The Bad Luck Lighthouse

by Nicki Thornton

The chance of somehow being able to do magic was almost irresistible. Hadn’t Tiffany tricked everyone and schemed to run away with the firefly cage once she knew it could give her access to powerful magic? Had Brockler been trying to find a way to gain access to the magical world too?

  ‘Was there a book?’ asked Seth urgently.

  There had been that wordstone that Copious had found, but he had never found the actual book when he’d cleaned. The Deadly Secrets of Darkwitching.

  Disappointingly, Jo shrugged. ‘I can’t say as I remember. It was all bits and pieces. But . . . there might have been.’ Jo was scratching her head. ‘There was that carving. It was made from a real dragon’s tooth, don’t you know. And this small painting.’ She looked challengingly into Seth’s eyes. ‘He gave me money for them. Am I in trouble? Am I going to have to give the money back? Because I already spent it.’

  Seth tried to give a reassuring smile. ‘I think it will help that you’ve told the truth.’

  Jo suddenly started peering at the way the water was lapping at the jetty, then stared up at the sky. ‘You know, I’m not sure as I should leave you here. The water shouldn’t be this high. It happens sometimes after a storm. You get a freak high tide. I think you should come with me now. Come and see Merricove. It’s worth a visit.’

  Angelique had finally drifted back and heard what she said: ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine.’

  ‘But I can’t promise I can get back. Not in time to pick you up and get you safely back to the lighthouse. High tides can be unpredictable and dangerous here, and the currents change.’

  ‘No, we certainly wouldn’t want to leave you stranded here, not knowing what might happen to you,’ said Dr Malinger at Seth’s shoulder. He started – she’d appeared right behind him without him noticing she’d even got out of the boat.

  Seth looked at the desolate boarded-up village and was expecting Angelique to nod. But he recognized that particular look of determination. Her long nose was pointed in the air.

  ‘Oh, don’t worry about us, we’ll be absolutely fine.’

  ‘As it is, ’fraid it’ll only be a short trip to Merricove,’ announced Jo, starting to untie the boat quickly. ‘Tide is already higher than it should be. Want to make sure I get everyone safely back to Snakesmouth Island. Sure you two is all right?’

  ‘But you still can still walk around to Merricove? We aren’t entirely cut off here, are we?’ persisted Angelique.

  Jo looked doubtful and scratched under her orange oilskin. ‘Would take you a while.’

  ‘Good, I fancy a walk. We’ll see you there.’

  Seth could only hope Angelique was right as he watched Jo leap into the little boat, and their best means to leave the deserted village and get back to the lighthouse sailed away.

  30. A Star Dropped Out of the Sky

  Angelique strode up to the first of the short row of houses, flipped open the silver top of her cane. She hardly waited until Jo’s little boat disappeared from view to send a jet of blue light from the end of her divinoscope and bathe the largest building, right in the centre, in a shimmering wash of cornflower.

  She took a reading and then pressed her hands flat against the boarded-up door. Seth was torn between just watching her fascinating work and undoing the anxious knot in his stomach by telling her they’d made the wrong decision. He should also tell her everything he’d learnt from Jo. He should have done it before the boat left. She was going to be angry.

  ‘No one’s been here in ages, have they?’ stuttered Seth, trying to think of a way to tell her.

  Angelique was sending a flurry of sparks into one of the blank windows. ‘It was you who said Brockler got some interesting objects from here.’

  ‘Er. Yes. Well. Actually . . . about that.’

  She fixed him with her dark eyes, and, haltingly, he told her how Jo had confessed to lifting a few bits and pieces from the lighthouse before Bladderwrack visited – and then selling them back to Brockler.

  ‘So there were artefacts belonging to Soul Snakesmouth that wouldn’t have been there for Bladderwrack to find and take away when he cleaned. But they’ve found their way back there now – that’s bad, isn’t it? They might be magical devices. I’m sorry, I should have told you the minute she told me and got you back on the boat. But I was too busy thinking and, besides, I didn’t want to blow our cover.’

  Angelique nodded.

