He began to walk back into the bush, still happily talking about himself to Lady Naomi.
‘I can’t begin to tell you what this means to me, pet. Debts cleared, scores settled, the right people thrilled to bits with me, and all the wrong ones ruined forever. Ah, yes – with a victory of this magnitude, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Guild Mistress names me as her successor.’
Amelia followed at a distance as Krskn wandered through a dense patch of bush, carefully guiding Lady Naomi’s bubble under tangled branches. He was heading for a clump of large boulders at the top of a rise.
‘Now this may seem a little rushed,’ he went on, ‘and I don’t want you to feel you have to answer me straight away, but I really sense a connection between us, don’t you?’
Amelia blinked.
‘I know,’ Krskn laughed, skipping lightly up the curve of the largest boulder. ‘It’s mad and impulsive, but I can tell you feel it too. I really think I’m going to marry you, pet.’
He hopped down from the boulder, and disappeared from Amelia’s view. She paused, listening hard. She either gave up right now, or … Or she followed.
After a second or two’s more listening, she took found another dirty tissue in her pocket, rubbed it against her armpit to pick up some sweat, and dropped it on the ground beside her. If Grawk ever came out of that drugged stupor Krskn put him in, maybe he’d find her trail. Hopefully, before it was too late to save her.
She braced herself, and then climbed after Krskn. It was much harder for her, and her sneakers slipped on the rocks several times, but at last she made it to the top of the boulder and saw where Krskn had gone. In the centre of the clump of boulders was a gap in the rocks: the entrance to a tunnel. They were so many caves through the headland, they had to come out somewhere, but this was the first time Amelia had seen one.
She peered down – it looked as though it dropped for nearly two metres before the floor of the tunnel. If she went in, she wouldn’t be able to get out again this way.
She jumped.
After a heavy landing on her twisted ankle, she began groping her way through the darkness – one hand out to feel the way, the other to shield her forehead from bumps.
She heard Krskn ahead, still making merry plans for his wedding. Lady Naomi said nothing in return. Amelia followed the sound, and then noticed a faint glow appearing ahead. Those luminous lichens that grew deep in the gateway caves must have crept all the way up here.
But the gateway – Krskn can’t take the canister through it. Surely he knows that?
It was getting bright enough to see quite well now, the lichens growing more thickly the farther she went, with delicate blue and yellow fronds feathering out from the rock face. The tunnel twisted, and Amelia paused to listen before she turned the corner.
Nothing. Krskn must be going faster the more he could see. He could be quite a long way ahead already. She took a breath and came around the bend.
And there was Krskn, pointing a slender black tube directly at her face.
‘Nosy little brat, aren’t you?’ he smiled. ‘I’d hoped you’d take the hint back at the clearing and go home with that dreadful boy, but here you are – still doggedly trailing after me. It’s quite sweet really, isn’t it?’ He gloated at Lady Naomi, still trapped in the bubble. ‘She’s got a crush on me. Not that you need to get jealous, my darling.’
Lady Naomi shuddered, but Krskn didn’t notice. His attention was fixed on Amelia.
She had no plan. Not a single idea came to her. Instead, she just stood frozen as Krskn shot a blast of white gel from the tube. It knocked her backwards, but she never hit the ground.
She landed on the soft, unbreakable skin of a plasma bubble – inside it.
‘I’ll tell you what,’ said Krskn, picking up the bubble’s silvery thread and dragging it along as he went to collect Lady Naomi’s. ‘We’ll let you be bridesmaid.’
‘This is just like old times,’ said Krskn, pulling the two bubbles behind him. He was bustling down the tunnels now that they were widening out. In fact, they were more like long chambers. They must be very close to the huge chamber of underground guest rooms that sat at the mouth of the gateway itself.
‘No Keeper to save you this time, though,’ Krskn chortled. ‘No grawk to sniff me out. I’m sorry to leave him behind, though. What a beauty he’s become since I saw you all last. I’d love to take him home with me; he’d make such a dramatic guard dog. Of course …’ He sounded thoughtful. ‘I do travel far too much to look after a pet properly. Not fair on the animal, is it? Never mind. He’d make a glorious fur rug instead.’
