by J S Landor
‘Friends of yours?’
He burst out laughing. Good question! Three seagulls – maybe it was a good sign. The mirror hadn’t been working for days, not since the fight with Jago. Yet something strange was happening to him. Despite all the worry over Nan, he had to stay positive – be prepared for the unexpected.
He rang the security buzzer outside the ward doors.
‘This is it. Ready?’
Charlie stuck out her bottom lip. She hated hospitals and anything to do with people being sick. The winking lights, the steady beeps of the monitors, the unnatural silences, all of it unsettled her. The mere thought of seeing Nan wired up to those machines made her insides turn to water.
Jack led her along the row of beds to Nan’s corner of the ward where a nurse was filling in records. ‘Two visitors – how lovely. Temperature’s up a bit, but nothing to be concerned about,’ she said breezily.
Nan lay motionless on her back with her thin arms straight down by her sides. She had a tube in her mouth and a thick crepe bandage around her head which made her look like she was wearing a crown.
‘Guess who’s here!’ Jack announced, giving her a hug.
Charlie tried to smile, and failed. The mechanical ventilator next to the bed was making horrible little clicking sounds. ‘Nan, it’s me,’ she began. ‘I would have come sooner but … well, only Jack was allowed.’
She put a card she’d made on the windowsill and pulled a face at Jack who nodded encouragingly. They both knew Nan was unlikely to respond – she’d been unconscious since the accident – but the doctors had said there was a chance she could still hear them.
‘I’m sorry about the magpie,’ Charlie resumed. ‘Nasty, mean little … Oh Nan, I got so much wrong! Alpha wasn’t that man’s dog after all. He helped me. I wish you could have seen him. He – I …’ Words deserted her and she flopped into a chair.
‘It’s okay, she knows. I told her the whole story,’ said Jack.
‘I expect she’s proud then.’ A big tear rolled down Charlie’s cheek.
Jack stared glumly at the wave patterns on Nan’s heart monitor. The tiny upward spikes looked more like mountains really, but at least they were regular. On impulse, he grabbed the mirror from his rucksack and placed it in his grandmother’s hand.
‘What are you playing at?’ hissed Charlie. She glanced round the ward.
He didn’t really know. But he was glad she’d stopped crying. ‘I’d give anything to get her back.’
‘I know.’
‘I mean it. Anything. Even the mirror.’ He thought he saw a blip on the monitor.
‘Don’t be daft. What about being a Magus?’
‘I’d give that up too.’
‘You can’t!’
‘Why not?’
‘Well, for starters, what if Flyn comes back?’ Charlie’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘You know, in another life.’
‘He’s dead, Charlie.’ Jack kept watching the screen. ‘Punishing Alpha was the last straw. You saw for yourself.’
‘I s’pose.’ Charlie sniffed again. ‘Sybil said you’d stop him.’
‘I couldn’t have done it alone. You were amazing.’
‘You reckon? Ha. Nearly messed up though, didn’t I? All for a stupid cat!’
A definite blip, like Mount Everest, appeared on the monitor. Jack’s eyebrows arched too. ‘No, you did exactly the right thing. And Odin’s not stupid. He survived, didn’t he?’
Another mountain, even larger this time, made his own heart leap. He leant across the bed. ‘Take your time,’ he whispered. ‘I meant to tell you, he’s fine. He’s having fish every day!’
He gently removed the mirror from Nan’s hand.
Charlie leant closer. ‘Anything?’
‘Stone cold.’ The disc had been unresponsive ever since he’d freed Alpha. It was as if its store of energy had been completely exhausted by that one act. Maybe he was meant to pass it on, let someone else take a turn.
‘What about Alpha? Have you “seen” him?’
He shook his head.
‘What if –?’
‘He’s alive,’ Jack cut in.
‘How do you know?’
‘I just do. Stop worrying, will you?’
‘I can’t help it. It’s this place!’ Charlie got up, scraping her chair back, and marched over to the window where she stood with her arms crossed, staring out.
A nurse came and went, smiling kindly at them.
