Martin turned away and she was pulled from the van by her legs, kicking all the way.
‘MARTIN, WAIT, WHAT’S GOING ON?’
She surprised herself, her throat giving way as she screamed. The man she thought she knew paused, turned and came back. The inspectors dropped her, literally, and backed away. Martin watched as she got to her feet, fighting the urge to cry and rubbing her elbows where they’d hit the ground.
‘Why are you calling me Martin?’
‘That’s your name.’
He shook his head. ‘My name is irrelevant. My title is Head Ward of extra-dimensional studies.’
‘Catchy.’
He raised his eyebrows, fractionally higher than before. ‘You know me, in your dimension.’
It wasn’t a question, but she found herself answering.
‘You’re my master, you’re teaching me magic.’
‘Ah.’ A smile split his face. It wasn’t quite right, like milk left out overnight. You wanted to trust it, but you knew it you put it on your cereal you’d regret it later. ‘How quaint. Things are a little different here.’
‘Why?’
‘Why?’ He put his hands behind his back, settling onto his heels. It was such a familiar gesture that a lump formed in her throat. ‘It has been this way for sixty years and it is this way because it has to be. The world was lost, for many years and we cannot let it become lost again.’
‘I’m not sure how you could lose the world. I mean, I’ve lost mine, but that’s just me. Surely you couldn’t all lose it at the same time, that would just be—’
‘Terror invaded our world and millions died. This is not something to joke about.’
‘But why does it have to be like this?’
He sighed as though she were really stupid. ‘Because we have to maintain control.’
‘What, over all those sixteen year old school girls who are just poised to take over the world?’
‘Scarlet knew what she was doing.’
‘She’s sixteen.’
He shook his head. ‘Make no mistake, age means nothing. There are plenty of sixteen year old capable of terrible things.’
‘Well, yeah, you should have seen this text post on tumblr the other week, serious trolling, but I mean—’
‘You mean very little and say a lot.’
‘Why are you in charge?’
He looked surprised at the change in tack but took it well. ‘I am a member of the council.’
‘The Council? You mean the magic council?’
‘Of course. Who else do you think runs the country?’
Her mouth dropped open and before she could say anything else, the inspectors returned. They dragged her through the massive gate before which she’d been standing. Martin came in also but headed in a different direction. She was lugged along the main road, past open fields. It was like being on an airfield and the massive hanger they were walking toward did nothing to dispel the feeling.
The doors were already open and they strode out of the evening sun into the gloom of the hanger. There were buildings inside it, long flat grey boxes with tiny windows and flat roofs. They put her down enough for her to use her feet and the three of them approached the nearest. In through the door and down a corridor that looked like a hospital and smelled like a gym.
Another door and when it swung open, she saw within a cell, not much larger than Martin’s bedroom and bearing a remarkably similar bed. And nothing else. They shoved her in and slammed the door. She turned, about to commit the terrible sin of cliche by thumping on the door and demanding to be let out. But some things were beneath even her, so she settled for trying out the bed.
The mattress was made of something resembling wood, with about as much give, and she gave up lying down pretty quickly. Mum would be worrying by now. Well, not worrying, but certainly wondering. She could pace. People paced in jail cells, didn’t they? She gave it a try, taking the three steps from one end to the other and turned, before giving it up as a bad job.
The light was already fading and soon the cell was plunged into complete darkness. This could be a good time to panic. But she’d run today and cried more than usual. She stretched out on the bed, wriggled around for half an hour and finally fell asleep.
The door opening woke her. Apparently she didn’t wake up quick enough, because they slammed it against the wall a few times until she sat up and waved a hand. She looked around for a mirror and was relieved to see there were none. If she was going to be dead or in another dimension soon, she really couldn’t care less about how she looked.
The inspector in the doorway tapped one hand against the door frame and his foot on the stone floor.
‘Could you be any more of a stereotype? Just calm down, alright?’
