Voices in Stone - Emily Diamand Page 0,6

And speaking of Philip Syndal, as he is now incapacitated…” One of his eyebrows slowly dropped, leaving the other raised in question.

Isis only needed a moment to work out what he wanted. Someone to be his link to the living. Someone with whom he could be a star, even though he was dead. When Mandeville had been alive, he’d been obsessed by the Victorian psychics of his day. When he’d died and discovered them to be charlatans, he’d set about finding genuine psychics. Isis knew that Mandeville had put decades of effort into Philip Syndal, but while the man had become a celebrity, performing to huge audiences and making regular appearances on television, he’d never even revealed Mandeville’s existence to his fans. Now that his time with Philip Syndal had ended so horribly, the ghost was still searching for fame.

But Isis shook her head. “No.”

Mandeville sighed, letting out a plume of green mould spores.

“My dear, would you destroy my hopes when they are all that hold me together?”

“I won’t do it!” snapped Isis, louder than she meant to.

“Are you all right?” Cally called from the kitchen.

Isis glared at the elderly ghost. “Yes,” she shouted back.

Mandeville smiled, his teeth dangling in his mouth. “Shall I take that as a maybe?”

“It isn’t,” she hissed, “it’s a no. No! No!”

But Mandeville was already crumbling. In a blink, he was a falling fountain of dirt, then a stain on the sofa, then nothing.

When she was sure he’d completely gone, Isis turned the TV down and sat back on the sofa. She stared at the television programme, her thoughts a thousand miles away from the boy and his bedroom. She picked up one of the biscuits and put it in her mouth, instantly spitting it back into her hand. The biscuit was now soft and stale, the cream filling fuzzed with bluish mildew.

Chapter Three

Gray

What was it like, Gray?

It was scary, that’s what I remember.

Not at first. I mean it was just a boring school trip, even though Mr Watkins, our geography teacher, was trying to make out it was really exciting.

“We’re incredibly fortunate to be on this trip today,” he said, standing at the front of the coach before we set off. “UK-Earths doesn’t normally open up to visitors, but they’ve made an exception for us because of, well, community relations. I want you all on your best behaviour, giving a good impression of our school.”

Jayden called out, “How come we’re the ones who have to do community relations? It’s not our fault there’s been protests.”

I laughed, and other people did too. I mean, on an excited scale of one to a hundred, we were definitely less than ten.

Mr Watkins glared at Jayden. “You are all extremely lucky to have this opportunity, so make the most of it.”

“So lucky,” I muttered to Gav, who was sitting next to me, “getting a trip to a big hole in the ground.”

Because that’s what it was. An opencast quarry a few miles out of town, and the reason they needed community relations was because of all the stuff about it destroying the countryside and bringing tons of trucks through town. There’d been loads in the paper, even a protest camp nearby somewhere.

Not that I’d been bothered, but Dad was of course. Summer was over, all the crops had been harvested, so he couldn’t go out crop-circle hunting. Which meant other things, like conspiracy theories and the quarry. Or conspiracy theories about the quarry.

Mum even got a phone call from him about it, which put her into a right outrage.

“I can’t believe your father,” she said, storming into the kitchen like it was my fault. “He says I shouldn’t let you go on the school trip.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s against his principles! That is so like him.”

I wasn’t really surprised because Dad has principles about a lot of things, like me not being allowed a mobile phone. That’s definitely the worst. Not being allowed on a school trip, well that might’ve been a good thing.

“If I can’t go, can I have the day off?”

Mum glared at me. Normally she might’ve said that then Dad could take the day off work to look after me, but she wasn’t letting me visit him. Not since she found out about him taking me out UFO hunting all those times. I had to tell her because it was the only way to help Isis. Dad had warned me not to and he’d been right; when Mum found out she went mental! She said he was