Jaide jumped up from her squat with all the grace of a startled frog. ‘What did you say?’
‘I wasn’t talking to— wait. You can hear me?’
‘Uh, I guess so,’ said Jaide. ‘Unless I’ve gone crazy. More crazy, that is.’
‘More like you’ve woken up,’ said Kleo. She craned her head over Grandma X’s face and wrinkled her nose. ‘What happened to her? She’s a lot deeper down than normal after a weather-working.’
Jaide stared at the cat for almost a full minute. Was this another side effect of having shared powers with Grandma X? Or had she indeed gone crazy? Jaide didn’t think so. And, besides, she figured she needed all the help she could get. A talking cat was really nothing compared to everything else that had happened.
‘Um, Kleo . . . I tried to help her with the storm and everything, but it went wrong, and then I was in her head, and we got all mixed up, and now I can’t wake her up, and suddenly you can talk to me and —’
The words came out in a wild rush that only stopped when Kleo put out a paw and touched her gently on the arm.
‘Don’t panic,’ said the cat. ‘You’re a troubletwister. Things never happen in the proper order. Hearing a Warden Companion is a skill that Jack learned faster than you, that’s all. A skill is a kind of knowledge, after all, and sometimes the seeds of knowledge can be passed along.’
Kleo looked down at Grandma X. Her furred eyebrows bunched together in a close approximation of a human frown. ‘But we have a big problem now, if even her granddaughter’s touch cannot awaken the old madam.’
Jaide’s concern for Grandma X was broken into by the sudden recollection of what Kleo had said to her.
‘Jack! You said Jack’s safe!’
Kleo backed away from her, looking slightly nervous, as though Jaide was a bomb that might go off at any moment.
‘Yes, Ari found him. I saw them coming – they’re almost here.’
Jaide ran down the stairs in one thunderous rush. By the time she reached the front door, she could hear its heavy handle turning. Without thinking, she swept it open, and Jack stumbled inside, practically falling on her. She hugged him tightly, not caring that he stank of mud and worse. She didn’t care. He was alive. That was all that mattered.
‘Jack! Thank heavens you’re here. I need you to —’
‘I need a shower,’ interrupted Jack wearily. ‘A really, really hot, long shower. And I’ll even drink some of that hot chocolate.’
‘Jack, we were wrong about Grandma – and there’s no time for a shower.’
‘What?’ asked Jack. ‘You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through – I have to have a shower —’
‘There really isn’t a moment to waste,’ said Ari, just as Kleo appeared on the first-floor landing and called out, ‘Jaide? The rain is easing, but your grandmother’s not getting any drier.’
‘Yes, we’re coming!’ shouted Jaide. She took Jack by his muddy hand, both of them talking as they hurried up the stairs.
‘You can hear the cats?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ said Jaide. ‘I wish I could have before.’
‘How come you can now?’
Jaide opened her mouth, but no words came out. It just wasn’t something she could easily explain. Having her mind mixed up with Grandma X must have helped her grow into her powers, but there was a lot of other stuff floating about in her mind now, too, most particularly the image of a handsome man about the same age as her father with floppy brown hair and a narrow black tie. He was bending over an open fob watch with a look of calm concentration on his face. Then, in the memory, he flipped it shut, looked up, and smiled directly at her. It was like a four-second film that kept playing over and over in her head, transplanted there from her grandmother’s memories. It had to be the mysterious Grandpa X, or Grandpa Shield, or whatever she was supposed to call him. Her father’s father.
‘Uh, it just happened. Look, I need your help to get Grandma X inside,’ she told Jack. Very quickly as they ascended she explained what had happened on the widow’s walk, including Grandma X’s explanation about The Evil and Wardens and Gifts.
Jack listened carefully, but he was having difficulty taking it all in. Raising a flood to force him out of the sewers seemed a dangerous strategy. What if he hadn’t found the exit in time? Why not just call in the police to find him? Did being a Warden, or whatever Grandma X was, mean doing things the hard way all the time?
