‘He’s a talking dog,’ said Daisy calmly. ‘Accept it and move on.’
‘Wow!’ Prawn cried.
‘Hi,’ said Ben.
‘That is so awesome!’ said Prawn. ‘I love you, talking dog dude!’ He held out an open hand.
Ben reluctantly raised a paw, and Prawn slapped it with his hand.
Ben kept sniffing about and after a few moments he looked up. ‘He went thataway,’ he said, pointing a paw down the track towards the camp.
Sinclair squatted down in front of him. ‘Given that the boy has been so unhelpful with his description, is there anything you can learn about the man who took the stone from his scent?’
Ben sniffed harder at the ground. ‘One hundred and seventy-eight centimetres tall,’ he said. ‘Male, dark hair, wearing a blue cap, has a large nose, brown eyes and a six-centimetre-long scar on the outside of his left thigh. He likes windsurfing, meeting people and experimenting with chemicals that can cause explosions. Three and a half years ago a piece of tomato fell out of a sandwich that he was eating and left a faint stain on his shirt. He is the youngest of three brothers, he hates lettuce and –’
‘How can you tell all this?’ interrupted Sinclair, astonished.
‘I can’t. I was just making it up. But I am pretty sure he went thataway.’ Ben pointed a paw down the hill. ‘And he also has a really unusual scent. Kind of like yours.’
Sinclair frowned.
‘Before we go,’ said Daisy to Sinclair, ‘let’s make a deal. Ben and I will help you get the stone back, if you help us find my mum.’
Sinclair nodded. ‘Agreed.’
Ben sniffed his way back to the road and down the hill. On the way down Daisy tried to explain to Prawn what was going on and Prawn said, ‘Wow!’, ‘Awesome!’ and ‘Wow! Awesome!’ a number of times. After a few minutes they reached the bottom of the hill where the forest opened out and the road continued towards the archaeologists’ campsite. To the left was the hill under which lay the archaeological site. Just ahead of them a thin walking track diverted off the road and headed directly up the hill towards the entrance to the caves.
Ben had another sniff and then left the road and started along the track. Heading diagonally up and across the hill, they soon entered thick trees. After a few minutes the forest opened out a little, and Daisy caught glimpses of a hole in the side of the hill that was about the size of a green truck. (Actually the truck could be any colour, but I like green trucks. If you prefer red trucks, feel free to imagine that the hole was about the size of a red truck.)
The track continued up to the whatever-colour-you-like-truck-sized hole and then disappeared into it. This, Daisy knew, was the main entrance to the cave system.
‘He must have gone in there,’ she said.
‘Then we must follow,’ replied Sinclair.
‘One problem,’ said Daisy. ‘Look.’ Standing on either side of the cave entrance was a man. Each wore a vacant expression and held a lump of wood that looked like it could be used to hit someone very hard in the head.
‘They’re guarding the entrance,’ whispered Sinclair.
‘Really?’ replied Daisy, cranking up the sarcasm again, ‘I thought they were buying a fridge.’ She felt she was really getting the hang of it now. ‘Come on, follow me. There’s another way in.’
Daisy headed off the track straight uphill through some trees. The best bit of her not-very-good holiday in Gloomy Gulch had been when her mum had taken her to the archaeological site. They had gone a little way inside the main entrance of the caves, but not too far because people under eighteen weren’t allowed in. Her mum had then taken her on a tour of the camp and the hillside, and pointed out another entrance to the caves that hardly anybody else knew about. That was where Daisy was now heading.
After she had taken just a few steps, she heard a car. She ducked down behind the trees and motioned for everyone to do the same. The noise got louder and then a white car whizzed along the road towards the campsite. Daisy got a fleeting glimpse of the driver. He was large, had thinning blond hair and looked a lot like Professor Trevor Blont. What was he doing here?!
‘Come on,’ she said, and continued up the hill. There were still enough trees to give them cover. Soon they passed a big clump of rocks and above it Daisy turned right. They were quite a bit higher than the cave’s main entrance now. Several bushes and rocks were between them and the entry, which meant that even if they were looking, the guards wouldn’t have been able to see them. And of course, if they weren’t looking, they wouldn’t have been able to see them either.
