They Who from the Heavens Came (The Wisdom, #1)

This time, she dreamt of Oz. They stood in the graveyard outside the little church where the funeral had been held. It was dark and they were the only ones there.

Her brother’s face strained with concentration. All at once, the ground before them cracked. Soil crumbled and tumbled aside as bony fingers covered in rotting bits of flesh pushed their way out.

‘Dad,’ Itzy breathed as she stared at the corpse.

The putrefying smell filled her lungs and threatened to make her sick. Oz had gone white as cotton.

‘They’re coming,’ the dead thing said, its empty eye sockets on Itzy. ‘They’re coming for you.’

It looked up into the sky, which had grown so black and glinted with so many stars. ‘Don’t let them get my children,’ it said.

Itzy and Oz followed their dead father’s gaze and saw the sky bend. A deep impression froze in the fabric of space, like a jelly mould.

Whatever was on its way, it was getting closer.

* * *

She woke to the sound of Seth and Oz talking in the kitchen over breakfast, which smelled like pancakes. She doubted either of them had actually cooked them. She was about to get up when she heard something that made her stop and listen.

‘…trust this Aidan character.’

‘So you keep saying,’ said Oz. His voice was weary, like they’d gone over this point and he was ready to drop the subject. ‘But I really do think he was telling the truth. He meant it as a test and it got out of hand.’

‘You saw what he did to your sister.’ Seth placed special emphasis on the word sister.

‘Bloody hell, Seth. For the tenth time, I don’t think he did that. You saw how upset he was.’ Oz sighed. ‘Look, we’re never going to see them again, so can we just leave it?’

It sounded like Seth had slammed his hands on the counter. ‘Fine. Have it your way. As always.’

Itzy could just imagine Oz rolling his eyes at his friend.

‘Anyway,’ Oz went on, ‘as I was saying before we got onto that fascinating little tangent – look at these read-outs.’

There were footsteps, Seth moving to where Oz was standing. ‘What do they mean?’

‘I’m not sure, exactly,’ Oz admitted, ‘but I do know that at one point, the energy levels spiked through the roof.’

‘Aidan,’ Seth said, the name like acid in his mouth.

‘Yes. But…the levels were spiking well before anyone else arrived on the scene.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Because they were doing it almost as soon as we arrived. I just didn’t tell anyone because I wasn’t sure what it meant.’

‘And you’re still not sure,’ Seth reminded him. ‘So why is it now show-and-tell time?’

‘Because I was up thinking about it last night. I did a little mental imaging, if you know what I mean.’

‘Uh-huh.’ In her head, Itzy saw Seth nod. ‘Raising the dead in our back garden, I’m guessing? Find anything of interest?’

‘A cat,’ Oz told him. ‘Eurydice was spooked.’

‘I bet. So you measured your own energy levels?’

‘Exactly.’

‘And?’

‘And they didn’t match.’

Silence.

‘What’s that mean?’

There was a clicking sound. It was the Energy Sensor. ‘Let me read you,’ Oz said.

‘Alright. What shall I draw?’

‘It doesn’t matter. Wait, no. Draw something big.’

‘I aim to please.’

Everything grew quiet and still. Itzy pictured the way Seth closed his eyes, his face falling into a state of meditation, concentrated but relaxed. He didn’t seem to need to do it if he was drawing something small. But for what Oz had requested, she thought it might require more from him.

Then she heard Oz say, ‘That’s it? You didn’t do anything.’

‘Maybe,’ Seth admitted. ‘But then again, maybe not. Open the front door.’

Oz’s feet padded across the kitchen floor. The door creaked open. Then he gasped. ‘Where are we?’ he asked in a husky voice.

Seth’s feet followed him to the doorway. ‘Egypt.’

‘That’s what I thought.’

Itzy could stand it no longer. She wriggled out from under the duvet and scrambled to her feet. She accidentally stepped on Eurydice’s tail, sending the cat bolting out of the room.

Itzy raced to the back of the lounge and drew aside the curtains that shielded them from the outside. At first, all she saw was the back garden. It was long and narrow, the grass immaculate and the patio dotted with topiary – Seth’s work, to be sure.

