Xinder Rises Read online

  Danny nodded. ‘What ... what’s your name?’ he asked.

  ‘Ah, yes. The fine detail.’ His eye sockets bored into Danny, who felt as though his heart was briefly being sucked out. ‘I am the ghost of Xinder, Frozen Lord of Halaria, Son of Mazeen and the Ancient Lady. Do you have a cup of water, boy?’

  Danny pointed to the table just behind him.

  Xinder hovered to it and dropped something in the cup. ‘You will need this. Drink. It may give you strength.’

  And with those words, Xinder slipped quietly out of the door.

  Danny fell back on his pillows, rubbing his eyes. What the hell was that about?

  He didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t anymore. He knew, though, that there was no way he was going to turn up at this meeting with the ghost, whatever powers had been offered to him in return.

  Lions and horses! Twaddle.

  He studied the clock. Three thirty-five.

  He did a quick calculation. Eight hours from now and it would be … bang in the middle of the football match. Nine hours and the game would just be finishing. A classic Danny timetable cock-up.

  He breathed a sigh of relief. Problem sorted; he wasn’t missing the game, certainly not for a knife-wielding ghost.

  Relieved, Danny closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.

  Sola

  Sola raced across the air to the boy.

  Xinder, forever banned from leaving Halaria, had discovered a way to the Sacrum only hours after the last part of the First Dream had been given! This was beyond comprehension.

  Sola anchored her legs either side of Danny’s head, and spun a hazy-styled dream.

  With any luck, as the sun rose and humans readied themselves for a new day, the meeting with Xinder might feel as if it had never happened.

  Xinder

  Talking to Danny, an idea so simple, and yet so brilliant, had popped into Xinder’s head.

  Xinder pulled a small jar out of his pocket and examined it, smiling.

  Halarian toadstool powder. A lethal poison, with the power to kill those who came from Genartus. In one stroke, he’d reduce the old man to a spirit. Just like him.

  Mazeen’s value would be nullified, not that he had much worth anyway. But why not take the chance, while he had it?

  Xinder reached the hallway. No Guda. Good, he thought, better the Animais doesn’t know.

  The ghost cursed. Wearing a coat for such a long time had sapped his strength. He let the garment cascade to the floor as he searched the room, sensing vibrations. In no time he had created a map in his mind’s eye.

  He headed down a corridor, and came to an open door. He slipped through and instantly sized up the energy in the room. Before long, the outlines of a table and chairs, and the vibrations of plants and foodstuffs came to him, hanging off the easy-to-identify metal hooks clasped onto the beams of the ceiling.

  Turning to his left, he discovered the strong vibrations of a smouldering fire – a cooker. Good.

  He thought about sweet foods, like honey or, how did the boy say it, sugary-things?

  Yes! There, near the cooker, in a small container. Sweet granules, exactly as he hoped.

  It’s easy to see, he thought, when one has aeons of time. It’s easy to understand how energy spins, fires and vibrates around every single thing.

  Xinder cursed. His strength sapped by the coat, he found that pouring the Halarian toadstool powder into the bowl was more of an effort than he’d bargained for. As he did, tiny squeals emanated.

  Perfect. The fungi are alive.

  Xinder drifted out of the room, along the corridor, into the living room, and back to the fireplace.

  He felt for the vibrations of the Animais.

  Nothing.

  Above him, he could hear yawns. The old man stirring. Feet padding on the ceiling above.

  Come on, Guda, where are you?

  A moment later, the stairs groaned with a heavy footstep.

  Xinder didn’t want to hang about. Even though he knew he couldn’t be seen, he certainly didn’t want to be found in the house of his father, the home of his greatest enemy.

  As the footsteps neared, a small vibration squeaked out. ‘Master, it is Guda. Lower yourself and dive. Do nothing else.’

  ‘About time,’ Xinder snapped.

  Without waiting to be prompted, Xinder knelt down and sprang into the Animais, hoping like mad it was the right place. As he left, he heard a small cough as Sap entered the room.

