Chapter 11

Chapter

Eleven

T he tinnitus was worse than ever, coupled this time with a prickling pain behind my eyelids. I groaned, aware of little except the shaking sensation in my limbs and the cold, clammy sweat that was drenching my body. I slowly gathered my thoughts – and that was when fear thudded through me again. Athair: he was here.

I opened my eyes and leapt up, ignoring the agonising pain that ripped through my body. But the front door was closed and there was no sign of Athair; neither was there any sign of Gordon or the collapsed ceiling. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. What on earth was going on?

There was a flutter of movement by my feet. Hester stirred then flew straight up, her tiny fists raised. ‘Where is he?’ she snarled. ‘Where’s that fiend? I’m going to—’ She faltered. ‘What?’ Her head whipped around. ‘ What ?’

I glanced down to check on Otis. He was also awake and sitting cross-legged on the patterned carpet, gazing around the narrow hallway. I stared at him, then I stared at the carpet. Wait: moments ago hadn’t that been wooden laminate flooring? I took in the floral wallpaper and the picture of a buxom country girl tending her sheep, neither of which had been present five minutes ago.

‘This isn’t Gordon’s house,’ Otis whispered. ‘It smells different.’

I wanted to tell him that didn’t make sense – we couldn’t be anywhere other than in Gordon’s house – but before I could speak there was a squawk behind me. I spun around and was confronted by a middle-aged woman brandishing a frying pan. She was gripping its handle so hard that her knuckles were white, and her eyes were wide with terror.

‘Get out!’ she screeched. ‘Get out of my house!’ She waved the pan in much the same way that I wielded Gladys. At that thought, my hand strayed to my side. To my relief, my trusty sword was still in her sheath.

Unfortunately, feeling for Gladys might have reassured me but it really worried the woman. She threw the frying pan at my head, where it bounced painfully off my skull, then she grabbed a large, old-fashioned telephone from a side table and jabbed in three numbers.

‘Wait,’ I said, ‘I’m not?—’

I heard a tinny voice on the other end of the line before the woman started babbling. ‘Police! I need the police! There’s an intruder in my house. She’s got a sword. And there are two fairies with her. She’s going to attack! I don’t know what she wants! Help me!’

‘I’m not a fucking fairy!’ Hester yelled, squaring up to the poor woman in a very unhelpful manner.

I grabbed Hester in one hand and Otis in the other, wrenched open the front door and ran outside. It was dark, but it looked like I was in Gordon’s street. I glanced back; it was the same front door, the same address. However, that woman was definitely not Gordon – and there was no sign of Hugo or the others outside.

Something crashed onto the path beside me: the woman was throwing plates. She aimed one at my head with a look of fixed concentration. I gave up trying to work out what was going on and sprinted down the barely lit street. I didn’t know what had happened to the dawn I’d witnessed only minutes ago; I didn’t know what was happening at all.

All I could do was run and run and run.

I was breathless by the time I had to stop because my legs would no longer obey my orders and I was on the verge of collapse. As I dropped onto the edge of the pavement and gasped for air, Otis and Hester watched me with worried eyes. ‘Her face is very red,’ Hester commented. ‘Do you think she’s unwell?’

I glared at her and continued to suck gulps of air into my lungs.

Otis wrinkled his nose. ‘Shh!’

Hester nodded. ‘Yeah, Daisy, shh. You sound like a steam train with all that wheezing.’

‘I’m shushing you, Hes, not Daisy!’

‘Why would you shush me?’ she asked her brother. ‘I’m not the one who sounds like a dying walrus.’

‘I’m going,’ I gasped, ‘to barbecue you … the … next … chance … I … get.’

Hester smiled. ‘She’s fine.’

I finally brought my breathing under control and pulled out my phone. There was no signal. Great.

Otis wrung his hands. ‘You shouldn’t have run away, Daisy. You should have waited for the police. As soon as you explained what happened, they’d have looked for Gordon to make sure he’s okay.’

