Blue Dome (The Blue Dome Series) (32 page)

 “Let me go!” I screamed
again, trying to twist myself free from Demarge with every last bit of strength
I had in me. I kicked his shin so hard that I could feel it at the end of my
boot, but his hand simply tightened around my wrist like an iron cuff. He
didn’t even flinch. The ball of light was now just centimetres away.

“Well, well. It looks as
if Daden’s stubbornness knows no bounds.” I could almost detect a note of
admiration in Demarge’s voice.

I screwed up my eyes and
braced myself for the fiery impact. If I’d ever stopped to think about death
before, I’m sure I’d have imagined myself wailing and gnashing my teeth like a
mad woman. But it wasn’t like that. For some inexplicable reason I felt weirdly
calm. If it had to happen I just hoped it would be quick and painless.

A breeze shifted my
fringe from my forehead, blowing my hair from my face. Another second passed,
then nothing. As far as I could tell I was still alive, breathing, standing
upright. I don’t know exactly what I had thought dying would feel like, but not
like that. I opened my eyes a tiny fraction, just enough to let the light in,
just enough to see that the red ball was no longer a ball at all, but a narrow
oval disc that was standing on its end and hurtling towards me. My eyes sprung
open in surprise, as the red light skated across my chest, cutting me free from
Demarge. His enraged scream echoed in my ears as my back hit the wall and my
body started to melt into the rubbery plaster. Daden was close behind, when all
of a sudden I saw his face contort with shock and pain. In the moments before
he splintered into a thousand pieces, there was just time for him realise that
Demarge’s final bolt of lightning had found its target.

Blue, green, blue…
Alternating visions of grass and sky flipped in my head. It was only once I was
sure I was going to be sick that I finally came to a stop, banking against a
clump of flowers. I lay completely still, my eyes closed, wanting to savour the
perfect stillness for as long as possible. Somewhere, to the left of my head,
someone was speaking.

“Clare, are you all
right?”

I groaned unintelligibly,
hoping that whoever it was would give up trying to talk and let me sleep for a
bit.

“Clare?”

No such luck. I slowly
opened my eyes and rolled onto my back. Everything ached. Even my teeth. I
glanced up to see Calix kneeling next to me.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah, fine.
You?” I suddenly remembered her shoulder and sat up abruptly. “Has someone seen
to your shoulder? That looked really nasty. Honestly, you should get Min to
look at it. Is she around?” I began scanning the Valley for her.

“Hey, it’s okay, I’m
fine, really. Turns out it was only skin deep. The bleeding’s stopped and
Freya’s going to patch me up properly later.”

For some reason, Calix
still looked really worried.

“It’s
Troy
, isn’t it?” I said.

Calix nodded, the tears
welling in her eyes.

“I never should have come
without him. It’s not right, he needed me.”

I fidgeted awkwardly with
the thick blades of grass, unsure what to say next. As much as I hoped more
than anything that
Troy
was
okay, I had no way of knowing what had happened, and I knew Calix would see
straight through any feeble attempt to make her feel better. Instead, I reached
out and stroked her arm. Calix gave a watery smile and quickly brushed the
droplets from her eyes.

“He’s such an idiot,” she
said. “Why can’t he, for just once in his life, do what he’s told?”

I shrugged. “Maybe it’s
that Y chromosome playing up,” I said.

“Yeah, something like
that,” said Calix, smiling wryly.

“Have you seen Bede?” I
said.

“I think he’s over
there,” said Calix, pointing vaguely towards a clump of daisies.

I glanced over to see my
shaggy brother lounging amongst the flowers a few metres away. He gave me one
of his lopsided smiles and all of a sudden I felt my eyes start to prickle with
tears. After everything, my brother was here and he was safe and right now
nothing could get us. I ran to him, the tears streaming down my face. I
probably looked like a complete mess but I couldn’t have cared less. Bede got
to his feet and we held each other for a long time.

“Aggh, can’t breathe,” he
said eventually, unlatching my arms from his neck. I laughed, and wiped my face
with the back of my sleeve. “Hey, Just, over here!”

I turned to see Justin
walking slowly towards us. I wasn’t sure if he was swaggering, or dragging his
feet sheepishly. I hoped it was the latter, given everything that had happened
in the Cathedral, but with Justin I never could tell.

Freya was pacing
anxiously near the seam, watching the fragments of yellow, blue and red light
that were swarming into the Slipworld. Strangely, each piece seemed to know
exactly what colour it was and could sense the others that were just like it. Soon
there were big piles of blue and yellow and red light, heaped in stacks on the
meadow. Their sharp edges seemed to melt into one another, liquefying then
moulding into human shapes like molten plastic. Within seconds I could see
Min’s face peering out of the blue light, and Thomas’s in the yellow. Freya
left them near the seam and started striding towards us.

“Quickly, all of you to
the farmhouse. Clare, can you please lead the way?”

Calix shot me a curious,
sideways look and I could sense the others were confused by Freya’s abruptness.

