‘Damaris!’ he cried out again, beginning to panic that something had gone wrong and she hadn’t made it across the cliffs with him.
‘Don’t worry. I’m here. I’m okay,’ she said, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tight.
‘Hey!’ Sam said, grinning as he managed to focus on her. ‘You really are okay. You’re back to your old self again, aren’t you?’
‘I am,’ she said.
‘What was with all the don’t-touch-me stuff?’
Damaris closed her eyes for a moment, her face troubled. ‘That was how I was once ... like being in a maze you can’t find a way out of.’ She squeezed him even tighter. ‘But I’m out of it now.’
‘Hey! Careful!’ Sam laughed, then frowned. ‘And that thing with your voice … what was that?’
‘Maybe they were right to do what they did … maybe I was a witch,’ she said distantly.
‘Nah, they weren’t right,’ he replied. ‘Only don’t offer to sing to me ever again, will you?’
With a chuckle she held him at arm’s length. ‘Sam, we did it. We really did it,’ she kept saying over and over.
Sam began to turn toward Rachel. ‘You know with Taka-heavy throwing his weight around, I didn’t think we were going to get her through w—’
‘No, I meant you’re safe,’ Damaris cut him short. ‘You’re not going to burn up now.’
‘Oh, yes, I forgot about that.’ With everything else going on, Sam had genuinely forgotten how important it was to him. He was about to comment on this when he was silenced by a shriek of laughter. Both he and Damaris spun round.
Although she didn’t look too certain of herself, Rachel was up on her feet. The vapor issuing from her wasn’t nearly so dense now, and she was behaving that way people do when they can’t quite accept something, alternating between short bursts of brittle laughter and shaking her head disbelievingly. She took a step like a toddler only just learning to walk, then swayed wildly. Sam moved quickly to catch her.
‘No,’ she said, and he stopped where he was. She was probing her thigh, trying to understand the transformation which was already well underway. ‘But there wasn’t bone here before. And it doesn’t hurt anymore. How …?’
She spotted something in the ivy by her feet and stooped to pick it up. The ball joint was dripping with blood, the contrast between the bright scarlet and the dull white of the plastic prosthetic made all the more striking by the bright sunshine. ‘My replacement hip? It was in here,’ she said, patting the other side of her pelvis through her dressing gown. ‘They put it in me years ago.’
Then she noticed something else and bent for a second time. She held up a pair of stainless steel splints, again smeared with blood. ‘These must be from my shins.’ She lifted her foot from the ground and rotated it at the ankle, then looked across at Sam with uncomprehending eyes. ‘Everything’s come back. I’m normal again, and the awful pain’s gone. How?’ she asked.
‘You’ll be better than normal soon. That’s what all that white smoke was – it means you’re healing. And before you ask, can I tell you something?’
Rachel gave him a quizzical look. ‘What?’
‘You’re not in heaven and this isn’t a dream,’ he said.
She gave that brittle laugh of hers again. ‘I’m glad you cleared that up for me.’
‘Listen, this is for keeps, and it’s for as long as you want it,’ Sam said. ‘You can go home whenever you want – I can take you – but in the meantime you’re going to be so strong and so well. Just like everyone else here.’
‘If this is only a dream, I don’t care,’ Rachel said unequivocally. ‘I never want to wake up.’
‘It’s not,’ Sam told her again.
With a few wisps of white vapor curling around her legs, she attempted some more steps toward him, her confidence growing with each one. Then she took a last massive stride and threw her arms around him. There were tears of gratitude in her eyes. ‘I don’t know how you did this, but … thank you.’
Then she let go of him and flung herself at Damaris, embracing her too. ‘I don’t even know who you are, but I can’t thank you enough. You don’t have any idea what it was like being stuck in that hospital … waiting to die.’
‘I think I might,’ Damaris said, then smiled. ‘And I bet you’re famished.’
‘You can say that again,’ Rachel replied, detaching herself from Damaris. She stood a little haphazardly, her arms outstretched to balance herself, then whirled completely around. ‘Look at this! I’m back to how I was!’ she announced joyfully. ‘I can do ballet again!’
