by Alesha Dixon
“Um, OK,” Cherry said, staring at Alfred who had found a telescope in the car and was now pushing it towards Cherry to set up for him. “That doesn’t sound like an overreaction.”
“Darek, lead the way,” I instructed, shoving my hands in my coat pockets. I clutched my fingers round the box containing the Light of the World. I wasn’t going to let it go until it was safely back where it belonged.
Darek nodded ahead of him. “It’s that way. Any chance I can have these handcuffs taken off now?”
“No chance,” Mum replied, gripping his arm even tighter. “We’re not taking any risks with you, Darek.”
“I’ve tried to tell you how much I regret—”
“Nice try,” Aunt Lucinda interrupted, prodding him in the back with her manicured fingernail. “We don’t want your apologies. Start walking.”
JJ and I followed behind as the three of them led the way. We walked in silence for a bit and I took the time to think about what a momentous occasion this really was. Everything had been so rushed and complicated up until this moment that it was nice to walk in silence in the crisp, cold air. I knew I was doing the right thing, but part of me felt a little sad that I wouldn’t have the Light of the World near me after today. I felt so connected to it.
“Hey, Darek,” JJ suddenly said, breaking the silence, “how come you know exactly where to return the precious stone?”
“I have studied the precious stones all my life.”
I instantly tensed at his mentioning more than one precious stone, but luckily I didn’t think anyone else noticed.
“If that’s true, then how come you messed up transferring Aurora’s powers to you?” JJ asked.
Darek stopped in his tracks to look down his nose at JJ. “Excuse me?”
“You tried to steal Aurora’s powers, right? But it didn’t work. If you know everything there is to know about the precious stone, how did you get that wrong?”
“He has a point, Darek,” Aunt Lucinda grinned, enjoying Darek’s embarrassment. “Quite a big mistake really.”
Darek pursed his lips in irritation and pushed on, Mum holding his arm in her strong grip.
“I didn’t realize that you needed a specific natural light, the Aurora Borealis, overhead to transfer the powers,” he explained reluctantly. “Everything about the Light of the World was myths and legends. Folktales passed down to generations by mouth. Not everything was explained clearly and it was difficult to know what to believe and which bits were just made up.”
“But you didn’t know how to transfer the powers, even though you’d dedicated your whole life to it,” JJ added breezily. “Aurora figured it out by reading that book. And she’s only twelve years old.”
Aunt Lucinda sniggered and Darek looked as though his head might explode.
“I didn’t realize that book had such valuable information in it,” Darek seethed, staring straight ahead and refusing to look at JJ, who had now fallen into step alongside them. “If I had, obviously I would have consulted it earlier.”
As they talked, I started to get a strange feeling. It came on so gradually, I didn’t even notice it was happening until my fingers started tingling and I realized that I felt really warm, even though it was cold out, and the anxiety I’d felt about our mission had completely faded to a sense that everything was going to be all right. It was like there was a light shining within me.
The closer we got to a striking, distinct mountain right in the middle of the vast, empty landscape and underneath the Northern Lights, the more the feeling grew and grew. I slowed my steps.
“Wait,” I called out, causing everyone to stop and turn around.
“Aurora, what are you doing hanging back there?” Mum asked, gesturing for me to catch them up.
“Darek, do we need to go this way?” I asked, pointing to the mountain.
Darek snorted. “What, up Kirkjufell Mountain? No, we are not going that way.”
“But … I feel drawn to it.”
“OK, well, still, that’s not where the Light of the World belongs,” Darek insisted. “It belongs in the direction we’re heading now.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, looking down at my hands as the warm tingling feeling ran through them, like the sparks were dancing about inside my veins.
Mum looked at him suspiciously and he held up his hands defensively.
“Look, if you don’t trust me then we can go up Kirkjufell Mountain so you can be sure, but you can’t go up there without a local guide as it can be a dangerous trek if you don’t know where to go. We’d have to go to the nearest town and ask for someone to take us.” He sighed. “It’s up to you. You’re just wasting time but hey, from my point of view, traipsing pointlessly around a mountain is still better than being in that prison, so really, I’m happy either way.”
