Instalment 5 of The Blight of Beacon

from Chapter 3 - The Chase

“Where are we going?” panted David. “She’s barmy!” he exclaimed over his shoulder to Miranda.
“Slow down!” gasped Miranda.
“Keep running!” cried Katie.
For a stocky girl, Katie could run impressively fast. They ran through Golder’s Common – the playing field across the road from the school – and headed for the woodland beyond. Once they were in the woods, Katie ducked behind a fallen tree. The other two followed suit.
“Who on earth is she?” puffed Miranda.
“Shh!” said Katie, checking to see if the woman had followed.
“Okay, Katie, what’s going on?” demanded David, standing up.
“Get down!” hissed Katie.
“Not likely,” David said firmly. “I’m sick of all this weird, secret stuff you keep doing. What’s it about?”
“Okay, I’ll tell you – just get down, please!” begged Katie.
David crouched down. Katie took a deep breath. Her eyes were still flicking back and forth across the woods.
“I’m not from here,” she whispered at last.
“What do you mean here?” asked David. “Drivell? England?”
“No, here. Your world. This world.”
Miranda and David glanced at each other. Miranda went to stand up and leave in disgust, but David caught her sleeve. Something about Katie’s voice made him want to hear more.
“Well, where are you from then?” he asked Katie.
“I come from the Oldenwold,” Katie told them solemnly.
A little bell of remembrance tinkled in Miranda’s head, and she thought of the strange book Katie had dropped at home.
“I knew it!” said David triumphantly. “She’s an alien!”
“It’s not a planet,” said Katie. “It’s the world – the same world that we live in here, but it’s like the flipside of a coin. You can’t see it. And Oldenwold can’t see this world either.”
There was silence.
“Huh?” was David’s eventual reply.
“Look, I don’t care what planet you’re from,” said Miranda in an exasperated tone. “All I care about is why that woman’s chasing us.”
“There’s another world you don’t know about,” Katie said urgently, her frustration obvious. “The world where you live is called the Commonwold. It’s mostly non-magical. But Oldenwolders are sorcerers. That woman who’s chasing us? She’s from Oldenwold too.”
This was the kind of thing Miranda would usually scoff at. Her scientific mind made her skeptical of anything supernatural. She absolutely refused to believe in the ghosts and mystical powers David liked to talk about. But somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to laugh at Katie as she normally laughed at David. Either Katie was the most convincing actress she’d ever seen – or she really did believe in this Oldenwold business.
“Is this some kind of game you two are playing?” David frowned suddenly. “Because if it is, I’m gonna be so mad…”
“Shh!” Katie said.
The woman had appeared on the path into the dim woods. She looked more menacing than ever. She was holding a stick in her hand and seemed to be muttering quietly. She flicked the stick and a little spatter of purple sparks fizzed into the air. At the same moment, a light appeared at the end of the stick. The light stretched in length and width to become a searchlight – beaming out of what Miranda suddenly realized was a wand.
“Hey, how did she do that?” asked David, his eyes wide.
“I told you, she’s a sorcerer!” snapped Katie. “Now shut up, will you?”
The woman shone her searchlight around the trees. The three ducked down behind the fallen tree and held their breath. For an agonizing instant the light shone right on their tree, and Miranda wasn’t sure whether to wait or run. Then it flicked away to another part of the woods, and she started to breathe again. Katie peeked through some dead leaves cautiously.
“She’s heading the other way,” she said with relief.
Miranda was staring at her.
“It’s true, isn’t it?” she said slowly. “She did … magic to make that light. And you can do it too. What happened today with Elspeth’s plaits – that was you, wasn’t it?”
“Actually, I didn’t think it was,” Katie replied earnestly. “I didn’t do a spell to make it happen. I was just thinking how good it would be if you would grab hold of those prissy plaits and give them a good hard pull, when blammo! It really happened.”
“So, you can…you think you can do magic?” David asked Katie.
In answer, Katie pulled a wand out of her satchel and pointed it at a stone on the ground.
“Bring thee to my hand,” she said quietly.
The stone lifted about three inches, and then fell back to the ground.
“Ugh,” she said disgustedly. “Sorry. My sorcery is very weak in Commonwold.”
It was enough to convince David, who had jumped violently when the stone moved.
“All right,” he said, not taking his eyes off the stone. “Why is that woman after you?”
“It’s a long story,” warned Katie.
“Well, we need to hear it, so start talking,” said Miranda. “You can start by telling us about that place you’re from.”
“Oldenwold. You honestly haven’t heard of it?” Miranda and David shook their heads.
“Where is it?” asked David.
“It’s hard to explain. It’s here, we’re probably in it right now, but we can’t see it because we’re on its other side.”
“That’s impossible,” said Miranda.
“You Commonwolders really do know nothing about Oldenwold, don’t you? Listen carefully. Oldenwold is ancient. Much older than Commonwold.”
