We backed farther into the forest, but it didn’t help. Branches began snapping around us. Everything that could come loose got sucked into the spiraling vortex that was building in front of the door. We tried to keep moving, but the tug of the wind was too strong. I grabbed Sookie’s hand and with my other arm anchored us to a stout tree trunk.
“It’s like a black hole,” screamed Clive, who kept a firm grip on Skeeter’s jacket while holding on tightly to the tree trunk beside us.
“A hole where nothing escapes, not even planets,” I said. That had popped out of my mouth unexpectedly, a snag of memory from one of Ms. Dreeble’s science lectures.
“It’s not going to swallow the planet,” Clive yelled back. Then he closed his mouth in horror as he watched the trees closest to the medicine wheel shoot like javelins toward the open door and then get sucked inside. Even the ground became gouged and pockmarked as chunks of dirt flew into the chaos.
“Aaaoooooo!” Howls echoed in the wind. My eyes almost popped out of my head as the fiends, all four of them, flew past us, flapping their legs like giant demented bats. They too disappeared inside the swirling vortex.
I knew it would only be a matter of moments before the same thing happened to us.
“My magic did this,” Sookie said. “I opened the door. I … I … know what I have to do now.”
Then she let go of my hand.
“Sookie!” I screamed.
I watched my sister move toward the circle, except that unlike everything else, her feet remained on the ground while the vortex pulled her toward the open door.
I let go of the tree that I’d been clinging to for dear life. The wind pulled me forward and I felt as if I were skiing downhill because, no matter which direction I pointed myself, I began sliding in the dirt. As I closed in on the stone circle, I felt my body lifting in the air. And then I fell back to the ground as something anchored me.
I looked down and saw Clive holding on to me like a crazy person. I began kicking, trying to break free of his arms.
“Are you insane?” he cried out.
“Are you?” I shot back. “Keep yourself safe. I have to get my sister.” Our shouts were whispers in the deafening screech of the wind.
“We’ll get her together,” yelled Clive. “Somehow.”
But we didn’t have time to argue anymore. The vortex was pulling us in. Our bodies lifted and became airborne. I flapped my arms foolishly as if I could steer – but nothing helped as I spun toward the circle. Up and up we rose, until I was too terrified to think about the medicine wheel, the secret door, or even my little sister. I counted down the seconds until I would crash to my death like a plane in a graveyard spin.
One minute Clive and I were being tossed around like kites and the next minute we were drifting downward, landing on all fours on the soft dirt below. I slammed my chin against a medicine stone that peered up at me like a laughing skull. I rubbed the bruise and tried to take in what was happening.
The blue light pouring from the door had dimmed and the hurricane winds had almost died down too. It took a couple of seconds for my brain to catch up to what my eyes were seeing.
The door was almost shut, but it remained open a crack, just enough to reveal Sookie – standing inside. She was bathed in a bright white light that outlined her body, making her appear ghostly. I gasped when I noticed the white raven perched upon her shoulder staring calmly at me.
“It’s up to me to close the door,” said Sookie. “That’s my part of the bargain. This is what I have to do.”
“No, Sookie, no,” I cried, breaking into a run.
But Sookie had already started to swing the door inward.
“It’s okay, Cat,” my little sister said. “Remember what you said? It’s my turn to make a sacrifice.”
She uttered the Celtic words that I knew too well: “Bear-leat-an-leanbh.” Take the child.
And then the door slammed shut.
CHAPTER 28 - Dark Whispers
I SCREAMED AND ran for the door, clawing at the handle. When it wouldn’t budge, I pounded my fists against it. “Help me!” I cried.
Clive ran to my side and kicked at the door, and we were soon joined by the others. Skeeter cried miserably while he banged on the door and yelled for Sookie to come out.
The door groaned and then a strange rumble filled the air, but I paid no attention. I had only one goal in mind – to open that door and get my sister out. But even though I fought them wildly, my friends dragged me away just as the door tumbled forward and slammed heavily against the earth.
