Heavy steps sounded on the stairs. He was coming back! She stuffed it in her pocket, snatched up a pan just in case, raced across the dining room to the front hall and glanced round.
Mandrake was standing on the landing above her, on the front stairs. It hadn’t been him at the back - or had it?
He smiled. “Ah, Tanya! May I have a word with you? No, wait one moment, my dear,” as she snatched at the door handle. “I have an offer to make you.”
The door safely open, pan in hand, she paused. He wasn’t near her. Do no harm to see what he wanted. “Offer? One I can’t refuse, eh?”
So as not to alarm her, he didn’t come any closer. “You’ve had a hard time, Tanya, haven’t you?” He sounded sincere and sympathetic. “Your mother - ill.” Just in time, he saw by the tightening of her lips that she’d not accept any comments about her mother. “You’re so clever that envious fools at school bully you, don’t they?”
She glowered. “Like to see ’em try!”
He chuckled. “I’m sure you can stand up for yourself. But I can take you away from squabbles with these ignorant louts. You can be great, Tanya! Great! Yes, you! I have power, you know it, real power! And I can share it with you. I can teach you how to use your power, how to control and develop it, how to make other people obey you, get anything you want. Anything at all, Tanya! Think of it - dream of it!” What would a child want? “Holidays skiing or sailing in the Bahamas? Palaces? A private jet? Fancy clothes? Princes and film stars eager to be your friends? A car like mine? Ten cars like mine?” He was persuasive, urgent. He was smiling. His eyes were blue, and wide.
It was tempting, but... Don’t look at his eyes! She could feel the mental pressure slithering in under her defences, and stiffened her resistance to hold him off. Don’t trust him...
He came down a step closer. “Tanya, I’m offering you anything! Everything! Join me! I can make you the greatest witch in the world!” Another step.
“An’ what’s the price, eh? The stone, I suppose.” It was burning in her pocket until she felt he must see the glow of it through her jeans.
“That’s all. The Brahan Seer’s stone. A mere pebble!” Who else deserved the stone, who else had the power to use it fully? He must have it! He struggled to keep the greedy passion out of his voice, to sound light and casual. “So little, in exchange for so much!” Another step.
“Ain’t all, though, is it? Yer wants Beth to scry for yer.”
He chuckled, sure of her acceptance. “Only if she wants to. But I’m sure she’ll soon be happy to join us.” With a little bit of helpful persuasion from her friends... “And then I - we - can do anything!” Another step. “Consider, Tanya. Your father and Beth’s were brothers. It was pure chance that your father was younger. The stone is your family heirloom too, isn’t it? You only met her yesterday. What do you owe her? Give me the stone now, and every secret in the world will be ours, just for the looking.” Oh, yes, yes, he must have it! Another step. Only five more...
The seductive pull of his voice, the push of his will, were overpowering. Anything she wanted. Be a real witch. Well, why not? Wasn’t it what she’d always dreamed of? That’d show them at school, Miss Snotty Sanderson, and Taffy Bascombe and her gang, and everybody. A proper witch. The chance might not come again...
She was actually reaching for her pocket when Mr Mandrake spoke again, trying to talk as she would. “What can Beth do with it anyway, stupid girl -”
It was what she had thought herself - and she felt guilty. “You think everybody’s stupid!” She might have... She’d so nearly... Ey up, dopey, don’t hang about, get out while you can! She whirled out to the cool, clean air outside, and ran for her life.
He leapt down the last steps. “Tanya, wait! Stop, Tanya!” His tone firmed, deepened, dominated... “Stop!” The cold, creamy voice dragged her back. His will focused on her, ensnared her. She kept moving, heaving herself across the yard to the gate. Moving was like running in waist-deep water. In treacle. In cement... “Stop! Stop now, Tanya!”
Beth would have submitted, stopped. But Tanya was made of sterner stuff. She kept moving. She shouted at herself, stoking her temper, trying to drown his voice with her own. “Move it! Don’t listen! He ain’t touching you, so move! Run!”
She did her best. But as the chilling, clinging voice overwhelmed her, she slowed...
A taxi drew up by the gate, and Beth got out, handing money to the driver. “Hello, Tanya! Mum’s fine - what’s wrong?”
“Him - he’s trying to - stop him!” Desperately Tanya jerked it out, reaching out towards Beth with both hands, hoping for help - but what could Beth do?