But just beyond the garden was a pyramid – and beyond that, sand and nothing else.

‘When did you discover you could do that?’ Oz said.

His words were fainter now that Itzy was further away. She wanted to get closer to them, but at the same time, she couldn’t bear to leave the window. She was mesmerised – not just with what she saw, but with Seth.

‘About a minute ago,’ Seth said. ‘I didn’t actually expect it to work. So what’s that energy thingy say?’

As if just remembering the sensor even existed, Oz said, ‘What? Oh, right. That. Er….’ There was a pause.

‘Well?’

‘It doesn’t match.’

‘Doesn’t match what?’

‘The readings in the field.’

‘Right.’ Seth broke off to think about this. ‘But that’s just because there’s something special about the field, right? That’s what your dad was on about. That’s why we went there.’

‘No, no, back up,’ Oz told him. ‘Remember what they did match?’

Evidently, he did.

‘Aidan,’ Seth bit out. ‘So what are you saying? That he’d been there all along?’

‘Maybe. Probably. But something else, too.’

Silence, again. Seth was waiting for the punch line.

‘I think he made the crop circle.’

More silence. Seth obviously didn’t find the joke very funny. ‘Huh,’ was all he said in the end.

Then Oz said, ‘We should find out what he told Itzy.’

She heard their footsteps coming her way and she dove for the sofa. She tried to throw the duvet over her in a way that would look natural, but Seth caught her in the act.

He wagged his finger at her like a disapproving father. ‘Don’t pretend you didn’t hear us.’

There was no use denying it. Itzy tossed away the duvet once more and jumped to her feet. ‘I want to go outside,’ she said.

Oz grinned at her. ‘Me too. After all, maybe this was a fluke,’ he told Seth. ‘You don’t know if you’ll ever be able to teleport us again, do you?’

In answer, Seth’s fingers flew through the air and the three of them found themselves wearing hats and sunglasses. ‘May as well be prepared,’ he explained.

When they stepped out the front door, they wore matching expressions of disbelief. It really did seem to be Egypt. And Seth had landed them at the Great Pyramid.

‘There are no tourists,’ Oz noticed with a frown.

‘Hm,’ said Seth. He scratched his temple. ‘Yeah, I thought that might happen.’

Itzy asked, ‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, I don’t think it’s actual teleportation, per se. More like…I’ve created it for us. So there’s the real Egypt thousands of miles away, and then there’s this. And it might be weird, because I can only draw things I’ve seen before. So if there are inconsistencies…that’s why.’

‘So where’s our street?’ asked Oz.

‘I think it’s still there. I’ve just plopped this between it and our house. Like in another dimension, maybe? No one else can see it.’

‘Are you sure about that?’ Itzy questioned.

He didn’t look sure at all, but he said, ‘If they could, I think the whole street would be here. Look, I don’t make the rules. I’m bending time and space here; isn’t that enough for you? Do I have to be a physicist, now, too?’

Oz gave him a dry look and turned back to the pyramid. ‘Well, I’d still like to go explore. Even if it is just something you made up. Though I’m a little nervous about what we’re going to find lurking in your head.’

‘Har har,’ said Seth. He put out his arm. ‘Itzy?’

Their eyes met. She searched for some trace of what had passed between them the night before, but he seemed to have decided to ‘be cool’ again. She took his arm and they walked together across the sand. Their feet sank in it and their thighs soon ached.

To the side of them sat the Sphinx.

‘Is that really so close to the Great Pyramid?’ Oz asked.

‘I told you there would be inconsistencies,’ Seth said. ‘I can only remember so much from telly.’

‘Aidan’s been to Egypt,’ Itzy announced before she could stop herself. She felt Seth’s arm stiffen.

Oz turned around so he could look at her, walking backwards in the direction of the Great Pyramid. His black hair was like a crow flying over the golden desert. ‘Really? What else did he say to you yesterday?’

Itzy tried to ignore how tense her walking companion had become, and told her brother, ‘Not much. Just that he’s part of some crop circle forum and he’s been driving all over the country visiting them as they, er, crop up.’

