Sapphire and Steel Page 9

  ‘I’m dealing with it,’ said Sapphire.

  ‘You’ve followed my instructions?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Because it — it must be kept — same temperature.’

  ‘I know that.’

  ‘Mustn’t regain — mustn’t regain its heat.’ And Steel’s words had become more slurred as he settled his head back on the chair and slept once more.

  Sapphire moved back to Steel’s side. She touched at his face and forehead, testing for warmth.

  ‘It takes all his strength away then, does it?’ asked Rob, intrigued by Steel’s condition and the reason for it. ‘Going down to that temperature and back.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Sapphire.

  ‘So there’s only us, then?’ Helen’s small voice spoke up at last.

  Sapphire and Rob looked at her.

  ‘If the thing comes back,’ Helen added.

  Rob looked at his sister. He then glanced towards the hallway door, then back to Sapphire.

  Yet again, Sapphire had read his thoughts. ‘We’ll be alright,’ she said, but her assurance did not sound completely convincing.

  Steel stirred again, loosening his blanket, and Sapphire reached out to him.

  ‘Just rest now,’ she whispered. ‘Sleep.’ And she tucked the blanket firmly around Steel’s tired shoulders. ‘And you two,’ she said, looking at Rob and Helen. ‘You must get some sleep.’

  Although he felt tired, sleep was the last thing Rob wanted at this moment. Not that he was really scared to go to bed on his own, he told himself. There was Sapphire to consider. Now that Steel was temporarily out of action, someone had to help her, was his excuse to himself.

  ‘I’m not tired,’ he announced.

  ‘And I’ve been asleep.’ Helen threw in for good measure.

  Sapphire looked at the two of them for a moment. ‘Alright, then,’ she said. ‘You’d better help me until you do feel sleepy.’ And she turned and walked towards the office.

  Sapphire had been doing some adjusting with the freezer’s make-shift dial, and now the bare room seemed even colder still.

  Rob and Helen felt the cold as they stood in the office and watched Sapphire. They had pulled their gowns tightly around themselves and they had folded their arms to keep the warmth in.

  The only sound was the steady hum of the freezer cabinet’s motor.

  ‘Look, Rob.’ Helen had shuffled forward and was now peering, on tip-toe, into the open cabinet.

  Rob glanced at Sapphire, but she seemed unconcerned as she set the dial, so Rob wandered to the cabinet and peered in over Helen’s shoulder.

  The patch of light was at the bottom of the otherwise empty cabinet. It seemed to be huddled up in one corner. Against the white surfaces of the cabinet’s interior, and the film of glistening frost, the patch of light seemed much paler, almost difficult to see at first glance. To Rob, it was like something, some unknown threat, floating just below the surface of the sea, on a hot, bright day.

  ‘Steel said that it was — well, that it was just a fragment.’ Rob shivered as he stared into the open cabinet.

  ‘It is,’ said Sapphire, reaching for the sheet of heavy glass. ‘Help me with this, will you?’

  As well as being thick, the sheet of glass was long. As long and a little wider than the cabinet.

  ‘A fragment of what’s in the top room?’ asked Rob, as he and Helen moved to the sheet of glass.

  Sapphire nodded. Then, with the help of Rob and Helen, she eased the sheet of heavy glass away from the wall. The three of them struggled but managed to lift the glass over the top of the freezer cabinet. The glass made a dull, ringing sound as it was lowered on to the cabinet.

  Rob breathed out from the effort as Helen stood on her toes once more, to peer through the sheet of heavy glass.

  ‘Is it alive?’ she asked as she looked at the captive patch of light.

  Sapphire nodded again. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Is it hurt?’

  ‘Who cares if it’s hurt?’ Rob snapped at his sister. ‘It tried to kill Sapphire. Remember?’

  ‘Oh, yes.’ Fascinated by the object in the cabinet, Helen had temporarily forgotten just how dangerous that patch of light could be.

  Sapphire was also looking at the glass as it began to frost over from the inside, forming a canopy of ice.

  ‘More like children,’ Sapphire said, thoughtfully.

  Rob looked at her. ‘Children?’

  ‘Alright then, offspring. Living additions. Growing successors.’ She left Rob to take his pick as she moved away from the cabinet.

