***
Ari knew they needed the girls. Whatever game or play or imagination they had used previous to this, now seemed irrelevant - the giant statues and the immense doors were real. Even without Lexington’s logic, Ari could see the statues and the door had been buried under the earth for possibly hundreds, if not thousands of years.
As they hiked like mad back through the bush, a small chipping noise rang out of the head of one of the giants. A long implement pushed through one of its eyes and exposed an empty dark socket. Then an eye appeared at it and stared at the outside world.
Chapter 11 - Into the Dark Room
Uncle Bear-Nard cowered as Aunty Gertrude raged and raged.
‘And further more the flouting of rules deserves a punishment.’ She flapped her arms with great gusto.
He squirmed in his study, her anger making him uncomfortable. He placed his hands, palm up on his lap and tried to look caring.
‘I am not sure all the rules have been explained.’
‘NOT EXPLAINED! NOT EXPLAINED.’
Her face reddened as if uncovering a pit of festering anger and she shrieked.
Uncle Bear-Nard dropped his head down. Had he pushed his wife too far?
‘CHILDREN BY THEIR AGE SHOULD KNOW THE GOLDEN RULE.’
He could think of several golden rules. He glanced around his study, hoping that one of his many books or piles of papers or gathered knick-knacks might jog his memory.
‘The golden rule is,’ she said through clenched teeth, ‘everything is forbidden unless told so.’ She threw her arms up in despair. ‘Really. These kids have addled your head.’
He muttered inaudible words.
‘I don’t want to hear it.’ She turned to the door. ‘Girls, get in here. Tell him what those brats did!’
A timid Petruce told Uncle Bear-Nard what had happened and Pemily agreed, adding that the girls were now locked in the chapel.
Uncle Bear-Nard, Aunty Gertrude and the maids marched to the chapel. As they stood outside the door, Aunty Gertrude unlocked it and Uncle Bear-Nard nervously shuffled in. She expected him to punish the girls, to give them a full beating or met out something harsh but he knew he could never inflict such brutality on them.
They stepped inside and an empty chapel greeted them. Aunty Gertrude flew into another rage.
‘Who would dare defy me? Who let them out?’
The maids shook. Uncle Bear-Nard ignored her and wandered around the room looking as if he took a great interest in the whole affair. He walked behind the altar and noticed the discarded maid’s uniforms. He pushed them under the cover of the altar with his foot while Aunty Gertrude marched up and down the aisle fuming and yelling.
Footsteps hurried down the hall and Jeeves, the butler, appeared at the door neatly attired in a black and white uniform. Behind him stood Pembrooke, a stooped scruffy-looking man with dirty clothes.
‘M’lord, M’lady. Morning tea,’ Jeeves said and turned his nose away from Pembrooke.
‘Pembrooke,’ Aunty Gertrude shouted. ‘Disgusting man. I have told you before. Not inside with your boots.’
‘It’s right mam. Took ‘em off.’ He pointed to his dirt encrusted socks. ‘Thought ya might like to knows I seen them young uns run off up into Hirad’s Forest.’
Overwhelmed at the news Aunty Gertrude pretended to swoon and all the servants rushed to her aid. They fussed over her trying to look concerned. The earth suddenly shook and every one scrambled for the wall. Seconds later the earth went quiet. The maids’ faces turned white, as did Jeeves, Uncle Bear-Nard’s and Pembroke’s. Aunty Gertrude shot an accusing stare at Uncle Bear-Nard.
‘It’s been years since we’ve had an earthquake. Bear-Nard! What’s going on?’
Great. Something to finally get her mind off the children.
‘I bet those children have something to do with this,’ she said infuriated. ‘I want them found. I want them brought to me and I want them now!’
Uncle Bear-Nard groaned under his breath, while the staff scuttled to look for them.
***
The cousins met at the tumble down stone fence behind the gardens and talked like mad about their discoveries.
‘Can you remember what you did to make the door open,’ Ari said to the girls.
‘We did nothing, I think,’ Lexington said. ‘It opened when the earth shook.’
Melaleuca added, ‘We must have tripped a switch or a trigger.’
