Chaos Quest (10 page)

Morgan drifted in the dark, at peace at last, ready for death. Any second now he would take a breath and his lungs would fill with water and there would be an end of everything …

Someone grabbed his shoulder; a terrible grip that seemed to grind its way into his bones. Whoever it was dragged his head out of the water just as he took his final breath, so that it was part water, but mostly air, and hurled him onto the bank.

As he lay coughing and retching he could hear voices. One, Tethys presumably, shouted, “He killed my wolves; I will have vengeance. Do not interfere.”

The other voice was much quieter, but its sound made Morgan’s skin crawl.

“I warned you not to touch him. I told you what would happen.” There was a sound like the cry of a hunting dog and after a second, answering cries and yelps, like the belling of a pack of hounds. Tethys shrieked, “No!” and Morgan lifted his head and saw, through his soaked lashes, Tethys and the other figure, the one from his nightmares, struggling in the water. Beyond them he could dimly make out shapes, swift and terrible, rushing towards them.

Tethys gave another scream and the pond became a whirlpool. The water boiled around them briefly, then
they were gone.

Morgan let his head drop and lay, gasping for breath. When he was able to sit up he looked at the pond again. It lay tranquil under the morning sun, a swan sailing past the island with unruffled grace.

“What happened?” From somewhere, Erda
appeared
at his side. When he tried to speak he started coughing, so she took it from his mind instead. She sat down with a thump on the bank beside him, her face stricken.

“What is it?” he managed to ask.

“This is my doing.”

“What?”

“The wolves. You killed them to try and keep me safe – and I let you. There was no need; they could not have harmed me. But now, all this because of that … One thing makes so many others happen here. How does anyone dare to do anything at all?”

“Consequences.”

“What?”

“The things that happen because of something else. They’re called consequences.”

She nodded absently. “We must go back to the house now. Kate and David will come soon.” She stood and held out a hand to him and pulled him, with surprising ease, to his feet.

In the Underworld, close to Lake Avernus, the Hunt caught up with Tethys and made an end of her as the
Hunter watched, smiling.

“Maybe they’re not coming,” said Kate, looking out the window again.

“It’s only just gone eight. They’ll be here. Why don’t you sit down?” David tried to sound soothing, but Kate’s nervy pacing was unsettling him too.

“I don’t want to be here. If they don’t come by ten past, I’m going.”

David bit back the urge to yell at her. He couldn’t understand why she was being like this. She must realise as he did, deep down, that once again there was no walking away from this. He decided it was probably best to say nothing.

Kate’s pacing took her back to the window yet again.

“They’re here. What on earth …?” She made for the front door without completing the sentence.

Erda looked upset and Morgan was soaked through, though it wasn’t raining, hadn’t rained in days.

“What happened to you?” asked David. Morgan shook his head.

“Not now. It doesn’t matter.” They obviously didn’t believe that, but accepted it for the moment, to his relief. He found what had just happened frightening enough; he didn’t want to pass that fear on to Kate or David.

They found him some dry clothes and went to hang his wet stuff in the garden. As he dressed, he noticed that his shoulder was already a mass of purple bruises where he’d been dragged out of the water, and when he
caught sight of his face in a mirror he was shocked by how awful he looked; white-faced and grim. He tried smiling, but it looked even worse. Rubbing his aching shoulder, he went to join the others in the kitchen.

It was Erda who had brought them together, so now they waited for her to speak.

“Who brought me here?” she asked, looking from face to face. “Someone called and brought me to the Worlds. Was it one of you?”

“None of us has the power to do that. Only the Guardians of Time or the Lords of Chaos could do that. The Guardians called you down.”

“I have heard you speak of the Lords of Chaos, but who are these Guardians?” They started to explain and soon she had taken enough words from their heads to understand. “I sense them, but they do not know I am here. None are close.”

It took a few seconds for the importance of her words to sink in.

“But they must know you’re here if they brought you,” reasoned Kate.

“Then it cannot be them who called me. It must have been the others.”

Morgan stood up so abruptly that his chair tipped over with a clatter onto the tiles. He walked out of the back door without a word and they stared, baffled, as he stumbled to the other end of the garden like a blind man and finished leaning against a tree.

“What’s wrong with him?” Kate said

“I don’t know. It’s something to do with what Erda just said. Should I go out there?”

