Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent

by Alan Early

  Abruptly, Will’s voice called from down below, ‘Come down! It’s the river!’

  ‘Will, get up here!’ Arthur tried now.

  ‘No, you come down here.’ They heard him splashing around in some water and laughing.

  Arthur turned to Ash. ‘I’m going to get Miss Keegan.’

  As he turned to head after the teacher, the splashing below suddenly stopped.

  ‘Why don’t you come down here, Artie?’ Will called out. ‘Don’t tell me you’re chicken?’

  Arthur stopped in his tracks, seeing red. Will had gone too far now. It was time to prove to the cocky little twerp that he was as adventurous as anyone. Without another word, he turned back, took hold of the first rung and started lowering himself into the hole.

  ‘Now where are you going?’ Ash exclaimed, grabbing his jumper and pulling him off the ladder.

  ‘I’m going to make sure the idiot doesn’t hurt himself. You go and get Miss Keegan.’

  ‘Eh, no! If you go, I’m going. End of. Just because I’m a girl you think I should stay up here?’

  ‘No, that’s not it at all, it’s just –’

  ‘Come on down, Ash!’ Will called up.

  ‘Okay,’ Arthur said, ‘let’s go.’

  However, as they started the climb downwards into the dark, he suddenly got the distinct feeling that this wasn’t such a good idea after all, but it was too late to turn back. If he did he would never hear the end of it from Will, and what would Ash think of him?

  ‘Hey,’ exclaimed Deirdre as she caught up with Ruairí, ‘enjoying the tour?’

  ‘Yeah, it’s all right,’ he said, kicking a stray lump of rock down the tunnel towards the rest of the group. ‘We could be spending our time better though. I keep thinking of all the plans I have to file today.’

  ‘I guess.’ Her mouth suddenly felt very dry as she looked at him. She loved his cute, fat little cheeks hidden behind that manly yet uneven facial hair. She took a deep breath, ‘I just wanted to ask if you’d like to come with me for coffee some time maybe into town and then maybe a movie or whatever you’d like even a walk along the beach no pressure just if you wanted to it might be fun what do you say?’ She said it all in one quick breath and was now panting.

  Ruairí took a considered moment to answer. ‘Eh,’ he said, ‘well, it’s not really a good time, is it? I mean, we’re so busy with work at the minute.’

  ‘Yeah,’ she agreed, dejected, ‘yeah, actually, you’re right. Work. Important. Never mind.’

  ‘All the plans I have to file today. And this tour going on. We’re so busy these days. Another time.’

  ‘Sure. Another time.’ Deirdre plunged her hands into her pockets, hoping her disappointment didn’t show on her face. By now she’d totally forgotten about the three stragglers.

  Arthur could feel rust on the cold iron of the ladder. There was also a very unpleasant smell of sewage which grew stronger as he descended. His eyes slowly adjusted to the gloom but he still couldn’t see further than a couple of feet in front of his face. Ash stepped off the ladder and straight into a puddle.

  ‘Ew!’ she said, as she jumped out of it and onto a dry patch next to Will. Arthur climbed gingerly from the ladder and stood beside them. He looked back up and could see the small spot of light from the tunnel above. From here it looked like they’d climbed about forty feet down. Ash took out her mobile phone and put on the flashlight function. The two boys followed her lead and lit up theirs.

  The electronic blue lights allowed them to see more. They were in a smaller, arched tunnel. The ceiling was low enough for Arthur to reach up and touch. Old, stained bricks formed the walls on either side and slimy, stringy gunk hung off them. The river itself was, as Joe had said, little more than a stream now. The water was only a couple of inches deep and a couple of feet wide. They were standing on a brick ledge barely above water level.

  ‘The Poddle is just a puddle,’ joked Will. Ash and Arthur looked back at him speechless. ‘What? It’s funny. Let’s go explore.’

  ‘No,’ said Arthur, ‘we’re going back.’

  ‘Are you afraid, Artie?’ Will turned and walked off, following the flow of the river. Arthur clenched his fists and walked behind him, along with Ash.

