Beyond the Shroud (8 page)

Nanny was struggling with the buckle of Richard's broad leather belt. ‘Well, I declare, you
have
grown,' she was muttering. ‘I might just need to put another hole in this …'

‘Yes, grown fatter,' teased Gen, rapidly braiding her hair into a tawny rope in front of the mirror.

‘This isn't fat, it's muscle,' Richard retorted. ‘And you should stop preening. Typical girl — any mention of going anywhere, and it's “Ooh, my hair!” and “What shall I wear?”, whether it's a desperate rescue mission or a trip to the mall …'

The door opened and Q stood there, looking at us. The dazed look was gone. His blue eyes were bright and piercing behind his specs — fresh smears made me wonder whether he'd tried to clean them on the way up the stairs.

‘I'm not going to argue with you,' he said quietly. ‘As you know, I'm not a practical man. I was annoyed with myself last time for not thinking of your pale skins, and how they'd stand out in Karazan.' For a second, he looked almost embarrassed. ‘I thought — too late, of course — that I should have provided something to darken you up … make you look less conspicuous. But I looked into it, and came up with this.' He walked over to the top drawer of the dresser, opened it, and produced a small bottle, holding it up for us to see. ‘Tyrotemp, used by theatrical companies, I believe. Based on the natural skin-darkening enzyme tyrosinase … guaranteed to last a week, then fade completely. I —'

But Jamie was reaching out an eager pink hand. ‘Awesome, Q! I've always wanted a tan! Bags I first go!'

Ten minutes later we were ready to go. At Nanny's insistence we'd each wolfed down a steak pie — ‘I've never let a child head off on an adventure on an empty stomach yet, and I'm not about to start now!' — in fact Rich and Jamie had gobbled down two, in record time. The weight of my backpack felt familiar and reassuring.

It had given me a weird feeling of excitement to see it again … I bent my head to sniff it, and sure enough, there was the faint, indescribable fragrance that was Karazan. I checked quickly through the contents: compass, sleeping bag, compact aluminium cooking pot, lighter …
and there, in the front pocket, a replacement for the pocketknife I'd given Kai. Rich was holding up an identical one, a grin of delight on his broad brown face.
Brown face …
I stared round at the others. Gen's pale prettiness had darkened to a golden glow — with her mane of sandy hair, she looked as wild and beautiful as a young lioness. Kenta, naturally darker-skinned like me, was the same as ever; Rich looked like a real beach bum, his teeth startlingly white in his beaming bronzed face.

As for Jamie … he was peering anxiously into the mirror with his back to us. ‘Well, come on, Jamie,' goes Rich, ‘let's have a look at the new, improved James Fitzpatrick!'

Slowly, reluctantly, Jamie turned round. His hair was its usual neatly combed blond pudding-bowl … and beneath it shone a woebegone moon-face, bright orange as the setting sun. Richard gave a splutter of laughter, which he quickly turned into a cough when he saw the tears in Jamie's eyes. Kenta was at his side in an instant. ‘Jamie — what happened? However did you do that? What went wrong?'

‘I — I just … like I said, I've never had a tan before. I always burn, then peel,' said Jamie miserably. ‘So I thought I'd put on a double dose — just to be sure it'd take, you know … seeing I have such a fair skin. A
delicate
skin, my mum always says,' he added, a touch defensively. He rubbed uselessly at his face with orange fingers. ‘But now …'

‘Now you look like a carrot,' said Rich cheerfully. ‘A walking, talking carrot — or an orange turnip, more like. Still, never mind, Jamie — what did Q say?
Guaranteed to last a week, then fade completely.
Let's hope he's right! And meanwhile, we can use you as a torch if our batteries run out …'

‘Oh, give it a break, Richard,' said Gen crossly. ‘He doesn't look too bad … and if he keeps his cloak on and
the hood pulled forward, no one will even notice. Now, has everyone got everything?'

‘Perhaps you should each take a good book …'

‘Groundsheets, water bottles, dehydrated food — and plenty of it — sunscreen, insect repellent, polypropylene underwear, something for runny tummies …' recited Nanny, ticking things off on a list.

‘Oh come on, come on — can't we just
go?'
begged Gen, in an agony of impatience.

‘I'm sure there's something I've forgotten — something really, really obvious, that I'll remember the moment you leave. Oh dear, whatever can it be …' lamented Q. ‘I wish I were more practical!'

I pulled out my shawl from my school bag and stuffed it down deep into my backpack, along with my
Bible
. No one was going to sneak a look inside
that
while I was away. Rich watched me, grinning, but didn't say anything. I looked at him levelly, daring him to comment, running through my personal checklist in my mind.
Shawl,
Bible,
ring
— yes, there it was, cold and comforting under the rough fabric of my shirt —
penny whistle
… I felt a pang of loss. Who knows when, if ever, I'd see it again … A mental image of Weevil flashed into my mind, but I pushed it roughly away.

