Mystery of the Golden Card

  The Gift came in a rush that felt like going down a lift really fast, and for a moment she wondered if she might actually take off.

  But she didn’t, and when she performed a quick, exploratory jump, she found that she weighed just as much as before. She wasn’t falling through the floor, but she hadn’t gained a new Gift, either.

  ‘Jack, I don’t think it worked.’

  He didn’t answer, except with a long, drawn-out yawn.

  She looked at him. He was sagging where he stood, eyes falling shut and arms dangling limp at his sides. Tara and Kyle were the same. As Jaide watched, Kyle drooped to the floor and started snoring.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she asked. ‘Am I doing this?’

  ‘So . . . sleepy,’ said Jack, beginning to sink into the floor again. Tara slumped down next to Kyle, fighting but steadily losing the fight to stay awake. Jaide knew she had to do something before she was the only one left standing.

  Like Jack, it was a matter of finding enough control over her new Gift to make it stop working. Concentrating on Jack, she willed him to stop falling asleep. To wake up, in fact.

  ‘Wake up now!’

  Jack’s eyes flew wide open, and he shot up out of the floor so fast she thought he might keep on going, right up to the ceiling.

  ‘Are you all right?’ she said.

  ‘Wow, Jaide. What happened?’

  ‘The gold card happened,’ she said. ‘It’s not fair! You got a really useful Gift but all I can do is put people to sleep, like I’m really boring.’

  A sudden crash returned their attention to the duelling suits of armour. One of the friendly ones had just been knocked to pieces. The other was still putting up a fight, but it was looking severely dented and its helmet had been wrenched off and was being used as a metal boxing glove by its attacker. A series of thudding footsteps announced the arrival of the third suit of armour from the library’s upper floor, but at the same time, a second suit of Evil armour appeared in the doorway, and up above, a window shattered. Something big and angry growled.

  ‘What are we going to do, Jack?’ Jaide asked. They were hemmed in on all sides, with Tara and Kyle slumped at their feet.

  ‘We’ll just have to get some more Gifts,’ Jack said, bouncing up and down on his toes and sinking a little bit into the stone each time. He felt a bit too wide-eyed and alert now, but that was better than the alternative. The wave of sleepiness that Jaide had hit him with had felt like being buried in a landslide of cottonwool. ‘One of them is bound to be useful.’

  Jaide raised the card and randomly selected another Gift.

  Nothing happened.

  She tried another.

  Still nothing.

  ‘Jack, it’s not working!’

  ‘Maybe we can only have one at a time.’

  ‘Fiddly thing! Translocate!’

  She felt something, presumably the sleeping Gift, leave her and quickly shook the card and watched the symbols flash by. How to choose? At random, she supposed.

  Meanwhile, Jack considered his original plan of luring The Evil into the painting. That trick might fix one suit of armour, but was unlikely to work on more than one, or anything else The Evil might throw at them.

  ‘Perhaps we could hide in the painting while we find a better Gift—’

  The second suit of armour staggered backwards into the cross-continuum conduit constructor and tripped over it. The copper tube ended up in an L-shape, and the armour shattered into numerous pieces.

  ‘Or not.’

  ‘Lucky we didn’t,’ said Jaide, ‘or we’d be trapped now.’

  ‘Like we aren’t already – what the . . . ?’

  Jaide was shootings sparks out of her hair. Her skin prickled and tingled with swirling electricity. She pointed her finger at one of the suits of armour, but instead of a lightning bolt, all she got was more sparks.

  ‘Try again!’ Jack cried, curling into a ball so he wouldn’t get scorched.

  ‘Translocate!’

  There were two Evil armours versus one, duking it out in the doorway, and when Jack peered out from his ball, he saw two grey snouts nosing through the balustrade, sniffing for them.

  With a flap of wings, Cornelia circled Jack’s head.

  ++Join us,++ she crowed.

  Jack ducked back down as the hideous white gaze of The Evil swooped him at very close range.

  ‘No!’ he cried.

  ++Join us,++ growled the wolves, from the floor above.

  ‘Never!’ cried Jaide, blinking in alarm at a world that had suddenly gone inside out, thanks to her new and useless Gift of X-ray vision.

