motion. Matt and Em put down their paintbrushes and took each other’s hands. They clambered to their feet, watching excitedly as the painting they’d been copying projected itself around them like a 3D movie, wrapping them in thick, swirling brush strokes of green, brown and yellow. At first the twins giggled at the lines of colour. But then the painting began to close in on them. Clinging to each other, their expressions quickly transformed from delight to apprehension.

  ‘Daddy! I don’t want to do this,’ wailed Em.

  ‘Make it stop,’ cried Matt.

  Fading into the churning colours, the twins disappeared completely. Sandie screamed and charged towards the grid. On the shards of mirrors shifting in the wind, Matt and Em’s reflections appeared at the mouth of the animated cave.

  ‘Go in! The key will be inside the cave. Bring it to me!’ Malcolm shouted, shooing them inside with his hands.

  ‘No!’ Sandie shrieked.

  She watched helplessly as the twins, tightly holding hands, vanished inside the cave. Malcolm’s eyes blazed in triumph. Sandie collapsed on the grass. Renard was frozen to the spot.

  After five agonizing minutes, the twins scrambled empty-handed from the cave. They were both crying.

  With a roar of frustration, Malcolm tore up the painting. The air seemed to open above the blanket and the twins tumbled on to the grass among the fading lines of light.

  Frantically gathering them up, Sandie wrapped her children in the blanket, cooing softly to them. Blood trickled from Matt’s nose. Em’s eyes were red-rimmed and unfocused. Neither of them spoke. They seemed to be in a trance.

  ‘They’ll be fine in the morning,’ said Malcolm, mussing Matt’s hair. ‘Disappointing, though. I was sure that painting was where he’d hidden the key. Maybe it’s in the other one.’

  Renard pulled Sandie and the twins into his arms to comfort them. Malcolm began to laugh.

  ‘You will eventually see things my way, Sandie,’ he said. ‘Our children will be capable of extraordinary things when they fully come into their powers. We will find Hollow Earth together!’

  Renard stared at the expression on his son’s face, and then at the still-blank faces of his grandchildren. ‘You will never inspirit or harm these children again as long as I live, Malcolm,’ he said.

  ‘You’re an old man, Dad,’ grinned Malcolm. ‘I may not have long to wait.’

  Renard dropped his hands to his side, sending a wave of energy towards his son and knocking Malcolm off his feet. Malcolm crashed to the ground, cutting his head, and let out a feral howl as Renard sliced into his thoughts. The older man’s eyes opened wide in anguish – and Malcolm pounced.

  Renard pivoted in time to catch his son’s arm, twisting him into a headlock and bringing him to his knees. Snarling, Malcolm sank his teeth into Renard’s forearm, tearing at his flesh. The pain broke Renard’s concentration, allowing Malcolm to pull away from his father’s grip.

  ‘These are my children,’ screamed Malcolm. He wiped at the blood flowing from the cut on his head. ‘I will decide their fate. Not you and not her!’

  ‘No you will not!’ said Renard, slamming into Malcolm’s chest, knocking him against a tree. Malcolm’s eyes slid shut at the impact.

  The twins in their exhaustion were asleep, huddled in their mother’s arms. Renard lunged for the sketchbook. Holding his bloody arm over a blank page, he let his blood pool on to it.

  ‘What are you doing?’ cried Sandie.

  ‘We must bind him. Right now,’ said Renard, pushing the unconscious Malcolm’s hair from his forehead and letting the blood from the gash mingle on the page with his own.

  Sandie laid the sleeping twins down and knelt in front of Renard, her hand on his. ‘We can’t ... the consequences if we’re discovered ... They don’t bear thinking about.’

  Renard lifted his eyes to Sandie’s. His shame and sadness for what he was about to do robbed Sandie of her breath.

  ‘We must ... we must ...’ Renard struggled for words. ‘When I tried to get into Malcolm’s head to calm him, I saw the most awful things. Demonic beings clawing up from the bowels of the earth, an army of rotting corpses lurching behind them. I saw beasts battling above the sea, their massive wings churning tidal waves beneath them ...’ He paused, handing the page to Sandie. ‘And I saw Matt and Em awash in their own blood. My son is a monster. He must be stopped. Do it before he wakes up!’

  Malcolm groaned, his eyes fluttered. Sandie stared at the other Fox painting Malcolm had left on the blanket. The monster Malcolm had become deserved to be bound in a painting of a horrible scaly demon. Seizing one of the twin’s paintbrushes, she cleaned it with shaking fingers, dipped it into the blood on the page and began to copy the skinless monster.

  Renard put his hand on her shoulder and closed his eyes. The wind picked up, the air smelled o
f seaweed and a hint of pine tar. The paintbrush felt hot. Sandie’s skin began to blister as she outlined the demon in Malcolm’s and Renard’s blood. Keeping the brush at the heart of the canvas, Sandie let Renard’s power surge through her animation.

  The trees rustled. The waves slapped the shore. A ghostly silhouette coiled up from the page. It hovered above Malcolm’s head, tendrils snaking over him, embracing him, coating him in darkness. Malcolm slowly began to fade, his being absorbed into the animation, binding him in its form.

  TWO

  The Monastery of Era Mina

  Auchinmurn Isle

  Middle Ages

  Solon sprinted down the corkscrew steps from the Abbot’s tower and out into the monastery’s courtyard. He hesitated for a moment. This place of sanctuary had been a place of death and destruction only days earlier. The cobbles that had run red with blood had been sluiced clean, but the smell of death still lingered like carrion. The occasional moans of the injured drifted from Brother Cornelius’s infirmary.

  Staying beneath the wall-walk, Solon crossed quickly to the entrance to the chapel and slid inside. He scanned the three empty rows of benches facing the unadorned half-moon altar and exhaled slowly, allowing himself a moment of respite from his nagging fears. He didn’t know why he was feeling so afraid, so out of sorts – but he was. Despite having vanquished Rurik the Red and his Viking brutes, Solon sensed some of the monks were watching him; that the Vikings had disturbed a balance among the Order. Most troubling of all, deep in his mind Solon believed that the island had been wounded that day, and somehow he was expected to heal it.

  On the altar stood three wooden coffins, holding the remains of the monks murdered during the Viking attack. Their bodies had been embalmed and wrapped in strips of sackcloth, the wrappings sealed with beeswax. Only their faces were visible, waxy and pale, their closed eyes already sunken like dark craters. An apron of candles burned at their feet. They would soon join their predecessors down in the monastery catacombs.