Midnight Over Sanctaphrax by Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell Read Free Book Online

splash beside the highest stack of rocks. And there it had remained. Dazzling, yet motionless.
    Hopping forwards inquisitively, the white ravens had formed a circle around the shiny object. Was it dangerous? Was it edible? They had screeched and flapped and stabbed at it nervously before Kraan had stopped them with an angry shriek.
    ‘Waaaark!’

    Any unusual intrusions into the Stone Gardens had to be reported to the Professor of Darkness without delay. And, as leader of the flock of white ravens, it had been Kraan's duty to do so.
    ‘Waaaaark!’ it had screeched a second time, as it flapped away.
    The white ravens were to guard the shining object until his return.
    *
    ‘Faster, you addle-brain!’ shouted the Professor of Darkness. ‘Good grief, you must be the slowest barrow-driver in all of Undertown!’ He leaned back and struck the lugtroll on the shoulder with his wooden staff. ‘Faster,’ he bellowed. ‘Faster!’
    Instead of speeding up, the lugtroll stopped completely and lowered the wooden shafts to the ground. The professor slumped backwards, braced himself against the side rail and turned on the lugtroll furiously.
    ‘What is the meaning of this?’ he bellowed.
    ‘This is as far as I go,’ came the reply.
    The professor looked round and was surprised to see that they were at the edge of the Stone Gardens. ‘And not before time,’ he said gruffly. ‘But I'm not done with you yet. I need you to take me into the Gardens themselves.’
    The lugtroll shook his head.
    ‘Did you hear me?’ the professor demanded.
    Scuffing his bare feet in the dust, the lugtroll looked away. ‘I'm not going another step,’ he said firmly. ‘I've already brought you further than I like coming.’ He shuddered. ‘I hate this place. Gives me the creeps, it does.’
    ‘I see,’ said the professor curtly. He climbed down from the barrow and straightened his robes. ‘You will wait for me here,’ he said.
    ‘Oh, but…’ the lugtroll whined.
    ‘It will be the worse for you if you do not,’ the professor warned him. ‘If you are not here when I return, I shall see to it that you never push another barrow so long as you live.’
    The lugtroll looked over his shoulders anxiously. ‘All right,’ he said at last. ‘But … try not to be too long.’
    The professor surveyed the grim, rocky landscape and shivered with foreboding. ‘Believe me,’ he muttered. ‘I shall be as quick as I possibly can.’
    Wrapping his gown tightly around him and raising his hood, the professor set off. His feet stumbled and squelched; his wooden staff tapped at his side. He felt weary and increasingly ill at ease. The Stone Gardens, groaning and creaking all round him, suddenly seemed uncomfortably immense - and the prospects of finding the fallen shooting star pitifully small.
    Where should he try first? What should he look out for?
    Looking round, as the low moon brightened and dimmed with the passing clouds, the professor caught a flash of flapping wings far ahead. His heart missed a beat. The savage birds that roosted in the Stone Gardens were both unpredictable and dangerous and, hearing their raucous cawing fill the air, he was about to head off in the opposite direction when a horrible thought struck him.
    ‘Since it was Kraan who told me about the shooting star,’ he said to himself, ‘there is every likelihood that it is the shooting star they are all flapping around now. Ah me,’ he sighed. ‘Be brave now. Show no fear, or they will be upon you at once.’
    As the moon sank down beneath the horizon, the temperature fell sharply. Mist, coiling up from theground, swirled around the professor's shuffling feet and tapping staff.
    ‘Sky protect me,’ he murmured in a quavering voice as the screeching of the white ravens grew louder.
    Guided only by the incessant noise of the raucous birds, he stumbled on over the uneven ground, half-blinded by the thick mist.
    All at once, a tall stack of rocks loomed out of the misty