Cleo dropped to her knees and examined the image of Heru. “Not even a scratch,” she sighed.
“Maybe not,” yelled a muffled voice from inside the coffin, “but you’ve just given me a headache that’ll last the next ten years. DO NOT do that again!”
Luke sat down heavily on the sarcophagus. “It’s no good,” he said. “We need to find the original jewels or this thing will stay shut for good.”
“We’ve got more chance of stopping the Great Guff and Princess Poot from swapping gas,” scoffed Resus.
“Swapping what?” asked Luke.
“Swapping gas,” explained Resus. “It’s how goblins get married. They don’t exchange wedding vows, they…” He pulled a face as an unpleasant image flashed across his mind. “They squeeze into the smallest space they can find, then spend an entire twenty-four hours blasting gas at each other.”
Cleo shuddered. “Gross!”
“Tell me about it.”
Suddenly the trio heard a distant crash and the tomb began to shake from side to side, toppling mounds of treasure and burying a few unlucky goblins in the process.
“What was that?” demanded Resus.
“I don’t know,” admitted Luke as a second bang shook the cavern. A nearby pile of coins tumbled to the floor in a small avalanche of gold.
“I think I do,” gulped Cleo. The boys looked at her. “The goblins must have started leaving the pyramid with Heru’s treasure…”
Another thunderous crash shook the room.
Luke paled. “They’ve unleashed the curse!”
Chapter Seven
The Water
Luke held up the flaming torch as he, Resus and Cleo raced along a tunnel lined with silver statues of mermaids. To begin with the trio had tried to escape the way they had come, but the shockwaves that were rocking the pyramid had sent a pair of golden dog sculptures crashing down into the passageway, blocking their route.
“I don’t feel good about leaving Heru behind!” yelled Cleo, leaping over a toppled mermaid.
“You’d feel worse if you stayed and the entire tomb came down on top of you,” Resus pointed out.
“Heru’s sarcophagus is strong,” Luke reassured her. “Short of the entire pyramid coming crashing down, it’ll protect him from anything.”
“And if the entire pyramid does come crashing down…?”
Luke shrugged. “Then giving back the heart will be the least of our worries.”
Another boom rocked the ground beneath their feet and they were forced to press themselves against the walls of the tunnel to stay upright. Dozens more solid silver mermaids fell to the ground around them.
“‘Subtle’ wasn’t exactly Heru’s choice of decoration, was it?” quipped Resus. “I mean, why have one mermaid statue when you can ha— Whoa!”
Suddenly he disappeared from sight.
Luke just caught a glimpse of the vampire’s cape disappearing over a ledge in the darkness ahead. He lunged forward and grabbed the end of it, managing to stop Resus’s fall.
“Where did the floor go?” Resus called up, his voice echoing loudly around the tunnel.
Gritting his teeth, Luke rested the flaming torch against the wall and began to pull on Resus’s cape. Cleo hurried over to help, and between the two of them they were able to drag their friend back from the edge.
Resus collapsed onto the solid ground of the tunnel, trying to catch his breath.
“I thought that fall was going to kill you!” exclaimed Cleo.
“It’s not the fall I was worried about,” gasped Resus. “It was the sudden stop when I reached the bottom!”
Luke picked up the torch again and crawled back to the spot where the ground fell away. Below was a long drop down to another cavern. This one was smaller than Heru’s tomb but lined with white marble and lit by fiery sconces attached to the walls. And there, filling almost the entire floor of the cavern, was… No – it couldn’t be…
“Is that a swimming pool?” asked Luke incredulously.
Cleo and Resus joined him to gaze over the edge. “Yep,” the mummy agreed. “That’s a swimming pool!”
“Now I know that you mummies have more money than sense,” remarked Resus. “Why would someone who is – to all intents and purposes – dead need one of those in their final resting place?”
The swimming pool was rectangular, and on each side was a row of more mermaid statues. The water in the pool was crystal clear.