Quixote grinned at Ari.
‘What is it?’ Melaleuca said.
‘Well. We can’t be too sure,’ Ari said. ‘But it seems the earth started shaking when Quixote lifted an object out of the statue’s hands and it stopped when he dropped it.’
‘Are you telling me,’ Lexington said, ‘that the key to the door under the Cathedral-Mansion is in the hills and has been buried for hundreds of years?’
From the expression on Ari’s face Melaleuca saw Lexington’s logic made him doubt it.
‘Perhaps,’ he said. ‘Perhaps it was coincidence then.’
‘Orrrr...’ Quixote said. ‘Or it is only one way of opening it and there are others.’
Radiating enthusiasm, he pranced around in the long grass and through laughter said, ‘How cool would it be if an ancient race of giants lived under the mountain?’
Melaleuca locked her eyes on Quixote and he, in turn, bore his own smiling eyes back at her. A rushing whirl of images flooded her brain, overwhelming her. Scenes of giants, large buildings, swirling masses of colours and shapes she had never seen before rapidly changed and darted about. Feeling queasy, she jerked her head away. So that’s what goes on in his mind.
‘Take me to these statues,’ Lexington said.
‘Wait,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Just wait...hang on...Let’s use imagination and play. Use it to work it out,’ though her confidence in her suggestion wavered a little.
Following their parents’ behest, they each took turns suggesting possible scenarios, though their past games and playing now felt like a clumsy pair of boots, especially in the light of the realness of their discoveries.
‘Mel,’ Lexington finally said. ‘Let’s just go check the statues.’
‘Sure. I was about to suggest it. What about your hyperthesis?’
‘Oh it can wait. Really, I mean, this is worth checking first.’
‘Maybe our parents sent us here to rescue the scared boy,’ Quixote said out of nowhere.
‘What scared boy?’ Melaleuca asked.
In their excitement Quixote and Ari had forgotten to tell the girls of the small boy and the men chasing him, so they rushed through an explanation of what had happened.
Lexington scratched her head. Rescuing him did not make sense.
‘If our parents wanted us to rescue anyone, then why let us go through all what we have been through?’
‘Why not,’ Quixote said. ‘Doesn’t matter how we got here.’
‘Why not? Our parents let us get attacked, disappear, transport us with an old man, who turns young, to a hidden land...’ she shrugged her shoulders, ‘...just to rescue a boy?’
‘Could of had their reasons.’
‘Like what?’
‘I don’t know but I say we are here to rescue him.’
Melaleuca stepped between them.
‘Stop it both of you.’ She raised one of her eyebrows at Ari. ‘What do you think?’
‘The kid was definitely scared and the man in charge looked like one of those soldiers from a hundred years ago. He said he was the Captain of the Inquisat, responsible for law and order.’
‘Inquisat?’ Lexington said animated by the word. ‘Like Inquisition?’
‘I guess, dunno.’
‘Oh this is so good.’ Lexington beamed at Melaleuca. ‘The Inquisition was a time when the Spanish Church tortured people. This is our first real solid clue.’
Melaleuca waited for the next pronouncement, the one that explained what she meant.
‘Don’t y
ou get it? If that is the name of their law-people, then this land and its people are medieval European in origin.’
They looked at her with blank faces.
‘They came from Europe about 500 hundred years ago.’ Confusion crossed her face. ‘But then I distinctly heard Argus say the British colonised this land. Now that’s odd then.’
‘So are we here to rescue the kid or not?’ Quixote asked.
A decision welled up inside Melaleuca before the need to make one arose. They would go to the statues first and then back to the secret room and try as a team to make sense of the discoveries. She wondered why she had made that decision, when Lexington and Quixote started to argue.
‘Take me to the forest Ari,’ Lexington said.
‘Take me to the secret room Mel,’ Quixote said.
‘We are closer to the forest.’
‘I want to go to the secret room.’
‘Enough,’ Melaleuca said holding a hand up to each of them. ‘Lexington, well done on figuring out that Inquisat bit. Is that what your hyperthesis is about or is that a hunch?’
