Talisman of El (9 page)

Finding Wakeman

CHARLIE HADN’T REALISED HE had passed out until he woke up and found himself staring at a wooden ceiling.

‘The ironic thing is that my father always lectured me about growing up,’ he heard Derkein say. ‘Now I can’t seem to stop.’

Charlie raised himself up and saw that he was lying on the cardboard bed, the others sitting around him. He leaned his back against the wall. With the door now closed, the room was warmer.

‘You all right?’ Derkein asked him. Charlie stared at him in shock. ‘The truth was a little too much for you, huh?’

Charlie looked away. ‘You have no idea.’ He still couldn’t fathom how or why he had dreamt about Derkein. Another thing he couldn’t get his mind around was why of all the cities in the entire world, Derkein had turned up in Capeton.

‘Hey.’ It was Alex. He blinked several times before meeting her eyes. ‘What is it?’

‘I think I’m crazy,’ he confessed. He stood up and ambled across the room. After a few deep breaths, he turned round and looked at Derkein. ‘This can’t be happening.’

‘I’ve told myself that every day for the last month,’ Derkein said. ‘It’s hard to accept something so … bizarre. If it wasn’t happening to me, I wouldn’t believe it, either.’

‘No, you don’t get it. You can’t be here …’ Charlie paused. ‘Why are you here?’

‘I’m looking for someone.’

Charlie thought back to the dream, trying to remember what Derkein’s father had said. Then it came to him. ‘Thomas,’ he muttered.

A tentative look crossed Derkein’s face as he weighed up what Charlie had said. He got to his feet and shot a nervous glance out the window. Charlie noticed him clutching something inside his coat, and he couldn’t help but wonder if it was the talisman.

‘What’s going on?’ Alex asked.

‘How do you know about Thomas?’ Derkein growled.

Alarmed, Alex and Richmond jumped up and scuttled over to Charlie.

‘Who are you?’ Derkein’s suspicious eyes flickered between the window and Charlie. ‘You’re one of them, aren’t you?’ He put his hand inside his trouser pocket and pulled out a twoblade pocketknife.

The trio pulled back, their frightened eyes fixed on the sharp blades.

‘Charlie.’ Alex grabbed his arm. Charlie didn’t shift his gaze from Derkein. He saw something in the man’s eyes that made him look less threatening. He realised it was fear.

‘How do you know about Thomas?’ Derkein demanded, the hand with the pocketknife trembling.

‘You wouldn’t believe me,’ Charlie said.

Derkein studied him, his expression curious. ‘Try me.’

Charlie gulped. ‘Okay. This is going to sound strange, but just don’t freak out. A few weeks ago, I had a dream … about you.’

Derkein’s brow wrinkled in confusion. ‘I don’t know what game you’re playing here –’

‘It’s the truth. I saw you die.’

Alex tightened her grip on Charlie’s arm. ‘What are you doing?’

‘I know it sounds crazy,’ Charlie said, ‘but it is the truth.’ Alex gave him a sympathetic look. ‘You have to believe me.’

‘Charlie.’ It was Derkein. Charlie turned to him and saw that he looked less tense. The hand with the pocketknife had lowered. ‘This dream …. What was it about?’

Charlie paused as he tried to remember the details, and then he said, ‘You were in an office with your dad. He gave you some sort of talisman and told you to find Thomas. Then something attacked you, and he … vanished.’

Derkein looked horror-stricken. ‘That’s not possible. There’s no way you can know that.’

Charlie didn’t know what to say. It made no sense to him, either.

‘Maybe you’re psychic,’ said Richmond, who was standing by the door, holding it open.

‘I’m not psychic,’ Charlie disagreed; but a small part of him did wonder.

It was nearing six in the evening, and darkness had fallen over the forest. The trio were sitting on the floor with Derkein, who had told them about his arrival in West Sussex a week ago in search of a man named Thomas Wakeman.

