Gregory Grey and the Fugitive in Helika

by Stanzin

CHAPTER 4

  Scions and Screamers

  Gha-chunk, gha-chunk, gha-chunk.

  ‘When you say yours…’

  ‘Well, it’s really father’s, but that makes it mine too. Hello,’ said the boy.

  ‘Hello. Your father owns this airship?’ Gregory asked disbelievingly.

  ‘This, and every other. I’m Zachary Zeppelin. Call me Zach.’

  ‘Gregory. Gregory Grey,’ said Gregory, a bit flummoxed.

  ‘Two gees. Oh, that’s good, like my two zees. It’s lucky.’ Zach pulled away from the wall, and looked expectant until Gregory did the same.

  ‘Count Zeppelin is your father?’ Gregory asked, settling down. He felt a sharp surge of jealousy. The boy across from him must have been riding airships forever!

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘Prove it.’

  ‘You don't believe me?’ Zach tried to look hurt.

  ‘No.’

  ‘I’ll take you into the pilot’s cabin then, and you can meet the pilot. He’ll tell you.’

  ‘Alright then.’

  ‘Hold it. Declare your forfeit first!’

  ‘I don't have anything.’

  ‘I like those gloves.’

  ‘What? Not in any unholy hell! They’re a present!’

  ‘You can’t challenge me without a forfeit. You’ll just have to believe me.’

  ‘I’ve got a lot of sweets. It was my birthday yesterday… still is, in fact,’ offered Gregory.

  ‘Oh… I see. Happy birthday, then,’ Zach said. ‘In that case, forget the forfeit, I’ll just show you, for a birthday present. Come along.’

  Gregory followed Zach to the cockpit, curiosity overpowering his anxieties. There were two men in pilot’s uniforms inside.

  ‘Master Zeppelin, did you finally find yourself a new friend?’ one of the pilots asked.

  ‘This is Gregory. It’s his birthday today, and he likes airships, so I thought I’d show him how one flies.’

  The men took in Gregory’s clean but plain clothes, and his bleary eyes. Zach noticed it too, because he said loudly. ‘If you’re not busy, Captain Shylock, would you mind if I showed him what everything does?’

  ‘Of course, go on ahead,’ said the man.

  Zach took Gregory’s sleeve and the men parted to reveal the control panel. Gregory forgot his discomfort in his awe. There were buttons, chains, keyholes, and levers, arrayed in colourful shapes across the panel. Gregory hesitantly stroked his fingers across paraphernalia. There was something intimate about looking into the brain of this majestic vehicle.

  ‘You know how the ship works?’ Zach asked.

  Gregory nodded. ‘A little; a rigid outer framework that holds a bag of gas inside it and the gondola at the bottom. I never found anyone who could really explain it to me.’

  ‘Then listen close,’ Zach said. ‘These,’ he pointed at two pairs of levers, ‘control the forward propellers. The left pair controls the angles, and the right pair controls the thrust. This stick here,’ – a black shaft rising out of a cross – ‘controls the rear propellers, pitching them up and down or side-to-side. These buttons are for the ballast distribution and these are for gas pressure. This…’

  Zach went through each and every oddity, demystifying them for his eager student. Gregory was transported. He asked many questions, from weather problems to safety features, and Zach answered every single one of them, with the occasional comment from the pilot and the navigator.

  When Zachary finished, he leaned into Gregory’s ear and whispered, ‘You want to fly it in later?’

  ‘Fl-fly it in?’ Gregory hissed in shock. ‘You can fly this?’

  Zach grinned at Gregory’s thunderstruck expression. ‘Well, duh. I said it was mine, didn’t I? I’ve flown a few dozen times.’

  Gregory’s mouth made like a fish. Zach was suddenly fifty feet tall, had wings, and was emanating a holy glow about himself.

  Zach pretended to be disappointed.

  ‘Well, I thought I’d ask, but if you don’t want to…’

  ‘I want to!’ Gregory said, managing to whisper and exclaim at the same time. The thin-lipped Captain looked on suspiciously at the huddled heads.

  Zach grinned. ‘Keep your hair on. We can’t let Captain Tightwad know you’ll be doing it, but I’ll tell him I want to bring us in to land at Domremy. We’ll get back in here then, alright?’

  Gregory thanked him, the pilot and the navigator profusely before stepping back into his cabin and settling down.

  ‘So, you’re going to Domremy too?’ Zach asked.

