by Shane Mason
‘Then we have not come this way.’
‘If I calculate correctly, we found where it exited because we came across a second passage just like this.’
‘Yes but we did not enter them.’ Melaleuca’s hand suddenly felt the floor disappear in front of her. ‘Hang on,’ she said bringing herself to a quick stop. Lexington banged her head on Melaleuca’s rump.
‘What?’ Lexington said.
‘I don’t know,’ she said groping around. ‘Hang on. I think it feels like stairs. Yes, yes it is.’
Melaleuca straightened herself up, cautious not to hit her head. With great difficulty she lowered herself down, bottom first, with her legs out in front to feel when they hit the floor. Lexington followed behind making sure she could feel Melaleuca as she went. As they got lower and lower the air went from stuffy to cool and damp, and started to smell of wet ground.
Melaleuca’s feet hit something flat and wooden sounding. She placed all of her weight on it and then stood up. A small sound hissed, followed by the striking noise of a flint on a rock. In front of her a yellow flame burst forth, igniting an old style gas lamp. It flickered behind the dirty glass and she watched as scant light licked across a closed door.
Without looking at each other they knew immediately that the room had to be forbidden.
‘Perhaps this is what our parents wanted us to find,’ Lexington said and touched her chest where the medallion had been.
‘Maybe. Let’s open it and find out.’
It felt solid rock under her hands, and had no handle. She commanded Lexington to help, and they pushed and pushed but to no avail.
***
‘I think we have found something,’ Quixote said.
‘Really? What makes you think that?’
Quixote pulled a face, climbed on top of the rubble and stood by the base of the dirt-encrusted door, dwarfed by its immensity.
‘Giants lived here,’ Quixote said straining his neck to look up. With a solemn air he added, ‘I was right. Giants.’
Moments of silence passed between them in quiet awe and a huge feeling that the earth had just yielded up an immense secret fell over them.
Quixote leapt onto one of the giants’ legs and started his normal monkey-climbing act.
‘What are you doing now? You have already collapsed the rocks.’
‘Getting a souvenir to show the girls.’
Ari shook his head.
The stone giant had a strange looking object in its hand. Quixote grabbed for the hand to hoist himself up, and the object moved slightly. He climbed above it, sitting on the giant’s outstretched arm and examined it. Funnel shaped, it had crinkled edges around the top of it. Quixote pushed it and it wobbled. Without thinking he clasped it between his hands and with his two skinny arms, strained as he pulled upwards with all his might. It lifted a few inches.
Once again Ari could see how little thought Quixote put into his venture. He started to climb the giant as well in case Quixote slipped. Quixote pulled and pulled and pulled, nearly lifting the heavy funnel out of the Giant’s hand.
The earth shook and rumbled as if a creature, far under the earth, protested its removal.
***
‘It’s no use the door won’t open,’ Melaleuca said.
‘There must be a password or a key or another lever or something to push.’
She groped at the strange circle indent on the door. It had small crinkled edges to it.
‘Maybe this is the key to it.’ She fidgeted with it but to no avail.
The ground suddenly shook and they found themselves thrown from side to side, and the door started to open. Straining as it went; the shaking earth appeared to make it difficult for it to track along its groove.
***
Ari swung back and forth with the shaking earth and slipping, fell backwards into the rubble.
Quixote let the funnel go and tumbled off, and the funnel fell back into place and the earth stopped shaking.
***
The shaking subsided. Melaleuca picked herself up off the floor and helped Lexington up. The door had only opened a few inches, barely enough to peer in let alone squeeze through.
‘Did we do that?’ Lexington said.
‘If we have, now the whole mansion knows about it.’ Melaleuca let her feelings about the door swirl through her. ‘I don’t think we are going to open this door alone. Let’s go and find the others.’
***
Ari knew they needed the girls. Whatever game or play or imagination they had used previous to this, now seemed irrelevant - the giant statues and the immense doors were real. Even without Lexington’s logic, Ari could see the statues and the door had been buried under the earth for possibly hundreds, if not thousands of years.
