The Gathering Read online

  On the way to class, I noticed Seth Paul sitting with a group of other year twelve kids. They were all laughing and talking about a mural they were going to paint. There was no way I could imagine him in the attic with Nissa and the others.

  First period was science with Mr Ellis. There were two classes in the room at once, as well as some kids doing individual projects. I noticed Danny among them. He looked at me but I turned away, still mad at him for running over The Tod.

  I made for the back of the room, hoping not to be noticed. The last thing I wanted was a repeat of the previous science class.

  ‘The subject for the day,’ Mr Ellis said, ‘is arachnids. Spiders,’ he added in a sinister voice.

  He had a couple of jars with dark hairy tarantulas, and another jar containing a small deadly looking spider.

  ‘Size matters less than the sort of spider and its venom,’ he said, and unscrewed lids to gasps from the kids in the front row, tipping one of the big spiders in with the small one. For a minute they sat crouched at opposite ends of the jar, then the little one ran forward and pounced. A moment later, the big spider folded its hairy legs and curled up in a ball, dead.

  ‘Oh. That’s cruel,’ said one of the girls.

  A shadow fell over my desk and I looked around to see Danny slide into the seat next to me. ‘That’s life,’ he said softly. ‘Kill or be killed.’

  I ignored him, concentrating as Mr Ellis outlined the spider world. He showed us some slides of a spider eating an ant, a spider eating another spider, and even one of a spider eating a bird.

  ‘It’s an arachnid feast,’ Danny murmured.

  I thought the pictures were pretty good. Whoever had taken them must have a lot of patience. You couldn’t talk to insects and ask them to pose. You just had to wait.

  Mr Ellis saved the best till last. He showed a colour poster of a big spider being eaten by a whole lot of ants. He must have gone through his collection to find it so that he could show it to me.

  His eyes bored into me when he said ants were able to defeat animals many times their own size because they were able to submerge self-interest and work together as one.

  ‘History shows us quite clearly that humans who behave as the ants do are capable of conquering the greatest single hero,’ he concluded triumphantly.

  ‘History is lies,’ Danny said aggressively, fortunately in a low voice.

  That was pretty much what Mr Dodds had said the day before, and reminded me I had to make some sort of start on the history assignment. Mr Ellis passed out the spiders in their jars and as they started to move around the room, the level of noise increased.

  Danny leaned nearer to me. ‘Nissa said for me to tell you we’re meeting tonight. She said to make sure you bring your symbol.’

  ‘I can’t!’ I hissed, forgetting I had decided not to go there again. ‘I haven’t got it yet.’

  ‘You better move it then. Do you know what it is?’

  I told him.

  His eyes lit up. ‘You’re kidding! In the Kraken’s office?’

  ‘Unless I was hallucinating.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. I had meant to say I wasn’t going to do anything, but a crazy bit of me wished I had the guts to get the circle and bring it back to the attic. Just to see what Nissa would say about it.

  The spider jar arrived and I pretended to examine it. The little spider ran around the base of the jar looking for a way out. I sympathised with him.

  Danny drummed his fingers on the desk for a minute, then he grinned.

  ‘You know, the Kraken’s not here today. He went to give a talk at a community centre in Willington. Come on.’ He stood up, taking the spider jar out of my fingers.

  Instantly, I wished I had kept my mouth shut because there was absolutely no telling what Danny might do. He was a human wild card and it was too late to stop him because he had marched straight up to Mr Ellis.

  ‘Excuse me, sir, but one of the spiders escaped.’

  He said this loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear and there was immediate chaos as students made a rush for the exits. Danny grabbed me by the arm and dragged me through the staff door, leaving Mr Ellis yelling at everyone to stay calm.

  We were both laughing our heads off by the time we reached the carpeted corridors in the administrative part of the building. I stopped grinning when I realised where we were headed.

  ‘We can’t just barge into his office and take it!’ I said, feeling like I had been sucked into a whirlwind. I couldn’t believe I had even come this far, and with Danny Odin of all people!