‘What a heart throb,’ Seth muttered under his breath.

‘Are you jealous?’ Itzy asked.

‘No,’ he said too quickly.

Ignoring his friend’s emotional detour, Oz said, ‘Visiting them? Or making them?’ Then he turned back around.

When they made it to the pyramid, it was perhaps the size of the Gherkin in central London. ‘Is that really how big it is?’ Itzy wondered.

‘Dunno,’ said Seth. ‘Could be bigger. Could be smaller.’ He shrugged like it didn’t matter.

‘Do you know who Osiris is?’ Oz asked his sister as he ran his hands along the stone surface of the pyramid.

‘He’s the god of the dead, right?’

‘Right. He was a king when he was alive, but his brother –’

‘Seth,’ Itzy interrupted. ‘He chopped Osiris into pieces and scattered them all over the world. When Isis collected them, he was bound together like a mummy and made King of the Afterlife.’

Oz laughed. ‘Okay, you know the story. So you know the Egyptians built little tunnels in the pyramids, pointing to Osiris’ star in the sky?’

‘So the souls of the pharaohs could travel safely to the land of the dead,’ Itzy filled in. ‘Yes.’

He nodded at her. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by the story. Maybe just because he’s my namesake.’

‘We could get you a dog,’ Seth suggested, ‘and call it Anubis. I can make one for you, if you want.’

‘You’re so funny,’ Oz said, his voice dripping with irony.

‘Hang on,’ said Seth when he noticed what Oz was now trying to do. ‘Are you planning on going inside?’

‘What else?’ said Oz.

‘Okay, remember it’s not real. Don’t expect to find the secrets of the ancient Egyptians in there, because if I don’t know them, I didn’t bring them here.’

Oz shrugged. ‘Still kinda cool to go in, fake or not.’

No one could argue with that logic.

‘In that case,’ Seth said, ‘I know how to get in. There’s a panel somewhere and if you push it….’ He ran his hands along the side of the pyramid until something gave under the pressure. ‘…it opens.’

He shoved harder and the stone slid aside, revealing a long narrow shaft of darkness. Black lay at the end.

Itzy looked at him in alarm. ‘You mean we crawl through that?’

A memory crossed Seth’s face. ‘Oh yeah. You’re claustrophobic, aren’t you?’ Shocks of blond hair stuck out at odd angles from under his hat – an impractical black fedora that made him look like an old Hollywood actor. His eyes looked especially blue in the harsh sunlight. ‘This all came from my imagination. And in my head…nothing could ever hurt you,’ he assured her.

Before Itzy could process this, he unlinked his arm from hers and offered her his hand. With his palm up, she could see the strong lines buried into the skin. She placed her hand in his, entrusting her life to him.

Oz climbed in first. There was just enough room to fit him, if he crawled on his stomach. ‘Here I go,’ he said, his voice disappearing down the shaft.

‘You next,’ Seth told Itzy. ‘I’ll be right behind you.’

She swallowed. Was she really going to do this?

Seth’s forehead touched hers, like the night she’d first gained control of her power. He pulled her toward him and she felt the air escape his lips. It rushed over her face, sending tiny shivers down her spine. She could feel his strength flow through her and mix with her own.

‘Thanks,’ she whispered, suddenly shy. Then she pulled away and slipped into the tunnel. Black enveloped her.

The cold of the stone blocks was a shock to her system, after the heat outside the pyramid. She blinked once, twice, and again, adjusting to the minimal light.

‘Seth,’ she called behind her.

‘I’m right here,’ he said. She felt him tug on her ankle.

‘Where’s Oz?’ she asked.

He was well ahead of them by now and everything before her was darkness.

‘Oz?’ she tried again, but there was no response.

A jolt of panic surged through her. She wanted to get out. What was she doing in there, anyway? Since when was she the adventuring type?

Unfortunately, she was already metres into the shaft and there was no room to turn around.

‘You can do this,’ Seth whispered to her. She wished she could see him.

