‘Every Warden knows this rhyme,’ said Kleo. ‘It’s one of the first things they learn.’
‘But what does it mean?’
‘The Evil comes from somewhere outside our world,’ explained Kleo. ‘But it can’t come through just anywhere. It needs to find weak points, where it is easier for it to reach out and find suitable hosts. Portland is one of those weak points and, as in other such places all around the globe, Wardens have made wards to reinforce its natural defences.’
‘Okay so far,’ said Jaide. ‘But what are these wards?’
‘The wards are magical barriers that hold back The Evil and prevent it coming through into our world. There are always four wards, one for each cardinal point of the compass. They come in many different shapes and guises, but the tapestry you hold describes their general type. There will always be “something growing, something read, something living, someone dead”.’
‘Fine,’ said Jaide. ‘So what are the four wards of Portland?’
Each cat looked at the other, waiting for an answer.
‘She never told me,’ said Ari. ‘What about you, Kleo?’
Kleo half-lidded her eyes. ‘She never told me, either.’
‘You don’t know?!’ exclaimed Jack. ‘That’s just great!’
‘If you can’t even tell us what the wards are,’ said Jaide, ‘how can we fix the broken one?’
‘I’m sure you can work it out,’ said Ari in an encouraging tone. His words were somewhat undermined by Kleo’s sniff. ‘That’s one of the things Wardens do. Very clever at finding things out, they are.’
‘We’re not Wardens . . . yet,’ said Jack. He didn’t say aloud that the odds were against their ever becoming proper Wardens. It was far more likely they were going to get absorbed by The Evil and lost forever.
‘But it’s true we’re good at working things out,’ said Jaide. ‘We got through the blue door, didn’t we?’
‘That is true,’ said Jack.
‘Are there any places Grandma X used to visit a lot?’ Jaide asked the cats. ‘I mean, more often than anywhere else? Any particular things she looked at?’
Kleo shook her head. ‘No.’
‘She usually inspected the wards in her spirit form,’ said Ari. ‘So no one could see where she went.’
‘You never followed her?’ asked Jaide. ‘Can’t you guys do that spirit-travelling thing, too?’
‘We could if we wanted to, I’m sure,’ said Kleo. ‘Not that we need spirit travelling to move about mysteriously.’
‘Your grandmother . . . ah . . . discouraged our perfectly natural curiosity,’ said Ari. ‘We had to eat dry food for a week the last . . . that is to say, we really, really don’t know where she went. You’ll have to find some other way to work out where the wards are.’
Jaide looked toward the door. The Evil was out there, in all those hideous dog-insect creatures. It could be spreading into more living things; it could be doing anything; maybe it was going to attack at any moment, and they were stuck and clueless and she could feel a terrible panic in her stomach, rising up to choke her —
‘She took us on a drive the day after we arrived, remember?’ Jack suddenly said. ‘She seemed distracted, like she felt something was up but didn’t know what it was. Maybe she was checking on the wards then, without us knowing.’
‘Yes!’ exclaimed Jaide. ‘Good thinking, Jack!’
‘We went to the cactus park,’ he said. ‘There was that really big, weird cactus there, the one she went right up to and looked at the top with her funny little binoculars.’
‘Yeah, I’d forgotten that,’ said Jaide thoughtfully. ‘I guess the cactus could be the “something living”?’
‘Or “something growing”. She also took us to Mermaid Point.’
‘That’s right. She said something about a giant —’
‘That it was a her, not a him.’
‘So maybe the rocks are the giant!’
‘Alive or dead?’
‘Either way, it fits.’
‘“Something read,”’ mused Jack, running a finger across the cable-stitched letters on the fabric before them. ‘What could that be?’
‘A sign?’
‘There are lots of those, even in Portland.’
‘A book?’
‘We didn’t go anywhere near the library.’
‘No, but Kleo’s owner has the bookshop around the corner from here.’