  Danny grinned at me over his shoulder, a wild excitement in his eyes. ‘Why not?’

  ‘His secretary,’ I whispered, because we were almost there. ‘She’ll stop us.’

  ‘Not if she’s busy with something else.’

  He didn’t explain. He just opened his mouth and started screaming at the top of his voice.

  Then he launched himself around the corner at the receptionist’s desk screeching that there were spiders loose in the science lab, and that he had been bitten.

  Miss Bliss gave a single ladylike shriek, and a second later, staggered past supporting an apparently hallucinating spider-bite victim. Danny had the front to wink as they passed the niche where I was standing.

  For a long second I just stood there paralysed. Then the same mad instinct prodded me. I took a deep shaky breath and walked round past the desk. I knocked on Mr Karle’s door, praying Danny was right about him being away. When there was no response, I tried the handle.

  It was locked.

  Recklessly I turned to the receptionist’s desk. She had to have a spare key. I went round the back of the desk and began rifling through the drawers. My heart thudded against my ribs as I noticed a set of keys suspended from a small hook on the underside of the desk. I snatched the bunch and sprinted across to the Kraken’s door, thinking insanity must be catching. What on earth was I doing trying to steal something from a teacher’s office because some weird kid told me to?

  But I kept trying.

  The third key on the set opened the door and I slid inside breathing so hard I felt as if I were hyperventilating.

  Muffled yells from the science lab were cut off when the door closed. In fact, the room was so utterly silent it had to be soundproofed. The room was icy cold too, and I was amazed to see that a thin rime had formed on the back of the door.

  I sensed Mr Karle’s presence stamped on the room and tried to stop picturing him. I felt as if thinking about him too much would make him materialise. The lunacy of what I was doing finally got through to me and I realised I had to get out of the office before I was caught.

  I opened the door to escape, peered out the crack and almost fainted with fright.

  Mr Karle was standing about two metres away talking to the principal, Mrs Severne.

  I closed the door and turned to the window in panic, but they were the kind that didn’t open. There was no escape.

  Then my eyes fell to the desk and the magnetised paperweight. My arms were covered in goosebumps as I crossed the floor. In spite of being suddenly scared out of my wits, or perhaps because of it, I thought of Lallie telling me my symbol would hide me from him. If ever I needed some magical protection it was now.

  There were about fifty different pieces in the pile of shapes. Which one was the one from my vision? Then I remembered the disc had felt warm the last time I’d touched it.

  In seconds, I had it. In spite of the cold, it was still warm. In fact, it felt hot. I slid it into my pocket and crossed to the door, trying not to notice that the frost on the door had thickened.

  Mr Karle and Mrs Severne were still outside.

  ‘It will have to be entered into the boy’s record and that is a pity since he has only just joined us,’ Mrs Severne was saying.

  ‘We can have no exceptions,’ Mr Karle said flatly. ‘He deliberately broke the community curfew. His mother is ve
ry concerned about him. I think we will need to keep an eye on him,’ he added thoughtfully.

  I stared out of the crack disbelievingly. They were talking about me! That meant my mother had rung the school and told them about my breaking the curfew! What would happen when the Kraken found me in his room?

  I felt sick. I squeezed my hand into a fist around the metal shape, the nails biting into my palm.

  In the distance, someone screamed.

  ‘What on earth is that?’ Mr Karle demanded.

  Mrs Severne sighed. ‘One of the students was bitten by a spider in the science lab. Mr Ellis assures me it is nothing but the boy is hysterical.’

  They moved away from the foyer and when their voices faded, I came out, relocked the door with shaking fingers and replaced the keys.

  A moment later, the receptionist passed me without giving me a second glance. As I went out into a sunlit courtyard, I could hear Danny’s yells subside.

  11

  I didn’t see Danny in the afternoon, but someone said he had gone home early because he was so distressed. In spite of everything, I laughed every time I thought of him faking the spider bite.

