The Key (10 page)

‘Curse you, boy!’ Kimon says.

‘Hold it,’ the grey-haired man interrupts and looks thoughtfully at Alkides. ‘I can see that you are serious about this. Well then. Allow me at least to ask the guardians for advice.’

He opens one end of the leather cylinder and pulls out a roll that reminds Ida of the one she saw in the girl’s hands back in that gallery.

He unwinds the roll, then lifts the glass disc to his eye. Presumably it’s an older, more basic version of the Pattern Finder.

‘I see …’ he says.

He lets go of the glass lens and pushes the roll back into its cylinder. Ida can’t interpret his expression.

‘What did they say?’ Alkides asks, still with the cape pressed against his bleeding lip.

‘They said that you are ready to depart.’ The grey-haired man exchanges a glance with Kimon.

Alkides looks triumphantly at them.

Kimon bends and picks up the black-handled knife. At first, Ida doesn’t understand what is going on when the big man slips behind Alkides, puts one arm around his neck and thrusts the knife into his heart.

Ida screams. But she can’t stop looking.

Kimon holds on to the knife, pressing Alkides’s body close to his own until the young man no longer kicks and twists. The red of Alkides’s cape deepens where his blood is staining it. Kimon pulls the blade out and lets the body fall. Alkides sags down onto his knees, then collapses face first into the dry grass. And lies still.

‘But he was the Chosen One!’ Ida screams. ‘What are you doing?’

Kimon stares sadly at Alkides. Blood is dripping from the knife; it looks so small in his hand.

‘So regrettable, but also essential,’ the grey-haired man says. ‘When our young Alkides decided to return to Athens this early, everything changed. The guardians could only see possible futures in which the demons’ Blessed One would succeed in killing him and robbing him of his powers.’

He sighs deeply.

‘It’s all over for now. The present magic era will fade away. The next one will bring with it a new Chosen One. Hopefully, more intelligent than this one.’

‘He was brave,’ Kimon says.

The mist comes drifting in over the landscape. Ida can no longer see them, but she hears the grey-haired man’s reply.

‘Bravery without common sense never helped anyone. Don’t blame yourself. You did what you had to do. The key did not fall into the wrong hands. True, we can’t lock the portal now, but no Blessed One can open it either.’

He falls silent.

All
is silence.

‘Bloody hell,’ Ida whispers as she spins round, but now the greyness has closed in around her. ‘Oh, damn, damn, damn.’

She starts walking quickly, but looks over her shoulder now and then, trying to sense if there is someone out there.

Where the hell is Matilda? Did the invisible thing catch up with her?

Ida is running now, searching the fog around her, expecting every moment that something is going to jump at her. She releases her magic. Watches as her fingertips sparkle with lightning. And realises that they might light up the greyness around her.

She swears and extinguishes the light at once. No need to make herself glow like a neon sign if whatever-it-is is chasing her. But at least she has a way of defending herself if need be.

She looks around. Is this where Matilda has been staying ever since her death? For hundreds of years? No wonder she has gone a bit weird.

Suddenly, she sees a yellow light source straight ahead. Ida stops and then hesitates for a moment. But anything would be better than hanging out here. After all, Matilda told her to look out for the lights.

Ida takes one step forward.

This time she doesn’t fall. She just stands there.

She is in a sitting room. Minoo’s sitting room.

Such a sense of relief.

I’m back, Ida thinks. I am back.

Ida looks at Minoo, who is curled up in the corner of the sofa. Her forehead is resting on her knees. Linnéa sits close by, biting one of her bright pink nails and glancing worriedly at Minoo.

‘Hi there,’ Ida says.

But they can’t hear her. Of course they can’t.

‘How do you feel now?’ Linnéa asks.

Minoo mumbles something against her knees.

‘What did you say?’

Minoo looks up and changes position. Her black, curly hair is dull and lifeless. She is pale; her eyes are red with crying and her skin hasn’t improved since Ida last saw her.

‘I said I don’t know how I am,’ Minoo says. She licks her lips, which are desperately in need of some lip balm. ‘It’s just too much to …’

She falls silent.

‘Take?’ Linnéa suggests.

Minoo nods.

‘He almost killed me. Again.’

‘He, who?’ Ida asks. ‘What’s this about? What terrible thing has happened now?’