  He waited for her to be really cross. He thought she might want to find some way to get Jo back here right away so they could return to the lighthouse. But she kept zapping everything. She kept taking readings. She sent larger swathes of the blue light across the hotel, bathing it in a shimmering unreal light. Then she did the same with neighbouring buildings.

  Eventually, she sighed. ‘There’s really nothing here, Seth. Only – did Jo say there was a book among these little trinkets she kept hold of ?’

  ‘She wasn’t sure.’

  ‘And you believed this little friend of yours? The one who had just admitted to being a thief and also selling on stolen goods? Seth – have I ever mentioned before that you have a bad habit of trusting all the wrong people.’

  Seth knew she was still sore about him messing up her chance to speak to Ethylene Despair and of tracking down a copy of Soul Snakesmouth’s book. But there wasn’t anything he could do about it right now. To distract her, he suggested they take the path that led through the clackety gate.

  ‘Did you hear Jo say how some sort of star fell from the sky about the time the Mintencresses moved in?’ Seth puffed as they climbed the path.

  Angelique’s hair was being whipped around and she started to have to lean into the wind as they neared the top of the cliff. She darted him an annoyed glance. ‘At one time I thought you might have started to believe in the murderous ghost, Seth, and now falling stars? Forgive me if I keep looking for facts.’

  They’d reached the end of the footpath, which stopped suddenly at the highest point of the cliff. A huge yellow and black barrier and a gigantic warning sign reading ‘STOP! TURN BACK’ barred their way. Someone had also crudely graffitied in a picture of a person screaming as they fell off a cliff.

  ‘Nice,’ said Angelique.

  ‘No wonder everyone stopped visiting Snakes-mouth,’ said Seth. He was looking at an inlet right in front of them that stretched into the distance, as if someone had cut a long, thin slice from the land. The sea was plunging and foaming a long way below.

  In the distance, to their right, Seth could see the lighthouse. How were they going to get back there? Jo had said it might take a good while to walk around to Merricove.

  ‘I suppose you’re going to tell me Merricove is that way?’ Angelique pointed to where the path plunged into the sea, only carrying on again on the other side of the channel.

  Seth scratched his head. ‘There’s no way across to pick up the path, is there? We can still reach it, we just have to walk all the way around this channel.’ He pointed way into the distance. ‘Wanna start walking? Sorry, Angelique.’

  Angelique was still frowning into her divinoscope. What was it telling her? She sent another jet of blue light, as if she suspected there was something magical to detect here.

  Seth was curious about Jo’s story of the bright light and began to look about. His nose was telling him there was some underlying smell over what had already become the everyday smells of sea, salt, sand and seaweed. Something like scorching.

  Over the lip of the chasm he could see some intriguing black streaks, wide and deep.

  ‘Do they look like scorch marks to you?’

  ‘So now we are believing the locals, not just with their stories of ghosts, but also their mysterious mystical stars in the sky?’ scoffed Angelique, her words almost whipped away in the wind. ‘How come you believe all of that, but you find it so difficult to believe me. I mean,’ she gave a little laugh, ‘when we first met you wouldn’t trust me one bit.’

  ‘That might be because you pretty much lied to me from the start.�
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  Seth started to look for a way down. He scrambled a little further to get a closer look, clutching on to some flimsy tufts of grass, the only thing in some places to stop him plummeting into the water.

  ‘I don’t feel that’s entirely fair,’ Angelique was continuing, although still too absorbed in her divinoscope to worry about what Seth was doing. ‘And it is particularly not smart to let one of the suspects get you wrapped around her finger. Anyway, those black marks are probably just some different rock, or a harmless seaweed.’

  ‘You’re talking about Celeste, aren’t you?’

  Seth carried on down a little further, fixed on the tracks of those deep, dark black gouges in the side of the cliff, and trying not to look at the huge waves below. Something about the way they chased into the narrow inlet meant he was getting wet, despite the sea being a long way below.

  ‘She was Mina Mintencress’s personal maid, really,’ he went on. ‘I don’t think she’s even realized that she could easily lose her job now. I don’t think she’s got any other family. She needs someone to look out for her.’