‘If the ward was one of his books, and he sold it, what would that mean for Portland?’
‘Okay, something else, then.’
‘It could be anywhere. We’ll never find it!’
‘Hang on! I wonder . . .’
Jaide was looking at a compass on the wall, an old brass compass with an internal card that had North, East, South and West written out in very large red letters, with all the lesser points in tiny black type.
‘I’ve just remembered,’ said Jaide slowly. ‘When I tried to help Grandma X with the storm, I could feel The Evil pressing in on us – but only from one direction, from the east. It was like we had walls around us on the other sides, so that east was the only direction it could attack us from.’
‘So it must be the East Ward that needs fixing,’ said Jack. ‘But east of what?’
‘This house,’ said Ari. ‘We know that much. The wards will be arranged around this central point.’
‘Where did she take us that’s east?’ asked Jaide.
‘The graveyard,’ said Jack. ‘And the lighthouse.’
As he said lighthouse, the crocodile skull started to chatter.
‘One brass plate, three inches by four, fixed by four two-eighth screws fashioned entirely from silver, the plate etched in acid, the words made clear.’
‘What does that mean?’ asked Jack.
‘Who knows?’ said Kleo. ‘That skull spouts off all the time.’
‘“The words made clear,”’ mused Jaide. ‘Words to be read, like the rhyme says? One of the wards?’
The crocodile skull laughed maniacally, its jaw moving so much that its vibration shuddered it off the table. It fell into a woven wastepaper basket, which muffled its cackling until it fell silent a few seconds later.
‘Words on a plate,’ said Jack. He bent down and very carefully retrieved the skull, making sure his fingers were not at risk. ‘Some of the stones in the cemetery had brass plates on them.’
‘There might be a brass plate in the lighthouse, too,’ said Jaide.
‘There are lots of brass plates all over the place. How can we tell if one of them is the “something read” ward?’
‘The silver screws, maybe?’
‘That’s if the skull was talking about the ward and not some other plate,’ said Jack.
‘There are instruments that indicate the presence of Warden magic,’ suggested Kleo. She pointed with her paw. ‘Ari, show them the flower.’
Ari jumped across to one of the shelves and gently butted a tall silver cylinder with his head. Jack lifted it down, took off the lid, and he and Jaide looked at the glass flower inside.
‘If you take it out, the flower will change colour to indicate the presence of Warden magic,’ said Kleo. ‘Powerful magic makes it turn a very deep blue. I’m sure it would do that in the presence of a ward.’
‘So if we took this and held it near any brass plates we find in the cemetery or the lighthouse, it would tell us which one is the ward,’ said Jaide.
‘How do we fix the ward, though?’ Jack asked.
‘Finding it is the first step.’ A plan was already starting to form in Jaide’s mind. ‘Then we’ll need to see what has to be done.’
‘But we’re surrounded by The Evil,’ protested Jack with a shudder. ‘Those dogs . . .’
‘
I think I know how to find the brass plate and get back here without being caught by the dogs,’ said Jaide. She put the silver cylinder under her arm. ‘Let’s go up on the roof again.’
When Jack opened the hatch at the top of the last flight of stairs, he was surprised at how old the day was getting. Through a break in the clouds, the lazy afternoon sun was sinking slowly into the last quarter, sending long shadows across the yard below.
There were even more dogs in the yard now. Hundreds of them, made horribly shaggy and creepy by heavy encrustations of cockroaches and other bugs. Their eyes were white and they all raised their snouts together as they caught the scent of their human prey.
‘At least they’re only watching,’ said Jaide. ‘They’d come inside if they could.’
‘Somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better,’ said Jack.
He looked further afield. The yellow shoulder of a bulldozer was visible over the fence by the derelict house next door, but there were no people in sight. The storm had made everyone stay indoors. He swung Grandma X’s opera glasses south, over houses along Cutting and Crescent streets, two curving streets south of Watchward Lane, then looked further east. The roads had no moving cars on them, and there was a train stopped at the station just south of the Little Rock.
