Hollow Earth (31 page)

‘We liked the yellow-haired man – Arthur,’ said Em, keeping her eyes averted from the easel. ‘My mum liked him, too. I’m sorry he died.’

Tanan smiled. ‘Sweet. That day in the museum, Arthur Summers betrayed the Hollow Earth Society, despite the sacred vows he had taken to uphold our aims.’

The Hollow Earth Society
. Em tried to remember exactly what her mum and Vaughn had said. The artist Duncan Fox had founded it to protect Hollow Earth, assuming there was such a place – which, frankly, still sounded insane.

Tanan was still talking. ‘Summers told Wren about you animating into the painting, and then warned your mother what he had set in motion. Between the Council of Guardians’ efforts to retrieve you and Renard’s protection here in Auchinmurn, we lost you before we had a chance to use you. For his incompetence, he died.’

Tell Zach to be ready, Em. And I need a major distraction.

Zach, be ready.

Zach braced himself against the wall, not sure what to expect.

Without closing her eyes, Em let her worst fear churn in her stomach. The one thing she’d kept away from her imagination for days now. The terror charged into her head, a loud drumming sound, building and building until her dread freely manifested itself around her.

With a thunderous crack, the studio doors snapped open, and a raging river burst in. Torrents of icy cold water gushed in through the seams in the plastered walls, and jets shot up from the fissures in the slate floor. The deluge from every crack and crevice was so fast and so strong that the room was knee-deep in water within seconds.

Tanan was flipped against the kiln, his head slamming into its control panel. The easel wobbled on its three legs, as the ground shifted beneath it. ‘My painting!’ he screamed.

Mara was knocked off her feet, as she tried to get across the room to the children. Without seeing exactly what he was drawing, Matt trusted his hand was following his mind’s eye. Next to Matt, Zach was using his body as a barrier.

Em, what on earth did you do?

I thought … about how Mum might never come back. That she might be gone for ever.

Tanan held the painting high above his head, as the rising water swirled around him, angrier than ever. ‘Get her under control, Mara!’

Mara lunged at Em, grabbing her shoulders and ducking her under the water. Em gasped and choked.

Em, it’s okay. Make the water stop.

Em tried to settle her dreadful fear the best way she knew how – by imagining her mum watching a movie with her, helping her decorate her new bedroom, the soft lilt of Sandie’s voice echoing in her head. And in an instant, the waters receded.

Dripping wet and unable to contain his fury, Tanan grabbed Mara’s arm, shoving her to the floor next to Em. ‘They were supposed to be prepared for this. We need her imagination clear if she and her brother are to do what we want. Cut her loose!’

Mara reached down to cut off the plastic tie that bound Em to Zach. She stopped, turning white as she realized what had just happened.

Zach was missing.

‘Where is he?’ she screamed at Matt, shoving Em against the wall.

Tanan grabbed a blade from one of Mara’s worktables and lunged at Matt, who instinctively covered his head with his arms. Em gasped, struggling to free herself from Mara’s painful grip.

Tanan yanked Matt upright, cutting the plastic tie around his wrist to see the wall behind him more clearly. The ties that had bound Zach cracked under his foot. He stared in disbelief at the residue of two etchings carved into the stone. The first was a roughly drawn cat-flap – just wide enough for a tall, thin boy to crawl through. And next to it, an etching of a crude pair of scissors.

‘You are going to be very sorry you did that,’ said Tanan, dragging Matt over to the easel where
Witch with Changeling Child
shimmered in the deepening shadows of the day.

SIXTY-TWO

Z
ach squeezed himself out through Matt’s imagined hole in the wall, sprinted across the lawn – then suddenly stopped. Darting back to the kitchen he grabbed his watch, his backpack and a set of keys from the pegboard in the utility room, before hurrying to the boathouse, where he pulled the tarp from the Abbey’s speedboat.

Sorry Dad, wherever you are. You can take away as many computer privileges as you want after this day is over.

Zach slowly reversed out of the slot in the boathouse, pointed towards Era Mina and gunned the throttle.

Tanan threw Matt to the studio floor in front of the painting. ‘I’ve not spent the last ten years of my life pretending to support Sir Charles Wren’s views on the Council so that two kids can trick me out of my destiny.’

Mara dragged Em next to her brother, tore a sheet of paper from a pad on her worktable and began sketching. Iron bars shot out of the floor, inches from the twins, circling them, then morphed two feet above their heads into a massive steel lock. Huddling together for warmth, the twins felt like terrified birds.

‘Em, come over to the bars,’ said Mara.

Do it, Em. We need to give Zach time to get to the island. Without us, he actually has to row across the bay this time.

‘Hands through, please.’

After snapping another plastic tie on to Em’s wrists, Mara did the same to Matt. Outside, a boat engine roared to life. Tanan rushed to the door just in time to see Zach crashing through the waves toward Era Mina.

I guess Zach isn’t rowing after all.

