The Lost Home World

by Jones Cerberus

  ‘Don’t worry, Mrs Walker,’ said Charlie. ‘As long as Lady Naomi is OK, that’s the main thing.’

  Amelia ground her teeth, and Mum closed the door, shutting them in.

  Charlie heaved a great sigh. ‘She’s gone.’

  ‘Yeah, I know she’s gone!’ Amelia snapped. ‘Which is why we should be out there helping her, not stuck in here like a couple of babies.’

  ‘Not Lady Naomi, you dope – your mum. I was afraid she was going to stay in and keep an eye on us all night.’

  ‘Why would she?’ Amelia retorted. ‘You just promised her we’d stay right here.’

  ‘No, I didn’t. I told her she could trust us to do the right thing.’

  ‘You –’ Amelia looked hard at him. ‘You what?’

  Charlie nodded. ‘Your mum was right about one thing: we don’t have time to argue if we want to help Lady Naomi. That’s why I didn’t bother trying to convince them they’re wrong about the whole wormhole thing.’

  ‘They are?’

  ‘I’m pretty sure. I mean, at some stage, Mallan will have to get a wormhole out of here, and maybe he’ll even try to take Lady Naomi with him, but I don’t think that’s his number-one plan.’

  ‘Then what –’ Amelia answered her own question: ‘Lady Naomi’s workstation.’

  She started for her bedroom door, Charlie beside her.

  ‘I bet,’ he whispered as they padded down the corridor. ‘I mean, think about it: he hardly needed to kidnap Lady Naomi, did he? She was ready to go willingly at any moment. And he didn’t need to get rid of Tom, because Tom said he’d help them go. So why would he vanish with her in the middle of the night? Unless he just loves the drama, I think he’s after something else.’

  ‘But,’ Amelia whispered back, following his logic now, ‘Lady Naomi must still be necessary for Mallan to get what he wants, or why else go to all this trouble to con her?’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘So you’re right: he must want her equipment for something – and he needs her eyes and her fingerprints to scan in.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Charlie pulled a face. ‘So let’s get down there before he decides what to do with the rest of her.’

  To avoid bumping into Mum, Amelia and Charlie slunk down the servants’ stairs at the back of the hotel. They came out a narrow door near the ballroom deck, crossed the lawn to the edge of the hedgerow and paused. Luckily for them, it was a clear night – not the perfect brightness of the full moon they’d had on Amelia’s disastrous birthday night, but enough of a fat gibbous moon to bathe the headland in silvery light.

  Amelia could see right across the hillside. There was no-one to see, but anyone watching would easily see them as they cut across the gardens to Lady Naomi’s track.

  ‘We’ll have to be quick,’ said Charlie, thinking along the same lines. ‘But we’re both in dark clothes. I’m sure we’ll be fine.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Amelia grimly. ‘It’s got to be done, whether anyone sees us or not. I was just … well, I wish Grawk were with us. Or at least, I wish I knew where he is.’

  ‘What would he do? Sneeze on Mallan?’

  Amelia snorted, and they both crept out into the moonlight, leaving the safety of the hotel behind. Instinctively, they stayed as close to the edges of the garden as possible, avoiding the direct route across the open grass. They managed to stay more or less in the shadows until they were most of the way down the hill.

  Amelia scanned the hotel grounds once more, but saw no sign of movement anywhere.

  ‘All right,’ she whispered to Charlie. ‘Let’s go.’

  They sprinted the last few metres to Lady Naomi’s banksia tree, then slipped under its leaning trunk, and were in the bush. Somehow, being surrounded by all the trees felt safer, but only for a second. Almost as soon as Amelia had breathed a sigh of relief, she realised that not only did the bush hide them from Mallan, it would also hide Mallan from them. And though they would be harder to see, they would be much easier to hear, with all the dry leaves and twigs that snapped underfoot, and the spiny branches that rustled and cracked as they pushed through.

  Both kids slowed their steps, slowed even their breathing, and trod as carefully as they could. Amelia watched out for the faint yellow glow of Grawk’s eyes as much as for the shape of Mallan.

  Then, just before the last turn in the path, Amelia saw a huge heap of something blocking their way. She and Charlie stopped and stared, willing their eyes to see more clearly in the vague moonlight. A low grinding noise rumbled out of the mound, very faint, but unmistakable.