“What do you want to do, Aurora?” Mum asked.
I shook my head. This was too important a task for me to just decide to go somewhere on a whim because I had a warm feeling. I had to be responsible about it. The mountain path didn’t exactly look easy and whatever else Darek said, he was right about needing a local guide. We’d already got this far; it was too much of a risk to change the plan now.
“Let’s keep going,” I said, hurrying to catch them up.
We continued and the feeling began to fade until we were far enough of a distance for me to go back to being cold again.
“Everything all right, Aurora?” JJ asked, walking alongside me. “Are you feeling nervous?”
“I don’t know,” I said in a low voice, watching Darek’s back. “Something doesn’t feel right. Why did I feel drawn to that place if the Light of the World is supposed to be somewhere else? I feel cold and empty here and Darek says we’re getting close.”
JJ raised his eyebrows. “You think he’s fooling us? Surely he wouldn’t be so stupid. There’s one of him and four of us; we all have superpowers and he doesn’t.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” I said. “Still, something doesn’t—”
“Here we are!” Darek announced eagerly, stopping suddenly. “There, straight ahead.”
In front of us was a towering jumble of large rocks, in the middle of which was a gap just big enough for someone to squeeze through.
“That’s it?” Aunt Lucinda said in disbelief. “I hope you’re not expecting us to crawl into that gap. It’s absolutely out of the question. These clothes are NOT machine-washable and it looks like a rather tight squeeze.”
I stepped round him to approach the rocks cautiously. “What’s in there?”
“A tunnel,” Darek answered.
“Does the tunnel go underground?” JJ asked. Darek nodded in reply. “Just like in Cherry’s vision!”
“What vision?” Mum asked.
“I don’t think this is the right place,” I said, peering into the darkness of the space between the rocks. “Let’s go back to Kirkjufell Mountain.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Darek replied, the corners of his mouth twitching into a smirk.
Suddenly, JJ cried out as he was pounced on by several guards who seemed to come out of nowhere. Mum gasped and turned to help him, facing her palms upwards and shooting out light beams with great energy force, but just as she did so, more guards appeared from behind the rocks, pinning her and Aunt Lucinda to the ground.
“You’ll have to make do without your light powers, Beams,” Darek said, watching as the guards struggled to put some kind of specially-designed gloves on Mum and Aunt Lucinda’s hands. “These gloves have been created with you in mind. I know how you love bespoke designs, Lucinda, and they are exclusive to Vermore Enterprises. Be careful with that one,” he yelled to the many guards holding JJ to the ground, “he has super-strength. A little sedation once we’re underground might be in order.”
He raised his eyes to meet mine and I stumbled backwards, swallowing the lump in my throat and desperately trying to get my powers flowing. But as I retreated, someone’s large hands gripped round my a
rms and yanked my hands behind my back.
I cried out in pain as they held my arms there and then tied them together, before putting a pair of gloves on – the kind that were keeping Mum and Aunt Lucinda’s powers in check. I tried to wrestle out of the person’s grip, but it was no use.
“Hello, Aurora,” a familiar voice said in my ear.
He spun me round and I stood face to face with Mr Mercury.
“You tracked me down in the end, congratulations.” He let out a loud, piercing cackle before dragging me towards the tunnel. “Come on, Beams. Let’s go for a little walk.”
Still struggling against his grip, I managed to whisper, “Cherry, time to press that button,” before I was gruffly pushed through the rocks and led on into the darkness.
16
Mr Mercury walked just ahead of me, holding a low light torch. Once we were through the entrance to the tunnel, it got slightly bigger so that we didn’t have to crouch or duck our heads walking through it.
“Are you all right, Aurora?” Mum called out a few metres behind me. “Are you hurt?”