There was only air on the other side. No light, not a hint of the Otherworld. With aching hands, I began beating the wood, and when that didn’t work, I leaned over and yanked and yanked. Still, the door didn’t budge. Again, arms pulled me away. Jasper and Clive patted me on the back, trying to comfort me, while Amarjeet stroked my hair. Slowly my screams turned to cries and then into miserable sobs.
*
The sun warmed my shoulders as it reached its highest peak in the sky. I was hunched against the ground, my arm stretched pathetically across the door. For the last several hours, I’d been in a stupor – neither conscious nor folded into the comforting arms of sleep.
My eyes were almost swollen shut and my throat ached unbearably. Occasionally, Jasper, Clive, or Amarjeet crept over and tried to talk to me. I pushed them away, and they’d leave me alone for a while before someone else came over to check on me again.
The flu felt better than this. Everything ached – my head, my body, and especially my heart. What had happened to Sookie? Where had she gone? Those lonely thoughts rattled around in my head.
“Did you hear that?” asked Mia.
“Could you be more specific?” Clive retorted.
“That,” she pronounced again. Then she pointed toward the sky. “Oh my god.”
The whirr of helicopter blades grew louder as the red body of a rescue helicopter came into view. My friends jumped up and down, waving their arms like maniacs and screeching with glee. I turned my heavy head skyward, holding a hand over my eyes, shading them from the sun’s hurtful glare. One – no, two helicopters swept over us and hovered over the small clearing.
“Step away,” a loud voice commanded through a speaker. “Then we can land.”
Dirt swept up and leaves fluttered as the helicopters landed where the cabin had once sat. A man and a woman in paramedic uniforms emerged from the helicopters, checking us over, quietly reassuring us that we’d be fine. As if they knew anything about what had happened. The woman stood with her hands on her hips and said, “Aren’t you lot a sorry looking mess?” Then she smiled. “But you managed better than some of the most experienced hikers. Three nights in this wilderness is no place for amateurs. You all must have excellent survival skills.”
Her praise was lost on me. I simply stumbled along – moving my legs, then sitting down in the helicopter seat. I snapped my seat belt together robotically. I might as well have been a zombie.
“Your friends said this is yours.” The woman handed me my backpack.
I grabbed it without saying a word. The bag had torn and the fairy mirror winked at me. I reached in, ready to pitch it out onto the ground before we took off, but some urge stopped my hand. A strange fragment of my dream resurfaced and I could hear my Great Aunt Hildegaard saying, “Not until the ride is over, Cat.” I shoved the stupid mirror back inside my pack and clutched the bag to my chest.
That’s the position I remained in for the entire ride. We landed in the closest town, which was so small it didn’t even have a hospital, so instead we were ushered into a local medical clinic. While they’d given us loads of water to drink on the helicopter, we weren’t allowed to eat until the doctor checked us over.
“Some minor burns on your arms and face, and your chin also took a nasty bump,” said a woman in a white lab coat. She wrapped my arm in a sling. “Keep this on for a day to take the stress off your shoulder. Drink lots and your throat will feel b
etter. You might try apple juice.”
She handed me a jar of salve and ushered Amarjeet inside. I sat down on the bench outside the clinic.
The woman from the helicopter came over to talk to us while we were waiting. “Your parents have all been notified that you’ve been rescued. We’re going to keep you here in town tonight, just to make sure you’re well enough to travel and the police will want to speak with you. Then we’ll fly you to the city tomorrow. Your parents all wanted to meet you here, but we let them know that we’ve picked you up so far north that it would be faster for them to just wait in the city. There aren’t even any flights into this town.”
I nodded woodenly.
Amanda asked, “Did you find anyone else besides us in the woods?”
Her question felt like a stab. I hung my head.
The helicopter pilot laughed softly and said, “As a matter of fact, we’ve located three men who gave themselves up right away.” She shook her head. “The police are sure they’re your kidnappers. They were babbling about giant wolves and demonic children, though.” She laughed again, but then a serious shadow crossed her face. “It’s not the first time people have emerged from the forest with strange tales.”
