“Aye, I ken,” said Rob. “Run, lads!”
“They’re moving fast, Rob!”
“I ken that, too!”
Snow stung Tiffany’s face. Trees blurred with the speed. The forest sped past. But the shadows were spreading across the path ahead, and every time the party ran through them, they seemed to have a certain solidity, like fog.
Now the shadows behind were night black in the middle.
But the pictsies has passed the last tree, and the snowfields stretched ahead.
They stopped, so quickly that Tiffany almost toppled into the snow.
“What’s happened?”
“Where’s all oour old footprints gone?” said Daft Wullie. “They wuz there a moment ago! Which way noo?”
The trampled track, which had led them on like a line, had vanished.
Rob Anybody spun around and looked back at the forest. Darkness curled above it like smoke, spreading along the horizon.
“She’s sendin’ nightmares after us,” he growled. “This is gonna be a toughie, lads.”
Tiffany saw shapes in the spreading night. She hugged Wentworth tightly.
“Nightmares,” repeated Rob Anybody, turning to her. “Ye wouldna want to know about them. We’ll hold ’em off. Ye must mak’ a run for it. Get awa’ wi’ ye, noo!”
“I’ve got nowhere to run to!” said Tiffany.
She heard a high-pitched noise, a sort of chittering, insect noise, coming from the forest. The pictsies had drawn together. Usually they grinned like anything if they thought a fight was coming up, but this time they looked deadly serious.
“Ach, she’s a bad loser, the Quin,” said Rob.
Tiffany turned to look at the horizon behind her. The boiling blackness was there, too, a ring that was closing in from all sides.
Doors everywhere, she thought. The old kelda said there’s doors everywhere. I must find a door. But there’s just snow and a few trees….
The pictsies drew their swords.
“What, er, kind of nightmares are coming?” said Tiffany.
“Ach, long-leggity things with muckle legs and huge teeth, and flappy wings and a hundred eyes, that kinda stuff,” said Daft Wullie.
“Aye, and wuss than that,” said Rob Anybody, staring at the speeding dark.
“What’s worse than that?” said Tiffany.
“Normal stuff gone wrong,” said Rob.
Tiffany looked blank for a moment, and then shuddered. Oh yes, she knew about those nightmares. They didn’t happen often, but they were horrible when they did. She’d woken up once shaking at the thought of Granny Aching’s boots, which had been chasing her, and another time it was a box of sugar. Anything could be a nightmare.
She could put up with monsters. But she didn’t want to face mad boots.
“Er…I have an idea,” she said.
“So do I,” said Rob Anybody. “Dinna be here—that’s my idea!”
“There’s a clump of trees over there,” said Tiffany.