‘Neither. It is a fact. But I can work it in.’
‘Good. We are going to the statue first,’ Melaleuca said with one of her don’t-argue-with-me looks.
***
All four of them stood in wonderment, gazing at the giant statues guarding the giant door either side, rubble heaped at its base.
‘This is...this is...this is incredible,’ Lexington said. ‘I don’t know where to start.’
Melaleuca felt answers to the riddle of their parents lay beyond the doors though as she started to speak, another feeling told her the time for sharing it would be later.
Trust.
‘What do you think Lex?’ Melaleuca said instead.
‘I...don’t...know. Just...how did Qui...how did you find this?’
As if he had set a trap, he beamed and gloated.
‘I was just playing and mucking about and thought throwing stones would be fun. That’s all.’
‘Settle, Quixote,’ Ari said.
‘And Ari, you...sensed something?’ Lexington asked.
‘Not as he threw the rocks. I did when I entered the forest, but then I sensed something in the trees, and the mansion, and...’ He ran his eyes over the high doors.
‘And what?’
‘Well, I can’t be sure, but...’
‘It felt like,’ Quixote finished with relish, ‘someone else OR...’ He made boggle eyes. ‘...something else was here, after the dirt fell.’
Lexington flicked her eyes between them
‘Can you feel it now, either of you?’
‘It’s gone. Sorry,’ Ari said.
Lexington wrote some notes and announced to Quixote, ‘Finding it by accident was just luck, not smart.’
‘Yeah, but I found it.’
‘Enough, both of you,’ Melaleuca said and diverted their attention to the statues. ‘Why does it appear to change?’
Lexington climbed over the rubble and stood in front of the door, examining both statues from the side. They possessed many arms and legs, even though viewed from below they appeared to only have two of each.
‘Here’s why.’
As they scrambled up to Lexington, a flood of ideas raced through her head.
‘Seems that something about this plays with light, just like the Photaic Wall. Maybe the earth’s magnetic field is warped under here and...’ She darted her eyes between them and the statues. ‘...and...maybe Ari, you are sensitive to the magnetic waves? Perhaps this is the Ethmare you refer to?’
‘He didn’t feel anything on the sea-slope,’ Quixote said and again Melaleuca could see his relish at pointing this out.
‘Ignore him,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Let’s try opening these doors.’
Quixote threw himself onto one of the statues and started to climb it. Ari started after him, moving upwards at a slower pace and searched for a door handle of sorts. Quixote reached the funnel and again gripped it in preparation to lift it out.
‘I can’t see anything like a handle,’ Ari said.
‘Break the doors down with this,’ Quixote said, lifting the funnel.
Lexington drew her eyes on Melaleuca and said, ‘You’re awfully quiet. Why?’
‘My job is to lead and make decisions. You’re all doing fine.’
‘You’ve had a feeling haven’t you? Tell.’
‘Later.’
Quixote cried out straining and sounding as if he would pop a hernia.
‘NEARLY.....TTHHHEERRREEEE....’
Red faced with his bony muscles taut, he pulled the last bit of the funnel out of the giant’s hand and fell head first with it into the rubble. Plumes of dust and dirt spewed up. From out of the settling dust he laughed and a head covered in dirt beamed out of it. ‘At least that time the earth didn’t shake.’
‘We don’t know exactly what made the earth shake,’ Lexington said examining the funnel shaped object. The main part of it lay buried in the rubble and she started to dig around it.
‘Leave it Lex. There is nothing more to do here,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Let’s go and see if the boys are strong enough to open the secret room door.’
***
Jeeves searched the front of the Cathedral-Mansion, wandering dignified amongst the trees on the lawn. The maids strode the corridors in the west wing and Aunty Gertrude strode the corridors in the east wing, while Uncle Bear-Nard and Pembroke searched behind the Cathedral-Mansion.
Uncle Bear-Nard raced ahead and Pembrooke contented himself to amble behind, becoming distracted by some weeds peering out of the lavender bushes in his herb garden.
Melaleuca spotted Uncle Bear-Nard first as he stepped out from behind the hedges and faced them walking up past the stone fence.
