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ALL IRREGULARITIES WILL BE HANDLED BY THE FORCES CONTROLLING EACH DIMENSIONTRANSURANIC HEAVY ELEMENTS MAY NOT BE USED WHERE THERE IS LIFE
MEDIUM ATOMIC WEIGHTS ARE AVAILABLE GOLD, LEAD, COPPER, JET, DIAMOND, RADIUM, SAPPHIRE, SILVER AND STEEL
SAPPHIRE AND STEEL HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED
It was an old house. There were several clocks in every room, all set on the correct time and ticking away. In the kitchen sat a young boy, probably fourteen years old, doing his homework at the table with a little clock beside him. Outside the wind blew, a pleasant sound to back up all the ticking clocks. The boy, Rob, had shaggy, dark brown hair, fine eyebrows and a rather gentle face. The banging of something knocked over by the wind distracted him. He got up and closed the curtains on the kitchen window. He glanced briefly at a pendulum clock on the wall beside the window, then swung away and smiled, deciding to walk out and check the hall clocks for a break from homework. Out in the hall, he could hear his mother's voice, and his sister's as well, doing numbers. He stood at the foot of the stairs, and listened.
"One three is three, two threes are six, three threes are nine, four threes..." a moment of hesitation on his sister's part, "... twelve!" Laughter echoed down the stairs. Rob bit his lip, wishing he could join them, but mum said he was too old now. "Five threes are fifteen, six threes are eighteen." He turned back to the kitchen to finish his homework, hearing them say again, "Six threes are eighteen!" in delighted voices. In the kitchen, he pulled out his chair and started working again.
Uptairs...
"Ten threes are... thirty! Very good! Eleven threes are thirty-three, twelve threes are thirty-six..!" They ended on a note of triumph. The father laughed with them, and murmured something to his wife.
She said firmly, "Now, come along Helen, it's time for bed."
Helen bounced on her bed and cried hopefully, "But you promised I could have one more!"
Her mother made an exasperated sound. "Oh! Henry?" He laughed.
"Please, Daddy?"
Chuckling, he said, "All right, all right. I know, Little Miss Muffet!"
"Yes!!" Helen cried.
"But this time you read for Mummy and Daddy all by yourself."
Overjoyed, Helen shouted, "Yes!" Her father made a wry comment, and the mother spoke it with her.
"Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey! There came a big spider," her father added his voice, "which sat down beside her, and frightened Miss Muffet away!"
Helen wriggled happily where she knelt on her bed. "One more!"
Her mother replied firmly, "No, no more tonight!"
"Oh please, Mum!"
"No!" she said, shutting the book.
Helen begged appealingly, "Please?"
Her father could not help it. "Oh, come on... there's time for another one."
"Oh... well, all right then but just the one." She flipped through the book. "Ah! Ring-a Ring-a roses a pocket full of posies,"
Helen sang it too. "A tissue! A tissue! We all fall down!"
In the kitchen, a wall clock stopped ticking. It was 7:10. Rob was absorbed in his work and did not notice. The antique clock on the cupboard to his right had a whirling top piece as a pendulum. There was a very audible click as it stopped, but Rob still did not notice, working hard. When the pendulum clock by the window stopped its clonking, he did notice, and looked at it, surprised. Thus he heard another one stop. And then the little clock beside him suddenly stopped as well. He touched it, confused and surprised still more. With a sigh, he stood and walked out into the hall. Every clock there had stopped too. This is really weird, he thought. He frowned and went to the stairs, taking a step up.
"Dad?" The silence was frightening, and then there was a sound, like a dull roar of radio static. "Dad, what's that noise? All the clocks've...." he trailed off, for there was silence from above, and he thought he heard soft weeping. Alarmed, he started up the stairs quickly. At the top he came to a confused halt, seeing all the clocks there were also stopped. And then he heard his sister sobbing quietly. He left the landing, rounded the corner into the next hall and took the short staircase up to her room.
Helen sat on her bed, teddy bear clutched tightly in her arms, her tear-streaked face a sad, sad sight. Rob looked around at the otherwise vacant room. The rocking chair creaked as it rocked back and forth. Not liking the sound, he reached his left hand to stop it, then turned to Helen, speaking very gently. "Where's Mum and Dad?"
She answered with a tiny, sobbing voice, "Gone."
He sat in front of her, gripping her upper arms gently, speaking as reassuringly as he could, "It's all right, Helen. I'm here. So where are they, Mum and Dad?"
Helen was only eight, with wavy red-gold hair and a dusky red night gown that combined with her mood made her look terribly tragic. This did not make him feel better when she only answered, "Gone."
He frowned, because he knew she could do better than that. "Gone? Gone where? Out of the door, downstairs?" She shook her head. Angry, he almost shouted, "Well where then?!"
"Just... just went away...."
"Here? In the room?" She tightened her lips and gazed at him. He sighed and released her arms to sit back and look around. Finally he stood up and searched the room, even opening the curtains and looking out the window. Nothing in the night. He turned and saw his father's pipe and tobacco case on the table. And lying open in front of the rocking chair, the book of nursery rhymes his mom had been reading. He stood staring at it, remembering how the chair had been rocking when he had come in. He turned and went back to the bed, asking softly, "You mean they disappeared, Helen?"
He sat in front of her again, and she looked with big, sad eyes at him and answered quietly, "Yes. And the room didn't. They just went away."
Confused, he asked, "But not here, not in the room?!"
She looked down. "Yes. They went away."
He took her hand gently and tried not to be scared. Swallowing he glanced around the room that had suddenly become a scarey place.
Later, Helen sat in the kitchen, wrapped in a blue blanket with a glass of milk on the table in front of her. The wind blew strongly outside. She looked around toward the front door as a banging sound came from outside. Footsteps approached the door, the latch lifted, and Rob came in, slamming it and locking it behind him, and stamping dirt and leaves off of his boots. He came into the kitchen.
"Drink your milk, Helen," he said breathlessly. "Everything's all right, see?" he squeezed her shoulder, "I ran all the way to the phone box at Skarl's Edge, telephoned the policeman's house at the Point. I told him..." as he spoke, he restlessly checked the lock on the kitchen window. Helen sipped her drink. He turned to her again, "He's coming out here!" He moved to check the stove. "So, everything's all right then, isn't it? I mean that policeman...." She set her glass down, and he touched her shoulder reassuringly, "He'll only have to come to the other side of the Point, and cross the bay in a boat and he'll be here. So just drink your milk, Helen. I think it's going to be all right." She drank, too tired to argue. They both jumped as a loud knocking sounded on the front door. "Stay there." He walked down the hall, fists clenched nervously. "Who is it?"
A stern, strong, man's voice asked, "Robert Steven Jardine?"
Confused, he replied, "Yes?"
In an oddly uncompromising tone, the voice stated, "You asked for help."
"I did, yes!"
The voice came again, "Then unlock the door."
Rob muttered to himself, "That was quick...." He started unlocking it. Middle chain, top bolt, then bottom bolt, and swung it open. "I'd only just phoned..." he trailed off at the sight of two strangers. A stern-looking blond man in a dark gray suit and tie walked in, followed by a lovely blonde woman in a deep blue dress. Angry and suspicious, Rob backed away, "I don't know you!" He turned after the man in confusion as the woman shut the door. "Only... the policeman at the Point!"
The man moved up the stairs a few steps, his full attention focussed on the upper floor. He replied coolly, "The policeman at the Point isn't coming. I contacted him and told him that everything down here is under control." The woman watched her companion calmly.
"But it isn't!"
The man turned and came down. This time when he spoke his voice was still stern, but also disturbed. "No. That's why we're here and not him." He started toward the kitchen leaving Rob with his mouth hanging open.
The woman spoke with plain amusement, "He's a shade too serious but you'll get used to him."
Rob turned to her, both pleading and angry. "But he's got no right to tell the policeman..."
"Your parents have disappeared, right?"
"Yes!" He gazed at her in astonishment.
"And you want them back?"
"Oh course I want them -- "
"Safely?"
He was brought up short. "Yes."
She started past him after her companion, still amused and now a tiny bit mocking. "Well then, your policeman at the Point with his idiot notebook and his idiot questions stands no chance of getting them back for you. But we do."
Rob followed her and said, pleadingly, "What ever it is that's happened to them, my mother and father...is it serious?"
She stopped, and turned to stare at him with surprisingly dark eyes. Then she looked up toward Helen's room, and it seemed oddly like she was listening to something. Her eyes shifted color ever so slightly, and she whispered, "Yes," and turned away.
In the kitchen, Helen gazed nervously at the strange man. When his companion walked in he asked the woman, without even glancing around, "How old would you say the house was?"
She looked around the kitchen thoughtfully. "At a rough estimate, two-hundred and fifty years. It's old land, arable land. It's probably been that way for centuries." She stepped into the back nook of the kitchen and looked around curiously. "There could have been other buildings on these foundations, back in time," she said, returning to the main room.
The man looked at the clocks curiously. "Yes. Genuine antiques?" he asked, turning his head slightly toward her.
She brushed her fingertips over the things she passed, coming up beside him. "I'd say most of them." She layed her palms firmly on the kitchen table, and then looked at him with surprise. "Some vibrations!"
"And the surname, Jardine." Not a question, mild curiosity.
She took that listening stance again. "Old French. The father's name is Henry, the mother's name is Sarah, and the child is called Helen."
Startled, Rob burst out with, "How do you know?"
The man looked disturbed and grim. "Old names, an old house." He sighed, "Lots of old things." Looking thoughtful, he reached for the little clock. "Lots of old, old echoes."
The woman asked alertly, "A pressure point, then?"
He idly wound the clock. "Could well be. Could well be it." He absently wandered about the kitchen with the clock.
Rob leaned angrily forward on the table and started, "You know so much about us -- "
She smiled, "We do, yes."
" -- then perhaps you'd like to say who you are, what your names are."
She replied gently, "My name is Sapphire and my friend's name is Steel."
Startled by the odd names, he repeated, "Sapphire?"
"Yes."
