Tanglewreck (27 page)

‘I am not. She is here. What good has it done you to half kill her in a bottle? She has not led you to the Timekeeper.’

‘I will find it if it takes me the rest of eternity,’ said Abel Darkwater.

‘That will not be necessary, because I am going to tell you where it is,’ smiled Regalia Mason.

‘WHAT?’ shouted Abel Darkwater.

‘Nothing that you do now will make any difference. The Time Tornadoes have begun. In a few hours – yes, this morning – Quanta will be the official research partner of every Western government. Science has won the day, not magic, though for an advanced civilisation such as Quanta will make
possible, science is indistinguishable from magic.’

Before Abel Darkwater could reply, there was a terrible rumbling and grinding overhead. Great cascades of sand poured into the temple. The walls began to shake and crumble. Regalia Mason and Abel Darkwater were choked with falling sand, and Gabriel chose that moment to leap up from where he had quietly and thoroughly been wriggling out of his bonds. He ran to the alembic. With all his strength he tried to push it over, but it was too heavy for him. Then, through the sand and dust, he heard Toby’s voice.

‘Wazappinin? Bus is up to its armpits in sand out there. Whazzilver doin’ in that jar? Come on, kids!’

The children rushed at the alembic and knocked it to the ground. It didn’t shatter, but Silver had already recovered enough from the cooling of the fire to get out her double-headed axe and smash through the lead seal.

Toby and Gabriel pulled her out as Abel Darkwater came forward, his body glowing like a green fire. ‘STAND STILL, ALL OF YOU!’

This time the command didn’t work.

‘You have interrupted the Opus!’ he shouted.

‘Wot?’ said Toby. ‘You better shut up!’

Abel Darkwater grabbed Silver by the back of the neck, as if she were a rabbit. Small as he was, he lifted her clean off the ground.

‘Tell me now!’ he commanded, his hands and face scaly, his eyes unblinking.

‘I don’t know where it is!’ said Silver, wriggling round in
his grasp, and facing Abel Darkwater, as he blazed at her in his cold flames.

‘Of course you do,’ said Regalia Mason, ‘I no longer wish you to forget.’

It was the day her parents had gone to London. Some friends of theirs were looking after Silver, but they were busy in the kitchen, and Silver, who was seven, was playing a game in the garden when a beautiful woman had appeared before her
.

‘Hello,’ said Silver. ‘Who are you?’

‘I am bringing back something that belongs to you,’ the beautiful woman had said. ‘You will never need it, and you will never find it, but nevertheless it is yours.’ She had taken a wrapped bundle and put it carefully under the …

And suddenly, thinking back to this moment, Silver understood why she had that strange fuzzy feeling in her head whenever she saw Regalia Mason. It was Regalia Mason who had blocked her memory, just as she had blocked Micah’s memory so many years ago. Through Time, she had been the one in control, controlling everything, until the day when she would discover how to control Time itself.

‘It’s at Tanglewreck!’ said Silver, hearing the words come out of her mouth as though someone else was speaking them. ‘Gabriel, it’s at Tanglewreck.’

‘And so I have always believed,’ said Abel Darkwater, dropping her to the floor, ‘if it hadn’t been for that fool Mrs Rokabye …’

‘I may be a fool,’ said a familiar voice like glass breaking, ‘but I have the Hand of the Timekeeper, and I want my share of the money!’

And there she was, Sniveller by her side, holding up the glittering jewelled hand.

‘You stole it from me!’ shouted Silver.

‘How can you steal from a thief?’ asked Mrs Rokabye. ‘This is no more yours than it is mine.’

‘You are wrong there,’ said Regalia Mason, but Mrs Rokabye was taking no notice. She looked round, dusting the sand from her mac.

‘So where is it? The Timekeeper.’

‘It’s at Tanglewreck,’ said Silver.

There was a long pause, while Mrs Rokabye digested this information.

‘I hope you are not going to tell me that I have been all the way to London, and then most unpleasantly down the Walworth Hole to a ridiculous shanty town called Philippi, which is full of scrapyards and Popes, and now here to this awful place called the Sands of Time, with not a stick of rock or a donkey in sight, and for no reason at all?’

‘Yes,’ said Silver.

Mrs Rokabye rounded on Sniveller like one of the Furies. ‘You told me this Hand would lead us to the Timekeeper!’

‘It has done so,’ said Regalia Mason. ‘Look.’