  Gregory nodded. ‘My uncle’s there.’

  ‘Oh, that's wonderful. Good for you. It’s the best place in the world. You’d know that too if you’ve been there before. Have you?’

  ‘No. Never. First time.’

  ‘That’s awesome. You’re lucky. I wish I could have a first time again.’

  ‘Have you lived there long?’

  ‘Nah, just about a year,’ Zach said. ‘Dad got a contract to build airships for the Crown.’

  ‘Do you fly very often?’

  ‘Often enough. I used to fly every route at least once every year, but now there are too many routes. Mom wouldn’t let me go to Fundamentals. She say’s it’s mostly rubbish. She schooled me herself.’

  ‘So do you go to a school now?’

  ‘I don't, but I’ll be starting in a fortnight at Gurukul Caverns. I suppose you’ll be going there too?’

  ‘Uh, I’m not sure. My uncle’s not really said anything about it yet.’

  ‘I hope you are,’ Zach said. ‘It’s the best school of magic in the City, maybe even in the continent.’

  ‘Yes, I’ve heard. Don’t you need an instrument to get in?’

  ‘Well, yeah. You don’t have one?’

  ‘No,’ admitted Gregory.

  ‘Me neither. I mean, I pick up Mom’s wand when she isn’t looking and swish it around but nothing happens.’

  ‘I can’t wait to have my own though,’ said Gregory. He told Zach about the escapade with the Bobbin’s staff.

  Zach laughed, and then looked excited. ‘Let’s go get our instruments together. Dad is taking me shopping next week and we’re going pick up my books too.’

  Gregory nodded, not repeating that he’d already said he wasn’t sure what he was going to do about school.

  They sat in silence for a while.

  ‘I saw you and your friends out of the window. They looked a little sad. You were close?’ Zach asked hesitantly.

  Gregory nodded. ‘They were all from the orphanage I was at.’

  ‘If you don’t mind my asking, what happened to your parents? And why were you at the orphanage if you had an uncle?’

  Gregory hesitated. His story was quite fantastic, and he wasn’t sure how it would be received. Then he realised that he was talking to someone who owned and flew Zeppelins, and who’d offered to let him fly later and figured the boy had earned a good story.

  So he told Zach everything about the letter, the Director’s investigations, his mysterious arrival at the orphanage, and his own questions about the mystery. Zach would comment and exclaim occasionally, but mostly listened with the amazement of a toddler at a gypsy’s magic show.

  ‘That… is the craziest and coolest story EVER,’ declared Zach once Gregory had exhausted his account of his life.

  Gregory felt absurdly pleased.

  ‘I mean, it’s a real mystery – the first I’ve ever heard. It fits everything. There’s a disappearance – two of them really. And who is this mysterious photographer? Were they the one who intercepted your letter in the first place? Did someone know you were here all along or did they just find out? And where were you for an entire year? Most importantly – why didn’t you have any hair?’ Zach rattled off the questions on fingers.

  ‘I don’t know – and I really have to find out. I can’t not know,’ Gregory said.

  ‘Oh, you’ll find out. Mysteries get solved sooner or later, it’s ju
st a matter of reaching the end of the story,’ Zach said confidently. ‘I bet you’ll find a lead or something in Domremy. You should look up your parent’s old academic records at the Cavern library – I hear they have a written record of every kid who ever attended.’

  ‘I dunno. My Uncle’s a detective, the best in Domremy I hear, but he didn’t find anything all this while.’

  ‘He’s too close to the case. This needs fresh eyes. We have to look in new places,’ Zach said firmly.

  ‘New places – like where?’

  Zach looked thoughtful. ‘We’ll think of something. Speak to the people who knew your mum and dad, of course - they’ll be eager to speak to you, if they were friends with your mum and dad before.’

  Gregory blinked. Of course, there must be so many others who had known his parents, he thought.

  They spent a while discussing possible leads and the identity of the photographer, with suspects ranging from the soul stealing demon Yerg Nairod to memory imps.

  The pretty stewardess, Emily, came over after a while to announce breakfast, which they had in a room of reinforced transparent glass. They watched colour seep back into the world around them. Gregory was so fascinated by his bird’s eye view that he almost forgot to enjoy his food. There was sausage, egg, bacon, cream buns, porridge, fruit, and grape juice.

  ‘What’s Domremy like?’ Gregory asked.