As they hiked like mad back through the bush, a small chipping noise rang out of the head of one of the giants. A long implement pushed through one of its eyes and exposed an empty dark socket. Then an eye appeared at it and stared at the outside world.
Chapter 11 - Into the Dark Room
Uncle Bear-Nard cowered as Aunty Gertrude raged and raged.
‘And further more the flouting of rules deserves a punishment.’ She flapped her arms with great gusto.
He squirmed in his study, her anger making him uncomfortable. He placed his hands, palm up on his lap and tried to look caring.
‘I am not sure all the rules have been explained.’
‘NOT EXPLAINED! NOT EXPLAINED.’
Her face reddened as if uncovering a pit of festering anger and she shrieked.
Uncle Bear-Nard dropped his head down. Had he pushed his wife too far?
‘CHILDREN BY THEIR AGE SHOULD KNOW THE GOLDEN RULE.’
He could think of several golden rules. He glanced around his study, hoping that one of his many books or piles of papers or gathered knick-knacks might jog his memory.
‘The golden rule is,’ she said through clenched teeth, ‘everything is forbidden unless told so.’ She threw her arms up in despair. ‘Really. These kids have addled your head.’
He muttered inaudible words.
‘I don’t want to hear it.’ She turned to the door. ‘Girls, get in here. Tell him what those brats did!’
A timid Petruce told Uncle Bear-Nard what had happened and Pemily agreed, adding that the girls were now locked in the chapel.
Uncle Bear-Nard, Aunty Gertrude and the maids marched to the chapel. As they stood outside the door, Aunty Gertrude unlocked it and Uncle Bear-Nard nervously shuffled in. She expected him to punish the girls, to give them a full beating or met out something harsh but he knew he could never inflict such brutality on them.
They stepped inside and an empty chapel greeted them. Aunty Gertrude flew into another rage.
‘Who would dare defy me? Who let them out?’
The maids shook. Uncle Bear-Nard ignored her and wandered around the room looking as if he took a great interest in the whole affair. He walked behind the altar and noticed the discarded maid’s uniforms. He pushed them under the cover of the altar with his foot while Aunty Gertrude marched up and down the aisle fuming and yelling.
Footsteps hurried down the hall and Jeeves, the butler, appeared at the door neatly attired in a black and white uniform. Behind him stood Pembrooke, a stooped scruffy-looking man with dirty clothes.
‘M’lord, M’lady. Morning tea,’ Jeeves said and turned his nose away from Pembrooke.
‘Pembrooke,’ Aunty Gertrude shouted. ‘Disgusting man. I have told you before. Not inside with your boots.’
‘It’s right mam. Took ‘em off.’ He pointed to his dirt encrusted socks. ‘Thought ya might like to knows I seen them young uns run off up into Hirad’s Forest.’
Overwhelmed at the news Aunty Gertrude pretended to swoon and all the servants rushed to her aid. They fussed over her trying to look concerned. The earth suddenly shook and every one scrambled for the wall. Seconds later the earth went quiet. The maids’ faces turned white, as did Jeeves, Uncle Bear-Nard’s a
nd Pembroke’s. Aunty Gertrude shot an accusing stare at Uncle Bear-Nard.
‘It’s been years since we’ve had an earthquake. Bear-Nard! What’s going on?’
Great. Something to finally get her mind off the children.
‘I bet those children have something to do with this,’ she said infuriated. ‘I want them found. I want them brought to me and I want them now!’
Uncle Bear-Nard groaned under his breath, while the staff scuttled to look for them.
***
The cousins met at the tumble down stone fence behind the gardens and talked like mad about their discoveries.
‘Can you remember what you did to make the door open,’ Ari said to the girls.
‘We did nothing, I think,’ Lexington said. ‘It opened when the earth shook.’
Melaleuca added, ‘We must have tripped a switch or a trigger.’
Quixote grinned at Ari.
‘What is it?’ Melaleuca said.