‘My father met him thirty years ago,’ Derkein was saying. ‘He’d lodged with him for a while as he helped renovate his house. Dad always said it was his first step towards becoming an architect.’

Charlie saw a glimmer in Derkein’s eyes at the mention of his dad, who had been missing since the day of the attack back in January. ‘We’ll find your dad,’ he assured Derkein. ‘He’ll be fine. He always is, remember.’

Derkein stared at him, half surprised, half amazed. ‘Have you had any other dreams about me?’

Charlie shook his head.

‘Have you had dreams like this before?’ Derkein enquired.

All eyes fixed on Charlie. As his temperature rose, his palms started to sweat. ‘No,’ he finally said, rubbing his hands on his trousers. He looked away. ‘So how’s this Wakeman guy supposed to help you?’

‘Yeah, is he a magician?’ Richmond asked.

‘No,’ Derkein said. ‘From what my father told me, he was an explorer. I only heard about Thomas a few years ago, after my mother passed away. Dad had this crazy idea that he could somehow revive her.’

‘Revive her?’ said Charlie. ‘Like, bring her back from the dead?’

‘Yes.’ Derkein laughed to himself. ‘Of course, I thought he’d finally cracked, but then he mentioned Thomas. You see, Thomas had told him about a place called Arcadia …’ His voice trailed off, and he exhaled. ‘Arcadia is a world at the centre of the earth.’

Silence.

‘Come again?’ Alex said.

‘I don’t know why I told you that,’ Derkein said in an almost relieved tone. ‘I’ve never mentioned Arcadia to anyone before.’

‘Are you messing with us?’ Charlie asked.

‘Trust me,’ Derkein replied. ‘This is not something I would joke about.’

‘So, you’re saying there’s an actual world inside the earth?’

‘That is what I’m saying.’

‘Like a real world?’ Alex asked. ‘Where people live?’

‘Believe me, I know how it sounds,’ said Derkein. ‘I didn’t take my father seriously at first. He’s been searching for an entrance to Arcadia for years now. On the night of the attack, he gave me this.’ Slipping his hand inside his coat, he pulled out the talisman Charlie had seen in his dream.

Candra’s face flashed in Charlie’s mind, and that’s when it hit him: the reason he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. It was the talisman. She had mentioned something about a talisman. But there was no way she could have been talking about this talisman, he decided. It wasn’t possible.

Derkein removed the object from around his neck and held it in his hand. ‘Whatever it was that attacked me had intended to kill me. The pain I felt was like no other. I should be dead, but for some reason, I’m not.’

‘You think that saved your life?’ Alex asked.

‘It’s the only explanation that makes sense.’ Derkein handed the talisman to Alex, who examined it with curiosity. Charlie leaned into her to get a better look.

Engraved around the steel band were four triangular symbols:

‘What do they mean?’ Alex asked.

‘Earth, Air, Fire, and Water,’ Derkein replied. ‘They’re symbols of the four elements. It’s my guess someone used the talisman in a ritual of some sort.’

‘You mean like witchcraft?’

‘Possibly.’

Alex handed the talisman to Charlie, and immediately, a wave of emotions hit him. A series of images flashed through his mind like an old newsreel: a white-haired, shimmering being with large golden wings of a thousand feathers, the talisman with a black diamond in the centre, a blinding light, and fragments of sparkling dust.

Charlie sat as still as a rock, his eyes wide open in shock.

‘What is it?’ Alex asked.

Charlie didn’t answer right away. He looked down at the talisman then back at the others. ‘Nothing,’ he finally answered. Handing the talisman to Derkein, he sat back, keeping his eyes averted from Alex’s perceptive scrutiny.

‘I can’t believe the nerve of Mrs. Blackman,’ Alex complained. It was nearing four in the afternoon, and she and Charlie were walking through the forest, heading for the shack. ‘What’s the point of being a librarian if you don’t want people asking questions?’

‘Can you blame her for throwing us out?’ Charlie said. ‘We’ve been asking the same question three days in a row. She probably thinks we’re playing a game. We’re lucky she didn’t ban us.’

