Second Night (19 page)

‘So where is he now?' asked Alan.

‘He could be anywhere.'

‘We'll have a look upstairs first.'

They found Caz lying unconscious on the bed beside the spear. The cloak had been arranged to cover him. There were signs of a struggle in the room. Saucepans and bits of food were scattered over the floor and on the table. The tray was upside down on the mat beside the bed. The round window was wide open and a long, black wing feather had been dropped on the ledge. The runes, inked in bold black on sunset-coloured sheets of orange, turquoise blue, clear red and amethyst paper, glowed around the walls. The atmosphere was potent with the aftermath of visitation.

Growling deep in his throat, with the hair stood up in a ridge along his back, Blue sniffed warily at Caz's left hand. It was curled into a tight fist and hanging down over the side of the bed.

‘What's happened?' asked Daisy fearfully. ‘What's the matter with Blue? Why's he taking on like that at young Caz?'

Alan signed to the dog to lie down and picked up the wing feather, examining it under the light and sniffing at it. He felt Caz's forehead and pulled back the cloak to look at his neck. As he had expected, all the dreadful bruising and swelling he had been told about was gone. His skin was pale and clear. The pulse was strong but very slow. He leant over him. ‘Caz, wake up! Come on now! It's time to get up!' There was no response. Alan tried shaking him. ‘Hey, Caz! Wake up!'

Daisy started to cry. ‘I can't bear to see him like this. Why won't he respond?'

‘What can we do? Shall we call the doctor?' asked John.

‘There's no need for that yet,' Alan replied. ‘We'll keep an eye on him ourselves. I reckon he'll be out of it before long.'

‘And if he isn't?'

‘We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.' He prised a small wooden rune counter out of Caz's left hand. It was blank on both sides. ‘I don't doubt this has something to do with whatever went on last night.'

‘What shall I tell his mother?' moaned Daisy. ‘She's going to be working in the office this morning. All that new furniture's being delivered today.'

Alan looked from one to the other. ‘It's a question of loyalty, apart from anything else. This time we're all of us best telling her we haven't seen him and that he hasn't been here.'

‘We'll have no choice but to call the doctor if he hasn't come round by sundown,' said John.

Daisy choked. ‘Please don't let it come to that.'

Her husband put an arm around her shaking shoulders. ‘We'll get it sorted out, don't you fret now, old Dark-eyes. It won't help having you getting yourself into a bad state as well.'

‘But look at him!' she cried. ‘Look at his clothes! He's filthy dirty! We can't leave him like this!'

‘We won't,' said Alan. ‘Go downstairs, Dais, and get the kitchen sorted and the breakfast on the go before anyone else gets in and catches us out. John, you give me a hand to get him cleaned up.'

‘I'll fetch up some water and clean towels,' said John. ‘And then we'd better all go and have a quiet word with the Master.'

The telephone was ringing before Daisy reached the bottom of the stairs. She went to the office to take the call, terrified that it would be Maddie on the end of the line.

‘Meane Manor House,' she said quietly.

Maddie didn't recognise the small and uncertain voice. ‘Is that you, Daisy? Are you all right?'

Daisy pulled herself together. ‘Oh, I just had a bit of headache in the night. I'm a bit shaky this morning, that's all.'

‘I'm sorry. I hope it gets better soon.'

‘I expect it will. When are you coming in?'

‘I'll be up as soon as I've done the bus run. Have you seen Caz this morning? He's not here and he's going to be late again. We're going to have the school truancy officers around here before long. I just know it.'

‘He's not been in this morning,' said Daisy carefully. ‘He's usually long gone by now but I'll scoot him along double quick if I see him.'

‘Thanks. I just hope he turns up before we have to leave.'

‘I'm sure he will.'

Daisy walked back to the kitchen, folding her hands together tightly to make them stop shaking. She filled a bucket with hot water and found the scrubbing brush, then started to clean the floor.

CHAPTER 32

Caz passed slowly from deep unconsciousness into restful sleep. Just before he woke up, he began to dream. He was floating on an ocean of air moving and whispering like the eddying of the sea. His arms were gigantic wings, gleaming black and iridescent blue as he spread them out under the sun. Swooping and tumbling, he went soaring up into the dizzying heights over great mountains of cloud, revelling in the glorious freedom of the open skies.