‘Well. We can’t be too sure,’ Ari said. ‘But it seems the earth started shaking when Quixote lifted an object out of the statue’s hands and it stopped when he dropped it.’
‘Are you telling me,’ Lexington said, ‘that the key to the door under the Cathedral-Mansion is in the hills and has been buried for hundreds of years?’
From the expression on Ari’s face Melaleuca saw Lexington’s logic made him doubt it.
‘Perhaps,’ he said. ‘Perhaps it was coincidence then.’
‘Orrrr...’ Quixote said. ‘Or it is only one way of opening it and there are others.’
Radiating enthusiasm, he pranced around in the long grass and through laughter said, ‘How cool would it be if an ancient race of giants lived under the mountain?’
Melaleuca locked her eyes on Quixote and he, in turn, bore his own smiling eyes back at her. A rushing whirl of images flooded her brain, overwhelming her. Scenes of giants, large buildings, swirling masses of colours and shapes she had never seen before rapidly changed and darted about. Feeling queasy, she jerked her head away. So that’s what goes on in his mind.
‘Take me to these statues,’ Lexington said.
‘Wait,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Just wait...hang on...Let’s use imagination and play. Use it to work it out,’ though her confidence in her suggestion wavered a little.
Following their parents’ behest, they each took turns suggesting possible scenarios, though their past games and playing now felt like a clumsy pair of boots, especially in the light of the realness of their discoveries.
‘Mel,’ Lexington finally said. ‘Let’s just go check the statues.’
‘Sure. I was about to suggest it. What about your hyperthesis?’
‘Oh it can wait. Really, I mean, this is worth checking first.’
‘Maybe our parents sent us here to rescue the scared boy,’ Quixote said out of nowhere.
‘What scared boy?’ Melaleuca asked.
In their excitement Quixote and Ari had forgotten to tell the girls of the small boy and the men chasing him, so they rushed through an explanation of what had happened.
Lexington scratched her head. Rescuing him did not make sense.
‘If our parents wanted us to rescue anyone, then why let us go through all what we have been through?’
‘Why not,’ Quixote said. ‘Doesn’t matter how we got here.’
‘Why not? Our parents let us get attacked, disappear, transport us with an old man, who turns young, to a hidden land...’ she shrugged her shoulders, ‘...just to rescue a boy?’
‘Could of had their reasons.’
‘Like what?’
‘I don’t know but I say we are here to rescue him.’
Melaleuca stepped between them.
‘Stop it both of you.’ She raised one of her eyebrows at Ari. ‘What do you think?’
‘The kid was definitely scared and the man in charge looked like one of those soldiers from a hundred years ago. He said he was the Captain of the Inquisat, responsible for law and order.’
‘Inquisat?’ Lexington said animated by the word. ‘Like Inquisition?’
‘I guess, dunno.’
‘Oh this is so good.’ Lexington beamed at Melaleuca. ‘The Inquisition was a time when the Spanish Church tortured people. This is our first real solid clue.’
Melaleuca waited for the next pronouncement, the one that explained what she meant.
‘Don’t you get it? If that is the name of their law-people, then this land and its people are medieval European in origin.’
They looked at her with blank faces.
‘They came from Europe about 500 hundred years ago.’ Confusion crossed her face. ‘But then I distinctly heard Argus say the British colonised this land. Now that’s odd then.’
‘So are we here to rescue the kid or not?’ Quixote asked.
A decision welled up inside Melaleuca before the need to make one arose. They would go to the statues first and then back to the secret room and try as a team to make sense of the discoveries. She wondered why she had made that decision, when Lexington and Quixote started to argue.
‘Take me to the forest Ari,’ Lexington said.
‘Take me to the secret room Mel,’ Quixote said.
‘We are closer to the forest.’
‘I want to go to the secret room.’
‘Enough,’ Melaleuca said holding a hand up to each of them. ‘Lexington, well done on figuring out that Inquisat bit. Is that what your hyperthesis is about or is that a hunch?’
