by Alex Bell
Do Not Open This Door Under ANY Circumstances!
Not under any circumstances, it said! Ordinary children would certainly have turned and walked away from that door at once and never looked back, but these were junior explorers, and a sign like that was impossible for them to resist.
‘Perhaps we shouldn’t open it,’ Beanie said, trying to be sensible. ‘They must have put that sign there for a reason.’
‘There can’t be anything dangerous in there now,’ Stella replied. ‘The ship must have been stranded here in the ice for years.’
‘There could be crates of pirate gold in there!’ Ethan said.
‘Or the skeletons of fascinating beasts and monsters,’ Shay suggested.
‘Or an entire crate of exotic-flavoured jellybeans!’ Beanie said.
‘Or forbidden maps to forbidden places.’ Stella rubbed her hands together with glee. ‘Let’s find out.’
A heavy chain was wrapped around the handle of the door but the lock had rusted away and it sprang open. All they had to do was unwind the chain.
Together, they dragged it free and it fell to the ground in a long, heavy coil. Then, with one last glance at each other, they threw open the door.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Stella didn’t quite know what she was expecting in the locked room, but when Shay lifted the lantern, it illuminated a large storage area filled with cabinets, trunks and boxes, all coated with a thick layer of dust. The words ‘Dangerous Cargo’ and ‘Swag’ and ‘Stolen Loot’ were stamped all over everything.
The explorers walked cautiously into the room and peered into the cabinets. They were organised into categories, with the first one being dedicated to ‘Cursed Objects’. Stella saw a little jade truth god, a grotesque painting of a deranged-looking child holding a knife, and a stuffed hyena that looked like it was about to start cackling at any moment. Each item had a small card attached to it, naming the object and who had stolen it. Stella peered at the nearest label and saw that it said: ‘“Laughing Hyena” – stolen by Leeroy Livingston from the Lost City of Muja-Muja.’
Noticing a dark shape out of the corner of her eye, Stella glanced down and saw that Koa had appeared beside her. The shadow wolf was staring intently at the stuffed hyena.
‘I don’t like the look of it either,’ Stella told her.
‘This must be what Captain Ajax was talking about before,’ Shay said, peering into one of the cabinets. ‘He said the convict ship took the thieves to the prisoner colonies, and then sailed around returning all the stolen loot.’
‘I guess he decided to just leave it all here when the ship got trapped in the ice,’ Stella said. ‘Most of this stuff doesn’t look like it would be much use in the Icelands. It’s no wonder this ship was doomed – I’ve never seen so many cursed objects in one place before.’ There was even a tiny mummy wrapped in dirty bandages inside a broken sarcophagus. It was far too small to be human – only a few inches long.
‘Hey, look at this!’ Shay exclaimed.
Stella turned and joined the others. They were bending over what appeared to be the smallest volcano Stella had ever seen.
‘It’s a baby volcano from Volcano Island!’ Shay said. ‘We should take this with us – it’ll be far easier than trying to make a fire out of wet logs. All you do is shake it.’
It looked extremely heavy, but Shay just about managed to pick up the mini volcano with both hands, and then gave it a good shake. He set it back down on the floor and it instantly glowed red-hot, little trickles of lava spilling out over the top and tiny red sparks shooting out like miniature fireworks.
‘But do you think we ought to take anything?’ Beanie said. ‘Isn’t it stealing?’
‘Not really,’ Ethan replied. ‘This stuff has been abandoned. It can’t be returned to its owners now anyway. I say if there’s anything that might come in handy on the expedition, we nab it.’
‘But no cursed objects,’ Stella said. She didn’t like the snarling expression on that hyena and wouldn’t trust it not to bite her in her sleep.
‘No, definitely no cursed objects,’ Shay agreed. ‘Nobody wants to wake up to find a stuffed hyena trying to gnaw through their boots.’
They had a poke around the rest of the room and found a single book chained to a table, a gigantic diamond, and even a trunk filled with teeth.
‘Why would anyone steal teeth?’ Beanie peered into the trunk, bemused.