  ++Join us,++ said the two suits of armour. Tara and Kyle stirred, murmuring the same words weakly in their sleep.

  ‘Stop saying that!’ shouted the twins at the same time.

  The suits of armour went still. So did the wolves. Cornelia turned a circle over Jack, and then flew back to the bust of Mister Rourke, where she twisted her head from side to side and ruffled her feathers. Her eyes were black again.

  ‘Out of the rain,’ she said, twisting around to face the doorway, where, with a clatter of metal on stone, the last surviving good suit of armour staggered and fell over, revealing someone new standing behind it.

  ++Join us,++ said Hector Shield. ++Don’t you want to be reunited with your family?++

  Jack and Jaide drew together. Their father’s eyes were hypnotically bright, growing brighter and brighter the closer he came. The natural brown colour faded from them until two shrivelled contact lenses fell down his cheeks, revealing in full the terrible whiteness beneath. The light made his face look cold and cruel.

  He held Rodeo Dave with an arm twisted behind his back, and with one painful wrench, walked him into the room.

  ‘You’re not Dad,’ said Jaide. ‘You’re The Evil.’

  ‘We’re never going to do what you say,’ shouted Jack.

  ++But you did, didn’t you? And so well, too. You found the Card of Translocation for us – you even rid yourselves of your own pesky Gifts. We are proud of you, troubletwisters. You are practically one with us already.++

  Jack and Jaide shook their heads.

  ‘We’ll never give you back the card,’ Jack said. ‘We know what it does now.’

  ‘We know you lied to us.’

  ++Too late, troubletwisters. The wards are defeated. How long can you withstand us on your own?++

  ‘Don’t listen to him,’ gasped Rodeo Dave. ‘He’s not – ah!’

  He gasped as The Evil viciously wrenched his arm higher up his back.

  ‘Leave him alone!’ shouted Jaide.

  ++Would you trade his life for one of yours?++ The Evil asked.

  The twins glanced at each other, wondering if it was being serious. It had made a similar offer earlier, but they had had no doubt then that it was just messing with their heads. And they came to the same conclusion now. Besides, neither of them was going to let the other go. There had to be a way to fight The Evil, even now. Perhaps with their new Gifts . . .

  ++We didn’t think so,++ said The Evil with a sneer.

  And with that, Hector Shield’s eyes began to clear as The Evil left him and all its other hosts, withdrawing from them so it could gather all its strength to move into the troubletwisters.

  The weight of The Evil bore down on the twins. They had felt this before, the terrible, soul-sapping emptiness that wanted to get inside them and make them hollow and lifeless. It was the blackness at the bottom of the ocean, the coldness of winter at the South Pole, and the emptiness of deep space all rolled up into one. They fought it with all their willpower, but The Evil at its full strength was too powerful. The colours in Jack’s vision faded to white. Jaide felt her fear peak and then begin to dissipate – and that was the most terrifying thing of all. When she stopped feeling afraid, she would know that The Evil had her completely.

  Hector Shield watched it happen with sad brown eyes.

  ‘Help us!’ gasped Jack.

  ‘Dad
. . . do something!’ Jaide said. ‘Please!’

  They were shuffling forward like zombies, their limbs operating without their conscious control.

  Hector Shield opened his arms to welcome them in.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  No Escape

  WITH A DEAFENING CRASH, a bookcase collapsed in front of the twins, directly on top of their father. The falling bookcase dislodged the one next to it, which dislodged the one next to it, and soon the library was full of tumbling books and the shelves that had once held them. The twins reeled backwards, released from The Evil the moment its attention was diverted. They blinked and shook their heads, feeling the horrible soul-sapping influence ebb.

  ‘Got him!’ cried Kyle, hopping in victory among the tumbled books and high-fiving Tara.

  ‘Is that really your dad?’ she asked the twins, poking his limp, outstretched hand with her toe. ‘And I thought mine was a loser.’

  ‘He’s not a loser,’ said Jack, hoping Hector was just unconscious under the mountain of books. ‘He’s just . . . it’s not . . .’