A flash of bewilderment crossed his face, "That's a...." He was silent in astonishment.
She prompted gently, "What?"
"Well, that's a beautiful name," he said, looking disgruntled.
She smiled warmly, "Thank you."
Steel came back to her, and then turned to Rob. "There are lots of clocks in this house."
"Yes, my father collects them and makes them work."
He held up the little clock, "Then why aren't they working now?"
Angry, on the defensive, Rob snarled, "They do work." Steel blinked, raising his head a little to regard Rob. "They all stopped when..." the boy trailed off.
"Yeah?"
"Well, just before it happened." He looked at Helen, so small in her blanket. "I did search the house after...." he stopped, glancing at Sapphire.
Steel was curious. "At the time it happened, where were you?"
"Down here in this room." Helen looked at him, as always distrustful of strangers, and thinking maybe he ought not to talk with these two.
"And your parents were where?"
"In Helen's room itself, they were reading to her."
Steel reached his right hand and cupped Helen's chin, roughly making her look at him. She met his eyes and said quietly, "Mummy and Daddy... just went away."
He released her and glanced at Sapphire. "I think we'd all better go up to the top room."
She nodded, "Yes."
"We'll take some clocks with us. Bring the child."
Steel stalked out the door to the stairs, followed by Rob, and then Sapphire carrying Helen. He paused long enough for the boy to catch up, and they started upstairs. "When the clocks stopped, did you hear anything?"
"I heard Helen crying."
Steel turned right at the landing, asking briskly, "Anything else?"
"Well there was this... kind of sound."
Steel came to an abrupt stop and turned his head. "What kind of sound."
"Well -- "
Sharply, "Describe it!"
"I -- it was like a low murmur, a low rumbling sound." Steel started forward again. Sapphire stepped around Rob, who clenched his fists in frustration. "So where've they gone? My parents!?!" He chased after them around the corner and up the hall to the last short flight of stairs before Helen's room. He stopped, hand on the top bannister. "Look! I want to know! Now." Steel and Sapphire turned to look at him, expressionless. Helen reached out her right hand and he took it and pulled her away from Sapphire. They both glared suspiciously at the two and Rob firmly continued, "I mean you -- you come here, just like that, this place where you can hear people or cars approaching for miles away! But you two... you arrived, just like that."
Sapphire said simply, "Yes."
Briefly disgruntled, he paused, "So... well I want to know at least something before we go in there -- " nodding toward Helen's door, "to do whatever we're going to do."
Sapphire drew a breath and started to explain, "There is a corridor -- "
Steel turned sharply to her. Unheard by the children, he spoke and his 'voice' carried no small amount of rage. [It can't be explained to him.]
She looked him in the eye and responded warmly, {It can, in a way. But not by you, perhaps.} He turned his back on her and gazed into Helen's room. She began again. "There is a corridor," stepping closer, "and the corridor is Time. It surrounds all things," making an all-encompassing circle with her hands, "and it passes through all things." She brought her hands together through the space she had just circled. Helen turned to look for it. Sapphire knelt and rested her hands on the little girl's shoulders. "Oh you can't see it. Only sometimes, and it's dangerous."
Rob frowned. "This -- corridor -- can you enter it?"
She looked up at him steadily. "No, not in the way you imagine. You cannot enter into Time, but sometimes..." she looked into Helen's eyes, "time can try to enter into the Present. Break in. Burst through and take things. Take people." Steel listened to her as he studied Helen's room from the doorway. Hearing her talk about it disturbed him, for reasons he did not want to think about. "The corridor is very strong; it has to be. But sometimes, in some places, it becomes weakened. Like fabric, worn fabric. And when there is pressure put upon the fabric...."
Rob finished the sentence, "Time comes in."
"Reaches in and takes out what it wants. And we think that time has broken into that room." Steel, his face a firm mask, turned to watch Sapphire talk as she knelt in front of Helen. "Broken through, and taken away your parents."
Impatient with himself for allowing the delay, he stepped forward and gripped Rob's shoulder. "Come on." Sapphire stood and put an arm around Helen, and the three moved into her room ahead of Steel, who was conscious of the fact that he was pulling back from entering, and angry because of it. He closed the door behind him.
Rob glanced around at the clocks, all stopped at 7:10. "Will they work again?"
Steel scooped up a little clock that was sitting on Helen's bed. "Yes. They've simply wound themselves down, that's all." He set the clock on a dresser.
Rob's surprise was all too evident for Steel. "But my father winds those clocks almost every day!"
He replied wearily, "I expect he does."
The boy turned in desperation to Sapphire, "But clocks don't do that, it isn't possible!"
Sapphire, her hands resting lightly on Helen's shoulders, looked at him. "No," she agreed, "and yet it happened."
Steel suddenly stepped in front of them and turned to Rob. "You were in this room with your mother and father and sister before you went downstairs." He moved aggressively close.
"Yes," replied the boy.
"And that's the last you saw of your parents."
The response came in a painful whisper, "Yes."
"Where was the child?"
"Sitting up in bed." Helen blinked, and Sapphire squeezed her shoulders protectively. Then she lifted her off the floor and onto her bed so that she sat facing them.
Steel looked at Rob again. "Like that?"
"Kneeling."
He spoke to the little girl coldly, "Kneel." She looked quickly at her brother.
"It's all right, Helen," Rob reassured her. She shifted until she was kneeling.
"Your father was where?"
Rob pointed, "Sitting in that chair."
Steel nodded. "Sit in it will you, please." The please was said with some urgency. He was looking around nervously.
"What?" asked the startled boy.
Steel gave him a foul glower. "Just sit there." Rob hesitated, then sat in the green chair. He reached tentatively for his father's pipe and tobacco case, and jerked his hand back when Steel said quickly, "Please don't touch anything." Rob stared at him, uncomprehending. Steel's movements had a nervous feel, Sapphire stood behind him as if in support. "Your mother was sitting in the rocking chair?"
"Yes."
Sapphire moved swiftly to settle into the rocking chair. Steel looked cautiously around. "So all three like this, then."
Rob said quietly, "Yes."
Steel stood still for a moment, his eyes roaming the room, then he walked around to check the window and then to Sapphire's side where he noticed the book on the floor. He bent down and picked it up gingerly. "I take it your mother was reading aloud to the child."
"Yes."
He frowned and held the book out, "Reading from this book."
As Sapphire took the book, Rob said, "She did it -- she does it every night." Steel watched him intently. "My dad often sits with them."
Sapphire glanced through the book, and said mildly, "Traditional nursery rhymes."
Dark eyes narrowed, Steel asked him, "Do you know which particular rhyme was being read when the clocks began to stop?"
"No."
Suddenly distracted, the man moved toward the bed. "When things began to happen...."
"No, I was downstairs."
Steel leaned on the bedposts, staring at Helen. She gazed back.
Sapphire spoke softly to Rob. "It is important to know the exact rhyme."
Steel's cold tone was aimed at Helen. "Do you know which one it was?"
Helen shrank back from him, and Sapphire spoke gently, "Helen..?"
Rob intervened protectively, "She's not very talkative to strangers."
The little girl glanced thankfully at her brother. Steel turned stiffly away, growling, "Then you try."
As Sapphire flipped through the book, Rob leaned forward, taking Helen's hand in his. "Helen... when mumma -- just before mum went away, you remember -- " Helen nodded. "What was she reading to you? Which nursery rhyme?"
"I don't know."
"You do know, Helen, tell us... please?"
She hesitantly said, "The best one."
"Your favorite? Ring-a, Ring-a Roses?" She nodded.
Steel moved up beside them, and muttered gravely, "Good."
"Ring-a, Ring-a Roses dates back to the time of the plague!" Sapphire sounded almost startled.
"Yes, another echo, another ingredient."
"I found it." She held the book open and sat back.
Steel moved quickly around behind her. "Wait!" He picked the clock up off the dresser and wound it up as she watched. "Read the rhyme carefully. Whenever I raise my hand, stop. When I lower it, continue." He set the clock back down.
"Right," she agreed readily.
He stepped around to the other side and wound up another clock. "If I say back, back... reverse the order of the words immediately."
"I know."
"But carefully. Not one mistake, not even one wrong letter." He rested his left hand on her shoulder, pleading in his grip. She covered it with her right hand soothingly.
"No."
The hand squeezed her shoulder and then he moved away to stand on the other side of the bed. "All right. Now, begin."
"Ring-a, ring-a roses, a pocketful of posies, A tissue, a tissue, we all fall down." Helen settled herself more comfortably to listen. "The king has...." Steel raised his hand to stop her, eyeing the clock suspiciously, but it was still ticking. He sat on the edge of the bed, and signalled her to continue. He watched the clock as she spoke.
"The king has sent his daughter to fetch a pail of water," Steel shifted, resting hands on his leg. Then one of the clocks stopped. he whirled to stare at it as Sapphire fell silent. The other clock stopped.
He said roughly, "Go on...."
"A tissue, a tissue, we all fall down." There was a loud knocking on the door. Steel whipped around to watch it suspiciously. "The bird upon the steeple sits high above the people, a tissue, a tissue," the door swung open, only it was a different door, white. "We all fall down." Figures materialized. There was a woman with a candle, in old, old style clothing. The man who had opened the door gestured her in, glad to see her. "The cows are in the meadow, lying fast asleep, a tissue, a tissue, we all get up again." She walked in and set her candle down and suddenly it blew out. She turned and screamed, recoiling in terror, then both of them disappeared, as if blown out like the candle.
Sapphire continued from the last verse, "The cows are in the meadow," Steel stood, staring at the wall where a blur of white light and mist had appeared. "Lying fast asleep, a tissue, a tissue, we all get up again."
A wind blew in the room, whipping their hair. A voice sang through the wind, a strange, creaking voice, old. "The cattle in the meadow, lying fast asleep, hush, hush, hush, now we all get up again!"
Sapphire continued her ryhme. "The wedding bells are ringing, the boys and girls are singing, a tissue, a tissue, we all fall down."