‘The phone’s out,’ said Jaide. ‘Everything’s out. Otherwise I would’ve called an ambulance for Grandma, too.’
‘Oh, yeah,’ said Jack. He hadn’t noticed the lights were all off. He could see quite clearly, but now that he thought about it, he must be using his special vision. He supposed this was one of the Gifts that Jaide was talking about.
‘I saw a lot of fallen poles and wires on the way up from the river,’ Jack said. ‘It looked like a hurricane went across Dock Road.’
‘At least you’re here now,’ said Jaide. ‘And . . . even though I shouldn’t have tried to help Grandma X, the storm does seem to be getting quieter.’
‘Maybe it’s done what it needed to,’ said Jack hopefully as he approached the hatch to the widow’s walk. ‘Maybe it drowned The Evil. Got rid of all the rats and insects and everything.’
‘Don’t be so foolish,’ said Kleo. She jumped up through the hatch and then leaned back to look down at him with narrowed eyes. ‘The Evil is getting stronger, if anything. Did you notice the weathervane as we came in?’
Jack nodded. ‘It was spinning like a top.’
‘That means The Evil is all around us here, but not in any particular hosts.’
‘So it’s left the rats and the insects?’
‘Yes. But it will only have done that if it’s been able to move up to something . . . or someone . . . that suits its purpose better.’
‘That’s bad, right?’ Jack asked.
‘Very bad,’ said Kleo.
‘Let’s not think about it,’ said Jaide. ‘We have to get Grandma X back down and into bed before we can do anything else.’
‘All right.’ Jack started to climb up through the hatch, out to the widow’s walk.
‘Wait,’ said Jaide, peering closely at him. Two red dots burned on his cheeks, as though he had a fever.
‘Did The Evil try to get into your head?’ she asked. ‘When you were down underground?’
‘Yes.’ The way Jack spoke the one word suggested it was all he wanted to say about the subject for now, and perhaps ever.
IT WAS A LOT MORE difficult to get Grandma X off the slippery widow’s walk and down to her bedroom than Jaide had expected. Jack was very tired and kept having to rest, and the top flight of stairs was a big problem. But somehow they managed to half-drag and half-carry Grandma X to her bedroom door without dropping her even once.
‘Come on,’ whispered Jack as Jaide hesitated by the door. ‘Hurry up – I’m losing my grip.’
Jaide turned the crystal handle, opened it, and peeked in, wary of some kind of magical surprise. It was a perfectly ordinary room, though smaller than she’d expected. There was a single bed, a narrow cupboard, a dressing table and a bedside table. On the bedside table was a glass of water, a hairbrush and two pictures in frames. The first was a black-and-white photo featuring the clockmaker Jaide had seen in Grandma X’s memories. The second photo was in faded colour, of two young boys. Jaide wasn’t sure, but she thought it looked like her father as a child with a twin brother. But since her father didn’t have a twin, she figured it had to be some sort of trick shot with a mirror.
There wasn’t time to worry about that. She returned to Grandma X and lifted her arms. Jack took hold of her legs. With a lot of grunting and numerous stop-starts, they managed to get her into the room and levered up onto the bed. Through all of it, Grandma X didn’t wake
even once. When she was settled, Jaide brushed the hair back from her face and hoped she was going to be all right.
Jack looked on, an extremely worried expression on his face.
‘We should try the phone again,’ he said. ‘See if we can get an ambulance.’
‘Nothing like that will work,’ said Kleo with feline certainty.
‘When I saw her all fallen over by the railing . . . I . . . I thought she was dead,’ Jaide said.
‘Are you sure she’s not dead?’ Jack asked hesitantly.
‘She’s breathing,’ said Jaide. ‘I think. . .’
Kleo leaped up onto the bed and gave Grandma X’s face a testing lick with her little pink tongue.
‘She lives. But she has delved deep into herself and exhausted her Gift trying to bring the storm under control after Jaide destabilised it,’ said the cat. ‘Troubletwisters are dangerous to be around. Your Gifts are unformed and unpredictable, and you haven’t learned to control them.’
