Crystal (16 page)

‘Yes and we’re jolly, jolly glad to have you back,’ Squitcher said. ‘I will take you down to Spindle House—’

‘Yes, yes – but look, look at the ice!’ Grampy cried. ‘Listen to it growing!’

The ice was inching over the water like a creamy white brittle skin.

The Gateway was almost closed.

‘The ducking chair’s empty!’ Crystal cried, turning to Questrid. ‘But—’

‘Brilliant! I told you she’d make it!’ Questrid hugged Crystal then quickly let her go. ‘They’ll drag the lake. They’ll try and find her, but she’s not here, Crystal! She’s gone!’

‘Where?’

‘To the other side.’ Questrid began pulling her away from the water. ‘Where I was! Like we both will be just as soon as we have the eye-cycle. You saw the empty chair? She’s gone to the Marble Mountains.’

Her mother was free! She must be, there was no other answer.

At last Crystal found she could move. She chased after Questrid through the bent trees, over the uneven ground and down to the Town. The streets were quiet; it was early and many people had gone to the lake but things would soon be back to normal; they had to move fast.

‘It’s all so ugly,’ Questrid said, looking around. ‘And everything’s broken. Why doesn’t anyone move those sheets of corrugated steel? Or mend the broken windows? Or pick up the rubbish?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘I would if I was living here. Though nothing would induce me to stay!’ Questrid said.

He came to an abrupt standstill outside Grint’s house and put his hand on the stone columns. ‘Look at those!’ he cried. ‘Only a Rocker or a Stone person could make those.’ He smoothed his hand over the carved stone. ‘Look, there are mountains and furzz trees, snowflakes and icicles.’

‘Grint made them.’

‘Then he is a Rocker and he’s homesick too!’

‘Is he really from the Marble Mountains? I wonder why he came here?’ She stared up at the empty-looking house. ‘I hate this place …’ She shook her head as if trying to clear her bleak thoughts. ‘Now, your eye-cycle. I don’t know where it’s kept. Is it really so important, Questrid?’

‘Yes. I don’t want to let the pixicles down. And your mum is safe, I’m sure, I just need to—’

‘OK. OK,’ Crystal said. ‘I remember hearing Grint tell Raek to put it back, but—Oh, what are you doing?’

Questrid had walked up to the front door and was turning the door handle.

‘Well, I just thought it was worth a go, but it’s locked.’

‘Of course it is. We could try round the back.’

They crept down a narrow lane between the high garden wall and a crumbling warehouse. There were no other doors.

‘We’ll have to climb it,’ Questrid said. ‘The wall isn’t very smooth, look there are footholds everywhere. It won’t be hard, Crystal.’

Questrid was right and soon they had scaled the wall and were dropping down amongst the trees into Grint’s garden. The ground-floor windows were shuttered. There was no sign of anyone.

‘Which way?’ Questrid asked.

Crystal shrugged. ‘That little door was open before.’ She pointed to the green door that led to the waiting room. To reach it they had to pass close to the shed where the strange animal was kept. Questrid went first and Crystal followed. She chucked down the bread and apple she’d put in her pocket as she passed it.
You can thank Questrid for that!
she thought.

The green door was not locked. They tiptoed along the corridor, pausing to listen for any sounds as they came out into the waiting room. All was silent.

‘Which way?’ Questrid asked as they moved into the hall where six doors confronted them and a wide staircase led upstairs.

‘My first guess would be this floor,’ Crystal said. ‘For convenience.’

They opened each big door as quietly as they could and investigated the rooms beyond. They found Raek’s laboratory, the reception room and the icy room where Grint made Crystal’s mother use the eye-cycle.

‘Feel it,’ Crystal whispered, with a shiver. ‘It’s still cold.’

‘I bet the eye-cycle is close by, then,’ Questrid said, looking around. ‘A freezer of some sort; an ice room. Something not very large but with a big, thick door to keep the cold in.’