Other voices joined the old, creaking one, "Cattle in the meadow, lying fast asleep," a sound like static roared and Helen covered her ears. Steel moved to stand next to Rob, who gaped at the sight before him. "Hush, hush, hush, now we all get up -- " The wall pulled away, back, like down a long tunnel stretching. A figure came staggering up it, maybe a man, wrapped in filthy black cloth, and singing. Its shadow fell across Rob, who had stood in frozen terror until then.
"No!!" he screamed, and dove past Steel.
Steel sat on the edge of the bed. "Back! Backwards!"
Sapphire stood, and read aloud, her eyes glowing brilliant blue.
"Ringing are bells wedding the, singing are girls and boys the, tissue a, tissue a," the tunnel disappeared, "down fall all we," the wall came back like thunder. It was over.
Steel sat back wearily on the bed, echoing, "Down... fall... all... we...."
Helen turned an astonished gaze on them. "Pictures! I saw pictures!"
"Yes Helen," Steel replied, not taking his gaze away from the wall.
Sapphire murmured, "So it's there, then." Helen looked quickly, but there was nothing to see.
Steel sounded desolate, "Yes."
"We can't seal it yet?"
He shook his head, "No. Not 'til we've brought those people back." He turned urgently to her. "But tear the rhyme out of the book! Destroy it." Sapphire complied. A sound from behind him attracted Steel's attention. Rob was huddled against the wall and he moved to help the boy up. Rob jerked free of him, avoiding his eyes and moved quickly to sit beside Helen, an arm around her shoulders. Steel regarded him emotionlessly, then asked, "Has the child somewhere else to sleep?"
"She can sleep in my room," came the weak-voiced reply.
"Take her there, then, will you?"
Rob very deliberately kept his head turned away from them. "Come on," he told her softly.
They joined hands and started to leave when Helen remembered, "'Becca!" She let go and grabbed her teddy bear off the bed, then joined her brother again. Steel stood with them at the door a moment.
"Is there a key to this door?" he asked.
"No. It was lost years ago."
"No one is to come back into this room, do you understand?" Rob hesitated, then continued out the door with Helen, not replying. Steel moved past Sapphire to switch off a lamp. "Not 'til we've done what we have to." He stood then almost nose-to-nose with her, the same height of body and pale complexion, same fair hair. He said roughly, "Take it downstairs and burn it." She left quietly, understanding his mood. He gazed around, then left too, turning off a last light before he closed the door.
Rob came into the kitchen with a sigh. He knew Sapphire was there, but he closed the door before turning around to speak to her. "Helen's fast asleep...." he trailed off, startled. Sapphire was cleaning a glass, but instead of the long, wavy blond hair and blue dress, she had curled red hair, tied up in a Greek style. And she wore a sleeveless golden dress with only one strap over her right shoulder, and little golden chains with coins dangling from them and a golden band around her neck.
She smiled mischeviously at him and said, "Oh! I suppose I've surprised you!" she gestured at her clothes with the glass and dishrag, and went back to wiping it. "Steel says I shouldn't use Time as if it's some sort of wardrobe, but -- he's so serious." She gave Rob a conspiratorial wink, "I get bored wearing the same old clothes." She set down the glass and cocked her head quizzically at him, "Now, salt and pepper?"
He pointed at a nearby shelf and said weakly, "Over there. But... where did you get them from?"
Looking quite innocent, she asked, "What?"
"The clothes!" He gaped still. This had been the first time he had really looked at her, and he was finding it hard to adjust.
"Oh these aren't real," she said with a smile.
"Not real?"
She glanced down at her clothes. "No, these aren't real ones." The sense of mischief in her eyes brightened even more, she turned toward the shelf. "Salt, and pepper." As her hands closed about the shakers, she changed. Not a ripple, not fading, just change. Into a deep-red strapless evening gown, and her hair to straight and brunette. She turned to him, eyes dancing. "Look, this was my favorite last week, what do you think?" she posed for him.
His mouth hanging open, he managed to answer, "Well, I think that...." and stopped in confusion.
"Yes?"
Not yet recovered, he finally said, "I just think that you are beautiful."
"Thank you."
School is going to be interesting after this, he thought, trying to keep his eyes on her face. It was a lovely face, wide-spaced dark eyes, creamy skin and soft lips set in a head with wide middle-set cheekbones and a strong jawline. He decided that he preferred her blond. "And the name, Sapphire... like blue as if you were blue."
She looked amused, "And Steel?"
"Well, I suppose he's... like steel, gray." Sapphire giggled at that. Emboldened he asked, "The corridor, have you ever seen it? Seen inside it?"
She sat down, and thought about her answer before giving it. "Not properly. I did catch a glimpse once, on a ship." She set the shakers on the table.
"A ship?"
"Mmmhmm, in the middle of the sea." She shrugged and continued, "Anyway, it was a simple operation, we fixed it."
Not about to give up his line of questioning, Rob urged, "And, you say you saw..?"
They didn't notice Steel come in. "Well, just a glimpse. It was like..." she considered a moment. Steel, hearing the subject, hesitated in the doorway then moved on in. Sapphire continued, "Looking through frosted glass, all the images were blurred, and broken."
"Like the images upstairs?"
"Something like that, yes." Steel sat at the table and glowered at Sapphire, who had switched abruptly back to her blue dress and golden hair. She smiled teasingly at him and attempted to look contrite. "Sorry," she said.
He continued glowering, and spoke coldly, "Perhaps when you're finished telling the boy about the nicer aspects of our job, you'll tell him about the dangers."
On the defensive, she responded, "He knows about them."
"He knows about them?" Steel turned to Rob. "About the dangers in this house?"
Rob realized Steel was willing to talk. He leaned his hands on the table and started, "The corridor -- "
"Don't try and imagine it. It's immense. Time is immense." He looked foul, and drew a breath before continuing. "Try and imagine instead you, Rob, or your lifetime -- " he held up his right hand, index finger and thumb apart, "as approximately one inch in length. Then compare it to the corridor of Time, which is..." he thought about it, then shrugged, "a thousand million miles long. One inch, you. Time and the unknown a thousand million miles. Just compare them. It's very, very big. And it's very, very dangerous."
Rob watched him grimly as he spoke, then jumped on that last word. "Dangerous?"
Upstairs, Helen came out of Rob's room carrying her bear, and looked down the stairs. Then she looked up toward her own room.
"There are things -- creatures, if you like -- from the very beginnings of Time, and the very end of Time. And these creatures have access to the corridor. They're forever... moving along it. Searching... looking... trying to find a way in. They're always searching, aways looking." He fell silent, gaze turned in.
Rob did not want to waste this chance for information. "For the hole in the fabric?"
"Yes. But they must never be allowed in, never ever!" his voice was a faint cry of fear, and rage. "You've already seen what can happen upstairs, this evening. But we stopped them... held them. Took the trigger away from them." Now there was bitter memory in his tone.
"The trigger?"
"Yes, the final ingredient. A certain traditional nursery rhyme, spoken in a certain room."
Helen opened her room's door and went in. She turned the lamp by her bed on, and climbed up onto the bed. On her knees she turned to study the wall, 'Becca clasped tightly in her hands. She went over what she knew. Sapphire said Time had taken her parents away through the wall. Singing Ring-a Ring-a Roses opened the wall. Perhaps she could open it herself and get them back? She thought a little harder about it, remembering what had happened. "Mumma, Daddy. The pictures!" She turned to her little stuffed bear, "The pictures, Rebecca!" Maybe her parents would appear the same way those people had. She sat down, trying for some form of formality, and began singing. "Ring-a ring-a roses, a pocketful of posies,"
In the kitchen, Steel was completing his explanation for Rob. "That's why we tore it out of the book... that's why we burned it."
"A tissue! A tissue! We all fall down!"
"And that's why Sapphire and I -- " The clock stopped suddenly.
"The king has sent his daughter to fetch a pail of water...."
Steel's head whipped around to another clock, which stopped. He and Sapphire stared at each other for a frightened moment, then both rushed for the door.
"A tissue! A tissue! We all fall down. The wedding bells are ringing, the boys and girls are singing, a tissue! A tissue! We all fall down." Steel, Sapphire and Rob ran up the stairs. "The bird upon the steeple sits high above the people, a tissue! A tissue! We all fall down." In front of her, a white glow and fog materialized in the wall. "The cows are in the meadow...." The bedroom door slammed shut in Steel's face, he tried the handle, it was locked.
Rob called sharply, "Helen!"
"Lying fast asleep, a tissue! A tissue! We all get up again! Ring- a, ring-a roses, a pocketful of posies, A tissue! A tissue! We all fall down. The king has sent his daughter...."
Steel turned and called urgently, "Sapphire!"
"To fetch a pail of water, a tissue! A tissue! We all fall down."
She stood still, eyes unfocused, and then shimmering brilliant blue. The doorknob twisted, and strained.
"The wedding bells are ringing, the boys and girls are singing,"
There was a click and Sapphire said, "Now!"
"A tissue! A tissue! We all fall down. The bird upon the steeple sits high above the people, a tissue! A tissue!"
Steel slammed open the door and flinched as a biting wind hit him. Helen turned, startled. At that moment the wall was pulled backwards down the corridor. Steel leaped in between it and the bed, grabbed Helen bodily and threw her at Rob with a snarl of, "Hold her!!" Rob closed his arms around her shoulders protectively. Steel glanced down at her, then snatched the teddy bear out of her hands.
Sapphire spoke part of the rhyme backwards, "Ringing are bells wedding the, singing are girls and boys the, tissue a, tissue a, down fall all we."
Steel held out the bear toward the corridor, preparing to release it. Helen shouted, "'Becca!" and broke free of her brother to try to get it back.
He shoved her back to Rob. "I said hold her!" Rob grabbed her tight this time. Steel released the bear and it was pulled down the corridor to disappear.
On the heels of Sapphire's voice came another woman's, the voice startling Rob and he turned to see a strange, warped silhouette of a woman rocking in the rocking chair. It looked like his mother, holding the book. The enemy gathered its power to hold the corridor open, using her voice to sing, "A tissue, a tissue, we all fall down. Ring-a ring-a roses, a pocketful of posies, a tissue, a tissue, we all fall down!"