  ‘Domremy? Well - brilliant obviously. And – kind of distracting – unexpected, y’know? Kind of audacious, which magical cities tend to be. You’ll see what I mean when we get there. Speaking of which, we’re there.’

  Gregory suddenly noticed there were a lot of flying carpets outside the window, more than he had seen in his entire life! They were flying though a valley. Far below him he saw clusters of little houses and hamlets, all linked by winding roads that sprawled across meadows or disappeared into little woods.

  ‘It doesn’t look that impressive,’ he said.

  ‘You wait,’ Zach grinned. ‘Come on, let’s see about you flying this thing.’

  Excited, Gregory followed Zachary into the cockpit again.

  ‘Captain, I want to fly the Scheherezade down to the Spire,’ Zachary said.

  The Captain looked at him suspiciously. ‘You’ve sat out the whole journey so far.’

  ‘Yes, well, Gregory here doesn’t believe that I can fly, so I told him I’m going to bring the ship in.’

  ‘There’s a lot of traffic out there today, lot of ships returning to town…’

  ‘I’ve managed traffic before – it’s no biggie,’ Zach said firmly.

  The Captain hemmed and hawed for a few more minutes then let them take over piloting. He left.

  ‘He doesn’t watch over you?’ Gregory asked, a little incredulous.

  ‘He used to, but he got bored after a while. The good thing about having a good reputation is that if you’ve the notion to abuse it once in a while, no one says anything, or even asks, really.’

  ‘You do that a lot?’ Gregory asked, slipping into the pilot seat.

  ‘Once in a while. Don’t you?’ Zach asked, taking the navigator’s seat.

  ‘Can’t say I’ve ever had a good reputation, to be honest.’

  ‘My kind of man. Alright now, listen up. You do what I say, when I say it. You pull what I tell you to pull, and you push what I tell you to push. Let’s go over the controls again, at least, the one’s you’ll be handling. If I step in, you take your hands off and lemme do the flying till I give it back to you. Savvy?’

  ‘I savvy,’ said Gregory.

  ‘Good. Now be on the jump. We need to switch seats on the second if we hear the Cap or his tribe trooping back in. Not that there’ll be too much trouble, but I don’t need him tattling and whining to my mum. I yell switch, we switch,’ Zach said and Gregory nodded. ‘Now, we’ve got ourselves a while before we pull in to the Drop, so you’re going to go over the control with me and learn their names, so you know what you’re touching, and why you’re touching it. We’re flying over Lotown now and should be over Lake Big Finger soon.’

  Gregory spent the next five minutes going over the control panel again and again with Zachary, occasionally following a given command. The airship shuddered and pitched as Gregory tried to bring the giant craft to heed. Its low humming and gentle shudders were reminiscent of diving underwater. Occasionally it would veer side to side and Gregory would glance worriedly at Zach, who’d cock his ear at the door, expecting the Captain to burst in at any moment.

  ‘Is it supposed to be shaking this much?’ Gregory asked.

  ‘You’re not doing too badly. Remember it’s not just you affecting the ship, the weather outside wants to play too. Just remember the ship is your toy, not the wind’s.’

  Under Zach’s patient guidance, Gregory learned to get a feel for the craft. Euphoria replaced his nervousness as he absorbed the feeling of the airship responding to his touch. The ship felt alive, and it was almost as if it was conversing with Gregory.

  ‘This is awesome,’ he breathed. Then he saw something that sent his jaw plunging down.

  ‘Watch it, there’s a speed limit here,’ Zach said sharply, knocking Gregory’s drifting hand away from the lever to power up the engines.

  ‘What’s that?’ Gregory asked.

  Zach looked and grinned. ‘That’s the Canopy Stadium.’

  They were flying over the shores of a lake bordered by small mountains. Halfway across the lake, where it curved to the east, an immense structure flared out of the mountains into a large, circular head with a crown of inward curving thorns, resting on a gigantic, curving trunk of stone.

  ‘How does it even stay up?’

  ‘Magic, doh.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  On the south-east bank of the lake stood a tree, the biggest and strangest Gregory had ever seen: twelve stories tall, with a pure white trunk; and without a single leaf on it.

  ‘That’s the Blood Tree,’ Zach said.

  ‘I’ve never heard of it.’

  ‘It’s only six months old. Some world famous Healer mom keeps raving about, Asclepius Coffey, built it with magic, but I’ve no idea what it’s for.’