  7

  Danny, Thursday

  Danny stretched his arms and thrust out his chin. As he did so, he felt the sting of a fresh cut. He froze. Cloudy images of the previous night rushed in. He dashed into the bathroom and stared back at his reflection.

  A small incision, just as he expected, mirroring the cut from the night before.

  Danny couldn’t believe it.

  And why were the words "horse" and "lion" swimming in his head?

  ‘The weight of a horse and the looks of a lion? Nah,’ he said aloud to his reflection, shaking his head. The head of a horse and the body of a lion?

  Danny sprayed water on his face. The bite of a lion and the kick of a horse? No, no. Deep in thought, he headed towards the kitchen, letting the water spill onto the floor as he went.

  Mrs Puddy looked up as Danny came sloping in. ‘You taking an elephant for a walk?’ she said.

  ‘Elephant?’ he repeated, before realising what she meant. He tried not to break into a smile.

  ‘What is the matter with you lot?’ Mrs Puddy complained. ‘Slumping and skulking and screaming in the night.’

  Danny coughed. ‘Oh. Olivia and Anika had a bad night again. I think they’re talking about some, er..., girlie things. You know...’ Danny mumbled.

  ‘Periods?’ Mrs Puddy squealed. ‘Anika’s becoming a woman now, is she? About time, I suppose.’

  Girlie things? Danny went bright red. Oh dear. This was absolutely the last thing on his mind.

  He changed the subject, fast. ‘My throat’s sore, Mrs P, and my head hurts. It’s like someone’s tightened a clip around my neck.’

  ‘Come here. I’ll take a look.’

  Danny sidled over to the sink, and Mrs Puddy took his head gently in her hands. ‘What are these cuts on your chin? Have you been playing with your knives again?’

  ‘Of course, I haven’t,’ Danny said, weakly. ‘Caught my face on something.’

  Mrs Puddy looked at Danny suspiciously. ‘I won’t tell anyone about your knife throwing, you know that. I know you like to disappear off to that old potting shed and practice, though heavens only knows why.’

  She took his hand, before feeling his forehead and the back of his neck. ‘It’s your big sister who doesn’t approve.’

  Mrs Puddy finished her medical. ‘Well, you is a bit sweaty, young man. Could be a fever coming on.’

  She rubbed her chin, thinking about what might be the best cure. ‘I reckon you need a couple of...’

  ‘Apples?’ Danny suggested.

  Mrs Puddy raised her eyebrows. ‘How did you know?’

  Danny smiled. Mrs Puddy’s medical knowledge was virtually non-existent and Sap’s extraordinary variety of apples in the orchard just happened to be her number one cure for everything.

  Anika

  After an unexpectedly large breakfast, Danny felt it was time to question his sister. ‘Ani,’ he began quietly, ‘last night you called out, "Ancient Lady" several times. Why?’

  A shadow fell over her face. ‘Another nightmare,’ she began. ‘I’ve had three, each one utterly disturbing, but this dream was the best ... and the worst ... and the weirdest.’

  She turned to her sister for support. ‘They’ve been so real. I could smell things, and understand everything. Birds, trees, and plants talked to me. Talked, Danny! It’s so ... so complicated and bonkers and confusing. I don’t know where to begin.’

  Anika scrunched her face up and ran a hand through her hair, trapping a finger on a knot. ‘One minu
te, there’s this knackered old woman telling me about a wonderful, beautiful place. The next minute I’m in a terrifying storm, like an endless hurricane, and the storm is chasing me. Lightning, mudslides, and tonnes of water coming after me, beating me to death…’ She tailed off, scratching the back of her neck.

  ‘What is it, Ani?’ Olivia asked.

  ‘I dreamt I reached a sanctuary. It was only then that I was safe from the storm. Kind of like heaven, but with pictures on the walls.’

  She shook her head. ‘I still don’t know what it’s supposed to mean.’

  Olivia set her books down on the table and pulled up a chair.

  ‘Anika, in your nightmare, what happened to this Ancient Lady?’

  ‘Well, I’m pretty confident this haggard old woman kept trying to tell us something,’ Anika said. ‘But each time she did, she died.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Anika said, her eyes wide. ‘A violent, horrible death, different every time. And it was like being there, standing next to her. I could feel myself screaming.’

