Troubletwisters

  ‘Jaide!’ he called, waving. ‘Jaide! Come back!’

  Jaide ran out of breath. For a moment she thought that this would stop the wild, ferocious wind that had blown the birds away and sent her into the sky. But it didn’t. She was still surrounded by a jet stream that was driving her straight up like a rocket.

  Far below her, she heard a faint cry.

  ‘Jaide! Focus! Fly down here!’

  Jaide didn’t feel like she could focus. She felt like throwing up. The world was spinning, the wind was blowing madly, and she was suddenly freezing cold.

  ‘Jaide!’

  But Jack’s voice was like a lifeline. Somehow, she did manage to focus on it. She tried to imagine that his voice was a real lifeline, and visualised the remnant sunshine wrapping around his words, weaving a rope that would hold her down.

  ‘Aim for the house, Jaide! Aim for the house!’

  Jaide’s rapid ascent slowed as she concentrated harder on being pulled back to the ground by her lifeline. The wind faltered and began to dart in different directions, as if it had lost heart. Jaide was jerked and shoved around, but she knew she was winning the battle for control.

  ‘Down,’ she said firmly to the wind, and, amazingly, the wind ebbed. Jaide began to spin and flitter down like a leaf falling from a tree.

  ‘Faster, Jaide! The birds are coming back!’

  Jaide ignored the warning. The last thing she wanted to do was go faster. Her hold on the breeze was tenuous and she thought if she tried to change anything, she would plummet like a stone.

  Immediately she wished she hadn’t thought about falling, because then she couldn’t think of anything else, and all of a sudden she was falling, the wind had dropped, and all her weight returned.

  But she was almost at the roof of the house. Jaide hit the topmost turret hard, bounced off, and then, with a despairing cry and a wild grab, reached up and caught the moon-and-stars weathervane.

  The birds swooped in but did not press their attack. Jaide clung to the weathervane and shut her eyes for several very long seconds.

  ‘Can you move?’ Jack was calling to her again. ‘Creep around to your right. There’s a ledge there. If you climb down a bit, then across to the chimney to your right, I’ll pull you in.’

  Jaide did as she was told with her eyes tightly shut. She didn’t want to look down, and she never wanted to fly again. Not until she had her Gift completely under control, anyway.

  Jack’s hands caught her and pulled her over the rail.

  ‘Well done,’ he said. ‘Though you do look like you’re about to throw up.’

  Jaide gave him a furious look, rushed back to the rail, and vomited over the side. Jack patted her on the back as she said, ‘I would have been all right if you hadn’t said anything.’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Jack.

  Jaide was sick again, then she stood up straight and wiped her mouth.

  ‘There goes that plan,’ she said. ‘What are we going to do now?’

  ‘I had a thought,’ said Jack. He had remembered the odd little jump he had taken in the tunnels, from inside a mound of rats and bugs to safety inside a shadow. What if he could do more than just move his mind along a shadow – what if he could move the rest of him as well? It would have made getting into the blue room a lot easier than it had been, for a start. ‘The sun is going down. There are a lot of shadows. I can go and look for the brass plate instead of you.’

  ‘But I lost the flower,’ Jaide pointed out. She felt very down and defeated, an emotion made stronger because of its sharp contrast to how great she’d felt when she’d first flown off the house. ‘How will you know if you’ve found the ward?’

  ‘Ari, Kleo, do you know of anything else I could use to find the ward?’ asked Jack. ‘Something I can use as a shadow?’

  Ari shut his left eye and stared out with his right, then shut his right eye and stared with the left. Then he opened both eyes and said, ‘No. I’m afraid not. Though a full Warden would just recognise the ward —’

  ‘There is something,’ interrupted Kleo. ‘You remember the Warden Nickolanci, Ari? She came to see Grandma X last year and stayed for three days?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ari. ‘She brought rollmop herrings. You ate most of them.’