‘Not until you’ve fully recovered, you can’t. Come along,’ Sam said, taking one of her arms and scooping her off her feet. ‘I’ll carry you down to the village. We can get you some food there, and you’re going to need a ton of it, like I did.’ He was silent for a moment as he contemplated the sun in the sky. ‘We don’t even know what time it is,’ he said to Damaris. ‘It was night when we left the world, but it feels as though it’s the afternoon here. I wonder how long we’ve been gone.’
Damaris had begun down the incline. ‘We’ll find out soon enough,’ she said.
‘This place is so beautiful … poppies everywhere,’ Rachel said, as Sam carried her. ‘So are there many other people here?’
‘No, not many, and you’ll meet them soon,’ Sam replied, then cleared his throat. ‘Rachel, about that … I need to ask you a favor.’
‘Anything,’ she replied without a moment’s hesitation.
‘When we do meet the others, I need you to keep quiet about how Damaris and I came to fetch you. It would … er … complicate things if they found out,’ he said. ‘All they need to know is that we discovered you here by the cliffs. That’s how it usually works.’
‘Of course. I won’t tell anyone,’ she confirmed, yawning and having immense difficulty resisting the fatigue which was beginning to overwhelm her.
As the village finally came into view, they circled around it, keeping to the surrounding fields so they’d reach Curtis’s house without bumping into anyone. Damaris was peering into the distance, trying to see the gap in the terrace of houses that Sam’s fire had left.
‘Nothing’s changed – they haven’t even started to shore up the damaged buildings. We can’t have been away long. Maybe a day or less,’ she suggested.
Sam nodded. ‘So the chances are nobody’s really missed us yet.’ He glanced down at Rachel sound asleep in his arms. ‘We just need to make sure that she gets the story straight … that we found her by the cliffs.’
Damaris was looking at Sam; it was only now dawning on her how powerful this gift of his was, and how others in the valley might seek to use it.
No wonder Curtis had warned them time and time again to keep it to themselves.
Sam could go back and put things right. Or destroy lives without anyone ever knowing.
He had the ability to change history.
But as Damaris mulled this over, Sam’s mind was on something else altogether. If Curtis was correct and, for a while at least, he had been given a reprieve because his excess energy had been purged, then why was there such a feeling of dread growing in the pit of his stomach. It was the same feeling he’d had in the days before he died.
Sam didn’t know what it was, but something terrible was heading his way.
***
Tom, Vek and Rachel were splashing each other and frolicking in the crystal clear shallows of the pond, their laughter drifting over the water to where Sam lay in the shade of the willow with Damaris. There was very little wind that afternoon in the valley, and the warm air hung heavy on the land, unmoving and torpid.
‘That was a wonderful lunch,’ Damaris said, sighing in contentment.
‘Mmm,’ Sam agreed.
Damaris slipped one eye open to find that he was watching the games across the pond. ‘You know, Tom has really taken a shine to her,’ she said.
‘That’s nice,’ Sam replied.
W
ithin only a matter of weeks Rachel had completely recovered and already settled into the daily routine of picnics with the occasional outing to different parts of the valley. She’d been accepted by Randall and Dorry and everyone in the village as one of their own, and if anyone was harboring any suspicions because she and Sam had known each other back in the world, they weren’t making anything of it.
‘Yes, she seems very happy,’ Sam added.
Damaris squeezed his hand. ‘She is, but I’m not so sure you are. Would you rather be over there with them?’
Sam squeezed her hand back. ‘No, I’m happy right here. I know how much you hate the water.’ He switched his gaze from the pond to the boughs of the willow tree above, losing himself in the green mosaic of the canopy.
Damaris’s voice was becoming drowsy. ‘Curtis said you’d be fine for now, so you just need to relax … take it easy for a while.’
Sam nodded. ‘When the energy builds up in me again, maybe you and I can take another trip through the cliffs. It’ll be rather like going on holiday together,’ he said, trying to sound upbeat. Damaris was right – there were no dark clouds on the horizon, nothing he should be worried about, but he didn’t feel that way.