  ‘He’s not your father,’ said Rodeo Dave, clambering out of a pile of books. ‘This is what I’ve been trying to tell you. He’s not who he seems.’

  ‘Then who is he really?’ asked Jaide. ‘Dad’s identical twin?’

  She had meant it as a joke, but even as she spoke the words, she was struck by the force of them. So was Jack. It couldn’t be true, could it? If it was, that changed everything . . .

  ‘There’s no time to explain,’ Rodeo Dave said urgently. ‘Make for the gates and get the card to safety.’

  ‘What about you?’ asked Kyle.

  ‘I’ll follow. Don’t worry about The Evil attacking me. The card is what it wants. Go!’

  They didn’t need to be told twice. Jaide and Jack led the charge through the castle and back out onto the grounds, with Tara and Kyle hot on their heels and Cornelia above, matching their pace.

  Outside, the night was storm-racked and furious. Wind buffeted them from all sides. Rain lashed their faces. It was difficult to talk, and nearly impossible to see where they were going. They could only find the road leading to the gates and remain on it by bending low, holding one another to stay together as they ran around the lake.

  Jack glanced behind him and saw several dark shapes running after them. It was hard to tell from the water in his eyes, but it looked like chimps on wolf-back again. Their eyes shone like cold stars, fixed permanently on the children’s retreating backs.

  ‘And The Evil is . . . ?’ shouted Kyle over the sound of the storm.

  ‘Evil!’ said Jack.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Like you didn’t know your dad had an identical twin?’

  ‘We don’t . . . that is, he doesn’t . . . I mean . . .’

  The unreality of the situation struck Jack hard. He couldn’t decide what was stranger – that The Evil had somehow created a mirror image of their father to lure them into a trap, or that Hector Shield really did have a twin brother he had never told them about.

  Despite the storm and The Evil and everything else that was going on, the weirdest thing in Jack’s life was suddenly the realisation that he might have an uncle he hadn’t heard of before.

  ‘Where are the reinforcements?’ shouted Tara as the gates loomed ahead.

  ‘I can’t see anyone,’ said Jaide, scanning the road outside. She had been randomly trying Gifts while they ran and had stumbled across Jack’s Gift by accident. Using the Gift, she could see the white-eyed animals trailing them with chilling clarity. The chimps weren’t riding the wolves – they were now part of them, like miniature wild centaurs. And they were catching up fast.

  Any hope of escape through the gates was snatched from them when the gates themselves came alive and slammed shut in their path.

  ++Halt!++

  The metal whale woven into the gates flapped its tail and snapped its jaws at them. The four kids retreated.

  ‘That way!’ shouted Jaide, pointing. Through the wind and rain, the stone walls of a building were visible near the gates. The porter’s lodge, Tara’s father had called it. It wasn’t much, but if they could barricade the doors behind them, that would at least slow The Evil down.

  Jack used his grandfather’s skeleton key to unlock the front door, and they tumbled inside, one after the other.

  ‘This is where he died, isn’t it?’ said Tara, flicking on a light switch and looking around. ‘Young Master Rourke, I mean.’

  ‘I think you’re right,’ said Kyle.

  Cornelia swooped with practised ease around light fittings, coat-racks and high-backed chairs, and occupied a familiar perch on a curtain rod in the main room.

  ‘Rourke,’ she said, dipping her head. ‘Daft old fool.’

  A chill wind whipped around the room, riffling book covers, swaying the sheets that covered the furniture, and making Tara shiver from more than just nervousness. It felt ghostly, but had a natural origin. Jaide had finally got her Gift back.

  She tossed the gold card to Jack. ‘You want the one that looks like two black eyes.’

  ‘And then it’s our turn?’ said Kyle.

  ‘I . . . don’t think it works like that. Look around for weapons. Anything will do.’

  Jack found the symbol Jaide had described and swapped his new Gift for the one he had been born with. His confidence returned the moment his shadow sight was restored. This was a Gift he knew. It might be wild and crazy sometimes, but he understood it. It was part of him.

  ‘Here,’ he said, giving the card to Tara. ‘Keep hold of it, and it’ll protect you like it protected Cornelia. If Kyle’s eyes start to glow, give it to him.’

