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The silver cylinder was nearby, and it had something in it. The memory of the shadow. Shadow Jack reached in and pulled out a flower that had the colour and consistency of a light, white mist. But as he touched it, it got darker and more defined, and he had no trouble holding it in his hand.
Shadow Jack slid along the shadow of the branch, out through the window to where the shadow of the trunk fell across the road. There was plenty of shadow to follow from there, and Jack slipped along to Dock Road, heading east. He lost his bearings for a moment, as light and shade crisscrossed everywhere, and it was hard to make out landmarks when he was pressed flat against the ground or vertically up a wall. Luckily, the lighthouse was visible from just about anywhere in the town, and even through his blurry shadow-vision he always found it again. All he had to do was choose shadows that led toward it and he would be fine.
That was the plan. But the further he went, the harder he found it to move. It was as if an elastic band connected his mind and his body, and the more it stretched, the more difficult it was to go on. Every extra foot cost him more effort until it seemed like he was fighting harder and harder just to stay where he was. If he let go, he would snap back to himself in an instant.
Then, as Shadow Jack strained to move forward, he saw someone walking toward him along Dock Road – a woman in overalls with a low cap on her head. Shadow Jack paid her no attention, beyond vaguely noting that it was the woman with the sad eyes who had been fixing the playground equipment, Rennie. He ignored her, all his energy focused on trying to move.
Come on, Jack, he said to himself, and he slid forward a few feet, not noticing that the woman had come up right behind him. You can do it!
Something grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him out of the shadow. All of a sudden, light flared and his strange vision changed back to normal. The shadow flower slipped straight through his fingers and fell back into the shadow, like water to the sea, mixed and lost forever.
Even worse than that, somehow Jack was back in his usual, physical body – but he was where his shadow had been. Standing on Dock Road, with someone – something – holding the back of his neck.
Desperately, Jack wriggled out of that grip, only to find himself taken by the arm and spun around to face Rennie. Her eyes were a fierce, glowing white, and though she spoke, her mouth didn’t move at all.
+You can cease searching, Jackaran Kresimir Shield,++ said the woman. ++You have found us!++
‘But – but you’re a person!’ he gasped, trying to pull away. The grip on his arm was immovable.
+All join us,++ said The Evil. Jack could feel the pressure of thousands of mostly animal and insect minds behind the words in his head. ++All desire to become one.++
‘No . . .’ said Jack. He tried to sound strong, but it came out weak. ‘I won’t join you! I won’t!’
+You will,++ said The Evil with a terrible, grim certainty. ++You brought us here, troubletwister. You and your sister broke the ward. Your inner nature wishes to join us – and if you do, you will become something far more powerful than any mere Warden.++
‘No,’ whispered Jack. ‘That’s not true. We didn’t . . . I don’t . . .’
But inside he was wondering if he and Jaide had somehow broken the ward. What if their uncontrolled Gifts had done it without them even knowing? Grandma X said troubletwisters were dangerous. Maybe they’d done it and she hadn’t even known.
A treacherous part of Jack wondered what the point of being a Warden was if they couldn’t stop a couple of children stuffing everything up . . .
+It is destiny, Jackaran. Your destiny. You will join us, and we will keep you safe and sound forever.++
The Evil lifted Rennie’s right hand and brought it down to cup the top of Jack’s head.
Jack felt the force of The Evil magnify a hundredfold, and knew that if it managed to grip his skull, his strength would fail. He couldn’t break free of the grip on his arm, so he didn’t even try. Instead he let himself flow away, all of him away, dropping into the shadow at his feet with his entire being.
The Evil snatched as he fell, but it was too late.
But Jack couldn’t move his physical self through shadow very far. Despite his desperate attempts to get away, he popped out only a dozen yards off. The Evil in Rennie’s body crossed the space in a blur of movement, far faster than anyone normal could run.
Jack jumped as it struck, and went into the shadow again. This time, he controlled where he came out, behind a tree. The Evil had to go around, and in those few vital seconds Jack managed to sprint some distance. Even so, Rennie was on him again in a second, and he only just managed to reach another shadow before her hand closed on his ankle.
