‘They look like nightbeads!’ Phoenix gasped.
If I’d had any air left in my lungs, I might have laughed. Trust Phoenix to think of a comparison to weaponry.
The river carried us beneath a spewing waterfall. I held my breath as we passed beneath it, and scrunched my eyes shut to protect them from the torrent. The river eddied and spun, flipping us around until I was at the front of the pack, with Steel just behind me. The entire world was made of damp air, spraying water and splattering echoes. As we shrieked, our voices ricocheted back to us, distorted by the rocky walls.
The river raced around another bend, plunging downwards – and with a wild rush, we teetered at the top of a waterfall. The drop was short, just five or six metres, but the foaming froth of the water was pure chaos. I barely had a chance to gasp for air before I was falling. No time for a levitation circuit; all I could do was –
Smash!
The water hit me like concrete. My tube took the brunt of the impact, the rubber flexing beneath me – but at that moment, another figure crashed down beside me. Steel. I caught a wild breath, and a flash of teeth, before I realised he’d lost his tube. A violent blow thwacked my face, and fingernails scrambled, and I hit the water again with terrifying rush of …
Darkness.
I was sinking. I had lost my tube. No, Steel had stolen my tube. He had shoved me aside, fighting to save himself. Now there was only the cold water, and convulsing murk. I struggled to kick, to swim for the surface, but something was holding me down. It was the water itself, a seething vortex at the base of the waterfall.
The whirlpool flurried around and around, sucking me into the dark depths. There was nothing but the choke in my lungs, and the throb of my limbs, and the numbness that was beginning to seep into my vision …
A hand grabbed me.
And then, with a rush, I was being hauled even further down. A pair of hands scrambled wildly, yanking and snatching, as frantic feet kicked into the deep. We lurched sideways – and with a wild rush, we were free of the whirlpool. Hands wrenched me upwards; someone kicked me in the shoulder, and a fresh burst of pain shot through me. Bubbles, froth, terror …
We exploded through the surface, heaving and gasping. I felt ready to vomit, my throat and lungs simmering. Phoenix clutched me, dragging me sideways, out of the reach of the whirlpool. There was a flurry of limbs, and more hands on me, before we struggled up onto a stony shore.
I heaved. Agony rippled as I rolled onto my side and spewed water across the rocks. I coughed and coughed, my entire body convulsing, as water dribbled from my nose and I fought for each breath.
Phoenix helped to balance me on my side. More water dribbled out and she hit my back, forcing my lungs to expel their contents. My breath was raspy, and I tried to speak, but there was only a burn of pain in my throat.
‘Don’t talk,’ Riff said. ‘Just breathe, all right?’
I could see the water lapping beside me, cold and hungry, and the sight of it made me convulse again. There was darkness in that water, and churning currents, and hidden dangers beneath its agitated skin.
‘How …?’ I managed. ‘How’d you pull me out?’
Phoenix helped me to sit up. She was soaked and bedraggled, her face pale and strained in the crimson light of her helmet torch. ‘I spent half my childhood on a boat, remember? I know how to deal with currents.’
‘But …’
‘You can’t fight a whirlpool by just swimming upwards,’ she said. ‘You have to escape it first, get out of the current. Then try to surface.’
‘Oh.’ My voice was strained and raw. ‘Thank you. I mean, you risked your –’
‘Forget it, Nomad. What was I gonna do, just let you drown?’
Her response slammed a memory back into my skull. ‘Steel! He pushed me under, he stole my tube …’
‘Yeah, we know,’ Riff said. ‘Orbit saw what happened.’
His voice was strained, and it took me a moment to place what was wrong. For a moment, I thought perhaps he had half-drowned too, or else he was coming down with a cold. Then I realised, with mild shock, that it was fury. Cold, utter fury, as violent as anything I’d ever heard from Phoenix. I hadn’t even realised Riff was capable of such vitriol.
‘I saw Steel push you,’ Orbit said. ‘I was on top of the waterfall, about to come down, and I glimpsed you two struggling below. Then he pushed you, and you went under.’
‘Where is he?’ I rasped.
‘Gone,’ Phoenix said. The word was an audible threat in the air, hanging like a knife that was yet to make its cut. ‘Nicked off down the river, and left you to drown.’