After the doctors were done checking us over, we all had a chance to speak to our parents on the phone. I waited until everyone else had finished talking before I punched in the number and took the receiver in my hand. Mom answered right away.
“Cat, are you all right?” Mom sounded breathless.
I began choking up.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, Mom,” I managed to sputter as I swallowed back tears. I tried to tell her Sookie had disappeared, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. Finally the paramedic took the phone from my hand and reassured my mother I was fine.
A rescue worker took us to a restaurant beside the small clinic and I watched Mitch wolf down three burgers. The others weren’t far behind him. I stared at my burger and fries.
“Poor thing,” said the waitress. “I heard on the news about how all you kids got lost in Headless Valley. You’ve had too much of a shock.”
She had no idea.
“Why don’t I wrap that burger up for you to eat later? I’ll get you some soup for now.”
I sipped the soup to ease my sore throat. Jasper pinned me with a stare. “C’mon Cat, you’ve got to keep up your strength. We’ll get Sookie back.”
But I knew he had no more of an idea what had happened to her than I did. Just as I knew deep down that I wouldn’t see her again.
*
The town’s hotel was really only a house with several spare rooms. I collapsed on the bed while Mia and Amarjeet argued over who’d shower first. They left me alone and for once, Mia didn’t complain when I woke her up with my sobs. I went into the bathroom to wash my face and blow my nose. I couldn’t recognize the pathetic person that stared back at me from the bathroom mirror. My new tunic was filthy and snagged beyond repair. My leggings were ripped into tatters and not in a fashionable way. I winced, remembering the flash of anger I had felt when Sookie commented on this stupid outfit in front of my friends. What a dumb thing to be annoyed over. My eyes welled with more tears.
“Pssst, Cat.”
I flinched. In the bathroom mirror, my eyes widened – I recognized that voice.
“Cat …”
I flew out of the bathroom and cursed under my breath when I stubbed my toe on a chair.
“Sookie?” I cried out.
“Open up your backpack,” ordered the muffled voice.
I scrambled in the dark until I found my pack. I yanked it open. A mystical light lit the dark room. The fairy mirror was glowing. I pulled it out and mist swirled in the looking glass.
“I’m here, Cat,” the mirror said.
CHAPTER 29 - Mirror Magic
MIA MUMBLED AND rolled over, pulling her pillow on top of her head. She must have still been asleep because she said, “Not you two again …” clearly forgetting my sister had disappeared.
Amarjeet snored softly. I grabbed the fairy mirror and shut myself in the bathroom.
“Sookie?” I whispered urgently. I thought I’d lost my sister forever, but she was contacting me through the mirror somehow. Was I dreaming? Panicking, I pinched myself – hard. “Ow.”
“Cat, I’m okay,” said Sookie.
“Where are you?” If only the fog in the mirror would clear. I could hear Sookie, but I couldn’t see her.
“I’m home, Cat.”
“How is that possible?” But I knew that the Otherworld was a strange and mysterious place where maps and miles had no bearing. “Why can’t I see anything in this mirror?”
“Hang on,” my sister said. Gradually the mist lifted and I could see the outside of our house. My heart squeezed tight as I watched Mom throw a suitcase in the car.
“Mom won’t wait until morning to drive into the city. I don’t see the point myself,” said Sookie. “It’s not like you’ll be there until tomorrow …”
“You told the authorities where we were, didn’t you?” I said.
“Yes, Cat.”
“Thank you, Sookie.”
The mirror began fogging up again as Mom ran back into our house.
“You sound a little strange,” I said to my sister. “A kind of echo is making your voice lower.”
“It’s the mirror magic,” explained Sookie. “I’ve got to go now. I’ll see you soon.”
“Wait,” I called out. “How did you explain showing up in town without us?” But the glass in the mirror went dark.
Sookie was home. I said that to myself over and over. Each time I repeated it, my heart soared higher.
