Beyond the Shroud
Page 21
Hannah’s withering reply: ‘This is not a game!’
The taxi pulling up to take us to the airport … Q jumping down from the helicopter, hugging us as if we were all his children, not just Hannah …
The expression on Q’s face, even more wonderful than the helicopter ride.
Now Q had asked to speak to me, on my own.
I knocked softly on the library door. Almost at once it opened and Hannah peeped round. Her eyes were sparkling, and her face had a strange, secretive expression that fizzed with excitement. I grinned to myself: she was up to something.
She skipped in ahead of me and scrambled up into the big leather armchair. At once, the little grey kitten hopped onto her lap and began to purr.
Q smiled at me, his eyes very warm behind the smeary specs. ‘Ah — Adam. My boy.’ Off came the glasses; a quick polish on the edge of his frayed jumper, and they were on his nose again, cloudier than ever. ‘This visit hasn’t turned out quite how I’d planned, what with … well … one thing and another. But now it’s back on track.’ He smiled. ‘A special dinner for you all tonight — if you have room for more food, that is. Specially chosen by Hannah: chicken nuggets and chips, with — what was the dessert, Chatterbot?’
‘Marshmallow and jelly ice cream, chocolate sauce, and hundreds and thousands,’ Hannah recited with great satisfaction.
‘Precisely,’ said Q. ‘And afterwards …’
‘Fireworks! A special b … I mean, a special firework display to celeb … I mean, fireworks.’ I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at Hannah. She gazed innocently back.
‘But first, I have something for you. There will be presents too, of course …’ I blinked at Q. What was he on about? ‘But this … well, this is something rather different.’
Q held out his hand. In it was a newspaper. ‘Happy birthday, Adam.’
Hannah gave a little wiggle of excitement. Huh? Not beginning to know what to think, I took the paper from Q and stammered my thanks. Was it my birthday? And trust old Q — a newspaper for a birthday present!
I glanced down at it, pretending to be pleased. A mug shot of Matron stared back at me. Above it was the date: 22 September. Dazed, I read the headline: Serious Fraud Squad Swoops. Tried to read the small print below, but the letters mixed themselves up into a jumble that didn’t even begin to make sense.
I realised Q was talking. ‘It seems Miss Filcher was aptly named, Adam.’
‘Pilcher,’ corrected Hannah.
‘Filcher,’ repeated Q with a smile. ‘It appears she has been stealing funds from Highgate for years. Amounts adding up to hundreds of thousands — maybe more.’
‘Did you …’ I croaked.
Q smiled. ‘No, Adam. Investigations have been underway for some time, I believe. But my evidence will doubtless be called for in due course, to strengthen the case against her — and I will be delighted to assist. And there’s an additional factor: a young lad has disappeared from Highgate, and the police will be looking to your Matron for answers.
‘But as far as you are concerned, Adam, the important thing is this: you will start the next year of your life as a brand new chapter, in the certainty that she will never return.’
I felt a smile spreading slowly over my face. But before I could say anything, there was a rustle and a thud and Tiger Lily hopped in through the open window. Hannah’s face lit up. ‘I’ve been wondering where you were,’ she said sternly. ‘Catching mouses, I bet. Look, Bluebell! Here comes your new friend!’
Tiger Lily took one look at the kitten curled up asleep on Hannah’s lap, and her back arched. Her tail puffed out into a bottlebrush. Her eyes went triangular, and she advanced on the chair with slow, menacing steps.
‘I’m afraid not, Hannah,’ I said with a grin. ‘Here comes trouble!’
THE KARAZAN QUARTET
by V.M. Jones
Matron’s behind bars, Cook’s in charge, and life’s finally looking good to Adam Equinox. Too good to last.
There’s someone new behind the closed door of Matron’s office. And Mr Smigielski has plans for Highgate … plans that will bring Adam’s world crashing down around his ears.
Face to face with harsh reality, Adam feels as if his adventures in the fantasy world of Karazan happened a lifetime ago. But a mistake made behind the distant walls of Shakesh will soon have consequences more terrible than he and his four friends can ever imagine. The unforeseen and catastrophic chain of events is triggered by the release of Quentin Quested’s final computer game, Power Quest to Karazan — and brings two worlds to the brink of destruction.