Steps on the stairs. Vanessa comes in, holding her mobile. She, too, has been crying.

‘She’s asleep now,’ she says. ‘I told her to call us or text us if there’s anything at all.’

‘Is that Anna-Karin?’ Ida asks. ‘Listen, what
is
going on?’

Vanessa slumps down on an armchair, puts her mobile on the coffee table and all three of them sit in silence for a while.

Ida walks over to Vanessa. Even before she tries to touch her shoulder, Ida knows what will happen. Her hand slips straight through her and then through the armchair.

Not totally dead not totally dead not totally dead
.

‘Minoo, have you told your father about Anna-Karin?’ Vanessa asks.

‘He wanted to come back but I told him it was better if we were alone with her just now. Besides, he’s so busy writing about the fire.’ She moistens her lips again. ‘He had just heard about the dead body that the police found in the hospital.’

‘So at least he’s really dead!’ Vanessa sounds so relieved.

The dead person clearly wasn’t one of Vanessa’s favourite people.

‘The police think that he must have woken up from his coma, managed to get out of his room and then had a heart attack from sheer effort,’ Minoo says.

They must be talking about Max.

‘He said that
nothing is as we believe it to be
,’ Minoo tells them.

‘Max said that?’ Linnéa asks her.

Minoo nods. A chill crawls through Ida.

‘He and the demons were trying to freak you out,’ Vanessa tells her. ‘It didn’t mean anything.’

But it did mean something. Ida is sure of it. Already, she knows so much that the others don’t; all sorts of stuff that the guardians haven’t told them about. Like, the Chosen Ones being a key. And that the Key is not complete.

Ida must tell them.

An electric shock should do the trick, attract their attention. She tries to release her magic. But nothing happens. She is just as out of magic as they all were when they swapped bodies once. Non-magical and utterly frustrated.

‘Hello!’ she shouts.

‘What happened to him, do you know?’ Vanessa asks. ‘Why did he die?’

‘You’ve got to listen to me!’ Ida shouts. ‘Just fucking focus for a moment.’

She kicks the table but her foot goes right through. She almost loses her balance.

‘I don’t know exactly,’ Minoo says. ‘But it seemed to me that the demons might have pumped too much magic into him. His body simply couldn’t cope.’

Ida starts pacing up and down the floor. How come she can feel that under her feet but still not grab hold of anything?

‘Shit! What’s happening?’ she screams.

‘What do the guardians say?’ Linnéa asks.

‘The
Book of Patterns
refuses to talk to me,’ Minoo says.

And then, from the corner of her eye, Ida spots greyness welling up.

‘No!’ she exclaims, but the sitting room has vanished already. Ida feels like screaming out loud, but she no longer dares to.

She starts running. And it doesn’t take long before she catches sight of a bright bluish light in the distance.

It’s an office with fluorescent tubes in the ceiling.

Minoo and Anna-Karin sit on the sofa and Minoo’s father sits on a chair near them. A young woman with really short, bottle-blonde hair is seated behind a desk and checks out a bunch of papers. She has a small, glittering jewel in one nostril.

Minoo and her dad look intently at her. Anna-Karin keeps staring at her hands.

‘Hello?’ Ida says, though she knows it’s useless.

‘I do realise your present situation is very difficult,’ the blonde says sympathetically.

For a brief, wonderful moment, Ida thinks she is being talked to.

‘You have never heard anything from your father.’ The blonde looks at Anna-Karin. ‘That’s correct, isn’t it?’

‘I don’t even know if he’s alive.’ Anna-Karin’s voice is barely audible.

‘I see. And your maternal grandfather stays in a home for the elderly, doesn’t he?’

Anna-Karin nods.

‘Also, your mother had no brothers or sisters. Are you in contact with any other relatives?’

‘No.’

An icy hand squeezes Ida’s heart. Because now she understands. Anna-Karin’s mother has died and that must have been why she wasn’t with the others talking about Max.

‘You are not yet eighteen,’ the blonde woman points out, presumably because she’s some kind of social worker. ‘It means that we are obliged to investigate the Falk-Karimi family before we are able to agree to let you live with them.’

‘Is that really necessary?’ Minoo’s dad asks. ‘Of course it’s good that you are so conscientious, but she will be eighteen in just a few months.’

