Читать книгу Hunt and Power - Stephen Hayes - Страница 6

The next day passed without great incident. Our classes were a bit all-over-the-place, at least for the year-nines, because we had mostly electives during the day. We did, however, pass on news about Stella’s party to Serena, Erica (whom James had already told anyway), Kylie, Katie, Sophie, David, Daniel, Liam and Craig. At recess, Marc told us that Lucien had given the OK for us to attend as long as certain precautions were taken. He suggested that Marc give us all invisible shields, which would repel any magic used against us.

Then at lunch time, Amelia and Stella joined us briefly at the toilet block to fill us in on what was to be done. Now that I could see Stella’s reaction in person, I could tell that she really did want to be acknowledged for her birthday by someone, and that she was keen for as many of us to come as possible. It looked for some time like an argument would spring up between Stella, James and a few of the others, all with differing opinions, until finally Amelia suggested that we have a whole Young Army meeting to decide what ought to happen in regard to the party. As it was the middle of the week and so many of us had a lot of homework (and detentions) to do, no time or date for the meeting was set as yet.

At the end of the day, the four of us were to have another—hopefully less painful—detention with Hall.

“I’ll meet you there,” said Nicole, passing me as I entered the locker bay. “He’s given me half an hour too.”

“You?”

“Later.”

I looked around at Peter in surprise. This was the first time Nicole had ended up in the same detention as us year-nines. Behind him, Daniel and Serena were watching interestedly; they had followed us from Media, an elective which nearly all the year-nines in the Young Army did, and heard Nicole’s statement.

“Well I did warn her,” said Daniel. “I said in her reading she could have a disagreement with a teacher. I warned her, but,” he shook his head tragically, “poor old Daniel, what can he do?”

And so there were now nine in the detention that afternoon. Nicole was waiting outside the room when Peter, the twins and I got there, along with Justin and Tulip, Ellie Dragon and Emilie Elson.

“My God,” said Hall when he reached us. “Three Playmans at once? What on earth did I do to deserve this?”

“Well you’re the one who made us come,” said Nicole, scowling. Peter and I grinned at her; this was what we had to put up with all the time. She wasn’t as familiar with it as we were, since we’d had him a whole year longer than she had.

“Enough of that,” he snapped. “Do you want to be back here tomorrow?”

“Not particularly,” said Nicole darkly. “But since you just said you’d rather not have all three of us at once, I don’t think I’ve got much to worry about.”

“Fair point,” he said as he unlocked the door. “Better make it Thursday then; these two don’t have one on that day, thank God, so you can come back here then, Playman. I’ll make sure it’s up on the notice board by tomorrow morning.”

“Blimey, sir,” said Justin, staring at Hall in surprise. “What have you got against the Playmans, anyway?”

“That’s not your business, Time,” said Hall. “Another detention for you; that’s two you now owe me after today.”

Justin glared at him for a moment, but then dropped his gaze.

When we walked in, we saw that the trolley from yesterday’s detention was back in the corner where Harry and Simon had left it. They recommenced their article reading and summarising while the rest of us wrote lines. Thankfully, there were no boxes of condoms lying around, although I did have the Light Crystal in my pocket again, so I thought I could probably handle it if Hall did decide to spring that one on some unlucky soul.

This gave me an idea. I’d already written a page containing twenty-five lines, which still left 125 to do. I gripped the crystal again in my pocket, after having cleared the hankies away, thinking as I did so how I would like there to be a way I could get through these lines quicker. No matter how hard I thought it, though, nothing happened. That ruined my theory about how I had performed magic. Perhaps all those condoms really had been clean, and I’d just imagined the crystal going warm.

That left me a bit downhearted indeed. I just wished I could get out of there quicker; I wasn’t asking for anything unreasonable…

Then it happened, giving me such a fright that I jumped. The crystal went warm in my hand and immediately I started perspiring. I quickly put the hanky around it and returned to the pages in front of me, only to find that the writing I’d done on the first page had duplicated itself identically onto the next five pages beneath it, only leaving out the numbers of the lines. All I had to do now was go down the pages, numbering the lines. It took only a few minutes.

