Let the Dance Begin by Lynda Waterhouse Page B

in those pages
about the Night of the Great Sandstorm? Her head was so full of questions she forgot to leap at the right moment in the Dune Bug Jumps with Mrs Sandskrit the next day, and landed badly on her leg.
She darted when she should have turned, and bent when she was supposed to stretch. It was impossible for her to concentrate.
    Over the next week she found she could think of little else apart from the pages. She found it difficult to eat, and Miss Youngsand Snr made her swallow three spoonfuls of green slime tonic
every morning to try and get her appetite back. Shell and Lexie kept asking if she was all right, and were very worried about her. But Cassie didn’t feel able to tell them what the matter was
– somehow it felt that her secret was too big to burden them with.
    She couldn’t even get excited when Madame Rosa made an announcement one morning at breakfast. ‘As you have generally been working hard I have decided that we will give a public
performance at the Harvest Moon Festival in Silica City’
    There was an excited whisper around the room. Madame Rosa raised a hand for silence and continued. ‘But before then it is time for your tests. And no, I will not tell you the exact time,
but it will be soon. You have nothing to fear if you have been working hard and concentrating. After the tests I will select the most promising group of dancers to show our talents at the
festival.’
    Everyone in the room cheered, apart from Cassie, who was only half listening.
    Cassie urgently needed to see Rubus. She knew she could talk things over with him and together they would work out what to do next. When she slept she would fall into a
    jumbled sleep where she was chasing her mother through a sandstorm. Every time Cassie got close, her mother would dance away or turn into a shimmering scarf.
    Then, one night, she woke with a start, hearing the rope ladder creaking outside. Then there was a shadow at her peephole. ‘Rubus, where have you been?’ Cassie asked in delight. She
felt so relieved to see him.
    ‘The usual.’ He grinned. ‘Why are your lips green?’
    ‘Seaweed tonic. Miss Youngsand thought I was looking peaky’ Cassie stuck her tongue out. ‘But never mind about that – I have some news for you.’
    She told him about the missing pages.
    ‘The book wasn’t damaged?’ Rubus asked.
    Cassie shook her head. ‘No, the pages had been deliberately cut out. Why would someone do that? They must have something to hide.’
    Rubus frowned. ‘If it was that confidential they may have destroyed the pages.’
    ‘It’s more likely they’ve hidden them somewhere. Sand dancers do not like destroying things,’ Cassie replied.
    ‘We need to go back to the study and search for those missing pages. Come on. Let’s climb down and creep round the outside.’
    ‘What about Thassalinus?’
    ‘I brought him some barnacle beer and sea pasties so he’d let me in. That should keep him occupied for most of the evening.’ Rubus sighed as he looked wistfully towards the
beach. ‘This is a great night for racing. Still it won’t take me long to get us into the study’ he bragged.
    They crept slowly down to the lower floor. Cassie felt nervous as they moved quickly and silently along the corridor that led to the study.
    Rubus rattled the mother-of-pearl handle as quietly as he could. Then he stood back, stroked his chin and sighed. He ran his hands down the wood, muttering something about looking for the weak
point. Then he flexed his legs and cracked his fingers.
    ‘What are you doing?’ Cassie hissed.
    ‘One kick in the right place and I’ll have us inside in next to no time,’ he said.
    ‘And wake everybody up!’
    ‘I can do a silent kick. I just need to prepare myself.’ He closed his eyes, bent and stretched his legs and padded around slowly in a circle while Cassie patted her hair and took
out a wire hairpin.
    She put it into the lock and managed to open it in three waggles.
    ‘Ahh! I was