The Game by Diana Wynne Jones Page A

drag up from near your knees – and pushed her way out through the door.
    Outside, the strand leading away in front of her was cloudily transparent now, like smoked glass. Hayley hurried along it, blinking back tears and refusing to look at any of the dreary scenes happening on either side of her, until the strand suddenly turned almost as clear as air underneath her feet. She found herself walking high above the jumbled roofs and turrets of Aunt May’s guesthouse. She could see the gutter and the window she had squeezed out of the day she arrived. Ahead of her and below her were the grounds of the place, full of racing figures as the Tighs and the Laxtons all hurried towards the paddock, where Harmony was standing by the card table. Hayley couldhear the clock, chiming out Over the Rainbow , but very slowly, as if it had almost run down. And Tollie had almost won. He was halfway up the paddock, pushing and rolling an immense egg. This reminded Hayley so of the man pushing the boulder that she stood still and shuddered.
    Then, Hey! she thought. I can win !
    She ran. She came charging down the almost unseeable glassy strand, brushed past Tollie and his egg and landed panting in front of the card table. Tollie screamed with fury.
    â€œThat does it!” he yelled. “I’m telling!”
    â€œI’ve got one – a golden apple!” Hayley panted to Harmony.
    Harmony seemed to have got over her bad temper. She smiled and said, “Let’s see it then.”
    Hayley unzipped her pocket and fetched the apple out. For a moment it glowed bright as a small sun and smelled wonderfully of apple. But as Hayley held it out towards Harmony, it was a plastic Christmas ornament just like the ones Harmony gave out as prizes. “Oh!” Hayley said. “But it was ! It really is !”
    â€œI know,” Harmony said. “They go like that here.” And she passed Hayley another apple just the same. “Your prize,” she said.
    â€œI hate you both!” Tollie snarled, leaning both arms on his vast egg. “Still” he added smugly, “I stole a lot of diamonds too. And I’m still telling of Hayley.”
    James arrived then, waving what looked like a spike with threads of silk streaming off one end. “Is this it?” he asked Harmony. “It was on her spinning wheel. But it was a real closie. She sort of half woke up and said ‘Kiss me!’ and I just ran !”
    Lucy pushed up from the other side with a dry-looking slice of cake in one hand. “Out of her cottage wall,” she panted. “She saw me and she chased me all the way back here. I don’t think I want to play this game again.”
    â€œ I’ve got a roc’s egg!” Tollie said loudly.
    He went on saying this as the others began arriving, waving peculiar objects and jostling Hayley about as she carefully zipped both apples into her pockets. “Do these look like thumbscrews?” she heard someone ask.
    â€œI know it looks like a handful of jelly,” said someone else, “but it really is an eyeball.”
    â€œ I’ve got a roc’s egg!”
    â€œThis card really was the Queen of Hearts, honestly. It’s alive. It sort of squiggles.”
    â€œI caught the fox, but he bit me and got away. Do I need an injection, Harmony?”
    â€œ I’ve got a roc’s egg!”
    â€œSorry about the blood, Harmony. He’d just killed her when I got there. It was horrible.”
    â€œ I’ve got a roc’s egg!”
    â€œOh, be quiet, Tollie!” Harmony snapped. “What’s the matter, Troy?”
    â€œ And I’m telling,” Tollie mumbled, as Troy arrived last of all, very quiet and dejected.
    â€œI couldn’t find that garden anywhere,” Troy said. “So I came back and the strand took me through the house for some reason. Mercer’s on the phone in the hall. He’s telling Uncle Jolyon all about the