As his eyes grew used to the dim light, Luke spotted something else. All around the pool were goblins, skipping and dancing at the water’s edge. “They seem to be excited about something,” he said.
“Probably the fact that they’ve taken away the steps they used to get down there,” suggested Cleo, pointing to a pair of long, golden ladders lying at the side of the pool.
“Possibly,” said Luke, “although they must know we’ll try to get down another way.”
“Wait… There!” hissed Resus, pointing. “There’s something at the bottom of the pool … something glinting.” He pulled a pair of binoculars from his cloak and trained them on the water below. “Rubies!” he exclaimed, handing them to Luke. “I bet they’re the three rubies the goblins took from Heru’s sarcophagus.”
Luke held the binoculars up to his eyes and adjusted the focus. Resus was right: there, on the bottom of the pool, lay three large rubies.
“How do we know they’re the same ones?”
“We can’t be certain,” Resus admitted, “but it’s a bit of a coincidence, isn’t it? Exactly three rubies…”
“But why throw them into the pool?” asked Cleo. “That’s a terrible hiding place.”
“Goblins are notoriously scared of water,” replied Resus. “It turns their gas into goo and causes them to swell up until they explode.”
“Eurgh!” said Cleo. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Neither do I,” agreed Resus, “and if the goblins think we’re as scared as they are, it’ll explain why they thought the pool was a safe place for the rubies.”
“Well, I’m not scared of water,” said Luke, “so our luck could finally be changing. The problem is – how do we get down without ladders?”
“I’ve got some rope in here somewhere,” said Resus, plunging his hand into his cape.
“We don’t need rope,” scoffed Cleo. “I’m not scared of water either!” And, without another word, she leapt off the ledge and down into the cavern below.
Luke watched, open-mouthed, as she broke the surface of the water. “What did she do that for?”
“Because she’s got about as much brain as a vegetarian zombie!” replied Resus. “Still, at least she’ll be able to get the rubies for us.”
“That’s not the bit I’m worried about,” said Luke. “Don’t forget, once she’s got the rubies, she’ll have to climb out of the pool…”
With horror, Resus realized what Luke meant. “And she’ll be surrounded by all those goblins … alone!”
“Exactly,” said Luke, jumping to his feet. He pulled The G.H.O.U.L. Guide from his pocket and handed it to Resus. “Look after Mr Skipstone for me.”
“Why?” demanded Resus. “Wait a minute. You’re not going to…”
Luke looked down at the surface of the swimming pool far below. “Yep, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” Then he lifted his arms above his head, brought them together and dived off the ledge.
The air whipped around Luke’s ears as he plunged down towards the water. He could see the goblins looking up and pointing at him as he dropped closer and closer. There was Cleo, her bandages soaked, kicking down towards the rubies resting on the marbled bottom…
Splash! The water enveloped Luke completely. It was far colder than he could possibly have imagined, and for a moment it felt as though all the wind had been knocked out of his chest.
He kicked his legs, twisted round and swam for the surface. He could hear the goblins’ muffled screeches and catcalls suddenly growing loud and echoi
ng around the cavern as he burst up out of the water. He gulped down lungfuls of air as Cleo surfaced beside him.
“Cold, isn’t it?” she grinned, her teeth chattering.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Luke reprimanded. “You shouldn’t have jumped from so far up.”
“Oh, stop complaining,” retorted Cleo. “Look – I’ve managed to get one of the rubies…” She held the sparkling red gem up out of the water. At the sight of it, the goblins around the pool went crazy.
“Hide it, quick!” Luke hissed. “You don’t know what they’ll do to get it back.”
“Relax,” Cleo insisted as she tucked the ruby into her bandages. The goblins began to run around the sides of the pool, pushing the mermaid statues into the water. “They’re too scared to come in the water, and wrecking the place won’t get them anywhere.”
Luke felt something brush past his leg and his breath caught in his chest. “Don’t speak too soon,” he gulped.
Suddenly a shoal of silver mermaids rose up out of the water in front of them, now very much alive. Their shimmering hair lay slick against their scalps and their eyes shone bright green.
