Clare Aubrey and the Terrible Spiders

1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-913102-13-5
Verlag: Firefly Press Ltd
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 3, 202 Seiten

Reihe: Aubrey

When the animals start rebelling, and Aubrey is stung by a very polite wasp, he realises there is something weird going on in the valley below Rushing Wood. And as he's the only boy he knows of who can talk with animals, he is determined to find out what. With help from his friends Ariadne the house spider, Silvio the silverfish and Lupo the Huskey pup, the young warrior sets out to find the terrible Terrible Spiders and their genius creator Big B and, just maybe, save the world.

Horatio Clare's first book, Running for the Hills, an acclaimed account of a Welsh childhood, won a Somerset Maugham Award, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and saw Horatio shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. His subsequent books include Truant, A Single Swallow (shortlisted for the Dolman Travel Book of the Year), The Prince's Pen, Down to the Sea in Ships (winner of the Dolman Travel Book of the Year), Something of his Art and The Light in the Dark. HIs first book for children, Aubrey and the Terrile Yoot won the Branford Boase Award 2016 and the sequel Aubrey and the Terrible Ladybirds was nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2018. His essays and reviews appear regularly in the national press and on BBC radio.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Clare, Horatio

Weitere Mitwirkende

Matthews, Jane

Leseproben

Chapter 4

Life and Wasps (or Be Careful What You Wish For)

Like everyone else, Aubrey and his family followed the news of the Great Animal Rebellion with amazement. Lupo the husky pup might have joined the rebellion, too, but it was hard to tell. He never did what you told him to anyway. He wagged his tail, looked at you with love and carried on being a lawless bandit bin dingo. Jim and Suzanne laughed at him but they muttered to each other and, knowing how close Aubrey was to animals, kept a worried eye on their son.

‘You won’t disappear on one of your adventures, will you?’ they begged him.

Aubrey said he was not looking for any adventures. That was true. He did not say he was really hoping an adventure would find him. When it did (adventures always know where to look) it found him at school.

Class Two was doing maths. Miss Hannah was explaining long multiplication. Aubrey was concentrating. The scent of summer came in through the open windows.

Out of the corner of his eye Aubrey was aware of an insect flying towards him. Next, he felt the lightest brush on his arm. He heard a small voice say, ‘Sorry. Orders.’

He looked down. A wasp had landed on him. Before he could swipe it off or twitch his arm away, the wasp curled its bottom and stung him.

‘OW!’ he shouted, jumping up.

‘What is it, Aubrey?’ cried Miss Hannah.

‘OW!’ he shouted again. ‘Wasp sting! OWWW!’

It really hurt. His eyes filled with tears. Other children jumped up looking panicked, although the wasp had already flown out of the window.

One child was furious. It was Jolyon, a big boy who always sat at the back.

‘Aubrey loves animals, but they don’t love him!’ Jolyon shouted. He was furious on behalf of his friend. The other children understood why: everyone knew Aubrey loved animals – how dare one of them hurt him?

‘I hate wasps!’ cried Gareth.

‘I hate bees!’ shouted Ella. ‘And spiders are disgusting!’

‘Insects are disgusting,’ cried Little Steven.

Big Steven agreed. ‘Insects and fish,’ he said. ‘Yuk.’

Miss Hannah took control.

‘Jolyon, don’t be cross. Let us be cool, please. Quiet down, everyone. Aubrey, go and ask Mrs Grayson for vinegar. Put some on the sting. Go!’

Aubrey went. Mrs Grayson was in charge of school dinners. She was very kind and efficient. In no time the acid in the vinegar neutralised the wasp venom and it soon stopped hurting much.

After the sting, despite the perfect summer afternoon, Aubrey did not feel like playing outside so he went to the library and read a book called Great Battles in History. He was not alone among the shelves of books. The other child there was Edie Morris. Edie was so good at maths that the teachers had to set her special work to stop her becoming bored. Aubrey glanced at the book she was working on. It was full of algebra and strange symbols, like an alien language.

‘What are you reading, Edie?’

Edie looked at him. Aubrey had the sense of being closely studied by enormous bright eyes.

‘It looks like Japanese Hungarian.’

Edie laughed.

‘It’s called Inorganic Phosphors: Properties of Lasers,’ she said. ‘It’s really interesting.’

‘Wow,’ said Aubrey. ‘How come you are so good at maths and science? And English?’