Another great bird with luminous, blue-black eyes flew at his side. The raven plunged downwards in a breathtaking dive, calling him to follow. Together they skimmed the tops of gigantic trees in a great forest without end, until he spied the glittering of sunshine on water between the branches. Swooping low over the shining surface of a wide lake, he saw that he had no reflection in the water.

How will I eat if I have no substance
? he wondered.

He opened his eyes and lay looking at the late afternoon sunlight slanting across the sloping ceiling over his head. He realised he was naked. The bed covers had been tucked tightly all around him and a little leather bag left on the bedside table. He opened it and poured the runes out over the coverlet, counting them and turning them over. The thin bark was still green around the pale wooden counters, cut from a single shoot high up on the great oak tree on a midsummer morning more than two years before. The runes, burned into the mummified flesh of the tree, were stained black with old blood. There were thirty-two of them. The missing rune had been returned. He gathered them up, passing them from hand to hand, marvelling at the feeling of them being complete.

He poured them back into the bag and ran a hand through his hair. It felt lank and sticky, and he had day-old stubble on his chin. He jumped out of bed and found a t-shirt and underwear in a drawer. His old work jeans were laid over the back of the chair where he had left them. The leather trousers and tunic he had worn the day before were missing. The cloak was clean and hanging on a coat hanger behind the door with the black leather belt and scabbard.

Daisy must have washed it while I was asleep
.
So where's my other stuff? I hope she didn't wash that too.

He dressed and ran barefoot down the turret stairs.

Daisy lay back in the old cook's chair with her feet on a stool and a wet flannel over her aching eyes. The kitchen was warm. The fire door was open on the range and the usual, formidable array of saucepans was bubbling reassuringly at the back of the hob.

As my good mother slept the last sweet afternoons of her life,
she remembered.
And now I‘m sitting here doing the same, after a day worse than anything I can remember in years. All that acting brave and normal through lunch and admiring the new office, and all the time my old ticker pounding in my chest like a drum fit to wake the dead.

She had slipped upstairs to lie down on her parents' old bed in the housekeeper's flat during the afternoon, hoping that a proper rest would help but it hadn't done any good. The tears kept trickling and filling her ears every few minutes, so that she had to sit up and wipe them away with her handkerchief before they stained the pillow. When the handkerchief was soaked through, she went downstairs for another one. By then it wasn't worth thinking about resting when there was so much still to be done for when young Caz finally got up.

She whipped the flannel off her face the minute she heard the familiar step on the stairs, dropping it out of sight on the floor when he came into the kitchen.

‘Are you feeling all right?' she asked.

He went straight to the biscuit box. ‘Yes.' He looked surprised. ‘Why shouldn't I be?'

‘But you've been asleep all day.'

He grinned. ‘I must have had a tough night. What's for supper?'

She frowned. ‘Don't you remember anything about getting back here last night?'

‘Not much. I thought I lost something up at Thunderslea but I found it when I woke up.' He went to the sink and lathered a handful of soap into his scalp. The hot water running through his hair was bliss. ‘Ah, that's better.'

Daisy threw him a towel. ‘Here, use this!' she said sharply. ‘Don't you be shaking your head around like a puppy dog dripping in my kitchen!'

He laughed and ate the rest of the biscuits out of the box. ‘I need a shave.'

‘Well, that's something I can't help you with. Will you be needing your coffee? Or is it getting a bit too near day's end for that?'

‘I'd rather eat.'

She got up to fetch the cake tin. ‘Have a sort through that while you're waiting.' The expression in her brown eyes was sceptical, boring into him over her glasses. ‘Are you sure you're all right? Don't you think you'd be better taking things easy for a couple of days?'

He tapped a finger playfully on the end of her nose. ‘And miss the gig tomorrow night? Jas'd kill me!

CHAPTER 33

Lauren pushed through the alien mass of tangled ghosts, ghouls and vampires crowded in front of the stage, glad she had decided to change her costume. Whatever had put the idea into her head when she woke up that morning ensured that she was the only gorgon in the house.