“What on earth are you doing with that pan?” Beth asked, laughing.
Slowed to a stagger, Tanya fell forwards against the wing of the taxi. Beth caught her. The spell lifted, just a little. She swung round, ready to fight like a rat in a trap, and threw the pan with all her strength.
Mr Mandrake threw up a hand to defend himself. He stepped backwards, tripped over a tub of geraniums and fell.
Tanya felt the tangle of magic slip from her limbs. She was free! Away round the corner and across the broad spread of the Links she raced, out of earshot of the taxi driver shouting about little hooligans, out of eyeshot of the warlock, running faster and freer as she escaped, panting down under the glowing green and gold sunset to the shelter of the banks of tall grasses beside the shore.
Beth didn’t know what was happening. Why was Tanya throwing pans about? Should she stay with Mr Mandrake, calm him down? Or go after Tanya? Surely Tanya must have had a good reason for it? Shocked, she chased her cousin down across the grass.
When the taxi driver helped Mr Mandrake to his feet, rubbing his bruised shoulder and hip, there was no sign of the girls - and his hand was bleeding! They had actually drawn his blood! They’d pay for it! In anger he sent a shaft of power after them, making Beth and Tanya both gasp with a stab of pain in their heads, but then he shrugged. They’d be back... The warlock swept into the house, leaving the driver in mid-sentence. He climbed angrily back into his cab; stuck-up so and so! Maybe the lassie had reason to throw the pan at him!
“What’s going on?” Beth demanded as she found her cousin panting in the hollow among the grass.
Tanya grabbed her hands in delight. “Yer okay! An’ Aunt Mary? Oh, Beth! Thought he had us, honest! But we done it!”
“Done - did what? What have you done? Apart from knock down one of our guests?”
Tanya rolled over onto her back to stretch the tension out of herself, still breathless. She’d not speak of the offer, for she was ashamed; she had so nearly given in to it... “I saved the stone from him!”
It took a while to convince Beth. She refused flatly to believe in any magical powers, but at length she did accept that he’d been trying to bully Tanya into giving up the stone. “Well, I’d never have thought it of him!” she declared. “So nice and - well, just nice!”
While she muttered to herself, Tanya rolled over and tugged the stone out of her pocket. It was the first time she’d had a chance to look at it properly. “Ain’t impressive, is it? Funny, it’s blooming cold, not warm, even when it’s had me bum sat on it. If it really cures folk, maybe I should borrow it for me mam!” She chuckled. “What d’yer do, eh? Just look through it?” She peered through the small hole in the centre. “Any special side, or -”
She stopped.
“What’s wrong?” In surprise, Beth knelt beside her, scared to touch her. “What is it?” Tanya was absolutely rigid, her mouth still open. “Wake up, Tanya!”
She moved, to Beth’s relief, and spoke without taking the stone from her eye. “I can see.” It was Beth’s turn to freeze. “It’s teeny, but clear. Hospital ward. Beds wi’ pink blankets, an’ machines. Like intensive care. One bed closer up. Woman in it. An’ a doctor, speaking to a nurse. She’s saying... Can’t hear. But she’s shaking her head. Pulling the sheet right up. Over the woman’s face.” She lowered the stone. In the hal
flight her face shone deathly pale. “Must be Aunt Mary. She’s dead!”
Beth snatched the grey stone from her hand, staring at it, and Tanya, in mingled fright, awe and anger. “She isn’t! She was fine when I left, nothing wrong with her, only her arm! How did you do that? What did you do?”
“Oh! Aunt Mary!” Tanya was biting her lip. “I brung it on her! Killed her! If I hadn’t thought to use the crystal to find the stone, she’d be alive now! Aunt Mary! Aunt Mary!” She was near hysterics.
“Don’t be stupid!” Beth shouted. In spite of herself, she half-believed Tanya had seen something. But it couldn’t be her mother - it couldn’t! “Mum’s fine, I tell you! I’m not staying to listen to this! It’s nonsense! Nonsense!” Ignoring the distress in Tanya’s face, Beth pushed herself to her feet and ran back towards the house. After ten steps, she turned and threw the stone back to thud on the sand at Tanya’s feet.