‘Perhaps they stole money from the tooth fairy and it all turned back into teeth?’ Stella said.
Ethan half-heartedly suggested that they take the diamond with them, since it really was massive, and would make a fine addition to either of their clubs. But Shay pointed out that it would be impossible for the two clubs to share the diamond and, more importantly, it was housed in the Cursed Objects cabinet, which probably meant that they shouldn’t even so much as look at it. Everyone knew that precious jewels like diamonds were amongst the most deadly of cursed objects, so they left the sparkling thing where it was. It was time to be on their way.
‘Come on, Beanie,’ Stella called to her friend who, for some reason, was rummaging around in a chest of clothes over in the corner. ‘We’re leaving.’
Beanie straightened up and turned around with a dress in his hands. It was the most fiendishly ugly garment Stella had ever seen in her life – a weird shade of brown with awful-looking giant flowers printed all over it. ‘Do you think Moira would like this?’ he asked.
‘Your cousin?’ Stella pulled a face. ‘Who cares?’
‘Mum says it’s nice to bring family members back presents when you go adventuring,’ Beanie said. ‘I thought if I picked a nice party dress for Moira then she might change her mind about coming to my next birthday party?’
‘Beanie, forget about Moira. She’s really mean, and you’re better off not having her at your party anyway.’
‘Oh.’ Beanie frowned but put the dress back. Then he grabbed something else up from the chest and tapped Ethan on the shoulder. He held up a pair of pink satin ballet slippers. ‘Would you like these?’ he asked.
The magician stared at him. ‘What would I want with a pair of ballet slippers?’
‘I just thought you might like to practise your pirouettes and things,’ Beanie said. ‘That’s what ballerinas do, isn’t it?’
Ethan groaned. ‘For the last time,’ he said, ‘I am not a ballerina.’
‘Why did you say you were, then?’ Beanie asked, genuinely puzzled. ‘Back in the tunnel you said—’
‘I was being sarcastic!’
‘Oh. I don’t really understand sarcasm. Mum says it’s something people do when they’re not as clever as they think they are.’ He looked from Ethan to the slippers and back again. ‘So do you want these or not?’ he asked.
‘No!’ Ethan snatched the slippers from Beanie’s hand and tossed them into the corner. Unfortunately, this upset a teetering pile of jewellery boxes, which went tumbling to the floor where they burst open. There was quite a din as precious rings, bracelets, tiaras and trinkets rolled across the floor, sending white sparkles of light shooting out all over the place. One of the boxes was also a music box and began playing a tinkling, highly irritating tune the moment it opened. A tiny princess spun round and round inside until Stella shut the lid with a snap. Everyone looked at Ethan.
‘What?’ he said defensively.
‘Come on,’ Shay turned away, Koa at his heels. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
They set off towards the door. And then froze. There had been nothing there just a moment before, but now a long, strange, stringy sort of plant sat there in a pot, blocking the way.
‘What the heck is that?’ Ethan said.
‘It wasn’t there before, was it?’ Beanie asked.
‘It must have been,’ Stella replied. ‘Potted plants can’t move around on their own, can they?’
They cautiously took a few steps closer to it. A low growl started in the back of Koa’s throat.
‘I’ve j
ust remembered something Dad told me about once,’ Shay said slowly. ‘Has anyone ever heard of the Valley of Carnivorous Plants? The carnivorous plants there, they, um … they’re supposed to be able to move about on their own. And eat people.’
There was silence as they all stared warily at the plant. It was completely motionless as it sat innocently in its pot. Now that they were closer they could see that its leaves were a strange, dark colour, and that little clusters of fruit – about the size of oranges – hung from its branches.
‘What kind of fruit is that?’ Stella asked.
‘That isn’t fruit,’ Ethan replied. His eyes met Stella’s. ‘They’re cabbages.’
‘Cabbages aren’t carnivorous,’ Beanie said at once.
