by Chris Ward
‘So he died?’
‘He had to have done.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because I took him there. He thought that an ability to fly might give him an advantage, that we could just fly out over the edge of the world and find out what was there … but Endinfinium doesn’t work like that.’
‘You went over the edge of the world?’ Even Moto looked surprised as he and Benjamin exchanged a glance.
‘We tried, but it’s impossible. When you get within a short distance of the ocean’s edge, you meet a vortex of winds that push you back. We tried several times. Impossible.’
‘So Jeremiah looked for another way out.’
Basil gave a hollow cough like someone was beating a hammer against the inside of his fiberglass body. ‘Fool wouldn’t give it up.’
‘What happened when you went to Source Mountain?’
Basil grunted. ‘Think I can remember details? It was hundreds of years ago, as you people count them. I can barely remember yesterday.’ He sighed and settled back into his box throne. ‘In fact, I’m tiring of this conversation. Good night to you both. Thank you for the visit and all that—’
‘Wait!’ Benjamin put a hand on the biplane’s bent wing, receiving a glare from Basil. ‘Just one last question.’
‘Get on with it.’
‘Do you know for sure that Jeremiah died?’
Basil sighed. ‘I lowered him down on a rope. He was weighted down, wrapped up in breathing gear he’d found from somewhere. He went into the water where it rises up out of a spring at the top of that ugly old hill.’ Basil sighed again. ‘And then the rope broke. I never saw him again, even though I circled that hilltop for days afterward.’
‘Are you certain he died, that he didn’t make it through the other side?’
‘That’s two questions! Very well, if you really want to know what I think, I’ll tell you.’ The biplane shuddered, boxes rattling around him.
‘All I know is that he didn’t come back out. And that water pressure was powerful, believe me. He didn’t come back out, so he must have gone somewhere. Whether that was where he wanted to go to, or some other place entirely … I don’t know.’
12
Spying
‘Okay, Rick, test flight.’
Wilhelm tossed the Scatlock up into the air, and Rick did a couple of confident circuits of the room while Wilhelm looked at the computer tablet in his hand, trying to make sense of the mess of colour beamed back by the remote camera attached around the Scatlock’s neck.
‘Sorry, come back. One more time.’
Rick obediently swooped down and landed on Wilhelm’s wrist. Wilhelm made a few adjustments to the remote camera, then tossed Rick back up into the air, and this time, the picture that transmitted to his computer screen was much clearer and smoother.
‘Nice.’
Again on command, Rick alighted on Wilhelm’s wrist. ‘Now, you’re sure you know who Miranda is?’ Wilhelm asked, and Rick gave an enthusiastic nod. ‘That’s right, the girl with the bright red hair. The annoying one.’ He grinned. ‘I want you to trail her and figure out what that Cuttlefur is up to. You got that?’
Rick made a crinkling sound that could have meant anything. Wilhelm shrugged. ‘Right. I guess that’ll have to do. Now, I’m not worried about her so much, but when he’s alone, I want you to follow him. Keep a safe distance, though. He’s obviously dangerous, otherwise he wouldn’t be so creepy. Good luck, Rick. I never had a brother that I know of, but if I did, I wish he could have been just as loyal as you.’
The Scatlock with the taped wing and the tiny camera affixed to its body made the same crinkling sound. Wilhelm figured he’d have to just trust it.
He went to the window. Benjamin had earlier wandered off somewhere and still wasn’t back, and most of the other pupils had gone to a team sports event in the Great Hall. As far as he knew, only Gubbledon, and a couple of nerds studying for this week’s tests, were downstairs.
He pulled open the window—a cardinal sin after dark, lest any Scatlocks got in—and held Rick up to the fresh air. ‘Good luck, bro,’ he said. ‘Do your best.’
Rick rustled and flew off. Wilhelm closed the window and went back to his bed. He had cried off sick to Gubbledon over the sporting event, and now he climbed under his blankets, taking the little computer tablet with him. It was about the size of his palm. He had traded five thousand cleans for it with a fifth grader called Martin Crown, and with a little help from Ms. Xemian, the math teacher, under the pretense of doing a school project, he had connected the camera’s frequency to a program on the computer tablet. Rick’s progress now came through on a grainy live stream.
