The Touchstone Read online

  It was very worrying, and Mrs Paterson did what she always did when she was worried. She rolled back the carpet in the drawing room, put a CD in the music centre, closed her eyes… and danced.

  Before she married, Mrs Paterson had done a lot of ballroom dancing she had been Home Counties Latin American champion three years in a row – but all that had stopped when she met Archie. Archie was not interested in dancing and soon after they were married Douglas was born, and Mrs Paterson found herself quite busy enough looking after her home, her husband and her son.

  But she still found that nothing helped take her mind off a problem more effectively than the familiar rhythmic patterns of a dance. Latin American was best, especially if she was worrying about something. A samba perhaps, or a paso doble. Or if she was really worried, the rumba.

  Tonight, she decided, was definitely a time for the rumba.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The next morning, after his mother had left for work, Douglas collected the annexe key from its place on the back of the pantry door and was crossing the hall to the annexe entrance when Ivo rang the front door bell. He had been waiting outside until he had seen Mrs Paterson leave, then scurried up the drive to the door.

  ‘Has anything happened?’ he asked as Douglas let him in. ‘Is she still dead?’

  ‘I don't know,’ said Douglas. ‘I haven't looked yet.’

  Together the boys walked down the corridor of the annexe to the bathroom where they found Kai lying in the bath, but looking very different from the peeling, scab-ridden corpse they had placed there the day before.

  ‘Wow…’ breathed Ivo.

  And Douglas could only agree. The old skin had completely sloughed away from Kai's body, and the new skin beneath was clear and pink. All the crusted blue scabs had fallen away, there was no trace of a scar where her left arm joined to the shoulder and the hair that had grown back on her head was already several inches long.

  The changes were all clearly visible because most of Kai's clothes had fallen away along with her old skin. A few shreds of cloth still hung here and there, but mostly they had been eaten away by the acids her body had produced. Only the Touchstone had been unaffected. It lay on her chest, glittering quietly in the light from the window.

  Douglas had brought a dressing gown from his mother's bedroom and he draped it carefully over the body before sitting down beside Ivo on the laundry basket to wait. Gedrus had said that Kai would revive a little before nine o'clock and there were still twenty minutes to go.

  At five past nine they were still waiting and Douglas was about to ask Gedrus if anything had gone wrong when Kai's body suddenly flung back its head, drew in a huge, rasping breath and sat bolt upright in the bath. A moment later the breaths were coming thick and fast, as if Kai were a drowning woman desperate for oxygen, and then her breathing slowed, her eyes opened and she turned to face the boys.

  ‘Hi,’ said Douglas. ‘How are you feeling?’

  Kai did not answer at once. Instead, her hand curled round the Touchstone hanging from her neck as she looked, not at Douglas but at Ivo, sitting beside him. Her lips moved as if she was talking to herself and Douglas guessed she was asking Gedrus a question. Whatever she asked – and the boys could hear neither the question nor the reply – she seemed satisfied with the answer she got.

  ‘You are Ivo,’ she said. It was a statement, not a question, and Ivo nodded nervously in reply.

  ‘I had to tell him about you,’ said Douglas. ‘I know you said not to tell anyone but if I hadn't…’

  Kai held up a hand. ‘You have the case?’

  Douglas picked up the grey metal case from under the washbasin and gave it to Kai. She took it and opened it. There were still two Touchstones inside.

  ‘They're still there,’ said Douglas. ‘We didn't take them.’

  ‘It is well.’ Kai leaned back in the bath. ‘It is very well.’

  There was a pause while she lay there for a moment with her eyes closed and then she spoke again. ‘I will need food. Food and water.’

  ‘I could probably find you something in the kitchen,’ said Douglas. ‘If you'd like to come through?’

  Kai stood up, letting fall a shower of skin flakes, scraps of clothing and the dressing gown as she did so. She stepped out of the bath and prepared to follow the boys through to the main house.

  It was Douglas who suggested that it might be a good idea to put on the dressing gown first.