Amelia wished she could be as self-controlled as Lady Naomi and ignore Krskn completely, but he made her so angry.
‘You’re disgusting!’ she spat.
‘Oh, that means so much, coming from you,’ he sneered. ‘We’ll see how mouthy you are after you’ve been through the gateway, shall we?’
Amelia felt the blood drain from her. ‘Through the gateway? But you can’t – don’t you know what the canister will do? It will kill us all!’
‘Is that what the Keeper told you? Your precious “Leaf Man”? He’s as ignorant and unimaginative as the rest of you. Don’t you know what’s in this canister?’
Lady Naomi, for the first time, stared at Krskn, listening.
‘No,’ said Amelia, trying to sound braver than she felt. ‘Do you?’
‘No, I don’t,’ said Krskn, ‘but unlike you, I’m prepared to find out.’
He fiddled with the top of the canister, then with a little ‘Aha!’ of satisfaction, rotated a gear. A lid sprang open. Nothing happened that Amelia could see, and Krskn shook the canister, frowning.
‘That’s odd,’ he murmured. ‘What do you think, my love?’ He looked up and Lady Naomi and then his mouth dropped open in astonishment.
Amelia turned and saw that Lady Naomi was beaming – a wild, delighted expression on her face, as though she were staring into the heart of all that was good in the world. Her face still glistened with tears, but now she was almost radiant. She fixed her eyes on Krskn and raised a hand.
Amelia thought she was going to wave or maybe threaten him with a fist or something, but that seemed very unlike Lady Naomi. Amelia pressed both hands against the skin of her own bubble, but knew that it was useless. Soft and wobbly and thinner than a rubber swimming cap, the bubbles were so strong they might as well have been made of bullet-proof glass.
But Lady Naomi seemed to have forgotten this. Almost carelessly, as lightly as sweeping aside the bead curtains on the door at Archie’s grocery, she brushed her hand through the membrane of her bubble and stepped lightly to the ground. The ruptured skin collapsed behind her.
‘Impossible!’ Krskn backed away, clutching the canister tightly, his eyes wide, but Amelia could see he was fascinated.
‘Magnificent!’ he murmured, and then Lady Naomi sprang at him, landing only a metre or two away.
There was no physical change in Lady Naomi that Amelia could see – she wasn’t taller or musclier, she hadn’t turned green or grown wings – and yet you could tell she was brimming over with power. Krskn must have felt it too, because he pulled a new weapon from his belt and pointed it squarely at Lady Naomi.
‘Come now, my darling,’ he crooned. ‘I don’t want to kill you. Really.’
Lady Naomi didn’t flinch. She walked toward Krskn almost eagerly, as though his weapon were nothing more than a toy. And then he shot –
It was too quick for Amelia to even blink, but she saw Lady Naomi flick her hand sharply and the bolt of laser fire was swatted back at Krskn. It struck the rock just a millimetre to one side of his head, and he was so shocked that he just stood there, frozen, as Lady Naomi plucked the gun from his hand.
Then he snapped back to himself, and before Lady Naomi could snatch away the canister too, he darted away and slithered into a crevice in the cavern’s wall. In the silence that followed, there was a delicate mechanical noise, and Amelia guessed he’d
closed the canister.
Lady Naomi, the weapon still pointed in Krskn’s direction, came back to Amelia, and with the same casual gesture, tore through her bubble. Amelia hopped out of it before it could deflate on top of her, and landed awkwardly on her bad ankle. A pain shot up her leg, but she barely noticed because Lady Naomi had staggered sideways, one hand to her chest.
‘Are you OK?’ Amelia said, limping to her side. ‘What happened?’
‘I don’t know.’ Lady Naomi sounded dazed. Her eyes were slightly unfocused, but Krskn’s gun was still in her hand and she kept it pointed toward the crevice.
Amelia guessed Lady Naomi’s loss of strength had something to do with the canister, but there was no time to puzzle it out now. From this angle, Amelia could see straight into Krskn’s crevice.
Krskn was no longer there.
