The Stolen Child (11 page)

“
Why you?”
 

Ilona did not answer, though her quiet smile seemed to waver, just for a moment.
 

“
Well, if we're ready...” Milima said.
 

Arsha turned to look up at the woman and nodded.  Ilona simply tilted her head very slightly and closed her eyes.
 

“Now, I want you to start by breathing very slowly,” Milima
instructed
in calm, even tones.  
As she spoke,
she placed two small bowls on either side of the circle, their contents smoking
slightly
.  The smoke had a sweet, spicy aroma, and it filled her nose and her lungs as she took deep breaths.

“
N
ow reach out and take Ilona's hands.  Feel her power, flowing into you, through you, and back into her.”  

Arsha reached out, felt Ilona's slim fingers interweaving with hers, their hands clenching tightly together.  There was a reassuring solidness to Ilona's gri
p.
 

“Clear your mind.  There is only an empty sky before you.  A mask hangs in the sky.  See the mask.”

Milima's voice was steady, her tone gentle, leading her forward step by step.

“The mask is the colour of the sky.  It settles on your face.  You become the mask.”

Her eyes closed, she pictured the mask settling on her face.

“The mask is around you, in you.  You are the mask.  Your eyes are closed now, but soon you will open them.  Your new eyes will open and you will see differently.”

Her whole body felt light, as if she was floating in that open blue sky.

“There is a
thread
, stretching all the way out to another world.  That
thread
begins in your heart, and stretches out into the sky.  Feel the
thread
.  Feel it tremble with every heart-beat.  Another heart beats at the other end of that
thread
.  Can you feel that heart-beat?”

“I can
feel it,
”
Arsha said, her voice catching in her throat.  It was astonishing how real it felt, the sound of that other heartbeat intertwining with her own.
 

“When you open your eyes, your hearts will beat as one, and you will be a part of one another.  You will speak to her thoughts, and she will speak to yours.  When you open your eyes, all this will be gone.  You are a vapour now, but when you open your eyes you will become real.  Open your eyes.”

Arsha did as she was instructed.  S
he caught a brief flicker of the dark wooden walls of the cargo hold and the ghostlamps hanging overhead, but already it was fading as her new surroundings seemed to fall into place.

A rooftop, one of many amongst the tall
buildings
that surrounded her
.  
Grey streets filled with strange vehicles.  
Red bricks, stained black
by smoke
.  Sounds of people and
the thunder of engines
.

The girl was sat across from her, resting agains
t some kind of silver-grey metal container
.  Her clothes were worn and stained, the designs strange.  She had a
pretty face
under
the
tangle of
blonde hair that shaded her eyes,
skin pale like Ilona's
.  The girl's legs were
out in
front of her, and her eyes were
closed.  She looked desperately tired.
 

Arsha
realised that she had no idea what to do n
ow
.

“Um... Hi?”
s
he said, with a nervous smile.
 

Rachael sat on the rooftop, huddled in her jacket, staring out over the city with dead eyes.  
Barely visible through the wall of cloud, the sun was
just beginning to descend towards
the horizon
.  
After their narrow escape from the construction site they had been constantly on the move.  Rachael had slept little, and she had a feeling that Justin was sleeping even less.  Food had been scarce, with both of them unable to risk returning to their usual haunts.  Every time the sun set, Justin had repeated his strange ritual, drawing the mark in blood on her forehead.  To keep them from following her, he claimed.  Each time she watched him pierce his thumb with that knife blade she felt a chill run through her body, but arguing had been pointless.
 

Even running was beginning to seem pointless
.  She was tired.  Tired of everything.  Tired of being
cold and hungry
.  Tired of being frightened.  Tired of
watching the few remaining pieces of her life fall apart
.  
She felt like an insect with its legs being pulled off one by one.
 

She let her head fall back against the ventilator duct.  It was cold outside and the air felt damp, like it would rain again soon.  She wondered when Justin would be back from whatever he was doing.  Scouting, he had called it.  Finding out more about the people who were after them.  She wondered if it would really do any good.  If anything would.  She just wanted him to be back.  She just wanted to sleep.  Her eyes began to
drift
close
d
.
 

The sound of a voice woke her.  Rachael's eyes flicked open and she looked up.  
Sitting across from her was
a girl of about her own age
.  Her skin
was dark
, and
her
black hair
was
tied up in
a ponytail.
 

“
Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you,” the girl exclaimed, holding up her hands.
 

“Who the hell are you?” Rachael snapped
in surprise.  As the shock passed, she gave the girl another look over.  
She was
curiously
dressed,
in baggy green trousers and high topped leather boots, with a loosely fitted white tunic.
 

“I'm Arsha.  You're Rachael, right?”

The girl turned her head to look around, with an awe-struck expression.
 

“
Wow... So this is London?  I mean I'd heard about it, but... I've never seen a Hearth city before.  It's so different.”
 

“
Who the hell are you?” Rachael snapped, “
How'd you know who I am?  You following me too?”

“No, no, I just... Someone was following you?”
t
he girl said.

“That's cute,” Rachael said, half
way to her feet
.  “Act like you don't know.”

“Don't know what?  What happened?”

Rachael shook her head in astonishment.  She
got
to her feet,
striding
forwards to stand over the girl, her
fists
clenched at her sides.  
Arsha
looked up at her with a trace of nervousness in her eyes.