  Rob stared at the white-misted glass. ‘Is it something that you’ve seen before?’ he wanted to know.

  Sapphire stood in the centre of the bleak office room and looked back at the cabinet. ‘Not quite.’

  ‘As dangerous as anything you’ve seen before?’

  Sapphire remained in thought for a moment or two before answering, ‘More dangerous.’

  Rob and Helen turned slowly to look at Sapphire.

  ‘But there’s two more of those things somewhere in the house.’ Rob exclaimed.

  ‘I know,’ said Sapphire. Then, as if to change the subject, ‘Come on, back in the warm.’

  And she walked to the door, the two children following her. Sapphire pointed at the detached freezer lid as she passed it. ‘You can put that on the cellar steps for me before you go to bed.’

  Rob and Helen had half-carried, half-dragged the freezer lid through the kitchen, into the hallway and on to the cellar steps. It had been hard work, but at least the effort had made them warm. Rob had asked Sapphire, while she was directing them through the kitchen, why Steel could not do, to the attic room wall, what he had done to the patches of light. ‘That would only suspend it for a while,’ she had answered, explaining that even Steel’s talents could not stop Time for always. ‘That would be like trying to freeze the universe with one cube of ice,’ was her final comment and she had returned to stoke up the fire for Steel’s benefit, leaving Rob and Helen to struggle out into the hallway with the freezer lid.

  ‘But if it’s a child...’ Helen said as Rob closed the cellar door on the heavy lid.

  ‘Who said it’s a child?’ Rob flexed his tired muscles, yawning as he did so. He felt weary, and the last thing he wanted now was one of Helen’s entangling conversations.

  ‘Sapphire did. She said so. So, if the thing we caught is a child...’

  ‘Sapphire didn’t say that. Well, she didn’t mean it that way.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘She said children first. Then she said offspring. That means pups or cubs...’

  ‘Its young.’

  ‘What?’ Rob looked at his sister, impatiently.

  ‘At school they call it its young.’

  ‘Do they?’ said Rob, without interest, as he checked to see if the cellar door was properly closed. He then began to move back towards the comfort of the kitchen, while Helen pattered along behind him on slippered feet.

  ‘So what if its parents come looking for it?’ Helen asked.

  Rob stopped walking. As usual, Helen had scored with one of her random remarks. He turned slowly to look at Helen.

  ‘Steel could handle it,’ he said.

  ‘But he’s not well.’

  Rob glanced towards the dark staircase, then back. He was about to tell Helen that Steel would probably not be out of action for very long, and, until then, he and Sapphire could cope, when there was a loud knocking on the entrance door.

  Startled, Rob and Helen turned to look at the door. There had been no sound of approach from outside. No car. No footsteps. No kind of warning whatsoever.

  ‘Who is it, Rob?’ Helen whispered.

  ‘How do I know?’

  ‘Perhaps it’s the policeman.’

  Rob stood there. Apart from not being able to cope at this precise moment, he also found it difficult to think, to even move.

  The knocking came again. It was not sharp. It was more like a dull booming soun
d. As if a heavy fist was being used by whoever was out there.

  Noticing Rob’s statue-like stance, Helen decided to deal with things. ‘I’ll see,’ she said, walking to the door.

  Rob moved at last. ‘Helen!’

  He moved after his sister and stopped her as she reached the door.

  ‘But we have to answer it, Rob.’

  Rob looked at Helen, then at the door. His first thought, at this moment, was to shout for Sapphire. But, as man of the house now, theoretically, he ought to be showing some initiative. Especially with his sister watching. Anyway, it was their house, their front door. And, at the present time, anyone on the outside could hardly be more than a threat than something from the inside, from upstairs say. So these were his thoughts of action as he stood there rooted to the floor once again.

  ‘Rob!’ Helen was already crouching down to draw back the bottom bolt of the door.

  ‘Alright.’ Rob made the decision. He reached up and drew back the top bolt. He reached for the catch.

  The door was pushed open, violently, as if whoever was out there had lost patience. Small pieces of splintered wood and screws were scattered as the catch was forced from the door, which swung open with a great deal of force, shuddering and bouncing as it hit the door-stop.