He reappeared a handful of yards away, The Evil’s host right behind. They proceeded halfway along Dock Road that way, Jack jumping in and out of shadows with The Evil hot on his heels. Then it occurred to him that he didn’t have to follow the road at all. He could go anywhere the shadows took him, and as long as he reappeared in a new spot quickly enough to avoid being caught, he would escape.
He found the shadow of a long tree branch that took him over a shop, almost as far as Watchward Lane, and shadow-jumped there. But the constant switching into shadow with his real body was incredibly difficult. His head was spinning, he felt sick, and he couldn’t focus his eyes.
Even worse than that, he’d been gone longer than he thought possible. The sun was nearly down. When it set, the shadows would go, too. What that meant, he didn’t know. Would he be able to shadow-jump anywhere at all, or nowhere?
+Jackaran! Come back!++
The cry came from Rennie’s throat, too, and the despair he heard in it was heartbreaking.
Jack dived again, forcing himself along a shadow that led to Grandma X’s house. Too weak to go far, he popped out right in front of the gateway and fell facedown in the gravel.
He had just got up and was crawling along the drive toward the front door when he heard footsteps behind him, a measured, steady crunching on the gravel.
‘Jaide!’ he shouted, but his voice was affected by shadow, and came out as only a weak croak. ‘Ari! Help!’
+Why are you running, Jackaran?++ asked The Evil inside his head. ++This isn’t a game.++
Jack twisted around as white-eyed Rennie loomed above him. He tried to scramble back, but he was exhausted, all energy gone.
+Come here. Come to us.++
‘No, no!’ Jack shouted, steeling himself to resist the mental onslaught that he knew would overwhelm him in a few short seconds.
Rennie knelt down and lowered her hand. Jack jerked his head aside and, at that instant, saw something flash over his head. There was an incredibly loud bong! and Rennie flew backward and landed heavily on her backside.
‘What the —?’ she said in normal tones. But then her voice faltered. Her eyes, which had momentarily cleared, clouded again and she rose up like a puppet pulled by unseen strings.
Before Rennie could get fully upright, Jaide stepped forward and hit her again with a large silver tray. As she went down for the second time, Jaide threw the tray on top of her chest, grabbed Jack under the arms, and dragged him to the front door.
As they half-ran and half-fell through the doorway, The Evil rose up inside Rennie. She was lifted high by its power and sent after them like a missile, her hands like claws, reaching out.
Jack and Jaide screamed as she flew straight at them, both of them tangled up on the hallway rug, for the moment completely defenceless.
Then Ari and Kleo
slammed the door.
There was a violent, shuddering impact. The whole house shook, and The Evil vented its anger with a piercing scream that filled the twins’ minds with images of raging fire and ice and destruction and unchanging death. It went on and on, then slowly faded, and finally they heard footsteps receding rapidly along the drive. They heard Rennie’s ordinary voice calling their names, as though searching for them, until that, too, faded into silence.
‘It’s gone,’ said Ari from the window. ‘For now.’
Jaide and Jack pulled themselves up and looked at each other.
‘She almost got me,’ said Jack shakily.
He was shivering and wild-eyed. Jaide had never seen him like this before, not even when he’d come back from the tunnels.
‘It wasn’t her,’ said Jaide. ‘It was The Evil. And besides, it didn’t get you. You’re safe now.’
‘I didn’t make it to the cemetery . . . or the lighthouse,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Neither of us did,’ said Jaide. ‘We’ll . . . we’ll think of something else.’
Outside, the wind picked up, and a light rain began to fall, both harbingers of the coming storm.
It was getting dark all over Portland, and would soon get darker still.
BY MUTUAL, UNSPOKEN CONSENT OF children and cats, all four retreated to Grandma X’s bedroom, pausing only to pick up candles and matches from the kitchen. Though no one said it, they all hoped that she would somehow be awake and could take charge, that she would rescue them from The Evil.
But Grandma X was still unconscious, and hadn’t shifted from her curled-up position on the bed.
Kleo and Ari jumped up next to her and both licked her face. Jaide knelt down and took her hand, holding it tightly. Jack went to the window and looked out the rain-swept pane.
‘The lighthouse light hasn’t come on,’ he said. ‘I’d have thought it would have a generator, like the hospital.’ He peered through the glass again and added, ‘Actually, it looks like they’ve got the power on everywhere else, except for our bit and the lighthouse.’