  ‘We can share it,’ she said, offering one edge of it to Kyle, who gripped it tightly between the fingers of his left hand. In his right, he held two pokers that he had found next to the fireplace. He gave one to Tara, and she hefted it with relish. Cornelia launched herself off the curtain rod and landed awkwardly on her shoulder.

  ‘Man the cannons,’ she squawked.

  ‘I just want to say,’ said Kyle, ‘that this is the most fun I have ever had.’

  Before either Jack or Jaide could reply, the windows smashed in. At the same time, something large and heavy came down the chimney in an explosion of ashen mud.

  The four protectors of the golden card instinctively put their backs to one another, facing outwards to meet the enemy, equipped with nothing but pokers and their Gifts.

  This time The Evil attacked without words, sensing its goal was within reach. The animals were silent, too, not wasting energy on snarling or growling. They just came for the twins and their friends in a silent rush, armed with teeth and claws and all the cold force of the alien intelligence controlling them. There were the two wolf-chimps, plus the other members of the menagerie crossed with all the night creatures The Evil had scared from burrow and nest across the estate. There were at least three owl-lemurs, six deranged possums with eight legs and two heads, and one zebra-warthog that was too horrible to describe.

  Behind them all came the stifling will of The Evil, striving to snuff every human thought from those who stood in its way.

  Jaide whipped up several whirlwinds that plucked The Evil’s creatures and tossed them around the room. The whirlwinds also tipped up furniture and rattled the roof and doors, threatening to tear them from their hinges, but for once this was okay. Jaide wanted her Gift to go crazy, and she found it harder than expected to really let go. She had spent so long trying to control her Gift, it felt wrong to do otherwise.

  Jack’s struggle was no different. Putting out all the lights wasn’t going to help anyone except him, since Tara and Kyle needed to poke their pokers every time an inquisitive snout snapped too close, but apart from that, he was free to do anything. He threw palm-size patches of darkness like shadowy daggers, temporarily blinding his targets. He pushed possessed creatures into the shadows at his feet, where they struggled and
flailed until they finally emerged into full solidity and the light. He danced around the room like a ghost, shadow-walking too fast for anything to get a solid grip on him.

  But still, despite all their efforts, the twins were nipped and scratched and clawed. Their clothes offered little protection against wild animals filled with the fury of The Evil. Steadily and silently, not caring how they were injured, the circle of animals pressed closer and closer to the card.

  Jaide decided to risk all on a desperate gambit.

  ‘When I say duck—’ she cried.

  ‘We duck?’ said Tara, clouting a determined wolf across the snout with her poker.

  ‘Exactly.’ She took a deep breath, gathering as much air into her lungs as she could. ‘Okay . . . duck!’

  The four of them dropped to the ground – and so did Cornelia, who adopted a dive-bombing posture and landed in Kyle’s lap. Jaide blew upwards with her lips pursed as though whistling, but what emerged was a new vortex, one denser and more powerful than any she had created before. It hung above them, sucking all of the smaller hurricanes into itself, dragging in all of the animals they held within them, and becoming stronger in the process. The vortex whirled and roared above their heads, pulling in furniture and everything else not fastened down.

  Jack grabbed Jaide’s wrist and pulled her out from under the base of the vortex. He could tell from the way the funnel was dancing that it wanted to touch down, but was trying to avoid hurting them. Tara pulled Cornelia and Kyle after them.

  The moment they were out of the way, the vortex snapped like a living whip, smashing down through the floor and up against the ceiling, flattening out in a spreading mushroom cloud, gaining more strength as it grew. Even the largest of The Evil’s creatures, the hideous zebra-warthog, was pulled steadily into it, no matter how its clawed feet scratched at the floor. It fell sideways with a roar, and they saw it tumbling and flailing in ever-tightening circles, mixed up with the other animals, its white eyes blazing in anger.

  The Evil wasn’t done yet. Confined to the vortex as they were, it was easy for the animals to merge into the giant monster the kids had seen by the castle. But Jack was ready for it. He stretched the night in through the windows like toffee, winding it around the creature’s many heads and blinding it.