  ‘She is a Shadow Walker, like you, Jack,’ said Kleo. ‘She could manipulate and shape shadows, and she said something once, that she could use the memory of a shadow, if something had cast one long enough in the same place.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ asked Jack. His mind was racing, thinking of the possibilities of manipulating and shaping shadows. He was very keen to give it a go.

  ‘Nicki could use the shadow of an object when she herself was a shadow,’ said Kleo. ‘She could, for example, take the shadow of a sword and wield it. But I’m thinking that the flower was in that silver case for a long time, its shadow with it —’

  ‘You mean I could take the memory of the shadow of the flower and use it to find the right brass plate!’ interrupted Jack. ‘Though it wouldn’t change colour —’

  ‘It would change tone or density,’ said Jaide, who was more into art classes than Jack. ‘I guess it would go black. But I’m not sure you should go out, even as a shadow. Who knows what The Evil can do to you? I mean, rats and birds might be nothing compared to what it can do with shadows.’

  ‘You tried your way,’ said Jack. ‘It’s my turn now.’

  ‘It’s not about turns,’ said Jaide.

  ‘Can you think of anything else?’ Jack pointed to the approaching storm. Below, the dogs had fallen silent again and were watching the house with creepy intensity. ‘We can’t just wait until the storm blows the house down and The Evil walks in!’

  Jaide looked at the clouds.

  ‘I guess you’re right,’ she said.

  ‘All I need is a shadow to start with,’ said Jack.

  They circled the widow’s walk, looking for a point where the shadows intersected the house. There weren’t many tall trees to the west, but there was a shapely elm behind one of the shops on Dock Road. Its shadow reached far across the front yard, just touching one of the drawing room windows.

  ‘That’ll do,’ Jack said, and he headed for the stairs. Jaide followed, glad to put the widow’s walk behind them. She had got cold up in the high, thin air, the last of the sun was fading fast, and she no longer trusted the wind or her ability to use it.

  Jack pulled back the drawing room curtains and looked out.

  ‘The rats are back,’ he said. ‘A few of them at least. Over by the wall.’

  Jaide looked out, too. There weren’t many of them, as Jack had said, but they had the milky eyes she had learned to fear. She saw a couple with normal eyes and was relieved for a moment, until she realised they were not really rats, but rat-shaped composites made up of cockroaches, earwigs, and other insects.

  ‘Sentries,’ guessed Jack. ‘I wonder what the rest of The Evil is up to?’

  ‘Be careful,’ said Jaide. ‘It’ll be waiting for us to try something else.’

  ‘Hey, I’ll be a shadow. What can go wrong?’

  Jack regretted saying this the second it came out, but it was too late. Jaide looked as if she was going to go all Kleo-vs-Ari on him.

  ‘I mean I’ll be very careful,’ Jack said seriously.

  ‘I wish Dad was here,’ said Jaide.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Jack. ‘But he never is, is he?’

  Ari opened his mouth as though to say something, but shut it again with a snap at a sharp look from Kleo.

  Jaide didn’t notice. She had gone back to looking at the watching rats as Jack settled himself on a chair. He opened the silver cylinder and put it on the floor, then placed his hand into the shadow of the elm where it fell through the window. He closed his eyes, even though he wasn’t sure
if that made a difference.

  ‘Good luck,’ whispered Jaide.

  Her voice grew faint as Jack’s mind found the tree’s shadow and slipped into it, like a fish into a stream. Following it was as easy as wishing. The world slid around him, grey and blurry, and when he looked up, he saw himself in the chair.

  The silver cylinder was nearby, and it had something in it. The memory of the shadow. Shadow Jack reached in and pulled out a flower that had the colour and consistency of a light, white mist. But as he touched it, it got darker and more defined, and he had no trouble holding it in his hand.

  Shadow Jack slid along the shadow of the branch, out through the window to where the shadow of the trunk fell across the road. There was plenty of shadow to follow from there, and Jack slipped along to Dock Road, heading east. He lost his bearings for a moment, as light and shade crisscrossed everywhere, and it was hard to make out landmarks when he was pressed flat against the ground or vertically up a wall. Luckily, the lighthouse was visible from just about anywhere in the town, and even through his blurry shadow-vision he always found it again. All he had to do was choose shadows that led toward it and he would be fine.