“
What the hell is this?  W
hat's your deal, Arsha?  Why are you here talking to me, if you're not one of them
what
was trying to run us down the other night?”

“
It's OK, it's OK,” the girl said, holding up her hands.  “
I'm here to help.”

“
Right.  And I should believe you because...
?”

The girl looked completely at a loss.  After a moment she just shrugged, helplessly, her eyes downcast.

“
Yeah, you're not convincing anyone here
,”
Rachael said.
 

“I'm sorry.  I've never done this sort of thing before.  My dad could explain better, but he can't talk to you like this, so it kind of had to be me.  Sorry.”

“And what's your dad got to do with this?” Rachael said.  She had to admit that curiosity was overcoming her now.  
Arsha
seemed so pathetically helpless that
Rachael
couldn't imagine
the girl was any threat
.  But at the same time, there was something about the way that
she
sat there, with her legs folded under herself, totally defen
c
eless, that suggested she was either very cool headed or entirely sure that she was in no danger.

“Well he's an archaeologist.  We live on a ship, called the Triskelion.  It's small, but it's nice.  We're on our way to London right now.  That's why I'm talking to you like this.  My dad wanted
to let you know
that we're coming to find you.  We're going to keep you safe from those guys who were chasing you, and anyone else.”

“Yeah, that's great.  So I need you to keep me safe now, do I?”

“Sorry, I didn't mean it like that.  I just mean...”
Arsha paused for a moment, as if trying to collect herself.
  “We're coming to help.  
That's why my dad wanted me to talk to you, to let you know that... That we're coming to help,” she finished, limply.
 

“Sure.  How's it I have a hard time believing that?  And if your dad's out there on this ship, how's it you're here talking to me?”

Arsha looked puzzled for a moment.

“Well, I'm not really here, obviously.  I mean, this is just...
Well it's sort of like a sending, I guess.
”

When the girl stretched a hand out towards her leg, Rachael stepped back instinctively, Arsha's hand passing through the space where she had just been.  In that same moment, moving on instinct, Rachael reached down to snatch at Arsha's collar, meaning to haul the girl to her feet.

But when her hand met the girl's
tunic
, it passed straight through.  Straight through her whole body, as if there was nothing there at all.

“I'm sorry,” Arsha squeaked.  “I just meant to show you
it
was a sending, was all.”

Rachael heard the words as a kind of distant buzzing.  The girl was still sitting in front of her, seeming in every possible way to be real.  Or almost every way.  Already she could see how the breeze didn't quite seem to touch the girl's hair.  How she had felt nothing when the girl's hand passed so close to her.

“No.  No, no, no, don't be this, don't be this,”
s
he mumbled, feeling the words collapsing into each other.  Rachael staggered back a step, and fell down against the ventilator duct.  The metal
thundered with the impact.  She felt her knees curling up to
her
chest, felt herself collapsing down into
a place deep
inside
, like a seed
in the darkness
.  
Distantly, she heard the girl's voice,
shrill
with concern, but already she knew that it was just her imagination.
  Her eyes were closed tight as
she repeated the words over and over, until they became a buzzing noise, blocking out everything else.  Her heart thundered in her chest as she drew
rapid
breaths.  
H
er desperate prayer
echoed
through her
thoughts, trying
to wish the world away.
 

-

Arsha felt the link
break
, like a glass
shattering
in
her
hands.  The rooftop became a jumbled blur, a whirlwind of flickering images that spiralled apart to leave her
floating in darkness.  
Arsha tried to call out, to tell the girl it was OK, but Rachael was already gone.  The comforting darkness suddenly felt strange and frightening.  She seemed to be tumbling, falling, though there was no sense of an up or down.  She called out again and heard a voice answer.  Milima's voice, calm and steady.
 

“
Let it go, Arsha
.  
Let it go.  Close your eyes, take a breath and slowly remove
the mask.”

She forced herself to breathe.  
She
imagined her eyes closing
.  
Felt her fingertips brush her face, brush the edges of the imaginary mask.
 

“Feel yourself returning.  The mask floats away.  The
thread
is gone.”

Her body seemed as light as a feather.

“Open your eyes.”

There was a sensation like a sudden movement, as t
he
ship fell into place around her
.  For a moment she was surprised to feel the floor underneath herself.  
Dizzy,
she nearly toppled over.

“Careful sweet
heart
,” Milima said, her calm tones breaking into
bemused laughter
.  Her hand
gently
supported Arsha's shoulder.

Arsha sat up,
her head spinning
.  Everything was exactly as it had been.  Milima was looking into her eyes with concern as
Arsha
shook off the headrush.  Sat across from her, Ilona's eyes were still closed, her breathing deep and slow.

“
Are y
ou all there?” Milima said, leaning
in
close
to study her eyes.
 

“Yeah.  I'm
OK
,”
s
he said, casting a worried glance over at Ilona.  Their hands were still entwined, though Ilona's grip had slackened.

“Give her a moment,” Milima said.  “It's
different,
b
eing the
power
.”

Ilona's eyes
slowly
fluttered open, as if she was awakening from a very deep sleep.

“
Are y
ou OK?” Arsha said, unable to keep the worry from her voice.

Ilona nodded, releasing Arsha's hands.

“
What about you,
”
h
er father said, stepping closer to the circle.  “
Are you OK, love?
”

“
Yeah, I'm fine, it's just.. I think I messed up.  I talked to
her but...”