There came a knocking and the strange, white door opened for the woman with a candle. Another voice sang the rhyme, the old, old voice with its different variation. "The cattle in the meadow lying fast asleep, hush, hush, hush, now -- " The ragged creature reached for Rob where he stood transfixed.Suddenly, firm hands caught his shoulder and head and yanked him out of the room, slamming the door behind them. Steel had him in an almost strangle-hold, Rob clung to the arm clasped across his shoulders and dangerously tight 'round his neck.
Steel's voice was taut with anger, "The child memorized the rhyme."
Sapphire's came back, soothing. "Yes."
He was released as Steel moved to kneel next to Helen, glaring at her. "How many more have you learned?" Rob leaned shakily in the doorway, and Helen pressed herself closer to Sapphire, staring at the menacing blond man who abruptly broke his glare and stood up to turn it on his partner. "You keep her with you at all times." He started down the stairs, then paused and turned to Rob. "Has the child other dolls?"
"Yes," he replied, somewhat steadier now.
"Downstairs?"
He nodded weakly. "Yes, they're all down there."
Steel continued on to the next landing, throwing back, "Then you find her one from there."
Rob rushed to the top of the stairs, "Is that the way my mother and father disappeared?" Sapphire watched him with interest.
Steel stopped and turned a steady gaze on the boy. "Yes. And you almost went the same way. So until I say differently, this whole part of the house is out of bounds." He turned again and disappeared around the corner.
"But my Momma's still in that room!"
The man's voice came faintly back, "Not anymore."
"But I heard her! I heard her voice! I did, I heard her!" he shouted down the stairs.
Sapphire's voice cut in softly, "No."
He glared at her, trying to do it like Steel did, and went to Helen's door. His sister watched him from Sapphire's side. "I did, in that room!"
"It wasn't her."
He turned to face her angrily, "Of course it was!"
She looked very steadily at him. "Tell me what you saw."
That brought him up short. He looked at her with suspicion. "In the room?"
"Yes."
"Well I saw lots of things, different things!"
"People?"
He wanted to say, I'm not stupid, you know! but instead he said, "Yes, people! And things. But all very quickly." He flushed guiltily under her gaze. "Well I didn't actually see her, I saw a shadow of her. Her voice, that's all." The realization hit, and hurt. His voice when he spoke it was heavy, "It wasn't her."
Sapphire shook her head in agreement, "No."
Helen saw him bow his head to hide tears, and said softly, "Mumma isn't home."
He dropped to one knee and took her hand in his own, "Not yet."
"Soon?"
He looked up at Sapphire, searched her face which remained impassive and then turned back to Helen. "Yes. Soon." At that, the woman turned to go downstairs, leading Helen. Rob let her go by, then said in challenge, "And I don't trust you!" She turned a surprised look to him, making him feel guilty. "I mean I can't trust you, either of you! I don't know who you are or where you come from. How can I trust you?"
She met his glare and said gravely, "You have to. First a wall and then a room. You have to trust us." He looked back at Helen's door, then met her eyes again. Her's were very gentle and kind as she held out her free hand. "Come on." Defeat bowed his head. Fear made him take the proferred hand and follow them downstairs. Sapphire turned the upstairs lights off behind them.
Rob woke reluctantly in the morning. Strange dreams, he thought, chasing the memory of a beautiful woman and a stern, angry man through his head. He heard a sharp pounding and wondered in brief annoyance why no one had answered the door, then he climbed out of bed and into the hall in his pajamas. The pounding, he realized, was coming from Helen's room. No, no it was a dream. He stepped reluctantly around the corner to peer up the short staircase. There was Steel, hammering boards across Helen's door. Okay, so it wasn't a dream, but he's trapping them in there! And that, that he could not let pass. But Steel was bigger, and stronger than him, there was no way he could stop the man. A sound, the strong whistle of the ferry, turned him toward the window. He looked out and what he saw made a relieved smile flit across his face, then he ran downstairs, hesitated, and went into the kitchen.
Sapphire felt a strong young presence pulse into her immediate range. She paused in the process of pouring Helen some milk and waited for him to slip in the door. "Breakfast?" she asked innocently.
He was startled, and closed the door behind him, saying sheepishly, "I'm... not hungry, thanks."
She nodded, and watched with interest as he went to peer out the kitchen window. The emotion he held under strict control attracted her attention and she cocked her head, "What is it?"
"What?" he kept his face an innocent blank.
"What can you see?"
His eyes managed not to jump back to the window. "Nothing, I'm... just looking, that's all." She flowed out of her chair and walked over to him, looking at him with frank curiosity and he knew she doubted him. He evaded the coming question by trying to divert her attention. "Oh, I almost forgot, you... Steel wants you, he asked me to tell you."
She did not even blink, "Yes?" listening to his emotions.
Rob kept his face as bland as possible, "He's at the top of the house."
"What does he want me for?"
He hid behind bluster, automatically disguising his emotions with static, "He's not likely to tell me, is he?"
She gazed at him, then raised her head slightly, reaching out to Steel. His answer came back distracted, an absent shrug, [I sent no message,] simply said, and she turned her attention back to Rob.
"No," she agreed with him, smiling. She went back to the table and poured Helen some more milk, which the girl started drinking. Sapphire stroked her hair affectionately and then went out the door, closing it behind her.
Helen, wise to her brother's tricks, started "Rob, what do you..?"
"Shh!" He looked around for a jacket, found one and brought it to her. "Put this on, Helen!"
She stubbornly took a bite of her food. "But I don't want to!"
"Put it on, quickly!"
She pouted and said coolly, "I'm eating my breakfast."
His patience snapped and he whispered harshly, "Well you can leave that, here!" and shoved the jacket at her. She ignored him and went back to eating her oatmeal. He went to look out the window again, and in frustration came back and tried to take her spoon.
"No!" She yanked it back.
"Shh! Please Helen, we've gotta be ready!"
Alerted, she asked, "Ready?" Ah, so he was going to tell her after all.
"We're leaving!" She gazed blankly at him, and he bent down to look at her, face to face. "The policeman's coming! Upstairs, just now, I looked out of the window, I saw the ferry crossing the bay! The policeman's car was on it!"
Comprehension, a soft, "Oh...."
"He has to be coming here, there's nowhere else!"
"Are we going with him?"
"Yes, so hurry!"
She stood up and held out her arms for him to put the coat on her. "Did you tell Sapphire?"
"Tell her what?"
"'Bout the policeman."
"No I didn't. Come on," he shoved the coat onto her shoulders.
"But she'll be cross...."
"Come on Helen!"
"You should've told her -"
He grabbed her arms and glared into her eyes. "They're nailing up the door of your room, Helen! Nailing it... so that no one can get in, and no one can get out. Is that the way to bring Mum and Dad back?" She gulped and shook her head, her eyes wide and frightened. "It's all right," he hugged her and led her to look out the window, "the policeman's coming, it's all right, Helen. Listen!" In the distance they heard the sound of a car horn, followed by the ferry's whistle.
Sapphire leaned over the upstairs bannister, feeling Steel's firmly controlled presence nearby. He sounded slightly surprised, "I didn't even speak to him."
She saw the humor of it, and smiled. "I didn't think you had." She turned around to look at him where he leaned against the boards he had nailed across Helen's door.
He spoke wearily, "Now this time it's worse than the ship. This time it can think, it can reason things out."
Curious, she stepped to the door and stuck her ear to it, listening to a whispery voice inside. "What kind of things?" she asked him.
"Method." He nodded toward the door, "Listen."
Faintly, firmly, Rob's mother's voice said over and over again, "Ring -- ring -- ring -- ring -- ring -- ring -- "
Steel met her eyes and asked, "Like a record that's stuck, isn't it?"
"Yes," she agreed.
"It's not, it's marking Time." Outside, the honk of a car horn reached in and Steel turned. "Boy must've heard the car."
"Yes. I'm sorry, he just doesn't trust you."
For a moment he looked hurt, then he smiled slightly, "Does he trust you?"
"A little."
His gaze warmed and he ducked his head to hide the smile, teasing her, "You're supposed to be the diplomat, aren't you?"
She teased lightly back, "Amongst other things."
His tone became reproving then. "Supposed to be the one that sweet-talks kids like that, and reassures them...."
"I manage," she said gently.
"So that we can get on with the job and win the battle."
"It's nearly here!" she told him affectionately.
He gave her a weary look, then smiled challengingly, "Then the last thing we need right now is someone coming here who doesn't know... being helped in turn by someone who doesn't understand." He looked at Helen's door, as a car horn sounded from out front.
"Will you handle that policeman?"
"No," he turned to her pleadingly, "You do it." She glanced away from the exhaustion in his eyes, knowing it was only going to be worse later.
Rob and Helen stood together near the front door. He squeezed her shoulders, "Stay there," and quietly un-did the chain. Helen glanced up the stairs warily. Rob un-did the bottom bolt, hearing the sound of a car engine coming up the drive. He looked up the stairs and, seeing nothing, sighed with relief and reached up to un-do the top bolt as well. The car engine switched off outside. Helen looked upstairs again and nearly jumped. Sapphire stood, Steel behind her, and that she was angry Helen could tell, in spite of the cool front. Rob turned around to take her hand, and froze when he saw them. He glared up and said furiously, "I have to do it." The lack of response made him feel guilty, somehow. "It's my home, I live here! I have to tell... someone else."
Sapphire looked coldly down at him. "Are you speaking for both of you?"
He hesitated only a moment, "Yes."
"I don't think you can." She turned her gaze on his sister, "Come on, Helen," as she stepped downstairs, she held out her hand. Helen looked at Rob thoughtfully, then went up the stairs to join Sapphire.
Helen felt great sorrow at how hurt Rob looked, but he rallied, saying aggressively, "It doesn't matter."
"No?" Sapphire asked.
"No. I'm still going to tell him about my parents, about that room up there, about the things I saw in that room." His gaze challenged the two older people, and Helen felt proud of him, especially for the way he was standing up to Steel's silent presence.