  She took the stunned silence from the others as a green light to continue. ‘Look, I know it sounds nuts, but this Ancient Lady knew about us ... she knew everything about us, even though I think we were on an entirely different planet.’

  Her eyes searched her elder sister’s face, begging her to believe. Anika’s bottom lip began to tremble, and tears moistened in her eyes. ‘I’ve tried to blot it out, but I think I’m going crazy.’

  Xinder

  ‘You cut it fine, Animais,’ Xinder snapped.

  ‘I cannot pretend it was easy, Master. Another Animais is suspicious. I must go. There are dreams to knit and sow.’

  ‘Find me in eight hours, as the storm breaks,’ Xinder said. ‘With luck, I will get the boy. There will be no hiding place for you then, Animais. Be prepared.’

  ‘That is why I must go,’ Guda said, before flashing through his infiniti.

  Xinder gasped as a terrible realisation struck him. He had left the coat with the knife in the pocket!

  His shock soon turned to chuckles, though, before belly-laughs bounced into the high ceilings of the palace.

  The cuts on young Danny’s chin might be explained by bumps in the night or the nick of a common thorn, but the coat will prove that I was there, he thought. The boy cannot ignore such a thing. He will reach into the pocket and feel the knife. Then he will stumble and take the bait.

  Xinder thumped the air. Oh, if I could see the look on his face! And now he will come to me, like a fly drawn to sweet granules.

  Enjoying the image of the bowl filled with Halarian toadstool powder, Xinder threw his head back and roared with delight.

  Olivia

  Without warning, a teardrop spilled from Olivia‘s eye.

  ‘Oh, Lord. Not you as well!’ Danny said.

  ‘Yes. Me, too!’ Olivia cried, lines of water now streaming down her cheeks. ‘Same, exactly.’

  Danny’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. ‘But this is madness—’

  ‘I know.’

  Danny was confused. ‘You’re sure it was just like Ani’s dream? You’re not making it up?’

  ‘Yes! I’m positive. It’s the truth,’ Olivia insisted. ‘I swear. Three intense, clear dreams like Anika described, except I was in a hall of mirrors. I’ve never been so amazed or happy or terrified, and, just as Ani said, the dreams all ended the same. Death.’

  She clenched her hand. ‘I kept seeing lightning and rain. Torrential, terrible rain. You know how I’ve been going on about this deluge, it’s terrifying me. It’s as if this stupid storm wants to target us, alone, until we make it to this weird cave, just as you said.’

  They both nodded.

  ‘And, Livi, you saw this Ancient Lady?’ Anika asked. ‘What did you think?’

  Olivia thought for a moment. ‘She’d been stuck. Abandoned someplace, I think. She’s pathetic, desperate, waiting. Waiting for...’

  ‘For what?’

  Olivia shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Us, perhaps?’

  ‘Her eyes had been gouged out, so she didn’t know where she was,’ Anika said.

  ‘Exactly! You’re right.’

  ‘No eyes, but she had a gentleness; an aura of kindness and love,’ Anika continued. ‘She was disgusting to look at, though. All shrivelled up, like one of Sap’s prunes.’

  ‘Probably even more withered,’ Olivia added with a thin smile. ‘I don’t know how she’s still alive. It was as if she held the key to something...’

  Danny had become noticeably quiet over the past few minutes. As if by instinct, the girls noticed.

  ‘What about you, Danny?’ they said.

  Danny swivelled and faced the girls, his face ashen.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, shakily. ‘I’ve dreamt of this storm and this Ancient Lady on three occasions – just like you.’

  The girls gasped.

  Danny stared at them, his eyes red and brimming with tears.

  He dropped his head.

  ‘The thing is, in each of my dreams, it’s me who kills her.’

  * * *

  Eventually, Olivia spoke. ‘Look. I know it’s odd, but these are only dreams, you know. They’re just our minds worrying about things. Dreams aren’t real, however much they appear to be.’

  ‘If you don’t think there’s any truth in them,’ Danny said, ‘why did you go to such lengths to make a barometer and a storm glass? You must have thought there was something to it.’