‘You shouldn’t think of it as your fault, though,’ said Ari. ‘If The Evil hadn’t managed to manifest here, somehow, all would have been well. In any case, you can’t worry about that now. The Evil is here, and it wants you and your Gifts, so you need to work out what to do about it.’
‘We have to get help,’ said Jaide. ‘I know the phones and power are out, but maybe —’
‘The whole town is cut off,’ said Kleo. ‘The Evil is strong enough now to make sure of that.’
‘So what can we do?’ asked Jack.
‘You need to look after your grandmother’s body until her spirit returns.’
‘Where has it gone?’
‘Very deep inside her innermost self.’
‘When will it come back?’
‘Who knows? But the longer she stays there, the harder it will be for her to come back. Wardens have been lost that way before.’
‘What if The Evil attacks before she does? We can’t stop it!’
‘Alarms have been sounded. Help will come . . . eventually.’
‘Eventually!’ Jaide protested. ‘That doesn’t sound very good.’
‘All that can be done has been done,’ said Kleo.
‘Well, that’s not quite —’ Ari began, but he stopped at a sharp glance from Kleo.
‘What?’ asked Jack. ‘Is there something you can do?’
‘No,’ said Kleo. ‘We are constrained by an oath we took as kittens.’
‘There are some loopholes —’ Ari stopped again as Kleo’s tail slowly beat out three short thuds on Grandma X’s bedspread. Ari looked imploringly at the twins, as though begging them to read his mind.
Jaide looked at Jack. They were both thinking the same thing.
Cats!
‘Grandma X said we’d be safe in this house,’ said Jaide slowly. ‘But I guess without her, that’s not true anymore.’
Kleo didn’t move one iota. Ari’s whiskers twitched as if he was desperately trying to keep his mouth shut.
‘Maybe not completely true?’ said Jack eagerly, trying to interpret the weird vibe the cats had going. ‘Is there a way we can defend the house against The Evil? At least until Grandma X wakes up?’
Ari looked at Kleo and then down at the floor.
‘Downstairs?’ Jack guessed immediately.
Kleo’s fixed stare turned withering.
‘I didn’t say a word!’ Ari protested. ‘I didn’t even mention the door.’
‘The blue door? That’s it! We need to look in there!’ Jaide exclaimed.
Kleo put her head to one side, looking pointedly away from Ari, and sniffed in disappointment.
‘I didn’t say “blue” door,’ said Ari innocently. ‘It could have been a green door, or a pink door . . .’
Jack was already heading downstairs, Jaide hot on his heels. With a loud tattoo of shoes they pounded down the stairs and to the front of the house.
They hesitated at the front door, thinking of the rain and The Evil still at large, until Ari caught up with them. Kleo came down more reluctantly behind them, still not looking at Ari, as though she wanted no part in the expedition.
‘Is it safe to go out?’ asked Jack, thinking of the white eyes shining in the dark. ‘I mean, The Evil won’t be right outside, will it?’
Ari sniffed around the base of the door and shook his head.
‘Does that mean it won’t be safe or that The Evil isn’t right outside?’ asked Jaide.
‘The Evil is close, but it has not yet dared cross the boundaries,’ he told them.
Even with this assurance, the twins went out very cautiously, remembering the rats that had been in the yard the previous night. The rain had eased off a lot, but it was still sprinkling. The yard was a mess, with fallen leaves and branches, and out in the street a light pole leaned over at a drunken angle with a cable hanging off it, sparking occasionally.
There were no birds in the dark sky, and no sign of anything else, be it under the control of The Evil or not. It was quiet, the quiet after disaster, or the unnatural stillness found in the eye of a storm.
The twins hurried to the blue door, but the cats stayed behind, out of the rain. Jaide looked back at them and saw Kleo buffet Ari’s ear with her paw, followed by a short, hissed ‘Fool of a cat!’
