Darke Academy 4: Lost Spirits (14 page)

Cassie seized Ranjit, catching him in her arms and staggering backwards. Just feeling him against her gave her renewed strength. Keeping one arm protectively around him, she raised the Knife, her teeth gritted.

Brigitte saw what had happened first, and spun round with a snarl.

But Cassie realised she couldn’t protect Ranjit and keep her eyes on them both. Katerina’s blow came from her blind side, knocking her back against the wall and stunning stars into her vision. She scrambled up, just in time to feel Brigitte’s boot connect with her ribcage, kicking her back down. The Knife spun from her grip.

No! This couldn’t happen! Summoning every last scrap of the power inside her, Cassie felt her eyes burn red as she stood over Ranjit, snarling and lashing out with her projected spirit. She put everything into it, striking out viciously at the two women.

They reeled, raising their arms to shield themselves by reflex, but they didn’t fall. They barely tottered. Cassie screamed with frustration as their joint power flung her back yet again, so that she stumbled over Ranjit’s prone body and fell. Brigitte flew for the Knife, reaching it before Cassie had even got back on her feet.

God, she had to think of something! Feeling blood trickle into her eyes, Cassie wiped it furiously away with a fist as she gasped for breath. Beyond Brigitte and Katerina, that weird light was now intense, roiling and pulsing, and in a hideous instant Cassie recognised its shape. It was the Urn – the Urn—

The women were using it somehow, drawing strength from it. Its light seemed to engulf Brigitte and Katerina, intensifying the spirit-light in their chests, until the two women were blindingly bright themselves. And unbeatable—

The knowledge crashed into Cassie’s brain with appalling certainty. For the first time she panicked, striking violently, wildly, but the women fell on her with fists and feet, and pain seemed to explode all over her body at once.

‘Kill her!’ screamed Brigitte. ‘Once and for all!’

Lifting her fists to strike them back, Cassie didn’t even have time to project her power before she was struck to the ground again, slammed and kicked. Despair struck her at the same time, with a gut-punch force. She had to get away, get away or die—

Through blood-blinded red vision she saw the backpack. It was within her reach, discarded on the ground as her enemies focused on the joy of giving her a thrashing, of finally doing away with her. With a grunt of desperation Cassie grabbed at the pack, her fingers closing on its strap. She didn’t want to give it up – with the Pendant gone too, all would certainly be lost – but she knew, very suddenly and surely through the pain and shock, that she was out of options. She and Ranjit would die here if she didn’t do this.

Cassie managed to get her legs underneath her, scramble to her feet and propel herself upright, swaying as Brigitte and Katerina came at her again. With the last of her strength, Cassie swung back the backpack and flung it hard at the glowing Urn.

‘Take it!’ she screamed.

A direct hit. It crashed into the Urn, knocking it backwards so that it bounced and rolled back into the next room, the backpack flying after it. Brigitte and Katerina howled as one, and turned to sprint after it. Cassie didn’t waste even a fraction of a second. She stumbled to Ranjit, hauling his arm across her shoulders and half-dragging him out of the Palace ruins.

She hadn’t broken the Urn; not only had she heard it bounce and roll, she didn’t believe for a moment that victory would be so easy. But she must have put the fear of God into Katerina and Brigitte, because they didn’t follow, too concerned with the Urn and any possible damage to it. Hauling Ranjit with her, she dragged him on, pulling him through the entrance archway desperately, expecting the women’s vengeful return at any moment.

But there was no sign or sound of them. Well, why would they bother? They had all three artefacts now. They had no further use for her – they knew she was defeated. Gasping for breath, Cassie stumbled through the ruins, Ranjit a sluggish weight against her.

But I have Ranjit…I do have him…

Somehow, it didn’t calm the sickening sensation of failure and horror in her gut. Oh God, Cassie, she thought, as she pulled Ranjit past the ticket office and away from the ruins. What have you done?!

She couldn’t think about it, not now. All that mattered was getting Ranjit away and to safety. She didn’t know how they’d drugged him, or what they’d done to him before that, but he wasn’t looking good.

Her strength gave way just beyond the ruins, at the roadside. Stumbling, she let Ranjit slump against a wall. Leaning on her thighs, panting for breath, aching all over from her beating, Cassie let her breath slow and, finally, calm.

