The Dragon's Game Read online

  ‘Morning, Daisy,’ Archie said. ‘Can’t believe you’re up before me. Any idea where Gus is? He’s not on the sofa.’

  Daisy looked away.

  ‘I’d almost forgotten he was here,’ he continued. ‘What’s the betting he’s with Sue?’ he smiled boyishly.

  Daisy chomped on the apple and muffled a deliberately unintelligible reply.

  Archie shook his head. ‘I mean, Gus with a bird, like Sue. Bit weird isn’t it? Those two being all lovey-dovey slightly freaks me out.’ He nudged her shoulder and lowered his voice. ‘And, if I’m not mistaken, I think there was someone else who had a bit of crush on somebody last night.’

  Daisy felt her heart sink. ‘Yeah, yeah. Dream on superman-boy.’ She was referring to Archie’s extraordinary feats of strength, a power that had grown within him since the beginning of the storm.

  ‘I’ve never seen Kemp as animated, or as positive, or as friendly with anyone in my whole life. He couldn’t stop staring at your eyes—’

  ‘Well, they do glow.’

  ‘Yeah, I know that, but he was smitten, my dear twin. Smitten.’

  Daisy swung her feet off the table. ‘Check the kettle will you. It’s taking ages to boil—’

  ‘Kemp’s in seventh heaven now that he’s found his mum—’

  ‘I know,’ she said, trying to sound enthusiastic. ‘Mrs Pye, and after all this time. Amazing, isn’t it?’

  Archie rubbed one of his hard hair spikes, which had become a little floppy. The spikes were another consequence of his being struck by lightning. ‘He went over there to sleep in her flat, I suppose.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Daisy said quickly. ‘Let’s leave them, right? They’ve got a lot of catching up to do.’

  Archie agreed and pulled two mugs from the cupboard placing them on the thick worktop. Old Man Wood’s heavy tread made them turn.

  ‘Morning, you look as if you slept well,’ Archie said.

  The tall, almost entirely bald headed frame of their adored friend and confidante, who claimed to be their Grandfather many times over, yawned and stretched out his large, thick arms. ‘I most certainly did, littlun,’ he smiled. ‘No dream for me — first time in a long while. I feel apple-tastic. Any sign of Isabella?’

  ‘Here,’ came a sleepy voice from behind him. Isabella stood, staring out of the window that looked over the valley. On a bright day, the peaks of the Yorkshire Dales in the far distance were easy to see. Now a curtain of white space filled it. ‘It’s foggy out there,’ Isabella said, waving an arm at the window. ‘Gives me the creeps.’

  ‘No matter,’ Old Man Wood said, ‘we’ll need to get moving soon, after a bite to eat, fog or not. Is anyone hungry? I’m still rather full from eating all that Banoffee Pie,’ he said, chuckling and thinking how they’d had to eat their way into finding the second tablet.

  ‘Me, same,’ Isabella said.

  ‘Well, I’m starving,’ Archie said.

  ‘Only cos you puked yours up,’ Daisy said.

  Archie grinned at the thought of having swallowed the eyeballs whole. ‘Those eyeballs tickled my gut,’ he said. ‘They’re in a jar of water if you want to see them. I think they’re rather remarkable. Two pairs, one brown and one icy blue—’

  ‘That’s disgusting,’ Isabella retorted.

  Archie looked a little put out. ‘Actually, they’re amazing - full of tendrils and nerve endings and stuff. Any chance of a Mrs Pye Special?’

  ‘A Mrs Pye special for one,’ Old Man Wood said, referring to the large breakfast sandwich Mrs Pye had made famous in the household. ‘Any other takers?’

  Daisy put a hand up. ‘Go on. One for me, please.’

  Isabella sighed. ‘Sure, me too,’ she said reluctantly. ‘Big day ahead so might as well fill up before we get eaten alive. Do we really have to go up to the ruin?’

  ‘Yes, we do, Isabella,’ Archie said. ‘Please don’t tell me you’re going to get the jitters again. It’s all or nothing. And that, big sis, is the bottom line.’

  Isabella groaned and placed her head in her hands.

  With breakfast in full swing, Sue appeared. She looked around and sat down, a confused look on her face. ‘Um,’ she said tentatively, ‘has anyone seen Gus this morning?’

  Archie winked at Daisy. ‘I thought he was, you know, with you?’