The Hand was dragging Mrs Rokabye across the chamber towards Silver. To Mrs Rokabye’s horror, Silver took the
Hand from her, and there was nothing Mrs Rokabye could do to resist. Silver dropped the shining diamond back into her duffle-coat pocket.

Regalia Mason turned to Abel Darkwater. ‘There is an object called the Timekeeper. I know it well and so do you. Yet its power is linked to one person – the child of the prophecy – she of the Golden Face. You see, Silver herself is the Timekeeper.’

‘Silver!’ exclaimed Mrs Rokabye.

‘There are Lighthousekeepers and Lock Keepers, and Housekeepers, such as yourself, Mrs Rokabye, and there are Timekeepers. I was one myself, once upon a time, but that is another story. Enough to say that on the day Silver was born, she became the Timekeeper, and the clock, emblem of her office, was discovered again that day, after its long hiding.’

‘But whoever controls the Timekeeper controls Time!’ shouted Abel Darkwater.

‘Objects – always objects – didn’t I warn you not to put too much faith in objects? Without this child, you can do nothing.’

‘I can kill her!’ said Abel Darkwater, stepping forward.

‘Useless, all useless. Only the child can wind the clock, and unless the clock is ticking, it has no power.’

‘But you said you don’t need the clock,’ said Silver to Regalia Mason.

‘I don’t need it. Shall we go?’

‘Go where?’ said Abel Darkwater.

Regalia Mason took her computer out of her backpack and began rapidly locating points on a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way. As she tapped in the coordinates, a familiar picture began to form on the rock walls of the temple. Silver could hear birdsong and the sound of water. Gabriel could hear voices.

Toby, the kids, Mrs Rokabye, Abel Darkwater, they were disappearing and re-forming somewhere else.

‘Is it real?’ asked Silver.

Regalia Mason didn’t answer. Silver felt herself flowing outwards as she had done on the Star Road. She was disappearing. She was returning. She was at Tanglewreck.

The wide lawn. The ha-ha. The bowling green.

The hedges in the shapes of foxes and bears. The fountain. The sundial. The black and white timbered house. The oak front door. Her father’s bicycle leaning against the rail.

Her father.

What?

Her mother.

How?

Coming down the path to greet her now, arms open, faces amazed, and her sister Buddleia with them too. This is not a mirage, this is not a dream. Is this how it ends?

‘Not quite,’ said Regalia Mason.

This was Tanglewreck. These were their lives, but slipped sideways. In the multi-universe, the multiverse, every possibility exists but none overlap.

‘Think of the cat,’ said Regalia Mason. ‘Science calls it Decoherence. All possible states exist. The cat, I admit, is rather eccentric after years of being the most famous animal experiment in physics.’

Silver wasn’t listening. She had her arms round her
parents and Buddleia. Gabriel was hanging back shyly, not knowing what to say.

‘We can’t understand what has happened,’ said her father. ‘The house isn’t falling apart and we have plenty of money from a family trust. I am still an astronomer at Jodrell Bank, but we only have one child. We have Buddleia, but we don’t have you!’

‘You would not usually be aware of another life with different circumstances to the one you so powerfully remember,’ said Regalia Mason, ‘but the circumstances of the Timekeeper have made your situation rather unusual.’

‘We got off the train,’ said Roger, ‘and we were back here but without you. I can’t believe that you’re here again, and four years older! Look at you!’

‘I thought you were dead!’ said Silver, hugging him as tight as she could. ‘I’ve had to live with your horrible sister Mrs Rokabye and her evil rabbit.’

‘I don’t have a sister,’ said Roger, perplexed. ‘Not in any world! Who on earth is Mrs Rokabye?’

‘She turned up and said she was your sister! My aunt! Look, she’s over there. The one in the mac wearing a miner’s helmet and eating sardines out of a tin.’

Mrs Rokabye waved sheepishly.

‘We’ll soon see about that!’ said Roger, getting up and ready for a fight, but Ruth pulled him back.

‘Roger, it doesn’t matter. This is our world now, and we’re all together.’

‘My leg’s better,’ said Buddleia. ‘Watch!’

And she jumped and ran and was free.

‘How can that be?’ asked Ruth, watching her daughter. ‘In one world she fell down the stairs when she was tiny, but in this world …’

Regalia Mason smiled. ‘Reality folds against reality, worlds are hinged against worlds.’

‘Is this where we’ll be for ever and ever?’ asked Silver.