At last she allowed herself to really study the long, lean figure laid on the ground beside her. It was him. This was no dream, like the ones that had haunted her since she watched him flee from the Hagia Sophia. It was Ranjit, and he was with her, for now, no matter the circumstances.

She couldn’t fight it any more – all she wanted was to feel him in her arms. Kneeling, Cassie pulled his body towards her, hugging him to her hard, caressing his blood-soaked hair, kissing his face and his eyes, feeling tears of exhaustion and relief trickle down on to his skin.

A single sob escaped; then she sat back on her heels and took his beautiful face in her hands. Stroking his cheekbones with her thumbs, she begged him inwardly.

Oh, wake up. Please wake up …

His dark eyelashes trembled. Leaning close, she kissed his eyes and mouth and skin.

‘Wake up,’ she whispered urgently. ‘Oh, Ranjit. Please be OK. Please.’

His golden eyes flickered open. For long moments they were blurred, seeming to look through and past her, and then, miraculously, they focused, and something like a smile twitched the corner of his mouth.

‘Ranjit?’

‘Cassie … Cassie …’

‘It’s me,’ she whispered, her voice ragged.

‘Oh my God. Cassie. Wh-what happened?’

‘It doesn’t matter. You’re all right. I’ve got you.’

His fingers closed around her wrists as if he wanted to make sure, to feel the strength of her pulse. ‘Cassie …’ Reaching out, he touched her face.

‘It’s OK, really. I’m here.’

‘Oh thank God. Thank God.’ He wrapped his arms round her, and she felt tears sting her eyes at the weakness of his grip.

‘Ranjit …’ She could hardly stand to make him stop. ‘We have to get moving. We’re not safe yet.’

‘All right …’ He looked up into her eyes, and suddenly his smile faded. The skin between his eyes creased with a terrible anxiety.

‘Wait, Cassie – the artefacts …’ But his eyelids were drooping again.

‘Ranjit?’

‘You mustn’t let them …’

‘Ranjit?’ she said, her voice panicked.

He slumped back, limp again, his eyes closed.

Cassie stared at him, her mind in turmoil. He was breathing softly, passed out again.

She swallowed. But I have you, she thought. I have you, Ranjit, and that’s the most important thing right now. The rest, I’ll deal with when I get us out of here …

Quite right, my dear! Don’t worry about those old relics! Let’s go home!

‘Shut up, Estelle!’ Cassie snapped. But remembering it was the spirit’s cooperation that had helped her get Ranjit back, she softened slightly. ‘Like you should be calling anything an old relic,’ she muttered.

Such petulance, my dear! You should be thankful
.

The spirit sounded brighter and bouncier than she had in a long time, Cassie thought darkly. And understandably, because without the Knife and the Pendant … No. She wouldn’t even think about it till she got Ranjit to safety.

That, of course, was going to be a challenge, with him unconscious once more, his breath barely stirring in his lungs, and them more than seventy miles from the Academy. Tears sprang to Cassie’s eyes, but she blinked them away. Ranjit was relying on her, whether he knew it or not.

Her physical strength, at least, was returning; she could feel the powerful adrenalin of desperation flowing in her blood and muscles. The spirit inside her was growing hungry after the effort of the fight and the beating she’d taken, but she had to get Ranjit away from here. Getting to her feet, Cassie hauled him up. It took three tries, but at last she got her arm securely under him and she could hoist him up with a grunt. Cassie staggered out into the road, dragging him with her.

And what are you going to do now? Walk to Mombasa?

The sun was below the horizon, and the sky was darkening fast; they mustn’t be here much longer. Cassie was thinking so furiously, and with such a crushing sense of hopelessness, she barely heard the throaty rumble of a vehicle.

At last it penetrated the fog of her thoughts. It was racing towards her from the north, its engine sounding tortured, the gears grinding as it skidded round the nearest corner. Cassie had time only to drop Ranjit like a sack of potatoes, and then stumble out into the road, waving her arms wildly.

The
matatu
swerved and jolted to a stop, stalling only a couple of metres away from her. Its driver goggled at her through the dirty windscreen; it wasn’t her previous
matatu
and driver, she realised with a gasp of relief – the one who had clearly been under instructions from the Svenssons. And even more to her relief, the vehicle was empty.

Before this driver could gun the ignition again, Cassie jumped on board, tugging her battered wallet from her back pocket. She flourished it at him.

