by Lauren Child
The spell was broken by Clancy’s sneeze.
‘Damp, isn’t it?’ commented the Count. ‘I detest the damp; it does so penetrate one’s bones.’ He smiled. ‘Could you be so kind as to pass me the casket? Surely you don’t expect me to think that this necklace is all there is. I believe the other jewels must be in that bag, that “backpack” young Master Crew is holding.’
Clancy looked at Ruby as if to ask, ‘What now?’
Ruby looked back at him, her eyes intense. ‘Listen to me,’ she urged. ‘Do as he says.’ She was tapping her foot nervously for she could see the bulky shadow of Mr Darling lurking in the passageway.
‘Very wise Ms Redfort,’ said the Count.
Clancy lifted the casket from the backpack. The threat of Mr Darling became all too obvious as he lumbered into the cave.
‘Listen,’ repeated Ruby.
Clancy hesitated, because suddenly he realised that with the tapping of her foot came another message, a message Clancy Crew heard loud and clear:
- .... .-. --- .-- / - .... . --
Clancy held the casket in front of him as if about to hand it across and then all of a sudden he threw the contents high in the air just as Ruby had told him to, causing a glittering cloud of exquisite jewel-drops to rain down into the waters below. The Count froze for exactly one second, just time enough for Ruby to snatch Eliza Fairbank’s necklace from his loosened grip.
Mr Darling lunged forward, stumbled on the Count’s attaché case and in so doing catapulted Ruby off her tiny feet so she was flung high into the air and down into the tidal pool.
She resurfaced, her face ashen as she lunged out, trying to grab at the pool’s edge, but to Clancy’s horror she suddenly vanished beneath the water.
The Count watched as, in the blink of an eye, both Ruby and rubies disappeared from his reach. ‘Gone, gone forever to the deep,’ he cried. He spun round to face Mr Darling. ‘You incompetent fool!’ he bellowed.
Mr Darling, realising his terrible error and fearing his master’s wrath, stepped backwards, a step too far, and with an almighty splash crashed into the water. He flailed around spluttering, trying to reach out for help. But help didn’t come.
He gasped a last lungful of air before the ocean took him.
‘Unfortunate,’ said the Count in a chilly tone. ‘Dear Mr Darling’s not much of a swimmer. I fear that will be the last we’ll see of him, and no doubt her too.’ He spat out the word ‘her’. ‘Take your last breath Ruby Redfort.’
‘Ruby won’t drown,’ shouted Clancy. ‘You’re wrong about that.’
The Count smiled, his head cocked to one side, looking for all the world like a kindly uncle.
‘Ordinarily, I would agree with you Master Crew, but that octopus doesn’t take prisoners.’
Perhaps for a split, split second Clancy’s blood stopped still in his veins; he had forgotten a giant octopus lurked there in the tidal pool.
… that it can strangle the breath from the strongest man.
Ruby didn’t stand a chance.
‘Could I trouble you to pass my case? Oh and just a warning, I wouldn’t do anything stupid this time. I will kill you, make no bones about it.’
Trembling more than a little, Clancy carefully passed the case over: it smelled of highly polished leather and a strange scent he couldn’t identify. The Count unclasped and examined the contents and his face fell.
‘All broken?’ he whispered. ‘Every one?’ And then quite suddenly his face relaxed and he lifted out a small glass flask of dark liquid. He inspected it carefully and breathed a sigh of great relief. ‘One survived,’ he said. ‘And one is enough.’ He placed the flask gently back in the case. ‘The rubies were mere trinkets, but the main prize is saved.’ He picked up the bag. ‘Farewell Master Crew, I do hope we shall meet again.’
Clancy was stunned. ‘You’re not going to kill me?’ He didn’t mean to say it, it just came out.
The Count smirked; this evidently rather tickled him. ‘I don’t as a rule murder children, not unless they become particularly irksome. One a day will keep my temper at bay. And as you have witnessed –’ he gestured towards the pool – ‘I’ve reached my daily quota so I believe this is your lucky Tuesday.’