Suddenly I was overpowered with a terrible hunger. I went back to the room and unwrapped my burger, devouring it in three seconds and still feeling hungry when I was done. Mia and Amarjeet had brought cookies back to the room. I found them and began munching through oatmeal and then chocolate chip cookies, promising myself I’d replace them in the morning.
After I stuffed myself I went into the bathroom and prepared a hot bath, dumping a whole bottle of bath soap into the tub. Fragrant steam floated up as I slipped into the mass of bubbles, soaking each cut, bruise, and ache while I lathered soot and ash out of my hair.
I swear when I was done there was a ring in the bathtub as dark as ink. We’d each been given a set of clothes at the clinic. I shrugged on a long, clean T-shirt that had RESCUE written across the front and slipped into a baggy pair of navy jogging pants. Then I climbed into bed and drifted into the most blissful, warm sleep I’d ever had.
*
“Wake up.” Someone tossed a pillow onto my stomach. “Snorf” was my strangled response.
“You’ve been asleep all morning. The police have arrived – they’ve flown in a special investigative team …” Mia gave me a gentle shove. “Get up, Cat.”
I sat up in bed and stretched languidly, enjoying each moment. So what if I had an advanced science exam to write, and so what if high school would be a big change? Life. Was. Good. I yawned.
“Did you eat our cookies?” asked Amarjeet.
I apologized to my friends for stealing their snacks and they said they’d let me off the hook as long as I hurried downstairs. We crowded inside the small office of the town’s only constable. “Sookie was the one who told the authorities where to find us,” I told Jasper proudly.
Jasper looked at me with concern while the others seemed confused. I guessed they didn’t understand how things worked when you traveled fairy style. Come to think of it, I didn’t know how she’d done it either.
“I … I guess that makes sense,” Mia said with a curious frown. The way she said that, I had the sudden feeling that we weren’t talking about the same thing at all. I slid into a seat, and before I could puzzle it out, two detectives strode inside the office and sat behind a table the constable and his volunteer had set up.
We told our story as a group, beginning with the nightmare ride on the b
us. “Yes, we’d escaped from the men twice, yes, there were wolves, big ones, and the last we saw of the robbers were their backs as they ran into the forest. No, none of us were hurt.” We avoided all mention of magic mirrors, headless skeletons, and the door to the Otherworld. Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure my friends even remembered any of that – nobody had asked a single question about how Sookie had returned to town. Even to me that part of the adventure was fading in memory like a long-forgotten soccer loss.
When we’d finished, the detectives asked all the others to step outside, except for Clive and me.
“Tell us again about the diamond conversation you overheard between the pilot and the bus driver,” commanded the inspector. His gray hair was cut really short, and while his face seemed kindly, his eyes bore straight into ours.
Clive and I recounted the robbers’ plan of salting the mines with stolen uncut diamonds.
The inspector shook his head. “You and your friends were in grave danger,” he said. “This was an international plot with millions of dollars at stake. Investors from all over the world were waiting for the report on the diamond mines. Those men would have stopped at nothing to keep you quiet.”
Even though I had already known that, I still gulped. Then I recalled the first bus driver, the neat freak. “Is our bus driver – the real one – okay?” My heart skipped a beat as I worried he might have been killed.
“He’s all right – he was hit on the head and has a minor concussion, but he’s conscious,” said a younger, blond officer.
“He’s not going to be happy when he sees his bus,” Clive shook his head.
The blond woman smiled. “I think he’ll be okay. He won’t be held responsible. The gang involved in the smuggling operation had infiltrated the bus dispatch office. It was their plan from the start to use an unregistered bus for a getaway.”
“But they got more than they bargained for, it appears,” said the chief investigator.
He didn’t know the half of it.
When the detectives were done, the hotel served us a huge breakfast and I almost broke Mitch’s record by eating six pancakes. Afterwards, we boarded a small plane flown here especially for us, and I waited anxiously to take off. Twice during breakfast I had snuck away to check on my sister. Each time she reassured me she was fine, even though she could no longer get rid of that strange, magical mist from the mirror.
Grim Hill: Forest of Secrets Page 12