  Sue shook her head. ‘With me? No. Gus slept on the sofa.’

  ‘Last night?’

  ‘Yeah. He left just after midnight.’

  While Archie looked confused, Daisy stared at Sue momentarily wondering what to do. Her eyes slipped down to her less-than-inviting breakfast as she forced the food in, her cutlery clanging clumsily on her earthenware plate.

  A slightly awkward silence passed over the room as they tried to think where Gus might be.

  ‘Perhaps he sleep-walked over to Mrs Pye’s flat or ran off into the fog. He can’t have gone far,’ Isabella volunteered. ‘Maybe he found another room, or you never know,’ she said, smirking, ‘he might have slipped in with Mr Solomon.’

  The idea that Gus might have ended up with their portly headmaster made everyone laugh.

  Archie couldn’t help himself. ‘Classic. Gus and the headmaster. Always knew he was the teacher's pet.’

  Isabella glared at him. ’My bet, Archie, is that he found the warmth of the Cupboard above us. He’s either listening to every word or fast asleep. We’ll check before we go.’

  For the time being this appeared to be a reasonable answer.

  With their stomachs full, Old Man Wood stood up with a groan followed by a smile. ‘Time won’t wait for us,' he said. 'We need to be getting a move on. Ready to locate this third tablet? Isabella, Daisy and Archie, meet me back here in ten minutes.’

  While the de Lowes rushed upstairs to their bedroom in the attic of Eden Cottage, Sue explored the house, looking under every bed and inspecting every room and hidey-hole, including the airing cupboard, known as “The Cupboard”. She even woke Mr Solomon.

  When they reconvened, a tense nervousness filled the air.

  ‘He’s absolutely nowhere to be found,’ Sue said. ‘I’ve checked everywhere—’

  ‘But that’s impossible.’

  ‘Twice,’ she said. ‘What if Gus headed out into the fog?’

  ‘Why would Gus do that?’ Isabella asked.

  Sue looked blank. ‘I don’t know. He’s not the sort of person to do that kind of thing: Gus is sensible and practical. Going out there would be completely out of character.’

  Sue noticed that Isabella’s hands had begun shaking.

  ‘Are you alright, Bells?’ Sue asked. ‘You look peaky. Have you eaten something?’

  ‘It’s nothing to do with food,’ Isabella said. ‘What if…’ her voice trailed off.

  ‘What if … what?’ Sue asked, her voice betraying her increasing sense of panic.

  Isabella sat down. ‘Sue, I’ve had a terrible feeling about some sort of monster up at the ruin. Every time I think of it, I come over feeling sick and weak and terrified. Deep down, I can sense its power, its terribleness.

  ‘What’s this got to do with Gus?’

  Isabella turned her eyes up. ‘What if …’

  ‘The beast came here and got him,’ Archie finished off.

  Isabella nodded.

  Sue laughed. ‘Here? It’s not possible—’

  Archie flicked his eyes at Isabella. ‘That’s the thing. If there’s one thing we’ve found out, it’s that anything is possible’ he continued. Then, realising he’d unsettled her, he added, ‘of course we don’t know, maybe he went for a walk and got lost—’

  ‘But he wouldn’t have walked off without saying something—

  ‘…or maybe the monster, you know, lured him out?’ Isabella said.

  Sue squealed and buried her head in Old Man Wood’s chest.

  For some time, the entire gathering remained in the living room lost for words.

  Finally, Daisy, sitting quietly by the fire spoke up, ‘I know what happened
,’ she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

  Collectively, they turned to face her.

  ‘You know? How?’

  ‘I saw it all. Last night…’

  Old Man Wood straightened. ‘What happened, Daisy?’

  Daisy wiped her eyes. ‘I was there…’

  The old man bent down to her. ‘What did you see, Daisy?’ he said, kindness in his tone.

  Daisy’s eyes had turned a sorrowful purple-red colour. ‘I heard noises, just before dawn,’ she said. ‘I followed the sounds out of the door and then on, into the fog.’

  Sue gasped. ‘Why would Gus do that? Where did these sounds take you?’

  ‘Up towards the ruin—’

  Sue cried out again.

  The headmaster, Solomon, had joined them. ‘But how?’ he said. ‘With respect, if I’ve got my facts right, nobody apart from you, dear Daisy, can see through that fog.’

