Cecilia’s attention turned to the stuff hanging on the walls of the cubby. All about the place were various creations: animal masks, ears, wings and tails. Up close they looked handmade but she supposed that in the shadows one might pass for a sheep-face or a dog-face.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, startling Cecilia. She worried for a second that he was some kind of mind reader, like something from Star Trek, which her dad always forced them to watch but which she secretly loved. “My disguises, why I have made them?” Jasper said in answer to the question Cecilia hadn’t had to ask.
“Yes,” she said plainly, looking over at Luke; he shrugged in return.
“It’s easier to try to blend in, I find. I’m vulnerable if I look just like me as I am. You know. A human being.”
So he does know he’s a human, Cecilia thought.
“Oh, is it? Well, I guess I’ve been lucky. No one really seems to notice me. Julius was a bit curious but apart from that—”
“It’s because, to be honest, Cecilia, I imagine it’s quite hard to work out what you actually are. You’re really grubby, so I suppose you look a bit like a pig-face that’s been rolling in the dirt.”
“Gee, thanks,” said Cecilia.
“Yeah, you’d definitely pass for a pig-face, now I think about it. Anyway what’s wrong with being a pig-face?” Luke said innocently.
Jasper agreed. “Yes, your nose is quite upturned from what I can tell but it’s still a lovely nose nonetheless.” Jasper took his hands away. “OK. We’re all done.” He turned away from Cecilia and chirpily set to work. Cecilia was fiddling with an old jar that had some kind of specimen in it, a sort of metallic liquid-gel that morphed and changed shape entirely of its own accord.
“What’s this silvery stuff? It looks a bit like liquid metal. Mercury or something.”
“If it’s what I think it is, you’d better put it down,” Jasper said, puffing out a small red cloud. “This not the time to mess about with the Deep. Here, look at this instead.”
Cecilia didn’t know what he was talking about. “The Deep…” she muttered, putting the jar down and walking over to Jasper, who was holding out some documents for her.
“That was quick,” said Luke, stretching as though he’d just woken up.
Cecilia looked at her papers. The writing was exquisite, flawless in detail. Then she looked at the “photo” of herself and had to stop herself laughing, which resulted in a sort of stifled snort. It was rubbish! He’d made her look like a oddly shaped potato with electrified spaghetti hair coming out of her forehead. She’d expected it to be one of those magical life-moments where you realise that the guy in front of you is in fact a wizard. This was not one of those moments.
“Oh, wow, it’s amazing,” she lied, holding back the desire to laugh.
“He’s a real artist, right?” said Luke proudly.
Cecilia snorted again and cleared her throat in an attempt to gain some composure.
“Right, one more thing!” said Jasper.
“What?” said Luke and Cecilia in unison—they were becoming restless.
“Some props to support the backstory, of course.” He began rummaging and murmuring to himself. “Take these, just in case,” he said, handing them some old bits of newspaper. “These are a few old articles from the Fly. And a notepad to give the impression you’re actually writing an article.”
“Cecilia, I can’t wait! It’s so exciting to see all the sigh riders taking their places at the Concave Stadium for the Ride or Sigh competition—especially if you’ve never been before!”
Cecilia let out a sigh and a bubbly puff of light-blue steam left her lips. She clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Quick! We’ll explain the rules when we get there but if the sighs are that strong already, the competition will be starting soon!” said Luke excitedly.
“Gather yourselves!” called Jasper. It felt like match day as Jasper and Luke grabbed coats and bags. Cecilia looked at Jasper hard and thought about how well he had adapted. She wondered what had made him want to stay there in the tunnels at all. Perhaps he had somehow got past caring about getting home, or maybe when he was up above ground, he had no friends or family and so this was actually a better place for him to be. If she did have to stay down here for any length of time, she thought, at least she had made friends of some kind; and although she was determined to get home eventually, right now she just had to suck it up until she could find Kuffi, who at the very least could get her back to where she started…
Jasper was busy tying on a handcrafted wolf’s head. It was a hat with ears and lots of bits of patchy fur stuck to it. It was sewn together beautifully and looked much like the animal hats you can buy in the shops—the fake ones that people wear in winter to keep warm.