And finally we were back downstairs, each in front of our computer, screens on and ready to go. I tried to tune out Q's anxious voice: ‘Do be careful. I shouldn't be letting you go, I know I shouldn't. I'd go myself, but I still haven't managed to modify the programme to allow adults to make the transition … to tell the truth, I haven't even been trying, what with
Power …
what with working on my new game. Now whatever you do, never forget things aren't always as they seem … and remember spontaneous evolution, children — things change, and the changes are not always for the good …'

‘Ready?' I asked. Four heads nodded; four faces, in varying shades of tan, stared intently at their screens.

‘OK then —'

‘Wait!' yelped Q. Our hands froze above the keyboards. ‘I've remembered! Don't go yet! I won't be a moment —'

He turned and sprinted, with surprising speed, out through the door. ‘Quick — let's go before he gets back, or he'll never let us leave,' grumbled Rich.

‘I think we should wait,' quavered Jamie. ‘Maybe it's something really important. Or perhaps he's thought of somewhere else Hannah might be. Maybe we won't have to go to Karazan after all!'

Richard snorted. ‘Maybe orange turnips can fly,' he retorted. ‘Anyhow, no one's
making
you go.'

‘I know,' said Jamie with dignity. ‘But a man's got to do what a man's got to do. That's what my dad always says …'

At that moment Q burst back into the room, something glinting in his hand. ‘Here they are!' he panted. ‘Thank goodness I remembered! There's only a little bit left of the healing one, but even that … you never know …'

Solemnly, he held out the crystal phials. One glimmered with a strange, milky-blue fluorescence: the last remnants of the magic healing potion that had saved Hannah's life. More useful than Nanny's medicine by a long shot, I thought grimly. The other, still full, was blacker than ink: the Potion of Power. Wrapped in my shawl, they were the only two to have survived the transition back from Karazan to our world. I dug for my shawl again and tucked the phials snugly into its soft folds, then packed it safely away.

‘And now —' said Rich.

‘Yes, now I suppose you really had better be off,' said Q reluctantly.

Rich looked over at me, fingers poised. I gave him a grin. Across the room Jamie was staring at his computer screen, eyes bulging like an exotic goldfish. Gen's face was
tense and focused, Kenta's self-contained and still. ‘Ready? One … two … three!'

Five sets of fingers came down on five sets of keys … and the computer room at Quested Court vanished in less than an instant, as if it had never existed.

‘Any one of you could pass through from our world to Karazan as easily as walking through an open door,' Q had once said. It was true. Making the transition from our world to Karazan was even more effortless than that, for me at least. Like blinking: eyes open — our world; blink and open them again — Karazan.

My eyes blinked open on a crisp autumn morning. The red-gold Karazan sun shone down from the pale bowl of sky without any real warmth. Above me, the endless cliff reared up as far as I could see — in a few hours the rock I was sitting on would be in deep shade, and bitterly cold. Snow lay in crystal patches at its foot, and in a deeper drift on the western side of the standing stone a few paces away, protected from the morning sun by the stone itself, and the afternoon sun by the looming cliff.

The air had a frosty bite, making my cheeks sting and my eyes water. Eagerly, I drank in its wintry freshness, my eyes searching for the far glint of the sea and the distant
walls of Arakesh above the gold and copper carpet of forest stretching away below me. I strode over to the tall stone and laid my forehead against its cold, unyielding surface. Closed my eyes, and breathed in the strange, familiar scents of Karazan. It was good to be back.

‘Adam! Adam — I bumped my head on the way through!'

‘Don't be stupid, Jamie — what could you possibly have bumped it
on?
'

‘Let me look. There
is
an odd-looking splodge on your forehead, though it's hard to tell for certain under the oran — hard to tell for certain. Does it hurt when I touch it?'

‘I feel like my insides have been taken out with an ice-cream scoop and left behind at Quested Court!'

‘My pants are all wet — I landed in a patch of snow. I don't suppose I could pop back quickly and ch—'

‘No!'
The chorus that met Jamie's tentative suggestion brought me suddenly back to earth — or at any rate, back to reality — with a grin. I straightened, stretching, and watched my four friends picking themselves up and dusting away the ice crystals that clung to the boys' breeches and the girls' ragged tunics.

Back to reality …
Hannah.

Frowning, I scanned the russet tussock that covered the hillside. Richard followed my gaze. ‘Yeah — let's not forget why we're here! What say we spread out like a proper search party,' he suggested cheerfully. ‘Hunt for signs, like trackers: a button, or a footprint; a message written in the snow … maybe even an arrow showing which way she went!'

‘Or she could have left a trail of breadcrumbs so she could find her way back, like in
Hansel and Gretel
!' said Gen eagerly.

So we spread out and searched … but we found nothing. Not the tiniest clue that anyone other than ourselves had
ever set foot on the deserted hillside.

After half an hour or so, Jamie plumped down on the low, lichen-covered rock. ‘What say we have some morning tea?' he said hopefully.

‘We should carry on looking,' objected Richard. ‘We're not on some kind of boy-scout camp, or a picnic.' Jamie turned a deeper shade of orange, and lumbered reluctantly to his feet.

