by Michael Kerr
CHAPTER ONE ―
CALLING OF THE STONES
Five weeks of the summer holiday had slipped by, and the prospect of returning to school was looming in front of them.
Sam, Ben and Tommy were preoccupied, unable to fully enjoy themselves. They had built a grand tree house in a lofty horse chestnut in the large back garden at Ben’s, with the help and supervision of his dad, and spent a lot of time in it, sitting and talking about their great adventures in Otherworld. They had been on a few bike rides since returning, gone to the movies a couple of times, and tried to get used to being back in Grassington. But life seemed a little dull and boring after all the thrills and danger they had experienced.
“What’re you drawing, Sam?” Tommy asked after climbing up the ladder into the tree house to find her sitting on a small canvas chair, busily sketching.
Sam turned the pad round and held it out for Tommy to see.
He smiled, but looked very sad at the same time. The drawing was of Gorf and Pookie. They were pictured sitting at a table, eating. Gorf had some kind of lizard sandwich in his huge, hairy hands. There were scaly legs and a tail sticking out from between the thick slices of bread. And Pookie looked as if he was about to stick his face into a large stack of pancakes covered with maple syrup.
“That looks just like them,” Tommy said, and turned away as his eyes filled up with tears. He missed Gorf, Fig and Speedy, but not half as much as he missed Pookie. His old teddy bear had been conjured up by the wizard, Mephisto, in the Valley of Mist, who then cast a spell to turn the stuffed toy into a living bear. Pookie had stayed behind with Gorf when Tommy and the others had returned to the world they had left, and Fig and Speedy had been transported back to their own land.
“I’ve been drawing almost everybody and everything we met in Otherworld,” Sam said. “That way I won’t forget what they looked like as time goes by.”
Tommy sniffed, reached out and took the pad and flicked through it, to see images of Fig and Speedy, the Gargoyles of Doom Mountain, Mephisto the magician, a dragon breathing fire, Pintello the jester, Turquin the dwarf, and Aubrey the talking ostrich.
“Who’re you going to draw next?” Tommy asked.
“Charlie the vampire,” Sam said.
“I want to go back,” Tommy said. “I miss Pook, and all the scary things that we saw and did.”
“That’s about the dumbest idea you’ve ever had,” Ben said, poking his head up over the edge of the platform that the house was built on, before climbing in to join his friends. “You can’t go back.”
“I didn’t say I could,” Tommy mumbled. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”
“Even if you could find the portal we went through, who knows where you’d end up,” Sam said. “Remember how many doors there were in the dome at the Crossroads of Time? There must be thousands of different Otherworlds.”
“I know,” Tommy said. “But I’m not really happy here anymore.”
“You’ll soon get used to being home, Tommy,” Ben said. “Once we’ve been back at school for a few days everything that happened will seem like a dream.”
“No it won’t,” Tommy said. “I should have stayed with Pook and Gorf. Coming back was a big mistake.”
Tossing the sketch pad back to Sam, Tommy pushed passed Ben, climbed down the ladder and rode off on his bike.
“I think I know how he feels,” Sam said. “I keep wishing we could go there whenever we want to. If it wasn’t for my parents and Emily, I’d be happy to try and find the way back.”
“Well, if you and Tommy decide to go looking for the portal, count me out,” Ben said. “I’m happy to be back from Weirdworld. We were lucky to survive. Have you forgotten just how many times we nearly got killed?”
Sam shrugged. Finding the Chalice of Hope and returning it to the Keeper at Iceworld had been the most important thing she would probably ever do in her life. All that they had been through had ensured that the Dark One could not get hold of the chalice and destroy everything that was good. To her mind, that was a big deal.
“Don’t you think it was exciting to travel through so many lands, and see such strange and wonderful sights, Ben?”
“Yeah. But that doesn’t mean I would go back there by choice. There are too many dangerous creatures. I still have bad dreams about that priest at the temple coming back to life, and the giant scorpions and spiders, and those dragons that wanted to turn us into a toasted snack. It’s safer here at home where we belong.”
Sam knew that Ben was right, but recalled the voice that she’d heard when she’d held the chalice in the ice chamber, just before it had turned white hot and burned its way down into the glacier. It had said: ‘Remember to hold on to hope, and to believe in kindness and all that is good. Dream as if you will live forever, and live as if you might die today. Life is not for looking back on with regrets at chances not taken. Be true to your heart, Sam Craig, and you will find everlasting peace of mind’.
