The Potion Diaries (32 page)

The call is from my mum.

I debate not answering. But I can’t be mad at them too long. Not when they were right.

I pick up. ‘Sam, oh Sam, thank goodness.’ Her voice is filled with fear.

‘What is it?’ I say. I reach out and grab Anita’s hand. Anita looks at me quizzically.

‘It’s Kirsty. She’s gone, and she’s taken Molly with her.’

‘What?’ I screech.

‘They’ve taken your Wilds pass, so we can’t even follow her out there. Oh Sam, what are we going to do? It’s so dangerous!’

‘Don’t worry.’ My mind is racing, my words reassuring her but in reality I have no clue how we’re going to get to Molly. Mum’s right. Where she’s going, where the unicorns are . . . it’s more dangerous than anywhere I’ve been yet, including the mountain. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll figure something out. I’ll be right there. I’ll get Mr Patel to drive me home.’

I click off the phone and feel the blood drain from my face.

‘What is it, Sam?’ says Anita.

‘Kirsty’s taken Molly to Zambi.’ I race out of the hot, sticky greenhouse and into the fresh air outside. I pace in her garden. ‘What am I going to do? Kirsty is so reckless . . . she just wants to get the ingredient no matter what.’

‘We’ll go,’ says a voice from the back door of the house.

I look up and see Arjun standing there. ‘We’ll go,’ he repeats. ‘We still have two Wilds passes for the Hunt. If you and I leave now, we can catch them.’

I run at him, almost tackling him into a hug. He pats my back awkwardly. ‘I’m so sorry, Arjun.’

‘Don’t even think about it. Pay me back later.’

‘Deal.’

‘Come on then, guys. I’ll drive you – Dad let me borrow the keys earlier today,’ says Anita. ‘Mum? We’re—’

Mrs Patel nods before Anita has finished speaking. ‘You go and get your sister,’ she says, but not before pulling me towards her and giving me a big kiss on my forehead. She does the same to Anita and Arjun before waving us off. We run through the hallway and all pile into the car. This feels right, the three of us together again. And we’re going to get Molly back.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Samantha

‘
I
’M SORRY, BUT I CAN’T DISCOUNT THESE prices,’ says Joan, a dippy brunette hostess with bright red glamoured lips, from behind the desk at the Kingstown Transport Terminal. ‘It’s 20,000 crowns to transport to Zambi this evening. We’re very busy. Haven’t you heard about the evacuation? Everyone is getting out in case these earthquakes get worse.’

‘But we need to get there! It’s for the Hunt! You don’t want to be responsible for the death of the Princess, do you?’ I don’t care about hiding my comings and goings any more.

She narrows her eyes at me slightly, as if trying to remember my face. ‘Wait – you’re that Kemi girl, right? I saw you on TV last night. What are you up to now? Who knows what you’ll do to stop that poor boy, Zain.’ She looks over at Arjun. ‘Are you some other poor sap she’s suckered into helping her?’

I let out a muffled cry of frustration.

‘Do you honestly believe everything the casts tell you?’ Anita snaps.

Joan purses her lips and taps her keyboard. ‘There’s nothing I can do. There’s a flight to Zambi leaving from the airport in four hours. You have to stop over in Ellara, but you’ll be there by tomorrow evening.’

‘We don’t have until tomorrow evening!’ I cry, and slam my hands down on the desk.

‘Now calm down, young lady, or I’ll have to call security.’ Joan looks alarmed, her hand reaching for a phone.

‘Now, now, now, what’s this fuss? Let an old man through.’

I recognise that voice. I spin around. ‘Grandad, what are you doing here?’

‘Sam, I’ve come to take you home. Arjun, Anita, you should go too.’

‘What? But Molly . . .’

‘Thank you, sir,’ says Joan, who drops any pretence of being nice to us. ‘Your grandaughter is out of control.’

Grandad stands so close to the counter, he’s practically leaning on it. He reaches over to pat her hand. ‘I’m so sorry they inconvenienced you,’ he says, tutting. ‘Youth nowadays.’ But then he grips her wrist tightly. She squirms, looking uncomfortable, but Grandad is the picture of frailty and he starts to cough. The cough builds into a hack, until his entire body is shaking.

‘Grandad!’ I try to comfort him, but he waves me away with his free hand. He delves into his pocket and pulls out a handkerchief. He faces Joan, flips open the hankie and blows a cloud of dust into her face. It settles over her like a sprinkling of icing sugar, then disappears.

Grandad’s coughing stops immediately. ‘So two tickets to Zambi?’ he asks Joan, with a sly smile.

‘Right away, sir. Here you go, sir. Transport safely.’

Grandad needs to usher Arjun and me away from the desk, as we’re both slack-jawed with awe.

‘Quick, the potion won’t last much longer.’

‘What did you do to her?’ Arjun asks.

Grandad winks at me.

‘Charm powder!’ I release a long breath. ‘And it worked so well!’ Another banned potion, incredibly difficult to make. He hasn’t lost his touch one bit. ‘But what about when she recovers?’

‘She won’t know a thing is wrong. I’m not a Kemi for nothing,’ he says. ‘Now get moving.’

I give both him and Anita a quick hug, then dash through the portal zone to get to the security area, and beyond to the launch screens.

I turn to Arjun, who has little beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. ‘You okay?’

‘I haven’t done this yet . . .’

‘Oh wow, I forgot.’ I’m not sure how, my first experience was terrifying. ‘Honestly, it’s fine. Just remember the rules. Especially about maintaining eye contact.’

He nods. ‘I guess I better get used to it if I want to be a proper Finder. Let’s go. If I think about this for too long, it’s going to get the better of me.’

‘You go first. I’ll follow right behind you. I just have to make one phone call first.’