  Amelia rushed forward and knelt in front of the heap. She reached out and ran her hands over the dense, velvety fur until she found the face that was so dear to her.

  ‘Grawk?’ she whispered, stroking his muzzle. ‘What has he done to you?’

  He rumbled again, and one eye opened the merest slit. Amelia saw his pupil was unnaturally narrow, and then the lid slumped closed again. He whined, but so faintly it might as well have been a sob.

  ‘What’s wrong with him?’

  ‘Hang on.’ Charlie rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a tiny torch – an almost useless thing designed to hang off a key ring, but it gave just enough light for them to find the little dart in Grawk’s shoulder. Amelia pulled it out. It was too late for that to help Grawk, but she hated seeing it there. She wrapped it in a dirty tissue she found in her jeans pocket and then put in under a rock. She’d find it later and show Dad and Control. Hopefully.

  ‘Come on,’ said Charlie quietly, putting away his torch. ‘We can’t help him, and we still haven’t helped Lady Naomi.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Amelia said, kissing the soft fur of Grawk’s head, then got up to follow Charlie.

  They went achingly slowly now, knowing that with every step they took, it was easier for Mallan to hear them coming. And they still didn’t know what they would find when they got there.

  The path broadened slightly as they came toward Lady Naomi’s clearing. They saw that the holo-projected boulder that usually hid Lady Naomi’s workstation was switched off, and all her equipment was lit up. That familiar sweet perfume filled the air, and there was Mallan: standing with his back to them, looking up at the huge holo-screen as he played with her scanners.

  ‘Ugh,’ breathed Charlie. ‘Sometimes I hate being right.’

  Amelia concentrated on the image Mallan was manipulating. It took a second to realise it wasn’t Chloros or any other alien planet he was searching. He zoomed into the landscape, all rendered in the weird blues and greens of infrared, and Amelia recognised a distinctive curve with a protruding lump on one side.

  It was Forgotten Bay and the gateway headland!

  Mallan fiddled with the controls and the infrared was replaced by another filter. Perhaps it was the radiation scan Lady Naomi had used once, when they were looking for the starship in the sands of Egypt; now, like then, the whole screen went black. Mallan clicked his tongue and then the image zoomed in – or rather, three hot pink spots zoomed out of the void.

  Mallan hummed happily to himself and zoomed in again until the three pink spots were as large as they could be and still all fit on the screen at once. Then he brought up a night vision of the headland and overlaid it on the dots.

  Amelia stifled a gasp. One dot – far bigger than the other two – was right over Tom’s cottage. The gateway, she guessed. Hidden in the natural cave system under the headland, the mouth of the gateway opened directly under Tom’s.

  But the other two dots? One was very bright, but a mere speck, and seemed to be right on the edge of the headland, where sheer cliffs dropped from a sickening height down to the surf below. The other dot was larger, but fainter, and seemed to be moving slightly. To Amelia’s surprise, it was apparently on the other side of the clearing from them.

  Mallan seemed surprised, too – his head snapped around to peer into the darkness and he began talking to himself.

  ‘Well, well,’ he chuckled. ‘Three points. Th
is is not at all what I was expecting. What a fascinating game this is turning out to be.’

  He left the workstation and sauntered into the shadows beyond it. Amelia strained her eyes, but of course, whatever energy was making the dot glow pink on the screen, it wasn’t visibly glowing in real life. And of course, Mallan wasn’t talking to himself.

  ‘Tell me, sweet sister,’ he crooned. ‘Oh dear, long-lost heart of my heart – be a pet and tell me everything. Did you know about this all along?’ He re-emerged into the light of the workstation, his gorgeous face managing to look loving and sorrowful and stern all at the same time, as he trailed behind him a long silver thread.

  Charlie sucked in a breath and Amelia went cold all over, watching Mallan gently drawing the thread, hand over hand, toward him. They’d seen something like this once before, and then Amelia had seen it dozens of times since in her nightmares.

  Slowly, an enormous watery bubble drifted out of the shadows, bobbing obediently at the end of the thread. Inside, tears streaming down her face, was Lady Naomi.

  A bubble doesn’t prove anything, Amelia hoped desperately. I bet lots of people have that weapon.