“Is something wrong?”
said Bede.

“Demarge knows exactly
where the Slipworld is now. That makes it extremely dangerous for every,
single, one of you. Once Daden is back we will need to move, and move quickly. Now
please, Clare, show them the way.”

“Of course,” I said
quickly, nodding towards the wood at the edge of the meadow. The others looked
at me with a mix of fright and confusion. I smiled, trying my best to keep it
together, but I felt exactly the same way. What had, just five minutes ago,
felt like euphoria after escaping from Demarge, had suddenly turned horribly,
scarily, serious.

But Freya’s warning
wasn’t the only thing that was making me feel a bit nauseous. I’d been carrying
around a heavy stone of guilt in the pit of my stomach ever since I’d
deliberately gone against Daden’s instructions and left the Slipworld. Maybe
there was nothing I could do about Demarge, but at least I could try to put
things right with the Aeons for all the drama I’d caused. I tugged on Bede’s
shirt, interrupting his conversation with Calix.

“Hey, I just have to go
back for a minute. If you keep walking towards the woods and follow the path,
I’ll catch you up.”

Bede shrugged. “Yeah, no
problem.”

Freya was still watching
the disparate pieces of red light filtering through the seam into the Slipworld
as I sidled hesitantly up to her. It crossed my mind that my timing might
actually be way off; hadn’t she just expressly told me to go to the farmhouse? Now,
here I was, apologising for being disobedient. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

“Come on Daden,” said
Freya under her breath, as if willing the light to hurry back.

Meanwhile, the pieces
that had returned were busy reassembling themselves. Daden was brushing himself
down as Freya placed her hand gently on his arm.

“Are you fully back now?”
she asked.

“I…I think so,” he said.

“Good. Close the portal!”
she shouted.

Daden turned to see me
standing directly behind him and Freya.

“Clare?” he said with
surprise.

I swallowed hard. It
hadn’t occurred to me that I wasn’t actually sure how I was going to apologise
or what words I should use. To make things worse I could now feel tears
starting to creep into the corners of my eyes. Unexpected tears, the type that
ambush you when you least expect it. I blinked them back furiously. For once in
my life I was determined to say something adult without having a big crying
fest about it. I took a deep breath.

“Umm,” I paused
awkwardly. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry, I should never have gone back
to the other world when you told me not to. I was just really worried about
Bede and I didn’t want to listen to what you were saying. I’ll totally understand
if you don’t want me here anymore.”

To my relief, Daden
smiled and put his hand on my arm.

“Yes, it wasn’t the cleverest
thing you will ever do. But without mistakes, how can you ever distinguish wise
decisions from foolish ones? Your apology is accepted. You will always have a
place here, in the Slipworld, Clare.” Freya nodded in agreement.

I gulped. In some ways it
would have been easier if they’d both told me what a complete idiot I’d been,
but the fact they were so nice about everything meant I had to fend off the
tears even more.

“Thanks,” I managed to
mumble lamely.

“Now Clare you must join
the others. Demarge could burst through that seam at any moment,” said Freya.

She didn’t need to tell
me twice. I ran towards the woods as fast as I could. As cliché as it sounds, I
honestly felt lighter than I had for days. Bede was walking at the front of the
group by the time I caught them up. Calix was following a few paces behind, and
Justin was dragging along at the very back. I ran up to Bede and looped my arm
through his. There was something I’d been curious about ever since we’d been in
the Cathedral.

“So how do you know
Justin?” I whispered.

“We were locked up
together. Poor guy had been torn up pretty bad by a wolfhound.”

“Really?” I said, making
basically no effort to hide my scepticism. “Do you know he was working for
Demarge?”

“Yeah, he told me that,”
said Bede. “He’s certainly not anymore though.”

 “How can you be so
sure?” I said. “I know what I saw when he was following us and believe me, he
looked more than happy in his job.”

Bede shrugged. “Well
maybe it seemed like that at the time, but he’s changed Clare. You should see
his back for a start. The scars are horrendous. Plus, Demarge would have only
too happily killed him off just now if Daden and Freya hadn’t saved his butt.”

I glanced behind us, at
Justin dawdling, seemingly lost in his own world.

“I can’t put my finger on
it, but there’s just something not quite right about him,” I said.

Bede ruffled my hair, the
way he always did when he knew I was annoyed and was trying to jolt me out of
it. It usually just made me more annoyed. Today was no exception.

“Ahh, Clare, it’s good to
have my conspiracy theorist sister back again. Look, I know you and Justin
haven’t exactly been friends – at school and then in the Cathedral – and I get
why you feel like you do, but honestly, give him a chance. You’ll see, he’s a
good guy.”

I glanced at Bede and
gave him a ‘I don’t really believe you but I’m going to let the subject drop
anyway’ look. There was no point arguing about it. Not right now anyway. We
were now coming to the end of the path and the warm, red bricks would soon be
visible. I turned and called back to the others

“The farmhouse, it’s just
up here!”

