by James Erith
‘Well, maybe it IS the water,’ Daisy stressed.
Archie chuckled. ‘Sorry Daisy but, no. The blue bits of your eyes have turned red,’ he said softly. ‘The white bit around them is fine. Pretty cool I reckon.’
‘Oh great,’ Daisy replied. ‘I’ve turned into a freak!’
‘Like me?’ Archie smiled, patting his spiky hair.
‘And me?’ Isabella added, holding up her hands.
Daisy smiled. ‘Oh lovely!’ she said. ‘We’re going to look a right bunch at school. The de Lowe freaks.’
‘What about me?’ Old Man Wood said.
‘You’re a very lovely freak already,’ Daisy quipped, and they all burst out laughing.
Archie turned back to the drawings and pointed at the picture with the three kings heading up the steps bearing gifts. ‘Maybe these are our gifts,’ he said, referring to their strange abnormalities. ‘And,’ Archie said with a twinkle in his eye, ‘if you look at it this way,’ he glanced at Daisy, ‘and if we’re reading the wall painting correctly, then the three of us – and I suppose, Old Man Wood a little bit, have probably just saved the country from a further 39 days of that torrential rain. I mean, Yorkshire would have been a goner after ten days.’ He smiled at her. ‘London 15, Vienna 25 days and Kathmandu 39 and a half. I think we did pretty well, don’t you?’
Isabella smiled. ‘Oh Archie, I’m not sure I can take you seriously with that hair.’
With Daisy on the other side of her, the twins pulled Isabella up and they wrapped their arms around one another.
‘Come on,’ Archie said. ‘Let’s get home. We’ll have to figure out what to do next; probably got to find those tablets, or there’ll be earthquakes or disease. Anyway, I’m starving and Mrs Pye will be worried sick.’ They stumbled into the middle of the room. ‘A huge Mrs Pye special sandwich with extra ham and cheese is what I need.’
Old Man Wood was staring at the pictures, his eyes far away.
‘Come on, old fella,’ Daisy tugged at his sleeve. ‘You can always come back.’
‘Yes, yes. There is so much … so much I had …’ and, without finishing his sentence, he began to gather up his things.
Archie piped up. ‘Classic!’ he said.
‘What?’
‘Big problem.’
‘Big problem?’ Daisy repeated. ‘What problem?’
‘Where’s the staircase? How do we get out of here?’
‘Oh, really?’ Daisy said sarcastically. ‘Don’t tell me you don’t know the way out of here? You must be blind.’
Archie looked confused. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘What you need,’ she said as a grin spread across her face, ‘are cool, funky eyes!’ And without hesitating, Daisy walked towards the wall, turned, winked and vanished into thin air.
To be continued ...
BOOK TWO, SPIDER WEB POWDER
FORTY-FOUR
AFTER THE STORM, INSIDE THE CAVE
Daisy popped her head around the entrance of the hidden doorway. ‘Oh for goodness’ sake,’ she eventually yelled out. ‘I’ve been up and down about a thousand stairs. It really isn’t hard to find—’
‘I don’t have weird eyes like you, remember,’ Archie shot back. ‘Only stupid, spiky hair.’
Daisy ignored him. ‘Look, it’s over here!’ She beckoned them to a tiny, almost invisible, gap that looked identical to the cave wall from all angles. ‘Clever, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘It’s recessed so that when you squeeze through, you have to turn sharply, like this.’
‘Oh!’ Archie said, as his fingers found the entrance and he eased himself in. ‘It’s a bit tight.’
‘Just mind your head,’ Daisy quipped, ‘or you’ll damage the walls. Anyway, there’s a far bigger problem at the top.’
Archie shot her a look.
‘You’ll have to wait and see – if you’re fit enough,’ she said. ‘It’s miles up and up and up. Prepare to be disappointed.’
OLD MAN WOOD’S frown grew until the furrows appeared almost black and white. ‘How am I supposed to get in there?’ he complained. ‘And what about my things?’
The children could see his point. The opening was wide enough for them, but tight for a large man like Old Man Wood.
‘Crawl – on your side – you should be able to make it,’ Daisy said, trying to be helpful.