Ahead lay another rocky outcrop, almost directly above the cave’s main entrance. Daisy pulled herself through a narrow gap between two tall rocks onto a long flat rock that, if found by the side of a river, would have been just the right shape to skim across the water. It was not, however, the right size to skim across the water, being about five hundred times too big.
Standing on the rock, Daisy would have had a magnificent view back over the valley if she had been looking that way. However she was staring at a narrow hole at the level of her feet between the rock she stood on and the one that rose vertically behind it.
She turned back to the others. ‘I’ve found the entrance.’
They all clambered onto the large flat rock.
Sinclair took Daisy’s elbow. ‘I suppose there’s no point telling you that it could be dangerous down there, and that you should stay up here.’
Daisy shook her head. ‘You could try telling Dennis that. I think he’s more likely to get hurt than me. And I’ll try to persuade Prawn.’
She went over to him. ‘Prawn, I’m looking for my mum. These guys are looking for their stone. You don’t have to come. Maybe it’d be better if you went home … to Henry.’
‘Dude, do you, like, know what happens in Doomfinder 4?’
‘You shoot orcs?’
‘Duh! And do you know where you shoot them? Underground! It’s an underground adventure that is, like, so brutally awesome. And now, we’re going on a real underground adventure.’ His eyes blazed with excitement. ‘I am, like, so in! Plus, you know, I should try to find my dad. And also it’s kind of my fault that they, like, lost their rock thing.’
‘Okay,’ said Daisy. She’d tried to warn him, so at least now if something horrible did happen to him, it wasn’t her fault.
‘I’ll go first,’ said Sinclair. He eased himself down into the hole, and then ducked his head through and disappeared.
‘It’s all right,’ he called up. ‘You come next, Dennis.’
‘Yes, boss.’
Dennis let himself down into the hole until only his head was visible.
‘Be careful,’ called Sinclair. ‘Mind you don’t bump your he–’
‘Oww!’ cried Dennis. ‘I bumped my head!’
‘Be quiet!’ hissed Daisy.
‘But my head got ouched! Oww! I should have worn a bicycle helmet! But I don’t even have a bicycle.’ He looked down into the hole. ‘Why didn’t you warn me?’
‘I did,’ said Sinclair from inside the hole.
‘No, you didn’t. You said “Mind you don’t bump your he–”. I don’t know what a “he–” is. You should have said “head”.’
‘Just get in the hole,’ said Sinclair.
Dennis rubbed his head vigorously and then slowly disappeared into the hole. Prawn was next, and then Ben went feet first as far as he could and then leapt into the darkness. Finally, Daisy eased her legs down, ducked her head and entered the underground world.
She could see the others clustered together looking up at her. She found a foothold and eased herself down onto the ground. They were in a small, muddy chamber about the size of her bedroom. All Daisy could see were her companions and dried mud. Muddy walls, muddy ceiling, muddy floor, muddy mud.
Except that it wasn’t mud. Her mot
her had told her it was bat poo that had built up over hundreds of years. But it felt, and more importantly smelt, like mud.
Daisy saw a narrow, low passage leading out of one corner of the cave. ‘If we follow this it should link up with the rest of the cave,’ she said. ‘Oh no! Problem. No light.’
There was a click and suddenly a blue light glowed out of Sinclair’s forehead. A second later Dennis’s forehead started to glow too.
‘Whoa!’ exclaimed Prawn. ‘I so wish I could do that!’
‘Nice feature, isn’t it?’ said Dennis proudly. ‘Well done, my body!’
The lights didn’t exactly flood the chamber, but if they stuck close to each other they would be able to see where they were going. Sinclair knelt down and crawled into the passage followed by Ben, Daisy, Prawn and finally Dennis. The passage sloped gently downwards, and the bat poo was soft and easy to crawl on. Soon the roof got higher and they were able to stand, but the passage remained narrow enough to force them to stay in single file.
‘Hey, like, Daisy,’ whispered Prawn nervously.
‘What?’
