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‘It must have a psychic anchor that keeps it alive,’ said a thin-faced bald man. ‘A focus of will, something it has found in a human host.’
‘But that in itself is no cause for concern,’ said a young woman with eyes that twinkled with warmth. ‘This one is obviously not particularly strong in other respects, or else it would have shown itself openly, perhaps even attacked.’
‘Something’s coming,’ said Jack, feeling that the Wardens were downplaying the issue. ‘I don’t know what, but I can feel it.’
He didn’t add that the insects that kept following him and dying were surely a sign of this impending doom. He felt that they were, but he didn’t want to say so.
‘You have no reason to be afraid,’ said the woman with happy eyes. ‘Your grandmother will protect you, and we’re here to help her do just that.’
‘How?’ asked Jaide. ‘You’re all so far away.’
‘That’s what we’ve been discussing. There are several ways to B&B . . . um, that’s “bind and banish” . . . an excision –’
‘They do not need to know the details, Claudette,’ interrupted Grandma X. ‘Particularly if you will insist on using your deplorable acronyms. Suffice it to say, troubletwisters, that we have listened to you and are taking action. Now I want you to attend to the Resonator. I will join you shortly.’
Jack lingered, staring in wonderment at the Wardens in the mirror.
‘Hey, could we talk to Dad through this mirror?’
‘No. You must not.’
The voice was the same one they had first heard. It belonged to a man with a broad face and even broader beard that was the same bright yellow as his thick mane of hair. He looked like a lion, and just as dangerous.
‘Not until you have your Gifts properly under control,’ he said sternly.
Grandma X shooed the twins in the direction of the secret door.
‘Aleksandr is right. Now say goodbye and attend to your duties.’
‘Goodbye, Jack and Jaide,’ said the woman with the smiling eyes. ‘It was nice to finally meet you. Hector says such wonderful things about you!’
Jack wanted to go back and ask her what their father had told her about them, but Jaide was tugging at his arm.
‘Come on,’ she insisted, and he had no choice but to follow.
Instead of going up to the roof, however, she detoured back to their room and opened her schoolbag.
‘What are you doing?’
‘I want to look in that dictionary Rodeo Dave gave us. I want to look up circumspect.’
Jaide pulled the thick book from her bag and thumbed her way to the Cs. ‘I have a vague idea what it means, but I want to make sure.’
She found it and quickly read through the definition while Jack peered over her shoulder, wondering what was going through his sister’s mind.
‘That’s it,’ she said, closing the book so suddenly she made Jack jump. The bang echoed through the otherwise silent house. ‘It means to be careful about what you’re saying. To keep something secret.’
She looked up at Jack. ‘They’re not telling us everything about the excision.’
Jack didn’t feel as affronted as she did.
‘Is that so surprising? They’re not telling us a lot about anything, Jaide.’
‘But –’
‘Come on. Let’s go and do what we’re told before Grandma tells us off. I’m too tired to get into trouble.’
‘All right.’
Ari was on the widow’s walk, but Kleo was out patrolling. The Resonator was wildly active, shooting to a new direction every few minutes, as though an army of The Evil was swarming all around them. Fortunately Grandma X had turned the smoke off. Or maybe it had run out of fuel or something. Now its little eyes just winked, weak in the daylight.
Despite the Resonator’s activity, there was nothing visible under the afternoon sun, and the weathervane hardly twitched.
‘It’s been like this all day.’ Ari yawned. ‘You didn’t bring any food by any change, did you?’
‘Sorry,’ said Jack, who could have used a bite himself. ‘I can go and get you something.’
‘No, you have to stay up here until they finish talking about the ward.’
‘The what?’ said Jaide.
‘The excision,’ said Ari, suddenly finding the energy to sit up straight. ‘That’s what I meant to say.’
Jaide came right up close to him. ‘You said ward.’
‘Slip of the whisker,’ replied Ari. ‘I meant excision of course.’