  She ate an astonishing amount of food, mostly bread and baked beans, and drank nearly eight pints of water. Douglas and Ivo watched from the other end of the kitchen table as she pushed the last corner of toast into her mouth and sat back with a gentle belch.

  ‘I thank you.’ It was the first time she had spoken since sitting down. ‘I thank you both for all you have done for me.’

  ‘What happens now?’ asked Douglas.

  ‘Now I will return to my world and fulfil the rest of my mission.’

  ‘But I thought you didn't have a ship any more?’

  Kai shrugged. ‘I shall build another.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I have Gedrus.’ Kai fingered the stone around her neck. ‘He will show me how. As he will show me how to liberate my people.’

  ‘He can do that?’

  ‘He can.’ Kai smiled. ‘That is the reason I stole this.’ She pointed to the metal case on the table beside her.

  ‘You stole it?’ For some reason Douglas had always presumed that the stones belonged to Kai and that the Guardians were trying to steal them from her.

  ‘I had no choice.’ Kai pushed back her chair and stood up. ‘The Guardians believe that only they have the right to hold a Touchstone. But if my people are to be free, Gedrus is their only chance. He can tell us what weapons we need and how to build them. He can tell us what we have to do and how to prepare. He can tell us what the tyrant is planning and how we can defeat him. Without Gedrus we could not win, but with him we cannot lose.’

  There was a fierce, cold look to Kai's face as she spoke that almost made Douglas feel sorry for the tyrant, or anyone else who stood in her way, but when she looked across at Douglas her face softened. ‘Before I leave, may I presume upon your hospitality one last time?’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘I will need clothes.’ The dressing gown Kai was wearing was several sizes too small for her and definitely not something to be worn out of doors. ‘Is there something I could borrow?’

  Douglas had a feeling that any of his mother's clothes would not only be too small but somehow… not right. As Ivo said later, you could dress Kai in a leather jerkin and give her a battleaxe to hold and she would have looked quite presentable, but in one of Mrs Paterson's dresses she would just look weird.

  ‘Gedrus tells me,’ Kai was fingering the Touchstone again, ‘that in a wardrobe in the spare back bedroom are a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt which…’

  She stopped suddenly, tilting her head to one side as if listening, and a moment later Douglas heard the sound of a key turning in the front door.

  Although Mr Paterson no longer lived with his wife and son, he still had a key to the house in Western Avenue. He was using it now to collect some boxes of books and a few other personal possessions to take back to his flat. It was something he preferred to do when he knew Mrs Paterson was not at home. It saved them both a lot of awkwardness.

  As he let himself into the house he heard a noise and, walking through to the kitchen, was surprised to find Douglas and one of his school friends putting dishes into the sink.

  ‘Douglas?’ It was half past nine and his son was supposed to be at school. ‘What's going on?’

  ‘This is Ivo,’ said Douglas. ‘He's in my class.’

  ‘Hello, Ivo.’ Mr Paterson frowned as he looked around the kitchen. ‘And who's the other visitor?’

  ‘Other visitor?’

  ‘Three glasses on the table, the utility room door closes as I come in, wet footprints…’ Mr Paterson pointed to the flo
or by the chair where Kai had been sitting. ‘I can see someone else is here. Who is it?’

  There was an embarrassing silence while the boys tried to think of a reply and then there was the sound of a lavatory flushing, the door to the utility room opened and Kai appeared.

  She was dressed as a schoolgirl – if you could imagine Sheena the Warrior Princess in school uniform. She was wearing a short black skirt, a white shirt, a school tie, and the hair at the side of her head had been pulled into bunches with a couple of elastic bands. Though the shirt was clearly too small for her, she had tied the ends in a knot under her chest, leaving a bare midriff, in a way that was rather stylish.

  She came straight over to Mr Paterson. ‘You must be Douglas's father.’ She held out a hand. ‘How nice to meet you. I am Kay.’

  ‘Archie Paterson.’ Douglas's father looked slightly bemused as he shook hands.

