LITMIR.BIZ

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his fingers for Duffy to come to heel.

      `But Edith will do naught for naught. She'll want a brace of rabbits as payment. And you'll need another two for the bridge toll. And on your way back you could bring us two. We be fair tired of fish. Now you had best get a move on if you want to be in Wartstoe Village by tomorrow.'

      They picked up their weapons and bags and followed him into the entrance hall where the other seven guardians were waiting to say goodbye. Or, more likely, make sure they left!

      With the morning sun shining through its ruined roof, the entrance hall wasn't as frightening as it had been the night before. When Lyla peered up through the hole in the ceiling, she saw the peeling remnants of the M'dgassy royal family portraits, painted on the walls of the second floor. And there was a portrait of three dark-haired, black-eyed princesses standing with their arms around each other.

      Malcolm opened the palace's doors.

      `Thank you for your hospitality,' said Lyla, averting her face so that none of the guardians would notice how closely she might resemble one of the princesses. Celeste certainly did, and Lyla was thrilled to have gazed, even for a moment, on the faces of her mother and aunts. Even if she hadn't known which was which.

      `Thank you for mending my foot, Miss Bethy Bee. It feels much better,' said Swift, bowing to the younger woman.

      `And for the stew and porridge, Mistress Emma,' said Chad, bowing to the old woman.

      Blushing red, the old woman handed Chad a cloth-wrapped parcel. `It be a piece of fish each. You'll be needing it as you won't reach Wartstoe Village this day.'

      `Nor tomorrow morning,' said Bethy Bee, handing Swift a handkerchief full of plums. Then, while wagging her finger at him to emphasise her words, she warned him: not to cross the toll bridge if they had no payment; not to travel through Snake Tree Woods at night; and to take care when climbing the cliff track to Wartstoe Village because it be used by fierce bandits and Huntsmen who would skin them alive if they caught them.

      `What are snake trees?' Lem asked Malcolm Leftfoot as they reached the bottom of the staircase. `And is that true what Miss Bethy Bee said about the bandits and the Huntsmen?'

      `It's all true, every word. The snake trees will crush and eat you, and the plateau be the home of the Huntsmen and bandits who will both steal the skin off your body and toss your corpse over a cliff. Only difference being, the Huntsmen will do it faster.'

      He then pointed to an overgrown path meandering through a dead rose garden. `Follow that to the moon dial. Turn east and walk through the dead rose gardens to the Royal Woods. Three to four hours walking along the Royal Wood's path will bring you to Abel Penny's bridge. Take care of him. He be a nasty piece of goods, bewitched by the High Enchanter.'

      They thanked him and as they set off across the lawn he stood, hands on hips, watching them go.

      Swift hurried up beside Lem. `Lem, do you think he was making it up about the snake trees and the bandits and Huntsmen?'

      `The snake trees, yes. The Huntsmen and bandits, maybe not.'

      It took them half an hour to walk to the moon dial and another to reach the Royal Woods. The track through was unused, overgrown and narrow. One step off it and the thorn bushes tore at their boots, capes, arms and legs, so they were forced to walk in single file. During the next four hours, as noon came and went, they didn't see a bird, person or animal which made it very difficult to capture anything to pay for their toll.

      So they were empty-handed when Lem ventured out of the trees onto a wide wagon track and there in front of him was the humped-stone toll bridge.

      Dozing in a chair in the middle of the bridge and blocking the way across, lolled an enormously fat man with large, pudgy feet resting on four pink cushions. Backing into the woods Lem told the others what he'd seen and they all discussed what they should do.

      With nothing for the toll they decided to cut through the woods, find the river and swim across it. They had just stepped off the path when they heard loud voices coming from the wagon track, so they peeked through the trees.

      Three farmers were pulling a sack-filled wagon towards the bridge. On seeing the sleeping toll master, the farmers stopped pulling and one of them crept towards the snoring man. He put just one foot onto the bridge...

      The toll master woke up in a flash.

      As did the pink cushions beneath his feet - revealing themselves to be four fat pigs.

      `Pay your toll! Or get off my bridge!'

      The farmer backed off quickly. `Aye, we will, Abel Penny! We will! One sack of potatoes for going and one for returning.'

      The toll master shook his head. `It be two sacks for going and two sacks for returning. Paid in advance because I don't trust you.'

      The farmer's face flushed angrily. `That be robbery, Abel Penny!'

      `Pay up or don't cross.'

      The farmer returned to the wagon to talk with the other farmers. Then with nods to each other the three stepped between the wagon's shafts and took a run at the bridge. `Out of our way you pig-faced thief or we'll run your thieving body down,' shouted the first farmer.

      `I don't think so,' hollered the toll master who, with each step the men took towards him, was growing taller and wider.

      `He's filling the bridge,' breathed Swift, his eyes almost popping out of his head.

      `Look at the pigs,' gasped Chad.

      The pigs had grown along with their master and were now as big as bullocks, with snouts the size of buckets and teeth as large as cobblestones. They pawed at the bridge's surface with trotters larger than horses hooves.

      `Bite them,' yelled the giant toll master. `Savage them! Hurt them!'

      The giant pigs galloped towards the farmers who scrambled to the top of their potato sacks. Unable to reach the men, the angry pigs buffeted and pushed at the wagon, trying to capsize it.

      `They're going to be hurt!' cried kind-hearted Celeste. `We should help them!'

      `Wait,' whispered Lem with his hand on her shoulder to restrain her.

      `Very well. We will pay four sacks,' shouted the terrified farmers. `Stop your beasts before they shove us into the river and you get naught.'

      With a click of his immense fingers the toll master summoned his pets to his side, and he and the pigs began to shrink until he was again just a fat-bellied, piggy-looking man.

      Four sacks later the wagon had crossed the bridge and Abel Penny was asleep again.

      `I wonder if pigs can swim,' whispered Lyla, holding a thorn-covered branch aside for the others.

      Celeste made a horrified face. `I hope not. I don't fancy being chased by a giant swimming pig.'

      `You could always dive to the bottom of the river and stay there,' said Swift.

      `And what about the rest of you?' argued Celeste.

      They pushed on through the thick undergrowth of the Royal Woods, their faces, arms and legs being cut and scratched by thorns with every step.

      Finally they reached a bend in the river that was out of sight of the bridge and the sleeping tollman.

      It was, as Swift felt he had to point out, a very wide and fast-moving river with nothing to hang onto to stop them from being swept away.

      The others agreed and, after much discussion, decided that the only way to cross was to creep back to the bridge along the riverbank and cross the river by swimming from one pylon to the next.

      `Without Abel Penny seeing us,' emphasised Celeste.

      `Food first,' Chad insisted.

      So they rested by the water, and ate Emma's fish and Bethy Bee's plums, before setting off.

      Lyla tied her rope to the others belts so that they would not be swept away then, holding the jewellery

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