The Black Room by Gillian Cross

it’s her mother?”
    â€œI don’t know!” Robert said wildly. “How do I know it’s not Lorn? Herself.”
    â€œIsn’t she too old—?”
    â€œI don’t know.” Robert’s voice was savage. Desperate. “I don’t know how any of it works. But I’ve got to go down there and talk to her.”
    â€œNo!”
    Tom grabbed at his arm, trying to hold him back. But he wasn’t strong enough. Robert wrenched himself free and plunged down the embankment, toward the cypress hedge.

13
    THE WALL WENT UP MUCH FASTER THAN LORN COULD ever have imagined. She’d been expecting to spend a lot of time on her own with Bando, waiting about for stones, but she found herself struggling to keep up.
    The others were desperate to get the hole sealed. They toiled back and forth collecting stones all day and all night, not taking any rest until they were too cold to move or too exhausted to carry anything. And whenever anyone appeared at the top of the ramp, Lorn heard the same anxious questions.
    â€œHow high is it now? How much longer before it’s finished?”
    She always gave the same answer. “Not long. Just keep the stones coming.” But it got harder and harder to sound cheerful. She and Bando were lifting heavy stones, with their hands held up in the air, and even though Bando was taking most of the weight, her muscles ached almost too much to move.
    She managed to keep going until the wall was head high. Then Bando slid in a long, wide stone, and when she reached up to check how it had settled, an agonizing pain shot up her arm. She gasped, before she could stop herself.
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” Bando said quickly. “Are you hurt? Did I squash your fingers?”
    It was a moment before Lorn could catch her breath. When she managed to speak, she said, “Only tired ... but ... I can’t keep going. Tell the others ... they’ll have to ... help out.”
    â€œI’ll get them!” Bando said. “Don’t worry. I’ll get them right away.” He stumbled off across the storeroom, calling as he went. “You’ve got to come and help, or we can’t finish the wall. Lorn says you’ve got to help.”
    Even he was tired now. Lorn could hear his feet dragging, and his voice sounded thin and tired. But he didn’t have to shout for long. Almost immediately, people came running down the ramp.
    â€œStones,” Lorn said feebly. “You need stones.”
    She hardly had the energy to raise her voice, but that didn’t matter. As soon as Perdew realized what she was asking, he organized the others into a chain, passing stones from hand to hand, all the way across the storeroom.
    There was no talking or laughter. They just worked as fast as they could, completely focused on getting the stones into place. No one made a sound for almost half an hour—until Bando jammed in the very last stone, on top of the center of the wall. They all heard it grating as it went into place.
    â€œThat’s it,” Lorn said. “It’s finished.”
    There was an instant of silence——as if no one could quite believe it—and then Dess gave a great whoop of laughter. He came running across the space and thumped the wall as hard as he could.
    â€œLook!” he shouted. “It’s solid! We’ve done it! We’re absolutely safe.”
    Annet gave a loud yell of delight. “Nothing can shift it!”
    â€œNot ten elephants!” called Ab.
    â€œNot twenty bulldozers.” That was Shang.
    â€œNot two blue whales!”
    â€œFive tornadoes!”
    â€œTen tons of high explosive!”
    They were silly with relief and exhaustion. Tina started giggling wildly, and Ab and Shang were pushing each other around. Lorn knew they were looking for a way to celebrate. It had been hard work, but they’d done it, and now they were all jammed into the storeroom together, and