Dirty Magic by Carol Hughes

Author:Carol Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780375849190
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2008-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

16

Breaking In

When Joe woke the next morning, Mary was going about her daily tasks. The old woman built a fire in the dusty grate and hung a teakettle over it. Then she stood and took the wooden shutters from a large window. Daylight, or a sort of daylight, filtered in through the filthy panes. The weather looked as grim as it had been on every previous day. There was one difference. The dawn had brought with it a fog. A real pea-souper. Joe watched the mists swirl past the window.

Spider slept without stirring till after midday. No more Heathermen came to the ramshackle room, and Mary spent the whole morning puttering about. She seemed to be constantly tidying, but what there was to tidy, Joe couldn’t see.

Beside him, Katherine was silently removing everything from Spider’s backpack and taking stock. In the bottom, she found the one remaining distracter box. She lifted it out and laid it gently on the ground. Then she began to unpack the pockets.

“What are you doing?” whispered Joe.

“Looking for anything that might be useful,” she said. “If I had the control for this box I’d take it, but he’s got it in his poacher’s pocket, the big one inside his coat.”

“You’d take it?” queried Joe. “Take it where?”

“To get my brother out. I’m tired of waiting.”

Spider started to laugh.

Katherine rolled her eyes. “He can’t even be trusted to be asleep when he’s snoring,” she said, stuffing her pockets with the most useful items she could find.

“You wouldn’t know one end of the Druckee from the other,” Spider said. “You’d be caught and locked up in seconds.” He laughed some more.

Katherine looked furious and tried to get up. Spider pulled her back down.

“Settle yourself, miss,” said Spider, still chuckling. “I promised to take you to the Druckee, and I will. But we’d be fools to go out there in daylight. Just you hold your horses till nightfall, and we’ll be off.”

That day was one of the longest and slowest Joe could remember. It was worse than a rainy winter Saturday at home. At least at home he had his things, his projects, his models. Here there was nothing to do except sit and wait.

When evening finally came, however, Spider sniffed and stood.

“Let’s go,” he said as he quietly opened the door.

“We’ll take a look at the old place first, and then I’ll have to do some thinking.”

Spider stepped out onto the street and beckoned them to follow him. The street was crowded with people, and they all seemed to be heading in the same direction. Horses and carts blocked the road, and crowds of people walked three abreast on the pavements. Joe was stunned. The last time he’d been out, the streets had been deserted.

Joe had never seen a city like this. It must have been incredible before the war. For one thing, there didn’t seem to be a straight line anywhere. The buildings that were still standing leaned, swooped, curved, or twisted as they loomed above him.

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