The dance studio was chilly and their footsteps echoed on the finely polished driftwood floor. The walls were covered in mirrors, but some of them were tarnished and the paint around the edges was peeling.
Shell poked her head inside and sniffed. ‘It’s not very grand. We have store cupboards at the palace that are finer than this!’
Cassie looked at the floor. ‘We’d better put on our dancing slippers,’ she said.
They both sat on a long bench and put on their slippers. As she stared down at the careful stitching Cassie’s hands trembled. It wasn’t just because it was cold. It suddenly hit her that her mother had once danced in this room and maybe even in these shoes. She quickly stood up and joined Shell, who preening herself in one of the many mirrors. Cassie poked out her tongue at her in the mirror.
‘Call that a face?’ Shell pulled down her eyelids and grimaced.
‘Gross!’ Cassie said, pretending to be shocked.
‘There you are!’ Lexie followed them into the room. ‘I’ve been looking all over for you!’
‘This room smells damp.’ Shell sniffed as she put her arms around her shoulders.
‘It’s full of memories of other dancers,’ said Lexie. ‘They will guide us.’
Shell started doing a jerky dance. ‘I can feel myself being controlled!’
Lexie and Cassie copied her as they moved around the room.
‘I thought you must be here. I looked for you in the dining hall this morning.’ Lexie sounded disappointed.
‘We didn’t feel like eating,’ Shell answered.
‘I ate a big breakfast and I slipped some sea spinach rolls in my pocket, if you want one. And I’ve brought something for Mrs Sandskrit.’ Lexie placed a small package on the chair.
‘Lexie, that’s great.’ Cassie took one of the spinach rolls and popped it whole into her mouth.
‘Careful – they’re still warm,’ Lexie warned.
Cassie’s cheeks bulged, and Shell pretended to be shocked. ‘Now what would Calluna say if she saw that?’
They all giggled.
Lexie pulled her face into an expression just like Calluna’s, and mimicked her sharp voice. ‘I am shocked that you are eating in the dance studio. Whatever will you try next – dancing in the dining hall?’
They all shrieked with laughter.
‘That is brilliant. Do it again!’ Shell insisted.
Lexie did an even more over-the-top impersonation. She pulled a grotesque face and said, ‘You have exactly thirty-three seconds to eat your breakfast, dress, dance and don’t forget to burp!’
They were laughing so hard that they didn’t notice the figure standing in the doorway until it was too late. Calluna walked purposefully across the room and placed some large diagrams around the room.
Lexie watched her in horror. ‘We were only messing about. I’m really sorry’
Calluna turned slowly towards Lexie and curtesyed. ‘I do everything properly’ she said in a soft voice. ‘And, Lexie, that includes bearing a grudge. Believe me, you will be sorry’
Cassie reached out and squeezed Lexie’s hand. It was cold and trembling. ‘Oh Cassie,’ Lexie gasped. ‘I feel like I’ve swallowed an iceberg.’
Mrs Sandskrit sailed into the room at that moment, wearing a bright yellow practice outfit that shimmered around her large body like a heat haze in the sun.
She took one look at them and said crisply, ‘You are early’
Shell, Cassie and Lexie looked pleased but Mrs Sandskrit glared back at them. ‘A sand dancer should arrive for her class exactly on time. Too early and she has probably skipped a meal and is trying to draw attention to herself. Too late and she shows me she is too greedy either for food or extra sleep. If you are to succeed, then absolute discipline is required in all aspects of your life. Is that clear?’
They all nodded, trying not to giggle.
‘The correct response is “Yes, Madame”. You will stay behind after class and assist the senior sand dancer with the tidying up. You might learn something from her about the correct way to conduct yourselves.’
Yes, Madame.’ There were no smiles this time.
The other sand sprites were coming into class and listening. When everyone was inside Mrs Sandskrit clapped her hands and the room fell silent.
‘Welcome to your first day at Sandringham. You have all been selected for your potential. We are seeking to find those of you who have got the talent to make it as dune dancers. Here is where the hard work begins on that journey. We are going back to basics. During your first six weeks here you will be perfecting the seven basic dance moves. At the end of this time you will be tested, and if you are not good enough or if I decide that you do not have the right temperament, then you will be sent home. There is no point in keeping on sprites who are not suited to dancing. Is that clear?’