“What?” Hall bellowed when I showed him my lines. “How the hell did you do that so quickly?”

Everyone else looked around at me in surprise. Keeping my face as casual as possible, I said, “Practise, I suppose. Maybe you need to give me something more difficult in future.”

“Consider it done,” said Hall menacingly, and I felt suddenly nervous; why the hell did I have to go and say that? “Now get out of here before I give you another hundred-and-fifty.”

“Righto,” I said cheerfully. “See you tomorrow.”

I waved at my brother and sister before leaving the room, my spirits higher than they’d ever been when walking out of a detention. It was only just after half past 3, and I expected Nicole and Peter would be at least another twenty minutes. There wasn’t a lot to do at home without Peter and James, who had told us he was going to the park with Erica. So I wandered around the school for a while, just thinking about things; Natalie, Lena, Stella, the party, the Light Crystal. I eventually decided to go to the library; I didn’t need to do any research in particular, but I thought if I walked around the shelves for a while, I could find some inspiration for that horrible oral presentation for Hall.

But after five very boring minutes, I came to the conclusion that this would only work if Peter and James were here. The three of us were, after all, working on the presentation together, so we should probably do the research together. I was about to emerge from the shelves near the back of the library when I saw Lena, who was by herself at a secluded table, reading a book that looked (judging by the picture of an erupting volcano on the cover) as though it was for either Science or Geography. I stopped short. She looked completely focused on what she was doing, but just the sight of her being this alone made me think George had been right about her character. But I didn’t want her to see me; I wasn’t ready to confront her on that particular issue today. I ducked back into the shelves and headed back to the front, hoping to avoid her completely.

There was a free computer near the front desk, so I decided to use it to do a bit of research on the Light Crystal. In the end, my time proved as wasteful as the minutes I’d spent wandering the bookshelves, because the search engines I tried yielded nothing relevant. I thought of the discs Lisa and Natalie had burnt during the magic display and all the documents on them. The information would be in there, but searching those would most likely take even longer than the Internet. I couldn’t see a way of doing it without telling the others, or at least having enough time to do it properly. Perhaps tomorrow…

So I packed up my things and went home, where I figured I might as well do some homework while I waited for the others. French, Maths, IT and Health; new homework in all those subjects today, and I knew there would be more coming tomorrow, so tonight I would have to do as much of it as possible if I intended to keep on top of it all.

Peter turned up only five minutes after I got home, looking irritable.

“What did you do?” he asked. “How did you get out of there so quickly?”

I hesitated, but I couldn’t see a way out without flatly lying, so I told him the truth—or part of it.

“I’m not sure,” I said, “but I think it might have had something to do with this.”

I showed him the Light Crystal, and he shielded his eyes; it was pretty bright when shown to the naked eye.

“You reckon?” he said, squinting through his fingers at me. “You think it was magic?”

“I just had my hand on it, and I was wishing I could get out of there quicker, and it just happened. It sort of went warm, and the next thing I knew, the lines were all done. I just had to do the numbers.”

“Why didn’t you make it do mine, too?” he asked indignantly.

“Because you wouldn’t have known what it was; you’d have freaked out,” I said reasonably. “I can tomorrow, though; if it works again, anyway.”

He shook his head. “Hall will have me there for three hours tomorrow. Won’t matter if I get them done; he’ll just give me more.”

At that precise moment, both our phones started vibrating. The text messages were both from Marc, and they said exactly the same thing: ‘Wed, 17/02/2010 12:00 AM, my place, HQ.’

“That’s tonight,” I said, after reading it. “There’s a meeting on tonight, at midnight.”

“What’s HQ?” Peter asked. “Is he calling his house ‘headquarters’ now?”