  That was the plan. But the further he went, the harder he found it to move. It was as if an elastic band connected his mind and his body, and the more it stretched, the more difficult it was to go on. Every extra foot cost him more effort until it seemed like he was fighting harder and harder just to stay where he was. If he let go, he would snap back to himself in an instant.

  Then, as Shadow Jack strained to move forward, he saw someone walking toward him along Dock Road – a woman in overalls with a low cap on her head. Shadow Jack paid her no attention, beyond vaguely noting that it was the woman with the sad eyes who had been fixing the playground equipment, Rennie. He ignored her, all his energy focused on trying to move.

  Come on, Jack, he said to himself, and he slid forward a few feet, not noticing that the woman had come up right behind him. You can do it!

  Something grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him out of the shadow. All of a sudden, light flared and his strange vision changed back to normal. The shadow flower slipped straight through his fingers and fell back into the shadow, like water to the sea, mixed and lost forever.

  Even worse than that, somehow Jack was back in his usual, physical body – but he was where his shadow had been. Standing on Dock Road, with someone – something – holding the back of his neck.

  Desperately, Jack wriggled out of that grip, only to find himself taken by the arm and spun around to face Rennie. Her eyes were a fierce, glowing white, and though she spoke, her mouth didn’t move at all.

  +You can cease searching, Jackaran Kresimir Shield,++ said the woman. ++You have found us!++

  ‘But – but you’re a person!’ he gasped, trying to pull away. The grip on his arm was immovable.

  +All join us,++ said The Evil. Jack could feel the pressure of thousands of mostly animal and insect minds behind the words in his head. ++All desire to become one.++

  ‘No . . .’ said Jack. He tried to sound strong, but it came out weak. ‘I won’t join you! I won’t!’

  +You will,++ said The Evil with a terrible, grim certainty. ++You brought us here, troubletwister. You and your sister broke the ward. Your inner nature wishes to join us – and if you do, you will become something far more powerful than any mere Warden.++

  ‘No,’ whispered Jack. ‘That’s not true. We didn’t . . . I don’t . . .’

  But inside he was wondering if he and Jaide had somehow broken the ward. What if their uncontrolled Gifts had done it without them even knowing? Grandma X said troubletwisters were dangerous. Maybe they’d done it and she hadn’t even known.

  A treacherous part of Jack wondered what the point of being a Warden was if they couldn’t stop a couple of children stuffing everything up . . .

  +It is destiny, Jackaran. Your destiny. You will join us, and we will keep you safe and sound forever.++

  The Evil lifted Rennie’s right hand and brought it down to cup the top of Jack’s head.

  Jack felt the force of The Evil magnify a hundredfold, and knew that if it managed to grip his skull, his strength would fail. He couldn’t break free of the grip on his arm, so he didn’t even try. Instead he let himself flow away, all of him away, dropping into the shadow at his feet with his entire being.

  The Evil snatched as he fell, but it was too late.

  But Jack couldn’t move his physical self through shadow very far. Despite his desperate attempts to get away, he popped out only a dozen yards off. The Evil in Rennie’s body crossed the space in a blur of movement, far faster than anyone normal could run.

  Jack jumped as it struck, and went into the shadow again. This time, he controlled where he came out, behind a tree. The Evil had to go around, and in those few vital seconds Jack managed to sprint some distance. Even so, Rennie was on him again in a second, and he only just managed to reach another shadow before her hand closed on his ankle.

  He reappeared a handful of yards away, The Evil’s host right behind. They proceeded halfway along Dock Road that way, Jack jumping in and out of shadows with The Evil hot on his heels. Then it occurred to him that he didn’t have to follow the road at all. He could go anywhere the shadows took him, and as long as he reappeared in a new spot quickly enough to avoid being caught, he would escape.

  He found the shadow of a long tree branch that took him over a shop, almost as far as Watchward Lane, and shadow-jumped there. But the constant switching into shadow with his real body was incredibly difficult. His head was spinning, he felt sick, and he couldn’t focus his eyes.