‘He’s a coward,’ Riff said. ‘I reckon he’s done a runner.’
‘Either that,’ Phoenix said, ‘or he’s been a double agent all along.’
We all stared at her.
‘What?’ I choked. ‘You can’t be serious.’
Phoenix shook her head. ‘Think about it, Nomad. He tried to follow us to Mariner’s cottage. Then he followed us again tonight, tried to drown you, and abandoned us here in the dark.’
‘He’s been overseas for months,’ Riff said, nodding slowly. ‘He could’ve been anywhere, talking to anyone. What if the Inductors got to him?’
‘And he threatened me,’ I admitted. ‘Back at HQ …’
‘What?’ Riff demanded.
‘I snuck out, the night before we left. Steel followed me, and he used a quintessic blade to scare me. He held it to my throat.’
Silence.
‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ Phoenix demanded.
‘I thought he was all bluster,’ I said. ‘Just bluffing, you know. It wasn’t important enough to distract everyone from –’
Riff looked furious. ‘You didn’t reckon it was important that someone almost sliced your throat open?’
‘Well, I mean, that’s overstating it a bit …’
‘It doesn’t matter now,’ Phoenix said. ‘The point is Steel is dangerous. We don’t know whether he’s just a selfish idiot, or whether he’s actually a double agent. If there are Inductors down in the tunnels tonight, he could’ve gone to find them …’
‘… and to tell them where we are.’ Riff swore under his breath. ‘We’ve gotta move. We can’t stay here, we’ll be sitting ducks.’
My eyes had fixed on a rock formation, five or six metres down the river. It was hunched and craggy, with a drooping peak, and it looked vaguely familiar. Shakily, I unzipped my pocket and retrieved the camera, silently thanking Dragon for her choice of a waterproof model. I flicked to the final photograph in Mariner’s trail of clues.
‘That’s the spot,’ I said hoarsely, sitting up straighter. ‘Look, I think that’s where he took the last photo.’
Slowly, we surveyed our surroundings. The cavern was riddled with holes: a multitude of tiny tunnels, worming their way through the walls. But which one should we follow? The only clue was Mariner in the picture, standing still, hands pressed together above his head to form a triangle with his arms.
‘You said it looked like charades, right?’ I said, turning to Riff. ‘Can you figure out what he’s trying to tell us?’
‘I dunno, maybe he just cracked,’ Riff said. ‘It’s gotta be kind of creepy down here by yourself, maybe Mariner lost his marbles and started doing the chicken dance or something …’
‘It’s not the chicken dance!’ Phoenix snapped. ‘And this isn’t the time for jokes, Riff. If we can’t figure out which tunnel to take, we’ll be stuck here. Or worse, we could get lost, or hit a dead end.’
I flinched. In those tiny tunnels, there would be no space to turn around, and barely enough air to fill our lungs. If we hit a dead end, we would have to somehow wriggle out backwards, kicking each other in the faces, grappling with panic and claustrophobic dread.
‘He’s showing us a triangle,’ I said, glancing back at the picture. ‘Maybe we’ve got to find something triangular here – a rock formation, or a bunch of stalagmites or something.’
We peered around, surveying the cave. Unfortunately, our only surviving light-sources were the tiny red torches on our helmets. They were bright enough to save us from tripping over our own feet, but too narrow to illuminate the entire cavern.
‘We need more light,’ I said. ‘If we’re looking for a triangle formation, we need to be able to see the whole cavern at once. If worst comes to worst, we’ll have to make light circuits.’
‘They’ll drain a lot of power,’ Phoenix warned. ‘We can’t risk running out of quintessence.’
‘Yeah, I know. Shame we haven’t got a Noctilucent anymore.’
‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ Phoenix said. ‘The one time we actually need that scumbag, and he’s not here.’
‘Forget Steel,’ Riff muttered. ‘I’d pay good money to have my sister here.’
‘Yeah, well, she’s not,’ I said, ‘so we’ll just have to work with what we’ve got.’