‘Neither. It is a fact. But I can work it in.’
‘Good. We are going to the statue first,’ Melaleuca said with one of her don’t-argue-with-me looks.
***
All four of them stood in wonderment, gazing at the giant statues guarding the giant door either side, rubble heaped at its base.
‘This is...this is...this is incredible,’ Lexington said. ‘I don’t know where to start.’
Melaleuca felt answers to the riddle of their parents lay beyond the doors though as she started to speak, another feeling told her the time for sharing it would be later.
Trust.
‘What do you think Lex?’ Melaleuca said instead.
‘I...don’t...know. Just...how did Qui...how did you find this?’
As if he had set a trap, he beamed and gloated.
‘I was just playing and mucking about and thought throwing stones would be fun. That’s all.’
‘Settle, Quixote,’ Ari said.
‘And Ari, you...sensed something?’ Lexington asked.
‘Not as he threw the rocks. I did when I entered the forest, but then I sensed something in the trees, and the mansion, and...’ He ran his eyes over the high doors.
‘And what?’
‘Well, I can’t be sure, but...’
‘It felt like,’ Quixote finished with relish, ‘someone else OR...’ He made boggle eyes. ‘...something else was here, after the dirt fell.’
Lexington flicked her eyes between them
‘Can you feel it now, either of you?’
‘It’s gone. Sorry,’ Ari said.
Lexington wrote some notes and announced to Quixote, ‘Finding it by accident was just luck, not smart.’
‘Yeah, but I found it.’
‘Enough, both of you,’ Melaleuca said and diverted their attention to the statues. ‘Why does it appear to change?’
Lexington climbed over the rubble and stood in front of the door, examining both statues from the side. They possessed many arms and legs, even though viewed from below they appeared to only have two of each.
‘Here’s why.’
As they scrambled up to Lexington, a flood of ideas raced through her head.
‘Seems that something about this plays with light, just like the Photaic Wall. Maybe the earth’s magnetic field is warped under here and...’ She darted her eyes between them and the statues. ‘...and...maybe Ari, you are sensitive to the magnetic waves? Perhaps this is the Ethmare you refer to?’
‘He
didn’t feel anything on the sea-slope,’ Quixote said and again Melaleuca could see his relish at pointing this out.
‘Ignore him,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Let’s try opening these doors.’
Quixote threw himself onto one of the statues and started to climb it. Ari started after him, moving upwards at a slower pace and searched for a door handle of sorts. Quixote reached the funnel and again gripped it in preparation to lift it out.
‘I can’t see anything like a handle,’ Ari said.
‘Break the doors down with this,’ Quixote said, lifting the funnel.
Lexington drew her eyes on Melaleuca and said, ‘You’re awfully quiet. Why?’
‘My job is to lead and make decisions. You’re all doing fine.’
‘You’ve had a feeling haven’t you? Tell.’
‘Later.’
Quixote cried out straining and sounding as if he would pop a hernia.
‘NEARLY.....TTHHHEERRREEEE....’
Red faced with his bony muscles taut, he pulled the last bit of the funnel out of the giant’s hand and fell head first with it into the rubble. Plumes of dust and dirt spewed up. From out of the settling dust he laughed and a head covered in dirt beamed out of it. ‘At least that time the earth didn’t shake.’
‘We don’t know exactly what made the earth shake,’ Lexington said examining the funnel shaped object. The main part of it lay buried in the rubble and she started to dig around it.
‘Leave it Lex. There is nothing more to do here,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Let’s go and see if the boys are strong enough to open the secret room door.’
***
Jeeves searched the front of the Cathedral-Mansion, wandering dignified amongst the trees on the lawn. The maids strode the corridors in the west wing and Aunty Gertrude strode the corridors in the east wing, while Uncle Bear-Nard and Pembroke searched behind the Cathedral-Mansion.
Uncle Bear-Nard raced ahead and Pembrooke contented himself to amble behind, becoming distracted by some weeds peering out of the lavender bushes in his herb garden.