  Rob and Helen, on instinct, had moved quickly away from the door at the first sound of impact. They looked back — and up.

  A man was in the doorway. He seemed to fill the doorway completely, so that nothing could be seen of the outside. If Sapphire could be described as light, bright blue, then this huge man was dark blue. Like ink. Even his clothes, which looked like the clothes of a merchant seaman, were dull blue or navy coloured.

  He looked down at Rob and Helen, an impassive expression on his large face. Like the kind of calm that preceded an explosion.

  Rob and Helen could only have looked up at the towering figure for a fraction of a second before they started running towards the safety of the kitchen.

  Chapter Eleven

  ‘A giant?’ asked Sapphire.

  ‘Yes,’ said Helen.

  ‘No, a man, but — well, he is.’ Rob agreed. ‘He’s almost a giant.’

  Sapphire looked towards the door. Keeping close to her, the two children also looked, and listened.

  There was no sound from outside in the hallway.

  Steel was still asleep in the chair. He had been like that when Rob and Helen had first run into the kitchen with their news. Sapphire had been in the office, but she came out quickly when they had called to her.

  Now, as they regained their breath, Rob and Helen waited for Sapphire to think of something.

  ‘In the front doorway, you say?’ Sapphire was still looking towards the hallway door.

  ‘Yes,’ said Rob.

  ‘He appeared there?’

  ‘No. He knocked on the door.’

  ‘Then I — well, Helen and I — tried to open the door. But he pushed it open, broke the lock.’

  ‘He came from outside?’ Sapphire asked as she walked slowly towards the hallway door, Rob and Helen close at her heels.

  ‘Yes,’ said Rob. ‘Not from inside the house.’

  Sapphire halted by the door which was, as Rob and Helen had left it, just slightly ajar.

  ‘So he wasn’t one of the soldiers?’

  ‘No,’ said Rob. ‘He was dressed in ordinary clothes. Anyway, he was bigger than the soldiers.’

  ‘He’s a giant, Sapphire,’ whispered Helen, moving close to her.

  Sapphire put her arm around Helen. ‘Alright, alright,’ she said, calming the child. Sapphire glanced at Steel, who was still asleep, she then angled her head to listen at the partly open door. There was no sound from the hallway.

  Withdrawing her head, Sapphire spoke quietly. ‘Did he enter the house?’

  Rob shrugged. ‘I don’t know. We didn’t wait to see.’

  Sapphire nodded, then reached out carefully for the door handle.

  ‘Can’t we wake Steel?’ asked Rob, quickly.

  ‘No.’ Sapphire began to ease the door gently open. ‘I’m afraid, for the time being, it’s just the three of us.’

  She looked out into the hallway, and Rob and Helen peered out with her.

  The hallway was deserted. The front door was closed. Rob noticed this. He was about to whisper the fact to Sapphire when she nodded, having read his thought yet again.

  ‘Now follow me. But be very quiet and do as I say.’ Sapphire whispered the instructions quietly. ‘Understand?’

  Rob and Helen both nodded.

  Sapphire led them both through the doorway and into the hall, one on either side of her, a hand on each of their shoulders. They moved, like a small formation, along the quiet hallway.

  Rob was beginning to think, even hope, that it was another trick. Another illusion projected by whatever was in the room upstairs. The entrance door was closed, so maybe the lock was still intact. Perhaps the door had not really been forced open after all. Visual refractions, Sapphire had called the soldiers, before the light had got into them. Well, perhaps the big man was the same. And visual refractions could not break real doors. They could make you think it...

  ‘Look!’ said Helen as they reached the door.

  Rob looked. The door was closed, but the lock was still broken. Screws and pieces of splintered wood lay on the floor around the door. The bolts were still drawn back.

  Looking up at Sapphire, Rob wished that she would take them all back to the kitchen immediately. Once there, they could always barricade the door and wait for Steel to recover. Maybe even force him to recover.

  But Sapphire was reaching out for the iron handle of the door. She jerked the door open and swung it back as far as it would go.

  There was no-one in the doorway and no-one outside the door.

  ‘Hallo, Sapphire.’