Sam believed that the voice had meant that you should not be afraid to do what your heart and mind told you was right. She didn’t want to be ordinary and do what everyone else did. The adventure had made her feel special in some way. It was like she supposed astronauts felt when they returned from a mission, having looked back at the Earth from space. Maybe if Tommy did decide to try to go back to Otherworld, then she would go with him. After all, they could stay for years if they wanted, then come back to the time they had left, if they survived all that might happen there.
Ben was staring at her as if she had grown a second head.
“What?” she asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“The necklet that King Ambrose gave you is glowing,” Ben said.
Sam put her chin on her chest and looked down. She could see the light shining through her T-shirt. And the skin beneath the ruby-red stones felt warm.
“Where’s yours?” Sam said, looking at Ben’s bare neck.
“In my bedroom, in a drawer.”
“Go check it. See if it’s doing the same.”
Ben scrambled down the ladder and ran across the lawn to the kitchen door.
Sam took her mobile phone out of the bag she had brought her sketch pad in and sent Tommy a text: IS YOUR NECKLET GLOWING? MINE IS.
Tommy was almost home when his Nokia started playing a naff Robbie Williams tune. He would have to change it to something cooler. He stopped at the side of the road and saw that it was a text from Sam. He read it and tried to squint at his neck to see the stones that were attached like beads to the strip of leather thong. The sun was too bright though, and he had to tuck the phone back in his pocket and slip the necklet off over his head. Sure enough, the red stones were pulsating with a bright then soft glow. What did it mean? He put the necklet back over his head and sent a reply to Sam. He tapped out, YES. ON MY WAY BACK.
Sam felt her heart beating faster. Something absolutely awesome was happening. Whatever was making the stones glow had to be coming from Otherworld; probably from the Oak Palace.
Ben’s head appeared at the top of the ladder. His sandy hair was a tousled mess as usual, and his hazel eyes were wide open, full of wonder. He held up the string of stones and grinned. They were shining as bright as red-hot coals.
“What do you reckon it means, Sam?” Ben asked, climbing back over the railing.
“Something very important,” Sam said. “I think King Ambrose or Fig is trying to contact us.”
“Why would they do that?”
“I’ve no idea. It might be a call for help.”
“I don’t see how we could be of any help to them. They have magical powers. We don’t.”
Tommy had pedalled like the wind. He leaned his bike against the tree and shouted breathlessly up to them. “Hey, you two. Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Ben called back, leaning out of the tree house to look down at his pal.
“To where we found the lake and the water
fall,” Tommy replied. “We have to go back.”
“I don’t have to go anywhere,” Ben said.
“Please yourself. What about you, Sam? Are you up for it?”
“I don’t know. We have no idea why the necklets are lighting up.”
“So let’s find out.”
“Let’s think about it,” Sam said.
“I have, and I’m going.”
Sam began to tingle all over. Her tummy felt as if butterflies were flying round inside it. And she knew that if she didn’t go with Tommy, she would regret it.
“Okay,” she heard herself say. And as soon as she said it she knew it was the right decision. “I’ll go home and get ready, and meet you at Sugden’s Mini Market in an hour.”
“Way to go, Sam,” Tommy shouted gleefully, punching the air before he rode off again to get ready for another big adventure.
“You should come with us, Ben,” Sam said as she climbed down the ladder and mounted her bike. “If you don’t, and we find a way through to Otherworld, you’ll wish you had.”
“Believe me, I won’t,” Ben said. “This world suits me just fine. I don’t need to run off to somewhere I don’t belong.”
“Scaredy cat,” Sam shouted as she sped towards the open gate. “See you when we get back.”
Ben ground his teeth together until the muscles in his cheeks ached. He wasn’t scared...Well, not much. Sam had no right to think he was frightened of going back. He just didn’t see any point in doing it. Most of what had happened to them in Weirdworld had not been fun. He’d rather go to the dentist than back to where everything seemed to be determined to kill him, eat him, or both. Tommy and Sam had to be crazy.
Tommy was already there when Sam freewheeled down the hill road into the village. It had only taken her a few minutes to change clothes and put a litre bottle of Coke and some food into a backpack. She had spent the rest of the time writing a letter to Emily, explaining where she was going, in case for some reason it proved impossible to get back. She had told her little sister all about the adventures in Otherworld, but Emily had just thought it was a fairy story, like the ones mum and dad read to her at night when she went to bed. Sam had written:
Dear Em,
If for any reason I go missing, I want you to know that I’m okay. Remember the story I told you about the fairies, and of the great adventure that I went on with Ben Cooper and Tommy Scott? Well, I’ve gone back there. It’s a real place, not a made-up one.
