Let the Dance Begin (2 page)

Cassie sighed. ‘Why does everyone have to keep to their separate ways? There’s so much we can learn from each other!’

‘It’s supposed to keep us safe.’ Rubus peeped out at her from beneath his long fringe of sun-bleached hair.

‘Surely you have to feel a bit of danger in order to appreciate being safe? It makes me mad! The only dance I’m good at performing is the Rage Stomp! And I feel one coming on right
now!’

Rubus and Cassie stomped their feet, spun around and around, and chanted:

Cassie swirled around three times, swishing her hair around her head so that Rubus had to duck out of the way. They both stomped furiously and then flopped down, exhausted, on
the beach.

Cassie looked at Rubus. ‘Your dancing’s getting better.’

‘Just don’t tell anyone. I don’t care what we’re meant or not meant to do, but I certainly don’t want the other surf boys teasing me. Your stomp was great,
though!’

Rubus chewed on a piece of sea grass and said in a soft voice, ‘You could always try to get into the dance school. I thought you might want to join the dance school because . . .’ He
paused.

‘Because of my mother,’ Cassie finished. She took a long deep sigh. ‘Marina Marramgrass was the finest prima dune dancer ever. Look at me. I am nothing like her. My hair is
light – like bleached sand. My eyes are blue instead of green and my nose is flat and squidgy as if it has a barnacle on the end. Marina could twist and turn her body in the most amazing ways. My
arms and legs are floppy and have a mind of their own. Everything about my mother was perfect. What is the point in even trying?’ Cassie felt her toes beginning to itch into a rage stomp
again and her eyes prickle with tears.

‘If only she hadn’t gone out that night when the sandstorm struck.’ Cassie chewed her lip and her wings trembled. There was a faraway look in her eyes. ‘I always wonder
what happened to her. No one seems able to tell me.’

Rubus suddenly dropped the stick that he was digging with in the sand. ‘Wouldn’t the dance school be a good place to try to find out what happened that night? Didn’t you say
you once overheard your Aunt Euphorbia telling someone that your mother was heading there that evening? Sandringham Dance School reopening is the perfect opportunity. Didn’t your mother love
the place? You need to go there.’

Cassie’s toes began to tap. ‘Me, at dance school? That is such a ridiculous idea!’

‘But you might find something out!’ Rubus insisted.

‘Like how hopeless I am at dancing,’ Cassie replied. ‘I’d never get in, anyway.’

As she watched the dark clouds knitting a frown across the sun, Cassie was reminded of her aunt’s eyebrows. ‘I’d better be getting back,’ she said.

Rubus looked out to sea. ‘Have you ever wondered what’s out there beyond the sand dunes and the sea?’ His face flickered with feeling, and it seemed to Cassie that his eyes
changed colour in the way that a cloud passing over a rock pool changes it from green to grey.

‘All the time,’ Cassie said as she picked up her sand board and raced back towards Mite Cove.

Chapter Two

‘Follow your heart, be good and kind,
and never pollute the sand.’
The Sands of Time

Cassie squeezed herself through
a small peephole that led back inside Mite Cove. You were not supposed to leave the dune without permission – and you
certainly weren’t supposed to spend unsupervised time with surf boys.

Mite Cove was such a small, isolated place – a dune bug trip away from Silica City, with its vast network of dunes. All there was at Mite Cove was a sand factory where everyone worked sifting
sand, a small square of shopping stalls and thehoneycomb of kutches – as the holes hollowed out of the dune, where the sand sprites lived, were called. Cassie sighed. In a couple of years she would
be expected to work in the factory; every female sprite needed to help restore and repair the dunes.

Cassie often used this peephole, situated in a deserted dune walkway, when she needed to escape – or to hide things. She slipped the sand board on to a ledge and then walked slowly back to the
small kutch that she shared with her aunt. Rubbing some dune sand on her feet and arms to dampen the smell of fresh sea air that clung to her, she tiptoed inside.

Aunt Euphorbia was sitting by the fire snoring. Cassie felt a pang of guilt. All the dishes had been washed and the heavy shutters over the peephole had been closed, and that was really a
two-sprite job. On the table was a slice of wild honey cake and a battered old box.