  ‘I hope you don't mind my being here,’ Kai went on, ‘but the boys have been helping me with some work.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘They have been showing me how to set out the graphics for my sociology project.’ Kai's eyelashes fluttered as she spoke. ‘I am not very good at computers myself.’

  ‘Oh, I see!’ Mr Paterson nodded sympathetically.

  ‘The project is due in today and they only have a library period first thing on a Friday… so I do hope you don't mind if I have kept them from school.’

  ‘No, no, of course not.’ Mr. Paterson smiled, happily. ‘Glad to know they've been doing something useful.’ He turned to Douglas. ‘I only called in to pick up some boxes.’

  ‘Oh, right,’ said Douglas. ‘I'll give you a hand.’

  He followed his father out to the hall and then carried one of the boxes of books out to the car.

  ‘I thought we might go out for a meal tomorrow,’ said Mr Paterson while they loaded the boxes into the boot. ‘Do you fancy that?’

  ‘Great,’ said Douglas.

  ‘I'll pick you up about seven.’ Mr Paterson climbed into the car and strapped himself in. He paused a moment before turning the key in the ignition. ‘Do all the sixth formers at your school look like her?’ he asked, pointing back at the house.

  ‘No,’ said Douglas.

  ‘Thank goodness for that,’ murmured Mr Paterson, and he drove off.

  It was, the boys later agreed, the speed with which Kai had acted that had been so impressive. She had been in the utility room for less than a minute but in that time she had found a shirt and tie of Douglas's in the washing basket, a skirt of his mother's, put them all on, done her hair, and come out cool as a cucumber with a story about a sociology project, computers and a free library period.

  ‘I don't know how you had time to think of it all,’ said Ivo, ‘let alone do any of it.’

  ‘I did not have to “think” of anything.’ Kai gestured to the Touchstone that hung around her neck. ‘I simply did as I was told.’

  ‘Gedrus told you what to do?’ asked Douglas.

  ‘When you know what you want, Gedrus can tell you how to achieve it,’ Kai replied. ‘It is what he is for.’

  It was half an hour later, and Kai was dressed in what had once been Mr Paterson's gardening clothes – a pair of jeans, a flannel shirt and a pair of wellingtons – and still managing to look rather beautiful as she stood in the hall, looking down at the boys.

  ‘It is time to say our farewells.’ She shook hands with Ivo and then turned to Douglas. ‘I thank you again for your loyalty and your trust. Without your help my mission would have failed. I owe you a life debt. I may never be able to repay it but I thank you. I thank you with all my heart.’

  ‘Will we see you again?’ asked Douglas.

  ‘I think not,’ Kai smiled, a little sadly, ‘but if my quest succeeds and my homeworld wins its freedom, I promise I will find some means to send you news of our victory.’ She paused. ‘You have the Touchstone I gave you?’

  Douglas reached into his pocket for the crystal. He had been wondering when Kai would ask for it back. He knew she had only given it to him so that he could look after her while she was dead.

  He held out the stone but Kai did not take it. Instead, she was fingering the stone around her own neck and looking thoughtfully down at him.

  ‘It is of no further use to me. Or to anyone else, apart from yourself.’ She looked at him carefully. ‘Would you like to keep it?’

  ‘Well…’ said Douglas, ‘well… yes. I would.’

  ‘You are sure?’ Kai was still looking at him. ‘The penalties for possessing one of these are severe and those that hunt me will also be hunting you. It is not a gift without risk.’

  For some reason Douglas did not hesitate. ‘Yes, I'm quite sure. Thank you.’

  ‘Then use it wisely, my young friend,’ Kai's hand lightly brushed his cheek as she spoke, ‘and guard your secret carefully.’ She stepped back and held up her arm in a salute. ‘Farewell! May the Great Spirit guide you both on your journeys home.’

  She turned, walked to the front door and pulled it open.

  ‘You're sure there's nothing else you want?’ said Douglas. ‘I mean, if you need money or something, I could…’

  ‘While I have this, I have everything I need.’ Kai smiled and gestured to the stone around her neck. ‘As you will discover!’