He turned to leave, paused and said, ‘Also it is so much more dramatic, don’t you think, to leave one soul alive – if you should ever make it back to shore, which I somehow doubt, then perhaps you would be kind enough to pass on a message; tell LB “the truth is safe with me”. She’ll understand.’ He clapped his hands. ‘Now, hurry, hurry, there’s no time to lose, the hours tick on and the asteroid moves further away, too far to exert any gravitational pull.’
‘What?’ said Clancy. ‘What does that mean?’
‘Ah,’ said the Count, his voice tripping lightly. ‘It means if you don’t move quickly, you’re going to die.’
Clancy glanced down at the rising water – it was beginning to hiss and fizz.
He turned back to the Count, but the Count had gone and in his place the rescue watch lay. A bitter joke. For what use was a watch when what you really needed was an apple barrel?
Not a dream
The sea was cold; its chill ate into her very bones. But the temperature was not her immediate worry: a twenty-foot tentacle was.
She felt a sharp jolt and it coiled round her – it was strong, it was crushing and it was determined. Together the thing and Ruby travelled downwards; turquoise became blue and blue became indigo and beyond that was a place without colour.
Ruby held her breath and felt the pressure build inside her lungs.
She was drowning.
She had felt the sensation before. She had met the thing before: the dream was not a dream, it was a memory; she realised that now. She’d encountered this monster before, long, long ago.
The thing was an octopus so huge and so powerful she wondered how her three-year-old self had ever escaped it. Why had it let go its grip that day? This time she knew it would not; this time she knew it would drag her to the place where all the other children dwelled at the very bottom of the ocean; silently resting on the cold seabed.
Clancy counted the milliseconds. Ruby could hold her breath for 61,000 of them, he knew that very well. Sixty-one whole seconds, but not a second more. He watched as the numbers pulsed on his digital watch, tenths of seconds growing into whole seconds. Time so nearly up. In a fit of frustration he picked up the rescue watch and tossed it at the cave wall; what use were all these life-saving gadgets if the one thing you needed was air? If only he could throw Ruby some of that, then she might have a chance.
And then he remembered – he could.
Ruby raised her gaze one last time. Say goodbye to your world, she told herself, and as she did so, she saw a little silver fish swimming down to escort her away to the underworld. It twinkled in the gloom and she looked at it as it moved closer and closer and became not a fish but a buckle.
A breathing buckle.
Clancy’s aim had been lucky and the little device travelled straight to her. She reached out and felt it in her hand, clutching her fingers round it, bringing it to her mouth, and then she breathed.
Not that breathing was to be her salvation: she was still in the grip of a strangling sea monster. It curled her towards it, bringing her close to its strange and ancient face, drawing her to its razor-sharp beak. She looked into its eyes, but could see no flicker of mercy. She turned her face away from it and found herself looking into the dead eyes of Mr Darling, his body squeezed lifeless by one of the monster’s massive arms.
She twisted round, struggling now, fighting for her life, and suddenly out of the gloom came a tiny blue figure, growing larger with every heartbeat.
The figure was a diver – a man she thought she recognised. The man from her dreams. He latched on to the creature’s great limbs, pulling and stabbing with a tiny weapon; a miniature diver fighting a sea giant with a tiny dagger.
What chance did he stand?
But a chan
ce was all he needed: his knife struck lucky and the octopus released its orange-tentacled grip, spilling ink as it did so, and Ruby began to rise away from the beast, back through indigo, through blue, through turquoise and to air.
She felt hands grabbing, pulling her free of the sea. She felt rock grazing her face. She tasted salt in her mouth and smelled dank, acrid air.
She heard a sound so muffled she could not identify it as a voice and then through the blur she saw eyes she knew well.
She looked up.
‘Clancy,’ she said, ‘did anyone ever tell you that you’re the coolest boy alive?’
Chapter 48.
The truth is indigo
‘ARE YOU QUITE ALL RIGHT IN THE HEAD RUBE?’ Clancy looked concerned.
‘I’m just telling you you’re cool Clance. Is there a law against telling someone they’re cool?’
‘No,’ said Clancy warily, ‘it’s just it isn’t like you to come out with a compliment like that – for no reason I mean.’
‘You think I don’t pay compliments?’ said Ruby.