Morana was incandescent
as she paced up and down the long narrow room, the candle flames shifting
nervously on their wicks. Demarge ignored her, focusing instead on the map that
was spread out in front of him.

“How could you let them
get away like that?” she hissed. “I can’t believe you’ve been outsmarted by an
Aeon, let alone in your own world.”

Demarge looked up,
blinked once at Morana, then turned casually to the short, fat, sweating man
who was standing in the corner of the room.

“
Stanley
, Arius needs exercising. Would you see to it please?”

Stanley
grimaced and was about to protest, when he saw Demarge’s right
eyebrow twitch with irritation.

“Yep, right on it boss,”
he muttered, taking the keys down from their hook. He kept muttering under his
breath as he left the room. “Boss’s freakin’ pets, why me, why not Morana?” His
heavy footsteps echoed in the stairwell outside with a metallic thud, thud,
thud.

“He’s certainly no
ballerina,” said Demarge, returning to the map.

Morana stared at him in
exasperation.

“Well?” she said.

“Well
what
?”
Demarge looked up abruptly, his gloved fingertip still stabbing a point on the
route he was tracing.

“The Shards, the Aeons.
Slipworld. You know, the general debacle of tonight!”

“Debacle? That all
depends on your definition of the word. I call it an unprecedented success,”
said Demarge.

“An unprecedented
success?” Morana threw up her hands and started pacing again. “You’ve been
trying to find an entrance into the Slipworld for centuries. Tonight was one of
the very few opportunities we have ever had to get in there and you…” she
trailed off, partly from frustration but also partly because she realised she
may have gone too far.

“I
what
?” said
Demarge, fixing her with a steely glare. “Miscalculated perhaps? Worse? I was
stupid?”

“You were
unlucky
”
said Morana quietly.

“Unlucky.” Demarge rolled
the syllables like marbles on a playground. “Unlucky.” He started to nod
slowly, as if still registering the full impact of the word, the full impact of
the insult. “Unlucky!” Demarge slammed his fist against the table. “Luck,
Morana, has
nothing
to do with it. Luck is something that mortals rely
on because they have no control. Luck does not come into the equation when
you’re the one making all the rules!”

Morana’s eyes flashed
with anger but she lowered them quickly. She knew she would never win an
argument with Demarge. It was futile to try. Mollification was a much better
idea, particularly if she wanted to keep her rank and privilege over the other
Archons.

“I guess I just don’t
understand what happened,” she said.

“What happened tonight
was the perfect execution of my plan,” said Demarge. He got up from his desk,
walked slowly to the window, and gazed out over Wiltsdown, his black gloved
fingertips pressed together in thought. “Do you
really
think I was
unaware of the precise entrance to the Slipworld before Daden and Freya
returned with the Shards? Do you?”

Morana pouted sulkily.

“I knew exactly where
that entrance was. I
sensed
it.”

“You never said
anything,” said Morana. “I thought you were still looking.”

“Of course you did,” said
Demarge. “More to the point, so did the Aeons.”

“So imprisoning the
Shards in the mine, having
Stanley
drop off food to keep them alive, luring Min-Isis and Thomas
there…”

“Was all part of a ruse
to make the Aeons believe I was struggling to find the entrance,” said Demarge.

“So you could have
entered it any time you wanted?” said Morana in amazement.

Demarge shrugged. “More
or less. They had the protective shield up for a few hours which would have
made it more difficult, but yes, I could be in there right now had I chosen to
be.”

“So…so, why aren’t you?”
A deep frown line divided Morana’s forehead into two, perfectly even squares. “After
all this time, waiting for such an opportunity?”

“Precisely because of the
length of time this has taken, Morana. I have waited far too long to simply
fall at the final hurdle,” he said.

“I don’t understand,” she
said.

Demarge sighed as if he
was a teacher trying to explain something simple to the stupidest kid in the
world.

“The Aeons were expecting
me to wander into the Slipworld at any moment. They were at least smart enough
to realise that I could, at any time, have invaded their sanctuary. But what do
you think would have happened if I had? Do you think they would have said ‘Please
Demarge, have a seat, we’ll be popping round with tea and cake in a minute?’ I
don’t think so.”

Morana could see his point,
but even so, it seemed like a hugely wasted opportunity.

“But you’re stronger than
the Aeons. Surely you could have defeated them?” she said.

“I’m stronger than the
Aeons in my own world, Morana. The Slipworld is another matter. I would have
been a fool to have thought I could take on six or more Aeons in the Slipworld
and won.” He paused, fixing her with a level gaze. “Besides, I need more time
to turn the girl.”

“So is that it then?”
said Morana. “We begin the long wait for another opportunity?”

“Yes and no,” he said.

Morana frowned, confused.

“Taking the Slipworld by force
was never going to work. Taking it by stealth, on the other hand…”

“What do you mean?” said Morana.

“You’ll see, when the
time is right,” said Demarge. He turned away from the window. “And believe me,
that time is coming.”