‘I never had proper holidays back in the world. I was always too ill,’ Sam added, then fell silent, wishing the nagging feeling of dread would leave him.
But, if anything, it had been growing stronger by the day.
As he lay there next to Damaris, he tried not to let it keep him from sleep. And despite the excited shouts from across the water, he finally dozed off, his hand still linked with Damaris’s because he needed to know that she was there, by his side.
He had what was important to him.
Sam woke as someone blew playfully in his ear. ‘Hey, stop it, Damaris,’ he said, chuckling and yawning at the same time. ‘It can’t be time to go back already?’
‘Who’s Damaris?’ a girl’s voice asked.
Sam gave another chuckle, stretching his arms luxuriously. ‘That was such a deep sleep.’
There was a sudden pressure on his chest as someone dropped themselves on top of him. ‘Go on – who’s Damaris?’ the voice asked again, with an edge of insistence to it this time.
Sam flicked his eyes open.
‘Rachel?’ Sam quickly lifted her off as he sat up, rather shocked that she was being so forward with him.
The girl appeared distinctly unhappy. ‘You were dreaming about someone else, weren’t you?’ she asked possessively, then tried to touch him.
Sam pushed her hand away. ‘What do you think you’re doing, Rachel? Where’s Damaris?’ he laughed awkwardly. The weather was unchanged, still overly warm and airless, but this wasn’t the reason for the trickle of sweat running down his back. Sam had just noticed he wasn’t wearing his clothes but a pair of swimming trunks.
‘I didn’t go in the water,’ he mumbled.
And as he looked at Rachel, he couldn’t understand what he was seeing. She was still in her swimming costume, and what had regrown of her jet-black hair had evidently just dried in the sun. That part was fine. What wasn’t fine was that there was something altogether different in her manner toward him. An intimacy to which he couldn’t respond.
Hearing sounds from the other side of the pond, he looked in their direction. The urchins were out in full force on the far bank, taking turns on the ropes to jump into the water.
‘Where is she?’ Sam asked Rachel again. ‘She was here when I went to sleep.’
‘But you and I came here with the kids, no one else, and I’ve never heard of anyone called Damaris,’ the girl answered flatly. ‘Does she live in the valley too?’
Sam stood up. ‘Funny trick,’ he said in an unflustered way, refusing to let anyone see he was being taken in. ‘So where are Tom and Vek hiding?’
‘I don’t know anyone called Vek, but I’ve met Tom a couple of times in the village,’ Rachel said, beginning to look concerned. ‘Why would he be here with us?’
‘Because …’ Sam began, but didn’t feel he needed to explain himself.
‘Are you all right, Sam? Maybe you’ve had too much sun,’ Rachel suggested. ‘Come and have another dip with me.’
Sam shook his head, then turned toward the pond. ‘Hey, you lot, where’ve you hidden Tom and Vek?’ he shouted at the urchins.
They all stopped what they were doing, watching him from the water’s edge. None of them replied.
‘Where are Tom and Vek?’ Sam tried again.
‘Not here, Sam,’ Rosie Plummer shouted back, and gave a bemused shrug. ‘And I don’t remember the last time Vek came to this side of the valley.’ For once the little girl looked very demure, with her hair done up in two neat plaits, and no signs of physical mutilation anywhere.
Sam heard Rachel murmur something about Rosie being a little poppet, but he was too distracted to put her right.
‘Oh come on!’ he shouted, becoming annoyed. ‘Where’s Damaris gone? Back to the village?’ A silly prank like this wasn’t past Tom or Vek, but Sam thought it was odd that Damaris would allow herself to be part of it.
‘Who?’ a number of the urchins shouted back. The Rodgers twins were looking at each other, muttering, ‘Damaris?’
‘This isn’t funny,’ Sam growled, but as he turned to Rachel again, he noticed something else. ‘The basket? Where’s the basket?’
‘What basket?’ she asked.
‘From our picnic, of course.’
‘But we didn’t bring one with us. Did you forget … we ate at that place … the Dorm—’
‘The Dormitories,’ Sam finished for her. He dropped onto one knee and looked into her eyes. ‘Why are you saying you don’t remember Damaris? She helped me fetch you from the world, didn’t she? You and I are friends, Rachel, so please don’t mess me around.’