  ‘She says.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You are not always the best judge of character, Seth, if you don’t mind my saying. And I haven’t brought a rope, so if you are thinking of climbing down any further and you pitch into the sea I won’t be coming in to save you.’

  ‘Not seaweed!’ he called. ‘Can you smell sort of a bonfirey smell?’ It wasn’t a smell of the sea, but of woods and forests. A smell that, strangely, reminded him of home. ‘You’ll need to come closer.’

  She flipped the silver top of her red cane, flashed the edge of the chasm and took a reading.

  ‘When you are in the middle of a murder enquiry, Seth, everyone is either a suspect or not a suspect.’

  Seth could only just hear her. Typical Angelique, to pick an argument when they were on a windy cliff face.

  ‘Well, you seem to be wrapped around Stormforce’s little finger,’ he called.

  ‘The difference being he is not a murder suspect,’ drifted back Angelique’s voice.

  ‘No. He’s a talented S3 agent. And doesn’t he know it,’ Seth yelled back. ‘Celeste is going to be totally on her own now and I know how that feels.’

  ‘If that’s your way of asking me to apologize, I did say sorry, Seth. I did try to explain the moment I arrived, only Celeste interrupted. There is a reason, you know, she’s totally incompetent as a maid—’

  ‘Incompetent?’ Seth wanted to rush to Celeste’s defence, but he stopped, remembering the delicate shoes and wonky slices of bread. He was also distracted by the realization that all the tufts of grass were concealing something. ‘There’s a cave here! I’ve never seen a cave before. Have you been inside a cave? Angelique, come on down here and take a look!’

  31. Multiple Unexplained Deaths

  ‘ You do know Celeste only got the job a couple of weeks ago?’ Angelique was still muttering as she climbed down towards him.

  ‘That is so not true! Just shows you don’t know what you are talking about,’ said Seth, too excited by his find to be cross.

  ‘I can’t believe you made me climb down here to look at a hole in the hillside,’ grumbled Angelique as she joined him on the ledge a few moments later, wiping a splodge of mud from the side of her hand. ‘I have been in loads of caves, loads of times.’

  The sea seemed to have crept up even nearer. The wind had not died down. Seth could taste salt on his lips and was still getting that hint of bonfires as he showed her the dark space.

  ‘Do you get a smell, like a dying fire when it’s just the embers? It’s stronger when you poke your head inside.’

  ‘Nope.’

  He fished his trusty torch out of one of his pockets, and shone it on the sandy floor just inside, out of the wind. ‘Any interesting readings? Any traces of what caused that bright light in the sky? Something magical? One of Jo’s stories suggested it was the ghost of Soul Snakesmouth returning. What’s your divinoscope telling you?’ asked Seth eagerly.

  Angelique was poking around in the plants that clung to the sides of the cliff. She lifted the cane and set a low crackle of cornflower light into the hillside. Then she did the same deep inside the cave.

  He shone his torch further, but the light didn’t penetrate far. ‘Wonder how far back this cave goes. Maybe this isn’t a cave. But an entrance to a tunnel.’ Seth pointed to a mess of flattened sand. ‘What d’you reckon? An alien landing?’ he grinned, trying to get Angelique to take a closer look.

  Seth shone the torchlight further in where there was more flattened sand and found himself staring in disbelief. ‘Actually, I don’t think it was caused by anything very mystical. Guess what I’ve found – footprints. Footprints, here? How is that even possible? Someone has been down here before us.’

  ‘Footprints? Are those footprints?’ said Angelique, drawing alongside him. ‘Well, maybe. Whoever was down here was probably someone like you who believes too many stories. Probably Jo. That girl gets into far too many places she’s really no business being.’

  She frowned again at the end of her cane. Was he imagining it, or did she look worried? Was it telling her someone or something magical had come this way?

  ‘This isn’t just a cave you know, it’s a tunnel,’ she said.

  ‘I think I was trying to tell you that,’ muttered Seth. He’d found a clear footprint and put his own boot alongside it. It was smaller than his. Perhaps it really was Jo’s.

