Free Chaos Quest by Gill Arbuthnott

here.”
    I should explain. I should explain … what? I hunt the most powerful being in the Worlds, one who has killed my brother. How do I explain that to them
?
    “My name is Morgan,” he began.
    “We should have told you our names,” said the girl. “I’m Kate and this is David.”
    Kate and David
?
    Kate and David showed me
…
    He was thrown into fresh confusion. What did this mean? Were they the same people Erda had spoken of and if so … He couldn’t order his thoughts.
    They were looking at him expectantly. He had said he would explain. What should he tell them now?
    “Are you from another time?” the girl – Kate – blurted out.
    “What?” Morgan was taken aback. “No – no.”
    “You said you came through a door from another place,” she persisted.
    “Yes, I did. Not another time, another place –another world.”
    He saw them exchange a quick glance.
    “What do you mean?” asked David.
    “On this planet there are three worlds: yours, which you call Earth, mine, which my people call the Wildwood and the hidden world, the Underworld. There are Doors between these worlds. In this house is one between your world and mine.”
    “Can
anyone
go through it?”
    “No. Only certain people have the … gift. My brother and I …”
    “Is he here too?” interrupted David.
    “No. He died.”
    They muttered awkward words of sympathy which trailed back into silence.
    “Why did you need to get to our world?” said David quietly.
    “I’m looking for someone,” he said carefully, and saw them exchange that glance again. With every moment that passed he grew more convinced that these were the same Kate and David that Erda had spoken of. “You are not like the others I have met when I have been in this world before,” he said, playing for time. “You come and go in this house, you hardly seem surprised by what I tell you … What are you?”
    “Nothing. Nothing special,” replied Kate. “We’re just people. Teenagers. But we’ve … seen things. And the man who owned it left us keys to the house when he died so that we could come and go when we wanted to.”
    “The Guardian is dead?” Morgan was shocked. “When? How did it happen?”
    David ignored his questions and replied with another.“You knew him? Mr Flowerdew?”
    “I do not know that name. To me he was the Guardian. I met him twice when I came to this world through another Door, a few years ago. He brought me to this house once. Until today I did not know there was a Door that led here. I wonder if he did?”
    “He died about a year and a half ago,” said Kate. “In a battle against the Lords of Chaos.”
    The boy had become very still, Morgan noticed, as though it caused him pain to remember.
    “You say you are ordinary, but you talk about the Lords and the Guardians as familiar beings. How many in your world do this?”
    “Not many, I suppose.” Kate gave a rueful smile.
    “Has no new Guardian come?”
    David shrugged. “Not as far as we know. Would we know?”
    “He would be here if there was one.”
    “Maybe they’ve decided Edinburgh’s safe after what happened before, so they don’t think we need one.”
    His slow brain had finally caught up with the conversation and he realised this must be the Kate and David that Erda had spoken of, and that they couldn’t have seen her since his disastrous encounter with her, or they would already know all about him.
    “I said I was looking for someone. It is a young woman who is in your world, but does not belong here.”
    Kate’s eyes widened. “Do you know her name?”
    “Yes. She is called Erda.”
    He heard Kate draw a sharp breath.
    “We were right then.”
    “What do you mean?” asked Morgan, feigning ignorance. “Do you know her?”
    “Yes,” said David. “We met her in this house. We thought she didn’t belong here. We thought maybe she’d had an accident and lost her memory or something. Does she come from your world then?”
    “Not from my world, no,