Creeping Terror (13 page)

T
HERE WAS A BUZZ AMONG THE CHILDREN back at Gibbet Manor. Most were due to leave in a few days, their education complete – for now, at least.

A tall, thin boy with dark hair and glasses pushed past Ben at lunch. The same boy Ben had been sure was sneering at him. Was it only a week ago? It seemed like a lifetime.

‘Hey,’ Ben complained.

‘Oh, hey,’ the boy replied, turning and coming back. ‘Sorry, I was miles away. There’s just so much to think about. So much to take in, you know.’

Ben nodded. ‘Tell me about it.’ He waited for the sneer to return, or a sarky comment about how Ben must know it all anyway.

But instead the boy smiled. A proper, genuine smile. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I guess it’s all old news to you. It’s been so great having you and Rupam here,
treating us like we might match up to you one day. I mean, we’re just passing through and you guys – you’re on the front line. All the time. Everyone says how hard it must be and, well …’ He shrugged, suddenly looking embarrassed. ‘Thanks,’ he finished. ‘Thanks for everything.’

Ben watched the boy leave. He didn’t even remember his name.

The new kids started a week later. Ben and Sam stood at Ben’s window and watched them arrive in a minibus from Plymouth station. Their parents – and most of their teachers – thought they were on an Outward Bound course, and when they returned they’d have pictures and stories to prove it. But they would be from two days, not two weeks, out on the moor. A survival course of a very different sort from the one their parents imagined.

That evening, Ben was summoned to Knight’s study. He and Sam went in, apprehensive. Was he in trouble?

But Gemma, Maria and Rupam were there already. There was another boy too. He looked nervous, blushing beneath a scattering of freckles. His hair was a mess of blond thatch.

‘I wanted you all to meet someone,’ Knight said.
‘This is Tommy. It’s because of him that we all had such a fun time in Templeton.’

‘Thanks, Tommy,’ Maria said. ‘It was a blast.’

The boy frowned, not sure if he was being teased.

‘It’s because of Tommy that matters didn’t get out of hand,’ Knight said. ‘We have to thank you for being so alert and getting us involved.’ He shook the embarrassed boy by the hand.

They all thanked him and shook his hand, and Tommy had managed a grin by the time he left them.

‘So, it’s all over,’ Ben said.

‘Not exactly,’ Knight said. ‘That’s partly why I wanted to talk to you all. Captain Morton has a few things to smooth out with the army. Webby was watching it all on the satellite and has shown me the time-lapse images. When you destroyed the tower, the vegetation had already overrun the rest of the village and was spreading outwards. So well done, everyone.’

‘All in a day’s work,’ Rupam said.

‘What did he mean, “not exactly”?’ Sam whispered to Ben.

‘You said it wasn’t exactly all over,’ Ben said out loud.

‘The Crystal,’ Knight said. He looked at them each carefully in turn.

‘What about it?’ Gemma asked. ‘You put it in your pocket.’

Knight nodded. ‘And when I got back here, I had Webby run some tests on it.’

‘Is it Diablo’s Crystal?’ Rupam asked. ‘One of the artefacts?’

‘Oh, yes. Without it, Carstairs Endeavour could never hope to successfully summon forth Mortagula and control him.’

‘So what’s the problem?’ Ben asked.

‘You don’t know?’

Ben shook his head.

‘No, I don’t think you do.’ Knight turned to Rupam. ‘What about you?’

‘Sorry?’

‘Or you?’ Knight turned suddenly to ask Maria. She blinked in surprise, but did not reply. ‘And you?’ Knight asked Gemma quietly.

Gemma shook her head. She glanced over at a large glass-fronted cabinet fixed to the wall – the securely locked cabinet where Knight kept many of his souvenirs and relics. ‘It’s gone, hasn’t it? I know – I could
feel
it. And now … Nothing.’

Knight nodded gravely. ‘Yes, the Crystal has gone.’

‘But how?’ Ben asked. ‘I mean, did it just vanish or …’

‘Or did someone take it?’ Sam finished for him.

Ben didn’t echo her words. Even though they could not have heard them, everyone in the room would be thinking the same thing.

‘Something for me to sort out,’ Knight said. ‘But it is worrying, to say the least. And as you know, not the first time we’ve had a problem. I must ask Mrs Bailey to review our defences and alarms. But perhaps its purpose was done and it has simply dissolved. Let’s pray we never find out otherwise. Now …’ He clapped his hands together, but Ben could see the anxiety in his expression. ‘I must officially welcome the new batch of students.’

‘So you’re not the new boy any more,’ Rupam told Ben as they left the study.

‘I suppose not.’

‘Of course not,’ Gemma agreed.

‘You’re one of us now,’ Maria said. ‘For better or for worse.’ Her sullen face suggested ‘worse’. ‘One of the team.’

Ben watched them head off for the common room. ‘Whatever that means,’ he murmured.

Sam was standing beside him. ‘You know what it means,’ she said. ‘It means that this is where the fun
really
starts.’

Justin Richards has written over forty novels as well as non-fiction books. He has also written audio scripts, television and stage plays, edited anthologies of short stories, been a technical writer, and founded and edited a media journal. Justin is the author of three novels about The Department of Unclassified Artefacts,
The Death Collector, The Parliament of Blood
and
The Chamber of Shadows,
as well as
The Chaos Code
and
The Invisible Detective
series. He is also Creative Consultant to the BBC’s bestselling range of Doctor Who books. He lives in Warwick with his wife and two children, and a lovely view of the castle.

www.justinrichards.co.uk

The Death Collector

The Parliament of Blood

The Chamber of Shadows

The Chaos Code

The School of Night: Demon Storm