Old Man Wood continued to stare at the gap. He was an old man, not a bendy child.
Isabella reappeared through the small slit in the wall and held out a hand. ‘Your hard hat,’ she said to the old man. ‘Archie, as you’re the smallest, grab his rucksack. Come on, let’s go, I can’t wait to get out of this ridiculous place.’
ISABELLA HADN’T TOLD the whole truth. The moment she woke, an unnerving sensation, as though she were being watched, made the hairs on her neck stand erect and her brow damp with fear. She connected the sensation to her nightmares in which large, green, alien eyes penetrated her mind and this queer feeling grew stronger and stronger until she’d woken up terrified and shaking and soaked in sweat.
Isabella tried to calm down by taking deep breaths, but her body sagged like a sack of potatoes and her brain felt like squishy dough. Perhaps this was the aftershock of surviving the great storm?
Her thoughts turned to the twins. She’d found them on the stone ledge at death’s door; unconscious, frozen and lacerated with cuts that sliced into their bodies like whip lashes. So, their recovery in the pool was nothing short of a miracle.
In the cool light of morning, Isabella wondered if the whole thing had been part of another nightmare.
Or, could it be the downside of the powerful medicine Old Man Wood had given her? What did he call it, Resplendix Mix? A gold, sparkly liquid in a curious old bottle that didn’t have a lid – or a use-by date. She’d taken just two drops on her tongue. And boy did it hurt – like rolling around in stinging nettles on the outside with burning hot coals inside.
Medicines that instantly healed didn’t exist in the real world – or did they? But she did know that the trade-off with a powerful medicine was often a horrible side-effect.
The children wound their way up and up the dark stairs, each foot feeling for the narrow risers, their feet scuffing like sandpaper. After several minutes, Isabella stopped and held her sides. ‘Phew!’ she said. ‘This is exhausting.’
‘You’re seriously unfit, Bells,’ Daisy said.
‘Actually, I’m seriously hungry and freaked, OK? And I just want to get out of here.’ Her heart thumped. ‘It’s like the whole of yesterday was some kind of weird, crappy dream – as if we were stuck in a game where we had to stay alive—’
‘Yeah,’ Daisy said. ‘But at least we survived.’
Isabella rested a hand on her sister’s shoulder. ‘I know. That’s what’s so crazy. You actually sort of died, Daisy. Did you know that?’
Daisy leant her head casually on the tight riser above her. ‘Can’t remember much.’
‘Lucky you,’ Isabella said as she recalled how Daisy had lain on the rocks, her body limp, her face pale, her eyes shut. When Old Man Wood couldn’t feel a pulse, a kind of anger had filled her and she’d screamed at Daisy with all her might not to die. And then a strange thing had happened …
‘I thought it was Old Man Wood’s medicine,’ Daisy said. ‘You know, Repulsive Mix, or whatever—’
‘He calls it Resplendix Mix,’ Isabella said. ‘For some reason it wouldn’t work on you.’ She turned to Archie. ‘What about you, Arch? Do you remember anything?’
Archie thought for a minute. ‘Think I got fried—’
Daisy burst out laughing, the sound bouncing off the walls of the stairwell and echoing eerily back at them. ‘Yup, you sure did, bro. And landed unbelievably weird hair—’
‘Archie’s hair isn’t remotely funny,’ Isabella snapped. ‘Nor are your red eyes or my hands.’
Daisy scowled back. ‘Who said it was funny? I just said it was odd.’
‘Well yes, very odd,’ Isa
bella agreed. ‘You know, Daisy, when you told us the lightning bolts were coming, did you really hear them or were you making it up?’
‘Of course I heard them,’ Daisy said crossly.
Isabella twisted round a sharp edge and perched on a step. ‘Well, it’s illogical,’ she said. ‘This whole thing. Water poured from the sky at a velocity far greater than Sue and I calculated – I’m convinced of it.’
Isabella sucked in a breath. ‘And we couldn’t see, or hear, anything, could we?’ They climbed on, their footsteps almost in time. ‘I still don’t know how I guided us across the playing field to the bridge.’ she said. ‘Just imagine the devastating scene out there.’ No one answered.
