Blackbriar Read Online Free Page B

and a bit rusty, and the canvas tended to sag, there was a feeling of solidness and security to it. The license plate said LIL, and so Philippa decided that Lil would be her name.
    They quickly loaded everything into the back and lashed the canvas down tightly. Philippa sat in the driver’s seat, and Danny sat next to her, clutching Islington, who writhed uncomfortably.
    “Sorry I can’t come with you,” said Mr. Creech through the window, “but you can see how busy I am here at the garage. I don’t think you’ll have much trouble finding it. Just stay on this road, take the right fork, go about ten miles till you come to the Black Swan Inn. Right across the road you’ll see a little dirt lane going up the hill. When it ends, go through the gate you’ll see, across the field, through the next gate, and then into the forest. There’s a track through the trees you can follow. In a few miles you’ll be there.”
    At first they stalled frequently, until Philippa got used to the gears. The car wheezed, and the wind tore violently at the canvas, which billowed around them, penetrating into all the chinks so that it was no warmer than being outside. For the first few miles the road they were on seemed to be below the fields around it. On either side there was a high mound, covered with bushes, which they could not see over. Suddenly Philippa pulled over to the side of the road, up to a small gate.
    “This isn’t the Black Swan,” Danny said.
    “No, but I think it’s the farmhouse where Mrs. Creech told me she gets those divine eggs we had for breakfast.” They left Islington in the car and went through the gate, up a few stone steps, and found themselves in a small garden, full of green plants covered by cheesecloth. The plump old woman who answered the door babbled happily and sold them two dozen eggs and some milk. Danny walked around to the back and saw a beautiful little greenhouse. Behind the house was a large barn, from which came the brittle, demented cackling of hundreds of chickens cooped up together.
    Soon Philippa shouted for him and they returned to the car. Around a bend in the road a small forest sprang up. The trees stood above them, their exposed roots twisting and clutching down the mound of earth, almost to the road. Just as suddenly, the forest disappeared, the mound sank away, and they were driving down the center of a flat, almost tree-less valley, exposed to the wind and the hills towering around them. One hill loomed closer than the rest, its top covered with strange twisted bushes that seemed almost black. “Blackbriar,” Philippa said softly.
    The Black Swan was a large white house at one end of a small green. Across from it a dirt road wound steeply up the hillside. Philippa turned sharply, and Lil began to pull herself up the slope. Danny looked back and saw the road, the inn, and the cows grazing on the green grow smaller and smaller. Just before the view was hidden by trees he caught a glimpse of a gaunt, gray mansion halfway up the hill.
    The road became steeper and less distinct. When it reached the top it turned into a small grove of trees, and ended at a rusty gate. Beyond the gate was a rolling field, scattered with tiny round bumps. Danny hopped out and held the gate open, closing it after the car had gone through. When he climbed back in, his city shoes were covered with dripping mud.
    The canvas flapped even more as they started across the field. The car swerved and tilted each time they went over a bump. Islington groaned uncomfortably and dug into Danny’s legs with his claws. In the distance was another gate, which Philippa headed for as directly as she could. All around them, beyond the field, they could see only other hilltops. All at once Danny began to realize how isolated they were.
    Beyond the second gate was the forest. There was something of a track here, but it was more like a row of deep ruts winding among the trees. The car constantly seemed about to tip over, as