Chapter Eleven - Escape
After 5 minutes of whispered arguing, Lennox managed to persuade Mannik to come inside her room.
‘All the way…’ she coaxed him, as he stood with one foot inside and his fingers still curled around the door frame. ‘Look, its worse standing there, halfway in, where anyone might see you if they walk past. Once you’re in, you’re in, no-one will know.’
The idea of being caught on the threshold spooked Mannik so much he hurried inside, then watched like a prisoner as Lennox closed the door.
‘Come on,’ she urged him again, throwing herself in one of the chairs.
Tentatively, he crossed over and settled in the armchair by Lennox’s tiny fireplace.
‘No one ever comes in here, but me,’ she repeated soothingly. ‘You won’t get caught.’
‘But if I did…’
‘You won’t.
She lit the fire and pushed her ancient armchair side by side with his, so they could share a hairy blanket pulled from the bed. All that was visible of Mannik was his stalk like neck, his floating cloud of wild, tangled hair, two bony hands and two sets of toes, like fans, spreading out.
‘Tell me everything,’ she instructed Mannik.
‘Well I was just looking around, deciding where to go next, and I had that funny feeling, you know…’
He looked expectantly at Lennox,
‘Go on,’ she urged.
‘Well, I just felt someone was watching me. I thought it must be you. So I turned round, looking, looking for you, and then I saw him.’
Mannik swallowed, and stared at the flames. Lennox did her best to wait patiently.
‘It was horrible. He was crouched low, by a broken wall. Only his face was visible. His hair was almost the same colour as those old stones, so I almost missed him. It was only because of his eyes.’
‘So he wasn’t moving. He was just watching us, was he?’ Lennox asked.
‘Yes, but he was hiding. Hiding and watching us.’
‘And how can you be sure it was the Baron McTarn. He was behind a wall. Hiding. You just said you didn’t see him properly.’
‘Because of his eyes! They were the same. They had no colour. They were the eyes of a dead man.’
‘You can’t be sure.’ Lennox decided.
‘I can!’ Mannik hissed, not wanting to raise his voice.
‘Mannik. The Baron McTarn lived over 500 years ago. You saw part of a man, hiding, who reminded you of the Baron. You did not see the Baron.’
Mannik’s mouth warped. He stared ahead at the fire.
‘But we do know that those ruins, must have been the ruins of Mathilda’s village,’ Lennox continued, as if there had been no disagreement.
‘How do we know that?’ Mannik objected.
‘Well it wasn’t a castle, or a school. The buildings were too spread out, and too simple. It had to have been a village.’
‘It might have been.’
‘And there were burn marks.’
Lennox studied Mannik’s passive face.
‘You must have seen the marks.’
He shrugged.
‘It had to have been the village,’ Lennox continued. ‘But just now, when we were leaving the courtyard, I heard Kellas call it the other Calgacos. That means this school is named after that burnt out, remote, village where Mathilda lived. But why? There must have been a reason. A good reason. Maybe there was something we missed.’
Mannik buried deeper under the blanket. He had gone looking for an escape out of Calgacos. What he had found was more than he had bargained for. He had been running for his life.
‘I’m not going back’. His head jerked side to side. 'I'm writing home tonight,' he said.
Lennox frowned.
'And what will you say?'
'Exactly what happened.'
'But we don't know what happened,' she pointed out. ‘We don’t know who it was, or what they wanted.’
‘We got chased by the Baron McTarn. We were in danger.’
Lennox rolled her eyes.
‘Your parents are going to want to know more than that. They’re going to want to ask questions, lots of them. They’ll talk to Torkil, without a doubt.’
'And?'
Lennox had never seen Mannik so stubborn.
'And Torkil's not going to send you home just because you think you saw a ghost. And your parents won't know what to think or do.’
There was a long pause.
‘I just want to go home.' Mannik was white. His pupils trembled like jelly. 'And my parents will believe me. They know I'd never lie.'
'Even if you told them you were chased by ghost?'
'Yes,' he whispered.
Lennox pressed her lips tight. Mannik looked as if he might cry, but he also looked as if he would never change his mind. There was nothing else she could say.