  The deeper they went, the more worried Arthur felt. In some parts the water over the years had worn the ledge to a smooth, slippery curve. In other parts even smaller streams gurgled from under the ledge, joining the river. The stench grew worse over these inlets – a mixture of over-boiled cabbage, raw sewage and rotten eggs. What worried Arthur most, though, was that they hadn’t passed another ladder. In other words, there was no exit except the ladder they had come down and they were moving further and further away from it.

  Eventually, Will stopped walking.

  ‘Hmm,’ he said, looking ahead.

  ‘What is it? Oh …’ Arthur said as he strained to look past Will. The river split down two tunnels, one running to the left, the other to the right. Both led to further darkness.

  ‘Which way?’ Ash asked when she saw the two tunnels.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Will. ‘I guess we just pick one.’ He wiggled his index finger between the two options. ‘Eeny, meeny, miny and that makes this one mo.’ He continued walking down the tunnel on the right. The others followed once more.

  Further along this second tunnel, the water started to lap over the top of the ledge, soaking their shoes. Arthur really hoped that reason for this was that the ledge was lower here and not that the water was rising. A minute later, Ash spoke up. ‘Will, I think we should go back. This is dangerous.’

  ‘Are you joking, Ash? This has just gotten interesting. Haven’t you noticed the walls?’

  Arthur had noticed the walls but didn’t want to bring them up. In the first tunnel, the walls had been clearly built from bricks. But in this tunnel, there were no bricks. This tunnel was carved straight out of rock. Clinging to the wall as he walked along, Arthur had even felt some rough patches where the carving wasn’t as smooth. And now he noticed a few weird patterns carved into the rock – swirls and circles and strange letters that were part of no alphabet Arthur understood. But he did recognise them. He vaguely remembered them from the dream he’d had with the snake over a week ago. And that terrified him.

  ‘Okay, I agree with Ash,’ said Arthur. ‘I really think we need to go back now.’

  ‘Come on, guys,’ protested Will, ‘we don’t know what we’ll find if we keep going.’

  ‘Please, Will,’ Ash pleaded, ‘let’s go back. The water’s over my ankles now.’

  ‘It won’t flood that quickly.’

  Arthur had a sudden image of the place flooding very rapidly, of water rushing down the tunnels, of being trapped in this stone prison.

  ‘Will!’ he said with as much urgency as he could muster. ‘We’re not going any further. End of.’ His voice echoed through the tunnel: ‘–ill, –ill, –ill, –ill,’ it said.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Will, ‘you’re right. We should go back.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Arthur said, turning to go the way they’d just come. Then from across the river a glint caught his eye. He looked over and saw that the light from his phone was reflecting off something embedded halfway up the wall. He was already up to his ankles in murky water so he just stepped off the ledge into the river, soaking himself up to his shins.

  ‘Arthur, what are you –’ started Will.

  ‘Sshh,’ said Arthur as he waded across the river. The water was cool around his legs but he barely noticed it. All his attention was fixed on the thing stuck in the wall. It was circular, about twice the size of a two euro coin and made of bronze. There was a little loop at the top of the circle, which reminded Arthur of a pendant on a necklace. An image was embossed into the circle. It depicted a gnarled tree, three thick roots extending over the edge of the pendant and its branches intertwined over the top. There was something wrapped around the tree. At first Arthur thought it was a rope, but when he held the l
ight closer he saw it was a snake. He reached out and touched the pendant. It fell straight into the palm of his hand, as if the old stone was barely holding it in place.

  Will and Ash stood behind him in the river, looking at the pendant he held.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Ash.

  ‘Look,’ Will said.

  ‘I see it.’

  ‘No! Look!’ He pointed down the tunnel at the way they’d come. A wave of water was rushing at high speed towards them. They didn’t even have time to react before the wave crashed into them, knocking them onto their backsides in the river.

  Arthur managed to get to his feet and helped Ash to hers. The water level was now just below their chests and rising rapidly.

  ‘Where’s Will?’ she said.

  Arthur looked around frantically and spotted a dark figure bobbing under the water. He quickly pulled Will out. There was a trickle of blood running down his forehead where he’d knocked it on the stone floor.

