CHAPTER VI

‘DARIUS!’ CRIED CY.

‘What?’ said Chloe and Eddie together.

‘The Roman merchant –’ Cy pointed excitedly at the front of the little booklet – ‘his name is Darius.’

‘How can you ever know that?’ demanded Eddie. ‘You’ve only just looked at the book. You can’t know the name of the person on the cover.’

‘But I do,’ Cy babbled on without thinking. ‘I met him – well, not met him exactly, but I heard him talking.’

‘Where?’ demanded Chloe. ‘Where would you possibly hear this, this . . .’ she flipped the book towards her, ‘. . . this . . . shopkeeper actually talking?’

‘It was when I was dreaming,’ said Cy. ‘I’d travelled to—’

‘Give us a break,’ said Eddie. ‘I do not want to hear about any of your idiotic dreams.’

‘But we should listen,’ said Chloe sarcastically. ‘This is Cy’s wonderful imagination that Mrs Chalmers always goes on about. Everyone says that Cy is so clever at making up stories.’ Chloe stuck her tongue out. ‘You are such a Super-Cy, aren’t you?’

Cy’s face went red.

‘No he’s not,’ said Eddie. ‘He must have seen this book earlier. I’ll bet it tells you all of that somewhere inside.’

‘Of course,’ said Chloe. She turned to Cy. ‘You came to the library earlier in the holidays and you’ve already done some work on the project, haven’t you?’

‘No,’ said Cy, ‘I haven’t. It’s just that sometimes when I dream I can choose . . .’ He hesitated and then stopped. He’d love to tell Eddie and Chloe all about how his dreams sometimes flipped over. And rather than being inside his head the way most people’s were, occasionally it went the other way and he was actually inside the dream. If only he could boast about meeting his Dream Master and knowing partly how to use the dreamcloak, which meant that occasionally he could dream up his own dreams the way he wanted them to be. (Except that it didn’t always work out as he planned.) Cy looked at Eddie and Chloe. They’d never believe him, and anyway he didn’t know if he wanted to share such a terrific secret with the Mean Machines. He hadn’t even told his friends Vicky, or Innis, or Basra.

Eddie leaned across the table and took the book from Chloe’s hands. ‘Let’s have a look inside. It probably gives you the shopkeeper’s name on the very first page.’

Chloe snatched at the book. ‘I had it first,’ she said.

‘Well, I’ve got it now,’ said Eddie, pulling it back.

There was a ripping sound as the book cover tore.

Eddie flung the book in front of Cy. ‘It was him,’ he said at once, ‘wasn’t it, Chloe?’

Cy felt himself grow hot and cold all at once. The librarian had appeared and was gazing severely at all three of them.

‘It is really fortunate for all of you that that booklet is locally produced and there is plenty of old stock available. But I am still not happy with your behaviour.’

‘We aren’t to blame,’ said Chloe. ‘Everything was fine until Cy arrived. It’s all his fault.’

‘I don’t think so, young lady,’ said the librarian. ‘I know Cy. He comes in quite often. Whereas you two have been sitting here most of the day not doing very much. I’d like the three of you to sit at separate tables. That way you might all get a bit more work done.’ She examined the book in her hand. ‘You’re lucky that this is not valuable and can be repaired. Please sort yourselves out by the time I return with it.’

Eddie and Chloe got up as the librarian took the booklet away to mend the page with some clear tape.

‘I’m going home now anyway,’ said Eddie. ‘You coming?’ he asked Chloe.

Chloe nodded and angrily began to pack up her things. She glared at Cy and hissed, ‘No-one gets me into trouble and gets away with it.’

‘Don’t you ever think that it is you who gets yourself into trouble?’ replied Cy bravely.

‘The next time we meet it won’t be me getting told off,’ said Chloe grimly as she and Eddie walked towards the exit.

At the library entrance Eddie paused and pulled at Chloe’s sleeve. ‘Look,’ he whispered. He pointed to the computer appointment book which was lying open on top of the librarian’s desk. ‘Cy’s got a booking for the Internet tomorrow.’

Chloe leaned over and studied the page. ‘What time is he coming to the library tomorrow?’ Her finger found the place on the page. ‘Right.’ Her eyes glittered and her face twisted in a sour smile. ‘I think we can arrange it that tomorrow Mr Cyrus Peters will get a very nasty surprise.’

Cy waited until the librarian brought back the mended booklet and then he studied the front cover as she tidied away the other books which Chloe and Eddie had been using. Cy could see more of the street scene than he had seen in his dream. In his dream he had been almost inside the shop, but this view was from the street itself and showed the stalls and shops in greater detail. Next to the cloth merchant’s was a cobbler’s stall where the cobbler sat on his stool working at his last. He was surrounded by foot templates, and pieces of leather cut to shape to cover soles and heels. Behind him were shelf alcoves where pairs of sandals and shoes were stored. Further along was a perfume stall with pots of alabaster and marble filled with creams and oils. Rows of glass bottles and phials of many colours containing scented essences sparkled on wooden racks. A lady with elaborately coiled hair was sampling one of the perfumes. She held the lid in the shape of a peacock tail in one hand while she sniffed the contents of the bottle. Beside that was a fishmonger’s shop with the biggest variety of fish Cy had ever seen.

Cy traced the shapes and colours with his fingers. The text on the back cover told him that this had been an affluent town with goods coming from all over the Roman Empire and beyond. Silks and spices from China, perfume and ivory from India, grain from Egypt and fish brought in by the many boats that fished the sea close to the town. The stalls along the main shopping street, called in this book the Via dell’Abbondanza, were always busy. Had all this been going on outside the shop while he sat inside discussing mosaic-making with Linus?

‘What I don’t understand,’ Cy said, ‘is, if this is a book about volcanoes, why do we have a scene showing ancient Rome?’

‘It isn’t Rome,’ said the librarian. ‘It is Roman times, but this is not a scene from ancient Rome. It is the market place of a town quite close to Rome where there was a famous volcanic eruption. Almost without warning the nearby mountain, Vesuvius, threw out boiling ash and mud for days. The population was wiped out.’

‘When was this?’ Cy asked. ‘Where was the town?’

‘It happened in AD seventy-nine,’ said the librarian, ‘near Naples. The town was called Pompeii.’

‘Pompeii,’ repeated Cy.

‘Yes.’ The librarian looked at the book again. ‘We have more copies of this book, so I’ll let you borrow this one if you like.’

Cy opened the book carefully. There was another scene inside the front cover. It depicted the inside of one of the shops. The cloth merchant’s shop. Cy’s eyes began to blur as he gazed at the interior. There was a woman sitting on a long bench. Directly in front of her was a young girl who had draped a length of fabric about herself. The older woman’s head was to one side as she studied her daughter critically. A slave held a mirror so that the young girl could see herself. The material draped in long folds to the ground and was a beautiful reddish purple, a deep Tyrian-purple cloth.

Cy’s hand shook as he laid the book out flat before him on the library table. The two torn halves didn’t match together exactly. And so it was that the boy sitting to one side looked as though he had turned his head to look away from the scene; his gaze travelled outside the shop, beyond the streets and time of ancient Pompeii to . . .

Cy’s heart did a half-beat out of time. The boy had moved. His mouth was open slightly, as though he was speaking.

‘Help!’ he seemed to cry out to Cy. ‘Help us!’