Gordon. My body shook. If Athair did anything to hurt him, anything at all… ‘I panicked,’ I said. Even to my own ears it sounded like a lame excuse.

I stood up and pushed away the sweat-soaked curls that were plastered to my forehead. There was a large egg-shaped bruise on my temple where the frying pan had hit me. ‘That woman was terrified, and she wasn’t going to listen to anything we said. She needed us to leave as quickly as possible.’

‘Why is it night time again?’ Hester asked. ‘Why did we suddenly appear in a random stranger’s house? Why did that stupid skull do all that weird spinning stuff? Why did Athair show up? Why?—?’

I held up my hands to stop the tirade of questions. ‘I don’t know. I don’t have any answers.’

‘What happened to Hugo?’ Otis asked.

‘I don’t know that either.’ I looked at the tenement buildings around us; we were definitely still in Edinburgh. ‘But I think I know where we are. I’ve made deliveries to this street before. Let’s go to the Royal Elvish Institute. With any luck, Hugo will be waiting for us there, and Gordon will be receiving medical attention.’

‘And Athair?’ Hester raised a sceptical eyebrow.

I didn’t answer but Otis did. ‘Hopefully he’ll have fucked off back to his cumbubbling hole.’ Hester and I both stared at him. ‘What? Do you disagree?’

Not for a second. I grinned faintly and pointed down the street. ‘Come on,’ I said. ‘It’s this way.’

A car drove past, a belch of smoke burping from its exhaust and ‘Baby I Love Your Way’ by Big Mountain blaring out of the speakers. I frowned then looked at the other cars parked in the street. ‘What is it, Daisy?’ Hester asked.

Despite my burning cheeks, there was a sudden chill in my bones. ‘Nothing.’

She jabbed me. ‘You’re lying.’

Yes. Yes, I was.

I spotted a dim glow coming from a newsagent’s shop a few yards away. ‘Let’s go there first.’

‘Why?’

I wouldn’t say what I was thinking until I was sure. I looked at my phone again: still no signal. I swallowed hard. The tinnitus had faded, but my fingers were trembling enough to make my phone shake. ‘Humour me,’ I said.

Hester brightened. ‘What do you call a man with a spade in his head?’

‘Idiot! That’s not what Daisy meant.’ Otis glared at her, then added, ‘Well?’

She sniffed sullenly. ‘Well, what?’

‘What do you call a man with a spade in his head?’

Hester folded her arms. ‘Not telling you now.’

‘Tell me!’

She sighed. ‘Doug.’

Otis stared at her. ‘I don’t get it. How is that funny?’

I’d already stopped listening. I put my phone away, checked Gladys again and started to jog towards the small shop.

A wire mesh covered the glass door. When I peered through it, I saw a man leaning over the counter with a pen in his hand. Excellent. As I went in, he jerked upright and reached for something beneath the counter. Then he checked my face and relaxed.

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m a bit jumpy. You shouldn’t be out at this hour, you know. You’re welcome to shelter here. I’m only open for deliveries, but early customers are always welcome to come in and wait for dawn.’

Huh. I chewed the inside of my cheek. ‘Uh, thanks. I guess I lost track of time.’ I gestured to his watch with a questioning look.

‘Just gone five-thirty. It won’t start getting light for another twenty minutes.’ His eyes dropped to Gladys and his mouth tightened. ‘I guess you know what you’re doing, though.’

When in doubt, brazen it out. I smiled confidently. ‘Absolutely.’

He scratched his chin. ‘Hmm.’ He stared at Hester and Otis. ‘Are they brownies?’

‘Yep.’

‘We can talk for ourselves,’ Hester said.

‘At least he didn’t call us fairies, Hes,’ Otis muttered.

I didn’t allow my smile to dim; instead, I slowly inspected the contents of the shop. There was an array of sweets and chocolate bars to my right: Snickers, Mars bars, Milky Ways. I paused. Opal Fruits.

The man was watching me warily. Beside him was a stack of newspapers and behind him were rows of brightly packaged cigarettes.