  Small figures seemed to be moving up the giant in a spiral – there were steps carved into its trunk, Gregory realised.

  ‘Is the rest of the city like this?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s not all like that – sort of spread all over the place – and here and there it gets a little out of whack from what you might be used to, yeah. Swivel the engines quarter straight, will you? You’ll see the Spire on the next bend.’

  Gregory manoeuvred The Scheherezade into his first view of Domremy City.

  The air was clear across Lake Big Finger; the tallest building in the world stood on the other side of the water: the Spire. Cloud-wreathed, it reached a mile from the ground to the sky, impossibly slender.

  ‘That’s where we’re docking,’ Zach said.

  ‘It’s awesome,’ Gregory breathed.

  ‘Thanks. It’s also where I live – at the top,’ Zach said.

  The Spire was wider than it looked. There were six tiers at the base, and each tier had seven petal-shaped drop points. Zeppelins, huge and small, were constantly taking off or landing. Innumerable carpets zipped about and around these giants.

  ‘Don’t the carpets ever collide with the ships?’ Gregory asked.

  ‘If they’re being flown drunk, they might. Not that I ever heard of,’ Zach said.

  The Captain hadn’t been wrong; there was traffic. Gregory swallowed. ‘How are we supposed to land, with all those whales in the way?’ he asked.

  Zach flipped some switches on a dashboard above the control panel. He pointed down at the drop they were approaching. Its floor, and the wall under it, was flashing a series of colours and numbers.

  ‘The system is simple enough. We’re headed for the lowest north dock, the one on the ground. The numbers call out the ship ID, the colours signal their landing position.
We drop at green when our own number comes up – I’ll let you know when it does, and anyway…’

  The Scheherezade died.

  Gregory and Zach traded unsure looks. The ship wasn’t humming.

  ‘That wasn’t supposed happen, was it?’

  ‘No. Switch!’

  They traded places instantly; Zach banged about on the control panel.

  ‘We’re slowing down,’ said Gregory, panic flaring in his stomach. ‘… and I think we’re going down… slowly. Did I do something?’

  ‘No, you can’t just turn off an entire ship that easy. Don’t talk! I need to…’

  The cockpit door burst open and the pilot strode in.

  ‘Stand down, Master Zeppelin! What happened?’

  Zach scrambled out of the seat and the pilot jumped into it.

  ‘I don’t know. The ship won’t respond… it just… died!’ he said.

  ‘What were your last actions?’ the pilot barked, banging the panel exactly like Zach had.

  ‘I was prepping the landing sequences…’

  ‘Zach!’ Gregory said. ‘Look outside! It’s not just us!’

  At The Spire, everybody other zeppelin was slowly descending too.

  ‘The carpets!’ Zach cried in horror.

  Gregory looked, but the sky was empty of the many carpets that had been there only seconds ago… then he saw the flailing, falling bodies, and the fluttering swathes of cloth; unlike balloons, the carpets had no hot air to keep them up; the falling must have been screaming, though Gregory couldn’t hear them: he saw them hit the spire and explode in red spray, or just break and lie there limp and unmoving; there was other movement at the piers: people locked in brutal scuffles…

  ‘What’s going on?’ the pilot whispered.

  A bloom of light, a flaming inferno, a zeppelin was afire: the flames engulfed the balloon: its windows opened and someone jumped out on a carpet, which fell with him or her, lifeless: there were others jumping, and some of them were burning too: airship after airship crashed into the Spire and burst into flames, each consumed in less than a minute.

  ‘Captain,’ Zach said, shaking the frozen man.

  ‘Minerva,’ the pilot whispered. ‘Please be okay…’

  ‘Captain!’ Zach yelled.

  The pilot turned to Zach, looking completely lost.

  ‘What?’

  ‘We need to get people off the ship,’ Zach said.

  ‘The ship won’t respond… what am I saying? I’ll hover them down. Stay here!’

  He left.

  ‘Why is everybody falling?’ Gregory asked in a whisper.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Zach. ‘Why are they fighting?’

  The Scheherezade drifted past the Spire’s massive body to the right to it’s right; they saw a brutal fight on every level, and some of the fighters were moving… wrongly.

  ‘They’re not using magic,’ Zach said.

  There were no flashes of light, no unseen force flinging objects, none of the gestures Gregory had come to associate with spell casting. Everyone was grappling, like the boys back at the orphanage did.

  It was almost funny.