More and more of them surfaced until they completely encircled the children. They opened their beautiful mouths and hissed angrily, revealing sharp, pointed teeth.
Luke shivered. “I think we might be in a bit of trouble.”
Chapter Eight
The Laughter
Resus let go of the rope and dropped the last few metres to the ground. He sped along the edge of the pool, dodging goblins as he ran, and opened The G.H.O.U.L. Guide to a page featuring one of the terrifying mermaids.
“Luke!” he yelled, skidding to a halt on the wet marble and turning the book round to show his friend. “Stay away from the statues – the goblins didn’t think we were scared of water, they planned this. It’s a trap!”
Luke and Cleo were now treading water in the middle of the swimming pool surrounded by hissing, snarling monsters. “Tell me something I don’t know…” Luke called back.
“OK,” shouted Resus. “They’re not real mermaids – they’re scaremaids!”
“Scaremaids?” demanded Cleo.
Resus nodded and read aloud from the pages of the golden book. “Scaremaids are a cross between standard mermaids and sharks, bred originally to protect the kingdom of Atlantis. The creatures vanished without trace from the oceans around a thousand years ago.”
“I think we’ve found out where they all went,” puffed Luke.
Samuel Skipstone watched, concerned, from the cover of the book. “The magic in Heru’s curse must have reanimated them when they hit the water,” he said. “You need to get out of the pool … now!”
“We’re trying!” cried Luke. “We just have to get past…” His words were lost in the churning of water as the scaremaids came in for the attack.
Luke felt sharp, pointed teeth bite at him and long, slender hands begin to pull him down. He just managed to take a deep breath before he was dragged beneath the surface. Through the clear water he could see Cleo’s legs kicking furiously beside him and the scaremaids circling, teeth bared and eyes burning with emerald light.
Resus grabbed the end of one of the ladders lying at the pool side and tried to haul it towards the water, but it was far too heavy for him to move by himself.
In the water, the scaremaids continued to nip and bite at Luke’s arms and legs. Twisting round, he found himself face to face with Cleo, who looked at him in terror as six of the scaremaids tore at her bandages with their fangs. Their silver tails thrashed wildly as they attacked their helpless prey.
Bubbles of air burst from Luke’s mouth in a silent scream and his lungs began to burn. He had to get to the surface, had to breathe… Was this how he would die? Torn to pieces under-water? Anger flooded Luke’s mind at the thought of never returning home to Scream Street, never seeing his parents again.
He felt blackness wash over him and a jolt of pain shoot down his spine. For a split second he thought one of the scaremaids had bitten him on the back, but as his face stretched out to form a long snout and thick, brown fur emerged from the pores of his skin, he realized he was transforming into his werewolf.
Suddenly Luke no longer felt the urgency to reach the surface. His lungs – like the rest of his body – had changed shape, becoming more powerful and efficient in the process.
Now a fully formed wolf, Luke pumped his hind legs and shot through the water towards Cleo. The mummy’s eyes were closed and the last human thought in Luke’s mind was that he might already be too late. Gripping the nearest scaremaid in his powerful jaws, he slung the creature out of the pool. It landed on the narrow marble walkway and instantly became nothing more than a harmless silver statue again.
Luke’s werewolf lashed out with its paws, dragging scaremaid after scaremaid away from Cleo. One of them had its teeth locked around the mummy’s throat, and the werewolf bit down hard on its thick tail, drawing opaque plumes of silver blood. Wrapping his front legs around Cleo, Luke swam up through the rapidly clouding water into the cool air above. When they broke the surface, Cleo opened her eyes and breathed long and hard.
“Behind you!” Resus’s voice echoed off the marble walls and Luke’s wolf turned to see half a dozen more scaremaids zipping through the water towards them. He kicked his legs but couldn’t move quickly enough and the scaremaids leapt from the water, as graceful as dolphins, before crashing down on top of him and dragging him beneath the surface once more.
