‘HG is probably right, it is the ideas.’ Jenna looked at the pictures. ‘If you knew someone could make one, that it was going to happen, you’d put a lot of effort into trying. Especially if there was a war.’
‘That’s what did happen in the second war,’ Demelza said.
HG shrieked, ‘There’s another one?’
We all nodded and HG ordered another drink.
‘This still isn’t getting us any closer to understanding why you,’ Jenna gave Demelza a violent poke, ‘why you wanted us dead and where you were going.’
Demelza said nothing. Jenna tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at the fire. It might be smouldering but I took hold of something that looked like you might use to roast marshmallows or whatever they roasted in this time, and put it into the glowing part of the fire.
‘You wouldn’t …’ Demelza tried to look brave.
‘Demelza, I will. I’m sick of trying to get you to talk. Alvin is going to get that thing hot and we are going to start burning bits of you.’
Demelza looked around the bar, ‘They won’t let you.’
‘Of course not,’ I said. ‘That’s why we are going to drag you outside first before we torture you. There are loads of metal things we can heat up.’
HG startled. ‘Wait a minute, let me explain.’ HG turned to the end of Miss Tregarthur’s pages. ‘It’s here. I explained it to Demelza before.’ He pointed and we all looked over.
After a second or two Jenna stabbed her finger on to a picture. ‘The curry. That’s not what Miss Tregarthur was shouting, not curry but Curie, Marie Curie. It says here she was the one who discovered Radium, radiation.’
I read a bit more. Jenna leant in before saying, ‘But it’s not now, we’re too early, Marie Curie didn’t invent this for another ten years or so.’
‘That’s why she went berserk when she found out what year it was, too early. That’s why she’s coming back,’ I said. ‘But how? And …’ I turned to HG, ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’
‘I thought Demelza was in danger,’ HG blustered. ‘I didn’t know that she would hide information you needed to know.’
‘Alvin, how hot is that iron?’ Jen pointed at the fire.
‘It’s the radiation,’ Demelza gave a huffed sigh. ‘Miss Tregarthur wants the radiation. She believes she can get the crystal to work again if she exposes it to a high dose of radiation.’
‘A high dose? Why a high dose?’ Jenna asked.
‘Because the usual dose wasn’t going to work.’
‘USUAL,’ both Jenna and I shouted. The bar was at least empty now. Jenna grabbed Demelza’s arm and twisted it hard.
Demelza screeched again but finally gave up and told us. ‘There were other times,’ Demelza said. ‘Other times when she told us the crystal was fading.’ She looked slyly at Jenna, this probably wasn’t completely true.
‘Then what?’ I felt Demelza was stringing this out.
‘She took us to another place on the moor,’ Demelza said. ‘A place where she said that radiation came out of the rocks. She used it to get the crystal recharged.’ Demelza explained.
‘And she didn’t try it this time?’ I asked.
‘No, she said it was nearly dead, no use, she needed something stronger.’ Demelza looked away. ‘I didn’t know that she was shouting about this Curie woman who discovered radium. I thought she was just stupidly ranting about curry.’
That’s exactly what I would have thought so I couldn’t really blame her. Jenna wasn’t ready to give Demelza any credit: ‘You might have told us,’ and poked her once more.
‘And what,’ Demelza rounded on her. ‘What would you have done after that? You’d have known all about this Marie Curie, would you? I don’t think so. You don’t know anything.’
This wasn’t going anywhere, I butted in before a real fight started: ‘Where has Miss Tregarthur gone now? If the crystal is dead?’
‘She’s taken it to the cave,’ Demelza said.
Cave? There was always a cave involved. ‘Why?’
‘I don’t know,’ Demelza looked like she was trying to think rather than lie which had to be a better sign. She picked up Miss Tregarthur’s pages. ‘This says Marie Curie found radium in about ten years from now. Maybe she can’t get the crystal to give her full control over the tunnel but perhaps she can get it to take her a few years forward, so she can get to the radium.’
‘And if she can’t get through time she’ll have to work on the bomb with Masterson? Or at least use that scheme to get at something radioactive.’ Maybe she doesn’t actually need the bomb at all.’ Jenna was still looking at the page, she flicked me a glance and a quick tilt of her head.
‘Look,’ I said loudly, drawing attention. ‘Do we go after her or wait to see if she comes back?’ I did wonder what we could have missed but I also needed to give Jenna a moment. I could see what she wanted to do.
‘First we take Demelza back to that brothel and leave her there with HG,’ Jenna said, with her serious frown.
‘You still need me to find her cave,’ Demelza squeaked. I didn’t like to think what was in HG’s mind.