  Angelique was hesitating just where the tunnel narrowed. It looked low and dark and not at all inviting. ‘Smugglers used to make great use of these coastal caves. Sometimes they were left over from abandoned quarries and mines; those went on for miles,’ she said hesitantly.

  Seth plunged on into the darkness. ‘Let’s see where it goes.’

  Even with the torchlight, going from sunlight to the complete black of the tunnel meant it took a good few minutes before he could make out much at all.

  He felt Angelique’s breath on his neck and knew she was beside him.

  ‘Just before we plunge any further into a dark tunnel when we have no idea where it goes, I think I should tell you something,’ she whispered into his ear. She gripped his arm hard. ‘It’s not just traces of magic I’ve detected. It’s worse than that – it’s sinister magic, Seth.’

  Seth heard himself swallow. ‘So at the end of this tunnel, we could meet up with a dark sorcerer?’

  ‘Still want to go on?’

  ‘Come on,’ he said, more loudly than he meant to, trying to boost his own courage. ‘Let’s find this sinister sorcerer before he finds us.’

  In the torchlight he could see Angelique’s determined face as she followed.

  The tunnel went swiftly downwards and the sand beneath their feet quickly gave way to rock. As they went further, they had to walk more slowly as the rock became slippery underfoot. There was a dank stench that owed a lot to the shimmering slime on the walls.

  Seth stopped and focused the torch beam on the floor.

  ‘New fascination with epic slime, Seth?’

  ‘I think we’re still following those footsteps.’

  Angelique shivered. ‘Great. You’ve made me feel so much better about this underground, dark, long slimy tunnel adventure you’ve brought me on.’

  It was narrower, the roof lower, and soon they were walking almost at a crouch, hardly making progress at all, the torchlight looking eerie and green.

  ‘Let’s hope Jo wasn’t serious about a freak high tide.’ Angelique bent further to touch the slippery rocks beneath their feet, then reached up and tugged at a spider’s web up by the ceiling. ‘Because we’re walking under the sea. Do you think this tunnel fills with water at high tide?’

  ‘She was just putting the pressure on to get us back in the boat,’ reassured Seth, but he couldn’t help remembering how the waves had been churning really close to the entrance to the cave.

  ‘You shouldn’t be here at
all,’ Angelique said unexpectedly. ‘All this getting involved in the Mintencress trouble, it’s not really . . . You should be focusing on joining the Elysee, you know. Passing your Prospect. Perfecting a spell. That’s not going to happen overnight.’

  Seth might have argued, but he had a horrid feeling Angelique might have a point, even though it was typical that she’d decided an awkward, slimy tunnel was the place to talk about it. He didn’t fancy this being the place he confessed he was never going to get into the Elysee. Magic was about hard work and practice, he knew that, but he also understood that, crucially, it all depended on you having that spark of magic inside of you in the first place. And magic didn’t always get passed on in families.

  They both were silent for a while, their footsteps echoing rhythmically on the uneven floor. When Angelique spoke again, it was as if she was thinking out loud, because he really couldn’t catch her drift.

  ‘I’ve been dreading news, you know. But also expecting it. Multiple unexplained deaths or a disaster, a freak bridge collapse, something terrible. I’ve been looking for signs, Seth.’

  ‘Angelique, I know I complain that you don’t tell me things. Well, I’d also like to complain that sometimes you tell me things and . . . I have no idea what you are talking about. You do have a habit of launching into things. Like, what did you mean earlier about a rescue from a firefly cage? Just before we meet the ghost of a dark sorcerer in a slime-filled underground tunnel, can you please, for once, explain?’

  She sighed. ‘I’m just seriously worried. I know what a device of enormous sinister power could do in the wrong hands.’

  Seth stopped and held up his hand for silence, thinking he’d heard a noise. Was it the sea coming in behind them? He’d been listening out for that. Or was it more of a scratching sound from up ahead?

  Seth’s back was aching from being bent almost double. He convinced himself the sound was just his imagination and pressed on, but something cleared in his mind.

  ‘I do get it! You’re talking about Tiffany?’

  ‘Of course I am talking about Tiffany Bunn! She really is the very last person who should be in control of a device of such immense power as a firefly cage. It is just about as dangerous as magic can get.’