The Demonata 6-10. Darren Shan

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СКАЧАТЬ are not drawings,” she says without looking around, sensing my presence the same way I sensed hers.

      “They’re photographs.”

      “Are they magic? Are people alive within them, their souls trapped like mine was in the cave?”

      “No. It’s just their image. We use machines to take them.”

      “Machines?”

      “Special tools.”

      She turns. “I’ve seen nothing of this new world. I was limited to the cave. I could peer into the universe of the Demonata, but this world was a blank. I don’t know what has changed and what hasn’t.”

      “Most of it’s different to what you knew. Probably everything. It’ll take a while to get used to, but you’ll be OK. Look at it like an adventure — you’ll be exploring a brand new planet.”

      “Yes. I’m excited. Scared but excited.” She sighs and looks at the photos again. “Your family?”

      “Some of them.” I move up beside her. “They all caught the disease, or died trying to help others who were infected. You know that some of us change into wolf-like beasts, don’t you?”

      “I saw them in my own time,” she answers. “I didn’t think the curse would last this long. But I’m not surprised. The blood of the Demonata is strong.” She looks at me shyly. “We are family. Separated by many generations, but family nevertheless.”

      “I know.”

      “The evil priestess – Juni Swan, Nadia Moore, whatever you want to call her – was one like us. Bran told me she could see into the future. Perhaps our demonic heritage was the source of her strange power.”

      I grunt. I don’t want to talk about Juni right now.

      “The boy… Bill-E… he was family too.”

      “Yes,” I mutter. “My brother.”

      “I’m sorry…” she starts to say.

      “Don’t worry about it,” I interrupt. “It wasn’t your fault. Bill-E wouldn’t mind. He was always keen on recycling.”

      “‘Recycling’?” Bec frowns.

      “I’ll explain later. Where are Beranabus and Kernel?”

      “Outside. They…” She casts a look at me and I instantly know what they’re doing, what they want of me.

      “Already?” I ask stiffly. “They can’t wait a while?”

      “No.” She looks back at the faces. “I’m not going. Bran told me to stay. He said I would be company for Dervish, that he could look after me and I could look after him. He said we would be good for one another.”

      “I’ll be looking after Dervish,” I snap.

      Bec shrugs. “I’m only repeating what Bran said. He also said Dervish could teach me about the new world, while he could teach you more about magic. In his opinion that arrangement will work best for everyone.”

      “We’ll see about that,” I huff, storming off. I pause before turning the corner and glance back at her. “If for some reason I don’t return… if anything happens to me… you will take care of Dervish, won’t you?”

      “I’ve comforted people who lost loved ones before. There were many in my rath — my village. I will do my best. I promise.”

      I nod thankfully, then hurry downstairs to sort out things with Beranabus and put him straight on a couple of issues.

      → The magician and Kernel are in front of the house, squatting in the middle of the road, draped in clothes which they’re taken from our wardrobes. They’ve healed the worst of their wounds, though they’re covered in cuts and bruises and Kernel’s as blind as he was before. A familiar monolith hangs in the air between them.

      “Leaving so soon?” I ask Beranabus tightly.

      “Work to be done,” he says briskly. “You’ve seen Bec?”

      “Yes. She’s under the impression that I’m leaving. Said she’d been charged with the task of looking after Dervish.”

      “Bec’s staying?” Kernel asks, surprised.

      “I considered bringing her with us,” Beranabus says. “We can’t test the Kah-Gash properly without her. I’ve waited so long to find the different pieces. It might be madness to leave her behind. But the weapon unnerves me. It gave us the power to come back in time and stop the Demonata — but before that it led Grubbs to the cave and initiated this whole train of events.”

      “I don’t recall it leading me,” I frown.

      “The night you went to the cave when you were turning into a werewolf,” Beranabus reminds me. “You cleared most of the entrance. Bec didn’t summon you and Lord Loss wasn’t involved at that stage. It can only have been the work of the Kah-Gash. It wanted you to reopen the cave — which makes me assume it also wanted to reopen the tunnel.”

      “You’re saying we can’t trust it?” Kernel barks. “After all this time and effort, the things we’ve sacrificed, the risks we’ve taken… it was all in pursuit of a weapon we don’t dare use?”

      “We’ll use it eventually,” Beranabus says. “We’ll have to. But I want to study the pair of you first and try to form a better idea of what we’ll be dealing with when we next unleash its power. I think it’s better not to keep the three of you together until we’re sure we can control the Kah-Gash.”

      “Then why not leave me behind and take Bec?” I ask.

      Beranabus sighs. “She’s suffered greatly and I care about her deeply. I was scatterbrained as a child — I bet you find that hard to believe! Bec helped me make a vital breakthrough. She set me on track and rooted me in reality. I owe her more than I can ever repay. She deserves to live again, to be human. I’d leave her here forever if I could. That’s impossible, but since it makes sense to keep one of you out of the way of the others for a while, I’ll gladly give her this free time. As the gods surely know, she’s earned it.”

      “That’s the most human thing I’ve ever heard you say,” Kernel murmurs. Then he frowns. “If you knew her, that means you were alive sixteen hundred years ago. I didn’t think humans could survive that long.”

      “They can’t,” Beranabus grunts. He wipes dried blood from his cheeks, but it’s yellow, not red. “You saw me changing in the cave, didn’t you?” he asks me.

      “I saw… something,” I answer cagily.

      “It surfaces occasionally. Sometimes I need to draw on its powers. It’s a dangerous game, involving it so intimately. I run the risk of succumbing to it and losing control. But there are times when we must gamble.” He scowls, then says quickly, bluntly, “I’m half-Demonata. My father was a demon. That’s where my magic comes from. It’s how I’ve lived so long.”

      “You СКАЧАТЬ