  I arrived home to find a note from my mother telling me to come to the the nursing home for dinner. It was a peace offering and she must have dropped it home in her break. It didn’t make sense that she would ring the school about me if she wanted to patch things up.

  Riding the bus across to Ercildoune, I thought about the frost in Mr Karle’s office and wondered if I could have imagined it. I frowned and dug in my pocket. The metal circle felt cold now, and looked perfectly ordinary. Had it protected me, hidden me from Mr Karle, the way Lallie promised? Or was it all just a coincidence?

  The bus creaked to a halt at a set of lights right next to a fire truck. The crew were trying to repair a burst hydrant spewing water across the intersection, while a group of small kids stood around staring solemnly at the torrent gushing out. I turned to watch them, thinking how serious they all looked. In any other neighbourhood, they would have been racing through the water, screeching and giving cheek, ignoring the firemen’s instructions to stand back.

  The nursing home was called Elderew. My mother said it used to be someone’s house back in the days when everybody had a house that looked like a hotel. The lawns were smooth as green felt and willow trees slumped forlorn and graceful over a pond filled with fat goldfish. Tall, neat poplars lined up along the crescent driveway, shading it in stripes.

  According to my mother the job at Elderew was one of the main reasons we had come to Cheshunt. She had been a research nurse, but in the time she had been married to my father, she hadn’t worked, and so she had got behind on the latest techniques which meant taking whatever position she could get. I had been across to eat a couple of times so far.

  One of the nurses was helping an old lady along the path in the fading light as I came along the drive.

  I went round to the staff entrance and pushed the button. A short Asian nursing assistant in a lolly pink uniform opened the door.

  ‘Hel-lo Nat-an-yal,’ she said in a sing-song voice. ‘I get you mutter,’ she said carefully, watching me to see that I understood. Then she hurried off down the corridor. I sat in one of the chairs and opened my maths homework, but I found myself reading the same formula over and over without taking anything in.

  ‘Hello, Nat,’ my mother said. One look at her face told me she didn’t want to talk about the morning but I found I was mad after all.

  ‘Why did you ring the school about my breaking the curfew last night?’

  She looked taken aback. ‘I didn’t.’

  It was my turn to be surprised.

  She sat down beside me, the starch seeming to flow out of her. ‘Nathanial, what made you think I had?’ She sounded genuinely puzzled.

  I couldn’t very well tell her that I had overheard Mr Karle talking about it. Besides, now I knew. If she hadn’t rung the school, it had to have been the police.

  In a strange way, it gave credence to the things Lallie had said in the attic.

  I shivered superstitiously.

  My mother sighed. ‘If only we had more time to talk but it’s just one thing after another. Maybe when the job eases up we can take a holiday together. Sort some things out.’

  I stared at her wonderingly, because, for a minute, she sounded like she wanted us to spend time together.

  She stood and smoothed her hands over her hair which was knotted at the back of her neck. Instead of making her look severe the way she thought, the knot made her look younger, like a girl dressing up and pretending to be grown up.

  ‘I just came down to tell you I won’t be able to join you for tea tonight. We’re short two nurses, so you just go down to the dining hall and help yourself. Come and see me later and I’ll organise someone to run you to the bus stop.’

  The tea room was simply an old hall with a wooden floor, filled with tables and chairs which were mostly occupied. I went to the servery.

  The girl behind the counter nodded in recognition. ‘Better have the chicken schnitzel. It’s the only thing you need teeth to eat.’

  That was the biggest problem with nursing-home meals. Practically everything was mush, because a lot of the patients had no teeth or couldn’t wear their false teeth to eat. Actually it was pretty revolting because a lot of them just sat their teeth on the table beside them while they ate.

  I took the chicken and sat down at a table where a single nurse was reading a book and eating her dinner. It occurred to me this would be a good time to see if any of the people at Elderew had been students at Three North.

  ‘Hi,’ I said brightly.

  The nurse looked up. She had a mop of short dark curls, silver-rimmed glasses and red cheeks.

  ‘I’m Nathanial Delaney, Sister Delaney’s son,’ I introduced myself.