Everyone nodded. ‘Yes, Madame.’
The words dried up in Cassie’s mouth. She hoped she would be able to cope. She stroked one of the flowers on her practice outfit to calm herself.
Mrs Sandskrit paused and looked round at all the sand sprites. ‘Let us not forget that your aim in coming here is to try to become dune dancers – the elite corps of sand dancers. Not all of you will succeed – some of you will fail. Most of you will make up the chorus, which is still an honour. Only the truly talented will go on to become the principal dune dancers, and from them the prima dune dancer will be selected. I wonder which of you that will be. The first steps begin today.
‘Now let’s begin with Step one – the Sand Stretch …’
Cassie took a deep breath and tried to concentrate. This was not how she’d imagined her first morning at dance school would be. If only she had ignored Shell and gone down to breakfast with the others …
She felt a hard tap on her shoulder and a flash of yellow in front of her eyes as she looked up to see Mrs Sandskrit standing next to her, staring at her with a fierce expression. ‘You are not giving me your full attention. Look where you are now standing. You have drifted into another dancer’s space and the line of your arm is terrible. Look at this everyone. Here is a perfect example of how not to do a Sand Stretch. The hands are all over the place and the feet are out of alignment.’
Cassie felt everyone’s eyes on her and she would have run out of the door if she hadn’t caught Calluna smirking at her.
I’ll show you, she thought as she glared back at Calluna. I am going to learn no matter how many mistakes or enemies I make!
She took another deep breath and gracefully moved her arms into the correct position.
‘Better,’ Mrs Sandskrit said.
Mrs Sandskrit mopped her forehead as she called out, ‘Bend and stretch, bend and stretch. Put some elasticity in your legs.’
She walked around the room correcting everyone’s posture. ‘A sand dancer must be able to bend as well as to stretch. A bend will give you the energy to take off and land.’
They had been working on combining Sand Stretches with Sand Pliés, and it was very hard work, but to her surprise Cassie found a deep determination inside her to keep going until she got the steps right. She bent her legs as low as she could.
Mrs Sandskrit came over to her.
‘Feel the emotion as you stretch and bend. You will never be able to perform a dune dance without feelings. The ability to communicate your emotions is essential. When you are moving, think of the beautiful sand dunes and how they move and shift. How they are both light and strong at the same time.’
Cassie tried it again and this time she felt she was doing it better.
Mrs Sandskrit made them practise the moves over and over again, until the sand glass at the front of the room dropped its final grain.
As they were packing up she said, ‘Before tomorrow’s class I would like everyone to spend at least an hour rehearsing all the moves in your head. As well as lacking technical skill you all lack imagination. There is no fire in your bodies.’ She sniffed and sat down for the first time on her chair, before
jumping back up again with a loud scream. ‘What is that?’
Lexie came forward. ‘It is a sea pasty. I brought it for you as a mid-morning snack. I thought you would like it! My mother, Viola Seacouch, told me that you used to love your snacks, and I wanted to do something to please you.’
‘Only hard work and excellent dancing pleases me!’ Mrs Sandskrit snarled as she wiped the pasty off the back of her dress. ‘Any more gestures like that and I will send you packing! Do you understand?’
A very pale Lexie nodded and whispered, ‘Yes, Madame.’
It was only when they were removing their dancing slippers that Cassie realised how much her body was hurting.
‘The Sand Dragon was giving you a pretty hard time.’ Shell took off her slippers beside her.
Lexie gasped. ‘Don’t be so rude about Mrs Sandskrit!’
Shell frowned. ‘I can’t help it. When someone has made me stand for hours and twist my body into all these shapes it makes me say nasty things. I don’t really mean it. It just makes me feel better. Oh no, look – my hair ribbons have torn.’
‘I can mend them for you, no trouble,’ Lexie offered.
‘That would be great. I also have a tiny hole in the edge of my practice skirt,’ Shell said.