“She’s fine,” Darek growled. “Just walk.”
We could barely see anything, but after a few paces I could make out bars of a prison cell built into one side of the tunnel with a small light hanging from the ceiling. I gasped as I peered through the bars on my way past. The Pope and the Dalai Lama were sitting together in there on the cold, damp ground.
“LET THEM GO!” I yelled, trying to struggle out of Darek’s grip.
“Now, now, Lightning Girl,” he sneered in my ear as he pushed me on through the tunnel, “they’re just fine. You keep walking.”
“We’re going to get you out of here,” I heard Mum say firmly as she walked past them behind me. “I promise.”
I don’t know if it’s because she’s been a superhero for so many years, but Mum has a way of saying stuff like that so calmly and confidently, you can’t help but believe her.
We continued along the rough passageway and I heard a clatter and then an “Ouch!” from JJ behind me as he stumbled over the uneven floor.
“Keep walking,” one of the guards barked at him.
“It would be easier if I could actually see where I was going,” JJ pointed out.
“Try doing this in heels,” Aunt Lucinda grumbled. “Really, can’t we have some more light?”
“No,” snapped Darek, gripping my right arm and dragging me forward any time I slowed. “Although I’m surprised you’re still bothering with that torch, Desmond. I would have thought you’d have got around to installing some lights in here by now.”
Even in the dim light from the torch, I could see Mr Mercury’s whole body tense at the use of his name.
“Don’t call me that,” he hissed.
“What? Desmond?” Darek replied innocently. “Desmond Silicon? But that’s your name, isn’t it?”
“You know how I feel about that name!” Mr Mercury spat. “So, shut it!”
“Oh yes, you don’t like it because it reminds you of how much you’ve let down your dear old mother, Mrs Silicon,” Darek said gleefully. “I wonder how she’d feel if she found out her darling Desmond kidnapped the Pope and the Dalai Lama? I don’t think she’d be too proud of you, and she’d probably love your sister, the successful one, even more.”
“I said, shut it.”
The conversation was confusing me. Mr Mercury worked for Darek, didn’t he? But he wasn’t acting as though he was talking to his boss. Surely he should be afraid of Darek, the powerful mastermind behind everything, but instead, he was acting as though they were on an equal footing. And I knew it couldn’t be the other way round, and that Darek worked for Mr Mercury – it was obvious just from this conversation that they had no respect for one another.
What was going on?
“I would come down from that high horse, if I were you, Vermore.” Mr Mercury sniggered. “You’re not exactly in anyone’s good books.”
“What do you mean?” Darek replied hurriedly, his voice tense. “I’ve brought the girl, haven’t I?”
“You think that will make up for everything you’ve done?” Mr Mercury snorted as the tunnel curved to the left. “You’ve got a lot of begging to do and I doubt forgiveness is on the cards.”
“But I’ve achieved more than you ever could,” Darek squeaked, his hand gripping my arm even tighter as though he was afraid I might escape his clutches, even though I had nowhere to run.
“You’re lucky we were able to set up the trap for your arrival. How were you planning on letting us know that you were on your way here with Lightning Girl?” Mr Mercury asked.
“I knew she would get a message to you once I was broken out. I wasn’t worried. She’s not like her useless brother.”
Mr Mercury frowned at him.
“Wait,” I said, tripping forward, “your sister, Selena Silicon, is involved in this? How? Darek, you haven’t spoken to anyone since we broke you out of prison. How could she get a message to anyone?”
“Enough talk from you,” Mr Mercury spat. “Anyway, Vermore, what makes you think that what you’ve done now is enough to make up for what you did?”
“But … b-bringing L-Lightning Girl must count for s-something?” Darek replied.
I’d never heard Darek talk like this before. His voice tremored as he spoke and I could hear him swallowing nervously. Even his hand began shaking slightly. Who was he so afraid of? And what had he done to be so worried?
“I suppose it may count for something,” Mr Mercury said breezily, clearly enjoying torturing him. “But what you did was a great betrayal. And it will be VERY difficult to forget that.”
