by June Wilson
Lottie made no reply. Instead she twisted a small iron ring that was hammered into the wall – a ring that Alice was sure hadn’t been there a moment ago. Within seconds she heard the sound of stone grinding against stone. A section of the floor opened up to reveal another flight of steps.
“Go,” Lottie said. “I must wait here.” She folded her arms, her face giving nothing away. Alice hesitated. What if it was a trap? What if Lottie had lied to Martha? Martha who was now out of earshot.
“Go on!” Lottie urged. “There is only so much time!” Without warning she pushed Alice in the small of the back and she stumbled down the first few steps, hot candle wax dripping onto her hand.
“Ouch! That hurts!”
Ouch, that hurts! Came an immediate echo. Alice looked up and was surprised to see she was no longer on a staircase at all. She was on the threshold of a large room with darkly glittering walls. It looked like a magnificent tomb, the kind she had seen in history books.
Heart beating wildly, she took a few steps. There was a slightly raised structure in the middle of the floor – a skylight of sorts. Which didn’t seem to make any sense at all, since she was so far underground. She was about to take a step closer when she heard a noise. A kind of rumbling, like a thunderstorm that was some way off.
She shrugged. The weather was the last thing she should be thinking about. She was down here for a reason and one reason only: to find a boy. The only thing was, there was no sign of any living thing at all.
She was just contemplating shouting for Lottie when a faint noise caught her attention. Tap, tap, tap, it went, like the sound of heavy rain against a window. There was only one possible source and she tiptoed towards the skylight, clutching her pendant for reassurance.
She peered in and stifled a scream. The boy was there, trapped inside. He was in a glass coffin and his face was pressed against the lid, staring at her. He had fair hair and blue eyes and he looked an awful lot like Will. His face wore such an expression of longing it took Alice’s breath away. How could Freya be so impossibly cruel, to imprison a living child in such a way? Without another thought she yanked the Doom Stone from her neck.
Light flashed from the Stone, almost blinding her, and she fell backwards. From far off, she heard the sound of thunder again, loud enough to crack the earth. Her thoughts flew to Toby and the others. What had she done? Then she heard the sound of breaking glass and realized that the boy too could suffer as a result of her rash action. He could be lying in a pool of blood and it would be her stupid, stupid fault. She lay still, panting like an animal, too scared to open her eyes. Toby, she thought. Talk to me, please.
“Hello?” a child’s voice said hesitantly. “Are you…?”
Alice gasped and sat up. The boy from the coffin was sitting amongst shards of glass and wood, staring at her intently. There wasn’t a mark on him. “Am I hurt?” she said, quickly checking her arms and legs. “No, I don’t think so.”
“No – that’s not what I meant.” The boy shook his head and reddened, suddenly shy.
“Are you my mother?” he said at last, his blue eyes turning green.
End of “The Boy in the Dark”
Book 4 of The Middengard Sagas
Look out for Book 5: “The Girl in the Light” coming in 2019.