Adam and his friends are catapulted into a series of adventures more challenging and hazardous than any they have ever faced. Questions must be answered, secrets revealed, and solutions found to the mysteries that lie at the very heart of Karazan … before it’s too late.
Adam Equinox’s adventures in Karazan began with The Serpents of Arakesh. Beyond the Shroud will be followed by two further titles in the Karazan Quartet:
Prince of the Wind
Quest for the Sun
The Serpents of Arakesh
Adam Equinox takes no pride in any aspect of his school work. He has poor social skills and is a negative influence on his peers. He is disruptive …
But a bad report is the least of Adam’s problems. Abandoned on a doorstep twelve years ago, he has no idea who — or where — his parents are, no friends, nothing he’s good at, and nowhere he really belongs.
When Adam stumbles across the entry form for a competition, his luck starts to change. It's a prize he’d give anything to win — the chance to work with software genius Quentin Quested, test-driving a top-secret breakthrough in computer-game technology.
Adam enters a world he never dreamed existed. And when Quentin Quested reveals why Adam and his four companions are really there, the boundaries between fantasy and reality begin to break down. Together they embark on a perilous quest to the parallel world of Karazan, where the Serpents of Arakesh stand guard over the most precious prize of all …
Buddy
Josh Cranford loves running, soccer, cricket — anything, as long as it’s sport. Most of all he loves to win. Just one person stands in his way: super-jock Shane Hunter. They clash head to head in everything, and Shane always comes out best.
Then along comes an off-the-wall new teacher, and a wicked new challenge: the Energex Iron Kid Triathlon. The perfect chance to take Shane on and come out on top. Except Josh can’t swim. If he’s going to enter the triathlon, he’ll have to overcome his fear of water … and confront a secret buried too deep in his past to think about.
Josh’s decision triggers the most important six weeks of his life — not only must he learn to swim; he has to learn to deal with his dad’s new live-in partner, Suzanne. And then there’s his biggest and most painful secret of all … Buddy.
Juggling With Mandarins
Pip’s not like his big brother, Nick, the ace sportsman, the one with guts. Pip’s his mother’s son — skinny and blond, with a nose that turns pink and peels in summer; good at English, but not much else. Not much that matters to Dad, anyhow.
Then Pip stumbles across a gift he never dreamed he had. He pursues his new passion in secret, determined it will remain one area of his life his dad can’t touch.
But it can’t stay secret forever. Somehow, Pip must find the courage to confront his father and claim the right to live his life on his own terms. And then there’s Katie, the girl next door …
For Pip, growing up is a complicated juggling act — a lot harder than it looks. Will he manage to keep all the mandarins in the air … or will he drop the lot?
The Puppet Master
Tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed — and always in trouble. That’s Jac. And the person who usually gets him into trouble is his best friend, Daniel. They both work in Mr Blyne’s travelling circus, which is headed for the royal wedding in Sweetwater. There, Jac discovers he can do more than make lifelike puppets — he can do things that
make people very afraid of him.
Suddenly, he finds himself cast out of the circus and pursued by the evil Archmage Ivan. With their world in danger, Jac and Daniel start a desperate search for the mysterious and powerful Star Crystal. But Ivan is close behind …
The Dragon’s Apprentice
There’s something odd about 12-year-old Toby, and it’s not just his purple eyes or his amazing ability to talk to Klel, the dragon tied up in the courtyard. It’s not even his talent for getting into trouble and being sacked from every job at the castle. His new job as page to the mysterious Prince Blaise is his last chance to avoid a cold winter in the poorhouse. When Blaise’s half-sister Sanelle arrives unexpectedly, Toby learns of the terrible secret the prince carries in a hidden stone pendant, and his deadly plans for Klel. But Toby has a secret of his own …
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in 2004
This edition published in 2012
by HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
www.harpercollins.com.nz
Copyright © V.M. Jones 2004
The right of V.M. Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 0627, New Zealand
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 8JB, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada
10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA
National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Jones, V. M. (Victoria Mary), 1958-
Beyond the shroud / V.M. Jones.
(Book two of The Karazan quartet)
ISBN 1-86950-478-X [1. Orphans-Fiction. 2. Quests (Expeditions)-Fiction. 3. Friendship-Fiction. 4. Computer games-Fiction. 5. Fantasy.] I. Title. II. Series.
NZ823.3-dc 21
ISBN 9781869504786 (pbk)
ISBN 9780730499176 (epub)