Jack forced a smile back. Then, pursing his lips at Charlie, he slumped into the chair she’d vacated and, for the umpteenth time that week, tried to home in on Alpha.
To his surprise, the air around him grew instantly chilly and a vile smell hit the back of his throat. Yuk! He could even taste it. The stink was like rubbish at a dump, only a hundred times worse.
Covering his nose, he quickly willed himself back. He wished he could stop up his ears too, because apart from the hideous droning of flies, another sound had made him almost vomit: the crackle and crunch of bones being chewed.
He leant back in the chair, relieved to breathe in the smell of hospital disinfectant. Phew! No wonder Alpha had been elusive. It didn’t take a genius to figure out whose rotten remains he was digesting.
He shot a glance at Charlie who was still gazing at the horizon, making no effort to talk. She hadn’t even noticed. With a sigh, he stretched out his legs and let his own thoughts unravel.
Four leaps … His eyes rested on the mirror which lay dully on the bed. Was that it? Surely the magic hadn’t run out for good? Something else had to be going on. Maybe now he’d freed Alpha it had some other purpose.
He turned the disc over, peering at the ring of tiny Ms around the edge. Without Jago’s magnifying glass they were almost impossible to see. M for myriad: Archimedes’ number for calculating an insane amount of sand. How many were here? Myriads of myriads, probably. Certainly enough to make him go cross-eyed.
Feeling none the wiser, he gave Nan’s hand a squeeze and wondered again if he should pass the mirror on. But who to? And what about The Empress? Defeating Jago hadn’t changed that bit of destiny. How could he ever hope to stop a virus?
As the questions gathered, scraps of paper covered in crayoned fish blew up from his subconscious and his finger twitched. He rubbed at it thoughtfully and a rush of other memories pressed in: three tumbling birds above a bus shelter, a rolling pram, two tiny fists reaching up …
And then it hit him.
Of course. In that crazy moment when Alpha had brought him and Lily together, the mirror had found a way to show him exactly where it belonged. He’d already seen the place on his computer but it hadn’t meant anything. Then Lily, with her funny watch dial design, had reproduced it. Pharos. That was its home. It had come from the ruins of the old lighthouse and she was going to be the architect of a new one …
As the pieces of the puzzle fell into place, his heart beat faster. No wonder the mirror had taken him to the ship. It carried a precious cargo – a small girl with a big plan that somehow involved the disc itself.
‘Jack.’ Charlie spoke his name sharply.
He didn’t respond. The seal on his finger was burning madly and he needed to concentrate. M for myriad, he mused. His imagination seemed to flex and expand as a powerful idea began to form.
‘Jack!’
‘Hmm?’
‘I think you should take a look at this.’
‘Hang on.’
‘No, I mean it. Will you please –’
There was a thud.
Charlie stifled a shriek and Jack swivelled round. On the other side of the hospital window, suspended in the air like model aeroplanes, were the three seagulls. Behind them, dozens of others turned in the air as if spinning in a whirlpool.
Charlie pointed at the biggest bird, which hovered inches
from the glass. ‘That one, it flew right at me!’
Hurrying over, Jack placed his palm on the window. The seagull immediately swooped around it.
‘Ee-ee-lectricity!’ Charlie squeaked. ‘That feeling you described … it’s Magus magic. Did you call this lot?’
Jack gazed up at the gull. It kept charging forwards, then swerving away at the last moment as if it wanted to get in.
‘Bill?’ he murmured. The gull reminded him of the one in Wakeham who’d landed on the bollard, pestering him for sandwiches. His mouth fell open. ‘I should’ve realised. He was bound to try and find me. The others must have travelled back too. They’re from the ship!’
‘Ghosts!’ Charlie took several steps back.
‘No.’ Jack drew a circle on the window and watched the gull fly in a big loop. ‘He’s an animus actually. Mine. They all are!’
‘But the wreck – it hasn’t happened yet. What do they want?’
‘A different future. I have to make sure it never happens. They want their lives back. I left them in a kind of limbo; they can’t stay like that.’ He went over to the bed and picked up his rucksack.