‘My dearest treasure,’ he purred, and Amelia cringed to realise he was clinging to the roof of the cavern above them. Far from being fazed by the laser gun pointed at him, he seemed genuinely pleased to be near Lady Naomi. ‘You just become more deliciously intriguing every moment we’re together. Tell me, my love, and be honest with me at last: what are you?’
Lady Naomi gathered herself, and it seemed to Amelia that though the loss of power had unbalanced her for an instant, it hadn’t done her any harm. And even without the canister’s super-boost, Lady Naomi was still remarkable. Plus she was furious with Krskn.
She narrowed her eyes and took aim at his chest, but Amelia heard footsteps echoing down stone steps – the steps that led down from Tom’s cottage to the other side of the gateway’s mouth. She must be wrong: this cavern couldn’t lead to the underground guestrooms – the footsteps were too near for that. This must be a third approach to the gateway. Tom had told her how complicated the caves were, but now she despaired.
‘Goodness, this is getting busy,’ said Krskn lazily. His tail twitched, but otherwise he was little more than a shadow on the cave’s roof.
Lady Naomi hesitated, distracted by this unexpected complication. That split second was the chance Krskn needed. He darted forward, right over Lady Naomi’s head, and swiped at her with his tail. In the tiny moment it took for her to leap aside and take aim again, Krskn had already crossed the cavern roof.
Being a natural cave, there were no straight lines or angles. The roof gradually curved round and sloped into the wall, so that Krskn was now above Amelia, and also slightly behind her. He was so close, she could smell that sweet perfume still lingering on him.
And then Dad (holding Tom’s shotgun) and Charlie jogged into the cavern’s far end.
‘Be careful!’ Amelia shouted. ‘It’s Krskn. And he’s got the canister!’
Krskn tutted, ‘So rude, and me almost family now.’
Turning her head a fraction, Amelia saw he had crept lower still so that he was now completely shielded behind her. Unless Dad or Lady Naomi were counting on her to jump out of the way faster than Krskn could follow, the two guns were effectively useless.
Dad turned the shotgun away, not willing to point it anywhere near Amelia, while Lady Naomi tried to inch her way to a better firing position off to one side. Amelia considered bolting for Dad, leaving Krskn to Lady Naomi, but before she could move, the ground vibrated under her feet and a nasty, acrid air wafted through the cavern. A wormhole had connected with the gateway.
‘Perfect timing!’ said Krskn. ‘It’s almost … almost as if I’d planned this whole caper right down to the last detail.’
‘You can’t take the canister with you,’ Dad called. ‘You’ll – well, never mind about probably turning Earth inside out and sucking the whole solar system into the Nowhere – you’ll kill yourself if you do this.’
Krskn laughed. ‘I think you’re right, but wouldn’t it be fun to try it and know for sure?’
‘We’re not going to stop you, Krskn,’ Dad went on. ‘We don’t care where you go, just leave the canister. We won’t even tell Control you were here.’
‘Hmm,’ Krskn mused. ‘That sounds … sensible. I’m rather tempted, and really touched by your concern for me, Scott. Of course, I don’t doubt your honesty for a second. I’m sure you really would let me leave.’
Charlie looked at Amelia, hopeful.
‘On the other hand,’ Krskn said, ‘I have to consider what I came for.’
‘What did you come for?’ asked Dad. ‘Let’s see if we can’t help each other.’
‘Wonderful! You see, Amelia? That’s real family teamwork. And manners.’
Amelia ignored his purring voice and didn’t look behind her again. She kept her eyes on Dad and Charlie, but she felt Krskn’s warm, sweet breath on the back of her neck.
‘Well,’ Krskn called. ‘I came for total control of the gateway and all the people and power and technology attached to it. Now, your turn, Scott: what do you want?’
‘I was just hoping we could all live through this,’ said Dad. ‘Especially my daughter, if you don’t mind.’
‘Hmm …’
Amelia felt her hair shift under his breath.
‘Ah, let me think this through … No. Sorry, Scott. Power, riches, and infinite danger win out over mere life every time.’
