I was tempted to cast a light circuit, but I knew it would be a waste of quintessence. I would have to constantly push my sorcery into the darkness, its power spilling like a leaky tap. Minute by minute, my quintessence would trickle away.
We couldn’t afford to waste any magic. Not tonight.
Cold air bit through my jacket, prickling the hairs on my forearms. With a chill, I remembered the last time I’d ridden a bike. That night, there had been a summer storm in Hollingvale. Inductors had come to my house to kill me, and I’d fled into the darkness, pedalling through rain and wind and chaos.
Tonight, the sky was clear. The dark was quiet. Nothing but the tingle of my skin, and the huff of my breath, and the endless coil of the road. In a way, these clear skies were even creepier than the storm. It felt like the darkness was holding its breath, a silent predator waiting to pounce.
‘Everyone all right?’ Phoenix called.
I jumped a little, startled. Riff and I called out our agreement, and Orbit managed a wheezy huff. Steel didn’t respond. He cycled silently at the back of the group, scanning the darkness with narrowed eyes. I had no idea what he expected to see, but at least he was taking the danger seriously.
We reached Waitomo, a tiny town that mostly catered to tourists visiting the caves. Ignoring the town, we pedalled onwards. The lights of the township faded behind us, melting from a shine into a twinkle, and then only shadows.
The road wound and curved, slicing a line of asphalt between paddocks and trees, old shacks and wooden fences. With our hearts pounding, and our legs pumping, we followed it. My breath was rasping now, despite my recent efforts at fitness training, and a stitch burned like fire in my torso.
Glancing to my side, I saw that Orbit was also struggling.
‘Almost there!’ I managed.
He nodded, gritting his teeth, and sucked down a long, shaky gulp of his asthma inhaler. No sooner had I spoken than we rounded another bend – and there, waiting by the side of the road, was a car park, welcome centre and storage shed. A moment later, I realised this was the home base of Delightful Rafting Adventures.
We had made it to the caves. Now, the real danger would begin.
Behind the shed, ferns and shrubs melted into bushland. We dumped our bikes in a tangle of undergrowth, pausing only to remove our water bottles and torches.
‘What now?’ Steel demanded.
‘We’re going into the caves,’ I said. ‘There’s a dangerous item hidden there, and the Inductors want to steal it. It’s our job to keep it out of their hands.’
‘A dangerous item?’
Phoenix shook her head. ‘Forget it, Steel. You can fish all you want, but that’s all the detail you’re getting. You’re not even supposed to be here.’
Steel scowled, but he knew not to press his luck. He had realised, too late, that he was vulnerable. This area was abandoned at night, and it was four against one. We could easily knock him out again, and no one would be any the wiser.
‘We’re not gonna hurt you,’ I said, ‘but if you stuff this up, or make a noise and get us caught …’
‘I won’t.’ Steel spoke quickly, but he sounded genuine. ‘I’m here to join your mission, not to sabotage it.’
‘Good,’ Phoenix said. ‘Then shut up and follow our lead.’
There were several ways to explore the cave system. According to a nearby sign, we could take a tour on foot, join the thrillseekers who tried cave rafting, or attempt an adventurous climbing tour along the upper walls.
‘Right,’ I said, retrieving the camera from my pocket. ‘Mariner started out with the basic walking tour, but then he left the group. He took a few weird twists and turns, and found himself at an underground river. I’ve got copies of his photos here, so we just need to follow his route.’
‘That river looks a bit rough,’ Riff said, peering over my shoulder. ‘Reckon we can nick some of the rafting equipment?’
I shrugged. ‘Let’s give that shed a try.’
The company shed was padlocked, which momentarily threw us for a loop. Then I remembered the cards in my Sorcery wallet back at HQ. Circuits for unlocking, and circuits for unscrewing.
‘Just give me a sec,’ I said.
With a deep breath, I pushed my vision into the tenebrous shroud. The darkness thickened, curdling like cream, and my quintessence flared into view. Carefully, I seized three tendrils of light and braided them into a wire. With cautious fingers, I smeared the wire into the shape of a lock, mimicking the circuit I’d memorised after Zephyr’s mini-mission.