The old willows by the river were bent over in answer to the wind blowing along the river off the sea. Jack thought of the tunnels under those willows and the sewers that ran to the river and the sea. He fervently hoped he would never, ever see the inside of those sewers again.
Jaide also looked out. She saw nothing strange to the northwest, just endless fields of newer houses and land cleared for future development. The little church by the cactus garden showed no sign of interference. The hospital was brightly lit, the only big building to have lights on, but then it would have its own generators, Jaide guessed. She could also see several work crews on the far end of Main Street, raising power poles and doing something that sent sparks from their welders falling like magical sprays of jasmine.
But there were no workers doing anything to the fallen power poles near Grandma X’s house, and there were no people on the streets nearby. It was as if the town had been selectively abandoned, and everyone had left the area within five hundred yards of the house.
Jaide turned her attention to the north. The coastal reserve was empty apart from two brave fishermen wading out on the sand flats. The dredger was safely docked. The rocks of Mermaid Point did look a lot like a sleeping giant, even from this angle, but she couldn’t tell if there were rocks missing or any other obvious damage.
Waves dashed themselves white against the breakwater. Masts swayed and bobbed in the marina. Like the coastal reserve, the cemetery and church were empty. Mourning could wait for better weather, Jaide supposed. She tried to see any brass plates, but it was too far, and there wasn’t enough sun for any bright reflections. Not that any of the brass plates they’d seen before were clean enough to shine.
The lighthouse was as lifeless as it always seemed to be. It was too early for the automatic light to be on.
That left only the Rock, and although Jaide scanned its steep flanks carefully, she found nothing to suggest that it was either home to the ward or under attack by The Evil.
‘See anything?’ Jack asked.
‘Nope,’ she said. ‘You?’
Wind caught her around the body and tangled in her hair. She felt a sudden surge of weightlessness and quickly handed Jack the silver cylinder so she could hold on to the rail.
‘Nothing useful, except it looks like it’s going to rain again soon.’
They both looked east. A vast storm front of dark clouds was building up on the horizon, its interior lit by intense flashes of lightning.
‘It’s going to be a vile night,’ said Ari from his position by Jaide’s feet. ‘The first storm was your grandmother’s work. The one coming stinks of The Evil.’
‘Much of the house’s protection is built into its timbers, infused with your great-grandfather’s Gift. He built this place as a wedding present for your grandmother,’ said Kleo. She was perched on the railing, ignoring the wind and the Evil-infested dogs below. ‘If a storm were to physically break a wall, that would weaken the magical defences, perhaps enough for The Evil to come in.’
‘So we need to find the broken ward and fix it before the storm hits,’ said Jaide. ‘Almost certainly to the east.’
‘Yes,’ said Jack. He was still looking out to the lighthouse and the cemetery. ‘But how can we get past the dogs?’
‘I’ll glide there,’ said Jaide. She was almost airborne already, even though she was doing as her grandmother had suggested, thinking heavy thoughts and holding on to the rail.
Jack stared at her as though she’d gone mad. ‘You’ll what?’
‘Trust me,’ she said, with a glance up at the sky. There was a bright patch of sun above her, one that she thought would last for ten or fifteen minutes before it was obscured by the outrider clouds of the storm front. She could feel the sunshine pouring into her, fuelling her Gift. Grandma X had said Jaide’s powers were of the sun and wind, and she felt that to be true, as both were now powerfully present. ‘It’ll be easy. I’ll be there and back in a few minutes. I’ll take the flower, and when we know exactly what and where the ward is, we’ll work out how to fix it.’
‘Hang on a minute,’ said Jack. He looked around the sky. ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea.’
At the same time Kleo said, ‘Jaide, wait! This is very dangerous. Your Gifts are raw and you have not been trained!’