‘I can do that too,’ Lexie said.
‘I’m off for a swim. Do you want to come?’ Shell asked after she had changed and handed over the slippers and practice outfit to Lexie.
‘I’m going to flop in my room and study,’ Cassie said.
‘I’ll join you,’ Lexie replied. ‘I don’t think I could stand all the stares and comments about sea pasties.’
Up in Cassie’s room Lexie rubbed some rosemary oil on to her legs. ‘I can feel my muscles firming up already.’
‘I don’t think I’ll ever be able to dance properly. My legs and my brain don’t seem to be able to work together,’ Cassie complained.
Lexie tugged at one of Cassie’s braids. ‘That’s just it. You mustn’t think about it! Dancing is about disciplining your body so that it can control the feelings and make them more beautiful and powerful.’
‘It’s going to be such a slog going over the same moves day after day trying to get them perfect,’ Cassie grumbled.
Lexie stared out of the peephole. ‘But when the dancing flows, everything changes inside of you. It’s like that perfect moment when sunlight lands on the inside of a shell and makes everything that once was dull and drab look shiny and special. That’s how I feel about it, anyway.’
‘I hope that dancing will have that effect on me one day.’ Cassie said but, as she thought about it, she realised that the more she danced, the more she enjoyed it. It seemed as if she’d been suppressing the urge to dance for all these years …
Lexie smiled softly. ‘It will. I’m sure it will.’
Shell shouted up from the bottom of the stepladder. ‘Where’s Lexie? I need her help. The ribbon on my slippers keeps coming undone.’
‘I’m up here,’ Lexie called down to her.
‘Catch,’ Shell shouted as a pair of dancing slippers hurtled into the room, followed by Shell.
‘I am falling apart,’ she said to Lexie. ‘I need your help.’
Lexie inspected Shell’s shoes. ‘I can repair these really easily.’
Shell flopped down on Cassie’s bed.
Cassie sighed. It was beginning to annoy her the way that Shell expected everyone to do things for her. She looked at Lexie. ‘You should show Shell how to do it herself.’
‘I really don’t mind,’ Lexie said.
Shell grabbed the shoes back. ‘You’re right, Cassie,’ said Shell. ‘I really should be able to look after myself.’ Then she rolled over and did a comedy fall off the bed, which made them all laugh.
‘Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we were able to become dune dancers and dance around the dunes of the world,’ Cassie sighed.
‘Don’t get ahead of yourself. We have to pass all our dance tests first,’ Lexie warned.
‘The worst thing about the tests is that no one tells you in advance when they are going to happen. You just turn up for a class as usual and they test you. If you’re not good enough then you get sent packing,’ Shell complained.
‘Don’t depress us on the first day,’ Cassie said, and she and Lexie threw their dance slippers at Shell.
Chapter Ten
‘Bearing a grudge is like walking on quicksand
– you are sucked under by the force of your feelings.’
The Sands of Time
Time flew by as the sand dancers settled into an exhausting routine of dancing and studying. Cassie walked back into her room after supper a couple of weeks later ready to soak her tired feet, as she did every evening, when she sensed that someone was on the balcony. She picked up the washing jug and crept towards the peephole.
A gust of wind made the curtain billow as she reached out of the hole and prepared to strike.
Rubus jumped and screamed as Cassie groaned. ‘Are you trying to ruin my reputation for ever?’
‘I didn’t mean to frighten you.’
She mimicked his startled reaction. ‘I didn’t mean to frighten you.’
Rubus puffed out his chest. ‘Surf boys do not know the meaning of fear.’ He climbed through the peephole, backing into Cassie’s practice outfit which was hanging on a hook, and jumped again. ‘AARGH!’
Cassie clamped her hand over his mouth. ‘How did you find my room?’
Rubus tapped his nose. ‘Ways and means.’
‘Thassalinus the gatekeeper told you,’ Cassie guessed.
‘How did you know?’ Rubus looked guilty.
Cassie tapped her nose and said. ‘I have my ways and means!’ She wasn’t going to tell him it was just a lucky guess.
