Chaos Quest

by Gill Arbuthnott

  “We only just found out about ourselves,” replied David. “We found a letter from Mr Flowerdew – the Guardian – a few days ago that told us.”

  “But this is … only those like us can pass through the Doors or have the strength to fight for one side against the other. Did he not tell you when you fought with the Guardians before?”

  Kate shook her head. “No. I think he was trying to protect us from knowing about the Darkness inside us. Have you known all your life?”

  “Almost. My mother told me when I was ten.” He told them the tale of the Traveller at the Ford.

  Wide-eyed, Kate asked, “How have you coped, knowing that about yourself?”

  He shrugged. “By not letting it shape me. We all inherit something from our parents, but in the end, we make ourselves. The Darkness need not control us, any more than the Light. Think of your parents; at least one of them must be like you in this, maybe both. Your small brother too, Kate.” He gave a thin smile. “There are more of us than you think.”

  Kate was deep in thought, but David fidgeted, anxious to ask a quite different question.

  “Has Erda gone back to the stars. Can you tell?”

  “She has not gone yet. She is far away in this world, moving fast. She said she wanted to see everything. I think she will come back once she has looked at your world again.”

  A melancholy descended on them and they sat in silence for a while before Morgan roused himself and went to get his clothes, already almost dry in the morning sun. David looked at his watch.

  “It’s half past nine. School will be trying to get hold of our parents to find out why we’re not there.”

  “They’ll be livid.”

  “Or worried.”

  Morgan came back in, looking more troubled than ever.

  “Can you feel it? The Lords are gathering. The house will not be easy for them to find, but they are drawing closer. They follow the trail of Erda’s power. We must be ready for them: the house must stay safe until Erda has escaped. After that … I do not know what will happen to us.”

  “How can we stop them getting into the house?” asked David.

  “I don’t think they can break down doors or force their way in in any way unless Erda releases all her power. At first they will try to persuade or frighten or trick their way in. We must refuse, whatever form they take. The inside of this house is the safest place there will be once the battle begins, but I do not know what will happen to the world outside when the Hunt comes. For those nearby it will be terrible.”

  David checked his watch again. Dad and Christine would be at work by now, away on the other side of town, Kate’s mum too, and her Dad was working on a job in Longniddry, down the coast.

  “At least our families …” he began, and than saw Kate’s stricken face.

  “Ben…”

  DUST DEVILS

  Ben’s school wasn’t even four hundred yards from the house. He certainly wasn’t safe.

  “I have to go and get him,” said Kate.

  “What?” said Morgan, disturbed from some thought of his own.

  “My little brother. He’s in school, just along the road. He’s too close to be safe if things go badly. I’ve got to go and get him and bring him to the house. He’ll be safer here, won’t he?”

  “Perhaps.” He still seemed distracted. “If you mean to go, you must do so quickly. Soon it will be impossible… to leave.”

  She nodded and took a deep breath. “I’ll go now. Will you come with me David?”

  “No.” Morgan cut off David’s reply. “Someone must stay here.”

  “But you’ll be here,” said David.

  “I have to leave.”

  “What?”

  “You can’t leave us.”

  “I must. I think Erda has misled us. She doesn’t mean to come back here – remember, she said she didn’t think she’d see you again.”

  “Then where …?”

  “I think she is going to the Heart of the Earth. I have to go there to try and stop whatever is about to happen.”

  “Can’t you wait until I come back?”

  “No. I must go now and you should do the same.”

  David fought down a rising sense of panic. “I can’t do this on my own.”

  “You won’t have to. There is still a little time: time for Kate to do this.

  “If Erda has gone to the Heart of the Earth it is even more important that the Lords do not enter this house. If they get in they will pour through the Door to the Wildwood. You must hold them back.” He started up the stairs. “Believe in yourselves. You have already shown you have the strength to do this.” He paused and looked back at them. “I will do my best to bring Erda back and to come back myself. Good luck.”

  David went with Kate to the front door. They opened it a little and looked out, not knowing what to expect.

  Though the street was deserted, everything seemed more or less normal except for the light. A reddish-brown haze seemed to hang in the air, like mist or smoke. Kate looked at David’s pinched face.

  “I have to try and save Ben. If something happened to him that I could have stopped I’d never be able to forgive myself.”

  He nodded. “Don’t be long.”

  She set off at a run.

  ***

  As soon as she left the protection of the front garden, she realised that things were far from normal. The air seemed thick and heavy and left a metallic taste in her mouth when she breathed it in. There was no one else out in the street at all, so far as she could see. She jogged along as best she could, trying to keep fear at bay.

  She found that the oppressive feeling around her lessened as she moved away from the house. When she looked back it was a blurred image in the rusty air, the centre of the disturbance. She turned her mind to how she was going to get Ben out of school. What if the teacher wouldn’t let her take him? She’d just have to find a way somehow. This time she wouldn’t let him down.