I was starting to feel nauseous. I licked my lips. ‘Can I get one of those papers?’ I asked.

‘Sure.’ He lifted the top one from the pile.

I picked it up and stared at the large photo emblazoned on the front page of Liz Hurley wearing a slashed black dress held together by over-sized golden safety pins.

Otis blinked rapidly. ‘What is that woman wearing?’

‘Shocking, right?’ the man said. ‘I don’t know what the world is coming to when someone goes out wearing something like that. There should be laws against it. ’

‘It’s fabulous!’ Hester cooed. ‘I want a dress just like that!’ The man scowled.

‘This is today’s paper?’ I asked.

He grunted. ‘Yes.’

I jabbed at the date. ‘The fourteenth of May?’

‘Yeah.’

Gordon. What have you done ? ‘The fourteenth of May,’ I repeated. ‘1994?’

He gave me a long look; it appeared that his initial guess that I was deranged was being confirmed. ‘Yes. And that will be twenty pence.’

I felt my heart hammering faster.

Otis and Hester were staring at the paper, no longer interested in the daring dress. ‘Daisy,’ Otis whispered.

I shook my head in warning; whatever he was about to say would be best said in private. I dug into my pocket, pushed past the small bag containing my remaining spider’s silk pills and located a pound coin. As I handed it to the shopkeeper, I hoped he wouldn’t notice my trembling fingers.

He squinted at the coin. ‘What’s this?’ He turned it over. ‘Some kind of foreign money? I’m not accepting that.’

Shit. There was nothing wrong with it; it was a normal pound coin. My shoulders sank. Normal in 2024. ‘Uh … you’re right.’ I dropped the paper on the countertop. ‘Never mind. I’ll come back after I’ve been to the bank.’

The suspicion in his eyes increased tenfold as I backed away. ‘Hester! Otis!’ I said sharply. ‘We’re leaving now!’

‘But—’

‘Now!’

We left the shop at high speed. I could feel the man’s eyes burning into my back as I marched away and rounded the corner. Only when we were out of sight did I come to a stuttering halt .

Otis and Hester immediately began shouting into my face.

‘1994?’

‘It can’t be 1994!’

‘What happened?’

‘Daisy!’

‘This is a joke, right?’

I gazed at them both dully. ‘The cars on the street are old. The décor in Gordon’s house – which isn’t Gordon’s house – is old-fashioned. That shop sells cigarettes openly. They had Opal Fruits on the shelf! I’m sure that’s what Starburst used to be called before the name was changed.’

There was an odd roaring in my ears. ‘It all makes sense. This is why Gordon wanted the skull, why he was so sure it could give him answers about Lady Rose. He wanted to travel into the past to witness what happened to her. Perhaps he thought he could stop it. Perhaps he thought he could save her.’

Hester’s cheeks were bright red. ‘Then why the hell are we here instead of Gordon?’

‘Athair.’ My voice was barely audible. ‘He showed up, I went into a panic and lost control of my magic, and I triggered the skull by accident. Now we’re here and Gordon’s not.’

Otis shook his head violently. ‘No. No way. I’ve only just got used to 2024 – I don’t want to have to adjust again. We shouldn’t be here. Use the skull and send us back to where we belong.’

Hester was wide-eyed. ‘He’s right. Set off your freaky magic again and let’s go home.’

I shook my head. ‘I can’t.’

Her voice rose. ‘Why the fuck not?’

Magic was starting to leak out of me. The ground beneath my feet shook and cracks appeared in the pavement. A strong wind was circling around us, whipping up my hair and making it almost impossible for the brownies to remain airborne. Otis squeaked and threw himself at me for safety; Hester did the same and burrowed beneath my coat.

‘I don’t have it,’ I muttered. Flames licked upwards from my fingertips. ‘The skull didn’t come with us – the skull is in 2024.’ A second later, the flames transformed into fireballs that blazed up into the still dark sky.

And I felt worse than ever.