Sapphire's hand idly stroked Helen's hair as she sparred with Rob. "Do you think he'll listen to you?"
"Yes. That policman knows me," and was nocking on the door.
Sapphire smiled slightly, "Go on then, try to tell him."
Immediately suspicious, Rob tried to read her face, but it was impossible. There was nothing she could do from where she stood on the stairs, was there? He turned and quickly opened the door.
Brian smiled to see Rob's familiar young face, noted with surprise a strange woman standing on the stairs with Helen, and said cheerfully, "Hello, Rob!" The boy nodded in evident relief and gestured him in.
As the policeman stepped through the door, he vanished. Rob stared in confusion then turned to look suspiciously at Sapphire. Her eyes glowed with that strange, blue light he was beginning to recognize as some sort of use of power. He turned back to the door, only it was closed, his hand still held out to grip a knob that wasn't there. As he tried to figure that out, there was a trio of knocks. He swung it open. Once again he was looking at the easy-going policeman who smiled warmly at him, and said again, "Hello Rob!" and stepped in the door only to vanish. Rob's mouth hung open in astonishment. Again the door was before him, closed. And the knocking sounded, and he opened the door to have the man greet him and step through and vanish one more time. He found himself staring at the closed door and heard Brian knock. This time he turned a terribly wounded look on Sapphire and stepped to the bottom of the stairs. Behind him he was still there, opening the door for the policeman.
Sapphire met his distressed look coolly. "I can keep that going for as long as is necessary. Just as long as it takes to prevent you from talking to him. It could take ages." She smiled kindly and came down the steps with Helen in tow. "So be fair, I'm sure the poor man has better things to do." Rob's shoulders trembled, then sagged in defeat. She gently touched his arm and he went with them into the kitchen, the door closing behind them.
Brian stood outside the house and knocked, with a strange feeling of deja-vu. When the door swung open he smiled and started, "He -- oh." A stranger stood there. A clean looking young man in a grey business suit. Funny, it should have been Rob, said some part of his mind.
The stranger said politely, "Yes?"
That part repeated its statement, as he stared down at the much shorter man. "Oh that... that's strange...."
"What is?"
He smiled, embarrassed. "Well it... uh, eh... must've been the long drive up here." He stepped through the door, noting with relief that the smaller man gave him room without pulling away, as a robber might have done. "But I could've sworn I -- " he stopped, then seeing the unswerving attention, and total lack of mockery in the blond's face, finally said, "well I thought that door had already been opened for me, once." Twice, thrice, four times... counted the little voice in his head.
The stranger cocked his head, then shook it, smiling slightly. "No."
Brian could not stop an embarrassed chuckle, "Heh, only after the call last night I thought I'd -- uh -- come over and see if everything's all right." That finished, he tried to stare imposingly down at the shorter man, who did not seem the least disturbed.
"Oh everything's fine," he said, nodding.
Put off-balance, Brian fished, "Good. And you are..?"
"A friend of the family. Here for some, ah, peace and quiet."
It was the calmness that soothed Brian. "Well, that's all right, then," he said with a relieved smile.
In the kitchen, Sapphire had yeilded to temptation and found a brush to go over Helen's hair with. Rob fumed from the other side of the table. Finally he asked, "But how can you do it?"
She smiled, "I just did it."
"But how?"
"Doesn't matter how!" Rob got up with an angry jerk and stalked toward the door. "Do you want me to start all over again? He'll be gone soon, so why don't you give him a chance to get on with his business."
Rob leaned heavily against the door as she spoke. Then he spun and glared with furious resentment at her. "This is his business!"
"No," she said simply, as she brushed Helen's hair.
"All right then," he pointed at the window, "suppose I went to that window and climbed through?"
She was plainly amused, "Well I'd probably see you, I might make you spend the next few hours climbing through the window and not getting anywhere!" She smiled at the two children. Rob glared and then went to the window. He hesitated, then backed off with a defeated frown.
He turned to Sapphire and spoke intently, "If you can make Time go backwards...."
"Who said I can?"
"You just did it, out there. And what you did last night when you kept changing into different clothes...."
"The changing of the clothes was an illusion," she shrugged indiffernetly, "they were just things I'd worn in the past." She rested her head on Helen's shoulder and looked mischeviously at him, "I was just projecting an image for you, that's all."
He was beginning to see why Steel glowered so. "But out there -- just now -- that wasn't an illusion, was it?"
She shook her head, "No."
"That was Time -- you were making Time go back."
This got a smile and a nod, "Yes." She set the brush down and murmured to Helen, "Now sit down and get on with your breakfast." The little girl obeyed.
Rob decided to get as many answers as he could out of this session. "Then why can't you take it back twenty-four hours or more?"
She ignored him, absorbed in holding a pitcher for Helen, "Want a little bit more milk?" Helen nodded.
He bit back a shout and demanded, "Why can't you take it back to just before yesterday, when my parents were still here?"
She looked up at him gravely. "I haven't the power to take Time back that far," folding her hands elegantly and resting her chin on them, "If I had, don't you think I'd have done it?"
Rob felt Helen's eyes upon him, and he reluctantly said, "S'pose so."
Sapphire raised her head, and Helen's eyes moved to regard her intently as she explained, "Imagine a rubber ball... imagine a rubber ball bouncing," she held up a finger to illustrate, "and the first time the ball hits the ground, is the incident. And the bouncing that follows," she made a bouncing motion with her finger, getting a smile from Helen, "is just the echo! Momentum! And I'm able to keep the momentum going for just a little bit longer, that's all." She cupped both hands beneath her chin, meeting Rob's glare mildly. "Just long enough. It helps."
Outside the car door opened and closed, the engine started. Rob rushed to the window and watched it go. Then he turned back to Sapphire and asked her, "Does anyone have the power to -- " he broke off.
"What?"
He leaned forward, resting his weight on a chair top. "Well, to take Time back, further."
"Something does, yes."
"Something, not someone."
She returned his intense gaze coolly, "Something."
"Whatever's in that corridor?"
She nodded, "Mmmhmmm. It can take Time backwards or forwards or sideways or ANYway, if it's allowed to. Only there's no sense to it. Not sense as we know it," she shook her head, "and no purpose! Only... it's own purpose." Her gaze was direct, and honest.
He leaned forward, "What I saw in Helen's room -- "
Sapphire held up her fingers in a small gesture, "Oh, it's just a fraction, just a peep," she dropped her hand, "but stopping it, whenever it happens, is our job and that's all we're doing here." Steel walked in and shot a cold look at Rob who ignored him, intent on his conversation with Sapphire. "So will you please stop fighting us, and try to believe in us for once? We're all you've got on your side!" She looked very thoughtful then, and said softly, intently, "First a wall, then a room. What then? The house? A road... a village... a town. What next?"
Steel watched Rob's reaction to what Sapphire said, then decided to interrupt for a moment. Turning to Rob he said, "I need a room to work in."
Rob was still suspicious and resentful. "What sort of room?"
After a considering pause, Steel asked, "Would you know which is the... youngest room in the house?"
"The youngest?" Rob asked in utter confusion.
"Uh -- the last to be built?"
"My father had a small extension built last year, an office."
Steel nodded. "Show me it. Please?" Rob turned toward the back of the kitchen. The two older people exchanged amused looks before Steel followed.
Rob stopped at a door and turned hesitantly to Steel, who was just behind him. "When you said... y -- you did a job like this once, on a ship...."
The man cocked his head questioningly, "Yes?"
"What happened?"
Steel blinked, and said deadpan, "We had to sink the ship." Rob stared at him, then decided his best option was to simply open the door. Steel turned slightly and brushed his thoughts to Sapphire, [For its own good, of course,] with silent laughter.
She smiled and sent back, {And it's not as easy to sink a house.}
Rob did not see the brief, warm smile that lit Steel's face before he stepped into the room. He saw the man look thoughtfully around, and noticed he seemed less tense. "Hmm, this is much better."
They had gone around the house re-setting clocks, so no one was near Helen's room where a white glow could be seen under the door. In the 'youngest' room, Steel was handing things to Rob for him to carry into the cellar. "And what about this?" he asked, holding up a chair to Sapphire. "Forty? Fifty years old?"
She touched it with her palm and smiled slightly, "1938."
He took the chair out and handed it to Rob with an exasperated grumble of, "And this." Back in, then, to pick up a cardboard box of nicknacks and look around for something more to put in it. His eyes lighted on a clear glass ashtray of modern design. "Now that must be all right." He lifted it and held it out to Sapphire.
Her hand closed about it as she scanned. "Six to eight months, most of it."
He asked curiously, "Most of it?"
"There are some recycled elements there. One of them is... a good hundred years old." She let the ashtray go, amused.
Steel looked at it as if it had personally set out to make his life difficult, and put it in the box. He said wryly, "So nothing's safe."
She shook her head, smiling, "No."
He gathered up the box and went to the door. "Rob?!"
From the kitchen, "Yes?"
"Everything," he walked out and handed the box to Rob.
"What?"
"I want an empty room." Rob shot the vanishing back an exasperated look, but obediantly took the box out and started down into the cellar. Steel grumpily threw all the small things he could find into another box. He started out with it, then paused to complain wearily to Sapphire, "They do clutter their lives, don't they?" She ignored the comment, rolling up a rug. Steel moved out the door and nearly walked over Rob.
"Sorry," the boy said.
He got an off-hand glare, then Steel stepped around him saying, "Would you get the wastepaper basket?"
Rob sighed and went into the room. He stepped past Sapphire and picked up the basket, then on his way out he stopped. "What was the trigger?"
Startled, she asked, "What?"
"Well when you said that Time broke through, here -- in Helen's room -- you said there was a trigger, a final ingredient to make it happen."
Wondering what he was getting at, she said, "That's right."
"Well what was the trigger -- the final ingredient -- on that ship?"
"Oh, an out-of-date ship's log. The Captain had a weakness for nautical heritage," she smiled in remembrance.
"Oh."
She continued rolling up the rug, still smiling. "He collected old things from ships."
Rob knelt at her side, startling her with his very serious eyes. "Not so silly then, are they?"