‘Hey! No, no. I’m going home,’ he protested. ‘Day’s over,
mzungu
.’

‘Please. Wait. I’ll pay you. I’ll pay you whatever you want. Private hire.’

He hesitated, looking at the notes. She was glad she’d brought so much. ‘Where to?’

‘Mombasa.’ She hesitated. ‘Well, just past Mombasa.’

He eyed her suspiciously. ‘That will cost you a lot of money.’

‘I don’t care.’ Cassie glanced back at Ranjit, slumped in the road like a corpse.

‘What’s wrong with him?’

‘He’s … he’s very drunk. I need to get him back to school. We’ll get in trouble.’ Cassie took a deep breath. ‘I’ll pay whatever you want. Please.’ She racked her brain for a useful phrase. ‘
Tafadhali
.’

He made a face, then looked out at the road.

‘
Ndiyo
. Get your friend.’

Cassie stayed wide awake through this journey; her bones were too rattled, her brain buzzing, for any sleep now. Nor could she bear to think about the ramifications of what she’d done; all she could do was stare down at Ranjit and stroke his bruised but beautiful face. He lay across her lap, not stirring, barely breathing, his body jolting violently every time the
matatu
hit a pothole. She held him as tightly as she dared, trying to cushion his body against the wild ride. Occasionally he half-woke, and gave a groan of pain, but he always slipped back into oblivion. In some ways she was glad. Ranjit had been on the run from all of this; she doubted he’d come back to the Academy with her voluntarily.

It was the smallest, darkest hours of the tropical night when the
matatu
finally bumped to a halt at the end of the school’s drive. The driver clearly couldn’t wait to get back home, and Cassie was just as eager to get into the school unseen. She emptied the contents of her wallet into his hands and dragged the half-conscious Ranjit quickly from the vehicle. As she listened to the grinding engine fade and vanish into the night, she slumped on to the driveway, Ranjit in her arms.

‘Come on. It’ll be dawn soon,’ she murmured. ‘We need to get you inside.’

It still wasn’t easy, but at least he was able to stumble limply down the drive and across the grass, sending a family of warthogs stampeding in fright into the bush. He clearly still wasn’t aware of where they were, Cassie thought thankfully. The side door they came up to was alarmed, but after the day she’d just had, it seemed the easiest of tasks to propel her fading power into the mechanism and disable the lock. The sky outside was beginning to grey with the sunrise as she hooked her hands under Ranjit’s armpits and helped him up the stairway and along the passage to her room. She opened the door, staggered inside, and helped Ranjit to lie across the bed. Closing the door behind them quietly, she sighed with a rush of relief. Good timing, she told herself as she heard the first stirrings of Academy life. If anyone had woken up a moment earlier, they’d have caught her and Ranjit. And she’d have had even more explaining to do.

Cassie bent over, catching her breath. Not for long, though. There wasn’t really any time to do anything as prosaic as properly recovering. Still, she stood over Ranjit for a moment, caressing his face. So she finally had him in her bed. The circumstances could have been better, she thought wryly, as tears threatened to choke her throat.

Clenching her fists, Cassie pressed her eyes shut and controlled herself. There was no point in putting this off. She was not looking forward to explaining herself to Sir Alric, but she hadn’t a choice. She’d done all she could for Ranjit; now, much as she hated to admit it, they both needed Darke’s help to try and put things right.

She might as well get it over with.

C
assie took a deep breath and held it in her lungs for a few seconds, but there was no going back now. She sighed hard, raised her fist and knocked loudly on Sir Alric’s door.

He opened it himself. ‘Cassie! What on earth—’

His eyes were wide, and he seemed stunned as he looked her up and down. No wonder, she thought ruefully. What a sight she must look: bruised, bloody, coated in dust, and gaunt from spirit-hunger.

‘Sir Alric.’

Darke shook himself. He reached out and took her arm, pulling her into his office and almost pushing her bodily into an armchair.

‘What’s happened?’

Cassie felt suddenly dizzy, and very sick. She bent her head into her hands, waiting for the tide of nausea to pass. When she glanced up, he was holding a glass of water in one hand, and a phone in the other.

‘Yes,’ he was saying into it as she shakily took the water. ‘My office at once, please, Miriam. No, you’re not in trouble. It’s just a message I was asked to pass on.’