With a sudden jerk, he wrapped his arm around Amelia’s waist and pulled her tight against him. Holding the canister to the side of her head like a weapon, he laughed, and sprinted back along the roof, over the heads of everyone and heading directly for the gateway.
‘Stop!’ bellowed Charlie. ‘You can’t!’
But by the time the sound reached Amelia, it was too late – he already had. With a shriek of triumph, Krskn leapt from the roof of the cave into the open mouth of the gateway, canister in one hand, Amelia held firmly with the other.
Amelia looked down and saw a shimmering circle – something like the wobble in the air you see above the road on a really hot day. But this shimmering was stronger, more solid, as though the shimmering were the real thing and the rest of Earth were the mirage.
And then, faster than blinking, they had fallen into it, through it, and Amelia, still hugged tightly against Krskn’s wiry body, was through the gateway and inside a wormhole.
Once, when she was six years old, Amelia had been in a car accident. Not a bad one, just a minor bingle at the traffic lights, but she’d never forgotten how time seemed to stop as she watched the other car veering into her. The crash was over in less than a second, but while it was happening, it seemed like minutes had passed.
In the same way, though it probably lasted less than a minute, Amelia felt herself falling forever, being sucked along the wormhole. She saw smooth, almost fluid walls around her, in a colour she couldn’t comprehend, and knew somehow that she was inside another … she didn’t know exactly what. There was nothing on Earth like this. But Amelia knew one thing instinctively: the gateway was more than just physics. It was alive.
And then, the canister beside Amelia’s head began to radiate heat, burning her ear, and still they rushed deeper into the wormhole – not so much falling as being pulled, and accelerating as they went. Krskn clutched Amelia more tightly, and she was so frightened she was actually glad to have his arms around her. Right at that moment, even her worst enemy was better than being alone.
And yet, it was somehow beautiful too – she’d never imagined that terror and wonder could exist together so completely. She was convinced that she was about to die, and yet what a marvellous death it would be – speeding through impossible space, feeling surrounded by a life that was so much older and bigger and greater than hers in every way …
The canister burned hotter again, and she felt her ear begin to blister, but it was nothing to her now. Krskn’s smell had been swept away, and instead something stronger, purer was engulfing them. Amelia would forever remember it as the smell of diamonds, but now she just tried to breathe it in as deeply as she could.
Then suddenly a wave of energy rushed down on them in the other direction – a wall of heat that was invisible but might
as well have been solid. Amelia’s heart swelled with even greater fear and delight as she and Krskn were tumbled over and over, and then buffeted back the way they had come. She collapsed at the foot of Tom’s stairs, panting on the floor of the cavern, her ankle throbbing, the side of her face roaring with the burns.
The gateway had spewed them out.
Krskn was no longer with her, but she didn’t think of that. She huddled against the sandstone steps, shivering, nauseous, relieved and unspeakably disappointed, as a cloud of things shrieked and battered their way past her.
The gateway heaved and groaned again, and another blast of hot air gusted through the caves, this one so violent that the luminous lichen was stripped off the walls, leaving dark, blank patches behind.
Amelia cringed into the cave floor, all the wonder gone now; now she was just scared of being pulverised by the wind against the rock walls. Krskn, Lady Naomi, her dad and Charlie must have been caught up in it too, perhaps only an arm’s length away, but with all the noise and fury, her eyes shut tight against the stinging sand whipping past her, she might as well have been the only person alive.
Then everything fell quiet, the wind died to a faint sigh, and Amelia realised she was alive. Alive and home. Better yet, she heard a groan that could have only been Charlie, and then Dad calling hoarsely, ‘Amelia!’
She was filthy with dirt, every inch of her body encrusted with it, even the insides of her nostrils, and she ached all over. As well as her ear and ankle, her knees and ribs were battered too – she must have hit the floor hard when the wormhole expelled her.
But it was over. The gateway had closed again.
Amelia was still trying to decide if she could stand up yet, or whether she’d lie for just a bit longer, when Charlie sat down next to her. He was wheezing, spitting out bits of lichen, and his hair was full of dust, but he was smiling.
The Lost Home World Page 5