“It was a moment’s misjudgement,” Darek snapped loudly, his voice echoing down the tunnel. “I made ONE mistake. I got carried away. I wasn’t thinking! I just—”
“Save it,” Mr Mercury interrupted as we finally got to the end of a tunnel, stopping in front of the heavy metal door. “I’m not the one you need to be grovelling to, Vermore.”
Darek gulped.
Mr Mercury turned around, shining the torch right in my eyes. I squinted as he held it up to my face.
“There’s no way of you getting out of this one, Lightning Girl,” he said with a victorious smirk that made my blood boil. “In the end, after all our encounters, I have won and you have lost.”
“I don’t know if it counts as winning when along the way you get ants down your pants,” I muttered, recalling the time Fred shoved his red ant farm down Mr Mercury’s trousers in the Natural History Museum. “And you’ve been sat on by an ostrich. Twice.”
Several of the guards burst out laughing and Mr Mercury was so angry, it looked as though his head might explode.
“Oi! Shut it!” he yelled at the guards, all of whom fell silent immediately.
“Yes, my dear ostrich, Alfred, really doesn’t like you, does he? I can’t think why when you’re so … charming,” Aunt Lucinda mused, setting off the guards again who couldn’t stop giggling.
“Why don’t we just go in?” Darek suggested through gritted teeth as Mr Mercury’s face completely scrunched up in frustration. “I think it’s time. You can taunt Lightning Girl later, if you wish, but I hardly think we should keep anyone waiting any longer.”
Mr Mercury spun round and shone the torch beam at the keypad next to the door. He punched in a long code and then had his eye retina scanned, as well as voice activation. The door clunked as it automatically unlocked, and Mr Mercury pressed his whole body weight against it and pushed it open.
I thought that wherever we were walking into may be better lit than the tunnel, but I was wrong. It was obvious we were in some kind of underground lair, but it was badly lit by only a few hazy blue floor lights in various spots of the room. I could just make out some impressive-looking machinery in the corner of the room and a variety of computer screens dotted around the wall. From the dull glow of a floor light in another corner, I saw a comfortable chair with a pile of books stacked next to it.
“Where are we?” I asked, squinting through the darkness. “What is this place?”
“It smells awful,” Aunt Lucinda pointed out. “This place could really do with some scented candles. I could give you a list of some lovely brands, if you’d like, Darek. A couple of diffusers here and there, and even an underground lair could be transformed into a home!”
“This isn’t my home,” Darek replied.
“No,” came a low, cold voice that made a shiver run down my spine, “it’s mine.”
I heard a ripple of gasps at the hidden voice from the corner of the room. I wished I could use my powers to light up the room and my fingers itched in the gloves behind my back.
“Who are you?” Mum asked angrily, with no giveaway of fear in her voice. She really was the bravest person in the world. “What do you want?”
The mysterious owner of the voice stepped forward and I could see that there was a hood covering their face, just like in Cherry’s vision.
“I was hoping to meet you, Lightning Girl,” the hooded figure said slowly, approaching me.
From his voice it was clear that he was a man, but I didn’t recognize it.
As he came closer, Mr Mercury quickly shut off his torch, but just before he did, I managed to catch a glimpse of the figure’s hand. It was horribly scarred and the skin sunken, covered in what looked like patterns of dark ink, as though the tendons and veins in his hand were outlined by black marker.
I felt strange as he got closer, like my powers were rebelling inside, desperate for the warm light to burst and shine out in protest of his presence. He stopped about a metre from me, his face completely covered by the hood so that even as my eyes slowly got used to the dark, I still couldn’t see who he was.
“Well done for bringing her here, Darek,” he said eventually, but he didn’t sound all that pleased. “Something you’ve done right.”
“I… I wanted to say s … sorry,” Darek stammered, his fingers shaking against my arm, “about everything. I tried to get a message to you—”