Cassie took a bite of the cake. All that sand boarding had made her hungry again.

She sat at the table munching and stared at the box. It looked too old and battered to be another birthday present. Was it meant for her? Surely there would be no harm in looking. She flicked
open the box and peered inside. There, wrapped in a delicate gossamer fabric, was a pair of dancing shoes. Cassie carefully took them out. They were a deep red and made of very soft silk. The soles
were worn and the silk was faded.

Euphorbia slowly opened her eyes. ‘They were your mother’s favourite pair,’ she said. ‘I thought you might like them. There are so few things left that belonged to her.
Marina had such tiny feet.’

Cassie held one up. ‘They’d almost fit me now. Perhaps if I wore them I’d be good at dancing.’

Euphorbia’s dark eyebrows knitted together in a big frown. She picked up her walking stick and banged it on the table. ‘Dancing causes nothing but misery and heartbreak. Think
yourself lucky that you are going to be one of the few Marramgrasses who does not go to dance school!’

Euphorbia joined Cassie at the table and she fixed her with her dark brown eyes. She reached out and brushed Cassie’s hair from her face. Her hands were rough from doing too many shifts at
the sand factory.

Cassie held the dancing shoes tighter. She liked the feeling of softness next to her skin. They smelled of roses and sea kelp with a hint of sea breezes – her mother’s favourite
perfume.

Euphorbia watched her carefully as she said, ‘You know Sandringham Dance School will be holding auditions soon. It seems that everyone is full of the news and wants to give it a try.
It’s just as well you don’t like dancing or I would have had to forbid you to go.’

Cassie sat silently, finishing her cake.

Euphorbia smiled. ‘Despite what it says in
The Sands of Time,
being a sand dancer is not so special.’ She took out a handkerchief and blew her nose. ‘You are probably
more like your father. He was a free spirit – and you’re always sneaking off! He was always laughing and joking. He never took anything too seriously.’

‘He was a great sand farer, though,’ Cassie said.

‘The finest. No one could control a sand galleon like he could. He said steering a ship was like wresting a jellyfish with one hand tied behind your back.’ Euphorbia chuckled. Then
her expression changed. ‘He was very brave during the Great Sandstorm. He rescued lots of sand sprites. When he heard Marina was missing he raced off straight into the eye of the
storm.’ Euphorbia’s voice went quiet and she twisted her fingers in her lap before she swallowed and continued. ‘I have not told you this before – it is not something I am proud
of – but you are old enough now to understand how important it is for sand sprites to keep control of their feelings. Your mother and I quarrelled on the night of the sandstorm.’

Cassie felt her skin prickle. Her aunt had never spoken about the Night of the Great Sandstorm to her before, even though Cassie had asked her lots of times. She kept very still and quiet.

‘I lived in Silica City then. You should have seen it before the sandstorm! It was a magnificent place full of large sandstone basilicas and palaces. My leg was aching really badly and
that was always a sign that a storm was coming. I was on my way back from the late shift at the sand factory when I bumped into Marina. She was heading towards Sandringham Dance School. Your father
was delayed so she asked me to look in on you until he returned. I told her I was sure a storm was coming but she was adamant that she had to go.’ Euphorbia looked upset.

‘Why do you think she insisted on going?’ Cassie asked.

‘I’m pretty sure that she was following an order. It must have been one that she dared not ignore – which probably meant it was from the Supreme Sand Sprite. When the Supreme Sand
Sprite orders you to do something . . .’

‘But why would she order Marina to go to the dance school with a storm coming?’ Cassie’s head was spinning with all this new information.

‘Sandrine was a fine dune dancer in those days. She always spent a lot of time at the school. The gossips used to say that even though she was the Supreme Sand Sprite she would have loved
to have taken the role as the prima dune dancer. But Marina was always just that bit better at dancing than she was. They were always fiercely competitive. They even had baby daughters at the same
time!’

‘Anagallis.’ Cassie smiled to herself. She had heard many rumours about Sandrine’s spoiled daughter. Then she gasped. ‘We are known for bearing grudges. Perhaps Sandrine
sent Marina because she was jealous!’

Euphorbia shook her head. ‘Sandrine could be moody and temperamental but I don’t think she was spiteful – although, of course, we can’t be sure.’