‘Do you think we should try calling?' Kenta suggested. ‘If she is still within earshot … injured, or trapped somewhere …' So we cupped our hands round our mouths like loudspeakers and called, over and over, our voices thin and lost-sounding in the cold air: ‘Hannah! Hannah!
Hannah!'

There was no answer, not even an echo. But deep down I knew all along there wouldn't be. In my heart I knew that by now Hannah would be far away. She'd have stood where we were standing and would have looked out to the east, towards the sea. Like I had, she would have seen the distant walls of Arakesh. She knew that was where we'd last seen Tiger Lily, so that's where she would have headed. But there was just one other possibility. ‘You don't suppose …' I said tentatively, ‘You don't suppose she might have somehow stumbled across the cottage I told you about?'

Rich's eyes lit up. ‘The one where those two weird old people lived — Thingy and Whatsit —'

‘Argos and Ronel,' I said slowly, remembering. They'd helped me when I was in trouble, however reluctantly — on Argos' part, at least. If Hannah had cried out, like I did, for whatever reason …

‘Good thinking, Adam. Let's head on down and ask them if they've seen her. She's probably sitting in front of their fire having a nice hot drink.'

We left the open hillside and headed down into the trees, instinctively clustering closer together in the chilly
shadows. I led the way, listening for the sound of the stream that would lead me to the cottage. Jamie stumbled along after me, breathing down my neck, standing on my heels, tripping over roots, and managing to squelch through every puddle on the forest floor. Our progress was almost completely silent apart from his huffing and puffing and grouching — any sound our footfalls might have made was completely muffled by the springy layer of red, bronze and brown leaves that carpeted the ground.

‘Do shut up, Jamie,' said Richard good-naturedly. ‘The racket you're making, we wouldn't hear Hannah if she was behind the next tree yelling her head off!'

Yes,
I thought.
And who knows what might hear you?
Because no matter how peaceful and safe the forest looked, I had an uncomfortable feeling of being watched — that if I spun round quickly enough … The growl of Argos's gruff voice sounded in my mind, as clear as if he was beside me:
You have been making enough noise to wake the dead … and let us hope you have not.
The quieter we were, the better. And the sooner we were out of the forest, the happier I'd be.

‘
Ouch!
' yelped Jamie. ‘No need to throw things at me, Richard!'

‘I didn't!'

‘Yes, you did! It hit me on the head! Look — even through my hood it's left a lump the size of an egg!'

‘Shhhh!' I said in a low voice. ‘The river's over on the right — can you hear it? This is the way I went with Argos — down this slope, I'm sure of it —' At that moment something cracked me on the head — a sharp rap that made me flinch and duck away. ‘Yeowch!
Richard
…'

Rich held out his hands, a look of innocent bafflement on his face. One thing for sure, it hadn't been him. I looked up. Between the leaves, way up in the forest canopy, I could see them clearly — dense bunches almost like grapes, of something that …

‘Ow!' yipped Gen…. of something that was falling all round us like fat hailstones, landing without a sound on the cushioning leaves. I picked up the one that had hit me. It was a round, purplish-coloured nut, bigger than a chestnut and round as a marble — and as hard as a marble too, with a shiny, polished skin.

‘Nuts! I wonder if you can eat them?' said Jamie.

‘Nuts to you too — and next time, be sure of your facts before you go blaming me for everything bad that happens to you!'

Taking care to stay together, with our hoods over our heads for protection, we tramped on through the trees in the direction of the cottage — or at least, the direction I was sure the cottage had been. But no matter how many times I retraced my steps, or how many landmarks I thought I recognised, there was no sign of it anywhere. Sure, it had been tucked away … but I'd have bet I could find it again, no problem.

At last I slowed and stopped, frowning, listening for the ring of an axe on wood, sniffing for the scent of woodsmoke. Nothing.

‘It's a big forest, Adam. And if it's so well hidden, I'm sure Hannah wouldn't have found it either,' said Kenta comfortingly.

Unless it wanted to be found …

Impatiently, I shook the thought away. ‘It ought to be here …' I said, more to myself than the others.

‘But it isn't,' finished Richard, practical as always. ‘And neither is Hannah, as far as I can see. She may be only five, but she's sharp as a tack — she'd know her best shot at finding her cat would be to head downhill towards Arakesh. I vote that's what we do too — then we'll have plenty of time to scout around for clues before dark.'

‘We
could
try calling again, I suppose …' said Gen
doubtfully. But the others looked round uneasily at the listening forest, and didn't answer.

‘I know!' said Jamie, sounding suddenly more cheerful. ‘Let's go to Arakesh and find Kai, and ask him for advice. We wouldn't have got anywhere last time without his help. And who knows — he might even give us more of those bread rolls!'

Rich gave me a grin and a wink, and I felt my spirits rise. Looking round at the others, I could tell they felt the same. It wasn't the thought of the rolls, but Kai himself — his cheery face, his perky cow's lick, his permanent smile. His knowledge of Arakesh — its streets, its nooks and crannies … its secrets, and its dangers. If there was so much as a murmur of Hannah's whereabouts, Kai would have heard it. But more than that, Kai was a friend.
Friends forever …

Yes, Kai would be as good a starting point for our search as any — probably better.