They started to crawl. She moved one elbow, then the other; one elbow, then the other. It became a steady pattern, something she could sink into and forget about. At one point, her t-shirt slid up and the cold of the stones shot through her stomach, making her jump and bang her head on the ceiling.

‘Careful,’ Seth said belatedly.

She rubbed her head with one of her hands, before continuing. ‘What are you afraid of?’ she asked.

Seth went quiet.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘If you don’t want to answer that, fine. Just say whatever you like. Please don’t stop talking to me.’

‘It’s not that,’ he said. ‘I was just considering the question.’ There was a pause, and then he told her, ‘Well, I was scared yesterday when you were hurt.’

She slipped forward another slow inch. ‘Why should I matter to you so much? We hardly know each other.’

Seth laughed in the darkness behind her. ‘I guess I’ve never been much of a believer in things always having to make sense.’ Then he sighed dramatically and said, ‘But if you mean deep-rooted fears…I’ve always been afraid of being alone.’

‘Why would you be alone?’ she asked. Then she cried out, as something grabbed at her. ‘Seth!’ she screamed.

‘Itz?’ he called. His voice betrayed panic, despite the scene coming from his head. Perhaps he didn’t trust himself. Now there was a strange thought.

She felt the tunnel vanish, and she was being lifted away, placed onto her feet.

‘Oz?’ she asked, just as Seth tumbled into her and sent them both flying on the ground.

She wound up on top of him, and was relieved he couldn’t see her blush. She rolled off him and stood again. She could hear him doing the same. Then there was the telltale whooshing sound of his hands dancing in the air, and there was light. It was good.

Oz grinned at them both. ‘Glad you could drop in,’ he said.

Itzy rolled her eyes at her brother.

As if on wires, their heads all lifted to take in their surroundings. The chamber was painted from floor to ceiling with hieroglyphs. At the side lay a four-foot-tall sarcophagus decorated to look like a sleeping pharaoh. Beside him was a statue of Anubis, the guard jackal of the dead. On the other side was a heap of rare stones, the size of which none of the intruders had ever seen.

‘Do they even make diamonds that big?’ Itzy wondered.

Seth frowned. ‘I haven’t the foggiest.’ He took off his hat and held it to his chest.

‘What are you doing?’ Oz asked.

‘Dunno. Respect for the dead and all that. It felt like the right thing to do.’

‘Okay,’ said Itzy, ‘but there isn’t a real dead person in there, right? Because you just made this up. This isn’t the real Egypt.’

Seth leaned sideways to examine the sarcophagus. ‘Dunno,’ he said again. ‘You’d have to ask Oz. He’s the Jason and the Argonauts guy, not me.’

Itzy was confused. ‘Jason and the what?’

‘It’s an ancient Greek legend,’ Oz explained. ‘They made a film of it. At the end, an army of skeletons come to life.’

‘Ah,’ she said. It sounded like the sort of thing Ash might like.

Seth was occupied in trying to lift the lid off the sarcophagus. He wasn’t having much luck. Meanwhile, Oz inspected the writing on the walls.

Itzy came up behind him. ‘What’s it say?’ she asked.

He glanced at her over his shoulder. ‘I’m going to go out on a limb here and say these aren’t real hieroglyphs. That is,’ he said, pointing to a faded drawing of a sitting bird, ‘but not these.’ He gestured to a jumble of images: goats, fish, baskets, stars…a hammer and sickle.

‘What about them don’t you believe?’ Seth asked from across the room. It was hard to tell if he was serious or not. It made Oz smile, at least.

Seth hopped on top of the dead pharaoh and crossed his ankles over the edge of the box. Clearly, his whimsical respect for the imaginary dead had gone out the window.

‘So,’ he said, ‘this is cosy. Anyone else hungry? Itzy didn’t have breakfast,’ he remembered. He flicked his hands and a picnic basket appeared on the tiled floor of the tomb. He jumped down and sat before the basket, and the others joined him. ‘Itz, do you like oranges?’ He offered her one from the basket.

She took it from him. ‘I don’t understand. Egypt isn’t real, but the food is?’