Carefully, I pushed my circuit into the padlock. It shone violently for a moment, beaming bright white light in all directions.
Click.
I yanked the padlock open and tossed it aside. ‘Got it!’
‘Huh,’ Riff said, impressed. ‘You’re gonna have to teach me that one.’
Inside the shed, we found a variety of equipment: wetsuits, boots, helmets, safety harnesses and ropes, and the rubber tubes that were used for underground rafting. We decided not to bother with wetsuits, but each selected a helmet with a torch on the front. We also pulled on waterproof boots, grabbed rafting tubes and slung them over our shoulders.
‘Does anyone know how to use this junk?’ Steel demanded.
‘We’ll just have to wing it,’ I said. ‘I mean, if it all goes pear-shaped, we can levitate above the water or something …’
Steel looked doubtful. ‘That’s your plan?’
‘No one asked you to come along,’ Phoenix said. ‘If you don’t like it, do us all a favour and wait here until we get back.’
If we get back, I thought, before I could stop myself. I instantly tried to erase the thought, but it was too late.
‘We’ll be fine,’ I said aloud.
I don’t think the others believed me. I didn’t believe myself. But it was a bad idea to be morbid before a mission; we had to work with clear heads, and with our senses on high alert. Down in the dark, it would be all too easy to lose our way – or to stumble right into the hands of the Inductors.
Orbit took a moment to fiddle with our helmet torches, imbuing them with a quick succession of circuits to shield them against sorcery. As he worked, I took a gulp of water and peered at a map of the cave system. It looked as if the rafting groups used a different entrance, out in the bushland, which involved abseiling down into the underground river. However, it wasn’t the route Mariner had taken, and I didn’t want to deviate from his photos.
‘I think the upper levels of the tunnels are dry,’ I said, ‘so that’s where the walking tour goes. Only the deeper parts have got rivers and stuff.’
‘Makes sense,’ Riff said. ‘I mean, I’d be a bit worried if the water was floating up to the top by itself.’
We padlocked the shed again behind us. Orbit was fretting that he hadn’t brought any money to reimburse the company for their equipment, but I assured him we’d return it safely once we were done with it.
‘I do hope so,’ he said.
We set off into the bushland, squelching through damp leaves and fern fronds. After a couple of minutes, we found the cave entrance for the walking tour. I switched on my helmet torch, and was disconcerted to see that its light was almost crimson.
Red sky at night …
I drew a deep breath, and led the way into the dark.
Inside the tunnel, our boots stomped on smooth rock, occasionally interrupted by grit or pebbles. Every breath and footfall echoed. Our helmet lights were narrow, just like the torches we’d brought, so we were limited to trickles of red in a sea of black.
‘Hey, Steel?’ I said. ‘You’re a Noctilucent, aren’t you? If you’re so keen to be a hero, maybe you could help us out.’
There was a rustle as Steel moved his arms, pushing through the air behind me. Then the light beams dispersed, diluting their shine through the shadows. Instead of thin lines of red on black, the entire tunnel swam in shades of reddish grey. My friends’ faces were washed out, their eyes shining r
ed in the unnatural light, and my insides tingled with a fresh burst of nerves.
‘Can’t you make it brighter?’ Phoenix said.
‘I can’t make light!’ Steel said. ‘Not without wasting half my quintessence on a light circuit, anyway.’
‘But you –’
‘I can only spread around what we’ve got.’ Steel glared. ‘I’d like to see you do better.’
‘It’s fine!’ I cut in quickly, before Phoenix could retort. ‘Better than before, thanks.’
Phoenix huffed an angry breath, and I knew it had been a traitorous move to side with Steel. But we were in dangerous territory now, and there could be Inductors in these tunnels. The last thing we needed was to fight among ourselves.
After several minutes, we traipsed into a large cave. I recognised it from Mariner’s pictures, and felt a thrill of relief that we were on the right track. The ceiling dripped with stalactites, like the bristles of an enormous toothbrush. All was shadowed, grey and silent. There was only the faint drip, drip, drip of water, the shuffle of our footsteps and the rasp of nervous breathing.
