by Garth Nix
‘What happened to her?’ asked Jaide.
His face fell.
‘That was a long time ago,’ was all he would say. ‘What’s done is done, and best put behind us.’
‘David?’
He looked up when Grandma X called his name, and she waved to indicate that he should come over.
‘And now I’m going to forget it all over again,’ he told the twins. ‘It’s a relief, frankly. I feel better knowing that you’ll remember – and I’ll be grateful to both of you if you say nothing to remind me, afterwards.’
They stared at him, stunned, and nodded, one at a time.
‘Thank you.’
He strode heavily to join their grandmother, who whispered into his ear too softly for anyone else to hear.
‘Something terrible must have happened to Lottie,’ whispered Jaide.
‘Maybe she died,’ said Jack. ‘Or The Evil took her.’
‘Like Rodeo Dave’s sister.’
‘And Dad’s brother.’
They stood with their heads together, both struck by the same terrible thought.
All the Wardens they knew had been twins, just like Jack and Jaide. All of them had lost a sibling. Now they were all alone.
‘What are the odds of that?’ Jaide asked.
Jack shook his head, remembering something The Evil had told them when it had killed the previous Living Ward.
One always falls. Thus it has always been, and thus it will always be.
Could this have been what it was talking about?
‘No more secrets,’ said Jaide in her most determined voice. ‘From now on we make Grandma tell us about our family, about The Evil, about being troubletwisters . . . everything.’
Jack nodded, although he suspected that convincing Grandma X to do this might be the hardest thing they had ever attempted.
The rain was easing off. Somewhere nearby, a frog was croaking. The flashing lights of a police car were coming up the drive. Together, Jack and Jaide went down the hill to where the others were waiting.
Trouble is coming . . . The Evil must be contained.
COMING SOON
Go to
www.troubletwisters.com.au
to discover more about the exciting
world of Troubletwisters!
Garth Nix
GARTH NIX was born in Melbourne, grew up in Canberra, and has lived in various parts of Sydney for the last twenty-four years. None of these moves were because he blew his house up with uncontrolled troubletwister Gifts. However, Garth did learn to blow things up when he was much younger and served as a part-time soldier in an Assault Pioneer platoon of the Australian Army Reserve. He also learned the importance of ancient texts when he worked as a bookseller, book sales representative, book editor and literary agent. These were his day jobs while he was also writing at night, utilising his Gift of night vision to save on electricity bills. Despite constant international Warden tasks to keep The Evil contained, Garth has somehow also found time to write more than twenty books, including the bestselling Keys to the Kingdom series and the Old Kingdom Trilogy, numerous short stories and other works. He has two troubletwisters of his own, but no Warden Companion cats, though he does live with a couple of budgies who know too much. More information can be found in A Compendium of The Evil or, perhaps more easily, at www.garthnix.com.
Sean Williams
SEAN WILLIAMS was born in a small coastal town that no one has ever heard of. No, not Portland, but his father’s family did come from the Portland in Victoria, where Sean first read The Lord of the Rings. That formative experience led him to write stories of his own, and he has spent most of his life since doing exactly that, producing forty novels and collections, eighty shorter works, and several disreputable poems in quick succession. If he has a particular Gift, it is to write through pretty much anything, even attacks of the hairy spiders that often infest his study, and so swiftly that some of his books appear to have been finished before they were started (rather suspiciously). He lives in Adelaide, South Australia, where he likes to DJ at the odd party and to cook the even odder brussels-sprout curry – Gifts his wife and family probably wish he didn’t exercise quite so often. Details of further exploits can be found at www.seanwilliams.com.
