‘Oh no, not you again,’ she said out loud, just because she hadn’t used her voice for a while and wanted to check that it still worked.
She could easily outrun Fiona now, but she needed the stone. If she hurried, maybe she could get it before Fiona got her. She looked at the parchment:
Underneath the screens are three buttons of different sizes.
Daisy looked behind the plate at the rock shelf beneath the screens. There weren’t any buttons there. She looked harder, as if that would make them magically appear. Oddly, it did. The buttons were the same colour as the rock, and built into the rock shelf so as to be nearly invisible, but she could just see the outlines of three different-sized circles at the base of the screens. She threw a glance over her shoulder. Fiona now had three tentacles out of the water, as well as part of a big rubbery-looking blob that might be her head or her body, or both.
Daisy looked back to the parchment.
Tap them in this order: Big, small, big, middle, big, small, middle, middle, middle, small, big, big, small, middle, middle.
She pushed the buttons in that order and then looked at the next instruction.
Cross to the opposite side of the room where, at about the same height as the screens, you will find a small knob of rock. Pull it to the left and then down.
She ran to the other side of the room and looked for the rock knob. She found one at about the right height and tried to pull it to the left. It didn’t move. Fiona now had about a dozen tentacles and a lot of body out of the water, and as she slid across the floor towards her, for the first time Daisy could see what she looked like.
And it wasn’t pretty.
Fiona was nearly as tall as a grown-up, and circular in shape with soft-looking pinky flesh. Basically, she was a blob with tentacles. She had no head, but near the top of her body were the two biggest eyes Daisy had ever seen, each nearly as big as Daisy’s own head. Beneath them was a wide mouth full of big, sharp teeth. Daisy could see about fifteen tentacles, a few of which were noticeably shorter than the rest. She realised that they must be the ones she had cut through.
Daisy dragged her eyes away. She had to hurry. She spied another, smaller rock knob just below the first one she had tried. She grabbed it and pulled. To her relief it moved to the left and then down. She looked at the parchment again.
Return to the three buttons and repeat the pattern.
She rushed back across the room to the buttons.
Quickly she tapped out the code again, put the parchment back into her pocket and reached for the stone. As she did a tentacle wrapped around her leg. Then another. And another. She grasped the stone and tried to lift it. This time it slid out easily. Immediately she felt a wave of power flow through her. There were now six or seven tentacles wrapped around her legs. She tried to pull away but couldn’t move.
Daisy looked at the stone. She could feel its power, but could she work out how to use it? Fiona’s tentacles pulled harder at her leg, forcing Daisy to take an involuntary step forward. She pointed the stone at Fiona and tried to concentrate on aiming its power at her. Fiona continued to pull at Daisy with her tentacles, but then her grip weakened. Daisy focused even harder, concentrating on pushing the creature away. Fiona unwound her tentacles, slid back across the cave floor and then into the water.
It had worked!
Daisy heaved a sigh of relief. Now she just had to get out. She turned to face the two passages that led from the chamber. Which one would get her out of the cave fastest? And where was Gamion?
Suddenly, the earth began to tremble under her feet. She looked around. The whole room was shaking. The yellow line on the left-hand computer screen was now jerking wildly up and down. The right-hand computer screen was flashing red, on and off, over and over.
What was happening?
She stared at the stone. She had removed it and then a minute later the earth had begun to tremble. Was there some connection? She gently rested the stone back in its holder. After a moment the earthquake slowed and then stopped.
She pulled the stone out again and waited. Nothing. Maybe it had just been a coincidence. She could have just been feeling a minor earth tremor. They happened sometimes.
Then the earth began to shake again. Daisy placed the stone back in its holder and it stopped.
Daisy stared at the stone, trying to figure it out.
Somehow, when the stone was in its holder, it seemed to be stopping some pretty big earth-shaking. So, if she took the stone and left the chamber, what would happen? Would the earthquake get worse? Could it cause a cave-in? Would the thousands of tonnes of rock above her head come crashing down on her and squish her into something thinner than paper? Was there anything thinner than paper?
