by C. J. Busby
The Druid returned the look with a stern one of his own, and she dropped her gaze.
“Well,” she said sulkily. “Whatever you think best.”
“We’ll go to Florence’s,” said the Druid firmly. “Inanna’s too inexperienced. And right now I’m in no state to use the amber myself.”
The Druid eased himself to the side of the bed and slipped his long legs out from under the covers. He grimaced.
“My clothes, Jem, if you’d be so kind,” he said, his voice a little strained. Jem grabbed the Druid’s clothes and started to help him into them. The sling made it extremely awkward, and by the time Jem had laced his boots and Dora had finished fastening his jacket, the Druid’s breathing was rather ragged and his face was the colour of putty.
He pushed himself up and stood for a few moments.
“Er … I think we may have a problem,” he said faintly, and then sank back onto the bed. “I don’t think I’ll be able to walk.”
Dora bit her lip, but Jem’s face brightened. “I’ve got an idea!” he said, and disappeared out of the door. When he returned, he was pushing a large chair with wheels attached.
“I saw them when we arrived,” he said cheerfully. “They’re like small carts for people. You just push them around while someone sits in them. They’re brilliant!”
The Druid gave Jem an approving look.
“Excellent,” he said. “Should just about do it.”
Escaping from St Thomas’s Hospital took longer than they’d thought possible. They got hopelessly lost almost at once. All the corridors looked the same – in fact Dora was convinced it was the same corridor, multiplying as they walked down it like some strange replicating monster. Luckily, the bustling nurses and porters more or less ignored them – in a busy hospital, three children and a man in a wheelchair with a bandage round his head were not a remarkable sight. But as they hesitated yet again at a large junction of several corridors, a bald man carrying a bunch of flowers took pity on them and stopped to ask where they were going.
“We’re trying to get out,” said Jem, with a hint of desperation in his voice. “But we keep going round in circles.”
The bald man laughed. “Terrible, isn’t it?” he said cheerfully. “Here, I tell you what – I’m on my way to see my wife, but I can take you to the lifts. That’ll get you down to the ground floor, then the exit’s just a hop and a skip.”
Jem raised his eyebrows at Dora and she shrugged. She had no idea what the man had just said, but at least they wouldn’t be trudging down the same endless corridor all over again. They followed him to a set of double doors, where he pushed a small button. The doors swished open and he gestured at the large metallic box behind them.
“There you go,” he said. “Ground floor.”
It didn’t look like any kind of floor to Dora, more like a prison cell. She wasn’t at all happy about getting inside it. But Jem was pushing the Druid in and Inanna was following. As she stepped across the edge of the box after them, a man in a white coat came rushing in and pressed another button and the doors closed.
“Where do you want?” he said to them, his finger hesitating over the set of buttons. Almost immediately the box juddered.
“The ground,” said Jem, just as Inanna gasped, “It’s an earthquake!”
The man gave her a funny look and pressed a green button, and the juddering got worse. Now it felt as if the whole building was collapsing. Was Inanna right? Was it an earthquake?
The man seemed unconcerned, but Inanna was clutching at Jem.
“It’s falling down!” she shrieked.
The man was looking cross now, his arms folded, and Dora could see Inanna opening her mouth to scream. Quick as she could, she cast a small immobility spell. Inanna was frozen with her mouth open like a goldfish.
The man stared at her for a moment, but then the box lurched, and stopped juddering, and the doors opened.
“Kids, eh?” he said to the Druid, eyebrows raised, and the Druid managed a wan smile.
Dora released Inanna and they stumbled out of the lift in relief.
“I’m sorry,” said Dora. “It’s just – I didn’t want –”
To her surprise, Inanna grinned at her. “It’s all right,” she said. “It’s a good thing you stopped me. When I scream, it’s very, very loud.”
“I can imagine,” said the Druid, dryly.
The moving box had brought them close to the way out. They could see, just across a large open space, several glass doors swishing open and shut as people walked through them and, beyond them, daylight.