He sneered at her and went on tapping. She stretched and yawned. And stretched some more. And yawned a bit. Another stretch. He grabbed her arm and pulled her out the cell while she gave him her sweetest smile. She had somehow woken up in a good mood. That never happened, unless Lara was there and that had only happened twice. The thought made her insides tighten and her smile widen.
Then she remembered everything that had happened yesterday. Weird how being in another dimension still didn’t take away from the hurt of being dumped. Her smile faded as the guy in the uniform dragged her down endless passageways until they reached a double door inlaid with blacked-out glass panels.
He pushed one open, shoved her through, and she found herself in a massive room. That it was big was about the only interesting thing she could say about it. That and the narrow table that filled the centre and was sat at by four men. All staring at her. She put her hand to her hair, feeling the inevitable post-sleep wind tunnel effect and groaned.
‘Come forward.’
She stepped closer to the table, trying to stand up straight. ‘There are four of you. Are you the head of the Council?’
‘Do you really think the head of the council would be here to deal with a nobody like you? We are the heads of council for extra-dimensional occurrences.’
‘You guys just love the crap titles don’t you? Where’s Martin?’
They looked at her blankly. The same one spoke again. ‘You are here to be judged.’
‘Yay.’
‘And it would behove you to take it a little more seriously as the sentence may well be death.’
She feigned a yawn. What was with her today? Of the four men, three frowned at her as if they had special powers in their foreheads. The fourth sat back, watching her with a wry smile. Three against one. She was going to die. But somehow, she still couldn’t bring herself to be too bothered.
‘Please, come and stand at the head of the table.’
She headed around until she could see all their faces without them having to turn.
‘Name?’
‘Joanna Slater.’
‘Why are you here, Joanna.’
‘My friends call me Jo. I was using a seeking spell to get home and accidentally went to the wrong house.’
‘How did you do that?’
‘Um, well, I may have been a bit careless with how I laid out the ingredients.’
She couldn’t decide if the creased brows and open mouths were amazement or disgust, or maybe a bit of both. ‘I see. Why did you run when we came to collect you?’
‘The people in the house thought I should. And they were right. You threw me in a van and put me in prison for the night. That’s not very nice, you know.’
The relaxed one smiled again, but the other three glared. ‘She will be dealt with. You will go home. We can send you, or you may perform the spell yourself.’
‘What, I can go home? Right now?’
He nodded and she busied herself with her bag. She had most of the stuff spread out around her and her bundle of sage tucked behind her ear before she stopped. Dammit.
‘What about her?’
The men turned back to stare at her. ‘Who?’
‘Scarlet, the girl who tried to save me?’
There was silence for a moment, before the smiling man spoke. ‘Why do you want to know?’
‘I think you’re doing nasty things to her and she doesn’t deserve it.’
‘Nasty is a very subjective word.’
‘Assuming that means what I think it does, I gotta disagree. Nasty is nasty.’
He rocked his head from side to side. ‘She is being reconditioned, to ensure she fully understands what is expected of her.’
‘And then?’
‘If we believe she is suitable, she will be allowed back into society.’
‘Yeah, see, that’s not good enough. Can I save her?’
The men chuckled. Actually chuckled. Spitting at them probably wouldn’t help her get what she wanted, so she ground her teeth together and waited. They were making eye contact, raising eyebrows and being all mysterious. Maybe she should pretend to go home and go to the gate instead. She could remember what it looked like.
‘What would you be willing to do?’
‘Ewww. Not that.’
He shook his head, still smiling. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, how far does your intention to rescue her go?’
She shrugged. ‘I dunno.’
‘Hmm.’ What did that mean? He was looking at the others and one by one they nodded. He turned back to her. ‘Perhaps there is something you can do. There is something we need, maybe you can get it.’
‘Yeah, sure, what is it?’
‘Tell me, have you ever heard of Red Riding Hood?’
Next Instalment Monday 14th April