  The deep, resonant voice came from inside the house. Sapphire, Rob and Helen all turned to look.

  The big man, in the dark clothes, was sitting on a step halfway up the first staircase. He seemed to cover the width of the stair.

  ‘Anything to eat in this place?’ said the man. ‘I’m starving.’

  ‘It’s him,’ whispered Helen as she tugged at Sapphire’s dress. ‘It’s the giant.’

  Sapphire looked at the man for a moment, then turned and closed the door. ‘Yes, I suppose you could call him that,’ she said, quite calmly, as she pushed home the top bolt. ‘But his name’s Lead.’

  ‘Lead?’ said Rob, bewildered.

  Sapphire nodded. ‘That’s right. Lead.’

  The man stretched his arms, flexed his shoulders, then eased his large frame into a standing position. ‘So where is he?’ his voice boomed. ‘Where’s Steel?’

  Steel’s eyes opened slowly. He looked up. Lead’s tall shape threw a long shadow over Steel and the chair and the area around the fireplace.

  ‘Lead?’ Steel murmured, tilting his head back to look up. ‘Is that Lead? Here?’

  ‘Yes.’ The big man nodded patiently, almost wearily. ‘I’m here.’

  When Sapphire had taken Lead into the kitchen, Steel had been still asleep in the chair by the fire. But he had seemed more relaxed in sleep. His breathing was regular and his body no longer shuddered feverishly at the cold inside it.

  Sapphire had given Lead some food, and Rob and Helen had sat at the table and watched the man as he ate. A half a loaf of bread, held in his massive hand, looked like a sandwich at a village fete, Rob thought.

  But, apart from his size, his obvious strength and his world-weary smile, Lead was pleasant enough. In fact, compared to Steel he was positively friendly. And Rob had thought about the name, Lead. It suited the man in the same physical way that made the names Sapphire and Steel seem so appropriate. Rob was reminded of the protective flashings and the lead-covered areas of roof on the old house. The dark, heavy, bluish metal that was like a kind of armour.

  Sapphire had explained what had happened in the house, and Lead had listened and nod
ded as he ate his meal. When Lead had asked if anyone in the house had been taken, Sapphire had glanced at Rob before telling Lead about the disappearance of Rob’s parents. She had said it as tactfully as possible, but Rob had felt the cramped feeling of sadness inside him, like a quick dull pain.

  The big man, Lead, seemed to have noticed. He had looked up from his food and gazed directly at Rob. ‘It’s alright, son,’ the man had said, his deep voice rumbling out the words. ‘They’ll get your parents back for you — somehow.’ And he had returned to his meal, and Sapphire had moved to the stove, picked up the scuttle and shaken more fuel on to the hot coals.

  ‘I mean, you can guarantee it, can’t you?’ Lead was looking down at the blanket-covered Steel. ‘You can guarantee I’m here. Whenever you decide to wander off and ice yourself up, without me around, you’re in trouble.’

  Rob looked at Sapphire and noticed that she smiled slightly at this. But the bantering seemed to work. It started a spark, began to bring Steel back to his old self.

  ‘I am not in trouble.’ Steel said, shaking the blanket from his shoulders.

  Lead seemed unimpressed. ‘Alright, then.’ He ambled back towards the kitchen table. ‘You’re not in trouble. You don’t need help...’

  ‘No...’

  ‘But you need insulation.’

  Steel moved forward in the chair as Lead continued, ‘And that’s me.’ He tapped his broad chest and sat himself down at the table once more, making Rob wonder if the man was ready to eat again now that a good half an hour had passed since the meal.

  ‘You tell him, Sapphire.’ Lead waved his hand as if to dismiss Steel, as if he had better things to do than pick up the pieces for others. ‘You tell him he shouldn’t be doing that below zero stuff without me around to protect him.’

  Sapphire said nothing. She did not have to. Again it worked. Steel flung the blanket down and stood up from the chair. He turned to face the others.

  Rob felt better as he climbed into the make-shift bed in the sitting room. Helen had fallen asleep the moment she had snuggled under the blankets on the couch. Sapphire tucked the blankets in around her, then moved back to the door, opened it and switched off the central light.

  ‘Are there many others?’ asked Rob, sitting up in the bed.