‘I had to bribe him with three bottles of sea shandy to let me in. He does tell the most fantastic stories about his days as a sand farer though. It’s a really hard and dangerous life.’
‘I should talk to Thassalinus. I bet he knew my father.’ Cassie sighed.
‘So how are things? It’s been ages since I saw you. How are your friends?’ Rubus asked as they climbed out on to the balcony, where he had left his rucksack. ‘Made any others?’
‘Not really – just Lexie and Shell. There’s a young sand dancer called Ella who sometimes hangs around with us. Apart from Calluna, the senior sand dancer, everyone seems really nice.’ She told him about the incident in the dance class on the first day.
He laughed. ‘Sounds like she has no sense of humour.’ He reached into his rucksack and pulled out two boards.
‘My sand board!’ Cassie was delighted.
‘I was passing Mite Cove and thought you might like it.’ Rubus smiled shyly.
Cassie grabbed her sand board and they climbed down the rope ladder on to the beach. It was a clear evening with a pale half-moon. After making sure that no one was about, they raced down to the sea’s edge on their sand boards.
‘I’m glad you’re having some fun,’ Rubus said. ‘Now have I got more chance at beating you at pebble-skimming or boarding?’
As they chatted away together, Cassie realised how much she’d missed Rubus and how easy it was to talk to him. ‘I don’t know how good I am at having friends,’ she confided. ‘It really bothers me that Shell lets Lexie run around after her. Lexie is forever fetching and carrying for Shell – or mending her dancing slippers!’ Cassie complained.
‘Maybe she’s happy to do it because Shell’s a good friend,’ Rubus suggested.
‘And if Shell was any kind of a friend she wouldn’t exploit Lexie’s good nature!’ Cassie snapped back.
‘If Shell’s spent her life running around after Sandrine and Anagallis, maybe she’s enjoying having someone running around after her. Are you sure you’re not the teensiest bit jealous?’ Rubus peered at her.
Cassie snorted. ‘As if! I would not dream of letting anyone pick up my stuff or do things for me that I am quite capable of doing myself. No way!’ Cass
ie swished her head so fiercely that Rubus had to duck out of the way of her braids.
‘OK, I get your point,’ said Rubus, raising his arms up to his face. ‘How have you been getting on with your real reason for being here? Have you found anything out about Marina?’
Cassie looked a bit shamefaced. She had been putting off trying to find out about her mother because she had little idea of where to start, and the dance classes had exhausted her. ‘I haven’t done much. I’ve had to settle in and get on. They work you really hard. I’ve been letting the Marramgrass dust settle for a while so I can find my way around.’
‘Tell me about the school,’ Rubus demanded.
‘It’s much better than I expected. The classes are difficult, and Mrs Sandskrit is especially hard to please, but I think I am beginning to make some progress as a dancer. But I find it hard to be so precise with those seven steps. It is really difficult, and I’m trying my best, but sometimes it feels like that just isn’t enough.’
Rubus shook his head and snapped off a twig from a piece of driftwood. ‘What about the layout of the place – that’s what I’m interested in.’
Cassie picked up the twig and began scratching the outline of the building in a patch of sand. ‘The area that I don’t know much about is the lower floor, where the teachers live. Miss Youngsand Jnr’s research laboratory is there, as well as Madame Rosa’s study, but I haven’t been into any of those places yet. I have found out that meetings used to be held in her study late at night so that will be my first place to look. We haven’t started our science lessons yet, but I suppose I could go in there and pretend I’m looking for Miss Youngsand Jnr.’
Rubus stroked his chin. ‘You should certainly try and have a look in there.’
‘I’m guessing that all the dance school documents are kept in Madame Rosa’s study. The only trouble is that no one is allowed inside without permission. Our kutches only have curtains but the rest of the rooms have driftwood doors with locks.’
Rubus let out a long sigh. ‘A sand sprite I used to know would have said “Rules schmooles” and found a way to get inside.’
Cassie felt her cheeks burning. Rubus’s words stung her. She had allowed herself to get carried away by the idea of learning to dance and becoming a sand dancer. Dancing was getting under her skin and making her forget why she’d come to the school.
Let the Dance Begin Page 6