“Hidden quarters, maybe,” I said, rereading the message, feeling a sense of relief. Perhaps at this meeting tonight, we would be able to reach some sort of resolution regarding the party.

“Why midnight?” asked Peter. “So many people are going to have trouble getting out, and if they get caught by their parents—”

“Well midnight so that it’s less likely they get caught,” I said, thinking out loud. “But of course if anyone does get caught, they’ll be punished real bad. Blimey, I hope Harry and Simon didn’t say anything about this aloud; they’re still in Hall’s company.”

* * *

We Playmans and Thomases didn’t have any trouble getting out of the house undetected that night. The six of us had hung out in my room from about 10 o’clock on, pretending that we were all doing homework together. Then at half past 11, after everyone else had gone to bed, we slipped out of the window and climbed down the pine tree to the ground; then went around the side of the house and over the fence to get into the front yard.

Quite a few people were already there when we turned up: Marc, Lucien, Amelia, Stella, Serena, Sophie, Lisa, Daniel, Liam, Sebastian and Tommy. The front door was unlocked and the main entrance to the hidden quarters was wide open, but Marc and Amelia were standing in the hallway, clearly acting as magical guards until the meeting commenced.

When we asked Lucien about the setup, he laughed. “Well you know this house does link fairly closely to the Hammerson base,” he said as we took seats. “So it’s pretty important to make sure none of them can get in.”

The rest of the Young Army turned up over the next ten minutes. Marc sealed the hidden quarters wordlessly when all twenty-eight of us were present. We were now enclosed in a dimly lit room where the walls on all sides were entirely grey. If I’d been in here alone, I wouldn’t have known the two doors from anything else. The twenty-eight seats were set up in a circle around the room, with Marc, Lucien, Amelia and Stella sitting in seats nearest the door through which we’d all come. The circle was exactly the same size and shape as it had been on Sunday, though people weren't sitting in the same spots.

“Righto,” said Marc, causing the room to go silent. “I now call this, the second official meeting of the Young Army, to order. That felt good to say,” he added, and a few people laughed. “Okay, well some of you already know what this is about, but for those who don’t, Stella, why don’t you fill us in.”

Stella reiterated what Marc had already told us over the next few minutes, detailing the idea about her party and the possible dangers thereof. Most people’s faces were extremely mistrusting. I watched Lucien’s face closely, but got no hint of a clue as to what he thought of it all. Stella said that she’d told her family that she would only go along with them if they weren’t allowed to use magic, and had sealed a pact with them to make sure they wouldn’t. The previous evening, under Marc’s advice, she had made them seal another pact to ensure that no magical items were used during the party either.

“So that means we’re safe?” David enquired.

“It means that no magic can be used at all, and that includes magic not performed directly by a Sorcerer,” said Amelia. “I expect that even if I performed magic in there, the pact would break.”

“What happens if the pact is broken?” asked Sebastian.

“Well if it’s broken by my family or anyone using magic provided by my family,” said Stella, “the effects will fall back on my father and my grandmother. If any of us did,” she looked around at Marc and Amelia, “I think it’s likely that we’ll cop the effects ourselves. I don’t think anything will happen to any of their workers if they used magical devices.”

“What effects?” asked Sebastian curiously.

“Normally it would be death,” said Stella. “But Sorcerers can’t die, so I expect it’ll be something really bad.”

“How likely is it that we could get through the party without coming face-to-face with your family?” asked Kylie.

“I don’t know,” said Stella. “I know it’ll be a big place and there’ll be a lot of people there, so I suppose it’s possible, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”

“Do you know if anything’s going on?” asked James. “I mean, do you think your family’s planning something?”

Stella nodded, and a lot of people’s jaws dropped in horror. “I think there must be a motive behind it other than my birthday, but I’m doing all I can to prevent whatever it is from happening. I just want it to be about me for a change, and they know they can’t do it without my cooperation, so that’s how I can get these things to work. Normally they wouldn’t listen to anything I say, but this time they have to.”

