Her heart skipped a beat, for there was Erda, stepping suddenly from behind a tree. She looked terrible, unkempt and dirty, her hair a tangled mess. She’d lost weight even in the few days since Kate had last seen her. At that moment she didn’t think at all about the fact that Erda was supposedly the Stardreamer, this powerful being. She was simply Erda: lost, lonely and scarcely capable of looking after herself.
“Erda!” she called.
Erda looked up and saw her and a strange expression passed across her face. She seemed undecided whether to come over or turn and walk away.
As she hesitated, Kate yelled, “Stay here!” to Ben and ran across the road, dodging cars, ignoring his cries of “Kate! Come back!” She had almost reached Erda when she saw the expression on her face change as she focused on something happening behind Kate.
The world seemed to slow down.
Kate heard a terrible sound, a screeching of brakes, then someone screamed and she turned, infinitely slowly and saw Ben lying on the road in front of a blue car, the ice cream smashed on the tarmac beside him.
“Ben!” she screamed and ran. By the time she had covered the fifty metres that separated them, the white-faced driver had climbed from the car and a small crowd had gathered. Someone was phoning for an ambulance.
She heard someone screaming, “Let me past, it’s my brother,” and realised it was her. Then she was sitting on the ground beside Ben. He lay quite still, his eyes shut.
“Ben, Ben wake up,” she said desperately over and over, but he didn’t.
***
Kate heard her parents before she saw them.
“Excuse me – we had a phone call. My son was brought in. He’s been knocked down by a car …” Mum’s voice, breaking, trailing off, then Dad, “His name’s Ben Dalgliesh. His sister was with him when he was brought in.”
The nurse who had been sitting with her got up.
“I’ll just take them in to see him for a minute, then I’ll bring them in here, love.” Kate nodded dumbly.
Five minutes passed, then ten. It was almost fifteen before Mum and Dad come into the room where she sat alone, a doctor with them. They both looked as if they’d been crying.
“I thought I’d explain things to you all together,” said the doctor as she sat down. “Ben’s awake now and he’s going to be fine. He’s a very lucky boy: no broken bones, just cuts and bruises and mild concussion. The car must hardly have been moving when it hit him. We’ll keep him in overnight for observation just to make sure everything’s fine and he can go home in the morning.” She smiled at them sympathetically. “You’ve all had a shock, but really there’s no need to worry. Kids get worse knocks than this in the playground every day. I’ll leave you in peace for a while here, then get someone to bring you some tea.”
She went out, shutting the door behind her and Kate heard her mother draw a deep breath.
“What happened, Kate?” asked her dad gently. This was what she’d been dreading since she found out that Ben was okay.
“It was my fault,” she mumbled.
“I’m sure it wasn’t,” said Dad. ‘Just tell us what happened.’
“I saw someone I knew on the Links and ran across the road to speak to them. I told Ben to stay where he was but he must have run after me and then …” Her voice trailed away.
“Oh, Kate, how could you?” Her mother’s voice was quiet. It would have been better if she’d shouted, Kate thought dully.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“He could have been killed. You were supposed to be looking after him.”
“Now, Ruth …” Robert put a hand on his wife’s arm. “You’re upset, we all are. Don’t …”
Kate couldn’t fight the tears back any more. “I know it’s my fault. I’m sorry. I wish the car had hit me instead,” she sobbed and ran out of the room, out of the hospital, away.
***
Alastair took the phone call just before nine that evening. “No, she’s not here … Oh my God, is he all right? I’ll check with David … yes, of course; I’ll let you know right away.”
David had looked up at the mention of his name and so he saw the look on Alastair’s face as he came into the room.
“What is it, Dad? What’s wrong?”
“Kate’s disappeared. She was looking after Ben this afternoon and he was knocked down by a car. He’s okay, but Kate got very upset at the hospital and ran away. They thought she might be here. You haven’t heard from her, have you?”
“No.” David was aghast. “Wait a minute and I’ll check my phone. I think I switched it off.”
He went to his bedroom and brought the phone back.
“She tried to call me just before three.”
“No. That’s before it happened, I think. Have you any idea where she might have gone? They’ve tried all her friends – they couldn’t get us before because I was on the computer.”
He had of course, but he could hardly say where. He shook his head. Alastair went out of the room to tell Christine what had happened.
David gave it five minutes, then went to speak to his dad.
“Can I go out and look around for her? I’ve had a couple of ideas.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No!” said David, too quickly. Alastair looked at him suspiciously. “Please, Dad, let me go on my own. I know what I’m doing. I’ll take my phone.”
“All right, but don’t do anything stupid, will you? And be back by ten whether you’ve found her or not.”
“I will. Thanks, Dad.”
He shut the front door behind him, walked to the corner and as soon as he was out of sight of the window from which he was sure his father would be watching, tore down the street as fast as he could.
It took him barely five minutes to reach the house, panting for breath. He’d seen no lights as he ran down the hill towards it. Now he fumbled for the key, dropped it, picked it up and opened the door to the dark hallway. He switched on the light and looked around for any sign that Kate was here, but there was nothing.