‘Children, children. Must once to you talk at,’ he said fumbling his words.
They stopped and listened.
‘It’s your Aunt see. She’s just not used to children. It’s a bit much for her. I know you are curious but the rules must be obeyed. Please, you see, she will send you away.’
Lexington thought about this for a second.
‘Perhaps Uncle ─ ’
Uncle Bear-Nard cut her off and with a suddenness unlike him became commanding and firm. ‘Best let your Aunt calm down. Either stay outside and hide or creep up the back stairs and wait in your rooms.’ He sniffed and then in a weak tone said, ‘Please.’
‘I have a question though,’ Lexington said.
Melaleuca saw a definite ripple of panic cross his face.
‘Oh?’
‘All the photos on the wall, the ones with our mothers in. Do you know which is whose mother? I mean they never show our mothers all together.’
‘Oh, oh, oh, I see. Um...um...,’ he said unhinged. ‘I shall have to think about it...old age...plays with the mind.’
With a brisk step he walked toward the Cathedral-Mansion, stopped and turned saying, ‘Hide from your Aunty for the rest of the day, there’s some good children.’
***
The gas lamp flared again, lighting up the stone door and Quixote leapt at it, pretending to kick it open though it did not move. Ari pulled on the door with all his might, and then Quixote tried helping him, and then the girls joined in but the stone door sat still.
‘Something opened it before,’ Melaleuca said. ‘We just have to do whatever it was again.’
‘Retrace your steps,’ Ari said.
‘We just walked down the steps and stood there.’
‘Do it anyway.’
The girls walked back up and walked back down.
‘Is that all?’ Ari said.
‘Oh wait, we fell on the floor here,’ Lexington said, ‘when the earth shook.’
Ari pondered this while Quixote played around with the crinkly edges of the strange circle on the door.
‘The earth shook when Quixote tried to pull something out of the giant’s hand,’ Ari said.
‘Yes,’ Lexington
replied. ‘But he pulled it out before and nothing happened.’
‘True.’
Quixote yelped with excitement and said, ‘Look. The edges of the circle are the same as the edges of that thing in the giant’s hand.’
‘Well that just doesn’t make sense,’ Lexington said puzzled.
‘It will,’ Quixote said and tore off up the stairs.
‘Where are you going?’ Melaleuca yelled after him.
‘Back to the statue to get it. I just know that it is the key,’ he said disappearing up the steps.
‘Follow him,’ Melaleuca said.
At the base of the statue Quixote dug like mad. By the time the others arrived, he had it out and had pulled it over onto its side.
‘See crinkly edges.’
Melaleuca inspected it. The crinkled edges stared up at her. Lexington peered at it, casting a harsh eye over it.
‘Crude conclusion. It might work. Do you have a feeling on it, perhaps, Mel?’
‘I feel we shall just try it.’
As they started rolling it through the forest, Lexington spotted lines on the flat surface of the funnel shaped object.
‘Wait, stop, look,’ she said and bent down, pulling the dirt off, revealing an eagle and a cow embossed into it.
‘We’ll try it on the door, then you can analyse it Lex,’ Melaleuca said.
***
It took all four of them to lift it and fit it into the circle on the stone door and even more effort to turn it. As they turned it the door carried on opening until a wide rectangular gap of darkness loomed before them.
The blackness struck Melaleuca as mysterious yet she did not know why.
‘Ari. You lead,’ she said.
He nudged his way forward and hesitated.
‘What?’ Melaleuca said.
Before he could answer Quixote launched himself forward. Expecting this Melaleuca shot her arm out and stopped him.
‘I said Ari first.’
He slunk back and Ari slipped into the darkness, disappearing from sight.
‘Well?’ Melaleuca said.
‘It’s weird.’ His voice sounded far away. ‘It almost feels...like...like what I felt in the forest and by those trees. Seems safe though...come in.’
Melaleuca entered the room and the darkness engulfed her. She felt it straight away, a presence of some sort and she wondered what it could be but nothing came to mind. Lexington’s words about contrasting options played through her mind.
The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders - Book 1 Page 17
