The voice was a triumphant hiss in her head. That Knife is not for us, Cassandra!
‘Oh yes, it is, you obnoxious—’ Cassie concentrated once again and directed the power back at the safe, but once more it ricocheted, scattering a rain of ornaments and pens and books that struck Cassie’s head and body.
‘Why, you—’ Cassie gritted her teeth, clenched her fists.
No!
‘Yes!’
This kind of power will not even be within your reach for much longer if you have your way! You stupid girl!
Wrestling her mind back to the safe, Cassie gripped the edge of the bookshelves and fought the obstructive spirit, her head and chest ripped with the pain of trying to wrest control. It took all her strength, and she was only vaguely aware of the crash and shatter of objects around the office as the two of them duelled. A heavy book thudded on to her toe, and Cassie yelped with anger.
‘Stop it!’ she barked, and with a final violent thrust, she hurled her power at the safe door. With a shriek of metal it shuddered, rattled, and swung open.
In the sudden silence, Cassie stood panting for breath, her head still throbbing.
‘You old bitch,’ she growled. ‘What was all that for?’
You know very well. I had to try. You are DOOMING US BOTH.
With an acute awareness of the amount of noise they’d been making, Cassie hurriedly scooped the Knife and the Pendant, wrapped in soft velvet, from the safe. Even through the layers of fine fabric she felt the hilt of the Knife stir, stretch, move to her touch, and she couldn’t help smiling tightly.
But there was no time to be lost. She had to try to set things to rights in this office before—
Oh, God.
The footsteps echoed at some distance along the corridor, but there was no doubt they were coming her way. It had to be Marat, surely; no one else would be around this part of the school at this hour? There was no way he’d fail to check on Sir Alric’s study; no way he’d miss the chaos, especially after what had happened at the beginning of term. There was no time to do anything but hide.
Desperately, Cassie glanced around. There was nowhere to go – nowhere but the very unsatisfactory space beneath Sir Alric’s desk, shielded from the rest of the room only by a delicate latticed panel of wood. Taking time only to close the safe door and shove some random books back in front of it, she scrabbled behind the desk, clutching the Knife and the Pendant against her chest. She huddled stock-still, trying to control her breathing, praying not to get caught, with everything that was at stake…
For a hopeful instant she thought whoever it was had passed by, but that hope shattered quickly. It was Marat. He turned the office door handle, pushed it open, and walked in.
And stopped.
Cassie held her breath. Through the holes in the lattice she could make out his stocky form: turning, eyeing the devastation and the broken objects strewn all over the floor. She couldn’t see his face, but any minute now. Any minute now he would raise the alarm, and she’d be discovered, and it would all be over for her and Ranjit. Maybe if Marat left the room long enough to fetch Sir Alric, maybe then she could take her chance and run. But where to? She would be the first person Sir Alric would question about this catastrophe and the missing artefacts.
The stillness was agonising. Cassie risked a slight shift in her position so that she could peer up and see Marat’s ugly face.
He was smiling. The bastard was smiling.
Cassie’s heart thudded with anxiety and incomprehension. She daren’t move again, so she could only watch as he moved silently around the office: picking up books, righting lamps, replacing ornaments. When he removed the books that covered the safe she almost shrieked aloud, but all he did was replace them with other books, presumably the right ones. Then he carefully lined up the others on their original shelf.
Cassie swallowed hard, fighting to control the thrashing of her heart.
Marat was checking the room over again; adjusting the position of a table slightly, straightening a chair. Casually, he tilted a glass lampshade to a lower angle, and brushed a broken piece of porcelain into his hand and then his pocket. He smiled once more, his face a picture of satisfaction.
And then, very quietly, he left the office, and closed the door behind him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
What the hell was that? Cassie crawled out from under the desk and shook her head, looking around the now-tidy office. But she didn’t really have time to fret about Marat’s odd behaviour. Because of it, there was a good chance Sir Alric wouldn’t realise for a little while that he’d been burgled, but that breathing space wouldn’t last for long. She had to get out of there, and get north as fast as possible.
The Academy was in darkness and silence as the night pressed on. Cassie wished that there were more than half of her twenty-four hours left, but it couldn’t be helped. Her heart pounded as she ran silently through the school grounds and out to the road.
There was very little traffic at first and she had to walk some distance, but as the sky lightened the roads grew rapidly busier, and she could flag down a succession of rickety matatus that took her north towards Mombasa, the artefacts now tucked inside Ranjit’s bloodstained backpack. From her now-solitary room, she’d grabbed a few thousand Kenyan shillings (rather a lot of them Isabella’s, she remembered guiltily), along with her passport and smartphone.
Look on the bright side, she told herself, glancing at her watch. She had as good a head start as she could possibly expect. This latest brightly coloured matatu was full at six in the morning, but it made pretty good speed up the coastal road – sometimes too good, she thought, glad they’d made the drivers fit seatbelts as she was thrown against hers for the umpteenth time. She still hugged the backpack tightly against her body; it might make it look more valuable and worth stealing, but let anyone try. She wasn’t letting it out of her sight or touch.