But despite opening every door, they could not find it. Defeated, they went back to the hall.

‘Where is it? I can’t give up!’ Questrid cried. ‘I promised the pixicles. No one but a pixicle must ever use an eye-cycle. We’d better try upstairs. But I don’t think—’

‘I heard something!’ Crystal put her finger to her lips.

They both stood still, listening. Footsteps pattered behind the closed doors. They heard the click of a key turning. Then another.

‘Quick! We must go back! Hide.’

‘Stop right there!’ It was Raek.

They turned and ran to the nearest door. It was locked. They ran to the next, and the next. They were all locked. They’d been trapped.

Raek came in slowly through the last door. He was swinging a big bunch of keys round and round. ‘You’re wasting your time. You’re stuck. Trapped like flies in a jar … Who is that?’ he added pointing at Questrid. ‘I’ve never seen him before.’

‘That’s just Questrid. A neighbour,’ said Crystal. ‘Where’s my mum? We were looking for Mum. She didn’t drown, did she? It was a trick. I know it was a trick and you’re hiding her here, aren’t you?’

Questrid was impressed that Crystal had thought up the lie so quickly and distracted Raek. No one must suspect he wasn’t a Towner.

‘Be quiet,’ Raek said. ‘You’re in trouble
again
, Crystal. It’s a serious offence to break into Grint’s house, Bless and Praise his Name! However much I try to help you, you won’t help yourself.’

‘You’ve never tried to help me! You tried to kill me!’

Raek smiled. ‘No, no,’ he said. ‘That was an accident.’

There was a sudden bang as the front door burst open and crashed loudly against the wall.

It was Grint.

‘What’s going on?’ he cried. ‘Why is that girl here? Lock her up, Raek, her and her friend.’

‘You are
so
bossy,’ Raek said. ‘
Too
bossy.’ He smiled smugly, rubbing his gloved hands together. ‘I know what you’re up to, Grint,’ he went on. ‘I know everything – the sly-ugg told me.’ He turned back to Crystal. ‘Grint was planning to throw me over,’ he told her, ‘scheming so that he and Effie could rule without me. He was going to
kill
me.’

‘Rubbish!’ Grint said coldly. ‘If the sly-ugg said that, it was lying.’

‘A sly-ugg cannot lie. It can only record and playback.’

‘I’m telling you it was lying!’

‘I don’t believe you, Grint. You didn’t know the sly-ugg was listening. It was hiding on Effie’s shawl, remember?’ Raek said. ‘But it’s irrelevant now.’ He picked up a damp, cloth-covered bundle from the table. It made a soft chinking-clinking sound as it moved. ‘I’m one step ahead of you, Grint. Guess what I’ve got!’

‘The
eye-cycle!
’ Questrid and Grint both spoke together. Questrid quickly forced a fit of coughing and hoped no one had heard him. He stared at the damp shape. The eye-cycle was melting! How would he ever get it back to the pixicles now? What idiots these people were!

Grint laughed. ‘Raek, are you mad? It has to be kept in the freezer. Look at it! It’s melting. It won’t work now. Don’t you know what ice is?’

‘I was just going to show you that I—’

‘Anyway, now Effie isn’t available,’ Grint said, ‘we’re doomed. Every Sam Smith and John Carter will be after us now. We needed her! Why did you let them do that ridiculous test on her?’

‘I thought it would keep them quiet. I wanted to do what they wanted.’ Raek stared at his dripping bundle. ‘It’s only been out for a second. It can’t be melting! Perhaps I’d better—’

‘Too late. You’re too late!’ Grint cried. ‘I thought you were clever, Raek! I thought you had brains!’

‘I have. I do. Don’t talk to me like that! Anyway, I don’t care,’ Raek said, changing tack. ‘I hope it
doesn’t
work any more. You’ll be finished, Grint. Yes, you are the one who’s doomed!’

Grint sat down heavily. He looked at first as if he were collapsing in defeat, but he was shaking quietly with laughter.

