Worlds Explode

Emmie flicked off each of the dozen or so switches, section by section, until the library was in total darkness. She promptly fell over a pile of maps as she tried to return to Finn.

“You OK?” asked Finn.

“This had better be good, Finn. I think I’ve broken a tooth.”

“It is. I promise.” He pressed the button and the device’s whisk glowed a weak orange, hardly enough to illuminate his chest.

“Wow, great trick,” said Emmie, her sarcasm carrying across the darkness. “Halloween must be a blast in this house.”

“Just wait.”

Then it began. It was hard to perceive at first, but across the span of the room, on its shelves, in spots along the floor, they began to make out dull smudges of orange light. Quickly, each flicker grew in intensity until the room was lit solely by the glowing balls of Legends caught over the decades and now scattered across the shelves and floor of the library. The unbroken jars, which each housed a desiccated ball of a creature caught invading Darkmouth, were like glow-worms in a cave, the still lights fostering an eerie calm.

“That is pretty cool actually,” Emmie said.

“If something’s been on the Infested Side or in a gateway, this will identify it,” Finn explained. “We use scanners now, so this hasn’t been used to track down a Legend in years, but Mam and Dad sometimes have their dinner here on Valentine’s Day. My dad calls it ‘the Planetarium’. Apparently, this is how he asked Mam to marry him. He spelled it out on the floor in glowing desiccated Legends.”

In the galaxy of orange lights, Emmie picked her way across the floor to where Finn stood and they enjoyed the silence and surprising beauty to be found in the glowing husks of savage creatures from a parallel world.

“I can see why they found it romantic,” said Emmie.

Finn moved away a step, a flush of heat running through his face. “I’ll turn the lights back on.”

He started back towards the wall and its light switches, while he looked again for the on/off button of the Spotter.

“Wait,” said Emmie, looking at him. “The orange.”

Finn looked down at himself and for the first time realised he was lit up; a radioactive glow was spreading across his skin, emanating from his chest, but pushing out of his sleeves, the neck of his sweater, the gap between his trousers and socks.

“That’s weird,” he said, holding his hands out to examine them. “But I was there, on the Infested Side, so I suppose that’s why I—”

“No,” said Emmie, “not you. What’s that beside you?”

Finn looked around, unsure for a moment what she was referring to. Then he saw his schoolbag propped up on a chair beside him, where he had left it the day before. From inside leaked a bright orange glow.

He put the Legend Spotter down, reached carefully into his bag and pulled out Mrs Bright’s false teeth. Directly under the device, their orange was deeper, more vivid than any other in the room. The colour had the newness of fresh paint.

“I don’t get it,” said Emmie. “What’s that mean? That Mrs Bright was a Legend?”

Finn thought of the grains of sand that had clung to Yappy’s paws and the damp fringes of its coat. He tried to make connections where none seemed obvious. All the while, the tiny echo of a message began to intrude on his thoughts.

Light up the house.

“Is it possible that Mrs Bright …?” he muttered. “Were her teeth …?”

Light up the house.

“Is that what the message really means?” he continued, only half audible to Emmie. The connections were forming in his mind, solidifying out of mist.

“OK, Finn, you’re going to have to make a bit more sense because I don’t—” Emmie stopped, eyes growing wide as she worked it out too. “Oh,” she said.

Finn began to wander the room, waving the Legend Spotter up, down, left, right, diagonally, sweeping across the floor.

“Light up the house,” he said as he passed Emmie, holding it above his head. “That’s what the note from my dad said. But maybe we’ve been lighting it up in the wrong way. Maybe it’s been about this all along.” He held the Legend Spotter upright.

Still, Finn couldn’t quite figure it out. “It just seems to be the usual desiccated Legends here. Mrs Bright’s teeth must have been on the Infested Side somehow or touched it in some way. Maybe she got caught up in the Manticore attack. Half the town would probably light up if we waved this at them.”

“Or she could have got caught up in a gateway,” suggested Emmie. “Except there’s been no gateway in weeks.”

Finn ran the Spotter across the curving length of a shelf, where the petrified Legends glowed a little brighter as he passed, dimmed slightly as he left them behind. “I just don’t see anything out of the ordinary,” he said.

“But this is only one room, Finn,” said Emmie. “The note in the box said to light up the house.”

“You’re right!” Finn strode past her towards the door to the Long Hall and began sweeping along the walls, the ceiling, the doors, and waving the Spotter into each room they passed.

Still, they nearly missed it. It was weak, almost imperceptible, a tiny smudge in the dark registering in the corner of their vision. But Finn noticed it first and his heart rapped on his ribs when he did. He nudged Emmie to follow him to the wall.

The closer they got, the brighter it glowed.

Squinting, unable to quite make out any detail, Finn reached out a finger and placed it on the spot. He felt the slight bend of canvas, the roughness of paint.

“Turn on the lights, Emmie.”

She palmed her way across the wall until she found the switch. The bulbs flared in a race along the corridor, Finn’s and Emmie’s eyes briefly recoiling at the sudden intrusion of bright light. As they refocused, Finn kept his finger on the painting for a moment more.

Niall Blacktongue gazed directly at Finn’s fingertip.

Finn pulled his finger away to reveal a painted table on which were scattered a few objects, including books, a magnifying glass, a compass, a small mirror.

In the mirror was the reflection of a map.

On the map was an X.

Finn looked at it, then back to his grandfather’s face. Where there had only ever seemed to be meekness, a sagging under the weight of responsibility, now he looked relieved, unburdened, free finally of a great secret kept for so many years.

Finn forgot to breathe for a moment and, when he finally remembered, it came with a quiet utterance of relief.

“Found it,” he said.

‘The Arrival of the Human’ (#ulink_79ebb305-4637-52bc-aa20-8ee8a627f6a2) From The Chronicles of the Sky’s Collapse, (#ulink_79ebb305-4637-52bc-aa20-8ee8a627f6a2) as told by inhabitants of the Infested Side (#ulink_79ebb305-4637-52bc-aa20-8ee8a627f6a2)

THIRTY YEARS AGO

(#ulink_145c74e3-b4ca-5984-bb64-b02f3b7cdce1)

Finn shaded his phone’s screen from the morning sunshine, covering it with the palm of his hand to better see the picture of the map on it. He zoomed in, moved the image around, then lifted his head again to scan the grassy cliff he and Emmie were standing on. Ahead was spread out a glistening green sea. Away to their left, the buildings and walls of Darkmouth huddled up against each other as if afraid. And, below their feet, lush but uneven ground.

Nothing else.