  ‘Oriana, darling,’ Mallan sighed. ‘This is so much more painful for me than you will ever know. I hate this, I really do, but if only you’d tell me the truth, none of this –’ He waved an elegant hand at the bubble, ‘– would be necessary.’

  He smiled that devastating smile, and this time Amelia knew exactly who it reminded her of. She felt like she was going to throw up.

  ‘You obviously know more about all this than anyone guessed,’ he chided Lady Naomi. ‘So why don’t you make it easy on yourself and tell me everything? From the beginning, sweetness: what’s your connection with the component?’

  Lady Naomi’s eyes were closed, refusing to look at Mallan, but the tears kept flowing. Her narrow shoulders trembled as she sobbed silently, but her back was straight and her mouth was set.

  ‘Oriana?’

  She shook her head and then turned her back on him.

  Mallan sighed heavily. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘Well, if you won’t play nicely with me, then I don’t need to keep playing either.’

  He reached up to his neck, slipped his finger into the flesh of his throat and pulled away a small cylinder. Switching off his holo-disguise, Mallan disappeared.

  Standing in his place, stretching out the kinks from his long neck and unfurling his sinuous tail, was an alien even more beautiful than Mallan himself. The soft, matte-black skin of his salamander body absorbed the light from Lady Naomi’s equipment so completely that he almost disappeared into the night. His wide, red eyes narrowed merrily.

  ‘Now then, my darling,’ murmured Krskn. ‘No more games. I don’t yet understand how you’re involved in this, but I recognise a treasure when I see one. I rather think I’ll be keeping you.’

  Krskn looked around at Lady Naomi’s workstation. He was utterly calm, unhurried.

  ‘Now, sweet sister,’ he said. ‘Is there anything here you’d like to take with us?’

  Lady Naomi, her back still turned to him, said nothing. She lifted a hand and roughly wiped away her tears, lifted her chin and opened her eyes. Amelia saw a look of fierce resolve there, and then a flash of shock. She’d seen them! Perfectly able to see in the dark, Amelia and Charlie must have been embarrassingly obvious to her.

  For a second, Lady Naomi’s face brightened – the natural relief of knowing she wasn’t quite as alone as she’d thought, Amelia guessed. But then she glared at them and looked pointedly toward the bush. She wanted them to get out of there.

  ‘No,’ Krskn went on, chatting away as if he and Lady Naomi were at tea together. ‘Of course, you’re right. Once you see what the Guild has to offer, you won’t miss any of this. And I don’t really want to dirty my hands with Control trash. In fact, I don’t think I want anyone messing around with it. Too nasty to even think about, isn’t it?’

  He grinned broadly at Lady Naomi, and then shot a blast of laser fire into the central control panel. There was a flash of blue light as the entire system short-circuited, and the smell of burnt plastic filled the clearing.

  Charlie hissed something vicious in Greek, and Amelia couldn’t agree more. They already knew Krskn was evil and cruel, but wrecking Lady Naomi’s equipment was just spiteful.

  But she was also furious with herself. With them all, actually.

  She thought back to Mallan’s arrival with sudden clarity. Just as Tom had been about to properly check him for a holo-emitter, he’d dropped Lady Naomi’s name and thrown them all off-track. How had they been so easily diverted? And how had James not guessed that the stupid holo-projector could be programmed with fake images as easily as Earth animators could generate a cartoon? And how had she and Charlie not twigged to that poisonously charming smile?

  It wasn’t as if Grawk hadn’t done his best – he’d noticed something and tried to let them know. But then that stupid perfume Krskn was wearing had somehow thrown him off. Or made him so sick, he wouldn’t come near Krskn again.

  Charlie jabbed Amelia with his elbow. Krskn was shutting down the workstation, leaving them in deeper darkness, but before the last of the lights went out, Lady Naomi stared right at them both and mouthed something. Go to Tom.

  Krskn left the clearing, Lady Naomi in the bubble drifting after him.

  ‘Did you see that?’ Charlie whispered as soon as they were alone.

  ‘But Tom’s not at his cottage, and Lady Naomi wouldn’t know that.’

  ‘Yeah, but your dad is, and at least we’ll be in the right place.’

  Amelia nodded. ‘You do that. I’m following Krskn.’

