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That was when he felt a sharp tug on his left wrist, as though someone had grabbed him. But Jaide was on the other side of him and there was no one else around. No one with a body, anyway.
‘Ouch! Hey, Professor – what are you doing?’
‘I have done nothing but attempt to hang on with my chin!’
‘It’s the wristband,’ Jaide said, holding up her right arm. ‘Custer gave them to us, remember?’
Jack had forgotten completely about the narrow coil of leather wrapped around his wrist. It tugged at him again, uncannily as though an invisible hand was holding him back, almost pinching his skin. He imagined the ghostly form of Custer reaching across the horizon to remind him of what he shouldn’t have done.
They had left the wards.
Jack broke his pace for a second as reason undermined his original sense of urgency.
‘We should go back,’ he said. ‘We can tell Dad about Rodeo Dave when he calls us later. He’s bound to, isn’t he?’
‘Yes, but we can’t go back now,’ said Jaide. ‘He’s on his way – and I’m sure if we’re quick and don’t use our Gifts, nothing will go wrong.’
Jack put his head down and pressed on, but even though the ground was perfectly flat, he felt as though he was running uphill. Worse, the slope was increasing, so every step took more energy. No matter how he huffed and grunted, he slowed down rather than sped up.
Beside him, Jaide was experiencing the same problem. To her it felt as though the invisible hand on her wrist was not only slowing her down, it was pulling her back to the safety of the wards. She gritted her teeth and fought as hard as she could, but there was no resisting the power of Custer’s charms.
‘This is useless,’ she gasped, as both of them were practically running on the spot. ‘We’re never going to make it!’
The tree line was still some dozens of feet away.
‘Where is he?’ asked Jack. ‘I can’t see him.’
Jaide scanned the trees for any sign of their father.
‘There!’ she pointed.
A shape was moving through the undergrowth, low and hunched, like someone trying not to be seen. Jack waved his arms, and Jaide called out, ‘Dad! Over here!’
The bracken parted. Something stepped into view.
It wasn’t their father. It was something totally unexpected: a chimpanzee, riding on the back of a very large, savage-looking grey wolf. The chimp grinned, showing its huge yellow teeth.
But it wasn’t the chimpanzee’s teeth the twins were looking at. It was its eyes. Eyes that were completely white, without pupils of any kind. The wolf’s eyes were just as white – horrible milky orbs set in the deep fur.
Jaide gasped. ‘The Evil!’
‘Retreat!’ shrilled Professor Olafsson, just as Jack shouted, ‘Let’s get back!’
Jack was already moving as he spoke. Jaide was barely a pace behind him. This time, the bracelets worked in their favour, pulling them back towards the wards’ influence.
Behind them, the chimpanzee pointed and the wolf broke into a trot. They looked like a miniature horse and jockey, heading right for the twins. The chimp lowered its arm as the trot became a run.
Jack looked over his shoulder, and was shocked by how fast the wolf was moving. The boundary of the wards was invisible, so there was no way of knowing how far they had to go. Could they outrun a wolf?
Ten scrambling, panicked steps later he glanced over his shoulder again and wished he hadn’t. The grinning wolf was almost close enough to snap at his heels. The chimp was crouched low on its back, like a champion jockey, its arm whipping the flank of the wolf with a twig.
++Turn back, troubletwisters,++ said The Evil, directly into their minds. ++There is no escaping us!++ Jack and Jaide unleashed their Gifts at the same moment, though not under control. A sudden darkness fell upon them, but vanished as quickly, even before Jaide could cry out in fear, closely followed by a wind that roared past ahead of them, flattening the grass but not doing anything else.
The chimpanzee chittered and the wolf howled, and though Jack didn’t dare look, he knew that any moment he would feel the wolf upon him or – even worse – see Jaide fall under its great weight.
++Your Gifts are strong, troubletwisters. We will use them well when they are ours!++
At that moment, a cloud formed above them and rain bucketed down, lashing the twins like whips, turning the already sodden grass into a playground slide. Jack lost his footing, and in reaching for Jaide, tripped her over, too. They fell onto the suddenly muddy soil, and slid to a stop.
++Ours at last! All ours!++
The wolf leaped towards them, the chimp jumping from its back to target Jaide as the wolf sprang at her brother.
But they did not land. They were met in midair by the rain, a solid force of rain, like a giant baseball bat made of compressed water. It met wolf and chimp with a liquid snapping sound, and both animals disappeared right into it, before they were suddenly ejected out again and sent flying back up the slope in an explosion of mist and raindrops.
‘What was that?’ gasped Jack.
‘Who cares!’ said Jaide, slithering backwards through the mud. Even the ordinary rain was torrential, getting in her eyes and making it hard to see which way she was going. The castle was a distant blur, far out of reach. ‘Let’s get out of here!’
The wolf sprang up and headed back towards them, the mud-spattered chimpanzee struggling along at its side.
++One of you,++ growled The Evil inside their heads. ++Grant me one of you and we will let the other go free.++
‘No!’ cried Jack, as he tried to get up and slipped over again. He reached for Jaide’s hand and gripped it. ‘Never!’
++Never is a long word for such a small boy.++
‘You’re just trying to drive us apart!’
++We merely hasten the inevitable.++ The wolf was prowling towards them, the chimp clambering onto its back. There was no sign of the mysterious watery force to protect the twins now. ++Spare yourself the agony, troubletwister, before she decides for you!++
The raindrops suddenly got bigger, and fewer. They were so large that each ma
de a sound like a small gunshot as it hit the ground. Then a really enormous raindrop fell, and there was a thunderclap, though neither twin saw lightning.
Wiping their half-drowned faces, the twins saw a sodden figure appear out of the rain.
‘Dad!’
‘Stay back!’ said Hector Shield, splaying the fingers of his right hand wide to drive them away from him. ‘This is my fight.’
++You dare? Do not come between us and our troubletwisters,++ said The Evil.
‘Keep away from them.’ Hector’s voice was faint but strong through the rain swirling around him. ‘Don’t do this.’
++You know we do what we must do. You cannot fight us!++
Hector Shield did not answer. Instead, he raised both arms, and with another thunderclap so loud the twins felt it in their chests, an absolute river of rain fell out of the clouds to smite The Evil where it stood. Stinging spray blinded the twins, and they recoiled from where their father had been standing, calling for him and hearing only the roar of water all around them.
Then two strong hands grabbed each of them by an elbow.
‘Hurry,’ said their father, pulling them, twisting and sliding, back down the slope. ‘Get inside the wards!’
‘Come with us, Dad,’ pleaded Jack. ‘I swear we can control our Gifts—’
But already the light was flickering and the rain was swirling around them with the beginnings of a hurricane.
‘Listen to me, Jaidith and Jackaran.’ And they did. There was no arguing with their father’s tone, and he only ever used the twins’ full names when he was mad or in a hurry.
‘The Evil is trying to distract us,’ he said. ‘It wants to stop us finding the card before it does.’
‘But we know who’s looking for it,’ said Jack. ‘The sleeper agent is Rodeo Dave!’
‘That explains a lot, but it doesn’t change anything. You still have to go back. If he doesn’t know you know, he won’t act openly against you. The search for the card will keep him busy – he won’t hurt anyone else now.’
‘Can’t you just . . . I don’t know . . . have him arrested?’ said Jaide. ‘Or whatever it is Wardens do?’