  ***

  In the house, David watched Kate’s receding figure. He felt very alone and completely at a loss as to what to do. For something to occupy a few minutes he went round the house locking all the windows and closing and fastening the shutters, except in the bedroom above the front door from where he would watch for Kate’s return. He didn’t imagine that window locks were likely to be any sort of defence against what was going to be trying to get in, but it was less unbearable than waiting, doing nothing.

  When he’d finished he went to his watching place. In the rusty air outside, little spirals of dust were beginning to coalesce here and there.

  ***

  By the time Kate reached the school, the air looked almost normal and the weight that seemed to press on her had lessened. She paused for a second at the door and looked back, but there was no sign of anyone or anything following her. She pressed the buzzer and waited to be let in.

  “Yes?” the secretary’s voice, distorted by the intercom.

  “It’s Ben Dalgliesh’s sister with a message for him.”

  “All right.”

  She heard the lock click and pushed the door open and forced herself to smile at the faces in the office as she went past. As she took the stairs two at a time she cursed the fact that Ben’s classroom was at the very top of the building, just under the eaves.

  At the top she stopped to catch her breath before she knocked on the door. Oh well, here goes. She didn’t have much of a plan but she wasn’t going to come up with anything better in the next few minutes.

  “Come in.”

  She pushed the door open and went in smiling.

  “Sorry to disturb you. Could I have a quick word with Ben please? There’s a change of plan for who’s picking him up this afternoon.”

  “Yes, of course, but shouldn’t you be in school, Kate?” Trust her old teacher, Mrs Henderson, to ask.

  “Mum’s taking me to the dentist. She’s outside in the car. She couldn’t find a parking space, so she sent me up.”

&nb
sp; Mrs Henderson made a sympathetic noise. “The parking’s ridiculous around here. I hardly ever get a space near the school. Go on then, no problem.”

  “Thanks. I’ll just explain outside the door so I don’t disturb your class too much.”

  Ben looked baffled. Kate smiled brightly at him. “Come outside for a minute, Ben, so I can talk to you.” As soon as the door shut behind them she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the stairs. “Come on Ben. You have to come with me. It’s really important.”

  “What? You said you wanted to talk to me.”

  She started down the stairs, still gripping his hand so that he had no alternative but to follow her.

  “Stop it, Kate.” His voice was rising. “Where are we going?”

  She paused for a moment. “It’s a surprise. To make up for the car hitting you. I’m taking you on a special adventure.”

  His eyes widened. “Cool,” he breathed. “What is it?”

  “It’s a secret. You’ll see soon, but we have to hurry.” She started down the stairs again and this time he kept up with her willingly. “Ben, keep quiet while we go past the office. Let’s see if we can get past without them noticing. Like spies.”

  He nodded, ripe for adventure now.

  Expecting every second to hear Mrs Henderson’s voice high above them, Kate pushed Ben past the open office door and tiptoed after him, then eased the front door open as quietly as possible.

  They were out. She heaved a sigh of relief. So far, so good.

  “Kate, why is everything that funny colour?”

  She turned from the door, a cold knot in the pit of her stomach. The air was full of reddish particles, like clay dust or very fine sand. She tried to keep her voice light as she said, “Isn’t that strange? Maybe it’s a sandstorm. Come on, we need to go quickly.”

  “Don’t be stupid. You don’t get sandstorms here. Where are we going anyway?”

  She grabbed his hand again and pulled him along at a half run. “Wait and see. It’s not far.”

  The dust was forming spirals, like tiny whirlwinds.

  “Wow, look at that!”

  The little dust spirals were merging, growing larger as they did so.

  “Come on, Ben, go a bit faster.”

  He picked up the note of worry in her voice. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. We just don’t want to be late, that’s all.”

  There was a single dust spiral now, tall as a man and moving in parallel with them on the other side of the road. Kate felt fear begin to beat in her blood. The thickening air seemed to slow their movements and to press on her chest so that it was difficult to breathe. She forced her way on, Ben trailing at her side, eyes fixed on the whirling dust.

  They were only a couple of hundred metres from the house now, but it seemed very far away in the murky light. She thought she could make out David’s figure at one of the windows. At her side, Ben gasped and gripped her hand hard.

  “Kate, what’s that? What’s happening? I don’t like it. Make it go away.”

  As he spoke, the whirlwind of dust overtook them and from it, something began to emerge, as though shaping itself out of the dust.

  It most closely resembled a dog, though it wasn’t one. Larger than a Great Dane, with a rough pelt the colour of the dust from which it was making itself, it eased free of the whirlwind limb by limb. Its eyes were like green lamps, its lolling tongue was scarlet and its yellow teeth were like knives. Spittle trailed from its mouth in long, blood-flecked strings.

  Ben whimpered and pressed himself close to Kate’s side, robbed of speech by fear, but somehow Kate’s brain had passed beyond fear and into some kind of survival state she hadn’t known she possessed.

  The beast was not yet fully formed, one leg and much of its hindquarters still swirling in a cloud of dust. Once it got free it would be between them and the house and they would have no chance. They had to act now.

  “Run!” she yelled to Ben and hauled him off at a sprint past the terrible slavering jaws. As she did so a gleam of light appeared through the gloom as David opened the front door.

