Goddess of Gotham (10 page)

Her vision blurred by unshed tears, Kumari trudged on. It was hopeless. No one challenged her as she wandered past. If this was school, they could keep it. A part of her even missed the RHM, annoying though he could be. At least he cared that she
learned
something.
Here, learning was way down the agenda. She had seen the looks on the teachers’ faces. They all looked worn down, tired out. Except for Ms Martin. She at least had
appeared alive. Actually, this corridor looked familiar. Her classroom was just down there. Lining the walls that lead to it, rows of what appeared to be cupboards. Slouching against these, a group
of kids she dimly recognised.

‘It’s her!’ one of them shouted.

Their heads turned as one.
Run!
shrieked the voice in her brain but her tired feet were rooted to the spot.

Rough hands pulled her forward.

‘Here, we got something to show you. See, we had a tip off you were coming. So we thought we would welcome you by decorating your locker.’

They were holding open the door of one of the cupboards, sneering as they pointed. The door was festooned with clippings, taken from a newspaper. Kumari’s eyes fell on a familiar headline:
Manhattan Mystery Girl,
it screamed.

‘That’s you, isn’t it?’ jeered a voice. ‘What are you, some kind of weirdo?’

‘Yeah, where you come from?’ crowed another. ‘Says here you don’t know.’

‘Give us your bird,’ said a third, grabbing her by the shoulders. As Kumari began to kick and scream, Badmash was hauled from her embrace. Amid mocking laughter, they shoved her into
the cupboard, cramming her in before slamming the door.

‘No! Don’t hurt him,’ cried Kumari as she heard the lock turn. And then she was alone. Her knees were shoved into her chest, the door and walls pressing in. Her arms were
jammed by her sides, her amulet digging uselessly into her wrist. She was trapped in this metal box, unable to move a muscle. The dark felt as though it were caving in on her, the air smelt stale
and sweaty. Dust choked up her lungs. How long before she suffocated?

‘Let me out,’ she pleaded but all she heard in response were their jeers. And then silence. Where had they taken Badmash? How would she get out of here? Would anyone even miss her?
Suddenly, a rectangle of light as the door was flung open. Before her stood a boy. In his arms was Badmash.

‘This your bird?’ he asked, as he held him out, smiling. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Don’t be scared. Let me help you.’

He held out a hand and Kumari took it. The boy had kind eyes. And there was something about his smile.

‘Thank you,’ she murmured, stroking Badmash’s feathers.

‘Any time,’ he grinned. ‘I’m Chico, by the way.’

Chico.

Nice name.

Suddenly, things looked a whole lot better.

In this hell hole of a place, Kumari had found a friend.

KUMARI’S JOURNAL

(TOP SECRET. FOR MY EYES ONLY.

EVERYONE ELSE KEEP OUT!

THIS MEANS YOU!)

The World Beyond

Day 15 (they call this the month of December in the WB) – 351 days to go

OK, I know I don’t know where I am or how to get back home but I really do have to get out of here. All the while I’m here I’m not finding out what
happened to Mamma. That clock keeps ticking which means Time is passing and soon I won’t have any left. It seems to go so fast. Everything happens fast here. Even the people talk fast like
they might run out of breath. Which, I reckon, is exactly what happens and how people in the World Beyond die.

Not that the air is any good here – it stinks and it makes me cough. Even Badmash has a cough which makes it really difficult to hide him at school. I have to cough when he coughs and
then the teachers look at me like I’m trying to mess around, when really I’m doing my best to listen even when what they say is really dull.

I’ve realised I need to listen because it’s my best chance of getting out of here – the more I know about the World Beyond, the easier it will be to find my way home.
I’ve already looked really hard at every map I can find (waste of time) and CeeCee and LeeLee showed me how to search on the computer so I entered words like magic+kingdom+smoke+happiness+goddess but all I came up with was a lot of VERY strange stuff. As Ma said, at least I tried. And I’m going to keep trying. I
will
find a way back home. Imagine how
Papa would feel if he knew I finally got motivated. The RHM would probably just say ‘about time.’ Well, maybe it is.