When I land, the area is in chaos. Arjun is shivering violently, and guards suround him with reflective blankets.

‘He’s going into transporting shock,’ one of the medics says.

‘Don’t you have a potion for that?’ I say.

Crushed silver meteorite, mixed with essence of shepherd’s purse and threads of glow worm, to bring him out of the streams of magic and tie him to the earthly ground, where he belongs.

A mix that would help. Not that I have it. I wish I could turn my brain off.

The medic pulls out a blister pack of pills, the logo
ZA
imprinted on them. ‘Here, these will help. I’ll get some water.’

‘I’m already feeling better,’ says Arjun. ‘I . . . I’ll be fine.’

The medic shrugs. ‘These will make you feel way more normal. Otherwise,’ he turns to me, ‘make sure he stays warm and rested, if you don’t want him to experience any long-term damage.’

‘Fair enough,’ I say. I take the pills from him anyway.

As soon as we step out of the terminal, the heat is extreme, but in a different way to Bharat – it’s so dry. I wonder briefly why we live in the land of drizzle and constant grey cloud when there are other places in the world with much better climates.

I open my phone – immediately accruing roaming charges, but what are you going to do – and see that Anita has sent us the details for our rental car into the Wilds. Despite the fact that Zambi isn’t particularly well-developed, they are much stricter about their Wilds laws than almost anywhere else in the world. It’s a dangerous, unpredictable place. They say that the source of all Talented magic is in Zambi. If the magic over Nova flows in streams, here it flows like a waterfall. Magic pounds at the earth, and even as an ordinary I feel like I can reach out and grab it with my hands.

We pick up the keys to the car and thankfully it starts without any trouble. Since we’ve come in via portal, this is probably the most affluent area of Zambi. Everything is well manicured, rhododendron trees lining the streets in neat, evenly spaced lines, and there’s even an arrangement of luscious fountains, which seems particularly ostentatious considering the fact that over eighty per cent of Zambi Wilds are in drought.

‘Are you okay to drive?’ I ask Arjun. He sways slightly, his eyes unfocused.

‘I think I just need some rest.’

‘Okay, you rest. I’ll drive. You can help navigate.’ I help him into the side door, and he slumps against the window. He still doesn’t want to take the pills, and all I have to offer him instead is water. I press a bottle into his hand and force him to take a few sips.

‘Seriously, I’m fine. I just feel a bit woozy, that’s all.’

Once we’re out of the portal station, the driving takes on an altogether different sort of challenge. It’s not nearly as bad as Bharat, but I’m trying to concentrate on navigating our route and the road ahead of me as well. I wish we’d borrowed Mr Patel’s satnav.

The Wilds of Zambi. I can hardly believe that this is going to be my first time here – this rushed, crazed trip. On a hunt for unicorn tail. But this isn’t just about getting the ingredient. I need to rescue Molly.

The Wilds of Zambi intrude on almost all of their big cities, and so it doesn’t take us long until we reach a border. Once I saw on a nature documentary cast that a sabre-tooth lion stalked through the streets of Jambo, causing a city-wide panic. In the rich neighbourhoods, they have to put barbed wire at ground level to stop the double-tailed crocs from taking a swim in their pools.

The border is just a small hut with a thatched roof and a sleepy-looking guard. I drive up and hand over our passes.

‘Everything should be in order, sir,’ I say, in my politest tone possible, even though I feel like bursting and telling him to hurry up.

‘Stay here; I can’t let you through.’ He stands up, stretches and starts to walk away from the car towards another small building marked WILDS GUARD. Without thinking, I get out of the car and walk after him. ‘Wait – sir, can we have our passes back?’

‘No, I have to pass these to my manager to examine.’

‘Please . . .’

Then I remember something. Something Kirsty once told me about Wilds guards, the crap job they have, forced to guard a border that not many people really want to cross. ‘I know you want to check with your manager, but maybe this will help speed things up?’ I flash him a twenty-crown note. He pockets the bill and hands back the passes in exchange.

‘You can go through.’

I walk back to the car, my hands shaking.

‘Did you just bribe that guy?’ Arjun asks, his head leaning against the window.

‘I think I did.’

‘Samantha Kemi, you’re a bit of a badass.’

I grin at him and rev the engine. The car jumps forward, and we’re into the Wilds.

Something akin to elation – maybe it’s the adrenaline – finally takes over me. We’re here. We’ve done it. And only a few hours have elapsed since we found out that Kirsty had taken Molly. Maybe there’s actually a chance of catching up with them out here, before anyone gets hurt.

I take out my phone, about to text my parents the good news.

‘Crap.’

‘What is it?’ Arjun says weakly.

‘No signal.’

‘Seriously?’ He pulls himself more upright, and digs his phone out of his pocket. ‘Same here. That’s weird. I took a course on communication in the Wilds last semester. Zambi was one of the first Wilds areas to be completely overlaid with signal because the risks are so high. Rescue teams need to be able to get out here fast.’

‘I say again – crap.’

‘Something – someone – must be jamming the signal.’

I slap my hands against the wheel. Three guesses who that must be. ‘Emilia.’ I don’t dare take my eyes off the road, which is becoming less like a road and more like arbitrary lanes, winding through the tall grass in the savannah. ‘What do you think we should do?’

‘We keep going.’

‘But, where?’

He places his thumb and forefinger on the inner corner of each eye, and squeezes. It’s what he does whenever he’s trying to remember something. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen him do it in exams. Whatever it is, it works.

‘Unicorns . . . okay. We almost never have to cover this stuff, you know? First year Finder training consists of the basic stuff. And this is not basic.’

I swerve to avoid the branches of a huge baobab tree hanging over the road. ‘Come on, Arjun. I know you go above and beyond your training at every moment. You must have read something . . .’