‘Well, let’s say the river is fifteen metres above sea level,’ she continued, ‘and we had five hours of water at a couple of inches of rain per minute. That’s nearly ten metres of water! Then, augment that with water pouring off the hills and the spring tide and lunar situation...’ Isabella frowned and her voice dropped. ‘It’ll be underwater,’ she continued, ‘totally submerged. Only the top of York Minister—’
‘Can we please get on?’ Daisy interrupted. ‘I just want to go home, Bells.’
The children shuffled on, picking their steps carefully as Isabella continued. ‘You know, I shouldn’t have been able to swim against the water that swept me off the bridge, and I escaped a mudslide,’ she said. ‘Something egged me on. Perhaps that’s what having “spirit” means.’ She looked up at the climb ahead. ‘Blimey. These stairs go on forever.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Daisy said. ‘I’ve already done it once.’
‘But you’re fit—’
‘Bells, stop gabbling on with theories about our great escape, and keep climbing,’ Daisy said, as she pushed her sister ahead. ‘Seriously, this is just the start.’
AT LONG LAST, they emerged out of the top of the narrow stone stairwell and into a dimly lit cavern. Beams of light filtered through tiny, random holes in a large, circular pattern at the far end of the cave, around twenty paces away.
As the children caught their breath, their eyes searched the chamber. Beneath them lay a smooth, gently undulating rock floor that gave way every now and then to a patch of mud or a pool, formed from water dripping from the ceiling, which echoed in the quiet.
From the cavern roof, which was as high as a small house, jagged rocks forced their way out of the stone like misshapen teeth. Along the sides, water had shaped the rock into small alcoves creating, Archie thought, mini sleeping areas. Perhaps early humans, like Neanderthals, had lived and slept here thousands of years ago.
‘See the problem?’ Daisy said.
Now, as their eyes had adjusted, they stared at a vast boulder whose rotund expanse sat in the ground like a massive egg in a massive eggcup. The problem was obvious; they were stuck, with no way out.
A deep boom echoed up the stairwell.
‘What on earth was that?’ Isabella said.
Archie turned to his twin, Daisy, and raised his brows. ‘Fifty pounds he’s stuck.’
‘You don’t even have fifty quid,’ Daisy said.
They hurried back to the hole.
‘Are you alright?’ Archie called down.
A few moments later an echo returned, the sounds crashing into one another.
‘I’ll go,’ Archie said, heading down. After a couple of minutes, encased in the musty darkness of the stairwell, he slowed. ‘Where – are – you?’
‘Still – at – the – bottom,’ the old man replied, taking in to account the reverberating noise. ‘Jammed – in, good – and – proper.’
OLD MAN WOOD lay half up the stairs and half wedged in at the foot of the stairs. Sweet apples alive, he thought as he ran his leathery hands over the walls, trying to find a nodule to grip so that he could push himself back down and out. He groaned. The problem was that the more he struggled the more stuck he became.
If he could get back down – and it was a big “if” – he had no choice but to head out into the swirling waters thick with flotsam and jetsam, and swim for his life. And Old Man Wood hated swimming.
He wriggled his torso, twisting one way then another and managed to slip down a step. His outstretched foot touched a protruding stone knob and, using it to lever himself round, he pressed down hard – only to feel the stone retract into the step.
Before he had time to gather himself, a clunking noise filled the stairwell, followed by grinding, crunching and crushing sounds. Old Man Wood covered his head with his free arm, waiting for the inevitable rocks to come crashing down.
None came and, much to his astonishment, the stairwell walls began to pull back until a crashing boom sounded and the noise echoed eerily until eventually it ceased. The stairwell was now at least a foot wider.
Well, well, well, he thought as he sat down on a step and mopped his brow. That stone must have been a gear cog slipping into place. Now there’s a nifty bit of engineering – and just in the nick of time. What sort of person would design something like that? And why?
Old Man Wood dusted himself down, pulled himself together and stood up.
‘What’s – going – on – down – there?’ he heard.
‘Don’t – you – worry,’ Old Man Wood said. ‘I’m coming up, littluns! Nothing doing!’