The trouble is, though, the teachers seem like they’ve given up, like they don’t really want to teach anyway. And the kids act like they don’t want to learn all except for
one or two. Weird thing is, now I’m listening it’s actually kind of interesting sometimes. Although most of my classmates don’t seem too happy that I’m making the effort. At
least if I go to school they won’t lock me up again. That’s what Ma says, anyway. She says it will ‘keep them off our backs.’ I can’t imagine why they would want to be
on our backs but if Ma says so it must be true. I like Ma very much but she can’t replace Mamma.

I know she wants me to think of her like that, like she’s my mother in the World Beyond. I suppose she is, in a way, but really I only have one Mamma. I guess that’s what the Ayah
wanted too, that I’d think of her as a new Mamma. What no one seems to understand is that Mamma is still around. OK, so she’s not actually
here
and I don’t have any of my
magic tools but I still think I can try and summon her. I mean, she’s still technically a goddess, right? That means I can summon her anywhere.

CHAPTER 7

T
he RHM stared up at the starlit sky. Only a thin slice of the moon was visible. It had been fat and full the night Kumari disappeared. Now it
barely registered. As reed slim as Kumari herself and just about as powerless. For a second, the RHM felt a flash of guilt. She was nothing more than a child.

He dropped his gaze to the courtyard below, desperately trying to think. Going over it one more time, every detail of that night. Something caught his eye, a faint movement by the fountain. He
shrank back behind the shutters, even though his room was in darkness. The RHM preferred it that way, had done ever since things changed at the palace. It was safer to remain unseen, to operate
from the shadows. He narrowed his eyes, focusing on the fountain. There it was again, a shape shifting, separating from the great urn that formed the fountain’s base.

The shape moved slowly, cautiously, stopping every few feet. The RHM studied it carefully. There was something familiar about its bulk. And then another, smaller shape slinking towards it, a paw
reaching out, then swiping. A leg struck out and kicked, sending the palace cat flying through the air. In that moment of temper, the bulk had betrayed itself. The Ayah hated the palace cat and
vice versa. Now the RHM’s antennae were up.

He had observed the Ayah on more than one occasion sneaking off on some mission. He had no idea what she was up to, but he was determined to find out. Slipping on his heavy cloak, the RHM
prepared to follow her. She had been heading in the direction of the temple. He knew a shortcut. At the end of the corridor a great tapestry covered one wall, its golden threads glistening in the
light of the butter lamps. The RHM looked over his shoulder then slid behind the tapestry, his fingers reaching for a tiny catch. As he flicked it, a door swung open and he hurriedly descended a
flight of steep stone steps. Down and down he ran, following the narrow spiral of the hidden staircase. At last, he reached the ground floor far below and an antechamber. He paused, straining his
ears.

Not so much as a murmur. The palace was sleeping. In front of him, another door carved into the wall. Gently, he pressed its catch. As it swung open, he slid out from behind an identical
tapestry to the first. He was in the throne room, right next to the temple. The palace holy of holies, guarded day and night by the monks. And yet, there was a way in, if you knew where to look. He
could not believe the Ayah had the knowledge, but, then again, anything was possible.

Who would have thought that the queen could have succumbed like that? Let alone that Kumari would have vanished without a trace? While he was pondering these mysteries, the RHM heard a noise,
soft but definite. The swish, swish, swish of slippered feet. Crouching low behind the king’s throne, he peered out from between the elaborate carvings that crowned it. He saw the Ayah enter
the throne room, stop and look round. Satisfied that she was apparently unobserved, the woman began to cross the vast, empty space, heading not for the temple but for the public entrance on the
other side.

Puzzled now, the RHM watched as she fiddled with the lock. The door could only be opened from the inside, with a sequence known to a very few. There were just two doors in the kingdom that were
ever locked, the temple door being the other. The RHM had urged the king to consider more security measures, but his majesty remained resolute. The locks on these two doors were symbolic,
representing the inner sanctum. All other doors would remain open to his people, whom he considered his kin.

Alarmed, the RHM stifled a gasp as the door gave way under the Ayah’s fingers. There would be time later to work out how she had discovered the combination. Right now, he must follow and
find out what he could. Keeping a decent distance between them, the RHM padded along, eyes fixed firmly on the Ayah’s back. It would be disastrous if she caught sight of him. The woman was
suspicious enough of him as it was.