‘I’m, er, like, not scared at all. Like, definitely not,’ he said, his voice quivering slightly. ‘Just wanted to say.’
‘That’s good, Prawn,’ said Daisy.
‘Yeah, but, like, I was wondering if maybe, like, you are? ’Cos you’re, like, younger than me and all.’
‘I’m fine, thanks.’
‘Oh. Okay then.’
Actually, Daisy was scared. She just didn’t want to admit it. Up ahead, Sinclair stopped. Ben and Daisy stopped just behind him. Prawn bumped into Daisy. Dennis bumped into Prawn.
‘There’s light ahead,’ whispered Sinclair. ‘Stay here. I’ll investigate.’
‘Wait!’ whispered Daisy. ‘Let me and Ben go. I’m the smallest, so I’m less likely to be seen. And Ben might smell something.’
Sinclair looked hard at her and then nodded.
Chapter 14
EVIL IS FUN
Daisy edged past Sinclair and crept forward, Ben behind her. There was a dull glow up ahead that provided just enough light for her to make out where she was going. She rounded a corner and a little way ahead she could see that the passage opened out into a bigger chamber, from where she could hear voices.
She knelt down and crawled forward cautiously along the passage, until she could spy into the larger chamber. The passage was about halfway up the chamber’s wall, about three metres above the ground. The chamber was about twice as big as a school classroom, and had four passages leading off it. Below, the wall sloped down to ground level, gently enough to allow Daisy to climb down. But that might not be a good idea. The chamber contained two folding chairs, eight blow-up mattresses, several piles of bags and what looked like several people sitting on the floor around its edges, but it was hard to tell because the only light came from a single lantern that stood in the middle of the floor.
The only person Daisy could see clearly sat on one of the chairs next to the lantern. He had shoulder-length brown wavy hair, a purple shirt and grey pants, but that was all Daisy could see of him because he had his back to her. However, she could see that he was holding a glowing blue stone out in front of him.
‘All right, my vacant, glassy-eyed friends,’ said the man to the others, ‘and when I say “friends”, I really mean “slaves”, of course. Chop, chop, we must get back to work. And when I say “we”, I really mean “you”. There’s a red stone down here somewhere and you need to find it and bring it to me.’
Daisy’s ears pricked up at the mention of the words ‘red’ and ‘stone’. That was the type Sinclair had said was super-rare and super-powerful.
‘So,’ continued the man, ‘when you hear the words “Evil is fun”, you will go and search for it! All right! Evil is … wait!’ The man cocked his head as if listening, and then closed his hand around the stone and put it in his pocket.
Daisy heard footsteps approaching and a moment later a large-in-a-round-way-not-in-a-tall-way figure supporting himself with a cane limped into the chamber from the right-hand tunnel. Daisy recognised him immediately. Blont!
‘Mister Gamion, I have news,’ Blont panted.
‘Couldn’t you have texted?’ said the-man-who-Daisy-now-realised-was-called-Gamion coldly.
‘I … I thought it best to come in person,’ wheezed Blont. ‘Someone brought me a stone!’
Gamion turned and peered closely at Blont, allowing Daisy to get a better look at him. Gamion had a long sharp nose, a thin face and lips that looked more like lines than lips. His eyes were small, sharp and intense.
‘You? How? What colour?’ he demanded.
‘Yes, me. A girl came to see me at the university. Blue,’ replied Blont, managing to answer all three questions in the right order.
Daisy realised that the girl Blont was referring to was, of course, her.
Gamion jumped to his feet, suddenly friendly. ‘Well, my very good friend, have a seat.’ He helped Blont sit down in the folding chair next to him and then sat beside him. He gave a little giggle and held out his hand. ‘Let’s have it then.’
‘The thing is, um, the girl … I had it but … she got it back.’
‘She got it …?! How old was this girl?’
‘Nearly grown up, and quite big.’
You fibber, thought Daisy.
Gamion stared hard at Blont, who quickly looked at the ground. ‘Maybe she’s only about twelve,’ he said. Blont gestured at his right leg. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t move properly. But I think she’s coming here.’