  A moment later she was striding off down the drive. She did not look back. In twenty paces she had reached the road where, without hesitation, she turned to the right and was gone.

  Douglas and Ivo, standing on the front step, watched her go.

  ‘She doesn't hang around much, does she?’ said Ivo.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  From his office in the main building Mr Linneker was able to see the front gate, and a dark scowl crossed his face when he noticed two boys walking into school at a little after half past ten. They were ninety minutes late, he muttered to himself. Ninety minutes! But then he saw that one of the boys was Douglas, and the scowl faded.

  Like most adults, Mr Linneker approved of Douglas. If Douglas was late, he knew there would be a reason. Douglas was not a boy who broke the rules without a reason. Nor was he the sort of child to shout at you over the breakfast table, refuse to do his schoolwork or get his nose pierced when you had expressly told him not to…

  Mr Linneker sighed. He had a daughter about the same age as Douglas – in fact she was in the same class – but she was not like Douglas. Not like Douglas at all.

  He walked out to the school office in time to see the two boys writing their names in the late book. ‘Late again?’ he asked.

  ‘It was my fault,’ said Douglas. ‘I'm sorry. I had a bit of trouble at home.’

  ‘I see.’ The headmaster gave a little nod. His own parents had got divorced when he was about Douglas's age and he had some idea how difficult it could make things. ‘I take it this was the same trouble as yesterday?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Douglas. ‘And I asked Ivo to wait in case I needed any help. I hope that's OK?’

  Mr Linneker nodded again. ‘You'd better get along to class. Tell whoever's taking it that you've seen me and that it's all right.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Douglas was heading off towards the door and Ivo was about to follow, when Mr Linneker called him back.

  ‘A word, Ivo. Before you go.’

  Ivo waited, a little nervously, as his friend left the office.

  ‘I just wanted to say,’ the headmaster spoke in a low voice, ‘that the support of his friends is the one thing that can make a difference for Douglas at the moment. Sticking with him this morning, being there to help if you were needed… You did the right thing. Well done.’ Mr Linneker patted him on the shoulder. ‘All right. Off you go.’

  As Ivo set off down the corridor, he thought this had definitely been the strangest day of his life.

  So far this morning, he had seen a woman from another planet climb out of the bath after being dead for two days; his friend Douglas had acquired a stone that could tell you anything you wanted to know;
and now, after arriving an hour and a half late for school, the headmaster had personally come out of his office to say thank you and well done. It couldn't get any stranger, he thought.

  But the truth was that the really strange things had hardly even begun.

  Douglas arrived at his history lesson to find Mr Campbell giving a test to the class on the quarrel between Henry II and Thomas à Becket. He was supposed to have revised for the test the night before but, with all the excitement of Kai and the Touchstone, the homework had been forgotten. It occurred to him now that a librarian who knew everything might be rather useful.

  He reached for the stone in his pocket and found Gedrus at his desk, playing a game of draughts.

  ‘Hi there!’ The librarian looked up with his usual greeting. ‘What can I do for you?’

  Douglas explained that he needed some help with the test, thinking the words in his head rather than saying them out loud, and Gedrus responded at once by hauling out a textbook identical to the one they used in class. He rattled off the answers to all twenty of the questions Mr Campbell had set and, by the end of the lesson, Douglas found himself with full marks and a gold credit on his work card.

  In the Maths and French lessons that followed, it was much the same story. Gedrus not only gave the answer to any question – calculating solutions, providing vocab and correcting spelling – but, in the intervals when nothing much seemed to be happening, was available to play games.

  The library had vast cupboards full of thousands of games, most of which Douglas had never heard of. He could choose any one he liked, Gedrus would throw the dice and move the pieces (in class it was easier not to draw attention to himself by reaching out a hand and doing it himself) and it was, Douglas discovered, a very pleasant way to pass the time.

  Sitting in the school library at lunchtime, while Ivo was off having an accordion lesson, he started a game of Monopoly. He had just landed on Trafalgar Square and was deciding whether to buy it when a voice asked, ‘D'you know anything about glaciers?’