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Authors: Gillian Cross

The Nightmare Game (29 page)

BOOK: The Nightmare Game
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“But I haven't got anything,” Lorn said. “You know I've never had anything, outside this cavern.”
She heard her father catch his breath, as though he'd been hit, but she had no time to work out what that meant. Pulling away from Zak's hand, she stepped nearer to the entrance.
“Don't even think of going,” Zak said implacably. “Not like that. You'd just be going back to the misery you left before. To the underground prison and the poor stunted Hope who couldn't walk or talk. Is that what you want?”
“But they're
calling
me—”
“So what are you going to give us?”
Zak didn't move his eyes from her face—but Lorn had a curious sense that he wasn't looking at her anymore. She could feel him listening for a sound from somewhere else in the cavern. But when she glanced over his shoulder, everything was very still, except the flickering light from the brazier.
“I haven't got anything,” she said desperately. “But I
must
go. Please—”
There was no softening of Zak's expression. She could see that he wasn't going to change his mind and allow her to leave. A wave of despair surged up in her mind, so black and vast that it almost blotted out everything else.
They'll never let me go—
And then it happened. The last thing she was expecting. Her father came walking down the cavern toward her, brushing past Zak as though he hadn't seen him.
“You do have something,” he muttered. “You have me.”
“What?” Lorn couldn't take in the words. “What do you mean?”
“I'll stay here in your place. If they'll have me.” He looked over his shoulder at Zak. “Is that a fair exchange?”
For a second, Zak watched him, not answering. Then he said, “Is that your choice? Made of your own free will?”
Lorn wanted to hear her father say yes. Wanted it so much that she could hardly breathe. But she knew it wouldn't be right. She made herself speak, forcing the words out quickly, while she still had the courage.
“He can't make that choice. He has no idea what it would mean. He doesn't even know where we are—or
what he is
.”
“Perhaps that doesn't matter to him,” Zak said softly. “Maybe he wants to stay in your place whatever that means. It all depends on his reason. Why don't you ask him?”
Lorn lifted her head and made herself look full into her father's face. He looked awkward and uncertain, and the idea of asking the question filled her with revulsion. She didn't want to know what he felt. Didn't want to be that close.
But Zak wasn't going to let her escape. “
Tell
her, Daniel,” he said. “Tell her why you want to stay in her place.”
Lorn saw her father's eyes slide away, as though Zak had embarrassed him. “She saved my life,” he said stiffly. “Without her, I would have died down in those tunnels. I owe her something in return.”
It wasn't enough. Lorn didn't know what she wanted, but it wasn't that. Zak clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
“
I owe you something
won't do,” he said. “Lorn needs the truth. Your real reason.”
“She's my daughter. I have a duty to protect her—”
This time the words were defensive and hasty. And they didn't please Zak any more than the first answer. He shook his head sternly.
“Duty has no place in this. Anything we take in Lorn's place must be freely given. If you're not doing that, then the exchange fails.”
Lorn felt her father waver, holding back from giving a third answer. She could still hear the voices rumbling overhead, calling out to her, but she was suddenly afraid that they were tiring and fading away. It was that fear that pushed her into speech at last.
“Please,” she said. “If you have a reason, please tell me—”
Her father raised his head and looked at her. When he spoke, his voice was harsh and low, as if every word was painful. “I want you to be happy,” he said. “Because you're the most precious thing in my life. And I love you. You have to believe that.”
She couldn't bear it, just as she'd known she wouldn't be able to bear it. But she knew that she couldn't refuse what he was offering, because refusal now would be the worst, the unkindest thing of all. There had to be a way of accepting what he'd said. And acknowledging how much it had cost him to say it.
Shakily, she took a single step toward him, coming so close that she could see her reflection in the center of his eyes. Her arm trembled as she reached out toward him.
“I'm not sure I understand,” she said—and her voice was as raw and rough as his had been—“but, yes, I believe you. Thank you—”
Thank you, Father,
was what she meant to say. But her mouth wouldn't make the sound. She reached for a name that she was able to speak instead.
“Thank you—Daniel,” she said. “Thank you for what you're doing.” And, reaching a little further, she brushed the back of his hand very lightly with the tips of her fingers.
He gave her a long look, staring into her face as if he was trying to learn it. Then he stepped back, glancing toward Zak.
“Is that good enough?” he said. “Can she go?”
Zak met his eyes. “There won't be another chance for you,” he said. “Is this really what you want? Are you sure?”
“I'm sure,” Daniel said.
Zak turned quickly to Lorn. “Then hurry,” he said. “
Hurry
—before they stop calling you.”
She looked down the cavern. At Perdew and Annet and Dess. At Cam—and all the others who'd been her friends and her family for so long. “What about everyone else?” she said. “Am I the only one who's going to get away? Has no one else got a chance?”
Zak's reaction startled everyone. He threw his head back and gave a joyful shout of laughter. “That's a question for my brother,” he said. “When you find him, say,
Zak has found someone to take over after the winter. Someone else who's chosen to stay in the cavern forever.
Make him tell you what that means. Now
go!
Before those people outside lose hope and stop calling you.”
 
FOR ONE LAST SECOND, LORN STARED DOWN THE CAVERN, TRYING to fix everything in her mind. Then she threw herself onto her hands and knees and began crawling through the entrance tunnel as fast as she could. Crawling toward the huge, cold world outside and the people who were calling her name.
Toward Robert. . . .
 
THEY COULDN'T KEEP IT UP ANY LONGER. IT WAS NEVER GOING to work. Robert could hear Emma's voice wavering, could hear Warren starting to cry again, this time with disappointment.
“One last call!” he said fiercely. “Tom, Emma, Warren—give it all you've got. Don't worry about the noise. Just shout.”
And they did, every one of them. They called her names into the empty air, with no idea of what could possibly happen. Just calling, calling, calling for the person they wanted.
And suddenly, in the mouth of the entrance tunnel, Robert saw—unbelievably—beyond his most extravagant dreams—
“Look !” he shouted. “Look! It's her!”
Without being told, Emma stepped forward, holding the blanket wide, calling a gibberish of names. “Oh, Hope, oh, Lorn—oh, it's you, it's you, it's
you!”
And suddenly there she was, swelling up into the blanket, solid and real and
there
. Laughing at them over the fringed edge so that they could see that she was more than Hope had ever been, because she was there and free and herself.
 
WHEN TOM WENT BACK TO TELL MAGEE WHAT HAD HAPPENED, THE APARTMENT was completely empty. The door swung open onto bare boards and windows without curtains. When he stepped inside, the living room felt cold and damp, as though no one had been there for weeks.
He searched every room, thinking that there must be some message from Magee. But the whole apartment was picked clean, like a skeleton on a hillside. For all he could see, Magee might never have existed. They might have imagined him.
When he was sure there was nothing, he went out and turned to close the door behind him. As he pulled at it, he saw a piece of paper caught in the hinge. He tugged it free and spread it out eagerly. That had to be what Magee had left for him. A clue to the rest of his life.
The paper was totally blank.
That was when he understood that no one was going to write him a script. He had to work things out for himself, as he went along.
BOOK: The Nightmare Game
12.05Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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