  ‘Will, are you all right?’

  Will shook his head to clear it. ‘Yeah, yeah. I was just a bit dazed. Thanks.’

  ‘Can you walk?’ Will nodded his head. ‘Good, we need to get out of here quick. The water is going to be over our heads soon.’

  As quickly as they could, they waded back up the tunnel. With the water so high and the flow so strong, it was hard work. They all slipped more than once and, to counteract this, put their arms around each other as they walked. By the time they reached the place where the tunnel split, the water had risen to their necks. They didn’t even see or hear the second wave coming until it was too late. This one was coming up the tunnel from the direction of the Liffey and it smashed into them, tumbling them head over heels.

  Swept off their feet by the furious wave, they were instantly disorientated. Their phones, which had managed to survive the first onslaught, blinked out the instant the second wave hit. They didn’t know what was up and what was down and soon lost their grip on each other. The only thing that Arthur was aware of was that he was still holding the bronze pendant. For some reason he thought that was very important.

  When the wave subsided a bit, Arthur swam to a wall and clawed his way along the bricks, finding his way to the ceiling. The tunnel was nearly totally flooded but there was still a small pocket of air up there and he inhaled greedily. Will had also managed to find the air pocket.

  ‘Have you seen Ash?’ he asked Arthur.

  Arthur just shook his head, preserving his oxygen. He took a deep breath and plunged his head back under the water. He could just make out Ash struggling on the bottom of the tunnel, pulling at her leg urgently. Arthur resurfaced.

  ‘I think her leg’s caught on something,’ he said. ‘She needs our help.’ Taking another deep breath, he and Will dived back under and swam to Ash. Her eyes seemed to be bulging as she pointed furiously to her foot. It was caught inside a gutter on the floor of the tunnel.

  Arthur swam closer to investigate more. If she pushed in her leg and turned her foot at an angle, it would come free. He took hold of her shin and tried to push it into the gutter more; it was the only way she could get the space to angle her foot. She shook her head in fear and tried pulling away from him. Will saw what Arthur was attempting to do and tried to calm her down, pointing to the gutter and giving her a thumbs up. Ash closed her eyes, refusing to look. Arthur eased her foot further into the gutter, turned it forty-five degrees towards her, then pulled it out in one smooth motion. Arthur and Will swam her up to the surface.

  She pulled air into her lungs and gasped appreciatively. ‘Thank you, thank you so much.’

  ‘We’re not out yet,’ said Arthur.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ Will said. ‘I got us into this.’ He looked to be on the verge of tears.

  ‘It’s all right, we’ll get out,’ Arthur said, trying to comfort them, although not feeling so sure himself.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ cried Ash. ‘We’ll never be able to hold our breath long enough to swim back to the ladder and this air pocket isn’t going to last forever!’

  Arthur could see the panic welling in both his friends and racked his brains to come up with a plan. Suddenly he had it. ‘Do you remember what my dad said in the office about the Poddle?’ Will and Ash shook their heads dumbly. ‘It runs into the Liffey – that’s where these waves are coming from, and from the force of them the entrance must be fairly nearby. We can get out that way instead.’ The air pocket was now rapidly disappearing and they had to lean their heads back just to catch a breath.

  ‘It’s better than waiting here to drown,’ gasped Ash. ‘Let’s try it.’

  ‘Great. But right now we should take a deep breath.’

  ‘Why?’ They turned around to see a third wave rushing towards them. They just had time to grab hold of each other with one hand and brace themselves against the wall with the other when the wave smashed into them knocking them all back under the water.

  Toppling head over heels through the water, Arthur was sure that these would be his last few minutes alive. He thought of Joe, wandering around back on the surface, probably looking for him and wondering where he’d gotten to. He thought of Miss Keegan, the young teacher who was sure to get into huge trouble now that three of her pupils had gone missing. He thought of his mother. Then in the darkness, he saw a rapidly approaching pinpoint of light. For a moment Arthur thought, this is it. I’m dying and that’s Heaven. But it wasn’t Heaven. It was even better!