Shuddering, shaken by dry sobs, Tanya watched her go. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. Aunt Mary. Nice, kindly Aunt Mary... Cool, silver ripples hushed, hushed gently on the long sand, but they didn’t calm her. A scalding horror of guilt burned through her. She’d killed Aunt Mary! She pressed her fists to her mouth to stop herself screaming. She’d seen the body.
A body. She’d seen a body. Desperately she grasped at the new thought. She hadn’t seen the face. She didn’t know who it was. It could be anybody. Anybody at all. Herself, even. In the future. It didn’t have to be Aunt Mary. The relief was enormous.
After a minute she looked round, feeling something missing. Where was Beth? Gone. Yes, hadn’t she run off? She swallowed and blinked, trying to remember. What had she said? About Aunt Mary. Beth would be going spare. And no wonder. And she’d gone back - alone! With the Mandrake man there...
At least she’d left the stone. There it was, a glowing ring of white in the pale light. Tanya bent to pick it up. It still felt cold. She buried it deep into her pocket again.
Beth might need her... Stupid Beth - no! She’d not say that again, that was what he’d said... Tanya didn’t want to go back, but she had to. She was freezing, anyway, her bare arms covered in goosebumps in the sharp evening breeze. Her fists clenched tight. If that Mandrake tried to lay a finger on her, or on Beth, she’d - she’d break it!
The kitchen light was still on. She was shattered after the long day’s excitements, but there was a solid, dull temper about her as she marched straight across the car park. Halfway over, she kicked something that clattered; the pan. Right! She grabbed it. Anybody waiting for her had better look out. She threw open the kitchen door, jaw set like a terrier ready for a fight.
It wasn’t Mr Mandrake.
Beth was sitting in her mother’s chair, crying bitterly. She had been so upset she’d phoned the hospital again, and yes, her mother was doing fine, but she couldn’t be sure, not now, not after Mr Mandrake saying Tanya had power, and she’d found the stone, and maybe what she’d seen would come true...
Tanya’s temper collapsed like a sandcastle in the tide of her guilt. “Oh, Beth! I must’ve made a mistake - it weren’t Aunt Mary I seen in the stone, can’t’ve been. Don’t cry, Beth! Please don’t cry! I’m sorry, honest I am! An’ I’m sorry for finding the stone without yer, an’ - an’ - I’m just sorry!” To her horror, she found herself crying too. She knelt in front of Beth; holding her hands, sobbing until Beth finally started to hug her, to comfort her; and was comforted in turn.
They both felt better for it.
“Gotta get some sleep, or we won’t be fit for nowt tomorrow. What we gonna do wi’ the stone?” Tanya asked eventually, sniffing violently. She washed her face at the sink and dried it on a tea towel.
Beth blew her nose hard, on a paper hankie. “Can’t we just take it upstairs? Put it under your pillow or something?”
“No way. He’d come looking for it.”
Beth could scarcely credit this, but she sighed, too tired to argue. “Hide it, then.”
“Where?” The teapot was scarcely safe enough, Tanya felt. But there was something... She tried to remember what Cat had said one day... “Iron. That’s it. Iron stops spells. Specially if it’s magnetic. But any iron’ll do at a pinch.”
“Oh?” Beth shrugged. “So find some here, I’ve got an idea.” She rummaged in the pantry. “Here’s mum’s old cast-iron pans. We never use them, they’re too heavy. Put it in the big one, with another one on top, and then the lids. And then stuff it away under the shelf behind the vegetable rack. If you really want to wrap it up in iron, that’s the best I can think of for tonight.”
It was the best Tanya could think of, too. She laid the stone down inside the pan. It seemed to stick to her hand, not wanting to part from her - but she shook it off and sighed with relief as the next pan cut it off from her sight. Phew!
“That’s that, then.” Beth yawned wearily. “I’m for bed. Coming, Tanya?”
“In a minute.”
Beth went to the door, and then hesitated. She had to say it. “I should - I mean - well, just thanks, Tanya. I couldn’t manage here, not just now, without you being here. I don’t mean Mr Mandrake - he’s part of it, but just with mum hurt, and so on - I’m glad you’re here.”
She almost ran out, before Tanya could shut her mouth enough to thank her. Well, at last. She was useful, wanted. That was one for the books, right enough!
