But the monkeys didn’t hear or see the intruders approach because Heckle had stayed true to her word. The parrot had flown, unseen, across the river a short while before the others and then, hidden in the undergrowth around the avenue, she had crept behind the trees until she was beyond the Midnights. Then she had squawked loudly. And, at the exact moment the monkeys craned their necks towards the disturbance, Fox and Deepglint, together with the sloth, had made their way over the bridge.
Heckle skulked back through the cover of the undergrowth to join the others who were crouching in the reeds before the avenue of trees. The ticking sound was louder now they’d crossed the river and as Fox watched the Midnights, their orange eyes gleaming in the trees, she hoped that her hunch about them was right. Because, if it wasn’t, this was the beginning of the end.
The group watched and waited, just as they’d said they would, and then, as dusk gave way to night and a full moon rose above the trees, Heckle hopped onto Fox’s shoulder and Fox drew the doubleskin mirror from her pocket. She held it up to the china-white avenue of trees and the undergrowth around them. Then, under the moonlight, she looked at her reflection and gasped. Her skin was the same shadowy green as the reeds around them. She, and indeed the sloth around her neck and Heckle on her shoulder, were completely camouflaged by their surroundings.
Now it was Deepglint’s time to act. He dipped his head at Fox, as if to wish her luck, then he stood up, stalked into the avenue of trees – and roared.
The Midnights, caught off guard, shrieked in surprise. Then they began jumping up and down on the branches, hissing and squealing with excitement. But they didn’t leap down to attack the Lofty Husk because, beyond the bone walls, the panther’s roar had summoned another.
Moments later, the gate to Shadowfall creaked open and the Midnights yelped with pleasure as a giant ape swaggered on two legs between the trees. Fox baulked as she took in the long, swinging arms that ended in clawed fists, and the glinting eyes – fixed on the Lofty Husk – that sat above a mouth filled with daggered teeth. Hanging round the ape’s neck, on a piece of string, was the object Deepglint had spoken of earlier, the object Fox’s whole plan hinged on tonight: a key.
Heckle shrank into Fox’s hair at the sight of the ape and the sloth on her back stiffened. Before them was a being capable of stealing a Lofty Husk’s magic.
The panther roared again as the ape drew up in front of him. And Fox knew that if she didn’t act now she never would. So, still camouflaged and therefore unseen by the Midnights and Screech and even by Deepglint, Fox shot out of the undergrowth and raced between the trees. She ran past Deepglint, her skin, hair and clothes the white of the trees one second and the colour of night the next. The Lofty Husk only knew Fox had passed him and that their plan was on track so he should stand his ground because the sloth had reached out a paw in the nick of time and brushed it against the panther’s fur. Fox took a wider berth round Screech before climbing onto the lowest branch of the tree behind the ape.
‘You come again, cat!’ Screech threw back his head and laughed. ‘Did you not learn from last time that your magic is nothing in the face of Morg’s? That you—’
He stopped suddenly and wheeled round. Fox froze. The ape must have heard Heckle use her beak to snap off a boned twig a few branches above her. Was their plan foiled then? Had they wasted the magic of the doubleskin mirror? But Screech looked right through Heckle, Fox and the sloth as he scanned the branches.
As soon as the ape turned back to Deepglint, the plan was back in action and Heckle passed the twig to the sloth on the branch below, who then slipped down several branches at once and passed it to Fox. Then, as quickly and as silently as she could, which was difficult because of the increasingly cumbersome satchel on her back, Fox slithered to the end of the branch. Holding her breath, she stretched out her hand with the twig clasped in it.
The ape towered above Deepglint, his clawed fists raised, and the Midnights in the trees barked with delight.
Fox reached out the twig towards Screech, trying to steady her shaking hand. She focused intently, blocking out the ticking noise droning from the trees and the hollering of the giant ape. All her attention was on moving the twig towards the string around Screech’s neck. Finally, she managed to scoop the twig under the string. Then she yanked hard.
The string and the key flew up into the air and Fox flung her arm out to catch them. For one fearful moment, it looked like the key would slip through her fingers, but then she felt it firm in her hand. Her fist curled round the metal and the ticking noise that had filled the trees suddenly stopped.
The monkeys – every single one – dropped from the branches they had been clinging to. As they fell, they began to twist and shrink until all that was left at the foot of the trees were dozens and dozens of mangled black clocks. Even Screech, a tower of brute strength and dark magic, now shuddered on all fours as his body began to dissolve into a pile of black grit.
Fox could hardly believe her eyes. Her hunch had been right: Morg’s Midnights weren’t ordinary monkeys. They were monkeys! Not animals made from flesh and bone, but clockwork creatures controlled by the cursed