‘The eye-cycle told me everything, Raek,’ he chuckled. ‘I knew this would happen. Effie saw it in a fortune. I am warned of everything and I have laid my plans accordingly …’

Raek stared at him, his mouth half open. ‘What?’

‘The skin on your face looks a bit sore, Raek, spotty and red. How are your hands? I see you’re hiding them with gloves. Is that because they’re disintegrating, Raek? Are bits of the skin peeling off?’

Raek put down the eye-cycle and ripped off his gloves. His hands were red and swollen and horribly blistered.

‘How did you know?’ Raek said.

‘I know about sly-uggs. It’s
their
doing,’ Grint told him. ‘When you are mean and horrid to them, and squeeze them in your vice, they release a poison … A skin-eating poison. Have you been treating the sly-uggs
very
badly, Raek? Specially Crystal’s sly-ugg? Squeezing it so tightly that it screams? Oh dear, you have, haven’t you? I can tell you have. The poison gets stronger and stronger. You didn’t put your face up close, did you? Oh, Raek, I think you did!’ he chuckled.

Raek’s hands flew to his cheeks. He cradled his face in his palms. ‘Why didn’t you warn me?’ he cried. ‘You must help me!’

‘You were unkind to that sly-ugg, weren’t you? You are the one that’s doomed, Raek!’

Raek let out a moan like something dying and sank to his knees. ‘My face!’ he cried. ‘My hands! Help me!’

‘It’s a pity Effie’s gone – she could have made you a soothing poultice for your skin – while you still have some,’ Grint said. ‘It gets worse and worse, Raek, until you’re eaten away to bare white bone.’

‘No, no!’ Raek cried. ‘It’s not true. Say it’s not true. I will get better. I will!’

‘Get out of my sight!’

‘Please …’

‘Go!’

Raek dragged himself to his feet and staggered to the door. ‘I’ll be back!’ he gasped. ‘I’ll be back!’

When the door shut on Raek, Grint turned his dark eyes on Crystal and Questrid.

‘So, Crystal, your mother’s abandoned you. How selfish. She took her chance and has gone … Quickly, let’s get to business. You, boy, pick up the eye-cycle and follow us!’

Grint moved fast and grabbed Crystal, wrapping his wiry fingers round her arm so she was caught tight. He pushed her towards a door and unlocked it. ‘I have you. No escape. Don’t even try.’

Questrid followed. What on earth is a sly-ugg? He glanced at his hands. They were fine! Sly-uggs sounded terrible! Then he forced his mind back to what was going on. He had the eye-cycle in his hands, he actually
had
it, but with each passing moment he could feel it shrinking. And the Gateway was closing; two vitally important things were disappearing minute by minute! He had to do something. He had to do something to get them out of here. The two of us against Grint is a good match, he thought. We’ll overpower him. We’ll do it.

He watched, waiting for his chance.

Grint locked the door behind them and pushed Crystal forward.

‘The freezer is under the stairs behind some furs,’ he said. ‘When I open the door you put it back, boy. Just put it in and no funny business.’

‘You said it wouldn’t work any more!’ Questrid said.

‘But it might,’ Grint said. ‘It had lost some shape when I first found it ten years ago because it was melting in the lake water. All these years I’ve protected it so carefully. Foolish Raek!’ He shook Crystal roughly as if she were Foolish Raek. ‘So if we can save it … something of it, well then you, Crystal, could become the next seer …’ Grint was clutching at straws.

He rifled though the keys to find the right one. He let go of Crystal for one second to separate the key from the others.

It was a chance. It was all they had.

Questrid shoved Grint in the small of his back. Grint let out a surprised yelp. Caught off guard he stumbled, lost his balance and toppled over, pulling a fur cape down on top of him as he fell.

‘Yeowch! How dare you!’

‘We dare!’

Questrid stuffed the eye-cycle down the front of his jacket and grabbed Crystal’s hand. ‘Run!’