Chimera Book One

Chapter Twelve

The dust cleared to reveal the figure of a boy.  He was a little older than Kyp and wearing a school uniform, his white shirt untucked and the knot of his navy blue tie pulled tight.  The boy’s face was pale and streaked with dirt.  His thick blonde hair clung to his forehead in clumps. 

Before Kyp could so much as say ‘hello’, Atticus appeared, manoeuvring his body between the two boys and hissing at the dishevelled stranger.  The boy in the school uniform let out a cry of alarm, his arms covering his face.

‘Atticus, what are you doing?’ cried Kyp.

‘It’s a trap!  This child arrived in Chimera days ago.  I was there when Madame Chartreuse took him. I saw it happen.  No child but you has ever escaped her.  It’s a ploy, like the mannequin before him.  He’s bait, Kyp.  She’s sent this child to ensnare you.’

‘Please,’ said the boy in the school uniform, his eyes watery and wide. ‘I don’t know where I am.  I don’t know what’s happening.’           

Kyp stepped from behind the protective barrier of Atticus’s body.

‘No, Kyp!  Stay back!  What are you doing?  I was there.  I saw Madame Chartreuse take him.’

‘His twin,’ saidKyp. ‘You saw Madame Chartreuse take his twin. Which one are you?  Joe or Jamie?’

‘Jamie,’ said the boy. ‘Jamie Bean.’

Kyp nodded. ‘I recognised your face from the newspapers.  Everyone’s looking for you.’

‘We didn’t mean to cause any trouble.  We didn’t want to go to school, that’s all. We had double maths with Mr Wittering.  It was Joe’s idea we get on a different bus.  It’s always his idea.  I don’t know how, but when we got off, we ended up here.  We got separated.  I’ve been looking for him ever since.’

Atticus eyed the boy suspiciously. ‘Was it you following us in the Lumen Arboretum?’

‘I just wanted to ask you if you’d seen him, but then there were all these sparks and explosions -.’

‘It’s okay.  My name’s Kyp.  This is Atticus.  You don’t need to be scared of him.  He’s a friend.’

‘I’m afraid your brother is a prisoner of Madame Chartreuse,’ said Atticus.

‘A prisoner?  Why?  What happened?  What did he do?’

‘It’s not what he’s done.  It’s what he has.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘But you can see it, right?’ asked Kyp.

Jamie Bean shimmered the way the horizon did on a hot sunny day.  There was a play of light around him like sunlight on a swimming pool.  It was brightest around his face and hands. When he moved, he left a faint trail or after-image, a ghostly trace.  Kyp couldn’t help but stare.

‘I’m glowing, right?’ said Jamie. ‘It started the moment we arrived. You’re doing it too.’

Atticus gave Kyp a satisfied smile. 

‘And it’s not something bad?’

‘It’s something good,’ said Kyp. ‘It’s your Elsewhere Light.  You shining like that means you can get out of this place.  It means you can go home.’

Jamie took a small step back. ‘I’m not going anywhere without my brother.’

‘Then I’ll help you,’ Kyp said at once. ‘I’ll help you find him.’

‘What?’ said Atticus. ‘Go looking for Madame Chartreuse? Absolutely not! You have an Elsewhere Light, Kyp.  I don’t know why you can’t see it, but I can see it, and Jamie can see it.  There are those in Chimera who would kill for what you have; the chance to go back.’

‘You didn’t see them,’ said Kyp.

‘See who?’

‘Jamie’s mum and dad.  They were on the news.’

Kyp turned to Jamie.  ‘A policewoman was holding your mum’s hand.  They miss you so much.’

‘What you’re proposing is too dangerous,’ said Atticus. ‘No one even knows where she keeps the children.  If you go looking for Madame Chartreuse, if I let you, it’s like I’m taking you to her myself.  I’m supposed to be getting you home, Kyp.’

‘You know what’s it like to be separated, Atticus, to be one of a pair, you more than anyone.  We have to try, right?’

Atticus didn’t reply.  He was staring over Jamie’s head, looking across the plateau towards the steep mountainside.  The cave they’d exited had led them out onto a barren plateau, littered with derelict objects and shapeless lumps of stone.  Above them, loomed the imposing summit of Perdu Peak.  Below was a valley, lush with bright plumes of feather dusters. 

‘I’m going to find Joe Bean,’ Kyp said to Atticus. ‘Will you help me?’

‘Then go,’ instructed Atticus. ‘Now.’

Kyp’s heart sank.

‘You won’t help us?’

‘Go!’ Atticus commanded, and now Kyp saw the shapeless lumps of stone scattered about the plateau were nothing of the sort.  He watched them stretch, limbs unfolding with a noise like the grinding of millstones.  Not stones, but hissing concrete hedgehogs, snarling squirrels and fat-faced cherubs spitting stinking, stagnant water.

Jamie backed away in alarm as more garden ornaments heaved themselves up and prowled towards them.  A big concrete lion pawed the ground impatiently, its body blistered with moss.  A gang of gnomes cracked their fishing rods like whips.

‘I’ll hold them here,’ said Atticus.           

‘I’m not leaving you,’ said Kyp.

‘You must,’ said Atticus, his tail going about Kyp shoulders for the briefest moment.  ‘Find Jamie’s brother, Kyp.  Reunite them.  Get them home.  You’re right.  You have to try.  Do what I can’t, what I never could.  Promise me.’

The gnomes broke formation and rushed towards them like a chevron of missiles.  With one swipe of his tail, Atticus scattered them like skittles.  The stone lion gave a terrifying roar and charged.

‘Run,’ said Atticus, and the two boys did, sprinting towards the edge of the plateau.  Kyp looked back to see the lion pounce, pinning Atticus to the ground. He saw white lint fly up into the air and blow away like snowflakes.

‘No!’ he screamed, looking around for a weapon.

A dark shape swooped suddenly from above, a concrete eagle, its beak lethal, and its talons out-stretched.  With a sudden sharp squeeze, it picked up Kyp by his shoulders and carried him into the air.  Kyp struggled furiously, the material of his jumper tearing, and then he was falling back towards the ground. He slammed into Jamie and both boys staggered backwards in a tangle of limbs. The eagle screeched, plunging towards them, but they were rolling down the embankment, their descent throwing up gusts of dust. 

On and on they tumbled, until finally, the boys’ descent came to an end, their bodies crashing into a gaudy sprout of feather dusters.  Jamie cried out as their heads banged together with a nasty crunch.  In the moments before passing out, Kyp was aware of an exciting murmur.

‘Just look at their Elsewhere Lights!’

‘Are they dolls?’

‘No.  Look, they’re not even chipped.’

‘Puppets then?  Are they puppets?’

‘No strings.’

‘Statues?’

‘No.’

‘What then?’

‘I don’t believe it.’

Something touched Kyp’s face.  There was a gasp of amazement.

‘They’re children.’