"Who?" she asked.
"These creatures that are trying to break through the Time-fabric. Ship's log at sea, a nursery rhyme in a child's room... sounds to me as if they know what they're doing." He met her faintly surprised look for a moment, then stood up and moved on out. She sat there, thinking about it.
Steel's voice came from the doorway, "What's wrong?"
"Just something the boy said... it reminded me of something you said, earlier on."
He settled down beside her as Rob had done earlier, "Me?"
"Yes, about methods being used." They stared at each other, and Steel considered he might just get to like that boy.
Rob closed the cellar door behind him and started back into the kitchen. "Rob?" his mother called from above. He froze and looked quickly behind him. She called again, more urgently, "Rob?!" He glanced toward the cellar uncertainly, then looked up in the direction of Helen's room, knowing with unbearable relief that was where the voice was coming from. She called again, "Rob!" Under Helen's door the glow pulsed, and her voice said softly, "... and downstairs... upstairs...." He heard it, and started up the stairs quickly. "Upstairs... and downstairs." He stopped at the short staircase, and she called again, "Rob!"
"Mum!" he cried, taking the last steps and looking around for her. "Mum?"
Her voice came loud and confused, "Just what on Earth is going on, Rob?!"
Each word touched his heart and hurt with relief, "Oh Mum!"
She demanded, "Will you open this door at once, please?!"
At that he knew where the voice was coming from. Helen's room. "Of course!" he told her, then realized, "Oh I forgot, it's nailed up!"
"Nailed up? What do you mean nailed up? What have you been doing?!"
He tried to placate her, "Look, Mum, let me explain -- "
"You can explain when I'm out of this room! So just open it will you, right now!" she was plainly furious, he couldn't blame her.
"I will, Mum, Helen's gonna be so pleased..!"
"Will you open the door!"
"Yes, Mum. Just wait!" Overjoyed he turned to go downstairs. "I'll fetch Sapphire and Steel!"
Her voice came quickly back, suddenly soft. "Oh there's no need to fetch them...."
He froze, his flesh crawing. Slowly, suspiciously, he turned around. "How do you know them?"
He could sense a groping, feeling for an excuse, "Well... whoever they are! I don't know, friends of yours, I suppose. I don't know them. Now, please open this door!!"
It's not her, it can't be her! he thought, and tried to turn around but it was like something had a hold on him. He used words instead, "But I can't open the door without help!"
The voice came back smugly. "Of course you can, it's very simple. Just kneel down by the door. Just outside the door." Rob managed to turn his head, a cry for help stuck in his throat. "Come along, Rob! Kneel down by the door." He licked his lips, straining to hold still and not do what the voice demanded. It insinuated itself into his thoughts. "It's easy enough to open the door, easy enough to let us out."
He forced out his reply, "How?"
"You just put your face close to the door!" As he fought, the voice demanded angrily, "Come along, Rob! You can do it!" His strength snapped and, head bowed, he stepped to the door and knelt down. The voice gloated, "That's right! That's fine! Now then, all you have to do is to say a rhyme, a nursery rhyme, an old one, any one, providing it's old." Rob felt the words settle like chains on his mind, and he cried because it was his mother's voice doing it, controlling him. A way out, through the words, he had to find it. A gasp tore from him as the chains were jerked. "Well can't you remember one?" He nodded weakly. "Then just say it, Rob! Just say it!!" Rob closed his eyes, and clenched his teeth, fighting. "Say it!" urged the voice.
"I can't!" he managed to say.
"Say it!!"
He struggled against the chains pulling on his mind, and broke one link. "I'm too old to say nursery rhymes!"
The voice came slyly, forcing the chain back into place. "Very well, then. Let's call it history! Now you're old enough for history, aren't you Rob?"
He could only reply weakly, "Yes...."
"And a lot of nursery rhymes are a part of history, I've always taught you that, haven't I, Rob?"
He clutched his head, pushing at the chains, "No!!"
His protest was ignored, the voice went on, "So, say the one that's in your head."
He tried evasion, "Which one?!"
Each word was a heavy blow, "The one that's in there now! Don't lose it, Rob!" The enemy was aware of his efforts to block it out, and played by word-association, "Think of the soldiers...."
"Soldiers...."
"Climbing the stairs... swords in their hands... searching for people..!"
Rob's face twisted in pain, and the words forced themselves out. "Goosy goosy gander..!"
"That's the one!" the voice gloated.
He struggled against the command. "Where shall I...."
"Whither shall I!" pushed the voice.
"Whither shall I wander...." In his struggle, he missed the sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs.
"That's it!"
"Upstairs and downstairs...." He managed to turn and froze seeing, half-material, two soldiers walking toward him from the stairs, dressed in old helmets and chainmail. The room had changed too, there were spinning wheels and wool hanging from the ceiling, and the walls were white rather than brown, different walls, he realized. He huddled against the wall. The soldiers drew their swords and pounded on the door which would have been to Helen's room, except it wasn't. Rob covered his head. There was a loud crash as they knocked the door down and shoved into the room beyond. Rob scrambled to his feet shouting, "No!" and the room was back to normal. He did not wait to puzzle it out, just ran down the stairs, calling "Steel! Steeeeeel!" Unseen, the white glow pulsed under the door, and a patch of light slipped out from under it and 'crawled' along the floor.
In the front hall, Steel set a clock, his voice tightly controlled. "It could not have been your mother."
"But it called to me!"
He looked doubtful. "Called your name?"
Waving his hands dramatically, Rob said, "Yes, it called! Rooob! Like that." Steel went to wind another clock. "I thought it was my mother, it was her voice. Just like it! Except... it got a few things wrong, it made mistakes. I wasn't fighting you this time, honest! The voice called me. I had to go, didn't I?"
Sapphire watched Rob as her companion went around finding clocks to set. She gave him a sympathetic look and turned to Steel. "Have they all stopped again?"
He looked even more tired than before, "Yes."
Rob called Steel's attention back to him, "I mean, I did as I was told, I wouldn't've gone up there if the voice hadn't've called to me."
"I believe you. This time." Rob was startled, but hid it well. Steel moved up the stairs, stopping just before the top to ask, "Did the soldiers come out of the room?"
The light made its way down from Helen's room to the hallway.
"No, they came up the stairs." Steel frowned at him. "Well, not all the way up. They... just kind of appeared... on the top staircase." He watched the man pause to wind another clock, carrying around the little clock Rob had used yesterday to time his homework.
Sapphire said softly, "Something could have been let loose during the breakthrough. A visual refraction."
The light had made its way to the other end of the hallway and stopped before the steps, sensing Steel's presence.
Rob turned to her in bewilderment, "Visual refraction?"
"Yes, you'd probably call them... what would he call them?" she asked.
"Ghosts," Steel replied.
Rob's mouth dropped open, "Ghosts?!"
Steel looked down at them from the railing, "Did anything come out of that room?" he asked the boy.
"No! And the door's not nailed up anymore!"
"No?" he cocked his head.
"No, it's a different door!"
Sapphire looked up and shrugged. "Another refraction."
Her partner looked grim, "Probably." He stood and moved up the stairs, to be stopped by Rob.
"Look, I saw it!! I mean, you can't have a ghost door as well, can you?!"
Sapphire turned and smiled mildly, "Yes." The light moved under a room door to hide as she reached the landing.
Rob, right behind her said, "But those soldiers looked solid enough."
"They would," she agreed, standing beside Steel.
Rob glared and said urgently, "They kicked the door open."
Steel blinked, then moved quickly toward the hall to Helen's room pausing only long enough to snatch up Rob's little clock. The boy caught up with him and they both hurried up the steps, Sapphire following with a patient sigh. She stopped, however, right there. Steel noticed how she stood in frozen puzzlement, and immediately came back. "What is it?"
She looked around, "Something. I'm not sure, just something." Steel checked the clock. "Is it still going?"
He was too surprised to hide it, "Yes. But it's lost seven minutes!"
Rob asked, "Since we came up the stairs?"
"Yes."
"My dad's had that clock for years..!"
Steel turned to ask, "Has it always been reliable?"
The boy looked apologetic. "I don't really know," they both looked at Sapphire, "this is where the soldiers first appeared...."
Steel took the clock to her side, and stared at it, bewildered. He glanced at Rob. "Are you sure nothing came out of that room?"
"No, I told you." Steel walked down the stairs, then turned and came back up again, watching the clock as he did so. He and Sapphire puzzled over it, and exchanged shrugs. "Anyway, it'll be open now." They looked at him blankly, seeming to have forgotten he was there. "The different door. Look I'll show you!" He turned and marched toward Helen's room, furious.
Sapphire's soft voice stopped him. "Wait!" He turned and glared back at them, only to have them pass him by to lead the way. He followed, realizing they were acting to protect him. They went up the stairs, he stopped at the bottom.
"You see?!"
The patch of light slipped out from under the door and continued wending its way down the stairs.
Rob joined the two and stared incredulously at the door, still closed and blocked up. "It's back as it was!" he exclaimed.
Steel was looking at the clock in his hand. "And so is the clock," he said.
Sapphire looked worried, "So those seven minutes were lost down there on that landing...." Her companion started toward the room in frustration, then wheeled around at the sound of boots stomping. The soldiers came up onto the landing, and everything was different again. Rob dove into Sapphire's arms as they came toward him.
Steel hissed, "Keep still!" The soldiers got to the door, knocked, and then slammed it open, as they had before. Steel watched in perplexity as it finished, fading away. He turned to Rob, who was still huddled against his partner. "And that's what you saw." The boy nodded. "No variation, they didn't seem different?" At the negative shake he looked at his clock, puzzled. "Clock's working perfectly. It didn't stop, it didn't lose time. They didn't effect it!" He turned fretfully and looked downstairs, "Something did...." He went down quickly.
Sapphire stroked Rob's hair and then made him stand up straight. She squeezed his shoulder reassuringly and stepped away around him, then faced him. "When the voice... called to you, which rhyme did you say? Which one did you choose?"
