Kayleb jolted awake to see Rowan on his hands and knees. He was staring intently at something over by the pool. Kayleb hadn’t slept well. He had been dreaming of wasters capturing them and his sleep had been fitful. The ground had been too hard to sleep properly and his shoulder now felt stiff and very painful. The bright morning light filtered through the holly leaves, hurting Kayleb’s eyes. He felt irritable and needed to sleep some more.
‘What is …?’ snapped Kayleb, but Rowan put his finger to his lips and then pointed out of the bushes, towards the pond.
Kayleb eased himself next to Rowan and peered out, afraid that something sinister lay in wait for them. By the edge of the pool sat a girl about their age. She had long golden hair tied back loosely, her clothes were ragged and her skin was brown from the sun. There were also what Kayleb thought to be four pigs drinking from the pool. It was only when one of the pigs moved that he realised that there were, in fact, two pigs each with two heads, with short elephant legs and feet. The pig that had moved seemed to be having a disagreement with itself. The left head had finished drinking and wanted to move away from the pool but the right head had not and there was a great deal of oinking and grunting. The young girl seeing the commotion stood up and wandered over to the arguing pig. She stroked and talked soothingly to the left head, thereby allowing the right head to drink.
‘She’s beautiful!’ whispered Rowan dreamily. ‘Let’s go and get some water. I bet she can help us. Let’s go and see her.’
‘I don’t know,’ replied Kayleb. ‘She might be dangerous.’
‘Does she look dangerous?’ Rowan asked, irritated. Kayleb was so stupid sometimes.
‘Well, she might be a waster, a serial killer or a ...’
‘Or the daughter of a criminal,’ suggested Rowan, moving forward. ‘I guess they can only have children the old-fashioned way out here.’ He was going to have to be gentle or she might take fright. ‘Stay here, Kayleb. She might get scared if she sees us both together.’
Kayleb nodded. He was still sure that Rowan was making a mistake. She might be all right but there could be others around that might not be so friendly.
Slowly Rowan crept out of the bushes and sat quietly in front of them; she was bound to see him soon. He watched her kneel down by the pool and drink and wash her face. She was perhaps a little older than himself. She was so graceful and looked kind. Soft curls framed her face. He was mesmerised. She lifted her head and dried her face on a clean rag. Her eyes caught Rowan’s and she gasped with fright.
‘Don’t be alarmed,’ said Rowan quietly. ‘I won’t hurt you. I’m lost and need to find my way to London.’
Rowan smiled and this seemed to comfort the girl a little.
‘I can’t talk to you,’ she looked nervously over her shoulder.
‘I will get into trouble.’ She spoke English but there was a hint of a French accent.
Rowan could see her eyes; they were the brightest green and they were now wide with fear.
‘I won’t hurt you. I’ve just got to get back to London. It’s my sixteenth-year task. I’m not a criminal or anything like that. I guess what we really need is food and clean water.’ Rowan looked appealingly at the girl.
‘What do you mean we?’ she said cautiously. ‘How many are there of you this time?’
‘There’s just me and Kayleb.’
This was Kayleb’s cue. He crawled out from the bushes and joined Rowan, his bucket and rope in tow.
‘A bucket! You’ve got a bucket! What I wouldn’t give to have a bucket!’ the girl exclaimed with delight.
She walked confidently over to the boys and stood there with her hands on her hips. Her actions were quite a contrast to moments earlier.
‘I’m Cornwall Keyboard,’ she said with a twinkle in her eye, shaking Rowan’s hand; she did not shake Kayleb’s. ‘This water is safe to drink and I can get you food, but I can’t help you get to your destination because that would be cheating. I can give you some tips though. Never get caught by the wasters or they will throw you into the stud pen and force you to breed. They will have your clothes off your back too if you’re not careful!’ Rowan looked over to Kayleb, with a look of disgust. ‘Wait here a moment and I’ll get you something to eat.’ With that, she whipped the bucket out of Kayleb’s hand, dashed off over a bank and was gone before they realised what had happened.
Rowan and Kayleb stood there stunned and wondered if Cornwall was actually going to help and then another thought emerged in Kayleb’s head.
‘Do you think she has stolen the bucket? Should we go after her?’ Kayleb asked quietly, still frozen to the spot.