Be good, and always remember how much I love you.
Sam xxx
Sam had put the letter into an envelope, written Emily on the front and tucked it under her sister’s pillow. If she and Tommy found a way to Otherworld, and managed to return, she would probably be back before anyone even knew she had gone anywhere, and would be able to rip the letter up.
Tommy was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. He had told his mum that he was going back to Ben’s, then headed for Sugden’s feeling happier than he had since parting with Pook. He intended to somehow find his living teddy bear again, stay in Otherworld this time, and leave it to Ben to explain to his mum what had become of him, or for Sam to tell her, if she made it back.
“You ready for another trip into the Twilight Zone?” Tommy said as Sam braked to a stop next to him.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“What about Ben?”
“He wouldn’t change his mind.”
“Bet he wishes he’d come with us when we’ve gone. He’ll miss us.”
“We haven’t got there yet, Tommy.”
“We will. The stones wouldn’t be glowing if there wasn’t some kind of link to Otherworld.”
An hour later they had hidden their bikes in giant ferns at exactly the same spot as before, and headed off on foot, taking the trail that had led them up through the fog to a gap in the ridge that they had passed through to come out above the turquoise lake and the waterfall. There was no sign of fog this time, but they found the split in the limestone cliff and walked through it, to stand on a ledge and look down into the great stone arena, disappointed to see that the lake wasn’t there.
“Are you sure this the right place?” Sam said.
Tommy nodded. “Yeah. But it doesn’t feel magical. Maybe Fig was right when he said that the portals linking worlds to each other don’t stay in one place.”
“Let’s go down and take a look,” Sam said. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
They slid down the loose rock that covered the slope, and were soon sitting on the large flat rock that jutted out over the now dry lake bed.
“What do we do now?” Tommy said.
Sam grinned. “The stones on your necklet are still twinkling, Tommy. I think we’ll be able to find the portal by going in the direction that makes them glow brightest.”
“Same as a metal detector, eh?” Tommy said. “But instead of the beeping getting louder, the stones will shine more, or fade if we go the wrong way. Right?”
“I think so.”
Tommy jumped up and set off along what had been a rocky shoreline, then turned and marched out towards the middle of where the lake had been.
Sam took her necklet off and held it out in front of her. Headed the other way, but the light from the red stones dimmed a little, and so she tried to remember exactly where the lake had parted when the invisible force field had pushed them into it. Everything seemed to be so different. She looked up to the place where the waterfall had spilled over a smooth lip on the ridge, got her bearings and walked out over the pebbles. Just for a second she had the feeling she was being watched, and then the stones became dazzling. She let the brightness of them lead her to what had been the far shore.
“This way, Tommy,” she shouted.
It was unbelievable. She hadn’t really thought that they would find one of the holes in space and time. But with every step she took, the ruby-red stones became more radiant, and began to grow warm, then almost too hot to hold.
Tommy nearly stumbled and fell as he dashed across the rocks and boulders to reach her. They carried on, up a gently shelving slope, and made their way around the side of a large pillar of limestone that was as smooth as glass, to be faced by a swirling circle of pinkish mist that was hanging in mid air and emitting a loud, crackling sound.
“Now or never,” Sam said.
Tommy grabbed hold of her hand, and they ran full pelt towards the portal, letting out a scream as they jumped up and sailed through it.
Behind them, Ben shouted as he raced across the lake bed. He had got to thinking that without Sam and Tommy around, he would wish he had gone with them. And anyhow, he didn’t believe that they would be able to find a way back. He had ridden as fast as his legs would go along the Hebden road, left his bike alongside theirs, and sprinted up to the escarpment that overlooked the dry lake bed. He had grinned as he panted and got his breath back. He’d spotted Sam and Tommy walking about, and knew that they were searching in vain for a doorway between worlds. There was no need to rush. He climbed down with the intention of helping them waste their time, and decided to pretend to be just as disappointed as they would be, when they finally realised that there was no way back.
Ben picked his way across the rough ground, looking down to find his footing on the pebble and boulder strewn surface. He glanced up every few seconds, and was surprised to see Sam and Tommy rushing towards a large column of smooth, grey rock. It was very close to a cavern that he recognised as having been behind the waterfall where he and Sam had found the chalice. He shouted to them, but could hear a loud crackling, snapping, popping sound, and knew that they had not heard him.
Not more than twenty seconds after his friends vanished from sight around the side of the lofty pillar, Ben reached it, and ran to where he expected them to be, only to find that they had disappeared.