Tanya stretched her aching back and shut the pantry door. Nobody’d look in there among the potatoes and stuff for a magic stone, anyway. It was after eleven, not late by her standards, but she was shattered! Well, she’d done a lot today. A coke would go down a treat. She opened the fridge.
Mr Mandrake came into the kitchen, smiling.
Oh, not again!
Rather to her surprise, she found that she didn’t care. She opened the coke with a bright hiss to echo her sharp sigh. “It’s gone.”
His smile vanished. “Gone?”
She felt a glow of pleasure at his frustrated glare. “Yeah.”
“Where?”
As if it had been in her mind all along, the answer came to her. “In the quarry. Remember, where yer picked us up this morning? Beth nipped along just now an’ tossed it in, among a hundred old cars an’ junk, all rusty. An’ magnets in ’em, too. An’ she says it’s all gonna be filled in next week. So yer can’t get it now.” He actually snarled at her. She smiled slightly. “An’ yer can forget yer unrefusable offer, an’ all. Ain’t interested. I’ll be a witch some day, right enough, but not wi’ your help.”
He was dangerous, of course, especially now, when she’d beaten him. She still wasn’t afraid, though. “You touch me an’ I’ll break yer fingers, an’ scream like a fire siren - an’ I can. The Craigs is just upstairs.”
She nearly laughed at his expression. A twelve year-old, talking to a grown-up like this? To him? But she didn’t care. Just don’t look at his eyes. “Try any funny stuff, magic or that, an’ I’ll curse yer. An’ it were you as said I had power. Right? So what’ll it be?”
His face, she was pleased to see, was a picture; astonishment, anger, insult. “Well!” he said finally, almost in admiration. “This is a change, Tanya. What’s got into you?”
“I’m worn out, that’s what. An’ fed up to the back teeth wi’ you. An’ me back’s killing me. I ain’t got no energy for no nonsense.” Her tone was flat.
He nodded, considering her venomously. “All right, my dear. You’ve outfoxed me. And you don’t want to join me.”
“No.”
He shrugged. He’d not lower himself to shout at this little horror. But he wasn’t used to being crossed, even by important, powerful people, let alone a scruffy guttersnipe like this. And his hip was still sore. He felt fury boiling inside him at the disappointment. She must be punished.
His calm face was belied by the violent rage in his eyes, the white tension round his mouth. “Very well, Tanya. It’s your own decision. Remember that in the future. It’s your choice, your own doing. You and your cousin have def
ied me, caused me actual injury, and removed something that I particularly wanted. So you’ll not be surprised if I feel somewhat irritated.”
“Feel any way yer want. I’m going to bed.” She walked past him. She was ready to scream, as she had threatened, but he didn’t touch her. She felt a warm triumphant glow spreading through her insides. They’d beaten him! The stone was safe. Aunt Mary was okay. Whoever that had been in the hospital bed, it wasn’t her. She’d just have to wait and see. It was true, she knew it was true. She’d find out what it meant some day. But in the meantime, she wasn’t just a pest. She was useful, needed. Wanted.
And she was the one who’d seen through the stone. Magic!
Yes, it was.
Who could it have been, in the hospital?
Oh, stuff that. And stuff the Mandrake man. Bed.
Beth was asleep already. The bedroom was still tidy. The contents of the drawers were disturbed, to her annoyance. He’d been in here, searching for the stone, while they were out. At least the things weren’t all over the floor. They felt disgusting, dirty and slimy, as if they’d had a slug crawling over them. But that was daft. Tanya locked the door, jammed a chair under the handle for extra security, and fell asleep quickly.
Chapter 6
Tanya woke slowly, muttering in annoyance. She felt cold, yet sweaty. What had wakened her? A noise? No, all was quiet. A movement? Nothing stirred anywhere... Not even Beth’s breathing. She was chilled even further. There was absolutely nothing, nothing but darkness, all around her. No streetlight, no line of brightness under the door. Nothing but black.
What had happened? How had she got here, wherever it was?
Mandrake had done something...
There was something moving in the black. Something huge. She could feel it breathing; feel the icy chill from its slimy skin. Slowly it squelched, slurped, oozed closer and closer. If it was light, she’d see it. In the dark, it was invisible...
Her heart was pounding. She was desperate to escape but she couldn’t; clammy tentacles were clamped tightly round her, clinging, binding, smothering. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe... choking...
The Seer's Stone Page 5