“At last!” said Jem, and started pushing the Druid towards the doors.
But just as they got close, an angry voice shouted from behind them. “Oy, you kids! Where are you going with that wheelchair? That’s hospital property!”
A man in green overalls was gesturing at them and walking very fast across the entrance hallway. A few people had turned at the sound of his voice, and now another man in green was heading over.
“Run!” said Jem, and they broke into a trot, heading for the doors. The wheelchair was hard to manoeuvre at speed and it kept slewing from one side to the other, scattering a few people that were close by, but they made it out before the men reached the doors and then Dora, quickly throwing a spell behind her as they ran, managed to immobilise most of St Thomas’s outpatient department.
“Quick!” she gasped. “It won’t last long – too many people!”
They hurried to the busy road in front of them just as a large red bus drove past.
“We want that bus – it goes to Waterloo Station,” said the Druid through gritted teeth, his knuckles white on the arm of the wheelchair as Jem slung it round and headed towards the place where the bus had stopped.
They clambered in, a friendly man in the front seat helping them stow the Druid in the disabled section. Dora peered back at the hospital entrance. Her spell had worn off and the two men in green were on their way towards the road, looking around everywhere for the wheelchair.
“Tickets? Oyster card?” said the bus driver.
The men had spotted the bus and were running towards it.
The Druid, after a glance out of the window, fished the railway ticket out of his coat pocket with a wince. He passed his hand across it, murmuring a few words under his breath, and gave it to Inanna, who was closest. She held it out to the driver with her haughtiest expression.
Dora held her breath, but the driver, after a moment’s hesitation, nodded. The doors closed and the bus juddered then roared off, just as the men in green panted up to it. Dora collapsed into the plush seat next to Jem. They had done it. They had escaped!
The bus lurched through bustling London traffic, taxis beeping and motorbikes and bicycles weaving in and out around it.
“It’s horribly noisy,” Dora said, peering out of the grimy window. “I’d much rather be in a cart.”
“What? With sheep eating your hair?” said Jem, whose eyes were sparkling. “This is much more fun. Look, Dora – no horses, no ruts in the road, and we’re going along at a gallop!”
They were moving quite fast, Dora thought, but she found the sheer numbers of people and vehicles all around them completely bewildering. She glanced at Inanna, sitting by the Druid’s wheelchair. She seemed quite at home in the bustle.
“It’s not too different from Ur-Akkad,” said Inanna, seeing Dora’s look. “We have horseless carriages as well – though they’re not as noisy or smelly.”
“Run on extracted magic,” murmured the Druid, eyes half closed. “Won’t be working now we’ve taken the amber.”
Inanna looked thoughtful. “They won’t be able to control the magic-users, any more, will they?” she said. “Will the empire fall?”
“More than likely,” said the Druid. “And that’s no bad thing. It’s been around for far too long already. Besides – if we hadn’t taken the amber, Smith and Jones would have. Either way the empire was doomed. At least this way, the world it was
based in might get to survive.”
Inanna nodded and put her hand up to the amber. “Is this – is it mine now?”
The Druid gave her a calculating look. “I’d say it’s yours to take if you can control it. But I wouldn’t recommend trying that just yet. And you won’t be able to take it back to Akkad. Not till we’ve sorted out Lord Ravenglass. You and the amber had better come to the forest with us.”
He closed his eyes, wincing as the bus passed over a pothole. He looked, thought Dora, as if he might pass out again, and she wondered whether to try a spell to keep him conscious.
But just then the bus stopped, and the conductor shouted, “Waterloo Station!”
“Our stop,” said the Druid. Jem grabbed hold of the handles of the wheelchair and, with a bit of help from Dora and Inanna, managed to get him off the bus in one piece.
“Right,” Jem said, looking round for directions. “What train did you say we need to take?”
Chapter Twenty-two
Cat and Simon’s house had the curtains drawn and looked deserted. Inanna pushed the Druid up the path and Dora banged loudly on the knocker, but there was no answer. Jem slipped round the side of the house and then returned a few minutes later, beckoning them.
