Fox reached out a hand to grab the bottle from Doogie, but the apothecary held it back from her and gave it to Fibber instead. ‘Thank you, boy, for awakening something inside me that I had thought was long dead.’
Fox started. Fibber was even being rewarded with life-saving potions because of his niceness now. She straightened her tie and tried to make herself look as likeable as possible. But the apothecary didn’t thank her or hand over an extra bottle of the life-saving cure.
Instead, he glanced down at the map in her hands, then fixed his wise old eyes upon her. ‘A flickertug map senses the journey the heart needs to make to reach a destination, not the feet. It will eventually lead you to the Forever Fern, of that I have no doubt, but remember: the things you search for are often much closer than you think.’
Fox nodded stiffly. She had no idea what the Unmapper was talking about, but there was something in the way he spoke, and in the way that he looked at her, that made the wall around her heart quiver. The apothecary might have entrusted her brother with the cure, but he was telling Fox that she would be the one to find the Forever Fern. And that confidence in her – that blind faith – reached out into the most hidden and precious parts of Fox.
She smiled shyly, a real smile this time, and when she looked up at Fibber she saw that he was smiling, too, as if – just possibly – the years of loathing that had passed between them didn’t matter quite as much as they’d thought. Fox blushed and looked away. It was a rare thing to find herself exchanging a real smile with a family member and she wasn’t altogether sure what it meant.
Heckle cooed from her perch on the back of an empty chair. ‘Fox is feeling a little less cross than she was before, Fibber is feeling a little less scared, Doogie Herbalsneeze is feeling a little less sad and Heckle is feeling a little more confident about finding Iggy. Oh, Heckle does so love it when a quest lifts people’s spirits like this.’ She paused. ‘Perhaps a spot of food would cement the positive atmosphere?’
The apothecary smiled, then reached inside a store cupboard and rustled up two vegetable wraps that the twins – and Heckle – ate quickly. When she’d finished, Fox looked up at the front door and noticed that it was open. Just a crack. And yet she had distinctly remembered Doogie Herbalsneeze closing it after Fibber walked in. Fox watched the door with narrowed eyes. Perhaps it had been pushed open by the breeze?
But when a fist wrapped itself round the edge of the door – a fist fringed with black, jagged claws – Fox knew that there was no breeze outside the Constant Whinge.
Everyone saw the monkey’s claw at the same time, but it was Doogie Herbalsneeze who spoke first, his voice an urgent whisper as he spun round and pointed at a cabinet in the corner of the shack. ‘Quick! It’s a secret door out of here! Leave – now – and don’t turn back!’
The front door continued to creak open.
‘But you?’ Fibber whispered, before turning to follow Fox to the cabinet.
The apothecary reached for several potions and emptied them into a bowl on the table. They began to bubble and hiss. ‘It’s as you said, my boy: all the trying was leading to something else.’
What happened next happened fast. At the precise moment the door opened fully to reveal the dark silhouette of a monkey, two more monkeys appeared at the window, carefully stepping over the broken glass, and the mixture in the apothecary’s bowl exploded. Thick blue steam immediately filled the shack so that it was impossible to see who was where or what was what. But Fox, Fibber and Heckle blundered on, scrabbling for the handle of the corner cabinet and dragging themselves inside while the shack behind them erupted with noise: chairs toppled, glass smashed, monkeys screeched – a sound so shrill and terrible it was as if Hell itself had opened up.
The cabinet was roomier than expected inside and Fox crawled further into it, pausing just once when she heard the apothecary cry out in pain.
‘Keep going!’ Fibber panted. ‘I don’t want to leave him either, but everything will have been for nothing if we’re captured now!’
Fox hurried on. What was wrong with her? Worrying about a man she’d only just met! She crawled towards the back of the cabinet, then pushed it open and sunlight flooded in. They found themselves on a jetty leading away from the shack over the river. And tearing away from the far bank was a herd of swiftwings who had been drinking, just moments before, at the water’s edge. Fox whirled round to see blue smoke pouring out of the shack – from the chimney, the window and the door – then there was an explosion of purple, followed by clouds of yellow and red. It looked like Doogie Herbalsneeze was throwing everything he had at the Midnights and, for now, it seemed to be working.
‘We need to get out of here!’ Fibber cried.
Fox could feel the map’s magic stirring in her pocket, where she hastily put the flickertug before hurrying to the secret exit. She brought it out into the open again and looked down to find a new word sparkling in silver on the parchment:
Shadowfall
The map seemed to be tugging upwards, not enough to lift Fox off her feet, but very much insisting that that was the way it wanted her to go.
‘I – I don’t understand,’ Fox stammered. ‘Shadowfall sounds like a place, but why is the map pulling us up? We can’t fly!’
There was a thunder of footsteps behind them