He sighed. ‘No, no,’ he spoke with great indulgence. ‘This is real. It’s just not the real Egypt.’

‘Huh?’

‘I think what he means,’ Oz intervened, ‘is he can’t bring the original Egypt to us, but he can make new things appear. So this place is real. It’s just not the same as the real thing. That’s still in Egypt. It’s like our father’s library. Those are all copies. The originals are still with my mum.’

‘Some of them came out weird, too,’ Seth noted. ‘The ones I hadn’t read. If you ever want a laugh, pick up our copy of the Tao Te Ching.’

Itzy stared from one boy to the other, and then shook her head. ‘If you say so.’

‘Think of it another way,’ Seth said as he absently tossed an orange between his hands. ‘When you write one of your special stories, you make something become reality. You could create whatever you wanted, with practice, and it would be real, because you made it, right? And I can draw things and make them appear. But they don’t come from anywhere else. They literally just pop into existence. This orange didn’t grow on a tree. I made it. And this pyramid didn’t come from Egypt. I made it, too. This is its own thing. It’s real…but it’s not the same as what already existed before it.’

Itzy ripped the skin off her orange and pulled out a slice. She popped it in her mouth, savouring the juice as it burst down her throat. It was so sweet, so perfect. Of course Seth would make this. There was no sour fruit in Seth Land. There were no spiders in the tunnels. There was no danger. That was what it meant to be in his hands – literally, because everything they saw, everything they now consumed, was the result of his handiwork.

‘How did you first realise you could do it?’ Itzy asked him.

Seth swallowed a piece of orange before answering. ‘I draw things. Like for real, on paper, with pencils and whatnot. I paint, too. So I was studying art at A-Level. Then one day, near the end of my second year, I was in class, working on a portrait, and something came over me. I was furious with the teacher, though I don’t remember why. Next thing I knew, I’d painted his face. But it was a scared face, a face of shock. It made me nervous.’

He paused for reflection and rolled a bit of orange peel between his fingers. ‘No, I tell a lie. It frightened me. Because I didn’t know where it’d come from. I didn’t remember painting it. I’d gone into a trance – like what you described. I had this vague sensation that I’d watched someone – maybe myself – doing it, but I couldn’t connect to the memory.’

‘And then it came true?’ she guessed.

‘Not straight away. It was later in the lesson. The teacher got called out of the classroom by the Head of the department. When he came back, he was white as a sheet and he wore that same expression, the one I’d painted.’

‘What had happened?’ Itzy asked.

‘To this day, I don’t know. Something personal, I suppose. The point is: I realised I could make things happen.’

‘Hang on.’ She reached over the basket and grabbed a handful of cashews out of a bag her brother held. He swatted her hand away and she stuck out her tongue at him before sitting back down. ‘You don’t make things happen,’ she said to Seth. ‘You make things appear. It’s different.’

‘Not always. I can make things look a certain way, too. And sometimes that means something has to happen first. But I have no control over what that might be.’

‘Which is why,’ Oz added, ‘he doesn’t do it. He just magics things up for us, instead. It’s safer.’

‘And saves us a lot of money,’ Seth noted as he popped another segment of orange in his mouth. ‘That’s why neither of us has a job.’

‘But how did you know you weren’t just psychic?’ she asked. It was something she had speculated about herself too many times to count.

Especially now that Aidan had shown up.

‘I didn’t,’ said Seth. ‘I experimented for a long time. And it didn’t come all at once. In the beginning, there were the trances. I didn’t learn how to control it and really understand my power until I met Oz. He got me into meditation, exercises, things like that.’

Itzy turned to her brother. ‘And when was that? How did you meet?’

‘We were at the same college,’ Oz told her. ‘We knew each other through a friend. It was just a matter of time before we realised we were both a little…different.’

She stuffed her mouth with cashews and chewed. When she’d swallowed, she said, ‘I thought maybe you’d known each other longer than that.’

Seth shook his head. ‘Nah. Only about a year-and-a-half.’

There was a beeping sound. It was so incongruous with the scene in which they sat, they all jumped.