‘I’m just interested in them, like you’re interested in stories and battles and animals. Your stories are the best. And you’re really good at history.’

‘Have you seen this Great Animal Rebellion thing?’

Edie’s eyes flashed behind her glasses.

‘Yes, I have. It’s brilliant. I don’t eat animals anyway. I prefer them to people. People have messed up the world and they want children and animals to make the best of it. I’m so glad the animals are rebelling.’

‘I think me and Mum started it by mistake when we were trying to herd a chicken called Barbara.’

Edie laughed. ‘That sounds like you! Changing the world…’

‘If only we could!’ said Aubrey.’

‘We can! Children can change the world,’ Edie said, fiercely. And then she said, ‘I’m really sorry about your sting.’

‘Just a sting,’ said Aubrey, but he kept thinking about it, and the wasps chasing him yesterday. Why had they suddenly got it in for him? He never hurt them. Aubrey remembered the small voice. He was certain the wasp had apologised before it stung him. ‘Orders,’ it had said. But who could have ordered it to sting him – and why?

Lying in bed later, listening to Jim’s murmurs as he read to Suzanne, and watching the summer evening turning into a deep sea of sky through his window, Aubrey’s thoughts were disturbed by a small and beautiful voice like the chiming of bells.

‘Perfect evening, isn’t it?’ said the voice.

Aubrey sat up quickly.

The owner of the voice had eight hairy legs, eight eyes and two large jaws. She was only three centimetres long, from the tips of her front legs to the tips of her back legs, but that still looked like an awful lot of house spider when she turned up on your pillow.

‘Ariadne!’

‘Hello!’

Spider and boy were best friends. They had shared great adventures. Ariadne had a lovely, kind character. You could not tell this by looking at her. The only time Suzanne had ever seen her, when Ariadne had been trapped in the bath, Suzanne screamed and asked Aubrey to move her.

The one occasion when Jim had come across her, while he was looking for a book in the attic, he had squealed and walked away slowly, backwards. (This is how you deal with properly dangerous animals, like cobras and hippos.) Jim had ducked out of the room and slammed the door.

Aubrey told Ariadne about his problems with wasps.

‘Who on earth would order a wasp to sting me?’ he asked her.

‘Not an animal,’ Ariadne said, thoughtfully. ‘Ordering someone to hurt someone else is not our way. It sounds devious. We hurt to defend ourselves or our territory, or to eat. If someone ordered you to be stung for another reason, you’re looking for a human.’

‘But – but that would mean I’m not the only one who talks to animals!’

‘Um,’ said Ariadne.

‘WHAT?’ Aubrey yelled. ‘There’s someone else! Who?’

‘Um, there are millions of you. Have you never been to Kazakhstan? Uzbekistan? Turkmenistan?’

‘No,’ Aubrey said, ‘I haven’t.’

‘Have you heard of the Mongols? The Anatolians? The Pashtuns? The Uighurs? The Turkomens? The Maasai? The Siberians? The Berbers? The Welsh?’

‘Some of them, yes.’

‘Well,’ Ariadne said, thoughtfully, ‘many of the world’s peoples can speak to animals and birds in their own tongue. All over the planet there are people who talk to animals, birds, insects and fish.’

‘FISH! Who talks to fish?’

‘Fisherfolk do,’ Ariadne said, solemnly. ‘And everyone with a fish tank. Humans talk to their animals.’

‘OK,’ Aubrey nodded. ‘But someone else around here also understands what animals say.’

‘Um,’ said Ariadne.

Aubrey looked hard at the spider. She blinked five of her eyes. He knew he was right. Somewhere nearby he had an enemy, and that enemy had the same power he did – maybe much more power. Aubrey felt cold fear. He swallowed and hid it. By deciding to be brave he instantly felt braver. Interesting, he thought, and saved that thought for later.

‘What’s his name? Where is he?’

‘I don’t know,’ Ariadne said, but then she whispered. ‘They say he’s got Terrible Spiders. He’s making thousands of them. Millions. He’s going to conquer the world with them – they’re robots or drones or something. Don’t say I told you. Forget it. They call him Big B. Forget that too.’

‘Ariadne,’ Aubrey said, after a pause, ‘Please tell me everything you know about this person and these spiders. Where does Big B live? Who told you about all this?’

‘Silvio mentioned it. But lots of creatures are talking about it. I’ve...