Read Chaos Quest for Free Online

and wrapped his cloak tighter against the chill. Beside him Morgan stood heedless of the cold, staring at the dark landscape as though he could illuminate it by force of will alone.
    “Morgan?”
    “Do you feel it?” Morgan raised his head like a hound scenting prey. “He is here. Somewhere out there. Notclose, but perhaps beside one of these fires. Do you feel it?”
    Thomas concentrated hard. All he felt was cold. “No, I can’t feel anything.” He let the silence grow for a minute. “What do you want to do?”
    “We can’t do anything until morning.”
    With these words Morgan roused himself from the half-trance he had been in and they settled themselves as far into the cave mouth as they could without finding themselves back in the briar glade again, and huddled into their cloaks against the cold to wait for daylight.
    ***
    Morgan woke in a grey dawn, a thin layer of snow sifted over his cloak. Nearby, Thomas was a grey-white hummock against the darker grey of the rock.
    As he came fully awake he became aware that something was different. He jumped to his feet, stumbled a few steps down the hillside, seeking this way and that.
    “No!”
    “Morgan, what is it? What’s wrong?”
    “He’s gone. He’s not down there any more. But …” Morgan shook his head as though trying to dislodge a fly, “I can’t explain it; he’s here but he’s not here. I knew he wasn’t anywhere in the Wildwood, but this is different . It’s as if he’s here and not here at the same time.”
    “You’re not making much sense, you know.”
    “Oh, I know all right. I don’t make sense to myself.”
    Thomas got to his feet and walked a little way downthe hill. “So what do we do now? Do you want to go down there and see what you can find out about him? Someone must know something about where he’s gone.”
    “That’s it!”
    “Come on then.”
    “No, I don’t mean that. He’s not here, but he is here. It makes sense. He’s not here, but he’s here in some other time. We just need to open the Door in the right time.” He turned and strode back to the cave mouth. “Come on. We have to go back to the briar glade and wait for the pool to change.”
    ***
    “We brought you some clean clothes,” said Kate, a little nervously. “We thought you might like a change and I think these will fit you better.”
    Kate pulled underwear and socks, an old pair of jeans and a tee-shirt of her mother’s out of her bag. David had a sweatshirt and a pair of trainers he didn’t think Christine would miss.
    Erda looked at the clothes as they held them out to her.
    “For me?”
    “Yes.”
    She took them without another word and stood waiting to see what would happen next.
    “We brought some food as well. We thought we’d make you a meal. You could go and change while we do it,” said Kate.
    “Change?” Erda frowned. “How?”
    “Change your clothes. Take the old ones off and put the new ones on,” David explained.
    Erda nodded and wandered off with the clothes.
    Kate and David exchanged glances but didn’t talk until they were sure she was upstairs and out of earshot.
    “She’s weird,” said David, putting ice cream in the freezer. It’s like she’s never seen anything before, doesn’t understand anything.’
    Kate pulled pizzas out of their boxes and set the oven temperature.
    “I know what you mean, but I don’t think she’s stupid.”
    “No, neither do I, though I don’t know why. It’s as if she’s seeing everything for the first time; as though she’s from another planet or something.”
    Kate giggled. “Now
you’re
being stupid. I mean, she isn’t green, so she can’t be.”
    David lobbed a tea towel at her head.
    “Ha ha.”
    He turned round to find Erda in the doorway, watching them silently, a trainer in each hand. He wondered how long she’d been there. She didn’t look angry or upset, so maybe she hadn’t heard them talking about her.
    “I don’t understand these.” She held up the