‘We’re not going to get away,’ gasped Alex. ‘They’re going to catch us, Clo.’
‘You go on,’ said his sister. ‘I’ll stay here and see if I can stop them.’
‘Not a chance.’
‘I’m the eldest. You should do as I say.’ Her tone was desperate. ‘You have to do what I say.’
‘No way. We stick together.’
Chloe said, ‘If we split up, one of us might make it.’
‘Don’t care. Don’t want to split up. Nelson could arrive. He’d make mincemeat of those dolls.’
‘No he wouldn’t. They’d get him too. Look, there are hundreds of them. He wouldn’t have a chance.’
There was a pile of hockey sticks in the next junk heap. Alex stopped and grabbed one, turning to face the enemy.
‘I’ve had it, Clo. I’m going down fighting.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ she cried. ‘Come on. We can still run.’
‘Nope.’
Alex stood there, waiting, swinging the hockey stick.
Chloe knew they had run themselves out. She grabbed one of the old hockey sticks and stood by her brother. The dolls were triumphant, now having their quarry in their sight. They streamed towards the two children, jabbing the air with their nasty steel weapons.
Alex realised at the last minute that he could protect his face from those needles. He put Makishi on. Then he turned towards the dolls, swinging his club. The little fiends were almost on them now, only metres away. This was it, this was where the children’s journey through Attica ended. They had been hunted down and trapped by these awful effigies of man, and were about to die.
‘Stop. I command you to stop. You will obey.’
Makishi had spoken in a powerful voice.
The voodoo dolls skidded to a halt.
Makishi’s expression was severe.
‘Why do you attack us?’
Just metres from the children, the voodoo dolls fell on their little knees and bowed in reverence to Makishi. There were rows and rows of them, some still coming, who halted and bowed down low. Finally, all was so quiet you could almost hear the dust settling on the boards. Alex and Chloe waited breathlessly, wondering what would come next.
A shimmering went through the dolls as they stuck their needles back into their wax bodies. They knew there would be no sacrifice here. Makishi was one of their lords. They could do nothing more than sheath their weapons and wait for Makishi’s reprimand.
‘These are my friends,’ Makishi said at last in deep tones. ‘You will respect the carriers of Makishi or shame will fall on your heads. The masks have provided homes for the voodoo dolls since our Collector went the way of all Collectors. You are our tenants, our subjects.’
‘Yes, lord,’ incanted the voodoo dolls. ‘We are your subjects.’
‘Leave us alone then, with our friends, our carriers.’
One voodoo doll looked up, with the sharp words, ‘But, master, we have hunted long and hard—’
A strong baleful stare from Makishi was enough to silence this audacious creature. The dolls gradually got to their feet, looking sheepish. They ambled away, in ones, twos, groups of three or four, heading back in the direction they had come. The audacious one was pricked in the buttocks by those who walked behind him in an attempt to curry favour with Makishi. One of their landlords had spoken and the humans were under his protection.
They could do no more than return to their homeland.
When the voodoo dolls had gone, Alex took off his mask and looked into its hollow eyes.
‘Thanks Makishi,’ he said. ‘You saved our lives.’
‘My pleasures!’ replied the mask.
CHAPTER 13
The Collector of Souls
After the incident with the dolls Chloe and Alex continued on their journey. Chloe was despairing of ever finding Jordy. She wondered if her step-brother were still in the attic. Was he even still alive? She and Alex had come very close to death. Who was to say that Jordy had not encountered some terrible dangers and had not been so lucky?
When she spoke to Alex, he seemed astonishingly careless of Jordy’s fate. ‘Oh, he’s all right,’ Alex replied.
Chloe asked him how he could be so sure and Alex just shrugged and said, ‘I get feelings now, Clo. He’s not far away. Honestly, I can feel it.’
‘You’re beginning to frighten me, Alex.’
Alex said, ‘Sorry.’
‘No, you don’t have to say sorry. It’s not your fault, but you seem to have changed lately. I don’t know what to make of you.’
‘Sorry, Clo.’
She let this one pass. Indeed, walking behind her brother now she felt she hardly knew him. He appeared quite unconcerned by their plight. Here they were, lost in an unknown world, their