I stared down at the stone, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. There were veins running through the crystal, converging towards its tip, and the centre had a hollow like that of a very small volcano. Resting in the hollow was a shard of the same crystal, but brighter, clearer. Somehow, I knew that it would come away if I reached for it.
A voice in my mind spoke up. Pretty sure that’s what we’re looking for.
Screw that! the other half of my mind said. Where the hell did he go? And what was he?
Which were two very good questions that I had absolutely no clue how to answer, so I scanned the futures for what would happen if I picked up the shard. Once I was reasonably sure that it wasn’t going to poison, burn, electrocute, or otherwise inconvenience me, I leant forward and clasped my hand around the crystal. It resisted slightly, then came away. The veins running through the mound pulsed once, then went dark.
I looked at the shard. It was small enough for my fingers to wrap around, but it was heavy. I had no idea what it was made of, but I was pretty sure this was what we were looking for. I’d need to get it back to Arachne to check, but before I could do that I needed to find—
“Alex,” Anne’s voice said from behind me.
I jumped, spinning around with my heart pounding in my chest. I never get surprised like that, and more times than I can count that’s been the only thing that’s kept me alive, yet here in this place I apparently couldn’t even walk around a corner without missing something crucial. It was starting to really scare me now. What would happen when I met something actually dangerous? “Jesus,” I said. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry,” Anne said, but she sounded distracted. She nodded towards my hand. “Did you find one too?”
“Yeah—wait. What do you mean, ‘too’?”
In answer, Anne lifted something in her hand. It was a dark purplish-black, gleaming in the light, similar to the crystal I was carrying but slightly smaller. “I think it wanted to be found,” Anne said.
“Never mind that,” I said. Now that the initial rush of relief had worn off, I was angry. “What were you thinking, running off like that? You could have been lost here.”
“I don’t think it would have wanted that.”
I threw up my hands in frustration. “You know what? Let’s just get out of here.”
“Is there anything you want to tell me?”
I looked at Anne, puzzled. “What?”
“Anything you want to tell me,” Anne said. Her reddish eyes were dark as she watched me.
“What kind of thing?”
Anne stared at me for a long moment. “Okay,” she said at last.
I shook my head. “Look, let’s just open the gate. I don’t like this place.”
Anne crossed to my side and I took out the gate stone, turning it around in my hand. “Did you see anything when you picked it up?” Anne asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Did you?”
“Yes,” Anne said. There was something distant in her voice.
I kept focusing on the gate, starting to weave the spell. “What did you see?”
There was a moment’s pause before Anne answered, and when she did her voice was suddenly cold. “Something about you.”
Agony shot through me, spiking through my limbs. The gate stone dropped from my hand as I collapsed, shuddering; the floor was cold and smooth against my cheek. I couldn’t move or think. My muscles were burning.
A hand grabbed me, dragging me onto my back. Through hazy eyes, I could see Anne bending over me, her face contorted with rage. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I stared at Anne in shock. I couldn’t understand it. Anne would never hurt me; this had to be some kind of mistake—
“I trusted you!” Anne’s face twisted into a snarl. “And you did this! This!” Her fingers touched my chest, and I felt a spell weaving.
A terrible pain flashed through me, a ripping, tearing sensation that made me convulse, followed by a horrible silence. I couldn’t hear anything and my limbs felt still, leaden, with a terrible sense of pressure. My heart wasn’t beating. I tried to open my mouth, tried to speak, but my muscles wouldn’t obey me. A grey veil was falling over my eyes.
“I trusted you,” Anne said again. She was staring down at me, and the light was fading from all around, the room going from purple to grey to black. As it slipped away, my last sight was of those furious eyes—
| | | | | | | | |
I jerked upright with a gasp. I was lying on the floor next to the crystal mound and I looked around wildly. There was no sign of the boy, or of Anne. Clutched in my hand was a shard of amethyst, small but heavy. My fingers were wrapped around it, and when with an effort I made them release, I could see white and red lines where the crystal’s edges had sunk into my hands. The floor was smooth and cold.
Movement in the futures. Someone was coming and I twisted around, staring at the corridor from which I’d entered. I saw who it was going to be and sudden fear spiked through me.
A figure appeared, tall and slender, with shoulder-length hair. “Alex?” Anne said. Her eyes went down to the shard of crystal in my hand. “Did you find one too?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.
Anne looked down at me, frowning. “Alex?”
I took a breath, then another. I looked at the futures, searching for any sign of danger, and found nothing. But then, I hadn’t seen any danger before, either, and my divination wasn’t working the way it should be—
“What’s wrong?”
I tried to speak, failed, cleared my throat, and tried again. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” Anne said doubtfully. She walked towards me, reaching out a hand.
I flinched. It was only a small movement, but Anne stopped dead. I scrambled to my feet. “I’m all right.”
“I could check—” Anne began.
“No,” I said quickly. All of a sudden I didn’t want Anne touching me. “It’s okay.”
Anne was looking at me. She didn’t come any closer and there was a puzzled, hurt look in her eyes. I dragged my gaze away. “What did you find?” I said.
“This,” Anne said, and I knew what she was going to show me before she held it up. A shard of crystal, a dark purplish black, smaller than the one I was holding but similar in its design . . .
“Alex?” Anne asked when I didn’t speak.
I didn’t want to look; just a glimpse of the dreamstone brought the memory back. “Yeah.”
“Don’t you want to check?”
“It’s what we’re looking for,” I said. I didn’t meet her gaze. “Good job.”
“I know you said to stay together,” Anne said. “But it felt as though something was calling me, and I knew it’d be . . .” She frowned, paused. “Did something . . . happen when you found that?”
I opened my mouth, began to answer, then found myself looking into Anne’s eyes. Reddish brown, just as they had been before, and a shiver went through me and suddenly the thought of telling her about it was more than I could face. “It’s fine,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Anne gave a dubious nod, stepping closer. She was watching me closely and I managed not to pull away this time, but I could feel her eyes on me.
| | | | | | | | |
We stepped through into bright, peaceful light. The multicoloured sky of the Hollow was all around us and the branches of the great tree hung overhead. As I looked through the futures I could see that they were solid once more, and I closed my eyes and sagged in relief. I did not want to do that again.