‘Don’t let me down,’ he whispered, crossing his fingers.
At first Rick dipped straight down toward the grey stretch of beach far below them, and with his heart in his mouth, Wilhelm waited as the Scatlock swooped among the roosts of his brethren clinging to the jagged points of the cliff-face. He wondered if Rick would either betray him, or be ripped apart as an impostor by the other Scatlocks, perhaps aware that he had been tainted by a human’s touch. Instead, though, Rick just ducked and wheeled a couple of times as if greeting his old family, then soared back up over the cliff, rising high above the school.
As soon as he was over the top of the nearest wing of the building, however, Rick’s speed dropped to a crawl, and Wilhelm realised he had been surfing the gusts of wind that blew up and down the cliff-face. At least now the camera feed had steadied, giving Wilhelm a fine twilit view of the vast school and its towers, buttresses, battlements, and annexes—a monstrosity of architectural styles crossing hundreds of years. And while it had a certain charm from the inside, on the outside, it looked as though someone had grabbed a bucket of Lego and thrown it into a washing machine with a tub of glue. While in one corner rose an elegant tower, its foundation was a lump of ugly prefabricated concrete and plastic walls. In many ways, Wilhelm thought, Endinfinium High was a perfect work of post-modernist art—the kind of junk people paid good money to look at without really knowing why.
The yellow sun had set and the red sun lay low on the horizon, half beneath the edge of the world, as low as it ever got. Rick topped the highest part of the castle, then began a gradual descent toward the courtyard outside the main entrance, where dozens of terraces had been cut into the cliff-face. With their chairs and tables, they were a popular hangout place during summer evenings when the low winds kept the Scatlocks confined to their roosts.
Now, as Rick began to descend, Wilhelm saw the terraces were almost empty, except for a small one nearest to the cliff edge and farthest from the school, out of sight of the main entrance.
Two people sat on a bench looking out at the sea, and Wilhelm could tell immediately who they were.
One had blue hair, and the other a dark, crimson red.
13
Family
‘This is my favorite place of everywhere,’ Miranda said. ‘I mean, it’s so depressing at the same time, but it’s still beautiful.’
‘Why depressing?’
She pointed to the edge of the sea, perhaps ten miles offshore at this point. While it looked like a natural horizon at this time of the evening, during the day, it felt uncomfortably close and unnatural, and she knew it was where the water fell over the edge of the world.
‘You can see where it all ends,’ she said. ‘I mean, in England, back in the Facility, they didn’t let us see outside much, but when they did, you could look out and know that you could keep walking and you’d find somewhere else that might be better than where you were. Here, you can’t. If you swam out there, you’d fall off.’
‘Are you sure about that?’
‘Everyone knows it.’
‘And what would happen then?’
‘You’d die.’
‘How?’
‘You’d fall until you hit something, or if you didn’t, you’d just fall forever until you got so hungry you just died.’
&
nbsp; ‘What if there’s something else down there?’
‘There can’t be.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because if there was, someone would have found it and come back to tell us about it.’
Cuttlefur grinned. ‘Have you always been so cynical, or is that just the way your strain was brought up?’
Miranda sighed. ‘I don’t know. I mean, I love it here. Back in the Facility, I was no one. Just a colour and a number. I don’t even know what they were growing us for. Maybe just because they could, I suppose. When I woke up here, it was like my whole life had changed. I was no longer Red-37. I was whoever I wanted to be. And I chose Miranda Butterworth.’ She shrugged. ‘It doesn’t stop you wondering, though, does it?’
‘Not at all. I guess I feel the same as you, but I’m not quite as negative about it.’
Miranda felt the same sudden anger she often felt with Benjamin and Wilhelm, and she considered it a good thing—strong emotions for someone meant they had meaning for you. At least that’s what the books she borrowed from Gubbledon’s bookcase in the common room of the dormitory said. Although most of them were fairy tales and fantasies, she was still only a girl. She was allowed to dream.
