The Cornerstone by Nick Spalding Page A

could mean war between the Chapters!’
    ‘It won’t come to that, Osgood,’ Jacob said. ‘Merelie, I’ll trust you to get rid of this boy. Don’t disappoint me please… Borne, make sure she keeps her word.’
    Without waiting for a response, Jacob strode out of the study with the corpulent Osgood Draveli in his wake.

- 6 -

    Waking up can be a truly wonderful experience, if it’s in the right place, at the right time.
    A Saturday morning in July can be a fantastic time to wake from a pleasant dream - to see the sunlight filtering in through the crack in the curtains. The duvet is warm, you’ve slept like a log, and the day holds the promise of doing not a lot in particular.
    Waking up can also be a horrid experience, if you do have school or work that day, and it’s 6.45am on a freezing cold January morning.
    But even that unpleasantness pales into insignificance compared with waking up in another dimension, slung over the back of a sweaty bodyguard and nursing a clanging headache - all because a mental blonde chick thinks you’re a wizard.
    ‘Blrhrmfrhm,’ Max said as he came to.
    He felt lifted, then dumped unceremoniously into a large chair - which at least had the good grace to be soft.
    ‘Go easy with him Borne,’ Merelie told her Arma.
    ‘He insulted you, Merelie. I don’t like that.’
    ‘He was angry.’
    ‘Manners are manners.’
    ‘Where the hell am I?’ Max said, as he checked his keys were in his back pocket.
    ‘We’re in the entrance lobby to the Library,’ Merelie said, walking over to a large door at the back of the room.
    ‘Library?’
    ‘Yes, the one you were in the last time you came here.’ She knocked on the door gently.
    Despite the smack on the head and subsequent grogginess, Max was up like a shot, looking for invisible library monsters.
    ‘Relax, boy,’ said Borne. ‘The guardian is nowhere near us. It patrols the sections of the library where the mystical books are. We’re quite safe here.’
    Max looked at him with deep suspicion, but relaxed his guard.
    He had to admit the room they were in didn’t look the type favoured by your average invisible creature from Hell.
    It was spacious and well appointed - laid with luxurious green carpeting with the Carvallen coat of arms stitched into it - and containing several plush cream coloured couches and chairs.
    It was a bit like the waiting room of a particularly upmarket plastic surgeon’s office. The kind celebrities go to when they want to shave off a few years.
    Merelie walked back, her shoes making no noise on the thick carpet. ‘It shouldn’t take too long,’ she said. ‘The head custodian will know we’re here and will be up shortly.’
    ‘Whoopee crap,’ replied Max, sitting back on the couch in a huff.
    Merelie sat and looked at him with her big, blue eyes firmly set on stun mode. ‘I know you don’t believe me, Max. You don’t think you have this power in you, but I know I’m right. When the evil from my dreams is unleashed, it’s you who will save us.’
    ‘But your old man says there’s nothing to worry about!’ Max argued.
    ‘I still think he’s wrong,’ she replied, but there was doubt in her eyes.
    ‘He’s a powerful bloke, though,’ he pointed out, ‘being in charge of this place and everything. Maybe he knows better than you?’
    ‘He hasn’t had the dreams… and neither have you.’
    ‘Oh, here we go with the dreams again.’ He shook his head. ‘Dreams are stupid, Merelie. My mate Figgy says they’re just your brain taking a dump.’
    She didn’t quite know how to respond to that.
    Max, knowing how idiotic that had sounded, tried to regain some momentum. ‘What I’m saying is… dreams don’t mean anything. It’s just your mind processing the rubbish floating round. Figgy says you’d go mental if you didn’t dream. There’s nothing more to it than that.’
    ‘Not my dreams, Max.’
    ‘Really?’ he said, folding his arms and sitting back.
    Merelie’s eyes narrowed.