“There’s a door open round the back!” he said. “Come on!”
They squeezed down the narrow side passage, the Druid’s wheelchair snagging on stray plant pots and bits of abandoned bicycles, and entered the back garden. Jem was right – the kitchen door was unlocked, and after calling out a few times to check if there was anyone in the house, they carefully pushed the Druid into the kitchen and followed behind.
“What day is it?” said the Druid, frowning.
Jem shrugged. “I’ve got no idea. Is it the same as our world?”
“It should be,” said the Druid, trying to think. “What day was it when I left?”
“Market day,” said Dora. “Jem and I got to Akkadia the next morning.”
“We entered the labyrinth on the day of the moon,” said Inanna. “And left it that evening.”
The Druid grimaced. “I think that means it’s Thursday here. So they’ll be at school. We’ll have to wait till four o’clock.”
“Well, if we have to wait,” said Jem, “I’m having something to eat. I’m starving!”
Dora grinned at him. She felt hugely relieved that they had escaped the hospital and were somewhere that was quiet and safe. She was also looking forward to seeing Cat and Simon again. The kitchen of their house felt warm, cosy and familiar. And from what she remembered from last time, the food they had here was rather impressive.
Jem was already raiding the cupboards, opening packets and boxes and trying their contents. After a few unlucky choices, which made him screw his face up, he managed to gather a selection of flat hard cakes and sweet sticky things as well as some more familiar food like nuts and fruit and bread.
“Tuck in!” he said, indicating the feast. Inanna brightened at the sight of recognisable food, and filled a plate with fruit and nuts. Dora, after hesitating a moment, sat down and reached for some biscuits.
“I’m sure Simon wouldn’t mind,” she said. “It’s an emergency, after all.”
The Druid pulled himself up out of the wheelchair and held on to the edge of the table for a moment.
“You know,” he said. “I think I can probably find my way to the front room. I need to lie down for a while.”
Jem jumped up and offered him his shoulder to lean on, and together they made a tottering kind of progress towards the living room. The Druid lay down on the sofa with a sigh, and waved his hand at Jem.
“Thanks,” he said. “You go and eat. Wake me at four o’clock, when Cat and Simon get back.”
In the event, the Druid got woken long before four o’clock. Dora and Jem had been making a valiant effort at reproducing the drink called ‘tea’, which they remembered enjoying last time they were in Cat and Simon’s world, and Inanna had been watching the process with amusement. But just as the kettle started to shoot steam out of its nose, they were all startled to hear the front door open. They barely had time to look for a place to hide before Florence, loaded with bags of shopping, pushed her way into the kitchen and stared at them in shock.
“What – what the – who on earth are you? What are you doing in my kitchen?”
Inanna drew herself up to her full height. “I am Princess Inanna, priestess-daughter of the ninety-ninth Sargon, ruler of Akkad and High Lord of the Universe. Who are you?”
Florence’s eyes widened. “You’re what?” she said.
Jem held up his hands apologetically. “Ignore her,” he said. “She’s – er – a bit mad. We’re friends of Cat and Simon. We’re sorry – please forgive us for being in your house! We … well, we needed to see them. And your back door was open, so …”
Florence’s gaze took in the food on the table, and then she noticed the wheelchair. She frowned. “Cat and Simon are on a school trip,” she said. “But what in the world is a wheelchair doing in my kitchen?”
“It’s mine,” came a voice from behind her. She turned, and her face went white. Standing in the doorway, looking rather grey and drawn, was the Druid.
“Lou!” she said, her hand flying to her mouth. “Lou! But … what are you doing here? What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry,” said the Druid. “I tried not to … We were hoping to be gone before you got back.”
“I had the afternoon off,” said Florence automatically. She didn’t seem to be paying much attention to what she was saying – her eyes were on the Druid, as if she couldn’t believe he was there, standing in front of her, in her kitchen.
