Voices in Stone - Emily Diamand Page 0,82

gaps in his body now, daylight showing through. He seemed frail and crumbling since their encounter with the alien. The possession had taken it out of him, as well.

Mandeville narrowed his blue-fire eyes. “I had always imagined that speaking to millions through a world-renowned psychic would be the pinnacle of my achievements, but the feat we achieved with the star-beast… no other spirit has ever come close to such a deed, nor is ever likely to. It was an experience that I have still to fully fathom. Being so vast, so stretched, so other… it has made my earlier hopes seem much less important.” He put his skeletal hand on Isis’s. “I would like to thank you for persisting, and persuading me to undertake such a magnificent possession.” He let go of her hand again. “And I believe diminishing powers will be a blessing for you, saving you from the fate of so many psychics. You will not go mad. But on the other hand…” He transferred his gaze to Angel, who was still sitting giggling on the wall.

Isis looked at her too. Would the little ghost-girl become as invisible to Isis as the ghost out on the road? Would their special bond finally end?

“I’d never see her again,” she whispered to Mandeville.

Mandeville tutted. “Angel is dead. Not seeing her is the normal way of things.”

Isis shook her head. “That’s not what you said before! What about giving comfort to people by telling them about what happens after they die?”

Mandeville coughed. “Yes, well. Do you know, I think I may have been in… error. Did anyone at your seances ask anything meaningful, or make any serious enquiry about the afterlife? During our little spat, you accused me of having only one aspect to my ghosthood.”

Isis blushed, remembering how she’d taken everything out on him that day.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“But you were right. A psychic of your talent was bound to spot it.” He sighed out a plume of mould spores. “I do feel rather… lacking in depth, one might say. I’m sure there is a better part of my soul, somewhere beyond.” He pressed his thumb and finger onto the bridge of his nose, as if he had a headache. “Recently, I’ve been feeling quite faded. It makes the endless hours of existence something of a chore.”

He looked like an old man for a moment, rather than a skeleton. Isis almost wanted to hug him.

“Cally always says lost spirits need to find the light,” she said.

She waited for Mandeville to mock Cally, like he usually did. But instead he only sighed again. “You know, I’d like to, if only I knew where the light was.”

Angel stopped kicking her feet. “It just up there,” she said, pointing at the sky with one of her chubby little arms.

Mandeville peered at the air, then shook his head.

Isis looked as well, but could only see the flat white clouds of a chilly autumn day. “I can’t see anything.”

Angel laughed. “You not dead, silly! You can’t see it ’til then.”

She peered past Isis to Mandeville, then took one of Isis’s hands with her weightless fingers. “His hand too,” she commanded.

“You want me to hold Mandeville’s hand?” Isis asked.

Angel nodded. “Do for him what you do for Gray. Hep him to see.”

“I find this rather… demeaning,” said Mandeville. “I am the spirit guide, after all.”

Angel shrugged. “Okay, not then.”

“No!” he called, and Mandeville quickly clutched Isis’s free hand, his grip icy around her own.

“See it now?” Angel asked.

“Aaaahhh,” whispered Mandeville. “It’s beautiful.”

Isis stared at the sky, but saw only the clouds in their blank layer, even with the ghosts’ hands in hers. Was it because her powers were weakened, or simply because she was still living? She returned her gaze to the ghosts, and noticed a few dusty crystals tumble from Mandeville’s eyes. It took Isis a moment to work out they were tears.

“You going then?” asked Angel him, very matter of fact.

Mandeville gazed at whatever the two ghosts could see. He faded for a moment, the shivering cold in Isis’s hand lessening, but then he shook his head, letting go of Isis’s hand.

“Not quite yet,” he said. “Maybe later.” He looked at Angel, and winked one of his ice-blue eyes. “I believe the dollies have a few more parties to attend?”

Isis was about to ask if Mandeville was really going to play dollies with Angel when she heard footsteps behind them. Isis went very still. Angel turned around, and stuck out her