To his surprise, she turned away from the streets of the town and headed instead for the path that wound through the lower slopes towards the west. The path was not arduous but the Ayah walked
swiftly. Truly, the RHM thought, the woman was remarkably fit. She did not appear so, being squat and rather heavy but her well-padded legs belied muscles that could apparently march for miles.

About an hour later, the Ayah paused. The path abruptly ended at an impassable wall of rock. The Ayah pressed herself up against the stone, scrabbling around with her hands. Then, all of a
sudden, she was gone. It was as if she had never been there. Scuttling forward as fast as he dared, the RHM stared at the seemingly impenetrable rock face. Then his eyes fell upon it: the tiniest
fissure, a crack barely wider than his hand. The gap was only a few feet deep. There was nowhere she could have hidden. And yet the Ayah had disappeared into the ether.

He shoved his hand into the crack, searching for something that might reveal a concealed tunnel. He tried to squeeze through the gap itself, marvelling at how the Ayah had done it. Even at its
widest point, it was perhaps four hand spans, the Ayah considerably wider. Drawing a blank, the RHM paused to think. Logically, there had to be a way in. Or maybe logic had nothing to do with
it.

As he pondered the possibilities, realisation struck the RHM. He was at the western edge of the kingdom. Beyond this rock, the World Beyond and the tribal lands of the fearsome local warlords. What could the Ayah be doing in the World Beyond? Was it
something to do with the warlords? If so, that complicated matters. They would have to be eliminated too. Maybe there was some way he could climb up, try to see if he could spot her. The RHM looked
up, scanning the ridges that rose above him. There it was: a natural platform, just wide enough to stand on.

Hampered by his heavy cloak, the RHM scrabbled for a toehold. Although he was more agile than he appeared, it was a hard climb. Finally, his fingers found the flat expanse of rock. The RHM
heaved himself up on it. Above the platform, the granite pillars dipped low enough for him to see into the World Beyond. The RHM searched the horizon. Stretching before him, a thick forest of
mountain spruce. In the distance, more peaks, one shaped oddly, like an eagle’s beak. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed something sticking up, slightly higher than all the rest, too regular to
be a tree.

By its shape it looked to be a mast. Attached to it, a saucer-shaped object. The object was angled towards the sky, as if trying to catch something. The RHM was no slouch when it came to
information. He pored over the scientific papers smuggled in, careful to keep their contents to himself. A little knowledge was a dangerous thing, or so the king believed. His majesty felt that
many of the advances made in the World Beyond would threaten the Happiness of his subjects. The RHM disagreed. Many times he had appealed to the king to modernise, so far without success.

Never mind, he had his methods. Although one or two of his contacts were proving troublesome. Only recently he’d needed to deal with one who had grown greedy, foolish enough to believe he
would succumb to blackmail. It had been the night Kumari disappeared, in fact. An evil night all round. At least the man would no longer be able to spill his secrets and threaten his position. No
point in looking back. The only way was forward. Eventually his time would come, the day he could unveil the World Beyond’s advances to the kingdom. And this was clearly one of them, if he
was not mistaken. The RHM’s curiosity prickled as he stared at the object on the mast.

It appeared to be a satellite dish.

A sudden noise broke his concentration, a sound that the RHM dimly remembered from his childhood. A clatter, distant at first. The roar of an engine. Beneath the stars, a new pinpoint of light,
moving ever upwards. This was no shooting star. This thing moved with purpose. Sweat broke out on the RHM’s brow despite the chill of the night. He was sure, as he stared at it, that the
light was no coincidence. He would guess it was the light of a small aircraft and on it, he would lay his life, sat the Ayah.

What on earth was the woman doing on a plane? And how had she got there? She must have had outside help. One thing he would give her, she was brave. For a citizen of the kingdom to get on an
aircraft was astonishing. Technology had not penetrated its borders. It simply was not permitted. For the Ayah to even know aeroplanes existed provided pause for thought. It meant she had access to
information. And that was dangerous.