The Other Side

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Cindy strode nervously up and down the corridor. A man in a velvet cloak with golden strips along the borders stood by the door that led into the Law Lords' private chambers. His eyes followed her as she walked, and his face grew increasingly agitated, but he said nothing.

So she continued to pace.

It had been two weeks since she had met Thomas Skinner, ten days since she had returned home, a week since she had submitted her report on the magical signature found on the Other Side and now she was here, in the House of Lords, summoned by the Law Lords.

It wasn't unheard of, Guardians being called before the Law Lords. It was usually for one of two reasons. Either to congratulate a Guardian returning victorious from an incredibly difficult quest, or to admonish one who had not only failed, but managed to do so spectacularly.

As hard as she tried, Cindy couldn't think of anything she had done that deserved their adulation. It had to be for the latter reason. She had failed and she thought she knew how.

It was supposed to be simple. Something on the Other Side was using magic. It happened occasionally and it was always pixies. The Great Barrier kept their two worlds and everything within them separate – apart from pixies.

Somehow, the little fairy-look-alike creatures would find a way past it. And once through, they would head straight for the Wanderers' towns and cities to create mischief and wreak havoc.

It was the Other Sider's job to bring them back, to keep their worlds separate: the magical from the non-magical, the wizards from the Wanderers. And that was why she was there, to bring the pixie back.

But it wasn't a pixie that was using magic.

It was a boy.

She didn't know what to make of him at first. He was too young to be an Other Sider. And the Great Barrier only allowed Other Siders to pass. So what was he doing there? When she had walked up to him and demanded to know, he'd played innocent, even acted as if she were the crazy one.

Cindy had left him there on the park bench. The improbability of the scenario had her convinced it was a test of some sort. She already knew he lived in a house. Her first stop was the local secondary school to see if he had been enrolled there as part of an elaborate ruse.

That was where it all fell apart.

She found him. And he wasn't a recent recruit. She managed to trace him back all the way down to nursery and even a hospital he was supposedly born in. That could only mean one thing. A family of wizards were living on the Other Side.

How long had they been there? How had they avoided using magic for so long? How had they passed through the Great Barrier?

She'd gone to find Tom again. He was in the park, sitting on the bench, alone. She followed him around for a day. She saw his family: his mother, his father, his sister. They weren't wizards.

They were Wanderers.

As if it weren't confusing enough, she had to remind herself Wanderers didn't give birth to wizards. That was just stupid. It was like a cow giving birth to a goat. It didn't happen.

In her defence, she had written in her report that the magical signature came from a boy wizard who appeared to have been born on the Other Side to Wanderer parents. It was a stupid thing to write, but what other option did she have? And now she was here, in the House of Lords.

She had heard stories about them. Sometimes, when they were in a bad mood or just bored, they looked for people to punish. Maybe this was one of those instances.

"They will see you now," the man by the door said.

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