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‘Not so. All we need is a cross-continuum conduit constructor.’
‘Is that something Grandma might have?’
‘Not likely. It was never considered . . . uh . . . mainstream Warden equipment. Very few were made – though now I come to think about it, I suppose more may have been built since I’ve been . . . ah . . . resting . . .’
‘If Grandma hasn’t got one of these construct things, then I don’t think there’s much hope—’ Jack started to say, but he was interrupted by the gleeful professor.
‘That’s where you’re wrong! There’s one in the castle. I saw it while we were searching the second floor.’
Jaide and Jack sat up at the same moment.
‘What?!’
‘The castle contains a cross-continuum conduit constructor, which I now suspect was used to hide the card you seek in the first place. If we go back, I can show you where it is. I can even show you how to use it!’
‘Wait.’ Jaide rubbed at her tired eyes. Her brain was beginning to shut down from exhaustion. ‘You’re telling us that with this thing you can open a tunnel to another world, where the Card of Translocation is hidden.’
‘Yes. A world among many possible worlds.’
‘What kind of world?’
‘It could be like ours, or it could infinitely stranger, built from an entirely different number of dimensions and physical laws. I glimpsed some of these places during my own research – endless flat plains with no height or depth at all, giddying vistas boasting an extra version of left and right—’
Jack cut him off. ‘Could someone use one of these conduits to connect to somewhere else in this world?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘So that’s how the back door to the blue room works!’
He felt pleased to have worked that much out, even though he was no closer to a solution to their current problem.
‘Okay, so it could be done,’ Jaide said. ‘But we can’t search every possible universe. That would take us forever.’
‘That’s true. Fortunately, in this case you would simply look for an existing doorway into the world where the card is hidden, not create a new one. Then we would use the cross-continuum conduit constructor as a key to open it.’
‘Would the witching rod help us find the doorway?’
‘Yes. Just deduce where such a doorway would likely be, point the rod at it, and see what happens.’
‘And how exactly do we do the deducing?’ asked Jaide.
‘Well, in my day people tended to make otherworldly doorways in things that already looked like doors. You know, they tend to the rectangular. A window, for example. Or even an actual door, since it would only open to the other world if it was activated by the device.’
‘That’s all great, but we still have to go back to the castle,’ said Jack.
‘Somehow.’ Jaide felt gloomy again.
‘I find,’ said Professor Olafsson with persistent cheer, ‘that the best ideas come when the concerns of the mundane world are set aside and the conscious mind submits to the ruminations of the unconscious.’
‘When what?’ asked Jack.
‘When you get a good night’s sleep, in other words, and that’s what I advise for both of you right now. By the time you wake up, I’m sure you will have the answer.’
‘I hope so.’ Jack was too tired to argue, even with a full belly. He got up and slipped into his pyjamas.
Jaide went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. There was no sign of Cornelia or Kleo, and by the time she went back, Jack was already out cold, the damaged picture sitting on his chest, resting under his limp hand. The bracelet charm Custer had given him gleamed in the low light. Jaide browsed through the Compendium until Susan came and told her it was time for sleep.
‘Do you sleep?’ Jaide asked Professor Olafsson as she got into bed.
‘No, but there are times when I fade out. When nothing is happening and there is no one to talk to.’ He smiled at Jaide. ‘I would not want to sleep now. This puzzle has given me much to think about!’
‘Well, that’s good,’ she said. ‘Happy thinking. Maybe one of us will have the answer by morning.’
‘I believe that is entirely likely, Jaide.’
Jaide closed her eyes and, within moments, started to snore.
‘Cards, parrots and cats,’ said Professor Olafsson softly to himself. ‘Now, where did I hear that voice before . . . ?’
Jack woke the next morning from a nightmare about giant parrots picking up members of his family one by one and biting their heads off, while Jaide had dreamt about flying in the rain and dodging lightning bolts. Neither dream brought any kind of revelation or solution to any of their problems. Professor Olafsson had nothing, either, and he didn’t look happy about it. The night’s fruitless thinking had put him in a sullen mood.