  ‘I think we’re going to touch ground just past the Gurukul Caverns,’ Zach said, looking straight ahead.

  In front of them, a huge out-cropping of rock from a high cliff reached out to a large pool. A grand stairway seemed to lead to the mouth of the outcrop.

  ‘We’re not going to crash into that, are we?’ he asked Zach.

  ‘No… we’re just going to miss it… pass it by to our side, I think.’

  Someone shrieked – the sound came from the gondola outside the cockpit door.

  Gregory strode over and pulled it open.

  The Captain was on the ground, grappling with… something. A scattered line of terrified passengers stood beyond the struggling pilot; some brandished their instruments, and shouted words of magic Gregory couldn’t understand: dark smoke streamed from them; the passengers cried in surprise: the smoke condensed into limbs and figures, wraithlike creatures of decayed skin wrapped around skull and bone; they looked blank and surprised.

  Then they saw the Captain.

  Rage twisted their blank faces and they dove at the man: one of them had a weapon – a spear: the Captain was torn apart in front of their horrified eyes… and even as terror flooded Gregory, the falling airships and carpets, the fighting outside and the dark magic in front of him came together in his brain.

  He understood.

  ‘DON’T USE MAGIC!’ he roared at them. ‘DON’T USE MAGIC!’

  The creatures saw him and shrieked – it was the cry Gregory had heard barely a minute ago. One of them scrambled towards the cockpit, and Gregory slammed the door shut – he heard the creature hit the door and shriek again.

  ‘What is it?’ Zach shrieked almost as loudly as the creature.

  ‘I don’t know… wraith, maybe… don’t do any magic! Those things – the passengers cast spells – that’s what came out – they killed the Captain – that’s why the airships and carpets are all falling… magic’s failed!’

  For an instant, the two terrified boys just looked at each other.

  ‘They killed-?’

  ‘We need to get off the ship!’

  ‘We’re safer in here! Those things could be out there!’

  ‘I’m not going to wait for the ship to blow up! It could have been them that did it!’

  ‘How in the hell are we going to get off the ship?’

  Gregory pointed ahead, where something shone like a silver shield in the sun.

  ‘See that big pond? We jump off over that!’

  ‘Okay. Okay. Let’s do that.’

  Screams pierced through from the other side of the door – shrikes of terror, yells of pain, and hysterical crying.

  ‘Come on,’ Zach said, looking sick. He twisted four large handles in the side of the cockpit – the emergency exit swung inward at once.

  The clear blue pond came under them; Zach jumped abruptly, as if he didn’t want to spend a second thinking about it. He plunged in with a large splash – seconds later, his head bobbed out of the water.

  ‘Jump!’ he yelled.

  Gregory grit his teeth, took a deep breath, and jumped: the wind whooshed in his ears: he kicked hard with his feet as his stomach rose to his mouth: he hit the water hard and sank like a stone: the rush of crashing liquid replaced the sound of the wind: the chill shocked: he inhaled water, choked, lungs flaring with pain: his feet touched the pool’s bottom: he pushed off and kicked for the surface: his head broke the surface, and he drew deep, painful breaths.

  A violent coughing fit seized him, his lungs rebelling against the abuse. He spotted Zach dragging himself out onto the beach to his left and splashed over: felt ground beneath his feet and crab-walked to the edge of water, collapsing next to Zach.

  Zach was shaking, almost trembling.

  ‘Zach, you alright?’

  ‘Eh-he-he-he.’

  ‘Heh… come on, Zach, heh... say…mhph… say somethi- hehehe.’

  The trembling struck him then, and even as he began to laugh, he realised that’s what Zach was doing, the terror and shock leaving them lightheaded.

  Hysterical laughter ravaged Gregory’s already tender lungs.

  A yell cut through their laughter: the zeppelin had drifted ahead, and someone else had jumped; the cry abruptly cut off… but the airship had been quite low… Gregory stood and saw someone crawl away from the descending ship… others were jumping too, screams cutting off… not everyone was hurt… but someone on the ground tried to catch someone else as she fell – they both crumpled and didn’t move again; those that could were all moving away from the airship, which looked to land any second.

  ‘Zach, those things could be coming off the ship any- aah!’

  Steely fingers closed about Gregory’s ankles and dragged him back into the pool; the water drowned his shout: he was pulled further, deeper in: something clambered up his back
; pain seared open along his skin: Gregory twisted violently: a mass of dark hair filled his vision… as did water red with his blood – he kicked out furiously and hit something solid.