‘I think you swallowed a lot of seawater down there Rube.’
‘Sometimes you can be a total bozo,’ she said. ‘But when you pull it together, you really are super cool.’
‘OK Rube, maybe you should sit down, I’m getting worried here. How did you get away from that octopus?’ he asked.
‘A tiny man saved me, a miniature diver.’ This wasn’t entirely inaccurate; against the colossal size of the octopus he had indeed appeared minuscule. But Clancy was not to know this and now he was beginning to worry that perhaps Ruby had held her breath after all. Held it a minute too long. Holding your breath was considered a highly dangerous activity, he knew that.
‘You threw me the buckle,’ she said, her words sing-songy and happy. ‘Smartest kid I ever knew.’
Clancy was relieved. OK, so maybe she was just in shock. That would explain things.
‘Ruby, you know you’re all blue?’ he said. He looked at her hard and it all began to dawn on him. Not only was she covered in indigo, but she had probably also swallowed quite a lot of the stuff too – drunk on indigo might be the best way to describe her state. He remembered what Ruby had told him about the ink of the giant octopus, the serum. She was blabbing the truth.
‘Where did that Count go?’ she asked.
‘He sort of vaporised,’ said Clancy. ‘Not literally, but he suddenly wasn’t there.’
‘He does that,’ said Ruby. ‘Though I’m real surprised he didn’t kill you.’
‘Thanks for being so honest.’
‘I can’t help it,’ said Ruby. ‘I swallowed the ink, I can’t tell a lie.’
‘So I can ask you anything and you’ll answer me truthfully?’
‘Yes.’ She beamed.
‘So what next?’
‘We have to get out of here fast or we’ll drown.’
‘What? You’re kidding?’
‘Can’t kid Clance.’
‘But why are we gonna drown?’ Clancy was flapping.
‘The currents are returning. I felt it. The asteroid is getting too far away.’
‘That’s what the Count said.’ Clancy was beginning to panic.
‘Any minute now a giant whirlpool will swirl up and drag us down to the unexplored deep.’ The serum had the unfortunate side effect of making the speaker sound happy and relaxed which was annoying for the person listening, especially when the news wasn’t good. ‘It happened to my great-great-great-grandmother Martha.’ Ruby was smiling. ‘But she was lucky enough to climb inside an apple barrel.’
‘OK,’ said Clancy, trying to keep upbeat. ‘So we get a bit scratched, grazed even, but we’ll live.’
‘No, I don’t think so Clance, you see Martha’s barrel would have contained air and you need air to breathe while you’re held under by the current and to be honest even then you might suffocate. I mean who knows how long we'll be under?’
Clancy looked around desperately. ‘You see an apple barrel anywhere?’
‘No,’ said Ruby.
‘Don’t you have any ideas?’ said Clancy.
‘Too bad we don’t have the rescue watch; it might have some device that could have saved us,’ said Ruby.
‘But we do!’ said Clancy, his voice bright again. ‘We do, the Count returned it.’
‘So where is it?’ said Ruby.
‘I threw it at the wall,’ said Clancy, pointing towards the furthest corner of the cave.
‘You what? What kind of bozo are you?’ She ran to look. ‘Darn it Clance!’ That part of the cave was filled with supplies, equipment and demolition tools all left by the pirates. She picked her way through the rocks and rubble.
‘Can you see it?’ called an anxious Clancy.
‘No,’ replied Ruby.
‘It might have landed in something,’ said Clancy. ‘It sounded like it dropped inside a container of some sort.’
Ruby looked up from her crouching position to see a large blue plastic cylinder; its lid lay on the ground next to it. Not an apple barrel exactly, but something that might do just as well. She peered inside; it was empty but for Bradley Baker’s watch.
‘You’re a genius Clance; we might just make it outta here after all.’
Without further discussion the two of them worked to pull the container out of the debris. The roar of the water was getting stronger, and as Ruby and Clancy climbed into the makeshift barrel, they were aware of the whirling water bubbling over the edge of the rock floor. They fumbled with the lid.
‘Quick duh brain! We don’t have time for this.’
‘Quick yourself buster!’