‘How do we open it?’ Jaide asked, thumping the door so hard it rattled on its hinges. It still didn’t have a handle or doorknob. The cats didn’t answer.
‘Look!’ Jack had stepped back and was looking up at the sign. ‘It’s changed!’
The handwritten words now said:
Jaide read it through twice. It didn’t make sense. ‘The door isn’t open, otherwise we’d open it.’
‘Maybe it’s not open on this side,’ said Jack, ‘but it is on the other.’
‘What’s the use in that?’ Jaide’s frustration was mounting. ‘Why would Grandma X leave us such a stupid note?’
‘It’s a test,’ said Jack, suddenly remembering Grandma X’s words, weirdly accompanied by the aftertaste of hot chocolate in his mouth. ‘She said, “Some doors are not meant to be opened before their time.”’
‘It’s definitely time now. But how do we lift a latch on the other side?’
They stared at the door with identical expressions. This was a challenge, and they were determined to be up to it.
‘It’s a secret room for Wardens, right?’ said Jack.
‘I guess.’ Jaide could see the way he was thinking. ‘So you need a Gift to open it?’
‘Grandma X probably does it with her spirit, or whatever it was she sent to me in the tunnels. She just goes in there and lifts the latch.’
‘But we can’t do that,’ Jaide pointed out. Even after joining with Grandma X, she wasn’t sure exactly what her Gifts were. But she was clear on what they weren’t – and sending out a spirit form was definitely not something she could do. ‘At least, I can’t. Do you know what you can do now? Grandma X said your Gifts were of the night and darkness – but it won’t be dark for hours and we don’t have hours. Remember what Kleo said about Grandma X finding it harder to come back the longer she was away? We have to get help before we lose her forever.’
Jack nodded and looked up at the sky. Though it was full of dark clouds and showers, there were also patches where the sun was breaking through.
‘I can see in the dark,’ he said, remembering his experiences in the tunnels. ‘And hide in shadows.’
He stopped and looked down at his own shadow, faint on the doorstep. Jaide followed his glance and then swiftly looked back at him.
‘Yes,’ said Jack. He knew she had the same idea. ‘I can give it a try, anyway.’
Jack closed his eyes and imagined his mind leaking out the soles of his feet and into his shadow by the door. Nothing happened at fir
st, but then he felt a strange sensation, like cold water running down on the inside of his skin, from the top of his head to his toes.
He opened his eyes and saw Jaide above him, as if he was lying on the ground. Then he saw himself standing next to her, completely still – and he felt the shadow. All the shadows around him were connected, where they overlapped. Darkness bled and joined, allowing someone special like him to travel through it.
Shadow Jack slid under the door, into the shadows of the room. It was like being on a waterslide: easy to get started, but difficult to change direction or stop once you were going. It took him a few tries to get the hang of it before he was able to glide up the inside of the door, next to the latch.
It was a metal bar not much thicker than his thumb. Normally he could have lifted it without thinking. As a shadow, however, it was a completely different matter.
His shadow hand just slid over the metal and the bar didn’t shift a millimetre. He couldn’t interact with it at all.
Just as he was about to give in, a miniature whirlwind blew in from under the door and spun about on the floor. It went one way and then the other, before approaching the door. It hesitated there for a moment before turning on its side and starting to climb. But before it got close to the bolt, it fell apart, and the dust and tiny pieces of gravel it carried all fell to the ground.
‘Dratnation!’ said Jaide on the other side, utilising one of the unique swear words their father invented when he didn’t want the twins to hear what he usually said. Jack realised it had been his sister’s whirlwind, and she had been trying to use her Gifts to open the door, just as he was.
Shadow Jack slithered down and under the door, then back into his own flesh-and-blood body. He was disoriented for a moment, particularly when he opened his eyes. The light blinded him for an instant, and his head spun from more than just the light. Jaide was squatting next to him, with the fingers of both her hands pressing against the bottom of the door. A thin whistling sound came from the far side, with the occasional tinkling crash.
‘That’s not going to work,’ Jack said, tapping her on the shoulder.