Exchanging the costume and getting it express-delivered by courier had used up the last of her monthly allowance, but it was amazing, even better than it had looked online. The dress was gorgeous, gathered by a broad gold band under a deep cleavage and black, which was a good thing because otherwise it would have looked completely transparent. The wig was long, made of real hair and dyed black to match the dress.

The serpent crown was really cool. The snakes were gold and black and had little red glass eyes that shone in the light. The whole thing fixed at the back of her head with an invisible clasp under the wig. A pair of snake armbands and her nails varnished black completed the outfit that would be just the thing to complement what she guessed Caz would be wearing.

We'll make the most perfect couple in town,
she thought happily.

There was no mistaking the identity of the devil contorting himself over the console. Jasper wore a jester's hat and conducted the music with a trident, occasionally gesturing to an anonymous, black-cloaked skeleton adjusting plugs and cables on the bank of speakers stacked up on the platform behind him. A purple-lipped vampire, with long blue hair and looking a lot like Gin, stood at the skeleton's elbow.

It has to be Loz
, Lauren decided.
So where's Jem?

Tristan was barely disguised as a lank-haired ghoul with dripping fangs. He was playing mute guitar into the headphones squashing the hat of the blue witch perched on the magic mushroom stool next to him. The witch's eyes were closed.

Lauren tried shaking her. ‘Mel! Mel! Where's Caz?'

The witch shook her head dreamily. The ghoul played on. Lauren scrambled up onto the stage, getting her crown caught up in a web hanging down from the ceiling. The skeleton disentangled the trapped serpents while the vampire brushed the clinging threads away from the gorgon's long black wig. Gin's voice was sly in Lauren's ear.

‘Hello, birthday girl, has your date arrived yet?'

‘No!' Lauren grabbed the skeleton's arm, shouting to make herself heard over the music. ‘Loz! Have you seen Caz?'

‘No!'

‘Where's Jem?'

‘How should I know?'

‘What's she wearing?'

Gin answered for him. She sounded smug. ‘Check out the rest of the club in the kitchen. Jem's the green witch, the same as last year. Sara's the black one. The others are vampires.'

‘Okay, I'll find her.'

She bumped into Shriek, who was looking exactly like herself except that her hair stood out stiffly on end all over her head. A half-hearted vampire without fangs stood next to her looking bored.

‘Hey! Good to see you both! You forgot your teeth, Jen! And where's your costume, Shriek?'

‘I'm a shriek, ‘ explained Shriek, pointing to her head.

Lauren hugged her. ‘Come and meet my cousin Robbie. He's over here on vacation.'

She steered them towards a geeky looking boy with glasses and spots and a camera hung on a strap around his neck. He had been sitting alone on a sofa taking pictures until a giggling vampire, in an orange dress with lips and fangs to match, tipped her drink over him and fell at his feet in the arms of a green goblin. Geek boy pointed the camera at the floor. Jen rolled her eyes and wondered why she was there.

‘Bry was right,' she muttered. ‘This is a total waste of time!'

Jemima was mixing fruit punch in the kitchen, attended by a tall, black-haired zombie. Sara was assembling the birthday cake with Julia. Kerys was stacking the dishwasher.

‘Why aren't you all out there enjoying yourselves?' Lauren demanded. ‘I didn't invite you here to work! Kerys! Leave it, I tell you!'

‘It's all part of the service,' she said.

‘Where's Hayley?'

‘She's currently working on improving international relations with a green goblin,' said Julia.

Lauren shrieked. ‘That was Hayley? I don't believe it! Has anyone seen Caz?'

‘He just came in,' said Jemima.

‘So where is he?'

‘I think he's with the band.'

‘He can't be! I was just there!'

‘Are we good for cake?' asked Sara.

Lauren backed through the door. ‘We're good for cake!' She waved to the zombie. ‘Glad you could make it, Julien!'

A cloaked figure dressed in black and wearing long leather boots, was helping the skeleton drag more equipment on to the stage. The cloak shone deep iridescent blue under the lights. Lauren tapped him on the shoulder. A totally white face with black stained lips and eye-sockets stared down at her. The black mouth opened in a rictus grin, apparently toothless and gaping. She beat her fists on his chest.