He turned reluctantly, avoiding her eyes. "Well, I didn't exactly choose it. I was more or less told to say it."
She cocked her head, "Told to say it?"
He looked up shyly, "Yes, it was kinda put into my head. So that I was thinking it."
"Which one?" and quickly she added, "Don't say it out loud. Look at me." He obeyed, meeting the eyes that shimmered brilliant blue and feeling a warm presence touch his mind. "Look at me and remember exactly what you said. Say it in your mind."
Her telepathic touch was kind and did not push or pull at him, and he obeyed and let the memory pour out to her. His own voice gasping out, "Goosy goosy gander..!"
And his mother's gloating, "That's the one!"
"Where shall I...."
"Whither shall I!"
"Whither shall I wander...."
"That's it!"
"Upstairs and downstairs...."
Sapphire stopped the flow, her eyes returning to their normal dark beauty. She smiled admiring approval to him. "And you only said those three lines, out loud...."
He was staring in wide-eyed astonishment at her, "Yes!"
"And then the soldiers appeared."
His shoulders sagged wearily, "Yes."
She leaned to the door and listened. The voice was murmuring in an excited tone, "Upstairs and downstairs... upstairs and downstairs...."
Steel paced from one end of the hall to another. He had rolled up the rug a bit, and stooped to set the clock on it. "Sapphire?"
She stepped away from the door and brought Rob with her. "Yes, Steel." They went down to join him in the hall.
"Do it again," he told her. Rob stayed to watch from near the stairs to Helen's room. "Walk up the stairs again," Steel said, gesturing. She started down them, not in a position to see the patch of light that rushed along the inside bottom step and hid around a corner. On the landing she turned and came back up the stairs.
She shook her head to Steel's questioning look and said, "Nothing."
Rob stared in shock, noticing for the first time how tired the man looked as he said bitterly, "So what do we do? Blame the clock?"
The light patch went back along the bottom stair and hesitated at the wall, as if trying to decide where to go.
Sapphire said thoughtfully, "The first nursery rhyme derives from the time of the plague; and the second one which Rob was made to say, also has historical reference." Steel unrolled the carpet and put the table and clocks back in place as she spoke. "It refers back to the Parliamentary Wars."
Steel glanced up at that, "Parliamentary Wars?"
They were ignoring him again, but Rob knew the answer to Steel's question. "When Cromwell's troops searched houses looking for people who wouldn't pray."
He received a very blank look from Steel. "Wouldn't pray?"
Sapphire said amusedly, "Unbelievers."
"Ah." It was obvious he had no idea what they were talking about.
Rob was amazed and went to Steel's side. "Don't you know your history?"
The man was brought up short and glanced at Sapphire, then back to Rob. "I know mine, yes."
The light patch suddenly decided where it wanted to go and rushed up the wall and into a painting. The painting glowed a moment.
Steel came down the stairs and stopped to lean on the bannister, Rob was right on his heels saying, "But you must have heard of Cromwell!"
He was given a very bland look by Steel, who asked, "How many lines of that second rhyme did you say?"
"Three. I wouldn't say it all. I fought it." Somehow he was not surprised to see a grudging respect in the man's eyes.
Sapphire waved toward Helen's room, "So the danger is still contained in that room." Steel shrugged and started downstairs. She followed behind them, on her own train of thought. "And the visual refractions, those soldiers we saw... they're harmless! The room's full of them. They're just things let loose." Instead of joining them downstairs, she leaned on the bannister and looked down at them.
Steel and Rob stopped on the bottom steps, Rob because Steel had. He asked, "Does she mean... let loose from other places?"
"Yes." He looked up at Sapphire. "You mean, not part of the plan?"
She nodded. "They must be harmless." He gave her a very doubtful look, and she clarified the statement, turning to look at the painting behind her. "Those soldiers are an anachronism! They must have lived and died a good hundred years before this house was even built." She looked down at them again. "You know, most of this is history gone wrong. We've never had that before." Steel and Rob looked thoughtfully at their feet, and so they did not notice when she stepped away from the railing and vanished.
Steel said to himself, "Hmm, then again maybe it is part of the plan."
"What?" Rob asked.
He looked almost embarrassed, "The -- the confusion. It's a way of diverting us...."
"From what?"
Steel looked at him, then shook his head wearily. "I don't know. But they know it's us!" He turned towards Sapphire, saying, "They're not likely to use tricks we already know, are they?" Rob saw him freeze and looked up. She was not there, he wondered if she had gone up to Helen's room for some reason. But Steel was moving up the stairs hurriedly and it registered that something was terribly wrong. Rob followed.
Steel stopped near the top step, and then Sapphire's voice came in an eerie, far away note filled with fear. "Steel!"
Rob watched him look frantically around. Finally he said, in a shaking voice, "Sapphire..?" and when she did not answer he called more urgently, "Sapphire!"
"Yes Steel," came the far away, frightened answer.
Rob saw a shudder pass through the man. "Speak to me."
"I'm in a room, in a tiny room."
"How are you standing?"
"Facing a wall."
"You haven't changed your position?" The fear in Steel's voice alarmed Rob. That this man should be afraid was difficult to believe, even when it had been obvious earlier that he was frightened.
Sapphire's voice had a haunting lonely tone. "No, I'm as I was when I was last in the house with you."
A strangled sound suspiciously like a cry broke from Steel, then he said urgently, "You're still in this house, Sapphire!"
"Yes," came her answer. The tone implied that she was merely too tired to argue. Steel shuddered visibly.
"Keep remembering that and don't move! Don't change your position, don't make yourself a part of that room!"
"No," she answered softly. For a few moments there was silence, then her voice, no longer frightened but unbelievably sad said, "We walked right into it, didn't we? I walked right into it."
The slight shuddering became violent trembling for a moment and Rob could almost feel Steel bring himself under control. He answered her with pleading desperation, "Don't think that! You're still in this house with us! Right?" He nearly panicked in the silence. "Sapphire?!"
"Yes I heard that."
Steel calmed visibly at that response. "Good," he said softly. "Now describe the room to me."
"It's part of a cottage...." Steel scanned the wall. "It's probably the scullery in an old cottage."
Straight ahead of him was a painting, a daylight scene of a pretty cottage. He stared at it, knowing suddenly exactly where she was. "Day... or night?"
"Day."
He thanked Time for the hours which had passed since they started clearing out the father's room, and said firmly, "Well it's not, it's night." To her silence he urged, "Keep remembering that it's night... and that you're here with us!" Believe that lie instead of the lie you've been placed in! he pleaded silently.
Sapphire stood in a room that was dark, except for bright sunlight streaming through one window. To her right a rope noose hung coiled on a hook. On her left there was a table with a meat cleaver firmly embedded in it. She recognized what he was doing, and whispered to him, "Yes...."
His voice came urgently back at her. "Think of that room as a picture, nothing else. You're looking at a picture!"
She said reasonably, "It was a picture."
"Yes?"
The realization lifted her spirits and she almost smiled, "It was a picture of a cottage at the top of the stairs. Can you see it?"
"Yes, I can see it." He let pain slip into his voice, trying to use her awareness of his feelings to reach her.
A certainty came to her, blotting out his voice. She said breathlessly, "It was waiting for us. It got into the picture. It wants me to think I'm in the room in that cottage."
His voice came firmly back, an anchor. "Well you're not."
"No," she agreed. She could feel it trying to manipulate her, forcing fear upon her beyond her own. "It's cold here!"
"You're not in that room, Sapphire."
She did not hear him, concentrating instead on what she was feeling and trying to communicate it. "It's very cold here. Something happened in this room, once."
He was angry, she could hear it. "That room?"
Something stirred the edges of her mind, and pushed knowledge at her. She tried to ignore it, but her natural talent reached out for what was being offered. "Something terrible... it knows that. It wants me to know it! It wants me to sense it...." Her mind drifted as the enemy's power stirred her thoughts, trying to manipulate them. "It wants me... to be a part of this room. To be a part of what happened."
To plead was rare from him, yet it was there in his tone. "Sapphire..! Sapphire!"
To answer, she forced sharpness on her thoughts. "It's all right. I'm in control of it. I won't think what it wants me to think." But she was getting tired.
"Help! When I tell you..." his voice shook with fear for her, "I want you to do something for me. I want you to look over your right shoulder! Do it very quickly and then back. I -- can you hear me?" he asked in sudden panic.
She said softly, "Yes."
What he said startled her. "I want to know if you can still see the picture. Very quickly then back. Now." She looked quickly to her right. The noose met her eyes, aglow with sunlight and... something else. It pushed cold terror on her as she returned quickly to her former position, choking back a cry. His voice came again, "Sapphire?!"
She controlled the fear and hastened to calm him. "It's all right. The picture's not there, but there's -"
He interrupted quickly, "Don't tell me! Are you facing the way you were?" he asked after a moment.
"Yes."
"Good, then stay like that. Don't move." He turned around and started, having forgotten about Rob being there.
Rob hid his pity instinctively, "Do you want me to get the picture? Wouldn't that stop it?" The vulnerable, lost look on the other's face was more than a little alarming.
Sapphire's voice floated to him, "If you tried to get the picture, you'd end up in this room with me."
Steel met Rob's eyes for a moment, as if he had simply forgotten not to, then he moved shakily past the boy downstairs. Rob watched him go for a moment, then stepped nervously up, pulling a coin from his pocket. He flipped it at the painting. It vanished, and then he heard it hit a far away floor with a chink and rolling sound. Sapphire's startled voice asked, "What was that?" He could not answer her. Blinking back tears, he rushed downstairs and sat down heavily.
It took only a moment to control himself, then he looked over at Steel, who leaned heavily against a nearby chest of drawers. The man looked positively ill. "Couldn't we smash the picture?" he asked.
Steel shook his head grimly. "It wouldn't smash what's hiding inside it."
To Rob's surprise, Sapphire said with a trace of amusement, "Apart from which you might smash me." He had not thought she would hear them.
Steel looked thoughtfully around, the sick expression fading to make way for one of intense concentration. "Sapphire? Could you try to take Time back to before you were trapped?"