The wind rattling the shutters startled them.

Euphorbia checked the shutters and said, ‘Looks like there will be a storm tonight.’

Cassie stood up. ‘I’ll make you a pot of sage tea.’

Euphorbia smiled. ‘My, you
are
growing up! You’ll be choosing to do your own washing and cleaning next.’

Cassie hugged her aunt. ‘I’m not that grown-up
yet!’

As her aunt turned to climb the ladder that led to their snug sleeping kutches, she said to Cassie, ‘The best thing a sand sprite can do is to follow their heart, be good and kind
and never pollute the sand.’

Cassie suddenly felt very determined.

‘I will follow my heart,’ she whispered to herself. ‘I need to find out why my mother went out that night,
and it seems that Rubus was right when he said the dance school would be a good place to start. Euphorbia thinks that Sandrine ordered my mother to go to the dance school. I need to know why. I am
going to go to the auditions!’

Chapter Three

‘When nature calls out to us,
we must dance in reply.’
The Sands of Time

Old Lena Sealovage was
surrounded by a group of eager young sand sprites who were gathered around her market stall in Mite Cove the next day. They
were hanging on her every word.

‘I’ve just come back from Silica City. The auditions will take place at the next full moon, at the palace in the City. The repairs are not quite finished at Sandringham, and besides,
it is very difficult to get to Dreamy Dune because it is so isolated. Candidates must be between eight and fourteen years old. They will be looking for sand sprites who can follow rules, work hard
and, most importantly, who have natural dancing ability. A thorough knowledge of the seven basic steps of dune dancing also is a good start. And if you can throw your feelings into your dancing then
you will definitely be in with a chance. Then again you may have all those qualities and still not get a place.’

‘Why is that?’ a young sand sprite asked.

Lena Sealovage tapped her nose. ‘They are looking for that extra-special something that sets you apart. That elusive grain of sand that can make a true pearl.’

Cassie hung about at the other end of the shopping stalls and tried to look busy as she earwigged on the conversation. She did a quick calculation. The next full moon was in three weeks. That
was not a lot of time to find out about the seven basic steps and to learn them.

‘Are you buying or time-wasting?’ Lena Sealovage grumbled at the crowd. ‘Remember, it’s buy one get one sea pasty free if you can say “She sells sea scones on the
sea shore” three times, faster than me!’ There was a scramble to say the tongue twister and buy pasties and soon there was only one left.

Cassie smiled and turned to leave the market but Lena saw her. ‘Come over here, Cassie, I have something for you.’ She reached underneath the stall and shoved a tatty book towards
her. ‘It is a few scraps of an old exercises book. It explains some of the basic dance steps.’

‘Thank you, but I’m not at all interested in learning about dancing. I’m not going to the auditions,’ Cassie told her. She didn’t want her aunt finding out; she
would only try and stop her.

Lena Sealovage winked and pointed. ‘And this is not a sea pasty! You’re a Marramgrass, aren’t you? Despite what Euphorbia may say, sand dancing is in your blood! And after your
disappearance yesterday, I know you do exactly what you want to, whatever your aunt may say. Take the book and think of it as a late birthday present. Please thank Euphorbia again for inviting me
to your birthday tea party. No need to mention the book.’ She winked again.

Cassie took the crumpled book. ‘Thank you, Lena.’

Lena brushed her away. ‘Now get out of my sight before I change my mind. Don’t want people thinking I’ve gone soft in the head. I could get good money for that book.
‘Then she leaned in closer and whispered in Cassie’s ear, ‘There is more than one way to peel a prawn, Cassandra Marramgrass. Time passes, sands shift and secrets are
revealed.’

‘I hope so,’ Cassie whispered as she felt a tingle on the back of her neck. She longed to find out some secrets at the dance school. She slipped the book into her bag, and then
quickly bought the few things that Euphorbia had sent her to the market for, and raced down to the beach in search of Rubus.

When she told him that she was going to go to the audition he grinned. ‘So you’ve decided to take my advice for once!’

‘Your suggestion did help, but I made my mind up when Euphorbia told me that she had seen Marina on the Night of the Great Sandstorm and that she got the distinct impression that she
had
to go out to the dance school that night – that she was following some kind of order.’