‘I think we’d better ... Can’t have a girl do that to us. Better drink first though,’ said Rowan in a trance-like state. Trust Kayleb to lose the bucket, he thought to himself. He hadn’t cared about it in the beginning but suddenly he felt like he had lost something important.
Rowan and Kayleb drank from the pool. The water was quite clear and was so refreshing. It did not matter in the slightest that the pigs had drunk there too. The pigs were such comical creatures and were turning over dry leaves, searching for food. In unison, the pig’s four heads looked sharply over towards the boys and each head narrowed its eyes. Kayleb suddenly felt unwelcome. This was obviously Cornwall and the pigs’ waterhole and the boys’ presence wasn’t appreciated.
The two pigs threw themselves into the pool causing a massive tidal wave to completely engulf Rowan and Kayleb. The pigs then hurled themselves towards the boys and just in the nick of time Rowan and Kayleb managed to leap to their feet and sprint off in the same direction as Cornwall with the pigs close on their heels. They tore through the undergrowth, branches whipping their faces as they went. Rowan led and Kayleb followed closely behind, his chest tightening as he ran. The path was becoming indistinct and the boys charged along, twisting this way and that. The pigs were gaining on them with every stride. The trees cleared as they came to the top of a cliff and just as the jaws of the ferocious pigs were snapping at their heels the boys hurled themselves off the cliff edge, not stopping to see how high it was or what was below. The two pigs managed to stop and trotted off, satisfied that they had seen off the intruders.
Kayleb and Rowan plummeted downwards, arms and legs spinning wildly and finally with a loud splash they plunged into an icy lake.
The water was murky and Kayleb felt disoriented. He wasn’t sure which way was up. He saw a lighter patch above and decided that was the best place to swim to. The surface of the lake was a long way off. Was he going to drown? Or would he make it to the surface? He couldn’t hold his breath for much longer. Everything he was doing was in slow motion. How deep in the water was he? An old dream haunted him. He had dreamt this whole scenario before. He remembered being underwater and feeling so isolated. The silence had been so complete, and he remembered how in his dream he had not made it to the surface. He had died.
Kayleb stopped swimming and felt himself sinking. Was he to let the dream run on or could he do something? Helen’s face appeared before him. She was smiling down at him, reminding him of how she used to be before she got ill. No, he wasn’t going to let himself die. He pushed harder, pushing back the water, fighting its icy grip and at last, when he thought he had no more breath in him, Kayleb’s head broke through the surface and air filled his lungs. It had been a close one.
Kayleb looked around for Rowan. He wasn’t there. Had he drowned? Could Rowan swim? Kayleb was starting to panic. Should he dive down and look for him? The water was too muddy and looked forbidding. Kayleb turned a full circle, looking this way and that, and called out frantically. Kayleb looked towards the shore, where some white cloth caught his eye. It was familiar and he could see it fluttering from a tree. Kayleb looked up the cliff. He remembered Rowan hitting the water just before he did. Rowan had obviously swum out to shore and was now sitting in a tree laughing at him. Rowan was probably an Olympic swimmer as well as a world champion rope climber! Kayleb thought bitterly. He felt angry. Tears pricked at his eyes trying to escape but Kayleb was determined not to let them out. He was going to give Rowan a piece of his mind.
Fiercely, Kayleb swam to the shore. He was good at swimming and sometimes thought that he would have much more respect if he were a fish or a dolphin. The water became too shallow to swim and he scrabbled onto the shore, its multicolor shingle glistening in the morning sunshine. He felt refreshed and invigorated, ready for anything. With his near-death experience behind him, he marched confidently towards the tree where Rowan had perched himself.
As Kayleb approached the tree, it became obvious that Rowan wasn’t there. All that was in the tree was Rowan’s nightshirt, hanging over a branch. The shirt trembled gently in the breeze and looked almost as if it had taken on a life of its own; it reminded him of a seagull caught in one of Conrad’s traps. Seagull was a rare delicacy in London but due to their scarcity their capture had been made illegal, much to the annoyance of Conrad. The thought of seagull made Kayleb feel really hungry.
Kayleb stared up at the nightshirt and then looked down to the ground. Rowan’s trousers and underwear were at the foot of the tree.