He trundled up the stairwell, finding a rhythm, stopping on three occasions to catch his breath. At the summit he sat down, taking large gulps of air as the children gathered around. ‘Two hundred and twenty-two steps. Phew-ee! Apples alive! And they’re high steps and all.’
‘What happened?’ Archie asked him. ‘How did you get the stairs to widen?’
Old Man Wood wiped his brow. ‘Touched a lucky stone, that’s all.’
‘A lucky stone?’ Isabella repeated.
‘Ooh yes,’ Old Man Wood replied. ‘Very lucky, I reckon.’
ISABELLA LEANT on the boulder at the entrance of the cave and groaned. It was huge – six feet high and eight feet wide with a significant amount stuck in the ground – and it stood between them and freedom.
Stains marked the boulder’s surface with streaky patterns where the rainwater had leached down – the light grey stone now lined with blue and black hues.
How on earth were they going to move it? she wondered. Maybe it was one of those things that only needed a tiny push. Isabella stepped back a couple of paces and charged.
A moment later she shrieked and rubbed her shoulder.
Daisy laughed. ‘I told you—’
‘Shut up, Daisy,’ Isabella barked. She swivelled towards Old Man Wood. ‘You’re good at getting out of things, aren’t you, Old Man Wood?’ she said, as if he might solve the conundrum for them. And then she turned, gritted her teeth and tried to push the boulder again.
Archie could hardly believe it. ‘What are you doing? That’s up there with the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. Not even Daisy would try something as moronic as that.’
Daisy nodded.
‘I know,’ Isabella sobbed. ‘It’s just that … just that I’m hungry and I want to go home and I want to know if Sue and Gus survived and … this is so ridiculous and unfair and infuriating after everything we’ve been through.’
‘But running at it isn’t going to help,’ Archie said quietly. ‘Think about it. That boulder must weigh more than ten tonnes. You are a fraction in comparison. You’re the scientist – do the maths.’
Isabella frowned, sat down and let her straight brown hair fall over her face, hiding her tears.
Archie began pacing the floor as an idea formed in his mind. He turned to Old Man Wood. ‘You said you touched a lucky stone. Was it a lever or a knob – did you push it in, pull it, or did it fall to the side?’
Old Man Wood thought for a second. ‘Pushed it with my foot. A chunk of rock, like a lever, I suppose—’
‘Well then, if one opened the stairs up, why not another to loosen the boulder?’
Isabella looked at him curiously. ‘You really think so?’
; Archie shrugged. ‘We haven’t got much else to work with, have we, unless you’ve got a better idea? Whatever this place is, it’s been designed by someone pretty clever – so chances are that he built more than one. What do you think?’
The others shrugged.
‘I suggest we start hunting for odd pieces of rock that stick out—’
‘Stick out?’ Isabella said.
‘Yeah, you know – like you see in the movies.’
‘Cool,’ Daisy added, as she un-twiddled a blond curl from her finger.
They selected different parts of the cave and applied weight to rocks that stuck out and pushed every little cavity. But nothing worked. Not a wobble, a flicker, or a nudge. The big boulder remained exactly where it was.
DAISY SLUMPED TO THE FLOOR, defeated. How long had they been searching in the gloom? An hour? Two? Her tummy rumbled. ‘This is nuts,’ she said. ‘Whatever we’re looking for isn’t here, I’m sure of it.’
‘Well, what do you suggest?’ Archie said.
‘What if Isabella has a point,’ she replied. ‘Maybe we should all try and push it out of the way. Who knows, it may be hinged—’
‘Hinged?’ Archie said. ‘Hinged! Doors are hinged, Daisy, not blooming great boulders.’
Daisy shot him a piercing look. ‘But we haven’t tried it and anyway you pulled a tree out of the ground so who says you can’t move a boulder?’
‘Well I can’t, and anyway that was ridiculous.’
‘No it wasn’t.’
‘Yes it was! It’s like saying that Isabella could move it with her hands.’
‘Well maybe she can—’
‘I didn’t mean that—’
‘Stop it you two,’ Isabella ordered. ‘We need to think, work it out logically.’
Aside from the trickle of water, silence filled the large cavern as the four of them sat down on the stone floor and racked their brains.
‘OK,’ Archie said eventually. ‘Let’s try. All of us—’