‘We have to, for form’s sake,’ the social worker says. ‘But it’s fine for Anna-Karin to stay with you in the meantime.’

Minoo and her dad look more relaxed and Anna-Karin gives a little sigh that might have been a thank you.

The social worker keeps talking.

‘Your mother had no life insurance. But she did leave you a certain amount of money in the bank. For as long as you have an independent source of income, we can’t offer you cash benefits. But the Falk-Karimi family will be compensated for housing you for as long as you attend senior school.’

‘We’ll take care of her.’ Minoo’s dad pats Anna-Karin’s shoulder awkwardly.

Around Ida, the grey curtains are closing and she is once more alone in the fog.

Except, she’s not alone. The invisible being is there, somewhere.

She runs blindly. Onwards, onwards, one step after another.

Someone screams behind her. Was it really a scream? Or did she imagine it? She has no intention of stopping and investigating.

Then suddenly, there is the light. This time, a warm, rose-coloured glow.

She hears the rolling of surf against a beach and the sound of panpipes, then picks up the smells of incense and cigarette smoke.

Someone coughs and clears his or her throat in the way that can only lead to a mouthful of mucus. It is right up there as one of the yuckiest sounds in the world and Ida is running straight at it.

She finds herself in the Crystal Cave. She looks around quickly, but the Borderland is nowhere and the invisible thing has vanished, too.

Mona Moonbeam is sitting on a stool behind the counter. Her arms are crossed and she stares angrily at Vanessa, who is leaning forward across the counter. Vanessa’s denim shorts are so micro you can almost see the lower part of her buttocks.

‘What are you really after?’ Mona sounds fed up.

‘I want to know why you didn’t warn her,’ Vanessa says.

Ida gets closer to them. They must be talking about her.

‘That’s exactly what I did,’ Mona tells her. ‘I told her to use the time that was left well.’

‘But you didn’t let on that it was her mother who was close to death. She thought you meant her granddad.’

Now, of course Ida feels sorry for Anna-Karin, but she wishes they’d talk about
Ida
just once in a while. Does no one remember? Or miss her just the tiniest little bit?

‘Oh dear. Most humble apologies, Miss!’ Mona says.

She lights a cigarette and slaps the lighter down on the counter. Her cheap silver bracelets rattle.

‘What’s the use of making fucking prophecies when you only ever tell half-truths? Or things that are totally wrong! Like what you said about Ida!’ Vanessa says.

‘Exactly!’ Ida exclaims.

Mona starts, then scans the shop. Her eyes flick back and forth across the shelf next to which Ida is standing.

‘Can’t you see me?’ Ida asks her.

She suddenly adores the grisly old bag. Steps a bit closer to the counter.

‘Mona, can you hear me?’

Mona turns back to Vanessa.

‘You had better get this,’ she says. ‘I tell people what I see. But the fact is that you don’t always get the entire bleedin’ list of contents. Sometimes you’re only given glimpses that you have to interpret to the best of your ability.’

The year ahead will be hard and dark for you. Still, you’ll get what you were promised. So plodding on is worth it
.

A pretty pointless forecast if you’re to die later that very evening.

‘If that’s the case, isn’t your talent pretty pointless?’ Ida feels like applauding Vanessa.

‘My talent pays your wages,’ Mona reminds her. ‘I suggest you get on with your work or get out of here. For good. And you can forget about my help next time you need more ecto.’

The bell on the door tinkles and Ida turns to see who’s come in. It’s Leffe, the guy who runs Leffe’s Kiosk. He smells of pipe smoke and aftershave. It looks as if he has even made an attempt to dress properly.

‘Look who’s here! Welcome!’ Mona beams ingratiatingly at him.

Leffe looks embarrassed and mumbles something. Mona gets up and walks over to the red velvet curtain in the corner. She pulls it back and hangs out a sign that says PROPHECY IN PROGRESS.

‘Wait!’ Ida cries out. If
anyone
can hear her, the crazy soothsayer should be able to.

Ida hurries after Leffe. But on the other side of the curtain is only the Borderland. And when she turns to look behind her, the Crystal Cave is gone.

She starts running again. Her own breathing is the only sound. She scrutinises the mist for another source of light and finds it almost at once, though it is only a few shades lighter than the rest of the dullness. She runs on and into the light, runs until she feels gravel under her feet.