The next tunnel was tall and deep, falling away into a dark abyss below us. The tour company had built a wooden bridge to cross the chasm. Far beneath us, I could hear the sound of gushing water. Sooner or later, we would be down there in the rush and roil of living darkness.
‘Geez, it’s freezing,’ Riff muttered. ‘Should’ve worn those wetsuits, I reckon.’
He was right, but it was too late now. I hadn’t realised just how cold the underground air might be, and we hadn’t even hit the water yet.
Moving deeper into the caves, I spotted glimmers of light on the ceiling. Glow-worms, I realised. They shone in tiny scattered flecks, dangling from strings of gleaming thread, or shimmering like half-hidden stars.
We followed the bridge into another tunnel, which led down a flight of metal steps, and through another cave. This one was much larger, with stalagmites sprouting like a forest from the floor. Some were tall enough to meet their stalactite cousins on the ceiling, forming a labyrinth of hourglasses.
‘This is it!’ I whispered. ‘This is where Mariner left the walking tour and went off on his own.’
We peered around, searching for a way out. The only visible exit was the official walking path, which led into another gleaming glow-worm cave. We fanned out cautiously, peeking behind boulders and around stalactites.
‘Over here!’ Phoenix hissed.
We hurried over. She pointed behind a stack of towering rock formations. A narrow tunnel wormed into the cave wall, vanishing into black. We would have to crawl through on our bellies, scraping our tubes along the stone ceiling. Could this really have been Mariner’s route? He had looked fairly wiry in his photos – but even so, it would be a serious squeeze.
‘Are you sure it’s safe?’ Steel said nervously.
‘Of course it’s not safe.’ Phoenix spoke through gritted teeth, clearly at the end of her tether. ‘But we haven’t got a choice.’
She dropped to her belly, hefted her rubber tube on her shoulder, and crawled into the tunnel. The rest of us followed, our torchlight bobbing and stumbling as we wriggled through the black.
The tunnel was longer than I’d expected. My breath felt coarse and shallow, and the darkness seemed to press more tightly on my skin. At one point my tube snagged on the ceiling, and it took a long moment to tug it free. I panicked. I was trapped. I was going to die here, squeezing forever into stale air and darkness. I was wrapped in black bandages, slowly smothering the air from my lungs as they tightened, and tightened, and tightened …
‘Almost there!’ Phoenix gasped.
One by one, we tumbled out onto a rocky platform. I drew a dizzying breath and stumbled to my feet, relieved beyond words to extend my limbs.
‘This is more like it, I reckon,’ Riff said. ‘Very scenic.’
He spoke with bravado, but there was a quiver behind his words. Perhaps I wasn’t the only one to be overwhelmed by the squeeze.
We stood inside a limestone cave, dripping with stalactites and gleaming with glow-worms. Half a dozen paths and tunnels branched off from our current location, and for a terrible moment my throat clenched tight in panic. Which way? I couldn’t remember, couldn’t think which way to turn …
‘The photos,’ Riff whispered.
I released a breath. ‘Yeah. Right. Sorry, just got a bit …’
‘Yeah, I know,’ Riff said. ‘It’s getting to me too.’
I flicked through the photos on the camera until I found a picture of our current location. Mariner stood with his head facing to the leftmost tunnel.
‘That way,’ I said, pointing.
The shadows danced, dappling oddly as Steel fought to control the darkness. The air smelled cold. I hadn’t even realised ‘cold’ had a smell before. It was the scent of damp rock, of crystals and minerals, and of dark air licking its tongue across the walls.
Our tunnel sloped downwards, trailing into the deep. I could hear the gurgle of water now – and once or twice, a distant, thunderous roar.
Steel twitched. ‘What’s that?’
‘Just underground waterfalls, I should think,’ Orbit said. ‘There are quite a few streams and rivers down here.’
As we stumbled onward, following the clues in Mariner’s photos, the roar of the river grew louder. Our tunnel led into an enormous cavern, the size of a house, hollowed out and painted with darkness. After the maze of claustrophobic passageways, the sight of so much empty air almost made my knees buckle.