‘Which ward?’ asked Jack. ‘Not ours, I hope.’
‘If there was anything wrong with that ward, you would feel it,’ said Ari hastily. ‘That’s what happens when you make a ward. You’re connected to it for life, and –’
‘Don’t try to change the subject,’ said Jaide, poking him in his furry chest. ‘If there’s something important going on, we want to know about it.’
‘There’s always something going on here,’ Ari said. ‘I mean, look at that contraption, will you? But I honestly don’t think there is anything for you to worry about. It’s not even a problem any more, mostly. Everything’s almost exactly back the way it was before.’
‘Except for the excision, and Amadeus and the train cats, and the monster that everyone seems to have forgotten about.’ Jaide flopped back on to the wooden deck. ‘It’s like there’s a spell on everyone in this town, making them forget what’s important. Something is coming. Jack can feel it, and so can I. Why won’t anyone listen to us?’
‘You are being listened to, Jaidith.’ Grandma X ascended wearily from the stairs. ‘I would never have called a Gathering of the Glass otherwise.’
She handed the twins half a sticky bun each, and gave Ari a slice of cured meat, which he swallowed in one giant gulp.
‘We’ve decided to conduct a binding and banishing on the excision this Friday night, while you’re in Scarborough.’ She pulled a small silver flask from her hip pocket, opened the top and took a swig. Then she offered it to Jack. He sniffed suspiciously at it, and she said, ‘Pure water. There’s nothing better.’
‘Can’t we help?’ asked Jaide after she too had had a sip.
‘I . . . that is, we . . . believe that it would be too dangerous for you, and not only because of the threat posed by your uncontrolled Gifts. The excision has been too busy to worry overmuch about you this week. But now, with its plans thwarted, it will seek to hurt us another way. Through you. If it can turn one of you, or kill both of you, it could break the East Ward and re-establish its connection with The Evil.’
‘What has it been too busy with, Grandma?’ asked Jaide innocently.
Grandma X smiled. ‘Never you mind,’ she said.
But Jack thought he understood now. The excision, in the form of the monster, must have attacked one of the wards, but its efforts had been in vain. How the weird potions and poisoned rats fitted into the plan, Jack didn’t immediately know.
But then he had a flash of inspiration.
What if Kleo is the Living Ward?
That way, the poisoning of the cats made sense. And Kleo’s anxiety about Amadeus and the other cats too. The insight was so powerful and obvious that he could have kicked himself for not working it out sooner.
The train cats were working for The Evil. They wanted Kleo out of the way just as much as it did. That was how it had turned them. When they had what they wanted, the wards would fall and Portland would be exposed.
No wonder Grandma X was so worried.
She and Jaide were still talking, but not about anything real. The story about the excision wanting to attack them was obviously a cover to hide the Wardens’ real concern. That was OK; Jack didn’t mind as much as Jaide did that things were being kept from them. They were smart enough to work it out for themselves eventually. And smart enough, too, to find ways to be part of the solution.
‘Are we having dinner soon?’ he asked. The half a bun had barely touched the sides of his empty stomach.
/> ‘Of course, dear boy.’ Grandma X ruffled his hair. ‘Let’s go downstairs now. Ari can watch a little while longer, then I’ll take my turn at the Resonator. You are getting an early night tonight, and sleeping right through if I have to tie you to the beds to make sure of it.’
Neither of them had the energy to argue with that. After a week of disturbed rest, it was all they could do to stay awake through dinner, even with the excitement of the police car next door to report. Their mother expressed alarm at the thought of trouble so close to the house, but assumed it was only minor vandalism of the kind she was used to from the city.
‘There’s a bad element in every town,’ Susan said. ‘Although I’m surprised we haven’t seen any graffiti at all in Portland.’
‘I don’t approve of it,’ said Grandma X primly.
‘Of course you don’t. Neither do I. But there’s not much we can do about it.’