“Cecilia?” Jasper said quite seriously. “Please never mention that you have been down here, to our secret cavern, or tell anyone how to get here, will you? Can we trust you to do that?”
“Of course, Jasper, you have my word.”
“Follow Jasper; he’ll lead us back to the main lines along what I like to call ‘Jasper’s secret tunnel’,” Luke said in a comical voice.
“Great name, Luke. Did you come up with that yourself?” she jested.
Jasper waved his walking stick in the air and shouted, “Follow me!” as he began to feel his way along the tunnel walls.
Cecilia let out a sigh that floated into the air—a thin lilac mist—and watched it dance into nothingness.
They travelled down the tunnel past where Luke and Cecilia had first entered and carried on a while further until a small opening ahead of them showed a dazzling lime-green light. The light danced about, flickering with the shadows of each dweller that passed it. They got to the opening; it was no bigger than a car door.
“We will have to go out one at a time,” said Jasper. “So it’s not so noticeable that we are coming out from a secret passage.”
Cecilia felt very excited and it was clear that Luke could hardly wait for whatever it was that they were about to see at the Ride or Sigh competition.
“You go first, Cecilia. Wait for us on the other side,” said Jasper.
Cecilia bent low under the tunnel wall and stepped out into a ginormous hollow bursting with lime-green neon light. It was so sharp and bright she could almost taste it. It reminded her of the Sensational Sound Bites music shop that she and Kuffi had visited, and she felt all the more determined to get him back. The air was electric and she was mesmerised; it pulsed like a heartbeat. Luke came to stand beside her, then Jasper, and she could see in their faces how excited they were too.
“This is the lime-green district, Cecilia, it’s where all the magic happens.”
“Yeah, loads of famous people come here. They love the lime light and many of them live in this district because of it. Not just anybody can live here, though. You have to be a somebody,” said Luke.
“Isn’t everybody somebody?” asked Cecilia.
“Well, yes, but you know—somebody… a dweller who’s known by everybody.”
There was a loud squawk and Cecilia, Luke and Jasper jumped with surprise when a voice called out from the crowd: “Jasper! You old dog!”
12
Risky Business
The jovial voice belonged to an exotic-looking parakeet-face. He looked just like the kind that flew over Cecilia’s house when she was gardening with her mum and Hester. He had a red beak and green feathers that seemed all the more splendid in the lime light.
“Augustus, old friend!” Jasper called. He must’ve recognised the voice.
Cecilia noticed that Augustus was holding a thick roll of old carpet under his arm. He was dressed elaborately in shiny dark-pink coat-tails that trailed off his own tail feathers. There were two rows of medals attached to the breast pockets, placed in numerical order but with gaps in the sequence. Cecilia noticed that this fellow had come first at something at some point and that he had also come fifth, seventh, twelfth, thi
rteenth and fourteenth. She stopped staring when a scaly green hand with red fingernails, which narrowed to the tips and curled over somewhat, was held out to her.
“Augustus, that’s me, and you are?”
“Excuse my manners. My name is Cecilia,” she said formally, shaking his hand and looking into his smiley eyes.
Augustus turned to Jasper. “You heading to the Concave Stadium?”
“I sure am, buddy!” he said enthusiastically.
“Nothing like the old wind of sighs to get everyone up and running, blow out the old cobwebs,” Augustus said.
“Yes, the atmosphere is unbeatable, there’s no denying that!” said Jasper. Augustus laughed and linked Jasper’s arm, walking a few paces ahead of Cecilia and Luke, dodging through the stream of dwellers travelling in all directions and catching up on old times.
“Fancy a quick snack?” asked Luke.
“I am a bit peckish,” replied Cecilia, thinking of hot dogs.
Luke pointed over to a stand that read The Onion Lair.
“Come on then, while those two are catching up!” Luke pulled at her sleeve. “Oh, look, there’s no queue, come on!” Luke said, bursting into a run. Cecilia followed. She caught up with Luke and found him deciding what flavour onion to have.
“Caramelised or pickled? I just can’t decide,” he said, holding his chin.