‘If it’s what you want,’ said Regalia Mason. ‘Did you never understand that I was your friend?’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Silver. ‘I just thought I had to find the Timekeeper whatever happened.’

‘It’s so strange,’ said Roger. ‘On the day you were born, I was in the topmost attic – you know, the one with the sky window – and I heard something ticking, and I rummaged and rooted, and there was a bag, and inside the bag was a clock, with some papers that told me its history and its name, and that I had to keep it safe for the Child with the Golden Face. I knew that was you, my bright sunlit newborn baby.’

He kissed Silver and looked at her in wonder. ‘But I don’t really know what’s been going on. I hope you’ll tell me.’

Silver nodded happily. Abel Darkwater came forward. ‘May I see the Timekeeper? Just for a moment, after so many many years of waiting?’

Regalia Mason’s eyes narrowed.

Roger River looked puzzled again. ‘Well no, I’m afraid not, because you see, we haven’t got it.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Silver, ‘Regalia Mason brought it back. I know where it is.’

Regalia Mason stepped forward and put a restraining hand on to Silver’s shoulder. Silver felt a chill run through her, then the sun was warm again.

‘Silver, I said the Timekeeper is at Tanglewreck. I didn’t say which Tanglewreck. It is in the world that Roger and Ruth remember. It is at the Tanglewreck where all this began.’

‘I don’t get it,’ said Silver.

‘There are many universes, many Tanglewrecks.’

‘But only one Timekeeper,’ said Abel Darkwater, fastening his woollen cloak.

Regalia Mason turned to Silver, as she sat with Buddleia and her parents.

‘Silver River, would you like to stay here in this world with your sister and your parents?’

‘Yes,’ said Silver. ‘Always. Can Gabriel stay too?’

‘If he chooses to stay he may stay,’ said Regalia Mason.

‘Then we’re staying!’ said Silver, full of happiness. ‘All of us for ever.’

‘Then it is done.’

‘What is done?’ asked Silver.

‘Everything. You will stay here with those you love. I will return to the world you once knew. The Timekeeper has no power there now. Abel Darkwater has no power there now. You will never see him, or me, again.’

‘What about Toby and the kids?’

‘I will take them home. Trust me, Silver, they will come
to no harm now.’

Gabriel was looking at Silver. She got up, suddenly able to read his mind as clearly as he could read hers. She walked down the drive with him a little way, holding his hand. His face was troubled.

‘Micah called her the serpent.’

‘That was when she was Maria Prophetessa.’

‘She is Maria Prophetessa still.’

‘What do you mean, Gabriel?’

‘She is tempting you like the serpent.’

‘What are you talking about? I’ve found my mum and dad, and Buddleia!’

‘That is what she desires!’ said Gabriel.

‘And you’ll stay with me, won’t you?’ said Silver, her voice faltering.

Gabriel slowly shook his head. ‘Not here, Silver, not if we have failed.’

‘We haven’t failed! Micah said that Abel Darkwater must never have the Timekeeper – well, now he won’t get it. We’ve succeeded!’

‘And given to her all the power of the world. The journey you made was more than one, it was two. It is she who must be feared, not him alone.’

Silver tried to think it through. What was it that Regalia Mason had said? That Silver was the key and that without the key the Timekeeper had no power. What power? And could that power stop Regalia Mason?

If the answer was no, why had she gone to such lengths to make an ending where Silver and the Timekeeper must not be in the same world? There was more to it than Abel Darkwater. Yes, there was more.

‘Throw a stone in the long grass,’ said Gabriel.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Micah says you throw a stone in the long grass to see if a snake be hiding there.’

Regalia Mason was sitting chatting to Roger and Ruth about the history of Tanglewreck. Silver came up and stood in front of Regalia Mason.

‘I’m not going to stay here,’ said Silver.

‘Excuse me?’ said Regalia Mason politely.

‘I have to find the Timekeeper – and I haven’t done that yet, have I? So I’m not going to stay. Look.’

She pulled the shining pin out of her coat pocket. It was vibrating.

‘It will lead me home,’ said Silver.

‘But darling, this is your home!’ said her mother, bewildered and frightened.

Regalia Mason nodded slowly. She looked at Silver for a minute that was a minute out of Time. It was a minute in every universe that exists. It was a minute that changed everything.

Cold and beautiful and tall, she seemed to hover over Silver, and then she vanished, yes, completely vanished, and in her place was a rearing serpent. Her tongue shot from her
mouth, her small cold eyes glittered. Her body towered over the child.