‘It’s my phone,’ Itzy realised with surprise. She fished it out of her pocket and opened the message that had just come through. It was her mum.

Been trying to reach you. Please answer.

That was strange. Was Myra actually worried about her?

Itzy shoved the phone in her pocket and drew her knees up to her chest. Seth eyed her curiously.

Oz raised an eyebrow and asked, ‘Who was it?’

‘No one,’ she lied. ‘But we’re obviously still in England, because my network’s still set to the UK.’

‘Told you,’ said Seth.

‘So it wasn’t your mum?’ Oz asked his sister.

‘Why do you ask?’ she hedged.

He shrugged. ‘You’ve been gone a long time.’

‘So has she. So why do we think Aidan’s making crop circles?’ she changed the subject.

‘We don’t,’ Seth pointed out. ‘Oz does. But let’s say I agree – and I’m not sure I do, yet – he’s probably trying to do the same thing your father was. Contact the Ancients. Maybe that’s how he knew your father. Why he was at the funeral.’

Oz didn’t look convinced. ‘Dad thought that circle was a response. From the stars.’

‘He also said he was working with someone,’ Itzy pointed out. ‘Did he say anything else, in the journal?’

Oz shook his head. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t finished going through it, yet. It’s not exactly easy reading. I think he was losing his mind, by the end.’

‘Or,’ Seth suggested, ‘he was perfectly sane, but he was being deliberately confusing, so no one would understand.’

Oz appeared to find this idea deeply unsettling. ‘Why would he do that?’

‘Because he was afraid of someone finding out what he was about.’

Oz looked genuinely taken aback. He obviously hadn’t thought of that.

Itzy cleared her throat. ‘Um…if you want….’ Both sets of eyes turned on her expectantly. ‘It’s just…Aidan sort of Facebooked me last night.’

Seth blinked. ‘How’d he find you?’

She gawked at him. ‘Itzel Loveguard? There aren’t exactly two of me.’

‘What did he want?’ asked Oz.

‘To meet up.’

Seth choked on a grape he’d just tossed into his mouth. His cheeks turned red and he coughed his throat clear. When he’d recovered, he said, ‘You’re having a laugh. You’re not seriously considering it, are you? Oh God, you are, aren’t you?’ He put his hand to his head in frustration.

‘I understand your concern,’ she said carefully. ‘But the truth is...that wasn’t the first time I’d seen him.’

They stared, waiting.

‘I sort of...dreamt about him, before,’ she finished, her cheeks pink. ‘Lots of times, actually. I had no idea he was a real person, but....’

Seth’s mouth fell open.

‘You should go,’ said Oz.

Itzy grew flustered and looked around. ‘Okay. But where would I…?’

Oz laughed at the misunderstanding. ‘No, I mean, you should meet with Aidan.’

‘Oh.’ She hadn’t expected one of them to agree with her.

‘Oz!’ Seth hissed, his eyes opaque with fury. ‘She can’t do this.’

His friend shook his head. ‘She has to. You can’t just turn away from prophetic dreams. We need to figure out what this is all about.’

Seth glared at him, an idea brewing in his blond head. Then his hand struck the air and Oz disappeared from the tomb.

Itzy jumped. ‘Where’d he go?’

Seth shot her a cool look. ‘Home. I didn’t think he deserved the picnic-in-a-pyramid fantasy anymore.’

Itzy sighed. The look she turned on her remaining companion was one of sudden maturity. It was the look of her mother, back when Myra still had any semblance of parental authority. ‘You can’t just make him go away when you don’t agree with him. Besides, he’s right. This is an opportunity to get some answers.’

Seth sucked in his cheeks and pushed out his lips in consideration. ‘I don’t think you deserve it, either,’ he said.

He wiped his hands in front of his face and they found themselves back in Seth and Oz’s lounge.

Seth glanced around wistfully. ‘No more Egypt,’ he said.

Oz pounced on his sister, pushing his friend aside with his presence. ‘Have you replied yet?’

‘To Aidan?’ she asked, startled. ‘No.’

‘Good. Tell him yes. You’ll meet.’