A pigeon-faced boy paid and walked off, nibbling at a dried onion on a stick. It looked like a lollipop. Cecilia didn’t ask any questions, just sighed, which this time emerged in deep indigo, smoky tendrils leaving her lips like the vapour you get on cold wintry days. She blew it away as she said, “I’ll have a caramelised onion, please.”
She got a button out of her pocket and said to Luke, “I’ve got this, my treat. Get one for Jasper too if you know what he likes.” The florid pig-faced man serving behind the counter exchanged the button for a brownish onion on a stick.
“Thanks, Cecilia! Good choice,” said Luke. “Two of the same again, please!”
Luke and Cecilia returned to Jasper and Augustus who had stopped outside an archway entrance to the Concave Stadium. They were feeling the piece of carpet that Augustus was holding. There was a lot of smoothing down and umming and ahhing, questions about the shape and size, colour and materials. Luke and Cecilia stood there quietly watching before Augustus said, “Right then, chaps. I must be off!” They waved him goodbye and Luke handed Jasper the caramelised onion.
“Here you go. Cecilia got it for you!”
“Oh, thank you, Cecilia. Yum, my favourite.”
Jasper told the two of them that Augustus had been sponsored by a big name this year but wasn’t allowed to give away who it was. But more importantly because of this he had some inside knowledge on who the winner might be.
The three of them were standing outside what appeared to be a big bowl, which Luke announced was the Concave Stadium. They walked through the archway entrance into a stunning deep, shiny basin covered in mirrors and gold. It was like walking into the centre of a diamond; it reflected the faces and sounds and light of all the dwellers inside it. Luke began to explain how it all worked as he led them to some unoccupied seats. As each member of the audience exhaled, they released a sigh that changed the air pressure and created a colour cloud, which under the specific conditions at the Concave Stadium also contained a feeling. These were what the sigh riders raced on and the audience let out different coloured sighs depending on how they were feeling—technically, they set the mood. A misty multicoloured cloud was growing above the audience, gathering sighs from them as they took their seats in the pit below. The colour cloud swelled as the Concave Stadium filled up in preparation for the competition to start. The air was vibrant and the atmosphere seemed to almost completely absorb Cecilia. She gazed skywards, sighs rising up around her like hot steam. She was lost in the colours and the depth of emotion they held. As the clouds passed overhead she was engulfed in feelings. But they weren’t hers: her emotions were being manipulated and she felt out of control until she sighed a waft of yellow that floated towards the colour cloud. It was a huge relief and she felt for a moment she had returned to her senses, until her feelings began to gather in her again as she stared at it.
Luke waved his fuzzy hand in front of her face.
“There will be plenty of time for that in a bit. Don’t use up all your sighs now—you’ll run out of energy and then you won’t feel anything at all when it starts!”
“Oh, right, thanks.” Cecilia felt a bit light headed.
There was a lot of huffing and puffing and groaning all around. It reminded Cecilia a little bit of an orchestra tuning up before it plays a piece of music.
Luke looked at Cecilia, his eyes reflecting a lilac tinge that was rising up around them, and he sensed her sadness. Wanting to comfort his new friend, he said, “Here, link my arm.” This brought up more feelings in Cecilia than she could have imagined. It reminded her of her dad and going to the cinema or afternoons out for daddy–daughter time. She knew her family would be worried about her and for a moment she felt guilty for getting on without them and not being able to let them know she was OK. Cecilia had lost track of time—in fact, she realised there seemed to be an absence of time altogether. Had she seen a clock or a watch since she had wound up so lost? She returned to thoughts of her family; their faces were fading and all she could build in her mind’s eye was a sense of them. She was snapped back to the moment though, when a squirrel-face scurried about in front of her looking for the best seats.
“This one. No, this one?” he muttered to himself. “No, no, this one.” He continued hopping about and disappeared only to return with a bag full of rotting horse chestnuts. He sat upright and alert in the seat next to Cecilia.
A shadow passed overhead, casting the kind of moment of darkness a plane does when it flies over fields on a sunny day. This made the crowd hush and the stadium filled with anticipation.