“How would you know it’s older than our world?” Miranda interrupted rather defensively.
“Because,” Katie said darkly, “Commonwold didn’t even exist for a time. Oldenwold was the only world.”
Again, there was silence.
“Huh?” said David at last.
“There was only Oldenwold,” Katie repeated firmly. “Commonwold came later.”
Miranda turned red. She didn’t like what Katie was implying.
“Are you trying to tell me,” she said hotly, “that our world is less important than Oldenwold? That it’s a minor world?
“Well,” mused Katie, “not so much minor. Not anymore, anyway. Commonwold’s sort of an…effect of Oldenworld. A consequence.”
“Our world is a consequence of Oldenwold?” spluttered Miranda.
“Miranda, stop being stupid,” David told her impatiently. “Katie’s not blowing her nose on the Union Jack – she’s trying to make us understand. Just shut up for a bit and let her explain.”
Katie resumed.
“A long time ago, the whole world was Oldenwold. Most people had some magic. Some could tell fortunes; other could heal. And some had more powerful magic, like conjuring. But as time went on, some people chose not to see the magic anymore. We don’t really know why. They started to believe in other things that replaced magic – things like science, or religion. As the number of people who belonged to Oldenwold shrank, Oldenwold shrank too. It started to wither at the edges, and Commonwold grew over the bits that had shrunk away. Sort of like mould grows on cheese –” David restrained Miranda – “That’s why you used to hear mention of the wee folk and magic in old legends and books, and so on – but not anymore. Folk tales, fairy stories – most of them are about things that happened for real a long time ago. Even nursery rhymes.” Katie looked at them keenly. “You know that Ring-of-Roses is about people with the plague?” David nodded, and Miranda blinked.
“It’s true,” said David. “I saw it on a telly documentary about the Black Plague. Ring of roses means the red rash that people sick with plague would get. The pocketful of posies were for their sickbed, and a-tishoo was the sneezing. Then they would all fall down dead.”
“Lovely,” said Miranda, her eyebrows raised.
“Well, there are other nursery rhymes that are about things that happened in the history of Oldenwold,” Katie went on. “That one about the cat and the fiddle? And the cow jumping over the moon? That was all about a magical accident at a farm. Spilled duskworm paste and an ejector hex. That poor cow came back a bit the worse for wear – what with no oxygen on the moon. As for the five little piggies going shopping and so forth,” she added, shaking her head, “you really don’t want to know the story behind that.” David and Miranda watched Katie, mesmerized. She continued. “So Commonwold has patched over the bits of Oldenwold that people chose to give up. Only the ones who continued to use magic stayed in Oldenwold. It’s very small now, and shrinking every day.”
“Shh!” said Miranda suddenly.
They had all heard it – a cracking noise like a twig snapping underfoot. Katie stuck her head up to check the path.
“She’s coming this way!” she said quickly.
“We’re going to have to leg it,” said David.
“Where?”
“Head for the playground,” David told them. “There are kids and parents everywhere – she wouldn’t dare come after us in there.”
“On three,” whispered Miranda. “One.”
“Two,” said Katie.
“Three!” cried David.
All three of them sprang up and started to run. Over her shoulder, Miranda saw the woman spot them and begin to pursue.
“Faster!” she shouted. “She’s seen us!”
This time, Katie tired more quickly than either of the Crundles and she started to lag behind. Miranda fell back and grabbed Katie’s hand, dragging her along behind her. The woman was gaining.
“Come on, Katie,” puffed Miranda.
“Look – Dad’s car!” shouted David. “Let’s go!”
By now, Miranda felt like her lungs were going to give way, and her legs were growing more jellylike by the moment. She fixed her eyes on the car, running for it with every bit of strength she could muster. She heard her shoe snap one of its straps but didn’t pause to fix it. She simply converted her pace to a kind of Olympic stagger. Katie was flagging badly, and Miranda felt herself slackening too as Katie became heavier to drag. Finally, David took pity on them and slowed down to grab Katie’s other hand.
At last they reached the car park, pulling Katie between them. They threw open the car doors, hurling themselves in and landing in a great tangle on the backseat. Miranda and David pulled the doors shut and locked them. Mr Crundle looked around, his face surprised under the pumpkin hat he was wearing to celebrate the coming of autumn.
Miranda heaved herself up and peered out the window.
“Hey!” she panted. “Where’d she go?”
David and Katie gazed out of the window. It was true – the woman had disappeared completely.
“Vanished!” gasped Katie, collapsing back onto the seat. “Went through a Shimmer – there.”
David and Miranda strained to see what her finger was pointing at. Miranda thought she saw something that resembled a heat haze on the road. It faded quickly into the clear autumn air.
“What game is this?” Mr Crundle asked brightly.
“Er . . . there’s a witch after us,” David told him.
“Sounds like a good laugh,” chuckled Mr Crundle as he started the car.
No one answered him.