Riff let out a low whistle. ‘Whoa, imagine the parties you could throw in here!’
The cavern roof soared high above us, illuminated by shining glow-worms. We stood on an underground cliff – and down below, the river rushed in frothy tendrils through the dark.
I consulted the picture on my camera, although I knew it was pointless. This was clearly the right location. Perhaps I was subconsciously stalling for time, postponing the moment when I trusted my life to a rubber tube on that gushing river.
‘This isn’t the river they use for rafting tours,’ Steel said, apparently sharing my apprehension. ‘I mean, this one might not be safe. There could be sharp rocks, or shallow bits, or whirlpools …’
He caught Phoenix’s expression, and he shut up.
Carefully, we stepped into our rafting tubes. They hung around our waists like obese hula hoops, ready to keep us afloat in the rapids. I stuck my water bottle into the space between the tube and my belly, helping to wedge the tube more tightly in place.
Slowly, I sank into the tenebrous shroud. As the darkness thickened, I reached again for my quintessence. Its light was red, stained by my own fear and anxiety. I reached for three thick strands of magic and wove them into a spiralling levitation circuit. I hung it around my waist, just above the rafting tube, and then wove another spiral, and another. Soon, each of my limbs was encircled by a shining swirl of light, until I felt like an over decorated Christmas tree.
Riff was already bobbing gently in midair. The others were just finishing up the loops on their ankles. I couldn’t help but notice that everyone’s quintessences were red. Only Steel’s was different. It was mostly red, but also spiked with a few little flickers of orange or yellow – the colours of excitement, and anticipation.
It doesn’t mean anything, I told myself. He’s just excited to be a ‘hero’.
But right now, in the dark of the cavern, I felt anything but heroic. I felt more like a shivering rat, scurrying around in damp passageways, never again to see the shine of sunlight …
‘Ready?’ I asked.
The others nodded.
I felt as if I should say something dramatic, like ‘Let’s go!’ or even ‘Geronimo!’. But my guts lurched, and I could see the genuine fear on their faces, and a show of such bravado suddenly seemed very pointless.
‘Good luck,’ I whispered.
And we leapt off the cliff into darkness.
The river was wild.
> It tossed and turned, churning and curling. I hit the water with a bounce, buoyed by my levitation circuits – but in the rush of my fall, I had dropped at least two of the spirals from my limbs, and they dissolved like fairy floss in the torrent.
Within moments, I realised we were wearing our tubes the wrong way. We were supposed to sit on top of them, with our bums positioned in the doughnut hole, rather than looping them around our waists. As it was, my shins dragged and scraped on the rocks below, and an underwater boulder smashed a searing pain down my shin.
Scrambling, I managed to extricate myself from my tube and haul myself on top of it – but by that point, the water was crashing around a bend and I had to cling to the tube for dear life. My water bottle floated away, lost in the chaos.
‘Get up!’ I shouted. ‘Up, on top of your tubes!’
The others were swearing, having already figured out the same problem. As we rounded the bend, I hurtled into Steel’s tube, and he pushed me away with a violent snarl. His eyes were wide and his teeth were white in the darkness. He had lost control of the light, so we were limited to the crimson beams on our helmets.
‘Watch out!’ Phoenix shouted. ‘Lie flat – the roof’s getting low!’
She had somehow reached the front of the pack, her strength and balance finely tuned by years of extra fitness training. I obeyed without question, wriggling around to lie flat on my stomach.
Seconds later, the roof dropped. We blasted along a narrow tunnel, with barely sixty centimetres of space between the water and the ceiling. Almost half the space was taken up by my tube, so I lay flat on top of it, kept my head down, and tried to ignore the grazing when my back scraped the ceiling.
Surging wildly, the river spat us out into another tunnel – and here, to my immense relief, the ceiling rose several metres above the water level. I glanced up, sodden and aching, to see a smattering of glow-worms. Strings of their mucous hung from the roof, gleaming like chains of illuminated pearls.
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