  She closed her book and took off her glasses. ‘Wow, for a minute I thought I was in the wrong place. You don’t see too many young faces here. I’m Lilly Astaroth.’

  ‘What are you reading?’ I asked, noticing she had taken the chicken too.

  She turned the book to show me its cover.

  ‘Lord of the Rings. I loved that.’

  She grinned, showing twin dimples. ‘A lot of people think it’s a kid’s book, but it’s pretty complicated.’

  ‘I know. He invented a whole elf language for it.’

  She nodded enthusiastically. ‘I wouldn’t want it to get around, but when I was applying for work, I saw the name of this place and decided that was it. Elderew. It sounded elven to me.’

  I laughed, thinking how easy it was to talk to people older than me, and wishing I felt as comfortable around kids my own age.

  ‘I was just thinking. Maybe you can help me with something. I’ve got this assignment in history, and I’m trying to find some of the people who used to go to my school about sixty years ago. Maybe some of the people here …’

  She looked doubtful. ‘Well, I don’t know how you could find that out unless you ask them all and I don’t think …’

  I fumbled through my school pack. ‘I’ve got a list of the names of some old students. Could you just have a look?’

  She pushed her plate aside and put on her glasses. ‘Sure. Though I expect most of them who still lived in the area would have gone to the home in Cheshunt. Mingen House it’s called.’ She ran her eye down the list. ‘Of course, the chances are all of them will have moved away from the whole area. Not many people end up living in the same town they grew up in… Wait a minute. There’s one name here I recognise. Anna Galway.’

  I felt like leaping up and hugging her. It was almost too good to be true. ‘Great!’

  ‘It might not be the same one,’ she said. ‘You’ll have to ask permission from the co-ordinator of the Home before you speak to her though. And then Anna might just refuse to speak with you. She’s not the world’s friendliest person.’

  ‘Can you tell me anything about her?’

  Li
lly shook her head regretfully but before she could speak, one of the windows blew open with a loud clatter.

  ‘I’ll get it,’ I said quickly, not wanting her distracted. But as I pulled the window closed I felt my arms rise into goose-bumps because it seemed to me I could smell the abattoir very faintly.

  ‘There was something,’ Lilly said, as I sat back down. ‘Something about a court case.’ She frowned as if riffling through her memory, then her face cleared. ‘That’s it. Anna Galway saw a murder when she was just a kid. She was a police witness.’ Lilly stopped, suddenly pale. ‘For goodness’ sake. What am I doing? Those records are absolutely confidential. I don’t know what made me just babble on like that.’ She gave me an imploring look. ‘Please don’t say any of this to anyone. I’d get the sack if you did.’

  ‘I won’t, I promise,’ I told her. ‘Really.’

  She looked relieved. ‘I’ve got to go now. Good luck with the search.’

  It was still too early for my bus, so I went down to the recreation room where most of the patients spent the hours before bed. I had met a couple of them last time and one old man called out a greeting.

  ‘Hi, Mr Pellman.’

  He beamed. ‘How about a game of thirty-one?’

  He had taught me the game the week before. It was a simple variation of the game of twenty-one. ‘Okay. But only matches. No money.’ I had lost all of my pocket money to the old shark the last time.

  I sat down and Mr Pellman dealt the cards.

  ‘Is Mrs Galway in here today?’ I asked casually.

  ‘Miz,’ Mr Pellman corrected, squinting at his cards. ‘Don’t suppose so. She ain’t the socialisin’ type. Matter of fact she’s an old battle-axe.’ He gave me a mischievous slice of a smile. ‘That’s the nicest thing about gettin’ old. Yer stop lyin’ for the sake of politeness.’

  I grinned back at him and swapped a card off the discard pile for one in my hand. He frowned at my discard.

  ‘That’s another flower! Yer building bridges already,’ he said accusingly. He called clubs, flowers; spades, shovels; and diamonds, jewels. Hearts were the only cards he called by their right name. It made the card games we played sort of exotic.