  Daisy wiped her nose with the back of her hand. ‘He wasn’t alone. Someone took him up there.’ Daisy stared at the floor.

  ‘Who?’ Archie said. ‘No one on earth could have made their way up here through the fog. How could anyone have abducted him?’

  ‘There’s one person nobody’s mentioned this morning who is also missing.’

  The others collectively racked their brains.

  ‘There’s one person who is more mysterious than anyone else right now.’

  Archie looked puzzled. ‘Who?’

  Isabella twigged. ‘Why, Sherlock, it’s the same person who escaped a high-security hospital and who managed, single-handedly to row across the flood to find his mother.’ she said, ‘It’s that bloody oaf, Kemp, of course.’

  Daisy met her eyes. ‘Correct. It was Kemp, and Kemp's foul accomplice.’

  3 A RULE IS BROKEN

  Genesis, the large, old dreamspinner, a spider-like creature forged from the gases and minerals at the beginning of time, listened to the wind gusting down the distant valleys and the barren landscape of a planet deep in the outer rim of space. The creature thought about her encounter with Abel’s spirit and extended a long, delicate black and silvery leg towards the dreamspinner who hovered nearby. In a claw at the end of this thin leg was a glint of shiny metal.

  Gaia, the other dreamspinner who had found her mother hiding in the far reaches of space, couldn’t tell if this was something she held or if the light had briefly touched upon a shiny rock beneath her.

  ‘Gorialla Yingarna, the beast who guards the third tablet, is in breach of the rules of the universe,’ Genesis said. ‘A human who is not an Heir of Eden has entered the labyrinth. We must go to Gorialla Yingarna this instant and warn her of the laws, and, more importantly, of the consequences.

  Both dreamspinners inverted into the electric-blue holes in the middle of their abdomens called magholes and instantly reappeared in the entrance chamber of the labyrinth on Earth, in the ruin near Eden Cottage.

  In front of them lay a boy, his face and body smeared with blood, his countenance still and his complexion pale. To the side, a small viper-looking snake hovered over him, its tongue flickering in and out of its mouth.

  Both dreamspinners reverted from an invisible status into their visible form.

  ‘Gorialla Yingarna,’ Genesis called out. ‘There is no place here for this human.’

  ‘Ah,’ the snake hissed. ‘Dreamspinners. I wondered if you demons of the night might come sprinkling your dreaming powders. It has been a long time, and you are never welcome. Pray tell, why should I not enjoy this one before my battle ahead.’

  ‘The human-child is not an Heir of Eden. It is not time.’

  ‘Then pray tell, witches of the dark, what is this corpse doing in my lair?’

  ‘I believe you know the reason,’ Genesis said, by way of vibrating her legs into speech. ‘A ploy, perhaps, to upset the balance. Do I need to repeat the rules of your trial at the Great Closing of the Garden of Eden? No humans aside from the Heirs of Eden are permitted inside the labyrinth until the tablet is held by an Heir of Eden—’

  ‘Or until one of the Heirs lies dead,’ Gorialla Yingarna completed. ‘Does it really matter?’ the snake continued as it morphed into a small dinosaur-like beast, sniffing the body beneath it. ‘This child would not know, no one else would be wise to my meal—’

  ‘Failure to adhere to the rules and you will remain trapped here forever, Gorialla Yingarna. Your chance for freedom gone.’

  The beast, now a small, alert-eyed raptor creature, shuffled and barked in defiance. ‘Then what would you have me do? Toss it out? Bury it?’

  ‘We will hide the body, Gorialla Yingarna,’ Genesis replied, ‘so that no man nor beast may see it nor feel it nor fall upon it.’

  Gorialla Yingarna sniffed the body again. ‘Very well. Do as you must. Neither man nor beast will see it, you say. I will return for the flesh of this human child when I have killed the Heirs of Eden.’ Gorialla Yingarna curled up into a snake and its tongue flashed in and out of its mouth. ‘I hear the Heirs are small children of less than twenty seasons,’ he hissed. ‘The universe has sent children to defeat me? What cruel fate it brings upon a world to do such a thing. I will tempt the sweet-smelling children of humankind to come and play games with me in my labyrinth. My prize awaits.’

  Genesis stepped directly over Gus’ body and, using her six legs she began to wrap him in spider silks. Soon her threads covered Gus from head to foot.