‘Here?! With the stone?’
‘Yes. She said she wanted to find her mum and give it back to her, and her mum is Jackie Malone, one of the archaeologists.’
‘Ah. Then I think I already have it,’ said Gamion. ‘I sensed a stone approaching, and did a bit of spying. The girl gave the stone to a boy and left him sitting in the forest with it. It was almost too easy for me! Here it is!’
Gamion held the stone up in front of Blont, who stared at it as if mesmerised.
Daisy, listening intently from her hiding place, remembered what Blont had called out as she fled his room: He’s too powerful. Was this the ‘he’ Blont had been referring to?
After a few moments Blont shook his head from side to side and continued. ‘But there is other news. Not so good. The girl told me that there are two other men looking for the stone. They call themselves Sinclair and Dennis.’
‘I see,’ said Gamion, putting the blue stone back in his pocket. ‘We’d better watch out, then. But soon I’ll have the red stone and then I won’t have to worry about them or the people who want to put me back in gaol or anything ever again.’
‘And if you get the red one, will you be able to … you know?’ Blont gulped and gestured at his leg again.
‘… teleport myself to the intergalactic council meeting, punish them all for cruelly and unjustly imprisoning me, and then replace them and become the ruler of the universe? Yes, I will! Is that what you were going to ask?’
Blont looked confused.
‘No, it wasn’t, was it? You were going to ask me something else,’ continued Gamion in the sort of slow, superior, patronising tone that adults who aren’t very good at talking to children use when they say things like, ‘Would you like a little chippy-whippy? Would that be nicey-wicey?’
‘You were going to ask me if I could fix your poor leg, weren’t you?’ continued Gamion. ‘You want to know if, when I get the red stone and become the most powerful being in the entire universe, I will spend some of my precious time fixing your leg.’
‘Well, that was what we agreed …’ Blont began nervously.
Gamion brightened. ‘Indeed it was! We did agree that, didn’t we? And of course I will do it.’
‘In fact,’ continued Blont, ‘I was wondering if perhaps now that you have t
wo of those blue stones, perhaps you might be able to do it now?’ Blont smiled hopefully.
‘Yes, you’re right. I do have two blue stones. The one I got from the boy, and the one I stole when I escaped from gaol. So I bet I could fix your leg now! Of course I could! I could do it eeeeeasily. It would just take a few seconds. It would be simple!’
Blont’s eyes widened. ‘I can’t believe it. I’ve waited so long.’
Gamion’s expression suddenly changed into one of great seriousness. ‘But, alas, no.’
‘No? Why?’ Blont sounded like a child who’d just been told that he couldn’t have the lolly his parents had been promising him all day.
‘I just don’t feel like it.’ Gamion shrugged and smiled hugely, and then looked pretend-sad. ‘What a shame.’
Blont’s face fell into his boots. Daisy thought he might start to cry. ‘But please …’
‘Oh, don’t get all sad and pathetic!’ snapped Gamion. ‘That would be so irritating. I’m changing the subject now because we seem to have spent the last few seconds talking about you and not me, and that’s boring.’
Blont started to say something but Gamion held up his hand. ‘Silence! Or I’ll use the stones to turn you into a zucchini. I need to focus on finding the red one.’
Daisy decided that of all the people she had come across in the last few days, Gamion was definitely the most unpleasant.
Gamion stared off into the distance for a few seconds and then held up his hand again and whirled around to face Blont. ‘Don’t say it. I know what you’re thinking. “If Gamion’s such a genius, why doesn’t he know exactly where the red stone is?” Good question. No wonder you’re a professor! Here’s the answer. Something about being underground makes it hard for me to hone in on the stone’s exact location. Remember, even Einstein didn’t know everything. Why, he only discovered what a sausage was when he was forty-five and a half years old.’
‘Is that true?’
‘No, but you can see the point I’m trying to make.’
‘Can I?’
‘Yes. The point is that we’re always learning. I don’t know exactly where the stone is, but I know it’s close. And, with the help of my nice obedient friends here …’
Daisy Malone and the Blue Glowing Stone Page 13