‘Didn’t Captain Ajax say not to wake up the—’ Shay began, but that was as far as he got. The plant suddenly snapped out a long, hairy vine, and wrapped itself all the way up Shay’s arm – causing him to drop the baby volcano – and then started dragging him slowly forwards. At the same time, the leaves around the little cabbages spread out to reveal sharp, pointed, glistening teeth, all drooling with saliva, and making a horrible hissing sound.
The explorers all screamed at once, although Shay screamed loudest of all, which was only fair since he was the one being attacked by the carnivorous plant. His free hand clawed at the vine but it was clamped firmly around his skin and he couldn’t loosen it at all.
‘Do something!’ he cried. ‘Do something now!’
Koa was barking and snarling at the plant but, being a shadow wolf, she couldn’t do much to help. Ethan threw up his hand and some tiny miniature arrows – like the ones he’d used against the frosties – sailed towards the plant. But instead of piercing it, the arrows turned around in mid-air and bounced back towards the explorers, meaning they all had to duck in order to avoid being shot in the eyeball.
‘It’s got some kind of anti-magic protection spell on it,’ Ethan said.
Stella grabbed the vine, and the other two quickly joined her, but they couldn’t pull it free either, and they were definitely losing the tug-of-war with the cabbage plant as Shay’s boots kept sliding ever closer towards those glistening fangs buried within the cabbages.
‘Find a knife or something!’ Shay gasped. ‘You need to chop off the vine!’
Stella, Ethan and Beanie scattered across the room, tearing round the cabinets in search of something sharp. Finally, Beanie located an axe in the iron grip of a suit of armour – Ethan managed to wrestle it free and they raced back to Shay who was now only inches away from the teeth of the plant.
‘Don’t move!’ Ethan yelled as he raised the axe high over his head.
The axe came whistling down and sliced cleanly through the vine. Black sap splattered out like blood and the plant made a horrible squealing sound that made Stella want to clap her hands over her ears. Shay grabbed the vine still twisted around his arm and flung it to the floor, whilst Koa ran around his legs excitedly. More vines quickly came shooting out towards them but the explorers leapt back out of reach just in time, retreating to the safety of the far end of the room.
‘Well, what are we going to do now?’ Ethan asked, still clutching the axe. ‘It’s blocking our only way out.’
The plant rustled its leaves at them in a threatening way, and the black sap dripping from its chopped branch gave off an unpleasant, dank stink.
‘Why don’t you look in Captain Filibuster’s guide?’ Stella said. ‘Maybe there’s some advice in there.’
Shay pulled his battered copy of Captain Filibuster’s Guide to Expeditions and Exploration from his pocket and thumbed to the index. ‘There’s nothing in here about cabbage trees that want to eat you,’ he said. ‘I don’t think Captain Filibuster ever went to the Valley of Carnivorous Plants.’
‘Why would anyone go to the Valley of Carnivorous Plants?’ Beanie groaned, tugging at his pom-pom hat in agitation.
Stella snatched the book from Shay’s hand and found the chapter on confronting enemies.
‘“When confronting ferocious monsters in a hostile environment,”’ she read, ‘“it is important to keep calm and in control at all times. The monster is probably more afraid of you than you are of it—’
‘I don’t think that’s true in this case,’ Ethan said.
‘Oh, this is no use at all,’ Stella said, thrusting the book back at Shay. ‘We’re just going to have to work it out for ourselves. Why doesn’t one of us chop it up with the axe? Give it to me – I’ll have a crack at it.’
‘Where’s it gone now?’ Beanie said.
The explorers looked back at the door and realised, to their horror, that the plant had moved again. The pot was still there, and a trail of soil led around one of the display cabinets, but there was no sign of the plant at all.
‘Never mind, let’s just get out of here while we still have the chance!’ Shay said.
They started towards the door, but had only gone a few steps when vines shot towards them – and this time they came from above. Before they knew what was happening, Stella and Shay were both plucked from the ground and drawn up towards the hissing plant that had attached itself to the ceiling.
‘Oh, yuck – it’s all hairy!’ Stella exclaimed, clawing at the vine wrapped around her arm, whilst Koa howled beneath them.
