Devil's Rock - Chris Speyer [56]
‘It’s kind of hard to tell. It’s very dark in here.’
Zaki ran his fingertips across the smooth skin. ‘It’s gone – feel.’
Anusha felt along his cheekbone then sat back. Zaki could sense she was frightened.
‘So that means . . . ?’
‘That the thing is still there; it’s still inside my body. How else could that cut have healed up so quickly? And it spoke again.’
‘When?’
‘Tonight, when you were all playing that music and the bracelet was going crazy.’
‘What did it say?’
‘It said, “Time for you to die.”’
‘Die! What did it mean? Aren’t you frightened?’
‘Of course I’m frightened!’
‘There must be someone we could talk to – someone who could help.’
‘And what do we tell them? That I’m possessed? That I’m in danger of turning into the beast from hell? Do you seriously think anyone would believe us? No – I’ve got to sort this out.’
‘You mean, we’ve got to sort this out.’
‘You don’t have to.’
‘I know,’ said Anusha firmly, ‘but I’m here, aren’t I.’
They sat in the semi-darkness, wrapped in their own thoughts, each waiting for the other to say something.
Eventually, Anusha broke the silence. ‘The bracelet . . . and the music . . .’ she said slowly.
‘And the mask,’ added Zaki.
‘What? Our mask?’
‘On the wall – it came alive.’
‘Perhaps you are possessed.’
‘Your mum said the masks were used to get rid of demons.’
‘That’s right, the shaman wears the mask and becomes a demon, then, through the music, he can drive out the demon that’s in the person they’re trying to cure.’
‘Perhaps that started to happen tonight. Perhaps my demon felt threatened. Perhaps that’s why he spoke. Listen, I want you to find out everything you can about these Devil Dances. Ask your mum and dad; see if they’ve got any books or pictures, or anything.’
‘OK, but . . .’
‘I know; it’s completely unreal.’
‘I’ll get everything I can.’
‘Do you suppose I could borrow the mask?’
‘Yeah, I’m sure you could. I’ll say we need it for school – for Mrs Palmer.’
‘Yeah, good. What about music? I think the music’s important.’
‘Don’t ask me to play the drums, I’m useless!’
‘Pity. And we can hardly ask your dad.’
‘How about a recording?’
‘A recording – hey! Yeah – it might work!’
‘Drums on soundtracks . . .’ Anusha thought for a minute. ‘Yes . . . I think . . . Yes! I’m certain! “Varanasi” – he used that drum on “Varanasi”.’
Anusha pulled open a filing drawer and flipped through the rows of filed CDs and DVDs. She pulled out a CD and held it out for Zaki. ‘Here. This just has the drum track on it.’
‘Fantastic.’ Zaki took the proffered CD.
‘Now what?’
‘We need to know what we’re doing. We need to read the logbook. It might tell us all sorts of stuff we need to know.’
‘Tomorrow’s Saturday. We’ve got all day.’
‘Well, not quite all day. I need to take the dinghy back to Morveren. Remember?’
‘We’ll take the logbook with us! Read it on your boat. Then no one can disturb us.’
‘Brilliant! And there are charts on the boat if we need them.’
Zaki felt better now that they had a plan of action. He had to admit that it wasn’t a very clear plan but at least they were going to do something, not just wait for things to happen.
Anusha locked up the recording studio and they crept back into the house. Back in his unfamiliar bed, creatures with eyes of fire pursued Zaki through his dreams so that he woke feeling more tired than when he had gone to sleep.
g
Chapter 16
Zaki lay in bed wondering whether or not he should get up. He couldn’t hear any sounds of people moving about. What time did the Dalals have breakfast? Did they have breakfast? He should have asked Anusha. He decided to get up anyway, dressed, and made his way to the kitchen, where he found Mr Dalal seated at the kitchen table, working on something on his laptop computer.
‘Sorry,’ said Zaki, when Mr Dalal looked up, ‘didn’t mean to disturb you.’
‘Not at all, not at all,’ said Mr Dalal. ‘I am only doing some stupid emails and I am only doing that because I have nobody to talk to. Did you sleep well?’
‘Quite well,’ Zaki lied.
‘Good, because there were