‘The entrance could be anywhere in the castle,’ said the professor. ‘It could be disguised as anything. We need another clue to guide us.’
‘Will you be okay if we leave you here?’ asked Jaide. ‘I don’t think we should take you to school.’
Jack agreed, fearing what Miralda King would make of the death mask if she got her hands on it. Professor Olafsson assented. He was getting bored of sitting around thinking, but it wasn’t as if they had many choices.
Susan was distracted and irritable over breakfast, as though she hadn’t slept well. Jack assumed she was worried about Grandma X and their father, as they were. She didn’t know anything about The Evil, but distance and car crashes were enough to make anyone unhappy.
‘I don’t want to hear any more talk about going to the castle,’ Susan said, although they hadn’t said anything about it at all. ‘I checked the homework I gave you. You didn’t do any of it. You’re going to school and that’s where the matter ends. And don’t even think about asking for the phone.’
They knew better than to argue with that tone, just as they understood when to obey their father. Feeling trapped between two parents who weren’t talking to each other about what really mattered, they had no choice but to grit their teeth, make their own lunches, and get themselves to school.
‘What are we going to do?’ Jaide asked as she untangled their bikes and pushed hers out of the laundry room.
‘Beats me.’ Jack followed her, almost running over two feline shapes sitting by the back door, one scruffy ginger and the other a glossy blue-grey.
‘So this was the big secret from the other night?’ Ari was looking up at the rail of the widow’s walk high above, where Cornelia was visible as a blue smudge against the tiles of the roof. His eyes were narrowed and suspicious. ‘What’s so special about a bird? They’re just dinner on legs.’
‘Exactly what we thought you’d think,’ said Kleo. ‘I asked Custer to keep you busy so you wouldn’t scare her off.’
‘So he didn’t really need my help?’
Ari looked hurt, and Jaide hastened to distract him.
‘Not all birds are stupid,’ said Jaide. ‘This one can talk.’
‘About what – how she really wants a cracker? Pffft.’ Ari rolled his eyes. ‘No respectable animal would eat crackers.’
‘I’m on your side, Ari,’ said Jack. ‘Why doesn’t she just fly away?’
‘Because she’s still trying to tell us something,’ said Kleo. ‘She
stirred when you woke, troubletwisters, and came out through one of the upper floor windows. I don’t know what she’s doing, but she definitely has a purpose.’
Jaide climbed onto her bike. ‘Come on, Jack, or we’ll be late.’
Ari returned his attention to the bird.
‘Just come down here,’ he called, ‘and we’ll see whose claws are sharpest . . .’
They pedalled down the lane, leaving Ari to his fantasies of a parrot breakfast. Neither of them saw Cornelia stretch one wing and then the other, as though waking herself up, then launch herself into the air. She flapped twice, banked to avoid a tree, and disappeared from Ari’s frustrated sight.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A Twin Thing
ZEBEDIAH WAS JUST PULLING AWAY from the kerb with Rodeo Dave behind the wheel as the twins approached the Book Herd. On his way to the castle, Jaide thought glumly, to continue his search for the Card of Translocation. He waved, but their return waves were half-hearted at best.
‘Good morning, troubletwisters,’ Rennie called from the doorway with her rough voice. She waved, too, and it took both twins a full second to realise that she did so with a complete left hand. They screeched to a halt, not believing their eyes. Grandma X had told them that there was no way even the Wardens could heal so great a wound.
‘Come inside,’ Rennie said, crooking one impossible finger. ‘I want to talk to you.’
They propped their bikes against the window and followed her into the shop, where she led them through the door at the back and up a narrow flight of stairs, to the room she slept in. It contained very little in terms of furniture, just a single bed and a cupboard with one door, but was plastered floor-to-ceiling with hand-drawn pictures.
They were the pictures of Rennie their class had drawn when they’d thought she was dead, Jaide realised, looking around in wonder. Tara must have given them to her in the end.
Rennie sat on the bed, surrounded by pictures of herself, and brought the twins to her for a quick hug. She was like that sometimes. The Evil had used her when she was grieving over the deaths of her own children. Now that she was a ward of Portland, that protectiveness had been transferred to them.