“But you think they’re up to something?”

“I think there’s gotta be something in it for them,” she said. “But I don’t think it’ll work for them now. If they can’t use magic then I can’t see it working. They were extremely unhappy about the pact, especially my father. And they can’t cancel it.”

“You really want us there, don’t you?” asked Natalie.

Stella blinked, and I was worried she might start crying. Her face was full of emotion as she said, “All I want is a bit of support for a change.”

Whether it was her words, or just the look on her face, most people’s expressions changed along with hers.

“We’re right behind you,” said Katie.

“Yeah, nothing wrong with a good bash,” said Sebastian, grinning.

Stella looked around, surprised by the amount of support she was suddenly receiving. “Really?” she said. “Are you sure?”

“Count us in,” said Lisa. “It’s daring, but what the heck.”

“How on earth are we going to get our mums to let us go?” asked Jessica dully.

My stomach lurched. There was so much about this party that our parents wouldn’t approve of. The fact that Jessica was the only one of us not under sixteen, the fact that we would be hanging around with the Hammersons and their supporters, the fact that the party would probably go late into the night, the fact that we were grounded and shouldn’t be going to parties regardless of who they were with … this was going to be difficult.

“Leave that to me,” said Amelia. “I think there might be a swift way to convince stubborn parents to be lenient for one night.”

I grinned, sure that Amelia knew what she was talking about. This Saturday was looking like it was going to be a fun evening, especially if no magic could be performed. I would have to remember to keep my hand away from my pocket, though, to keep myself from doing any accidental magic. This thought made me foresee a great danger, and I determined to prevent it immediately.

“If we can’t do magic there,” I said, “then perhaps we should keep the crystals away. They wouldn’t need magic to get them; they’d just have to get loads of guys onto us and search our pockets.”

Stella’s eyes widened in horror. “I never thought of that. That might even be their plan. No, don’t take them; we’ll have to lock them up somewhere, where no one but us can get them.”

“I suppose I’d better take them then,” said Amelia. “There’s an area in my house that’s probably the most secure place in the world. I’ll put them down there for the night.”

“Are you going to tell your dad about this?” Peter asked Amelia.

“I already have,” she said. “And he shares my views of it. He trusts Stella after spending time with her when we were cleaning up the mess Moran left behind, and he thinks the precautions already in place will be good enough.”

“Do you still have the Light Crystal, John?” Marc asked, turning to me.

“Yep,” I said, taking it out of my pocket and showing them. “No one’s made any attempt to nick it yet.”

“I don’t think anyone will,” he said. “Not until they realise we’ve got it, anyway. No one’s made an attempt to attack me yet either. Perhaps they’re just biding their time.”

“Okay, so have we come to any decisions here tonight?” asked Lucien.

“Are we all in favour of attending Stella’s birthday party?” Marc asked. “All raise hands.”

Everyone raised their hand, including James, which was a big surprise; perhaps what Peter had said was quite right.

“Wow, thanks guys,” said Stella, shaking her head in amazement.

“So what do we get you, anyway?” asked Harry.

“Aw nuts, I’m no good at buying for chicks,” said Liam.

“What? Oh no, don’t worry about that,” said Stella quickly. “I can get whatever I need with magic. Just you being there is enough of a gift for me.”

“Simple, and inexpensive,” said Liam. “I wish all chicks were like that.”

That remark earned him glares from various quarters.

“Okay, well I’ll let Marc know where it will be and what time,” said Stella, interrupting the glares around the room. “And you guys just pass the information around. But make sure no one overhears you.”

“I think I’ll announce it the same way I announced the meeting,” said Marc. “I’m glad it worked; everyone’s here anyway.”

“That’s a better idea,” said Amelia approvingly.