Rachel was shaking her head emphatically. ‘Of course we’re friends, but what do you mean? It was just you!’ She seemed to be so genuine and so earnest that for a moment Sam actually allowed himself to believe she wasn’t putting on an act.
‘No,’ he said. ‘If this is all some joke, so help me …’ he threatened, although it wasn’t directed at anyone in particular.
‘Sam,’ Rachel said indignantly.
Ignoring her, he went to his pile of clothes. He was throwing them on when he wondered how anyone would have managed to change what he was wearing while he slept. Even though some of their antics were pretty hare-brained, he found it hard to imagine Tom and Vek going that far. While he was ramming his feet into his boots he paused for a moment as it occurred to him that his memory could be at fault. Had he completely blanked out part of the afternoon?
Or worse.
Was he going mad?
He knew he wasn’t.
And he was certain of the events before he’d fallen asleep that day. Anyway, nothing could explain Damaris’s absence.
Rachel was saying something to him, but Sam wasn’t listening as he finished dressing. He strode up the mound beside the pond, breaking into a run before he’d even reached the top. Once he was on the track leading down to the village, he sprinted as fast as his legs would carry him. Until he was out of earshot he could still hear Rachel calling after him.
If this was a trick they were playing on him, he’d never forgive them. But it didn’t feel like that.
Something wasn’t right.
But with time to think while he raced along, Sam had just about swept aside any doubt that lingered in his mind. As the village came into sight, he’d convinced himself that this was nothing but an elaborate prank.
Tom and Vek had hoodwinked him with their cleverly staged ruse. And how his two friends must be splitting their sides at the way he’d fallen for it. Sam kicked himself for acting so rashly when he had run away from Rachel like that.
He was still telling himself that nothing was wrong as he approached the outskirts of the village. A man carrying a small keg on his shoulder was making his way along the track, evidently bound for
the Straw Hat. Sam hadn’t spoken to him before, but as everybody knew everybody in the valley, he skidded to a halt by the man.
‘Excuse me,’ he managed to say, resting on his knees and out of breath from running. ‘Can I ask …?’
‘Hot today,’ the man commented.
‘Yes,’ Sam puffed. ‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Certainly,’ the man replied.
‘You know Damaris, don’t you? A girl called Damaris?’
Putting the keg on the ground, the man took off his hat and scratched the top of his head. ‘I can’t say I’ve ever heard of anyone of th—’ he began ponderously.
‘But you must know her,’ Sam burst out. ‘Blond hair, very pretty. Lived on a farm on the other side of the valley for a long time, with those big cow things …’ he said, his words tripping over one another. ‘Aurochs – that’s what they’re called,’ he added, as he remembered. ‘She moved to the village and shared a house with Tom and Vek. In fact, in the house that was …’
As Sam turned to show the man where it had been in the terrace farther down the thoroughfare, he staggered as if he’d been struck. ‘Huh?’ he gasped. ‘That can’t be.’
There was no damage to it or any of the houses in the row on either side. And of course there was absolutely no way on any earth that they could have been rebuilt in the few hours he’d been away from the village.
‘What is it?’ the man said, as Sam took several dazed steps in the direction of the terrace.
‘I must be losing it,’ Sam whispered. His friends playing a joke on him was one thing, but this couldn’t be faked.
‘What’s the matter?’ the man asked, but Sam didn’t reply, sprinting off again in the direction of the Dormitories. As he arrived there, Randall was emerging from the main entrance.
‘Randall … you must tell me,’ Sam babbled.
‘Tell you what, Sam?’ Randall asked, his expression concerned.
‘Damaris,’ Sam simply said.
Randall frowned.
‘You know her, don’t you?’ In frustration Sam jabbed a finger at the terrace on the opposite side of the thoroughfare. ‘Come on. Damaris. She lived in that house right there where I started the …’ he said, floundering for a second as he took in again that the row of buildings was intact, ‘… started the fire – you do know her!’