  A skull-like face of rotting flesh and black eyes glared malevolently at him, jagged teeth bared: Gregory attacked… the two of them struggled; kicking, scratching, punching and pulling: the creature was emaciated, but fought with an insane strength… Gregory’s vision darkened: he weakened from the lack of air.

  He heard a splash and a dark figure suddenly wrestled the creature from behind, giving Gregory a moment’s respite, enough time for him to kick for the surface and breathe.

  He didn’t see Zach anywhere, and so he dived again.

  The creature was choking Zach; Gregory grabbed its head from behind and grappled, ignored the pain of jagged teeth sinking into his arm… his elbow locked around it’s neck, and with superhuman effort, Gregory broke its neck… which came off, with its head, in his hand. He flung the head away: it dissolved into dark smoke.

  Bleeding and exhausted, Gregory and Zach climbed out of the water again.

  ‘Where’s the zeppelin?’ Gregory asked.

  ‘Must have touched ground ahead of the Caverns. Come on.’

  Zach led the way, jogging over to and onto the great stairway Gregory had seen earlier. It climbed up into the opening of massive cavern – the huge outcrop was completely hollow.

  ‘What is this place?’

  ‘What? Oh! Gurukul – this is Gurukul Caverns! And there’s the ship,’ Zach said, pointing. ‘What’s going on there?’

  Something strange was happening.

  Everyone who had jumped off and could move were helping the others move away from the zeppelin, which had landed about a hundred feet away. Now, more shapes were dropping out – the creatures, who saw the stragglers and shrieked, scrambling in pursuit.

  But they never reached the passengers.

  The first of the creatures was almost on a woman crawling frantically away, when it suddenly screamed. It collapsed clawing at it’s own flesh, which was burning away, vaporising, baring bone and joint… with a final scream, the creature dissolved into black mist.

  It happened to the others too. The fleeing passengers turned and stopped running, stunned to see their pursuers struck down. Unholy wails filled the air, as something burned the creatures away… but what?

  ‘It’s the sunlight!’ Zach shouted.

  Gregory saw it instantly – the creatures had all collapsed the second they had run out of the zeppelins shade.

  ‘Stay in the sun!’ the boys yelled to the passengers, and their cry was taken up and chanted as spectre after spectre burned away – less than a minute later, there were none left. The passengers cheered and jeered.

  Their noise wasn’t enough to drown out the low rumbling sound – it was as if the very land had hummed.

  ‘What now?’ Zach wondered guardedly.

  ‘Get away from the cliffs!’ someone shouted. ‘Everybody get away from the cliffs!’

  People had barely begun to move when the rumbling returned, more powerful now: it intensified to a roar in a few short seconds… the earth shuddered and Gregory was swept off his feet: he fell hard on the stone of the steps; he tried to stand, but the ground jolted again, knocking him back down. A horrible wrenching and shuddering started. The roar of tortured earth filled the air, the world, till Gregory thought his ears would burst from the noise.

  Zach fell next to him: he heard people scream, a long continuous shriek that twisted in his head: instinctively and futilely he clutched at the ground: he heard children scream… saw them tumble out of the Cavern’s mouth and roll down the stone stairs.

  Bile rose in Gregory’s throat, his head swam: he vomited, stomach spasming: paralysed, he prayed for the shaking to stop… he’d give anything to have it stop, to have the kids stop screaming: his stomach heaved till it was empty…and then went on heaving: Gregory groaned softly, but he couldn’t hear it.

  For long seconds, and then minutes, they lay on the ground, the shaking and grumbling constant, the jolts irregular; every time Gregory got used to the rhythm, the movement changed. He had never felt so sick, so weak, before: rocks were shaken loose from the tops of the cliffs, and they fell and rolled to the beach in small avalanches: he didn’t understand why the cliffs hadn’t collapsed on them all… surely nothing could withstand this…

  Land wasn’t supposed to behave like this.

  Gregory wished he could shut the kids up.

  Then the earth was still, like it was supposed to be, though Gregory’s head still swam.

  After long minutes, he forced himself to his feet and took a step.

  The shaking began again, worse than before. He fell and curled up and waited for it to pass… though he didn’t care – he was never moving again, never getting up.

  No one screamed now; Gregory managed to dimly wonder about the school. Why on earth hadn’t it crumbled yet? It should have fallen to a pile of rubble by now, but it stood firm, and showed not a crack.