  It was an archway. And through the archway was the outside world and the River Liffey. This was the point where the Poddle joined the Liffey. For a moment his heart soared and then they crashed into the iron grate that covered the archway, something Arthur hadn’t anticipated. Still underwater, the three of them looked up through the Liffey and saw the bright blue sky, sunlight filtered but glorious, yet horribly unattainable.

  As more water rushed from behind them, Arthur pushed desperately at the grate. It didn’t budge. He pulled at it: still no movement. He started shaking it, panicking. It would be terrible to come so close to survival and for it all to end here. Ash saw what he was trying to do and wrapped her hands around the grate just below Arthur’s, pulling at it with him. It remained firmly stuck in place. Then Will joined in the fight. They all closed their eyes, grunting, putting all their strength behind them, praying that the grate would open. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of green light. It was so bright they could still see it behind their eyelids when they closed their eyes. And with that flash, the grate fell apart in their hands. It crumbled as if it was nothing more than a biscuit that had been over-dipped in tea and fell to the riverbed.

  For a brief moment, Arthur, Ash and Will forgot that they were in mortal danger and just looked at the pieces of the grate floating down into the depths of the Liffey. Then the sunlight caught Arthur’s eye. He gestured upwards and they swam to the surface, inhaled deeply and found that they had emerged in the heart of Dublin.

  Chapter Seven

  ‘You are in so much trouble, Mister!’ Joe said when he came into the hospital ward. He fell to his knees and wrapped his arms adoringly around Arthur. ‘So much trouble.’

  When they’d surfaced in the River Liffey, some Japanese tourists taking photos from the Ha’penny Bridge had spotted them. They ran around to the boardwalk and threw a lifebuoy in. Arthur, Will and Ash each clung onto the floating ring with one arm as the tourists pulled them in. They climbed an iron ladder to dry land and safety.

  ‘Lucky I took swimming lessons last summer,’ Ash remarked as they climbed, ‘although Max refused to learn.’

  A passing garda saw the kerfuffle and instantly called for a squad car. They piled in through the back door of the car, soaking the seat in the process. With sirens ringing and blue lights flashing, the car sped off to the nearby St James’s Hospital. En route, the garda sitting in the passenger seat had questioned them, asking how they’d ended up in the river and what adults had been taking care of them. Between them they’d explained as we
ll as they could: being curious about the underground river, the tide coming in, escaping to the Liffey. Naturally, they’d left out the part about the mysterious pendant. Satisfied with their answers, the garda had radioed the station, asking that Joe Quinn at Citi-Trak and Miss Keegan be informed of the children’s whereabouts.

  When they’d reached St James’s Accident and Emergency Department, a nurse hurriedly ushered them into hot showers and left out warm hospital pyjamas for them. They were sitting in a small and empty canteen the nurses used, sipping hot chocolate, wearing the pyjamas with towels wrapped around their shoulders when Joe, Miss Keegan and the two engineers, Ruairí and Deirdre, all rushed in.

  ‘So, so, so much trouble,’ Joe said again as he kissed Arthur on the forehead.

  ‘What were you all thinking?’ demanded Miss Keegan standing behind Joe.

  ‘We … we weren’t,’ Ash said.

  ‘Whose idea was it?’

  Arthur and Ash’s eyes met in silence. Will was about to speak up when Arthur interrupted him. ‘All of ours,’ he said. Will looked in surprise at the other two. There was now a plaster over his left eyebrow where he’d knocked his head in the tunnel.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Joe,’ said Deirdre.

  ‘We both are,’ added Ruairí. ‘We don’t know how they got away from us.’

  ‘You were just distracted,’ Ash said, then quickly added, ‘by some other kids. It wasn’t their fault, Mr Quinn.’

  ‘Well, you’re all okay now. Apart from the odd cut or bruise. But either way, it was a really stupid and dangerous thing to do,’ said Joe, getting to his feet and totally missing the secret glances between the three children. He turned to the engineers. ‘You two can go back to the site. Thanks for coming with us but it looks like we’ve got everything under control here.’

  They told Joe to give them a call if he needed anything, nodded quick goodbyes to the kids and left. On their way out, they met a garda coming into the canteen.