“Right,” said Marc, checking his watch. “Thank God this meeting was quick. Does anyone have anything they want to say before we adjourn?”

I looked around, expecting everyone to be satisfied; apart from perhaps James, who was hardly ever satisfied. But he was motionless. To my surprise, however, Harry and Simon both raised their hands in unison.

“Go on,” said Marc, nodding at them.

“We had a lot of trouble getting out of our house this evening,” said Harry. “Is there any way you could use magic to make it easier to get here?”

Marc and the two Sorcerers looked at one another. Finally Stella said, “I suppose magical doors might work, like what we used a fair bit last week, but I’m not willing to do them in everyone’s houses. Plus we’d have to go get you each time.”

“Perhaps if we could teleport them all here,” suggested Amelia. “Perhaps if we put a further enchantment on the mobile phones so that they teleport the person holding them to wherever Marc is at the time?”

“That would work,” said Stella excitedly.

“As long as you still let us know before you teleport us,” said Sebastian. “You never know what we could be doing.”

“Of course,” said Amelia, raising her eyebrows at Sebastian.

“All in favour of Amelia’s suggestion,” said Marc, and every single person raised their hand yet again. “Excellent. So Amelia, do you know what you’re doing?”

“Yep,” she said. “Everyone get your phones out.”

She enchanted hers and Stella’s first, then slowly worked her way around the group, though she decided not to bother with Lucien’s, as he would be with Marc most of the time anyway. When she had finished, Marc called the meeting to a close and reopened the hidden quarters for us all to leave. The walk back in the dark made me realise just how tired I was all of a sudden, and by the time I climbed back into our room, I plonked down on my bed and fell asleep before I could even get changed. Unfortunately, my sleep was not very restful.

Twice the previous week, I had dreamt of the Main Hall on Rock Haulter—the place we had been camping and had retrieved the Sien-Leoard Crystal. At least I thought the first dream was of the Main Hall, though its insides had been slightly different to what I had seen in reality. The dream I had on this night looked fairly similar to that one. I was standing just inside the doors to the Main Hall, staring straight across to the front, where in reality, the vice principal had stood, lecturing us. I wasn’t the only one there; people were standing in two lines on either side of me, stretching from where I stood to the far end. Marc, Lucien, Tommy and Daniel stood closest to me, but they were the only other males. Katie, Sophie, Kylie and Erica were in the line to my left, while Natalie, Serena, Lena and Amelia were in the line to the right.

Stella was also there, standing between the two lines, pretty much in the centre of the area we occupied. She was staring at her feet, pink and blue party streamers hanging limply from her hands. It was one of the saddest things I’d ever seen, and filled me with such enormous pity that all I wanted to do was run forward and hug her. Yet I couldn’t; the state of the dream prevented me from doing so, but more, I just knew that this was a situation that had to be handled with great caution and care.

I took a step forward, and everyone in the room bar Stella seemed to become aware of my presence. Slowly, as though the floor beneath them were moving rather than they themselves, the dozen of them moved backward, fading slowly off to the sides of my vision and then beyond. I felt nothing with regard to this, barely noticing that both Natalie and Lena had just left me alone with Stella, and not until later would I contemplate if there were any meaning in that part of the dream, for it was eclipsed by what followed.

With my next step forward, Stella finally looked up, her eyes on some part of my midriff. Slowly, she too took a step forward, and with that step came something both beautiful and terrifying in equal measure. Her bright blue eyes finally met mine, and both her hair and the streamers in her hands suddenly danced, as though caught in a high wind nobody but she could feel. It made her look as though she were in a halo, and the sight filled me with great awe.

At the same time, upon eye contact, I felt a great swooping sensation inside my body, the same as what I had felt in a very similar dream in which Stella and I had made eye contact. On that occasion, I had thrashed around in bed for a minute before hurling myself onto the floor and, of course, waking my brother. On this occasion, I found myself crouching on my bed under the covers, drenched in sweat again and facing the foot of my bed. How I had got in that position was anyone’s guess. Fortunately, at least, Peter was still asleep.