“It’s the master of ceremonies,” whispered Luke.
She swooped in and landed on a platform high in the air above their heads, cawing a beautiful long, smooth caw that sliced through the anticipation as the crowd stood, clapping and cheering. Cecilia jumped as she heard a loud wolf whistle screeching from a few rows behind them but smiled when she saw it was actually a wolf whistling. He was wearing a faded pink patchwork jersey that had AUGUSTUS THE ALMIGHTY painted on the back.
The master of ceremonies was exquisite. She was sheer black from her head to her claws, even her eyes. She was beautifully composed and eloquently spoken. The crowd roared as the competitors took up their positions. In all the commotion Cecilia managed to watch Augustus take his place in the ninth lane.
“Wow, it’s so exciting we know someone in the competition,” said Cecilia.
“It sure is, kiddo!” Luke replied.
“But I don’t get it. Why is Augustus in ninth if he has already won first? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Oh, yeah, right, you need the rules, hey? Well, the whole idea of the Ride or Sigh competition is to get a medal in every tournament, until you have a complete set of sixteen medals. But it takes a while because we never know when the wind of sighs is going to roll round!”
“The wind of sighs… is that blast we had to take cover from earlier?” asked Cecilia.
“Yes, Zephira—it’s quite erratic. So the first person to win sixteen medals wins the life-long-sigh achievement trophy. But, If you win in the same position twice, it’s a double and you’re disqualified from the competition for life and a new competitor is added to the competition in your place. It has been over a decade since the last life-long-sigh achievement trophy was given out and that last person was Madame Midnight”—he pointed to the crow on the plinth—“and that’s what your status is raised to, the master of ceremonies. If you double at ninth, say, that’s you for ever; you’ll always be ninth position wherever you go, whatever you do, and you never get a chance to start over. It’s a bitter pill to swallow but those are the rule
s. You get it?” he asked, matter-of-fact.
Cecilia was still taking it all in. “Yup, got it. But it all sounds quite risky if you ask me. A bit like gambling. What does it mean to have ninth status, then?”
“That you’ll be digging tunnels the rest of your life, most likely. It’s hardly a coveted position and no one wants to employ someone who comes in late if you think about it!” Luke looked over at Jasper, who was on the other side of Cecilia, sitting comfortably in his seat and soaking up the atmosphere, and lowered his voice to a loud whisper.
“Don’t say anything but that’s what happened to Jasper. He used to be an amateur sigh rider, then he got brave and tried to make the big time. Turned out he was actually really good. He’d got to twelve medals but doubled at fifteen. He became a tunneller out at the edges of the doldrums.”
“Doldrums?” asked Cecilia.
“Gee, it’s so tiring being with you. I have to explain everything,” Luke grumbled. “The doldrums are where all the waste from the tunnels winds up and goes into composting. It’s quite a way away because the gases that come from all the rotting are really dangerous, but it’s all part of the circle of life because then that good stuff goes back in the earth.”
“We have a compost heap at home. Mum’s super proud of it. We chuck all the old fruit and veg, potato skins and that sort of thing on it, but when you take the lid off tiny flies waft out with it and it stinks!” Cecilia giggled.
Luke looked at her and shrugged. He’d been doing that all day. “Annnnyway, while Jasper was working as a tunneller he was asked to make up part of a team sent out to search for new sources of water. ‘The Water Rats’, that’s what they called them. They didn’t just recruit rat-faces though, so it was an opportunity Jasper couldn’t really afford to turn down as it would have got him out of tunnelling and into divining instead. Sadly the day he started there was a gas explosion and a tunnel caved in on him. No one was ever sure how he survived but when he came round he’d lost his sight and his hearing was badly damaged, so he was relieved of all his duties. No one really cared about Jasper after that. That’s when we met. I was in a pretty bad state too as I had been abandoned. It wasn’t my fault—at least, that’s what Jasper tells me. Sometimes it happens, you know. I guess the dweller that left me wanted a bird-face or something. I was very young and alone and I needed nurturing. But that’s all in the past now.” Luke tailed off.
The Tunnels Below Page 7