Sapphire response was startled, "I could try it, yes."
"And even ten minutes would do it!" he exclaimed, eyes suddenly on fire with relief.
"I can try. Will you help me?"
"Yes." He started up the stairs, determination reflected in the once-again stiff shoulders. Rob followed him, not wanting to miss a thing. He stopped just before the landing. "Now concentrate!" Where she was, Sapphire raised her head, and her eyes shimmered blue. Steel stepped closer to the top stair. Helen appeared at the bottom stairs, and looked up curiously through sleep-fuzzed eyes. Rob watched as Steel's hands clenched into fists.
His sister's voice startled him. "Rob..?"
What a time to wake up from your nap! "Shhh..! Go to sleep, Helen!"
Annoyed, she came to his side. "No! I wanted Sapphire! Where is she?" She looked around. Her parents had disappeared in front of her face, she did not want Sapphire doing it while her back was turned.
Steel hissed, "Keep her down there!"
It startled her when Rob grabbed her arms tightly. "Is she upstairs?" she asked him.
Steel's urgent voice attracted her attention. "Now, Sapphire. Take it back!"
"Yes, Steel," came a ghostly answer.
He repeated, more urgently, "Take it back!"
She said again, "Yes Steel...."
Helen tried to get closer, "I can hear her!"
Not for one moment loosening his hold, Rob said, "I know!"
"But I can't see her, where is she?"
Rob pulled her around to face him. "Helen, please, be quiet!"
She jerked around, "Where are you, Sapphire?" Not again....
Sapphire's voice came through the air, "It's all right Helen. Just do as Rob says."
Rob held her close, recognizing the lie even as she did. He felt her sag. "Yes, Sapphire."
Steel did not bother to rage at the interruption. "You've got to do it now, Sapphire, before it's too late!!" Their minds linked, and power surged. He closed his eyes and felt Time twist around. "That's it!"
From above them came voices, Rob's then Steel's, then Rob's again.
"Don't you know your history?"
"I know mine, yes."
"But you must have heard of Cromwell!"
Rob gaped as shadowy, then solid images of himself and Steel appeared on the landing. "That's me!" he exclaimed.
He watched Steel turn to him. "How many lines of that second rhyme did you say?"
"Three. I wouldn't say it all. I fought them." The image faded, returned, then faded again.
Steel felt something shoving at them, pushing them on past that point. He gasped hoarsely, "Don't lose it... don't lose it!"
Sapphire's voice entered the air. "So the danger is still contained in that room. And the visual refractions, those soldiers we saw..." her body faded into sight, leaning idly on a bannister, "they're harmless! The room's full of them. They're just things let loose." Faintly, they heard Rob asking Steel, "Does she mean... let loose from other places?"
"Yes." The now-Steel's eyes were closed tightly in concentration as his image spoke, "You mean, not part of the plan?"
She nodded. "They must be harmless. Those soldiers are an anachronism! They must have lived and died a good hundred years before this house was even built." They watched her turn away and then back. "You know, most of this is history gone wrong. We've never had that before." She faded out, and didn't come back.
Steel gasped out, "Keep it going! Keep it going." She was shaking with the effort to get a grip on that bit of time. They bowed their heads to concentrate. "You can do it, Sapphire."
"I can't...." she whispered.
"You can..!"
Her voice came back almost sobbing, "I can't!"
And Steel fought despair. "You can!"
He felt her mind untwine from his. Failure tasted like dirt in their mouths as she released the link and said tearfully, "Please Steel, it's no good. It's in here with me..!" The noose glowed brilliantly.
"Sapphire!" he called desperately.
"It's close! I'm defying it."
He sagged against the railing, trembling badly. The children watched him steady up suddenly, as if he had thought of something. "We're going to have to win, Sapphire. Can you hold it for two minutes? Can you give me two minutes?"
"Yes." He turned and started down, "Steel, be careful." He paused only a moment hearing that, then continued past the children.
Rob asked him quickly, "What are you going to do?"
He stopped and faced the boy. "I'm going into your father's workshop for a moment. 'Til I come back you keep... Helen here." He went down the last steps, throwing back over his shoulder, "Try to keep Sapphire talking," and disappeared into the kitchen.
"Right," Rob answered him.
Steel looked quickly in the pantry near the workshop. There was a large icebox sitting by a wall. He emptied it as fast as he could.
Helen and Rob tentatively stepped up to the landing, and stopped. "Sapphire, Steel said -"
She interrupted him softly. "Yes, I heard."
He cast about for something to talk about, and came up with, "Is this like the ship?"
"The what?"
He licked his lips. "The job you had to do, on a ship."
Where she was, she smiled at his choice of subjects. "Um -- yes, only this is slightly more difficult."
"Sorry. Only I'm s'posed to keep you talking."
"You're doing fine, Rob."
Helen asked, "Sapphire?"
"Hello Helen."
"I want to see you Sapphire." She stepped closer to the landing.
"Soon, Helen, soon. Just be patient, hmm?"
The child obediently said, "Yes."
Another glowing patch slipped out from under Helen's door.
Steel finished emptying the icebox, then dragged it into the workshop. He plugged it into a power outlet, ripped out the insulation and took the top off.
The soldiers walked to Helen's door, stopped and stood at attention. Two patches of light skimmed around to their feet, and then disappeared into them. The soldiers glowed for a few moments.
Sapphire said conversationally, "Then again if round-hood soldiers belong anywhere they belong in this hellhole." The soldiers moved and she heard their bootsteps where she was. Alarmed she asked, "Do you hear that?"
Rob frowned, confused. "Hear what?"
She heard the bootsteps coming closer. Controlling her fear, she said urgently, "Rob, will you fetch Steel?!" Rob hesitated in confusion. Her next words sent him running downstairs with their raw terror, "Rob, quickly! Please!" He passed a frightened Helen, hearing Sapphire behind him, "Something terrible happened here! Oh please, help me!"
Into the kitchen, shouting "Steel! Steel!" he slid around and grabbed for the workshop's knob.
"Don't come in!" came Steel's stern voice.
Helen started crying, hearing Sapphire's desperate voice, and unable to do anything. "Please!! Help me, quickly please!" The soldiers pounded on the cottage door.
Steel spoke from the workshop, "Open the door and stand clear." Rob obeyed, and then backed up with a gasp, protecting his hands. The doorknob had been ice-cold. Steel stepped out, saying, "Don't touch me."
Rob burst out in astonishment, "Freezing!"
"Don't come near me." He stalked out of the kitchen, Rob following right behind. At the staircase Steel stopped and pulled himself aside. "Get the child!" When Rob hesitated, he snarled "Quickly!!"
He grabbed Helen and started dragging her downstairs. She struggled, "But... Sapphire's up -- "
"Come on!" Rob hauled her down and past Steel.
As they came close he said, "Get her away from me."
She stopped in astonishment, "It's cold!" she said, staring at Steel.
He went up the stairs, throwing over his shoulder, "Come on!" He paused at the top step, listening to Sapphire.
"Someone was killed in this room! A young girl!" The soldiers smashed in. "And it wants me to be her, it wants it to happen all over again!"
Steel raised his hands straight out in front of him, and moved forward. Rob cried out, "Steel! Don't!"
Sapphire spoke again, "The soldiers are here! They've broken down the door!" One soldier grabbed the noose and dropped it over her head. The other soldier got the meat cleaver. She stood still, slowing the events by not reacting to them, and called out in near panic, "Steel!" He stepped closer to the painting. His body started to fade out, and then reappered, swaying. He stepped forward and laid both hands flat-palmed on the painting. It frosted over instantly. Sapphire gasped as a new cold suffused the dark room. The light patch appeared on the painting's surface, and a moment later, Sapphire materialized on the landing, gasping with cold.
"Sapphire!" called out Helen.
Sapphire said in real surprise, "It's gone! The room's gone!" And then the soldiers marched in, having come from Helen's room.
Rob raced up the stairs. "But they haven't!" He passed Helen, who let out a startled scream, and he shouted, "Steel!" trying to pull the man out of his shocked stillness. One soldier knocked him down. The other one grabbed Sapphire and bent her over the railing, raising the meat cleaver to chop down. Steel suddenly moved, reaching out his hand so the splayed fingers brushed the meat cleaver. It froze over instantly, and the ghost disappeared. He reached out his other hand to lay it squarely on the other one's helmet, and with a cry of pain, that ghost vanished too. Steel crumpled to the floor. Rob stared around amazed, then turned to the woman who stood rubbing her kneck. "Sapphire!" Then he noticed Steel bracing himself against the wall, rubbing his hands and with a very strange glazed look in his eyes. "What's wrong with Steel?"
She met his look with a strange one of her own. "He reduced his temperature to minus 273.1 degrees."
"That's near absolute zero!"
"Yes."
He looked at the man, huddled in on himself now, with sudden understanding and new respect. "He told me not to touch him."
"Rob, will you go down to the kitchen and light a fire, please?"
He almost asked why, then realized it was for Steel. "Yes." As he turned to go, he saw the patch of light struggling down the wall. It stopped in a moment, frozen. "Sapphire, look!"
"Yes! Go on." He nodded and started down. "And Rob...."
"Yes?"
"Make it a good fire."
If Steel was in danger of dying, as she must have been, he guessed she would probably be in the state of near panic her partner had been in. So he was all right, but needed help. "Yes," Rob replied.
She turned around, hearing Steel try to speak. His thoughts, too, were iced over, for the moment he was mute to her as well as to the children. He forced through frozen lips the words, "No -- not enough!"
She knelt beside him, careful not to get too close. His blinded, black eyes gazed at nothingness as she reassured him. "It was..! You held that one."
The strain was apparant as he struggled to speak. "E -- enough to hold -- not enough to s -- stop them. M -- musn't regain its heat."
"I know," she soothed him.
He had no intention of being soothed just yet, though. "M -- must be kept at s -- same temperature."
She nodded, "Yes," and stood up and looked down at the little girl, who was halfway downstairs. "Helen, will you help us?" Eager to do something, the girl came up. "You take Steel down to the kitchen." As Helen reached f