Tanan stormed back to stand in front of the painting. For a few minutes, he simply stared at it, rubbing his temples, lost in thought. Then he pulled out his notebook and began to draw. In a burst of yellow light, the changeling leaped from the crone’s lap and out of the painting, scuttling across the floor to the cage, where it leaned close to Em. She struggled to pull herself away from its foul, icy breath. Close to her ear, the dwarfish creature snapped its jagged teeth up and down, up and down, then scampered out of the door.

Warn Zach!

Acting on Matt’s urgent advice, Em sent out a telepathic warning, repeating it in her mind over and over again every few seconds. No reply. What if something had already happened to him? Did he really know how to drive that boat?

He’ll be okay, right?

When he gets to Vaughn, he’ll be fine.

‘What are we going to do about Zach?’ Mara asked Tanan, sounding tense.

‘He’s no longer a concern. When he gets to the island, he’ll be shocked to discover that Vaughn has had a nasty accident. Then he’ll have one too.’

The caladrius’s vision slammed into the twins’ minds at the same time. Tanan knew about Vaughn.

I’m going to be sick.

No, Em, you’re not. We’re going to do as they ask until we think of a way to get ourselves out of this cage. When we do, we’ll get to Era Mina to help Zach and Vaughn. Now think!

Tanan flipped his hood up over his head. ‘Can you handle them on your own for a few minutes?’

‘Of course,’ Mara said. ‘But where are you going?’

‘To Sandie’s studio,’ Tanan replied. ‘I left something there for safe-keeping the night Blake and I broke in to get the satchel for Wren.’ He looked at the twins. ‘I believe it’s time that you were formally introduced to your father.’

SIXTY-THREE

E
m’s instincts had been right. Drops of sweat trickled down her spine. Her hands were clammy, and the drumming in her head had returned in full force.

I knew it! This all has something to do with Mum and Dad.

I know. I know
…

Matt needed to think this through for himself. He slouched back against the bars, his fury now fusing with his fear over what the next few minutes might bring.

The strange notion that their father was somehow next door could mean only one of two things. The first was that he had come to help them find their mother, and that Tanan and Mara had taken him prisoner. The second option was much more chilling, but if Matt was being honest with himself, it seemed more likely. Their dad was part of Tanan and Mara’s plan, somehow hiding in Sandie’s studio, biding his time until he could use his very own children to achieve some mysterious, shared goal.

Mara repositioned the painting near the studio doors, leaving an empty board on the easel with its clamps hanging loose. The old crone’s lap was now empty, her hands clutching her ragged robes instead of wrapped around the creature. Em could swear that she could hear the witch weeping through the dreadful drumming in her head.

We need to animate something before Tanan gets back, Matt. He seems be stronger than Mara.

The twins were silent for a while, watching Mara wrap some of her glass pieces and set them into packing boxes stuffed with straw.

We need to copy something. It’ll be easier to animate.

We’d still need to draw it. We’re all out of paper and pencils.

Em glared at her brother across the cage.

So we’re giving up?

Mara and Tanan were very powerful together; they had put Renard in a coma and done something terrible to Simon. But Em knew that their mum would want them to try to find a way out of their predicament. She would not want them to stop trying.

Matt burst out laughing.
I love it when you think like Mum
.

‘What’s so funny?’ asked Mara, stopping her packing. She checked the room, clearly afraid that the twins had animated something behind her back.

The scent of fish and seaweed wafted into the studio through the open doors. Matt stared out at the Abbey’s north tower, at the ever-present flock of seagulls perching on the balustrades, at the Abbey’s two flags snapping in the evening breeze. And he had an idea.

Tanan was coming back. The twins heard his footsteps on the stones outside. Em’s body tensed. Matt sat up straight.

Tanan was carrying an airtight aluminium tube, the kind artists used to protect their unframed canvases from damage. The twins looked at the tube in confusion. Their mum had given it to Violet before they fled the London flat. So why was it here?

What had Mara said?
Blake found something important at the house in Raphael Terrace the morning that you fled London. It didn’t take much for her to take it from that old woman, Violet. She didn’t quite appreciate what it was at the time, and to be quite honest, nor did we …

Dry-mouthed, Em looked at her brother.

Be ready, Em
.

SIXTY-FOUR

M
att realized the significance of the tube as soon as Tanan broke its thick wax seal and withdrew a tightly rolled canvas. His idea for escape was sidelined in an instant.

Dad’s bound in that picture, Em! I bet they want us to release him somehow. Can you sense him? Do you hear anything? Feel anything?

Em shook her head very slightly at her brother, who was struggling to contain his excitement.
Nothing
.

Tanan carried the canvas over to the easel recently vacated by
Witch with Changeling Child
, placing each corner reverently under the clamps. With their backs to the children, the two adults stood in front of the painting as if it were an artefact on a religious altar. They stood there for so long that the twins thought – hoped – they’d been forgotten.