“Kate!” he shouted. “Are you here?”
Nothing. The house seemed extra quiet, as though it was holding its breath. He moved through it, checking each room as he went. The house seemed quite empty. He poked his head round the door of the little bedroom which held the Door to Tisian’s house. What if she had run through there?
When he went up to the second floor he was trying to decide whether to try and go through the Door himself in case she was there. He pushed open the door to the study, saw the humped silhouettes of the furniture in the faint wash of moonlight from the window and switched on the light.
Kate was curled in the big old armchair, fast asleep. He could see from her face she must have cried herself to sleep.
For a moment, he couldn’t think what to do. Should he phone someone or wake her? The cold little part of his brain that watched things without becoming involved said, Don’t phone. How will you explain the keys? You’ll never be able to come back. It was right. Anyway, he’d be just as quick waking her and taking her home as phoning and waiting for someone to come.
He crouched down beside the chair.
“Kate?” There was no response. “Come on, Kate. Time to wake up.” He shook her gently by the shoulder and she stirred and stretched and opened her eyes and he saw in them the instant in which she remembered what had happened.
She stared at him. “You know what happened, don’t you?”
He nodded. “Ben’s okay. Your parents are really worried about you. They’ve been phoning everyone, trying to find you.” He stood up and held out a hand to her. “Come on. I’ll walk home with you.”
She didn’t move. “It was my fault, you know. I saw Erda and I left Ben by the road and ran off to talk to her, and he ran after me. I shouldn’t have left him, it’s my fault.”
“You weren’t to know he’d run after you. You shouldn’t blame yourself.”
“My mother does. She’s right. I’ve bee
n thinking about that letter – what it said about the Darkness inside us – maybe that’s why I did it. Maybe I’m like them.”
David was taken aback. “Kate, that’s nuts! This was nothing to do with the Lords of Chaos; it was an accident.”
“Maybe I wanted it to happen, so it did.”
David tried to keep calm. “You’re upset, you’re tired. Come on, let’s go home. It’ll be better tomorrow.” He held out his hand and this time she took it and got slowly up.
He locked the front door behind them and they set off up the hill. Kate walked with her arms wrapped round her, sunk deep in misery. David wanted to put an arm round her to comfort her, but she was too remote, locked somewhere far away in her head.
They reached her house. David paused before ringing the bell at the bottom of the stairs, the cold little part of him in charge again.
“Kate, where are we going to say I found you?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
He thought. “Just say you were walking around all the time and I found you near the school. All right?”
She nodded and he rang the bell.
“Yes?”
“It’s David. I’ve got Kate with me.”
“Oh, thank God.” The buzzer sounded and he pushed the door open.
Kate’s mum was already halfway down the stairs. She engulfed Kate in a tight hug, tears running down her face.
“Kate, where have you been? We’ve been so worried. I’m sorry about what I said at the hospital. I’m so sorry …”
David turned and left quietly and walked slowly home.
CHOICES
Tethys howled with fury as she looked at the corpses of the wolves.
“I will have his heart for this,” she shrieked. So agitated had she become that the physical form she usually wore was blurred and twisting at the edges, like a figure seen through a heat haze, giving glimpses of what lay beneath.
The Hunter gave a short laugh and she stilled immediately.
“You set your pets to hunt often enough without a thought for the quarry,” he said. “Perhaps this is what they mean when they talk of justice.” The thought seemed to please him and he laughed again.
Tethys gave him a look that burned with resentment, but her voice, when she spoke again, had grown quiet. “I claim his life for what he has done.”
“You will not touch him.” The Hunter’s voice was calm, but as she spoke he had moved in a heartbeat to where she stood and twisting his hand into her dripping hair, forced her head back. He traced her throat with a filthy nail and though she stood still, her form was frayed at the edges again. “You will not touch him. We need him and when we do not, he is mine. If you touch him I will feed you to my hounds.”
The Queen watched the exchange eagerly, feeding on the conflict.
“Does it matter if he destroys her?” asked the Lightning King softly, lounging at her side.
“Not now,” she replied. “Better that than that she should destroy Morgan. He is our best chance to control the Stardreamer if we cannot do it through the children.”
The Hunter let Tethys go. She sprang back, hissing like a cat, and fled.
“Where have you been, while Morgan has been killing poor Tethys’ wolves?” The Queen plucked a tendril of lightning from the King’s robe and watched it twist.
“I believe I have found us a gateway into the children’s world,” he replied. “It only remains for someone to invite us to step through it. The barriers there are so thin almost anyone will do …”
***
Kate wasn’t at school the next day. David was distracted in classes, fretting about her, then feeling guilty for not being more worried about Ben. He tried calling and texting her, but could see that visitors might be unwelcome just now.
On the off chance that she might be there – though he would have been surprised if she was – he walked down to the house after school. There was no trace of Kate, but Erda was there, as though she’d never been away, sitting on the kitchen table, eating cereal from the packet.
They stared at each other in silence, Erda with a handful halfway to her mouth.