‘It’s a school library. She can’t ban us.’ Alex sighed and kicked at the air. ‘This Wakeman guy probably doesn’t even exist.’

‘He has to exist. Someone must have heard of him. We just have to keep asking around.’

After a short silence, Alex asked, ‘So, Jacob still doesn’t know about Rich, right?’

Charlie shook his head. ‘He’s too busy to notice.’

‘What if he finds out? What would you do?’

Charlie shrugged. ‘Guess I’ll be on the run, too.’

A shadow of sadness crossed Alex’s face. ‘You’re not going to leave, are you?’

‘I don’t want to, but …’ He exhaled. ‘I don’t know.’

‘I still think you should tell your social worker.’

‘I can’t. I promised Rich I wouldn’t.’

Alex grabbed his shoulder, pulling him to a stop. ‘Look, I get it. I feel sorry for him, too, but he’s only twelve. You can’t look after him.’

‘Guys!’ a familiar voice called.

They glanced in the direction of the shack and spotted Richmond standing in the doorway. Charlie and Alex locked eyes for a moment.

‘Just think about it,’ Alex said, and she went ahead, Charlie following behind her.

‘How did it go?’ Derkein asked, as they entered the shack. He was sitting on the cardboard bed.

‘Sorry,’ Alex said. ‘We’ve still got nothing.’

Charlie glanced at the talisman dangling around Derkein’s neck and shuddered. He still didn’t know what to make of the images he had seen when he’d touched it a few days ago, but since then, he hadn’t gone within two feet of it. ‘How’d it go with you?’ he asked Richmond.

Richmond sighed. ‘No one’s heard of him.’

‘We have to face it,’ said Derkein. ‘He must have moved on. It has been a while since my father last saw him.’

‘Are you sure there was nothing else your dad said to you?’ Charlie asked.

‘Trust me, if my father had said anything else to me, I would have remembered.’ There was sadness in Derkein’s voice along with another emotion Charlie could not grasp: anger? regret? ‘I didn’t know my father as well as I would have liked to. He was there, and I was there. We were just never there at the same time.’ He got up and tucked the talisman inside his shirt. ‘I appreciate all your help.’ He headed towards the door.

‘Where’re you going?’ Charlie asked.

‘I need to clear my head. I’ll be back.’ He gave them a reassuring smile and left.

‘He’s getting older,’ Alex observed. ‘It’s as if he ages a year every day.’

‘We’ll find Thomas,’ Charlie assured her. ‘He’s here. He has to be.’

‘Guys,’ Richmond said. ‘You don’t think Derkein’s gone, do you?’

‘No. He just needs some time alone.’ Alex and Richmond didn’t look convinced. After a moment’s pause, Charlie said, ‘Then again, it is a big forest, so he could get lost.’ With that in mind, they left the shack.

A few minutes later, they came across a shallow stream.

‘How long have you been living in the shack?’ Alex asked Richmond.

‘Two weeks.’

‘Weren’t you afraid?’

Richmond shrugged. ‘Sometimes. At night it’s a bit scary ’cause of all the noise and stuff, but when it’s light out it’s okay, I guess.’

‘Your foster parents must be going crazy,’ Charlie said.

‘I doubt they’ve even noticed I’m not there.’

Charlie heard the anger in Richmond’s voice. ‘They move you around a lot, huh?’

Richmond nodded.

Alex put her arm around Richmond’s shoulder. ‘I think you’re brave,’ she said. ‘I’d be terrified staying out here alone.’

Richmond smiled, but then his face turned serious. ‘You don’t think Derkein’s going to die, do you?’

Charlie locked eyes with Alex; he could tell from the look on her face that she was thinking the same as him, but he couldn’t share his thoughts with Richmond. ‘He’ll be fine.’

They crossed the stream, stepping on the line of rocks that protruded out of the water. They called out Derkein’s name but each time got no reply. As the clouds gathered overhead, the forest became darker, and it started to drizzle.