  A hundred and fifty metres, all down hill. Could they do it? How long until the beast got free?

  A hundred metres; behind Kate and Ben a dreadful howling.

  “Come on, Ben, there’s David. We can do it,” she gasped.

  She glanced back over her shoulder and realised they couldn’t. The thing was bounding down the hill after them, catching up with every stride. She let go of Ben’s hand.

  “Keep going; I’ll catch up,” she shouted and stopped running. She turned to face the beast. Thirty metres from her it slowed to a trot, unused to having any quarry turn to face it.

  So terrified she could hardly breathe, she glanced around for anything she could use as a weapon. Nothing. Not a stick or a stone. She began to back away slowly. The beast paused, a low rumbling growl rising in its throat. In the gutter lay an old broom handle that someone had put out with the rubbish. Her eyes never leaving the beast, she bent and picked it up with shaking fingers and kept backing.

  She saw the hound gather itself to spring, fangs bared, and fighting down a suicidal impulse to turn and run, gripped the broom handle as tight as she could.

  The beast sprang. Kate screamed and lashed out blindly with her pitiful weapon. She felt it connect and then break and the creature was on the ground, snarling, one ear torn open. Broken in half, the broom handle was now virtually useless.

  Kate realised it would all be over in a few seconds. There was no point running and she couldn’t fight this thing, not alone. Why did nobody come out from the houses to help?

  “Help!” she shouted at the top of her voice. “Somebody help me!” At that moment a swirl of icy wind wound around her like a cocoon and she felt something within her snap and break free.

  The wind whipped away again and she stood alone, facing the beast, but now it was different. She felt something like electricity flooding through her, filling her up to her fingertips. “Go away!” she shouted. “Leave us alone!”

  The hound swung its head this way and that, scenting, puzzled. It growled again but did not spring and made no attempt now to come after her as she moved away slowly, still facing it.

  She noticed other dust clouds whirling and shapes beginning to gather themselves inside. Trying to ignore them, she kept moving, Ben and David’s shouts urging her on until there was the gate and the open door and then she did turn and run, and together they slammed the door shut and collapsed in a heap on the hall floor.

  SIEGE

  “I will do my best to bring Erda back and to come back myself. Good luck,” Morgan had said, looking down at the children’s appalled faces from halfway up the stairs. He turned away from them before he lost his resolve and hurried to the little bedroom where the Door to the Wildwood was hidden.

  Agitated as he was, it took him several attempts before the Door opened into Tisian’s house. He pushed aside the patchwork and immediately felt Erda’s presence somewhere far off in the wood.

  Tisian sat smoking in front of the fire, eyes fixed on him. It looked as though she had been waiting for him.

  “She was here,” she said without preamble. “Showed herself to me properly, sat and talked for a bit. Poor lass. We’ve trapped her properly between the lot of us.”

  “No we haven’t. I’m trying to catch up with her to persuade her to go back to the stars.” He dropped into the chair opposite her. “It was Kate that made me see properly what I was doing, trying to trap her. I don’t want her to go into the Heart of the Earth. I want her to escape and then those of us that can will have to try and put this mess right ourselves.”

  Tisian looked at him, but didn’t speak.

  “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “It seems to me Erda understands things a lot better than you do, lad.”

  He didn’t understand, but there was no time to sit here debating. “Did she say where she was heading?”

 
“Don’t interfere Morgan. Let her be.” Something – was it fear? – moved in Tisian’s eyes.

  “She’s going to the Heart of the Earth. She told you, didn’t she?”

  “Don’t go after her. What can you do, if she’s decided? How can you stop her?”

  “I don’t know, but I have to try. Did she tell you it was the Lords who brought her, not the Guardians? They’re besieging the house on the other side of your Door because they think she’s there. If she goes to the Heart of the Earth they will do something to make her release her power outside it. Even if I wanted her to walk into the fire the risk is too great.”

  Tisian’s face had grown pale. “No, she didn’t tell me, but it makes no difference. They would have tried to do the same if the Guardians had called her.”

  “But the Guardians would have been with her to keep her safe.”

  “Maybe no one can keep her safe but herself.”

  Morgan pushed himself out of the chair. “I have to go. If there is anything you can do to strengthen the Door from this side, do it. We must keep the Lords out for as long as possible.” He pulled Tisian to her feet and gave her a quick, hard hug. “I’ll come back and I’ll bring her with me if I can.”

  He ducked out of the door and set of at a trot towards the Heart of the Earth. From the doorway, Tisian watched him out of sight.

  Standing on the wind in the treetops far away in the Wildwood, Erda listened to what Tisian and Morgan said. She would have liked to spend more time with Tisian, but it seemed that time was one thing she did not have.

  She kept part of her mind trained on Kate and David. David was alone in the house and Kate had gone to the school. The Hunt was drawing close.

  The ones she recognised as the leaders were somewhere else entirely though, trying to blast their way through the barriers around this world using some of the power that, despite her efforts to contain it, now bled from her continuously. She could not wait much longer.