Daisy wondered what to do. She needed the stone to release her mum and to save Sinclair and Dennis, but what if by taking it she caused something really bad to happen? She remembered all the other people Gamion had hypnotised, still searching underground for the stone. If there was a cave-in, they could all be killed. She stood there, uncertain, for several seconds, knowing that each one surely brought Gamion closer. Finally, she decided. She would leave the red stone where it was, and re-lock it into place so Gamion couldn’t get it. Then she would wait and ambush him as he entered the chamber, and somehow get the two blue stones he had. Daisy gulped. Maybe she would have to use her knife.
It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it was the best she could manage. She reached into her pocket for the parchment and turned to the buttons.
‘Well, hello, my dear! What an unpleasant surprise.’
Daisy whirled around. In front of one of the passages stood Gamion, holding a blue glowing stone out in front of him like a torch.
‘Congratulations. You beat me here,’ he continued. ‘Very clever! But still, you lose. I shall take it now.’
‘No you can’t, because –’
‘Because then I’ll have unimaginable power and be able to do anything I want anywhere in the entire universe? Oh no! How terrible! What a tragedy!’
‘You don’t understand. If you take the stone, something bad is going to happen. I took it out and the earth started shaking.’
‘How marvellously interesting,’ said Gamion. ‘Guess what? I don’t care.’
‘But the stone is stopping some sort of earthquake.’
‘I still don’t care.’
‘But –’
Gamion waved his hand in front of his chest. ‘Don’t even bother finishing the sentence because I. Don’t. Care. At. All.’ He smiled. ‘Clear enough for you?’
‘Look, you have two blue stones. That means you can hypnotise people and travel through space. Isn’t that enough?’
Gamion cocked his head. ‘Is it? It is a lot of power, but is it enough power? Hmmm.’ He bowed his head for a moment and then looked up. ‘No, it’s not. You see, there are other people who also have blue stones, and they could gang up on me and be really mean and send me back to gaol. And I really don’t want to go back to gaol. But if I have a red stone … You see, it’s the most powerful type, and no one else has one. No one. So if I get one, I’m safe. More than safe. With a red stone I can take over the universe. And I will. Little girl, let me ask you: if you had the choice of either going to gaol or ruling the universe, which one would you pick?’ He raised the stone and pointed it at Daisy. ‘Don’t bother answering. It’s a rhetorical question.’
Daisy felt herself being pushed backwards, as if by an invisible wall, until her back hit the wall of the cave, next to the water she had emerged from, squashing her against the rock.
Gamion stepped over to the rock shelf and pulled the red stone out of its casing. He stared into it and a broad smile filled his face. ‘Oh, yes,’ he said.
Daisy wished she had had just one more minute. Then she would have had time to lock the stone back in place.
‘By the way,’
said Gamion. ‘You’re going to be trapped here for a while, I’m afraid, so I’ll give you something to think about, because I’m feeling kind. You know that these stones come from another planet, yes? So that means that someone from another planet went to all the trouble of travelling to your planet, digging all these tunnels, placing this stone just here and attaching these computers to it. Am I right?’
Daisy nodded slowly (because to do so she had to scrape her nose up and down the invisible wall in front of her).
‘So here’s my question. Why would they do that just to stop an earthquake? This planet has lots of earthquakes. Earthquakes aren’t that big a deal. You see, I think the only reason they would have gone to all that trouble would be to prevent something that was a lot worse than an earthquake. So we should both get out of here as fast as we can.’
Daisy felt a glimmer of hope. Was Gamion going to let her out?
‘But … oh no. I forgot!’ Gamion slapped his forehead with his palm. ‘You can’t come because you’re trapped behind an invisible wall. What a pity. But wait! I created the invisible wall with my stone, so I could make it disappear again. I could, couldn’t I? Would you like me to do that?’
