CHAPTER VII

CY WALKED SLOWLY home from the library with the book about Pompeii in his rucksack. His mind was struggling to keep up with everything that had happened to him today. He’d got up – he could remember that quite clearly. Then he remembered deciding, as there were only a few days left before school began, that it might be a good idea to do some work on his project on volcanoes.

Cy frowned in concentration as he tried to recall the next part of his day. His Dream Master had appeared . . . That was it! His Dream Master had been moaning on about his dreamcloak becoming worn out because Cy dreamed such vivid dreams, and then, and then . . . Cy’s thoughts and his pace began to quicken as the morning’s events came back to him. He had pulled out his own little piece of dreamsilk from below his chest of drawers, and by some strange happening it had become larger and more powerful than it had been previously! Then somehow both he and the Dream Master had been whisked to volcano after volcano in TimeSpace, until finally they were in vineyards outside a town, which Cy now knew to be Pompeii. He had hardly got into that dream when his mum had woken him up and dragged him off to the shops with Lauren, whereupon Cy had ended up in a shop in Pompeii . . . and now he was back here.

Cy hated dreams like that, all disjointed with bits that he couldn’t remember properly. He went over it again in his head. He and the Dream Master had travelled to some different volcanoes, eventually they had gone together to the vineyards, then . . .

Cy stopped still in the street. His heart and his head lurched together. Where was the Dream Master? He hadn’t been with Cy in the shop in Pompeii . . . and . . . he hadn’t returned with him to twenty-first-century Britain, that was for sure. So where was he? And – cold fear swept over Cy – wherever he was, he was stuck there. Because it hadn’t been the dreamcloak that had taken them through TimeSpace, it had been the little scrap of dreamsilk. And Cy still had that little scrap in his pocket.

His Dream Master was separated from his dreamcloak! The dreamcloak that Cy had left lying on top of his bed for anyone to find! And Lauren and his mum would have returned to the house ages ago! Cy began to run.

He crashed through the kitchen door. His mum was sitting staring at a mug of tea. She had on her I’ve-been-shopping-with-Lauren face and gave Cy a brief smile as he raced past her.

‘Did you get the information you needed at the library?’ she called after him as he took the stairs two at a time.

‘Going back tomorrow,’ Cy shouted. He flung open his bedroom door and felt a flood of relief. Everything was where he had left it. The dreamcloak was a mass of pale grey on his bed.

The room was clammy with the heat of the afternoon. Cy threw his rucksack on the bed and took out the library book about Pompeii. At that moment his bedroom door opened and Lauren came in. She had on the short cotton shift dress that she had worn to go shopping, but had draped her new school tie around her neck.

‘Knock before entering,’ said Cy.

‘Don’t be so rude,’ said his sister. ‘I only came to offer you some help, Sproglet.’

‘Help?’ said Cy suspiciously. It wasn’t normal for Lauren to be friendly to him. Although the fact that she had called him ‘Sproglet’ was a good sign. Usually the names his sister used when speaking to him were much worse, ranging from ‘Tiny Toad’ to ‘Cyber Stew’, with a few particularly nasty ones that she reserved for special occasions.

‘Yes, help. I guess I owe you a favour for throwing a wobbly earlier today so that Mum felt she had to cut short the ghastly shopping trip.’

‘Oh . . . right.’ Cy decided not to tell Lauren that, in his opinion, the main reason that Mum had given up on the shopping was Lauren’s own awful behaviour. ‘I don’t need any help right now,’ he said, moving forward to block her way.

Lauren side-stepped Cy and walked further into his room. ‘I thought you were researching some project or other?’

Cy could feel himself losing control of the situation. Lauren being kind was marginally worse than Lauren being a pest. When she was horrible to him at least he knew what to expect. Lauren in helpful mode was unpredictable.

‘No, everything’s fine,’ said Cy, and smiled a great big smile to show how fine everything was.

‘Well, now I know it’s not,’ said Lauren. ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t be grinning like the Cheshire Cat. You probably have to hand in your project when school begins. Our computer is being repaired and your writing is none too good, so I could help you with some stuff if you like.’

‘No. Thanks. But no, thanks. Really. Thanks. But no.’ Cy was aware he was gibbering.

A mad panic seized him as he watched Lauren wander about his room touching things. She caught sight of the little book on Pompeii still resting on his bed.

‘If you’re doing Pompeii,’ she said, ‘I’ve got some stuff in an old box file that might be helpful. I did that as a project when I was your age.’

‘Nope,’ Cy yelped. ‘’s OK.’

Before Cy could stop her Lauren flopped down on his bed. ‘It’s so hot,’ she said.

Cy gaped at her in absolute terror. She was lying right beside the dreamcloak! His fingers felt for his own scrap of dreamsilk in his pocket. He had his school project to do and a lost Dream Master; the last thing he needed was his sister somehow getting into his Pompeii dream and messing it up. I could push her off the bed onto the floor, Cy thought. He reached out his hand and touched his sister on the arm. The instant he did so, he knew that he had made a mistake.

‘Omigosh! Omigollygosh!’

The thought about Pompeii was in his head and he couldn’t get it out fast enough. The dreamsilk scorched his hand. There was a blazing spark and a tremendous fizzle of noise, and Lauren and he went tumbling through Time.