Page 43 of The Neverfear

‘You need have no worry,’ said Jacques. ‘It cannot hear you if it cannot see you.’

‘You know about the tiger?’

‘I do. Now check every room, every cupboard, for mirrors.’

‘There are nones,’ said Ratwin, pacing into the bedroom behind them. Her green face was tight with fear. ‘You is safes now. I knows the boats well.’

‘I knew it! I knew I saw something in the mirrors!’ said Anya. ‘It was watching us!’

‘I think we should double-check the boat,’ said Christopher.

‘Do so. I shall makes teadrinks, in the galley. And we will takes it on the decks, and Jacques will tell us alls he knows.’

Anya checked inside every possible surface for hidden mirrors while Christopher swept up the pieces of broken glass, wrapped them in a sack and threw them overboard.

By the time they sat on the deck half an hour later the wild drumbeat of Christopher’s heart had slowed. But the image of the creature – its intense malevolence, its look of hunger – had not faded.

‘Jacques, you know what that thing was,’ said Christopher. ‘Tell us.’

‘All those old enough to remember the antique times know the Tiger in the Mirror. I do not know where it came from, nor how many there are. Do they have cubs? Or is it just the one ancient beast? But I know it is a spy to exceed all spies, for it can move between any mirror in the world. It can travel outside Glimouria without using the waybetweens.’

‘So it could go to London?’ Christopher thought of his father, alone in the flat at home.

‘It could, if it wished. And what it can see, it can also hear. But for it to spy, the name of the person it seeks must be spoken before the mirror.’

‘I think you said Christopher’s name, Jacques, and yours,’ said Anya. ‘When you were talking about your biography.’

Jacques flushed. ‘I believe the Astorians sent it to spy on you. I believe it is how they have known where you are at any time: the Tiger has been listening.’

‘But why would it show itself now?’

‘Perhaps a warning. Perhaps to terrify you into speed.’

‘Perhapses,’ said Ratwin, ‘to stops you doings whatever you was doing when it appeared.’

‘Eating chilli?’ said Jacques. ‘Let them dare try it!’

‘And you’re sure it can’t come through?’ said Christopher.

‘It cannot. It is like the vampire; it must be invited. Then it can kill with a single swipe of its claws, and take its meal back into the mirror.’

Ratwin got to her feet and strode towards the tiller. ‘If them bandits who have Irian haves in their hands such a horrifical creatures,’ she said, ‘we must speeds-up and speeds-on.’

The Need For Powdered Wind

But speed was not easy. A day later Ratwin perched at the very top of the mast, chittering her teeth. ‘It’s no hopeses!’ she said. ‘A catastrophical disasters! We is becalmed.’

The day had dawned bright and still, with not a breath of wind. Though Christopher pulled close on the mainsheet and Anya had unreefed the sails, Ratwin – by far the most experienced sailor among them – couldn’t coax the boat into movement.

‘Damn,’ said Christopher. The ship bobbed up and down on the waves. Ratwin – who was nothing if not a linguist – jerked her head twice down to the right.

‘What are we going to do?’ said Christopher. He thought of Irian, waiting for them, and felt the panic rise in him. ‘Could we pull the boat, somehow? Can we summon help?’

But Anya’s eyes were on the horizon. Suddenly she ran to the bow of the boat. ‘Look! Out ahead!’

She pointed. There was a blur – a boat! – coming towards them.

‘Bandits?’ said Jacques. He quivered.