  The quake rumbled on, stopping for a few precious seconds of earthly sanity every now and then, before hell returned.

  His thoughts returned to holding on, to surviving. It was all that mattered, all that he wanted, to hang on second by second, minute by minute, for every moment of this madness, to cling to his mind and self. He did it, forced himself to draw deep breaths, counted time under his breath.

  Deathly silence filled the air. He didn’t know when it was that the land became still, when the earth was blessedly solid again – his head still swum… he wasn’t moving, and neither was anyone else.

  Sound returned.

  Gregory could hear the lake, the soft sound of small waves rolling onto the shore. He heard a bird cry, then another, but he waited till his head stopped swaying, till he was sure he wouldn’t retch.

  Finally he stood. The earthquake had managed to scratch him everywhere the spectre in the pool had missed; his hands and stomach were covered in abrasions; his half-digested breakfast was all over his front; Zach was still flat on the ground (he had puked too), as were a score of children, scattered in front of the gigantic mouth of Gurukul Caverns.

  ‘Are… are you alright?’ Gregory asked Zach.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Zach said, cautiously staggering back onto his feet.

  ‘What’s happening today? It’s like the world’s gone bonkers. I don't understand why the school is still standing. I mean, that… that quake would have taken a fortress down.’

  ‘Not in Domremy City,’ Zach said. ‘Ev… every building in the capital is charmed to withstand earthquakes. Even the land is charmed, I think… this could have been much worse.’

  Something tugged at Gregory’s trouser; he jumped away with a yell… but it was only a girl, about eight years old, who had crawled over, too scared to rise.

  ‘You have to help,’ she whispered.

  ‘Don’t worry, kid, I think it’s over,’ Zach told her. ‘People will be here soon.’

  ‘I think she’s saying someone might be hurt in here,’ Gregory said.

  He walked into the Cavern’s mouth: a long and high and vaulted corridor stretched away into darkness that was broken only by patches of sunlight streaming in here and there.

  Gregory could hear faint murmurs.

  Zach was still trying to comfort the girl.

  ‘No, please, you have to help her. Help Miss Flanders. She’s inside. She’s hurt,’ squeaked the girl, not getting up.

  ‘What happened to her?’ he asked.

  ‘I don't know. I don’t know.’

  ‘Calm down, girl. Where is she?’

  ‘In the Alchemy Corridor.’

  A scream echoed from deep within the corridor. There was a sound of scuffling and somebody struggling. Gregory froze and peered into the dark, trying to discern movement, ready to sprint into the sunlight.

  ‘Zach?’ called Gregory.

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Do you think people
cast spells? Like the passengers?’

  ‘How many people in there, girl?’ Zach asked.

  ‘Ab-about fifty.’

  ‘How many adults?’

  The girl looked confused.

  ‘Focus, kid! How many grown ups?’

  ‘I don’t know… some.’

  ‘Did they cast magic? Did you see what happened?’ demanded Zach.

  The girl nodded, looking terrified. ‘There was black smoke and then it jumped at her.’

  There was an ominous rumble.

  Not again, Gregory thought and immediately crouched to the ground. It wasn’t a quake, though.

  He saw Zach look up in horror, sweep up the weeping girl into his arm and sprint down the stairs. Gregory would have run after him, but a thick puff of dust blew hard across the archway… followed by a cascade of rocks, boulders and earth… the floor trembled as Gregory stumbled back into the corridor a dozen paces, covering his head and face.

  The landslide ended as suddenly as it had begun. Gregory coughed, and covered his nose. He blinked hard. When the dust cleared, he groaned. The archway was almost entirely blocked by a large boulder. Sunlight shone in through a shaft at the top.

  He was trapped inside Gurukul Caverns.

  ‘Greg? Are you alright in there?’ Zach’s shout was muffled.

  ‘I’m fine,’ called Gregory. He went to the boulder. ‘I don’t think I can dig my way through this. This isn’t going to move without magic is it?’

  There was a brief silence.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Don’t let anybody cast anything!’

  ‘Don’t worry, I wont. I’m going to try and get some help, alright? It could be a while, without magic. I have to walk.’

  ‘You go! I’ll try and find the lady that girl mentioned – Miss Flanders,’ said Gregory, sounding a lot more cheerful and brave than he felt.

  ‘You do that. And Greg?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Find a big stick, will you? You might need to hit something.’