‘I was thinking to punch you,’ she said quietly, not looking up at him, only staring at the hand resting on the bench beside her. If he made a move at holding hers, it would only be right to push it away … she just wasn’t sure she would have the willpower.
‘Is that a good thing, or a bad?’ he said.
‘I always punch people I like.’
‘Really? Like Wilhelm?’
Miranda’s cheeks burned with the same shade of red as her hair. Did he think Wilhelm was her boyfriend? He was more like a kid brother, but if Cuttlefur thought—
‘I’m envious of your friends,’ he said. ‘I hope I can be one of them.’
Her heart pounded. Was she in love? Was this what it felt like—a strange, fluttery feeling like her heart might burst out of her chest and float off into the sky?
‘Well, um, sure….’
‘I have something for you,’ he said, and she almost gasped when he lifted his hand. But it wasn’t to touch hers, only to put it back into his pocket. ‘I know it’s not much, but while I was down on the beach, before you found me … I saw this lying in the sand and couldn’t stop myself from picking it up. Later, after I met you, I understood why I had. After science class yesterday, I got Professor Caspian to attach it to a chain for me.’
He lifted a necklace out of his pocket. On the end of a pretty silver chain hung a dark red stone that shone in the light of the orange sun.
Miranda stared at it. It twinkled like a star fallen to earth. Her heart was still pounding like a running horse, and her fingers shook as she reached out and took it from him.
‘What is it?’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen one before.’
‘It’s a ruby. Here, let me put it on.’
He leaned over, took it from her, unclasped it, and slipped it around her neck. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him this close. Like herself, he had been created flawlessly. Plus, he was a couple of years older, which automatically made him boyfriend material.
What if he tries to … what if he tries to…?
Cuttlefur pulled back. He smiled. ‘There. You look perfect.’
‘Thank you.’
His smile dropped. ‘That’s not all, though. There’s something else.’
Miranda frowned. She didn’t dare hope for another present. She was humming with happiness as it was. ‘What?’
‘I didn’t tell the whole truth about coming here.’
Miranda drew back, her hackles rising. She’d learned quickly to be alert for danger in Endinfinium. When literally anything could come alive in moments, potential hazards lay at every turn.
‘I’m a Channeler,’ she said. ‘I can blast you right over onto that beach—’
Cuttlefur smiled and lifted a hand. ‘It’s not bad,’ he said. ‘It’s good. It’s about you, Miranda.’
‘What?’
‘I came here to get you. I came to take you back.’
Back? His proclamation was so ludicrous, Miranda coughed, then immediately felt embarrassed and slapped a hand over her mouth so hard it made a sharp snap.
‘Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t leave again. Everyone knows that.’
Cuttlefur shook his head. ‘Most people can’t. But most people aren’t you and me. I was sent here to find you. When I first arrived, I was a bit disorientated and wasn’t sure what was going on.’ He shrugged and flashed that disarming smile she was learning to love love love … ‘Then it slowly came back to me after the last few days. I was sent here to find you, and to bring you back.’
‘Why? How? W—’
‘When? Where? What time?’ Cuttlefur smiled again, and this time, he put a hand over hers. Miranda felt like her heart had just exploded. She wanted to rip her hand away, push him off of the bench, and then run all the way back to her room, where she would no doubt spin around in circles, screaming about how stupid she had been.
‘You’ll have to trust me,’ he said. ‘I can’t tell you everything, because I only got told certain details. What no one’s telling you about Endinfinium is that being here is optional. It’s just that no one knows how to get back.’
‘That’s crazy.’
‘Sounds it, huh? Listen, in a couple of days, we’re going off on a school trip. There’s a place near where we’re staying where we’re going to meet someone from the other side who will show us how to get back.’
‘What do you mean, “from the other side”?’
‘From England.’
Miranda started to stand up. ‘Look, if you’re just messing with me, this isn’t funny.’