“Umm … can we get you a cup of tea?” said Jem brightly. “We think we’ve worked out how to do it.”
Florence looked at him, and her eyes seemed to refocus. She glanced at Dora, and then Inanna, and she started to laugh a little hysterically. She shook her head in wonder at them all and then smiled at Jem.
“You know what?” she said. “A cup of tea would be just the thing.”
She turned to the Druid and took in his bandaged head and the sling. “You’d better sit down,” she said, and gestured at the table.
Grimacing slightly, the Druid eased himself onto a chair and then nodded at Jem.
“Tea,” he said. “Please.”
Florence took a gulp of her tea and made a slight face. “Not too bad for a first attempt,” she said, and then gave them all a stern look.
“Right,” she said. “Explanations, please.”
“Well,” said Jem promptly, having had time to think about it. “Me and Dora, we’re friends of Cat and Simon. We go to the same … er … school. We’ve met their dad’s cousin here before, and then we found him yesterday after he’d been stabbed – we don’t know who did it – but we got him to a hospital and then when they let us out, we couldn’t think where to come, so –”
The Druid held up his hand. “It’s all right, Jem. Florence knows about the kingdom. You can tell her the truth.”
Dora looked at Florence in shock. She knew? Cat and Simon’s mother knew all about the kingdom?
“But – but how come you never told Cat and Simon?” she blurted out. “They didn’t know anything when we met them!”
It was Florence’s turn to look shocked. “Cat and Simon know about the kingdom? You mean you really are friends with them? When did this happen?” She turned to the Druid, her expression furious. “You promised! You agreed you would leave them alone!”
He looked stricken. “I’m sorry, Florence. I tried. Really I did. But it turns out Mother was an heir – she had a piece of deep amber. When she died it got left in this house. I had no idea you’d all move here! And then Simon activated it by accident … I kept away until the last minute!”
“Yes, he did,” said Jem, and, ignoring the Druid’s increasingly frantic gestures to shut up, continued cheerfully: “He didn’t get here till it was nearly all over. We could have done with him earli
er, I can tell you! But Simon did a great job with the sword, and Cat was brilliant! She took the amber and then she banished Smith and Jones – and Lord Ravenglass too!”
The Druid slumped into his chair and raised his eyes to heaven. Then he looked apprehensively at Florence. She was frowning in disbelief.
“The amber? A piece of deep amber? And … Lord Ravenglass? Cat banished Lord Ravenglass? And this was all – what – last week? After they found the sword?”
She turned to the Druid. “A rift must have opened,” she said. “That’s why the sword appeared, isn’t it? Gwyn did give it to you!”
The Druid nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said again. “But it’s rather out of our hands now. Ravenglass is after all the pieces of amber – he wants to remake the crown. We’re not exactly sure why, but we think Lukos might be involved.”
Florence closed her eyes and kept them closed for what seemed a rather long time. Then she took a deep breath and opened them. She surveyed them all with a resigned expression. “So. It’s come to that. Not much chance of keeping them out of it, then, after all.”
She turned to the Druid. “I’m sorry,” she said sadly. “For sending you away. Maybe you were right. It was foolish trying to protect them from … all that. I just wanted them to have a normal life. Nothing dangerous. Nothing dark. And you – you just couldn’t do ordinary. Magic clung to you like it was part of your skin, all the time. I couldn’t keep them from it with you here … Maybe I shouldn’t even have tried.”
The Druid reached out his good hand and brushed a tear away from her cheek with his thumb. She sniffed and tried to smile, and the Druid grinned back. He looked, thought Dora, as if he’d won a bag of gold at the Autumn Joust.
“So,” said Jem. “Where are Cat and Simon? Did you say they were on a school trip?”
Florence frowned and looked as if she were trying to work something out. Then her face cleared and she slammed her hand down on the table with a cry.
“Caractacus!” she said. “That blasted creature! He was here! He put a spell on me – I’ve only just realised! Cat and Simon went with him. They must be in the kingdom!”