‘Where are you going?’
‘To find Lily. I have to give her the mirror.’
‘But she’s just a baby!’
‘Not where I’m heading.’ Jack bent over to kiss Nan’s forehead. ‘I’m going to fix things,’ he whispered. ‘Once and for all. And this time the mirror’s going with me.’
‘W-wait! You’re coming back, aren’t you?’ Charlie looked at him in dismay.
‘Course! Only not to this present. It won’t exist.’
‘What! Jack, slow down. Look at me, please! Why won’t it? For God’s sake – I’m here, so are you – this is happening!’
There was another thud at the window, as if the birds were reminding Jack of their existence too.
He put his hands on Charlie’s shoulders. ‘I’m not saying this isn’t real.’ And suddenly he was hugging her. ‘We’ve had such an adventure. You won’t forget it, will you?’
‘How could I? Jack, you’re frightening me. What are you going to do?’
‘Something Jago showed me.’
‘No!’
Jack picked up the mirror. ‘That trick on the train – it’s no wonder Sybil got so upset. He didn’t just replay time, he sort of switched tracks. To a new reality. Similar but different. Oh, I know he was trying to impress me, but the point is Alpha let him. He’d never have managed it otherwise. Don’t you see? I was meant to learn, Charlie, so I can use it too!’
‘I – I don’t get it. You went through the same station twice …’
‘That’s right.’ Jack hopped sideways from one line of tiles on the floor to a parallel line. ‘There are lots of paths – myriads, in fact. And when I deliver this to Lily’s future, everything will change.’
There was no more time to explain. The magic was under way. He had to get going or miss the opportunity completely. He went to the window where the seagulls were circling higher and higher, calling noisily to each other.
‘Alpha’s here,’ he said.
‘Where?’ Charlie rushed to his side. There were buses and cars parked all along the street below and children pouring out of a nearby school. She half expected them to scatter, screaming, but they carried on shouting happily.
‘Keep away from the glass,’ warned Jack.
She edged back, looking around. Nothing in the ward appeared to have changed, yet she could hear the swish of grass and the drumming of feet getting closer. She crouched down by Nan’s bed. From the expression on Jack’s face, it was clear he could see what she could only hear: Alpha approaching at incredible speed.
There was a sliding sound, an avalanche of rocks and debris tumbling down some distant slope, then silence. A long shivering silence. Charlie kept her eyes on Jack, hardly daring to breathe. He stretched out his hand and when the mirror burst into light, she braced herself.
A bang like a cannon blast rang out and the air around them seemed to explode. The wind tore at Charlie’s clothes, the ocean roared in her ears and she heard faraway voices calling. Shattered glass rained down and, one after another, the seagulls stormed in, circling over her in a tornado of pounding wings which beat as fast as her heart.
Amidst their shrieks, the voices grew louder and faces began to stream everywhere, disappearing in and out of the light that poured from the mirror. Though Charlie didn’t recognise any of them, they seemed to know her, because several came close, whispering her name, and tried to pull her along with them.
In the ward itself, nothing moved. Everyone and everything appeared frozen, as if ordinary time had ground to a halt. She clung to Nan’s bed, the only thing that felt solid, narrowing her eyes into slits. The light around Jack was so intense she could only see his silhouette. He was standing at the place where the window had been, as if on the edge of a precipice. And he wasn’t alone. Another shape had joined him, a great hulk of a man with a mass of thick, shaggy hair: Bill. Throwing his arm around Jack’s shoulder, he stooped to say something. Charlie wondered what it could be that made Jack shake his head so fiercely. But after a few more words, Bill seemed to accept it and with a friendly thump on Jack’s arm, he was gone.
Then Jack stepped forwards too and the light around him shimmered into a kind of arch. Charlie crossed her fingers. She hoped he knew what he was doing. The road below was a long way down. What if he fell? What if –
Claws rattled on the tiled floor.
She bobbed her head up, peering over the top of the bed like a soldier in a trench. Her lips curled into a smile. No security door could keep Alpha out: he was here!