“Where have you been? We were worried about you.” He took in her appearance, torn, filthy and drawn. “You look terrible. What happened to you?” He knew all too well, of course, but wanted to see what she would say.
She turned the question aside. “Kate’s brother was hurt,” she said, “but he will be better?” It was half-statement, half-question.
“Yes.”
“But what about Kate? Her spirit is hurt by what happened. Where is she? I cannot see her. She is trying not to be.”
“She thinks it was her fault.”
Erda looked distressed. “No! It was my fault – this as well.” She sighed, pushing her tangled hair back from her face.
“Maybe I can bring her to talk to you and you can convince her it wasn’t her fault,” he suggested. “Promise you won’t run away again anyway.”
“Promise?” She looked puzzled. There was no picture in her mind.
He tried to think of a way to explain it, but as he did so he saw comprehension spread over her face.
“Ah … promise. I understand. I will try.”
Well, it was half a promise. Now all he had to do was get Kate.
***
To his surprise, she called soon after he got home, asking him to go round to her house later. He felt very unsure as he rang the doorbell. He must have stood here like this hundreds of times, but tonight he didn’t know what to expect.
Kate opened the door. She looked okay, maybe a bit pale, or maybe he was imagining it.
“Mum and Dad want to say hello and Ben wants to show off his bruises,” she said with a wry smile. “You may as well get it over with now.”
They went into the sitting room and Ruth immediately got up and came over to hug David, much to his embarrassment.
“David, thank you so much for yesterday. You’ve been such a good friend to Kate …” Robert contented himself with nodding in agreement from the sofa, while Ben sniggered at David’s discomfort from behind his mother’s back.
“Look at my bruises!” he yelled a few seconds later.
David had to admit he looked quite impressive, one side of his face – he insisted on showing David his matching body as well – was blotted with scrapes and patches of blue and purple, with a line of paper stitches above one eyebrow where he had cut his head.
He was just as annoying as usual though; if you shut your eyes, everything was completely normal.
As soon as it became possible, Kate and David extracted themselves and took refuge in Kate’s bedroom.
“So,” David said, “I’ve seen Ben’s bruises; how are you?”
“Okay.” She gave a shaky smile. “I keep seeing it happen if I’m not concentrating on something else. The doctor said that’s normal and it’ll go away, but …” She sought for words. “You know, it sort of creeps up on me …” She shook her head as if to clear the vision from it.
“Thanks for last night,” she went on. “I was in such a state I didn’t know what to do. I thought Mum and Dad would hate me for what happened … I couldn’t go home.
“They’re being really nice about it, but it was my fault. Ben could have been killed.”
“But he wasn’t. He’s fine. Anyway, Erda says it was her fault, not yours.”
Kate frowned. “When did you talk to her?”
“After school. She’s back at the house. She wants to see you. She wants to convince you that she’s to blame, not you. We could go round tomorrow.”
Kate looked away suddenly.
“I don’t know … All this stuff Mr Flowerdew said about the Light and Darkness in us – maybe what happened with Ben was the Darkness coming out.”
“Kate, no!” David interrupted. “It was an accident – a straightforward accident. Ben ran into the road.”
“But it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t seen Erda. If I was leading a norm
al life, like everyone else. That’s what I want David, I want to be like everyone else; I don’t want to come and see Erda, I want all that to stop.”
David bit back the words that threatened to spill out and tried to keep his voice level. ‘We are what we are, Kate. Pretending won’t change it.”
“But didn’t Mr Flowerdew say in that letter ‘Do what you think is right?’”
“Yes, but …”
“This is what I think is right. I’m not having anything else to do with Lords or Guardians or Stardreamers. I’ve got a family and friends here and now, they’re more important.”
David thought fast. “You’re right. It’s your decision; but please just come and say goodbye to Erda tomorrow. She feels so guilty about what’s happened.
“You know what that feels like,” he added, turning the knife ruthlessly.
Kate closed her eyes briefly, then gave a resigned sigh. “Promise that if I come you’ll leave me out of all this afterwards?”
“Promise,” lied David.
“All right. I’ll come.”
***
They discussed football on the way. All the school teams, boys and girls, were playing in a tournament against the equivalent teams from their great rivals, one of the other local schools, the next weekend.
“They’re terrible hackers,” said Kate.
“And they’re always taking dives,” David added. “We’ll probably all lose.”
“Brian’ll go spare if we lose again.” Brian was the long-suffering coach of the team Kate played for; one of the dads who inexplicably gave up their Saturday mornings week after week, for no other reward than sometimes seeing their players triumph.
“George won’t be too pleased either. We’ve lost our last three matches.” George was the coach for David’s team and seemed to take every defeat as a personal blow.
They pushed the gate open.
“Are you sure she’s going to be here?”
“No. I hope she is. She said she’d stay.”
Kate opened the door and David called Erda’s name. She came down the stairs. She looked better than she had yesterday, David thought. She’d combed her hair and looked as though she’d had some sleep and she’d changed into cleaner clothes. She looked apprehensive as she approached Kate.
Chaos Quest Page 9