Riff tallied on his fingers. ‘We’ve got helmet torches, a few water bottles, our clothing and some soggy protein bars. I dunno how they’re gonna help us find the triangle, but at least we won’t starve …’
Orbit’s entire face lit up. ‘Oh!’ he said. ‘Wait, a moment, I have an idea!’
He unbuckled his helmet and unscrewed the torch from its front. He examined it for a moment, noting the narrow angle of its beam, and placed it on the cavern floor. Red light shone directly upwards, pointing like a laser dot at the ceiling.
‘Yeah, that’s a big help,’ Riff said. ‘I mean, if we wanted to study the limestone on the roof or something, I can see how –’
‘Shut up, Riff,’ Phoenix said.
Orbit picked up one of the surviving water bottles. He peeled off its label and dutifully tucked it into his pocket. Even at a moment like this, I couldn’t imagine him wilfully littering.
Orbit removed the lid and placed the clear bottle on the cavern floor. Then, with a knowing smile, he flipped the torch upside down and placed it atop the bottle, so that its narrow beam of light shone straight down into the water.
Light bloomed in all directions. I gasped, startled, as the narrow beam was dispersed by the water – and, like a lantern, the water bottle glowed. The light shone out in all directions, forming a 360-degree halo of light to pierce the shadows of the cavern.
‘That’s amazing!’ I said.
Orbit looked slightly embarrassed. ‘Oh no, it’s just a simple trick. I would have used a tungsten filament and battery if I had the parts. I’ve been working on a prototype for an illuminatory gadget, actually …’
Phoenix gave him a thoughtful smile. ‘Once, a very clever person told me that the simplest solutions can be the best.’
Orbit beamed as brightly as his water bottle.
‘Plus,’ Riff added, ‘we’ve just figured out that Steel can be replaced by a disposable plastic water bottle. Dunno about you lot, but I’m suddenly feeling a lot better about life.’
In the light of Orbit’s bottle-lantern, we fanned out around the cave. I was slower and raspier than my friends, but my strength was gradually returning and I was able to stumble around, so long as I ignored the pain of my cuts and bruises.
‘Hey, is this it?’ Riff called. ‘I mean, it’s kind of triangle-y …’ He gestured at a large stalagmite, which rose from the floor like a gnarly pyramid.
‘Yeah, but every stalagmite looks like that,’ I said.
‘Oh yeah. Guess so.’
We continued to search. I dropped to my knees – ignoring the throb of my injuries – to view the cavern from a different angle. Perhaps the triangle was hiding somehow, or etched into the walls.
‘What if it’s not a literal triangle?’ Phoenix asked.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, what if it’s a code? Or a picture?’ She hesitated, waving a hand. ‘It’s got to be a code that only a sorcerer could uncover, right? Well, what if the triangle represents a quintessic circuit?’
I frowned. ‘Yeah, but the only triangular circuit we know is a death circuit. I don’t think Mariner was telling us to murder someone.’
‘No,’ Phoenix said slowly, ‘but at a sorcerer’s funeral, the coffin is always carried under an archway of black roses. And that tunnel there,’ she added, pointing, ‘looks a bit like an archway.’
She was right. While most of the tunnel openings were knobbly circles, this one was the shape of a perfect arch. In fact, it was almost too perfect – as if someone had chipped around its edges, exaggerating its natural shape.
Riff’s mouth fell open. ‘Phoenix, you’re a genius!’
Phoenix looked slightly surprised by her own flash of inspiration. She quickly covered it up with a shrug. ‘Next time you’re being a jerk, I’ll remind you of that.’
One by one, we wriggled through the archway. The tunnel beyond was dark and narrow – too narrow to bring the remaining rubber tubes, which we left behind to Orbit’s dismay. I winced at the scrape of my bruises on the stone. After a while, a faint glow shone at the far end of the tunnel.
‘Better switch off our helmet lights,’ Riff whispered. ‘Could be anyone waiting down there.’
We emerged onto a clifftop, straddling the wall of an underground canyon. The space was too huge to call a tunnel, yet too long and narrow to call a cave. The entire roof dripped with thousands upon thousands of glow-worms. Their snares dribbled like mucus chandeliers, casting an eerie glow across the dark.