  Olivia thought for a moment. ‘Sas had had a similar dream, too. I suppose I wanted to try something – anything – to prove or disprove the dreams, scientifically.’

  ‘So, four of us have had the same dream,’ Danny said. ‘Perhaps there’s some kind of storm demon out there, hurling dreams at us, and we just happened to catch them?’

  ‘But Sas had the dreams, and she lives miles away,’ Anika added.

  Danny guffawed. ‘She does sleep over a lot.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, Danny,’ Olivia sneered. ‘Of course sleep demons don’t exist.’ She rubbed her temples.

  Anika suddenly piped up. ‘The Fitzroy storm glass! Where is it?’

  Olivia stood up, plucked the glass out of the fire grate, and placed it on top of the mantelpiece.

  The children stared at it, as though it held the answers to all their problems. ‘It’s still cloudy with little stars,’ Danny said, mischievously.

  Anika focused more intently. ‘Actually,’ she whispered, entranced, ‘those little stars are belting around? What does it mean?’

  Olivia sighed, ‘I don’t know what it means or what it’s supposed to show. It’s not my finest work.’

  Anika wasn’t convinced. ‘Just out of interest,’ she said, ‘for simple-minded people like me, who never saw it before, what was the glass like when you began this mad project?’

  ‘Cloudy,’ Danny said, ‘just like it is now.’

  ‘Thanks, Danny, very helpful,’ Anika said. ‘Well, it’s like a game of pinball in there,’ she said. ‘There’s way more going on than simply cloudy little particles shooting all over the place.’

  Olivia strode over and squinted. ‘There’s nothing here but a foggy substrate,’ she announced. ‘You’re wasting your time, Ani. Come on you two, get your things. You’ve got this big match to play today, or had you forgotten?’

  Anika frowned. ‘You think we should just ignore it all; the dreams, the cave, the Ancient Lady, everything?’

  ‘Yes, I do,’ she replied.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Absolutely. One hundred percent. I believe it’s purely a coincidence, that’s all. These dreams are parasites of fear.’

  The twins grabbed their sports bags, Anika stealing one more glance at the storm glass.

  ‘We need to get a move on,’ Olivia said, slipping the storm glass into her bag as she went. ‘My guess is that, somehow, this big cloud sitting above us is making our brain patterns react oddly in advance of a storm breaking. With my
scientific hat on, I’d say we ignore the whole thing. Yorkshire storms are never that bad.’

  The twins shrugged. Olivia was the boffin. Much as they hated it, she was generally correct.

  ‘I realise I’m pretty rubbish in Chemistry, or whatever science category the glass belongs in,’ Anika said, earnestly. ‘But I’d keep a really close eye on that Fitzroy storm thing-a-me if I were you.’

  Sap

  The children had barely stepped out of the door when Sap’s deep voice stopped them short.

  ‘Wait!’ he yelled from the doorway. ‘Did any of you leave this coat? Found it in the corridor.’ A large overcoat dangled over his arm. ‘Nice one too, with an unusual pattern on the lining. Sure I’ve seen it somewhere before.’

  Danny missed a step and stumbled, righting himself before his nose split the floor.

  Sap noticed. ‘Yours, is it, Danny? Looks a touch big for you, mind.’

  Danny doubled back, his body trembling. Without looking at Sap, he inspected the coat and shoved a hand inside one of the pockets. The hairs on his back shot up.

  ‘Back in a second,’ he yelled, as he flew up the stairs.

  Danny sprinted into the attic room where he spied the cup of water, tinged slightly blue, exactly as he’d left it. In one movement, he drained the glass.

  ‘Everything alright, Danny?’ Sap asked.

  ‘Fine,’ Danny answered.

  ‘Right-oh,’ Sap said. ‘Your coat?’

  ‘Oh, yeah, a friend’s. Must have grabbed it by mistake, in a rush.’

  ‘Big fella, is he?’

  ‘Yeah. I suppose,’ Danny said, as casually as he could.

  Sap handed him the coat. But as he did so a knife slipped out of the pocket and tinkled onto the paving slabs.