Daisy nodded. And hoped.
‘You would? Great! But sadly I’m not going to because …’ Gamion shrugged. ‘No reason, really. I just don’t feel like it.’ He smiled hugely. ‘I love being mean! I really do love it, just like some people love ice-cream or chocolate or riding a horse.’ He held up his hand. ‘So, goodbye! I won’t say, see you later, because I won’t. I have to go to a very important meeting of very important people. I’m not actually invited, but I think this …’ he held up the red stone, ‘… will get me in, don’t you? There’s so much to do. I have to travel to the other side of the universe, take control of the intergalactic council and perform much unnecessary cruelty, and all before bedtime! It’s not easy being bad. Bye!’ Gamion turned to go and then turned back. ‘Oh, and remember. Evil is fun!’
Gamion backed away, then turned and dashed down the left-hand passageway.
Daisy thought about shouting ‘Stop!’, but she had seen far too many movies in which a thief stole something and, as they ran away, the victim shouted, ‘Stop!’. And the bad guy never stopped.
So she saved her breath.
In a moment Gamion was gone, leaving Daisy trapped behind an invisible wall and once again in complete darkness.
Then, as she expected, the earth began to shake.
Chapter 20
MORE ABOUT THE STONES
Daisy waited for the invisible wall that was pressing her hard against the cave to disappear as the power of the stone got further away.
Unfortunately it didn’t.
The earth shook more violently. What had Gamion meant when he had said that no one would put a stone down here just to stop an earthquake? What was worse than an earthquake? And would it be powerful enough to cause the cave to collapse? If that happened, she was history.
She pushed against the invisible wall as hard as she could. It wouldn’t budge. She tried to squirm sideways, but she was jammed so tightly between the invisible wall and the cave wall that she couldn’t move. If only there was something to grab hold of. Then she would be able to pull herself along between the two walls. But both the walls were smooth.
She heard a splash, and then a slow slurping sound. Oh no, thought Daisy. Fiona! Great! That was all she needed: a freaky, tentacled psycho monster intent on killing her. Could today get any worse? She heard Fiona coming closer. Daisy redoubled her efforts to move sideways, but with no success.
She felt a tentacle whip at her and wrap itself around her forearm. She realised Fiona was flicking her tentacles down the thin corridor between the invisible wall and the cave wall, trying to get her.
Suddenly Daisy had an idea. As another tentacle flicked at her she reached down and grabbed it and then pulled it around her waist. Two more tentacles reached her and she wrapped them around her legs. She grabbed another and placed it around her shoulders. Just as she’d hoped, Fiona began to pull Daisy towards her, reeling her in like a fish (or a boot or a big clump of seaweed) on a line. Slowly and painfully Daisy was dragged along the narrow passageway between the two walls. Then, suddenly, the invisible wall ended and Daisy popped out.
She was free! Except for the four tentacles wrapped around her. It was pitch-dark again now that the stone was gone, but she remembered Fiona’s big mouth and sharp teeth. Daisy tried to grab her knife, but more tentacles enfolded her, pinning her arms to her sides.
Her right arm was close to the pocket that held her knife. She stretched her fingertips out and was just able to grab it. She flicked at the blade, trying to open it one-handed. It was awkward but she was just able to lever it open with her thumbnail. She pulled her right arm upwards, sawing through a tentacle. That freed up her right arm, and she cut through another tentacle. As she did so, other tentacles reached around her.
With a burst of energy Daisy hacked and sliced and cut and slashed and pulled and pushed and struggled and fought and cut again and then she was free. Hands outstretched, she stumbled through the dark after Gamion.
The earth was trembling harder now. She reached the far wall of the chamber and then felt along it until she found the left-hand passage. With a hand on the wall to guide her, she walked along it as quickly as she dared. She hoped it didn’t end in a cliff, because if it did she wouldn’t be able to see it and would surely just walk straight off the edge.