  ‘Are you nuts? You can’t go after him alone.’

  Amelia was already getting to her feet. Whispering so urgently she was almost hissing, she said, ‘There’s no time to argue – he’s getting away. And I’m not going to fight him, but we have to know what he’s doing and someone has to be with Lady Naomi, no matter what happens.’

  Charlie opened his mouth, his refusal all over his face, but Amelia cut him off. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘but this is my decision, and I’m not talking about it.’

  He frowned, angry with her, but said, ‘Fine. Just be careful.’

  She nodded, and set off in the direction Krskn had taken, already regretting her bravado. Not that she was turning back. She heard Charlie crunching back along the path they’d arrived on, and then his footsteps faded away and she was alone.

  Alone, and following Krskn. Mad.

  She closed her eyes for a second. There were no paths through the bush here, and she could see very little in the moonlight – not enough to pick up on the tiny snapped branches and scuffed rocks she needed to track Krskn, anyway. But she remembered that pink dot on the cliff’s edge, and if she got her bearings right before she started … she thought she could find him. And, more importantly, find Lady Naomi.

  She moved as quickly as she dared, listening out for Krskn, praying he couldn’t hear her, and then heard something else entirely: the ocean. She was close now, and in more danger than ever.

  The cliffs were nearly vertical, and their edges not only unstable but disguised by clumps of grass that grew out so thickly you couldn’t tell where the ground gave way to sky. Amelia had to stay close enough to the edge to see where Krskn was going, yet not so close that she risked slipping.

  She scrabbled over loose stones, grabbing hold of any skinny tree or crack in the rock she could, not trusting her feet for a minute.

  The cliffs were so high here that the waves were a dull roar below them, but the noise gave some cover to her scuffling progress.

  She slipped, twisting her ankle on a deceptive tree root, and a spray of tiny rocks clattered over a boulder and then vanished into the abyss.

  Amelia gulped, moved more carefully still, and then saw Krskn himself slip out of the bush ahead of her. She froze as he strode to the very edge of the cliff, so close his toes must have been curling over the
rim. The bubble with Lady Naomi was beside him. He’d been slower than she’d expected – probably hindered by the bubble, which must have got caught on every branch and twig along the way.

  Without hesitation, Krskn dropped the slivery thread – the bubble stayed right where it was, as though anchored – and walked over the cliff’s edge. Ridiculously flexible and strong, Krskn’s salamander claws gripped the vertical face of the cliff as easily as they stood on flat ground. Amelia had seen him strolling down a carved column before, but that was nothing compared to seeing him wandering down the escarpment as though the height of it, the terrifying drop into the waves below, was nothing.

  She crept closer to the edge of the cliff herself, horribly fascinated, disgusted but unable to look away as he sniffed the air and then headed for a crevice further down.

  With a guilty start, she remembered Lady Naomi, and hurried carefully to her bubble. She was only a metre or two away when she saw Lady Naomi shaking her head, furious.

  Amelia paused.

  Go away, Lady Naomi mouthed. Go now – go!

  But Amelia couldn’t leave her. She crept forward again and stretched out a hand to grab the bubble’s thread, and saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. Her heart pounded as she realised not only how close she’d got to the edge of the cliff, but that it was Krskn’s tail that had caught her attention – he was coming back.

  She looked at Lady Naomi, who had seen it too, and now covered her face with her hands, distraught.

  ‘It’s the canister,’ Amelia whispered. ‘That’s where you hid it!’

  Amelia leaned out, saw how far Krskn had gone, and felt dizzy. ‘That’s where you hid it? But how –’

  Then she hustled back from the edge of the cliff, terrified Krskn would see her, and – feeling guilty again – hid herself behind a rock. There wasn’t enough time to rescue Lady Naomi. It was all she could do to keep out of Krskn’s way herself.

  She saw him walk back up and over the edge of the cliff, his eyes bright.

  ‘Look, look!’ he crowed to Lady Naomi, waving the canister at her. ‘Not a bad hiding place, I’ll give you that. Obviously it was no problem for me, but then,’ he grinned and came close to the bubble, winding the silver thread through his fingers. It was a gesture that was strangely… affectionate? He chuckled. ‘Nothing’s going to be a problem for me, ever again.’