Finally, they lined it up right and twisted it in place which was lucky for them because one second later there was an almighty crashing as several tons of water forced their way into the cave and a half second later the barrel was lifted high into the air before being sucked down, down, down into the eye of the whirling thing.
‘You know we still stand a very good chance of dying,’ shouted Ruby merrily.
Chapter 49.
The truth will out
THE MAKESHIFT CRAFT WAS SUCKED DOWN into the whirling ocean current, tossed and tumbled by the returning Sibling tide. It seemed to spin and rise and sink and spin, over and over. They might have been underwater for several hours, days even, or just ten minutes, they really couldn’t tell, but it felt like a very long time.
Finally, the pressure forced the barrel up and out and they surfaced somewhere to the east side of Little Sister rock. Not that Ruby and Clancy were aware of that – for all they knew they could be in the Atlantic or the Dead Sea. The only thing they were sure of was that they were bobbing on the water, a little bruised, very shaken and slightly queasy.
‘Am I still alive?’ moaned Clancy.
‘Yeah, but you look awful, you’ve gone a funny colour.’
‘It’s the barrel, bozo,’ said Clancy. ‘It’s making us look blue. Although you already are blue.’
Ruby inspected her arms. ‘I guess I am kinda blue.’
‘I hope that ink comes off,’ said Clancy, ‘or your parents are gonna be asking some pretty tricky questions – you do look weird.’
‘Yeah, well, you’re not exactly looking picture-perfect there,’ said Ruby. ‘Kinda ugly actually.’
‘Thanks a whole bunch,’ muttered Clancy. ‘Talking of ugly, what happened to Mr Darling?’
Ruby wrapped her fingers round her throat. ‘Squeezed to death.’
Clancy shivered. ‘I guess that octopus got his tentacles on him.’
‘Arms,’ corrected Ruby. ‘They’re called arms.’
‘You’ve been calling them tentacles,’ Clancy pointed out. ‘I heard you say tentacles.’
‘Yeah, but they’re called arms – technically they’re arms.’
‘Could you quit being so pedantic?’ said Clancy.
‘I can’t help it. I swallowed the truth serum, I gotta say what’s on my mind.’
‘You always say
what’s on your mind. What’s the difference?’
‘Listen!’ hissed Ruby. ‘Do you hear that?’
‘The Sea Whisperer?’ Clancy sounded alarmed.
‘It’s a boat buster!’ snapped Ruby.
Then they heard voices. Two of them.
‘Do you think it’s the pirates?’ whispered Clancy. Their container wasn’t spacious enough to flap in, but Clancy’s arms were thinking about it.
‘Do I look like I have X-ray vision?’ said Ruby.
‘Well, you certainly look weird,’ replied Clancy.
There wasn’t a whole lot they could do so they just sat there while they felt the barrel being tugged towards the boat and the boat’s occupants struggling with the lid.
They breathed in fresh air and looked up at two puzzled faces.
‘Kid, what are you doing in there?’ said a familiar voice.
‘Just holding my breath,’ replied Ruby, staring up at Hitch. She switched her gaze to the other face and was surprised to see Kekoa. ‘Hey, how come you’re out and about? I thought you were in hospital nearly dying?’
‘I figured you’d be somewhere you shouldn’t be,’ said Kekoa.
‘You figured I’d be in a barrel?’ said Ruby.
‘No,’ said Kekoa flatly. ‘But I tried to call you and your signal was off, so I figured you’d gotten yourself somewhere you shouldn’t be. Listening isn’t your strongest attribute.’
‘I’ll say,’ said Hitch. He leaned in and pulled out first Clancy and then Ruby. ‘Kekoa dragged herself out of her hospital bed and came to find me. She guessed where you’d be kid.’
‘But how?’ said Ruby.
‘I did some reading while I was convalescing.’ Kekoa held up a copy of the orange book, The Sea Whisperer. ‘Not a myth after all. The monster, the wreck, the cave, the treasure, it all began to sound like it could be true.’
Ruby’s eyes took in the familiar cover and then they focused beyond the book on a man who was standing a little distance behind Agent Kekoa. He was clad in a blue wetsuit which had a rip at the shoulder. His face was lined and brown from too many days in the scorching sun.