  ‘You will not see, nor smell, nor be able to touch him, until the Heirs are dead, or they have the tablet within their possession,‘ Genesis reiterated.

  Gorialla Yingarna changed into a waddling platypus-like creature and padded around the room. The beast turned its snout up towards the dreamspinners. ‘I will feed on those in the confines of this fortification while I wait for the Heirs to come here to their deaths. I have waited for an aeon for this time. I am weary of this entrapment and I am hungry to leave.’ Then its voice grew deep and dark and said, ‘I will play with these Heirs until they beg me for mercy. And, after they have pleaded for their lives, and starting with the eldest, I will remove each arm from its socket and then each leg, and suck out their eyes and tear off their heads. And I will suck blood from their necks, and feast on their young flesh and the old man will watch, and he will scream and pound the earth. I have foreseen it. It will be a lesson the universe may wish to remember.’

  Genesis finished off disguising the body of Gus, sliding a slender leg inside his covering, making sure all parts of him were contained.

  For a millisecond, the old dreamspinner froze, noting a pulse.

  She checked again. A murmur. In a flash she injected the child, a tiny prick from the end of a claw that was now a needle, with a substance she knew would sustain his heart. If the child chose to survive, he would be safe.

  ‘We are done here, Gorialla Yingarna. Play your games, but this child here will not be detected. When the "Lyre of Awakening" calls, your time has come. You will die, or you will be free.’

  4 GUS AND KEMP GO MISSING

  ‘It can’t be true,’ Archie said. ‘Kemp’s been with Mrs Pye all the time. I’ll go and check it out.’

  Archie opened the front door and headed into the thick fog, feeling as though he’d walked into a vast, high-gloss, woolly blanket the moment he stepped outside. The headmaster and Sue joined him, linking arms, as they made the short but now perilous journey around the courtyard, using the stonework as a guide and shielding their eyes from the snow-blinding effect.

  When they arrived at the steps they breathed a sigh of relief.

  Inside, Mrs Pye sat in her rocking chair, knitting.

  ‘Morning all,’ she said, chirpily.

  Archie and Sue came forward and gave her a peck on the cheek. ‘You looking for something, are you?’ she said. Her strange smile, which to the unknowing looked more like a grimace, filled her face.

  ‘Well … yes,’ he started, badly. ‘Not exactly "something", more "someone".’

  ‘What are you babbl
ing on about, eh? You lot have turned awful queer.’

  Archie reddened. ‘We’re looking for Kemp. Is he over here with you? The thing is, we don’t know where he is—’

  Mrs Pye’s face contorted with alarm, her forehead scar suddenly looking more pronounced. ‘No, my little angel. He went early as far as I could tell - had to meet someone, so he said. He did promise he’d be back.’

  They exchanged nervous glances.

  ‘He didn’t by any chance tell you where he’d gone and when he’d be back?’ Solomon asked.

  Mrs Pye rubbed her chin. ‘Now you mentions it, he didn’t. I think he said he’d return “soon”.’

  Mr Solomon smiled his headmasterly smile. ‘And might you have any idea whom he might be seeing?’

  Mrs Pye shook her head a couple of times and regarded the man. ‘He’s not in trouble, is he?’

  Archie laughed. ‘Your lad’s always in trouble, Mrs P — and landing me in it half the time.’

  As Archie started telling Mrs Pye about their long hours together in detention, Mr Solomon turned his attention to the table and the selection of photographs sitting randomly on it.

  When Archie had finished, his story, Solomon sat down on the bed and addressed Mrs Pye. ‘Your boy, my dear, has had a remarkably difficult upbringing. Considering what he’s been through, his demeanour, which I have to admit hasn’t always been of the highest standard, has been nothing short of stoic.’

  Solomon smiled at her. ‘Had you found each other several years ago, I’m sure some of his behavioural issues would be non-existent. But this is all hearsay. Kemp has talent in abundance, though regrettably,’ he said, flicking his eyes at Archie, ‘it has often been misplaced.’

  Mrs Pye beamed back at him. The words “talent” and “abundance” close to one another filled her with joy no matter what.

  Solomon stood up and returned to the table again where he had previously inspected some of the framed photographs. The others watched as he stopped, stone-still, staring at one in particular. He picked up the silver frame, turned it towards the window and quickly replaced it back down on the glass top.