The Deptford Mice 2: The Crystal Prison Read Online Free PDF Page A

was saying. She considered all that she had heard. Evidently there was something in Thomas’ past which he had not spoken about.
    A loud sharp knock brought her to quickly. The escort peered around the banner.
    ‘Bring in the fieldmouse,’ called the Starwife sternly. ‘I’ll teach him to tag along when he’s not invited.’
    Twit looked at Audrey in dismay. ‘She ain’t magic is she?’ he asked. ‘I don’t want her to turn me into no frog or stuff like that.’
    ‘You stand up to her,’ Audrey told him. ‘Don’t let her walk all over you.’
    ‘Master William Stutter!’ announced the escort.
    ‘Scuttle!’ corrected Twit angrily as he pushed past. Audrey tried to glimpse what was beyond the banner but the escort pulled it across and tutted loudly.
    ‘The very idea!’ he said tersely.
    ‘So, country mouse,’ greeted the Starwife coldly. ‘You have come to visit me have you?’
    ‘If it pleases you, your Ladyship,’ Twit’s small voice piped up.
    ‘It pleases me not at all,’ she snapped back. ‘Who are you to presume a welcome in my chamber? A lowly fieldmouse before the Starwife!’
    ‘Now look ’ere missus,’ Twit protested.
    Audrey was very angry. How dare that old battleaxe pick on little Twit like that? After all he had been through lately he deserved more than to be shouted at by that rude creature. She stood tight-lipped, her temper flaring.
    ‘Please, ma’am,’ came Thomas’ voice, ‘it’s my fault. I brought the lad – he needed the break. Times are bad in the Skirtings.’
    ‘Silence Thomas,’ ordered the Starwife. ‘I know of the Chitters and their son. True the lad needed a rest from those dark rooms; but what of you midshipmouse?’
    ‘Ma’am?’
    ‘I sense a strong bond has grown between you and young Scuttle. I find myself wondering why – a lone wanderer such as you taking friends onboard at your time of life. Who do you see in him, Thomas?’
    ‘Ma’am please . . .’
    ‘I see you walk a dangerous rope midshipmouse. Reality and memory ought never to entwine so closely! Beware your dreams and forget what has passed.’
    ‘I try, ma’am.’
    ‘Enough! Piers – fetch the girl.’ The loud knocking began again.
    Audrey prepared herself and the escort pulled back the banner. ‘Follow me please,’ he said stiffly. Audrey smoothed her lace collar and stepped into the Starwife’s chamber.
    After the cramped tunnel it was like walking out into the open for it was so spacious. Suspended from the ceiling above were hundreds of small shiny objects, coloured foils, metal lids, links from silver chains and polished pieces of glass. All were hung in a certain order and for a moment Audrey thought their pattern familiar but could not place it – until she realised that, like the banner, they represented all the constellations of the heavens.
    Below this dangling chart sat the Starwife.
    ‘Miss Audrey Brown!’ the escort pronounced.
    ‘Come here girl. Where I can see you.’
    Audrey moved towards the Starwife. She was an ancient squirrel perched on a high oaken throne carved with images of twisting leaves and acorns. Audrey had never seen anyone like her before. Age seemed to smother the Starwife. It was a miracle that she could move at all. Her fur was silver and patchy, and her muscles were wasted, falling in useless rolls beneath fragile dry bones. The Starwife’s eyes were a dull grey and over one of them was a thin white film like spilt milk.
    In her gnarled, crippled paws she held a stick and it was this that Audrey had heard knocking on the wooden floor. The Starwife had sat there with that stick for so many years that it had worn a definite trough in the floor.
    Around her neck hung a silver acorn, the symbol of her knowledge and wisdom.
    Behind the throned figure Audrey could see a deep darkness which the lamps were unable to illuminate, except for now and again when a silver flash shone out brilliantly. It was curious, but before she had a chance to look