* * *

Much of the following day passed in a blur for me, due to the fact that I was tired from not having a good night’s sleep the night before. Science and History were first up in the morning, and both subjects passed with no event. Maths and English were next, during which our Maths teacher—Mrs. Parker—gave us a mountain of homework that had to be done by the next day’s lesson.

“Evil, she is,” Peter was saying on the way to English. “I’ve got no hope in hell of getting that done, not with this loony keeping me for three more hours this afternoon.”

Recess and lunch also passed without mention of what we’d discussed at the meeting. The conversation was, as always, heading in no particular direction, although Peter actually brought his Maths homework out with him and was working on it while the rest of us were chatting. I knew I ought to follow his lead, but honestly I didn’t feel like working hard at that moment.

By the end of the day, I was fully awake. I survived IT and Commerce okay, anyway, and then realised that I’d got my wits about me just in time for my last detention. For the time being anyway, for I’d already decided that I wasn’t going to be in detention long. I caressed the hanky covering the Light Crystal as I walked towards Room 12, sure that that I was up to whatever Hall had in store for me. He turned up not long after we got to the room, pushing the trolley of terror, as ever.

“Are we going to have to do this every day, sir?” asked Simon. “It’s getting boring.”

“Indeed you are, Maivis,” said Hall, stopping and unlocking the door. “You’ve survived two days and have thirteen lying ahead of you. I must say, you’re doing a fairly good job now; you’re improving your writing skills. Hopefully that transfers over to your English work.”

There were once again eight people in detention: Justin, who was on his second last; Tulip, who was on her last; George, who was on his last; and Ellie, also on her last. I knew, however, that there were a few others from the French class still owing Hall. Detention would be full again before long. We settled ourselves down, and waited for Hall to put our lines on the board.

But instead of writing a line for me, Hall smirked. “Don’t get too comfortable, Playman,” he said, turning to me. “You asked for something more difficult to do this afternoon, remember? I am happy to provide. Just wait while I sort the rest of them out, then I’ll assign you your task.”

“Er—okay,” I said a little nervously. This might be a bit of a problem. If I wasn’t doing lines, then I couldn’t be sure the crystal would work as effectively as it had yesterday, and that might mean I was here for longer than I anticipated. Doing something more difficult.

Hall wrote the lines up for the others, told them to get to work, and then beckoned for me to follow him. He took me down the corridor, but I barely had time to wonder where he was taking me when he walked straight into Room 11. It was a classroom much the same as Room 12, and it was empty, apart from the tables and chairs. I thought perhaps he just wanted me to do my lines away from the others; well that was no more difficult at all.

“I had to twist a few limbs to arrange this for you,” he said, moving to the front desk, opening a drawer, and pulling something out. “But I think, knowing your streak of pride, you’ll enjoy the challenge.”

I felt indignant. Pride was certainly not one of my greater traits; I didn’t think so anyway, but my curiosity overpowered my ill feelings towards him.

“So what do I have to do?” I asked.

“This is a little game,” he said. “Where your powers of resistance will be tested. You will be presented with many temptations you must resist, and many hardships you must battle through. Be sure you resist, though, because the more you give in to temptations and fail to deal with traumas, the more you will suffer for it. The worst case scenario may be that you … never return.”

I gulped—was he serious? “How do I know when I’m done?” I asked.

“You will merely pass through stages—rooms, if you will, and you will know when you’re finished,” he said, smirking in such a way that I felt extremely nervous.

He put the thing he was holding down on a table between us, and I stared at it. It looked quite unremarkable—merely a metal box with two sides that were slightly open. But I didn’t have any more time to wonder, because Hall had moved to my side of the desk, grabbed my arm, and thrust my hand through the open part of the box closest to me. I felt my world tilt, and then I was falling through a whirl of colour and sound.