‘Sit down.’
Something in his eyes made her obey. Both Benjamin and Wilhelm would have gotten a punch just for telling her to open her book in class, but Cuttlefur had a hold over her that she couldn’t quite—or didn’t want, if she was honest about it—to understand.
‘I got told to take you to a certain place,’ Cuttlefur said. ‘I didn’t know where it was until I came here and I looked at a map. “Where dragons swim in the sea,” was what I was told. So the Bay of Paper Dragons makes sense. However, this is just for you and me. We can’t take anyone else back with us, and once we’re gone, we can’t return.’
Miranda looked down at her hands. But she was happy here … wasn’t she? She’d never had a life back in the Facility, so why would she even consider going back with Cuttlefur? Slowly she looked up, shaking her head. ‘I can’t go back,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing for me there.’
Cuttlefur shook his head. ‘Oh, but there is. They’re closing the Facility. They’re sending you home.’
‘What home? The Facility is my home.’
‘No.’ Again Cuttlefur shook his head. ‘Your real home. Your family.’
‘I don’t get what you mean.’
This time, Cuttlefur took both of her hands in his. ‘There were some things the Facility didn’t tell us about where we came from. We just assumed certain things … but they weren’t true.’ He grinned. ‘You’re going home, Miranda. You’re going to see your family again.’
14
Mistakes
‘No! You complete liar! That’s not true and you know it!’
Wilhelm jumped up, hitting his head on the wooden slats of Benjamin’s bunk. As he rubbed his head, he wished Benjamin were here to see this, but Benjamin still hadn’t come back from whatever he’d gone off to do. So instead, Wilhelm was stuck on his own, watching Cuttlefur’s lies.
Rick, perched on a little crag right behind Miranda and Cuttlefur, had caught their whole conversation, both pictures and sound. Miranda had gone now, headed back to the dormitories, but Cuttlefur still sat there with a smug grin as he watched the sunset.
‘Everything all right in here?’
A long, zombified horse’s face peered around the door. Gubbledon Longf
ace, their housemaster, glared at Wilhelm.
‘Sorry,’ Wilhelm said, quickly throwing a pillow over the little computer screen. ‘I was doing my math homework. I didn’t, um, agree with the answer to one of the equations.’
‘I’m sure Ms. Xemian will be happy to know about your enthusiasm. But remember, some pupils are already sleeping.’
‘Sorry.’
Wilhelm waved him away, and the housemaster finally closed the door. For a few seconds, Wilhelm listened to the hooves clomping on the stairs, before going back to his video feed.
Cuttlefur was now inside the school. Rick fluttered in the air above him, so must have sneaked in when Cuttlefur opened the door. The boy wasn’t headed for the dorms like he was supposed to, however, but back toward the science wing.
‘Where’s he going?’ Wilhelm muttered. ‘What are you up to, you scoundrel?’
Rarely did anyone other than he risk a spell in the Locker Room by wandering around the main school buildings after hours. It was worth a thousand cleans, minimum, but he watched with interest as Cuttlefur walked silently along the corridors to the science block, hands straight at his sides like a robot. His head didn’t move, and he didn’t pause at any doors, as if to meet someone and was already late.
At the end of the corridor, a set of double doors opened onto the science block. Cuttlefur stopped, standing stock still in front of them for a moment, when he suddenly turned and looked directly up at the camera. A smile creased his face, and he lifted a hand to wave.
Wilhelm gasped, a shiver of fear running through him. Then, in a movement too swift to follow and too quick for Rick to slip through, Cuttlefur pushed through the doors and closed them again.
Wilhelm jumped to his feet. Whatever Cuttlefur was up to, he couldn’t sit by and do nothing.
He turned down the volume on the live stream and stuffed the computer into his pocket. Then he ran for the door.
At the top of the stairs, he heard someone coming up, and he shrank back into the alcove of the toilet entrance, standing breathless as Miranda passed by right in front of him. He wanted to grab her and tell her that her supposed new friend was trouble, but she would never believe him. He needed evidence.