She found that if she stretched out her arms she could walk with one hand touching each wall of the passage. That was good because it meant that if the passage split in two, she would know about it. If she was just touching one wall, she might miss it.
Soon the walls veered apart, and she felt around to try to work out what was going on. The main passage sloped downwards, while to her left felt like a steep scramble up mud and rocks. Daisy had no idea where it led, but upwards was more likely to get her to the surface than downwards. She felt around for handholds and pulled herself up.
She had been scrambling up the slope for a couple of minutes when suddenly her head hit rock. ‘Oww!’ she cried to no one in particular.
She felt along the roof. There was a space between it and the ground that was just wide enough for her to fit through. It was too tight to crawl, but if she lay down she could pull herself along on her elbows and push with her feet. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t fast, it wasn’t easy, and it definitely wasn’t fun, but slowly she made progress at a pace Daisy estimated at somewhere between that of a hurrying snail and a tired tortoise.
After a few minutes of crawling her elbows were stinging and she was panting with exhaustion. Then, up ahead, she glimpsed light! A small crack opened up to what she hoped was the outside world. With a final surge of energy she pulled herself along as fast as she could. Now she was nearly going as fast as a tortoise in a hurry!
Still going.
Not there yet.
Made it!
The crack was tight, but she pushed herself through and emerged into what felt like a bush. After hours in the dark, the light was so overwhelmingly bright that she had to screw her eyes shut. Sheesh, she thought. First I can’t see because there’s no light, now I can’t see because there’s too much of the stuff.
Gradually her eyes adjusted. She was in the middle of a row of bushes. Daisy crawled through them and out onto a hillside. She sat there panting, sore, extremely hungry and utterly spent, wishing she had food and drink and, if she had the choice, that the food was a big bowl of hot chips with tomato sauce and extra salt and the drink was raspberry cordial.
She also wished that she had a dog called Ben.
But she didn’t.
The ground was still shaking beneath her. The trembling seemed to be getting stronger. What the heck was going on?
She hauled herself to her feet. She was on the s
ide of the hill, about halfway up. She guessed that the main entrance to the caves must be around the other side because she couldn’t see any sign of it or the archaeologists’ campsite.
She started walking around the hill, through a mixture of bushes, rocks, dirt, the occasional tree and several giant pink teacups (no, only joking, I just thought I’d throw in the giant pink teacups as a bit of light relief because things are looking a bit grim, what with the earth shaking, Gamion having the very powerful red stone, Sinclair and Dennis being close to death, Jackie Malone being hypnotised and Daisy being very hungry.)
The earth was shaking so hard now that she had to step carefully, and sometimes hold her hands out for balance. She came to a clump of rocks and stepped through them and over a ridge. To her relief, she saw the campsite and the main entrance to the caves below and to her left. And trotting across the hill in her direction, but quite some way below her, was a dog!
‘Ben!’ she yelled, and stumbled down the hill towards him. As she did, the earth gave a tremendous heave and she was thrown forward. She fell on her shoulder and then tumbled head over heels and heels over head.
‘Daisy?’
Ben stood over her, looking down anxiously.
Daisy pulled herself up. Her shoulder was stiff and sore. So was her elbow, her thigh, her ear and her hand. But on the positive side, her other elbow, her other thigh, her other ear and her other hand all seemed fine.
Ben bent down and Daisy gave him a big hug. For some strange reason tears began to leak out of her eyes. (Obviously her eyes. Tears don’t leak out your nose. That’s snot.)
After a few moments she wiped them away and told Ben what had happened.
When she had finished Ben stared solemnly at her. ‘When you fell in that lake you told me you were safe and you could see the way out. You lied to me, Daisy.’
‘I’m sorry, but I had to. If you had jumped in after me Fiona – the monster in the lake – would have got you.’
Daisy Malone and the Blue Glowing Stone Page 17