* * *

When they arrived home, they dropped their schoolbags and looked at each other. It was as though they didn’t even know Katie. Miranda thought she even looked a bit different. Less silly and mad, somehow. Mr Crundle gave them a plate of biscuits to share and disappeared into his studio.
“Let us into your room,” David told Katie. “No more secrets.”
Katie unlocked the door, quite meek. Miranda and David stepped gingerly over various alarms Katie had set up beyond the doorway. They planted themselves on Katie’s bed.
“Can’t you put the light on?” asked David, glancing at the blacked window. “I can’t see a thing.” Katie switched on a bedside lamp reluctantly.
“Look at my shoe,” moaned Miranda, inspecting it in the dim light. “Mum and Dad won’t be able to afford new ones. I’m going to have to wear it to school like this.”
“Give it here,” said Katie, sitting between them with her leather bag.
She took Miranda’s shoe and squashed it into the front pocket which, on close inspection, looked as though it had been stitched onto her satchel. A moment later, she pulled it out. Miranda exclaimed with shock and delight. The strap had been repaired – sewn together with perfect black stitches so the break was almost invisible.
“Brilliant!” grinned David.
“It’s a Fix-it pouch,” said Katie. “It repairs anything repairable.”
“So that’s why your snow dome came out of the pocket fixed!” Miranda was enormously relieved to have that mystery explained. “What do the other pockets do?” she asked, poking at them curiously.
“They just hold my pens and things. It’s a common bag other than the front pocket.”
“Come on, spill it,” David interrupted impatiently. “What are you doing here? Who was the creepy woman and why was she after you?”
“Her name is Wendyn Wallow,” Katie told them. “But I don’t know why she was chasing me. It’s supposed to be a secret that I’m here in Commonwold.”
“Who is she?”
“She’s one of Edistein’s followers,” Katie said darkly. She finished this baffling remark with a short, knowing nod of the head.
“Who or what is Edistein?” was David’s question.
“Of course – you don’t know,” said Katie, her face somewhat bemused.
Miranda’s head was buzzing with all the new ideas. Meanwhile, David was happily snapping biscuits into pieces. He was sticking them into Katie’s Fix-it pouch to see how it would repair them.
“There’s so much to explain,” said Katie. She stood up and paced the room as though looking for a place to begin. Miranda waited impatiently. “Edistein is the Great Mage,” Katie told them at last. “His full name is Edison Einstein but he’s known as Edistein. You’re probably wondering about the name,” Katie added when David nearly choked. “He took on the names of the two scientists he considers the most important. Albert Einstein gave humankind loads of theories to explain magic and mysteries. Like energy, and time travel. Thomas Edison gave humans loads of inventions – gadgets and machines – that replaced sorcery. Lightbulbs, for instance. And motion pictures.”
“Why would he take their names?” Miranda wanted to know.
“Well, Edistein says that science is replacing magic, and we’ll need science to get by when Oldenwold is gone. He thinks sorcery ought to be regulated … controlled, so that people can learn how to live Commonwold lives.”
“What did you call him – the Great what?” asked Miranda.
“The Great Mage. The head honcho. There’s always been a Great Mage,” said Katie. “They are the most powerful sorcerers of the time. There can’t not be a Great Mage. A successor is born before the every Great Mage dies.”
“Are they a kind of royalty?” asked Miranda.
“Not really,” said Katie musingly. “Kings and queens rule a place, don’t they?”
“They used to,” said David. “That’s the idea.”
“Well, the Great Mage doesn’t rule, as such. And it can be a man or a woman. They don’t hold any actual power – not like in Parmesan, or anything.”
They both stared at Katie.
“Parmesan?” repeated Miranda. “As in, parmesan cheese?”
“Maybe I’ve got the wrong word,” she said self-consciously. “You know where they make all the laws and such?”
“Parliament?” inquired David, mastering his amusement carefully.
“Yes, Parliament,” she nodded. “The Great Mage doesn’t have any parma…parliamentary power. But he’s very important. Everyone respects his wisdom and skill. That’s why Edistein has followers. He is the current Great Mage.”
“Hang on,” Miranda objected. “If he’s a Great Mage, how can he be opposed to magic?”
“That’s just the point,” nodded Katie. “That’s why so many people respect him. He has untold magical power, but he won’t use it. He says he’s showing the kind of self control all magical folk should have. He says sorcery is too dangerous to use unrestricted because it’s not understood. Too much superstition and bunkum. He thinks that if we restrict magic then we’ll all be able to adapt to our new Commonwold lives.” Katie’s voice was rising angrily. “He treats magic like a kind of illness to be cured, instead of the wonderful thing that it is –”
“Okay, okay,” soothed Miranda. “Calm down, Katie.”
Katie gulped down her rage. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s just all so frustrating. There are so many Oldenwolders who can’t see that what Edistein’s saying is wrong. Science won’t help us. Restricting sorcery won’t, either.”
“Well, what will?” David prompted.
Katie’s face fell slightly. “We’re not totally sure but we think that, the less people use magic, the more Oldenwold shrinks,” said Katie. “So regulating sorcery is the last thing we want people to do.”
“So,” David put in skeptically, “it’s sort of like, every time a child says I don’t believe in fairies, a fairy somewhere dies? Come off it, Pickerwick!”
“I don’t understand how it works,” she retorted. “I only know that’s how it is. And if we don’t stop it, Oldenwold will disappear completely.”
“Katie,” Miranda said quietly. “Who do you mean when you say ‘we’?”
Katie lowered her voice to a whisper. “The Resistance,” she said.

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