When the wolf appeared, all that existed around her seemed to melt away. She only saw him for a split second before he flung himself headlong after Jack, but it was long enough to marvel at his transformation. He was magnificent. No longer the bedraggled creature from the scrapyard, his coat glistened and rippled with every stride. And his amber eyes, set deep within his broad face, shone with all the things they loved him for – his loyalty and endurance, his strength and wildness.
The light flared even brighter till Charlie couldn’t look any more. Reaching for Nan’s hand, she felt small and terrified. But as her mind emptied of thought, she knew one thing for certain: she wouldn’t have missed Alpha’s return for the world.
Chapter 40
Being in that wild place between one reality and the next took all Jack’s courage and concentration. As the adrenalin pumped he kept his eyes firmly shut, willing the magic to do its work. Come on, wolf, he urged. What’s keeping you?
The falling seemed endless. His heart hammered in his throat and his stomach flipped and churned like he was riding a rollercoaster. But it was his fifth leap, he could handle that. What made the experience unnerving wasn’t so much the physical stuff, it was the ‘not knowing’.
An infinite number of presents lay before him, yet for the right one to take hold, he had to remain open. The mirror belonged to Lily now: she must draw it to her. All he could do was stay calm, trust his intuition and hope Alpha would be quick, because without him the exchange was impossible.
He clutched the disc to his heart, listening as the shrieks of the seagulls rose to a crescendo, then faded quickly to nothing. Dear, brave Bill. His offer to stay had been hard to refuse. But he could never keep an animus trailing after him, not like Jago. Bill deserved better. Unmaking the gulls had been as important as freeing Alpha.
A great shuddering breath escaped him. The plummeting sensation had stopped.
His eyes flicked open. In the nothingness that surrounded him a soft thumping could be heard, as if the silence had a heartbeat.
‘Hey, how long have you been there?’
Two amber eyes glinted up at him. For ever, they seemed to say. Where have you been?
Jack’s throat tighte
ned and for an instant he stood rigid, his fingers curling into fists. But fighting off the emotion was beyond him. When Alpha’s head bowed to lick his knuckles, he sank down with a sob, burying his face in the wolf’s gleaming coat.
It was a moment he would never forget. While the embrace went on, Alpha kept perfectly still. He didn’t even seem to mind when Jack gently parted the ruff of fur on his neck. The gash had gone and in its place tufts of soft new hair were growing.
‘So. That’s decided then,’ said Jack, finding his voice at last. ‘We’re friends, you hear me? No more running away. I can give up the mirror, but never you.’
Alpha’s rough tongue licked away a tear from his chin, tickling slightly. Then he nudged at the disc which lay between them, exactly as he had on the jetty.
‘I know. Lily’s the keeper now. It’s her future that matters. Come on then, I’m ready.’
But Alpha seemed in no rush. He let out a small whine, which turned into a yawn, and sat down on his haunches as if coolly biding his time.
‘What’s got into you?’ Jack laughed. The same soft thump he’d heard a moment before came from the wolf’s tail.
And then he saw it. In the middle of the mirror, a hazy picture had begun to form – the curved outline of a man’s back and shoulders hunched over some task. As Jack leant closer, the folds of a robe appeared, followed by an arm, a hand and a stick, grasped firmly like a baton. It was slowly drawing a circle in the sand.
‘Archimedes!’
Jack couldn’t see a face, only the wisps of grey hair and the ancient hand as it carefully brought the circle to a close.
The stick hovered a second, before moving swiftly to the centre where it pressed down, making a tiny symbol. α
‘It’s the mirror …’
But even as he said it, Jack knew Alpha was trying to show him something much more mysterious. There they sat in between the doors of time, in a strange kind of nowhere-nowhen. It was an exceptional place, timeless and infinite, full of light, love and magic. That was what Alpha had wanted him to see – the space which a Magus, young or old, could reach in a heartbeat.
The picture faded and the mirror began to glow. Jack picked it up, nodding at the wolf to show he understood. Alpha would never leave him; he’d always be here.