It was night but no one slept. Even the youngest members of the camp lay awake in their wagons, wide-eyed with fear. Gryff sat just back from the campfire, facing out towards the trees, his ears swivelling at the slightest noise. And around the fire, sitting on tree stumps, were the Elders, together with Moll, Alfie and Siddy.
Hard-Times Bob puffed on his pipe. ‘You did well, Moll – fighting back against the Dream Snatch like that.’
Moll pulled the rug tighter around her. ‘I don’t understand why the Dream Snatch opened up the last bits of my nightmare. Why do the Shadowmasks want me to know about the Soul Splinter?’
Cinderella Bull stoked the fire and her gold-penny shawl jangled. ‘They don’t. The Shadowmasks wanted you to give yourself up to Hemlock’s poison and their Dream Snatch. They thought, now they know your name, they’d be strong enough to destroy your mind, but you fought back before they could work their curse in full. And, in fighting back so hard, you uncovered the memory they wanted you to forget.’
Gryff crept towards the fire and burrowed beneath Moll’s rug, away from the eyes of the camp. Then he leant against Moll’s legs.
Alfie frowned. ‘But the hemlock inside the berries, how did they get it in there? You’ve got your people guarding the camp from the trees the whole time.’
Oak shook his head. ‘Hemlock didn’t need to touch those berries – or even come close to the camp. He must’ve worked his curse from a distance, and that’s when Moll saw him between the trees.’
Siddy shifted on his stool, cuddling his earthworm close. ‘And to think poor Porridge the Second could’ve eaten those berries.’
Patti threw him a scathing look.
Alfie turned to Cinderella Bull. ‘This Soul Splinter – the shard of black ice that one of the Shadowmasks dripped into Moll’s parents’ mouths. How can something like that kill people?’
Cinderella Bull was silent for several seconds, then she looked at Moll. ‘You know, don’t you, child?’
Moll looked down at her toes and nodded.
‘How do you know?’ Siddy asked.
Moll looked up. ‘Because I felt it – the horror and the darkness all seeping into my bones at once – and I heard their chant, the one worse than the Dream Snatch . . .’ She took a deep breath and beneath her rug Gryff wound his tail round her ankle. ‘The Soul Splinter is filled with the darkest curses.’
Cinderella Bull nodded. ‘There’ll be curses in there darker than the deepest night, more rotten than decaying fungus.’
Moll shrank further inside her rug. ‘The Shadowmasks tore away their shadows – their souls – for a reason.’ She paused. ‘They’ve locked them inside the Soul Splinter and that’s how they kill: they drip their cursed souls into the mouths of their victims and the darkness that grows in them is too much for any living soul.’
The fire crackled on into the inky darkness, but no one spoke.
Then Alfie rummaged in his pocket and drew out the tattered rag Mellantha had given them on which was written:
SHADOWMASKS
Limping, he pulled his stool nearer Moll’s. ‘The letters,’ he said quietly. ‘S for Skull . . . H for Hemlock . . .’
Moll’s eyes widened. ‘Just like Mellantha said: Think about the letters, the word. It’s all there. It’s a pattern, isn’t it?’
Cinderella Bull peered at the rag, then nodded grimly. ‘And you’ve got to see it through.’
Siddy pointed to the letters. ‘If Skull came with the Dream Snatch and Hemlock with the poison, maybe every Shadowmask has a different curse.’ He paused. ‘Who does the Soul Splinter belong to?’
Moll shuddered. ‘The Master – that’s what the others called him.’ She looked up at Oak. ‘But I saw something else. Something I know you saw too, when you found my parents. Something which none of us will know how to explain.’
Oak hung his head. Mooshie raised a hand to her mouth.
‘The Shadowmasks had shaved my parents’ heads.’
And to that not even Cinderella Bull had an answer.
As they made their way to their wagons, Cinderella Bull stopped in her tracks. She was clasping her obsidian fortune-telling ball and her eyes were closed.
‘Oak,’ she said gravely.
Oak hurried over and Moll followed with Gryff.
‘I can see them coming – as clear as if I’m looking at a picture.’ Her voice sounded distant, like an echo. ‘Skull and all of his gang, with the hounds at their feet, straining forward on their leashes. They know Moll broke their Dream Snatch. They’ll come from the Deepwood – and they’ll come tonight.’
Her voice stopped suddenly, like a tap being turned off, and her eyes opened. They flitted over Moll’s and Gryff’s faces and then rested upon Oak.
‘We haven’t got much time.’