Erda laid a hand on his arm and shook her head. “You must leave him. He thought he knew who he was. Now he doubts it.” Her words made no sense at all.

In the garden, Morgan struggled with the horror that threatened to overcome him …

The Guardians had summoned him to search for the Stardreamer. It
must
have been the Guardians. He hadn’t seen them of course … he
never
saw anyone in the Empty Place; they were just presences, without form, but it must have been the Guardians.

You assumed it was them who called you; who used you. You would never let the idea that it might be the Lords into your head, would you
?

What had he done?

“Are you saying it was the Lords of Chaos who brought you here?” asked David, sure he must have got
something
wrong.

“I don’t know. It could not have been these Guardians; even now they do not know I am here. Morgan says the Lords are the only other ones who could have done it.”

“Does that mean you’re really on their side?” It was the question Kate had dreaded asking.

Erda frowned. “I am myself. I am not on anyone’s side.”

In the garden, Morgan stood with his eyes shut, trying to remember …

His mother had told him of his kinship to the Lords and the Guardians, but it was always his inheritance from the Guardians that she spoke of as shaping him …
She would say that, wouldn’t she? She was your mother; she loved you, she wanted to protect you
.

The times he’d been called to the Empty Place and set some task or other by the Guardians he’d never seen anyone of course. He’d just assumed it must be the Guardians, but looking back with the cold eyes of hopelessness, it seemed to him that it could as easily have been the Lords who had sent him on these errands, toying with him for their own amusement.

He sent his mind back to the summons that had set him on this path …

The cold mist of the Empty Place had swirled about him. There had been voices around him, but he could never see the source.

“The Stardreamer must be found and brought to the Heart of the Earth.”

“If the power of the Stardreamer is joined with the Heart of the Earth then the Worlds will be safe. The Dream will hold them safe; but if the power of the Stardreamer is loosed outside, it will destroy the Heart of the Earth and the walls between the Worlds and the Lords of Chaos will triumph utterly.”

He had wanted to believe that the Guardians had summoned him to help save the Worlds. Now it seemed that the Lords had brought him there to trick him into helping destroy them.

“What are you going to do?” It was David who broke the silence that had fallen in the kitchen. Erda didn’t answer. She was watching Morgan make his way back up the garden, shoulders bowed as though he carried a great weight. When he came in he looked at their expectant faces, then spoke.

“You must go Erda. I’ve betrayed you. All this time I thought I was searching for you for the Guardians; that it was them who had called you and whose bidding I was doing. I have been tricked. The Lords have directed everything I’ve done. I didn’t know until I heard what you said just now.

“I’ve failed you all, betrayed you all. All my life I thought I was working for the Light and now I find that the Darkness has claimed me.”

Erda’s expression was unreadable. ‘Would it not have been a betrayal then, if the Guardians had sent you? You searched for me to make me join with the Heart of the Earth. Whichever side sent you only wanted to use me for its own ends.’

“You’re right,” said Morgan. “Of course you’re right. It was
all
a betrayal. You should go now. You must know enough about your power to be able to return to the stars if that is what you want.”

She nodded in agreement. “From this place I could go. I can see the path now where I fell. I could follow it back.”

“I will not stand in your way.”

“But what about the Worlds, the Lords?” gasped David.

“They’re not her responsibility,” said Morgan, “they’re ours. Those of us who live here will have to find a way to save the Worlds, to force the Lords back into the Underworld. The Guardians will help.”

“What will you do, Kate?” Erda said unexpectedly.

“I don’t want to have to do anything,” said Kate slowly. “I want everything to be normal again.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Erda looked from face to face as though trying to fix them in her mind. “I must go now. The Hunt is gathering. The Lords know I am here. Soon they will come. Do not let them find the Door to the Wildwood. Keep the house safe.”

“Will we see you again?” David could hardly get the words out.

“I do not think so. I want to see everything.”

A breeze swirled up from the floor and stroked their faces as it passed and Erda became part of it.

Morgan sat down at the big kitchen table, staring into nothing. In Kate’s mind an urgent curiosity fought with an unwillingness to intrude. Curiosity won.

“You said something about Light and Darkness just now. What did you mean?”

He looked up, surprised. “Surely you know? It is the heritage of the Guardians and the Lords, that you carry too. I am a Child of Light and Darkness, like you.” He saw the look of shock on her face. “You didn’t know?”

“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…”

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.”

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.