‘Throw me the axe!’ Shay yelled down to Ethan, then hurriedly added, ‘But don’t throw it at my head! Do not throw it at my head!’
‘I’m not going to throw it at your head! I’m not an idiot!’ Ethan yelled back.
He threw the axe up handle first but it sailed past Shay and went to Stella instead, who caught it and then swiped at the vine that was holding Shay, slicing it clean off and splattering her with more of the black stuff. Shay fell to the ground and managed to land on his feet with a loud thump. Stella lost no time slicing at the vine wrapped round her arm, and then tumbled through the air, away from the squealing, hissing plant.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t quite as agile as Shay, and she landed on her back rather than her feet. She supposed she ought to count herself lucky that she hadn’t landed on the axe which was still gripped in her hand – but, even so, landing from that height really, seriously hurt! She groaned, gasping for breath, but before she had time to work out if she’d broken any bones, Shay was taking the axe from her grip, and Ethan was dragging her to her feet.
‘Come on, come on,’ the magician was saying, hurrying her up.
Beanie grabbed the baby volcano Shay had dropped and they all ran towards the door. Stella heard a thumping, rolling sound behind her and glanced back to see that some of the cabbages had fallen from the plant and were rolling across the floor towards them, gnashing their teeth and leaving wet trails of drool and saliva in their wake.
‘The cabbages are following us!’ she yelled, which wasn’t a sentence she’d ever thought she’d speak unless she was seriously ill and suffering from the most appalling hallucinations.
Shay reached the door first and kicked the plant pot away before dragging open the door and turning back round to brandish the axe at the cabbages. Beanie raced through the door first, closely followed by Koa and Stella. She heard a thump, thump behind her as Shay chopped at the hissing, rolling vegetables. But there were too many of them, and Stella heard the rip of boot leather and then Ethan yell as he tumbled out into the corridor. Shay was right behind him, slamming the door firmly closed, and they all heard the thuds of a dozen cabbages slamming into the door only seconds later.
One of them had made it out, though – and it had its teeth firmly clamped into Ethan’s ankle.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
‘It was so obviously going to be me who got bitten by the cabbage!’ Ethan moaned. ‘I mean, it was just never going to be anyone else, was it?’
He bent down, intending to grab the slobbering vegetable and yank it out of his foot, but Shay stopped him. ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘We should probably find something to put it in first. Otherwise it’ll only start snapping at
us all the moment it’s free.’
‘He’s right. We should leave it where it is for now,’ Stella said.
‘That’s easy for you to say!’ Ethan exclaimed. ‘It’s not your ankle it’s got its fangs sunk into! We don’t need anything to put it in because I’m going to stamp on it as soon as it’s off.’
‘You can’t!’ Beanie said. ‘We should take it with us.’
‘Oh, good idea! Perhaps we can make a salad out of it,’ Ethan suggested sarcastically.
‘Gross and horrible though it may be, it’s still a scientific find,’ Shay said. He slapped the magician on the back. ‘Well done for capturing it, Prawn.’
‘I haven’t captured it,’ Ethan replied. ‘It’s captured me.’
‘Well, we should still take it back to the club as a specimen,’ Shay said.
‘I am not travelling all the way back to Coldgate with a cabbage embedded in my foot.’ Ethan crossed his arms over his chest. ‘I won’t do it.’
‘Don’t talk nonsense,’ Shay replied. ‘We’ll stick it in the top-hat box once we get back to the sled.’
Ethan groaned. ‘You’re giving me a headache again,’ he said. But he accepted that the cabbage – which seemed to have got its teeth stuck in the leather of the magician’s boot, as well as his actual foot – would stay where it was until they returned to the sled.
The four of them made their way back through the ship and up to the deck, where Ethan forced Beanie to hand over his wooden narwhal before he would agree to be tied to him again. Beanie fussed a little, but Ethan was adamant.
‘I have already been bitten by a cabbage today – I refuse to be dragged off a ladder as well,’ he said. ‘I promise I’ll look after it but I’m not going to be tied to you again unless that narwhal is in my pocket instead of yours.’
Beanie was finally persuaded to hand it over.