Our clifftop rose about halfway up the canyon wall – but if we knelt near the edge and peered over, we could see the ground below. A dark river lined the base of the ravine, bordered by narrow shores of rock. I squinted, trying to make out details in the faint shine of the glow-worms.
I froze.
Down on the shore stood a pair of figures. The first was tall and thin, wearing a familiar bulky combat vest. The second held a torch in one hand, and a photograph in the other. They were digging into the pebbles on the riverbank, working directly behind a boulder as if the enormous rock marked where to dig.
This was it. These were the Inductors who had murdered Mariner, and stolen the photo with the final clue. The picture must have led them here, to this exact boulder.
The slender figure in the vest straightened up. Even from this distance, I could see the metal box in their gloved hands. With a long-legged stride, the silhouette stepped into the torchlight. My entire body froze.
It was Nephrite.
For a long moment, I simply stared at her. Our worst fears had been confirmed. She had lied and betrayed us from the very beginning. No wonder she had ignored our Converator calls, leaving us abandoned in the middle of a mission.
Nephrite opened the box. Inside, it was lined with velvet padding. A single glass vial sat in its centre, gleaming eerily in the torchlight. It was filled with a black liquid. I might have thought it was ink, if not for the way it bubbled and blistered …
‘The Midnight Vial,’ I whispered.
We were too late.
We watched, horror-struck, as Nephrite closed the metal box. She locked its clasps carefully, ensuring the vial was secure.
‘Nice work,’ said her companion. He was a burly man, with a blond beard and red-rimmed eyes. With a start, I recognised him as the camp security guard. ‘You were right about the hiding place.’
Nephrite nodded. ‘The old fool could never resist throwing in a few too many clues; he always liked to be overdramatic. What should we do with the boy?’
‘Kill him,’ the man said. ‘He found us, didn’t he? We can’t just let him go.’
For the first time, I noticed the boy at their feet. He was barely visible, sprawled at the edge of the torchlight. He looked dead, even if he was just unconscious. Either way, my stomach contracted at the sight of him.
‘Steel,’ Phoenix whispered. ‘Oh my God …’
Steel was not a double agent. He was just an idiot, blustering along in search of glory. He had pushed me underwater in a fit of pure cowardice, desperate to save his own skin. Th
e river must have carried him further downstream, through who-knew-how-many twists and turns, until he had washed up here, right in the middle of the Inductors’ plans.
And they would make him pay for it.
‘We have to do something!’ I hissed. ‘We can’t just let them kill him.’
Riff tensed a little, as if he were about to speak, but he was interrupted by a fresh burst of conversation on the shore below.
‘No, not yet,’ Nephrite said. ‘That would be wasteful. I can think of a much better use for his death.’ She ran a slow finger along the rim of the metal case. ‘We have the Sunset Vial, and the Midnight Vial. In only days, we will have the Sunrise Vial – assuming I was right about that blasted Dragon.’
‘And then we’ll mix ’em together?’ the man said, eagerly.
Nephrite gave a slow nod. ‘We shall soon have the Red Sky Virus, ready to be deployed.’ She glanced at Steel’s unconscious form. ‘And luckily, we now have our very own HELIX agent to test it on.’
I leaned forward slightly, but didn’t dare shift from my kneeling position. The clifftop was littered with loose chunks of rock – and in the silence, a single clatter could reveal our location.
‘Tie him up,’ Nephrite ordered. ‘We’ll bring him with us to the third vial. I’d like to run a test as soon as the virus is ready.’
My throat stung. This was all happening too quickly. They knew where the Sunrise Vial was hidden, and would have it in their hands in days. Then Steel would die, a helpless test subject, before the Inductors spread the virus through every HELIX HQ on the planet. If Teranis controlled the Red Sky Virus, no one would be safe. It would mean the deaths of thousands of agents.
It would mean the end of HELIX.
Below, the security guard bound Steel’s legs and arms with rope. He left him there, unconscious, and paced down the riverbank until he stood directly beneath our clifftop. He watched the water, apparently waiting for Nephrite to give the order to leave. Somehow, we had to get to Steel. But we had no time to plan, no time to prepare gadgets or booby traps or tricky manoeuvres …
Deadly Magic Page 17