One of them wrapped her arms around Luke’s neck and the wolf’s furry tail shot up involuntarily and brushed against her silver fins.
That’s when the laughter started.
Beautiful, sing-song giggles suddenly filled the pool, borne upwards in tiny silver bubbles. Cleo’s head whipped round to try to see where the sound was coming from, and she quickly realized that the scaremaid clinging to Luke’s back was laughing uncontrollably.
At the pool side, Resus flipped frantically through the pages of The G.H.O.U.L. Guide. “That’s it!” he exclaimed when he found the relevant entry. “Scaremaids respond to being tickled!”
“Tickled?” cried Cleo. “Have you been at Heru’s wine cellar or something?”
“Master Negative is correct,” agreed Samuel Skipstone. “Laughter overpowers the scaremaids, and tickling them appears to be the most effective way to achieve this. It was for this reason that they were eventually relieved of their posts as guardians of Atlantis.”
Resus pulled a feather duster from his cloak and tossed it down to Cleo. “Off you go, then,” he grinned. “Get tickling!”
Cleo dived beneath the surface once again and slid the duster under the armpit of the nearest scaremaid. The creature’s expression of fury turned to one of mirth as she too began to giggle. The mummy gripped her by the tail and found she was able to drag her over to the edge of the pool – tickling all the while – where Resus pulled her from the water and watched her solidify into a grinning silver figurine.
Cleo swam back into the middle of the pool, working the feather duster like a fencing foil, jabbing it here and there until the scaremaids around Luke were all rendered helpless with laughter. The water sparkled with millions of tiny, happy bubbles. It was like swimming in silver champagne.
Luke took Cleo’s lead, tickling with his bushy tail and whiskers until eventually all the scaremaids lay on the slick marble floor, transformed back to solid silver with their faces split into wide grins. The werewolf slumped at Resus’s feet, shivering as its muscles reshaped and it became human once more. Cleo took the opportunity to dive back into the murky water and retrieve the final two rubies.
“We’re halfway there,” she grinned as she climbed out of the swimming pool, accidentally splashing a few drops of water over Resus’s pristine shoes as she did so.
“Oi,” snapped the vampire. “Don’t get me wet.”
“I’ll throw you in there if you start complaining,” grunted Luke, climbing to his fee
t. “Cleo and I are soaked!”
“Yes, but I found out how you could defeat the scaremaids,” countered Resus.
“You found that out, did you?” remarked Samuel Skipstone with a grin. “And here I was thinking that the answer lay in my years of painstaking research…”
Resus felt his cheeks redden. “Er … yes, but I turned the pages!”
Luke patted his friend on the back and laughed. “And a brilliant job you did of it, too,” he beamed. “Now we just have to get past these—”
He stopped and looked around him, suddenly realizing they were now alone. “Hang on – where did all the goblins go?”
There was a rumbling sound and the cavern began to shake.
Cleo shrugged. “Maybe the scaremaids frightened them off?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so,” said Luke. “They only came to life when they hit the water – and the goblins were intent on staying as dry as Resus.”
“Do you mind?”
The rumbling grew louder.
“No,” continued Luke, “something else scared them away. I just can’t think—”
He stopped again as the wall behind them exploded in a shower of marble. Chunks of stone rained down onto the floor and into the pool.
Then a worm the size of a train burst through and swallowed the trio whole.
Chaper Nine
The Slime
Luke found himself tumbling around in what could only be described as a warm sleeping bag lined with slime. Everything was bathed in a pinky-orange glow. “Resus! Cleo!”
“I’m here,” replied Resus, slithering through the gloopy tunnel behind him. “Are you OK?”
“I think so…” Luke touched the wall and it undulated back and forth beneath his fingertips. “Please tell me we’re not where I think we are…”
Resus nodded, droplets of slime bouncing off his nose. “’Fraid so. We’ve been eaten by some kind of giant worm.” There was a loud crash that sent the boys sprawling. “And I’m pretty sure that was it smashing through another wall.”
Rampage of the Goblins Page 4