‘I know I can do this, for Grandma,’ said Jaide confidently. The sunshine was flowing through her, lifting her spirits, making her feel like she could tackle anything. ‘Give me the flower.’
Reluctantly, Jack opened the silver cylinder and took out the flower. As he touched it, the glass changed from being completely colourless to a very light cornflower blue. But as he gave it to Jaide, the colour darkened to a richer royal blue.
‘See,’ said Jaide. ‘My Gift is strong right now. Help me up.’
‘Please be careful,’ said Jack quietly as he gave her a hand onto the top of the rail. She stood there for a moment, testing her balance. The wind scattered her hair across her face, and she felt a lightness in her stomach, a joy that came at least partly from the thought that she was special. In almost no time at all, it seemed, she had gone from being an ordinary kid to someone who could fly. No one else could do what she was about to attempt.
‘Let go, Jack.’
The pressure of his fingers around her ankles fell away. He looked up at her as she leaned forward into thin air and let the wind take her.
JACK BIT HIS TONGUE IN fear as his sister dived forward with the glass flower in her hand, then he gasped in wonder and relief as she was swept up by the wind. Banking to the left, she circled the house once and then, climbing steadily, took off toward the cemetery.
As her shadow crossed the yard, every dog guarding the house started barking. Jack looked down in surprise, because they’d been so silent before. He was even more surprised to see them all in a frenzy of distress, some writhing and biting at their insect-ridden backs, some rolling in the dirt, most of them barking madly but more than a few whimpering in abject fear instead.
They were behaving like normal dogs now. A Labrador looked up at him piteously, and he saw the whiteness ebbing from its sad brown eyes.
‘The Evil has left them,’ said Kleo. ‘But where has it —?’
With a raucous chorus and a thunderous slap of wings, hundreds of birds burst out of the trees all around the house. White-eyed and single-minded, they flew straight up to become a great winged host, a dark cloud of enemy birds that spread across the sky.
‘Jaide!’ screamed Jack to the small, retreating speck that was his airborne sister. ‘Watch out!’
&nb
sp; Jaide heard Jack’s cry but not the actual words. They were lost in the rushing of the wind. Air pressed close all around her, coiling and uncoiling like a restless, invisible snake. She felt safe in its insubstantial strength, and being so high above the ground didn’t frighten her at all. She felt as though she could fly for hours, carried by the wind and warmed by the sun.
Then the first of the seagulls smashed into her back, squawking and pecking, and everything went horribly wrong. Surprise made her wobble and dip. She dropped the glass flower, and it tumbled away.
She started to fly down in a desperate attempt to catch it, but a magpie and another seagull swooped against her head, knocking her off course. More birds struck her back and legs, mobbing her from every side. Suddenly everything was feathers and claws, and she was falling, spearing toward the ground.
In despair she saw the flower hit ahead of her, turning to clear glass just before it shattered into a thousand pieces.
Fear stabbed through her, but it was overlaid by the furious determination that had fuelled her ever since Grandma X had been injured. She wouldn’t be knocked out of the sky by a bunch of birds – she wouldn’t. She would blow them away!
Without even thinking about what she was doing, Jaide took in a very deep breath, filling her lungs and her cheeks to bursting. Then she blew it all out, turning her head so that the blast of air from her mouth hosed in all directions.
Far more than a human breath issued from between her lips. A great wind swept the birds away from her, but it also sent Jaide into a violent spin further up into the sky, surrounded by a cloud of stunned and squawking birds.
Jack watched in horror, gripping the rail so tightly he gave himself splinters without noticing. The birds had attacked Jaide all at once and she had gone into a dive; he’d seen the flower fall, but then the birds had been blown in all directions, and now Jaide was spinning wildly up into the sky.
He understood what was happening immediately. Jaide’s Gift was out of control, exactly as Kleo had feared it might become. At least she wasn’t falling anymore, but she was climbing way too high and way too fast.