  Even worse than that, he’d been gone longer than he thought possible. The sun was nearly down. When it set, the shadows would go, too. What that meant, he didn’t know. Would he be able to shadow-jump anywhere at all, or nowhere?

  +Jackaran! Come back!++

  The cry came from Rennie’s throat, too, and the despair he heard in it was heartbreaking.

  Jack dived again, forcing himself along a shadow that led to Grandma X’s house. Too weak to go far, he popped out right in front of the gateway and fell facedown in the gravel.

  He had just got up and was crawling along the drive toward the front door when he heard footsteps behind him, a measured, steady crunching on the gravel.

  ‘Jaide!’ he shouted, but his voice was affected by shadow, and came out as only a weak croak. ‘Ari! Help!’

  +Why are you running, Jackaran?++ asked The Evil inside his head. ++This isn’t a game.++

  Jack twisted around as white-eyed Rennie loomed above him. He tried to scramble back, but he was exhausted, all energy gone.

  +Come here. Come to us.++

  ‘No, no!’ Jack shouted, steeling himself to resist the mental onslaught that he knew would overwhelm him in a few short seconds.

  Rennie knelt down and lowered her hand. Jack jerked his head aside and, at that instant, saw something flash over his head. There was an incredibly loud bong! and Rennie flew backward and landed heavily on her backside.

  ‘What the —?’ she said in normal tones. But then her voice faltered. Her eyes, which had momentarily cleared, clouded again and she rose up like a puppet pulled by unseen strings.

  Before Rennie could get fully upright, Jaide stepped forward and hit her again with a large silver tray. As she went down for the second time, Jaide threw the tray on top of her chest, grabbed Jack under the arms, and dragged him to the front door.

  As they half-ran and half-fell through the doorway, The Evil rose up inside Rennie. She was lifted high by its power and sent after them like a missile, her hands like claws, reaching out.

  Jack and Jaide screamed as she flew straight at them, both of them tangled up on the hallway rug, for the moment completely defenceless.

  Then Ari and Kleo
slammed the door.

  There was a violent, shuddering impact. The whole house shook, and The Evil vented its anger with a piercing scream that filled the twins’ minds with images of raging fire and ice and destruction and unchanging death. It went on and on, then slowly faded, and finally they heard footsteps receding rapidly along the drive. They heard Rennie’s ordinary voice calling their names, as though searching for them, until that, too, faded into silence.

  ‘It’s gone,’ said Ari from the window. ‘For now.’

  Jaide and Jack pulled themselves up and looked at each other.

  ‘She almost got me,’ said Jack shakily.

  He was shivering and wild-eyed. Jaide had never seen him like this before, not even when he’d come back from the tunnels.

  ‘It wasn’t her,’ said Jaide. ‘It was The Evil. And besides, it didn’t get you. You’re safe now.’

  ‘I didn’t make it to the cemetery . . . or the lighthouse,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Neither of us did,’ said Jaide. ‘We’ll . . . we’ll think of something else.’

  Outside, the wind picked up, and a light rain began to fall, both harbingers of the coming storm.

  It was getting dark all over Portland, and would soon get darker still.

  BY MUTUAL, UNSPOKEN CONSENT OF children and cats, all four retreated to Grandma X’s bedroom, pausing only to pick up candles and matches from the kitchen. Though no one said it, they all hoped that she would somehow be awake and could take charge, that she would rescue them from The Evil.

  But Grandma X was still unconscious, and hadn’t shifted from her curled-up position on the bed.

  Kleo and Ari jumped up next to her and both licked her face. Jaide knelt down and took her hand, holding it tightly. Jack went to the window and looked out the rain-swept pane.

  ‘The lighthouse light hasn’t come on,’ he said. ‘I’d have thought it would have a generator, like the hospital.’ He peered through the glass again and added, ‘Actually, it looks like they’ve got the power on everywhere else, except for our bit and the lighthouse.’