‘Why?’ I couldn’t see any point in finding another cave.
‘Because if Miss Tregarthur can get her crystal to work a bit, we could do the same with the piece you’ve taken from me.’
It took a while for Demelza’s suggestion to sink in.
‘Before you do anything …’ HG snatched up the papers and chucked them on to the fire. ‘At least I’ve stopped him making that awful bomb,’ he said, as we watched them burn.
I didn’t mind, it was all the pages except the one Jenna had snatched from the table.
I didn’t like to tell him that if Miss Tregarthur returned she probably didn’t need any pictured pages to start work on a nuclear explosion. She was a teacher after all. But that wasn’t the only puzzle. ‘I still can’t see the problem. I mean if Masterson did make this bomb he’s right, he could stop the war?’
‘He might, but you might not like the result.’ HG stepped away from the fire and was looking for another drink.
‘Why?’ I asked.
‘You said the war was started by the Germans.’
‘Yep,’ Demelza added and she knew what was coming. I think Jenna must have known as well.
‘Germany is where the rest of Masterson’s family live,’ HG said. ‘That’s where he made his money, that’s the country he would side with in a war. He has lots of Germans staying at his house from time to time. It’s his business. That’s why he has a German quote over his library door, I thought you understood that.’
‘Absolutely,’ I said, having no idea what he was talking about.
‘Miss Tregarthur knows it too,’ Jenna jumped up. ‘It won’t be us that wins the war, it’s the other side. She plans to explode her nuclear bomb on Britain.’
‘There will be no winners in such a war,’ HG slurred with the alcohol working but I thought he was probably right.
‘We have to get back to the moor,’ Jenna said, looking outside. We’d managed to keep this bar going all night. A faint light shone in the sky. ‘And we need to go now.’
Back to the Moor
-11-
Travelling about, in this time, was becoming familiar and long. We were back on the trains and two days later returned to the small horse-smelling grey town below the moor. HG couldn’t believe that the rest of England was as foul smelling as we found it.
Onwards, again in another horse drawn carriage, we returned to the moorland village. At the inn the landlord still hadn’t returned and the drinking men hadn’t left. The landlady – Bettie – was still miserable although she gave me a small smile and HG a bigger one. She could see a smile at HG might be valuable.
We stayed overnight, ate more potatoes and answered none of their questions.
‘She was here,’ eventually Bettie told us that the nasty wild-haired woman had bundled through their little village, making demands and paying little. ‘You’re af
ter her, I expect.’ Bettie still hoped to get paid for more information.
‘Yes,’ HG said to her next smile.
‘Well you’ll be wanting to know which direction she took?’ Bettie looked hopefully at him. HG handed her a tip rather too quickly.
‘Up there.’ Bettie pointed towards the moor and pocketed the money.
‘Then?’ asked HG.
‘Cost you,’ Bettie smiled yet again, it wasn’t a great look.
I grabbed HG’s arm, ‘No need. It’s time to go.’
We left, making for the tor above the village, along the ridge path. Finally, we were standing, once more, below the muddy brown of Hanging Stone Hill. A windy drizzle was the best weather the moor could give us that day. The walk had exhausted HG, or Demelza had exhausted him, asking for help and even to be carried. Jenna and I laughed when HG tried and only managed to drop her into a patch of something prickly.
We stopped for a while below the hill. Waiting and listening and watching for any movement. This felt dangerous. Miss Tregarthur might be up there. We hoped she would be, but how could we creep up on her?
Above us the hill was in open moorland. There were few other rocks at the top apart from the Hanging Stones, which stood a little below the peak. Last time she had been armed with a gun. Maybe she still was. We had to find her and stay alive.
Before we went on Jenna motioned to me with her head, for us to step aside, leaving Demelza and HG trying to shelter, the drizzle falling a little harder.
Jenna said quietly, ‘Why did Demelza want us dead again? The bear? That was meant to kill us all.’
‘No idea.’ I looked back at Demelza and HG. It felt such a bad idea still having her with us. Demelza had always tried to get rid of us, ever since we’d been in this time travelling mess. Why was this different?
‘But why now?’ Jenna puzzled. ‘And why did she want us dead along with Masterson? Surely it was more likely the animal would kill him. It charged into his house, Demelza wouldn’t have known we’d be in the hallway.’
I couldn’t solve this. I did wonder if this time travelling had simply turned Demelza into a homicidal maniac. Perhaps she had always been like that, even at school, without having the chance to murder many people. Here she could slaughter as many as she wanted.
‘We only have a small piece of the crystal,’ Jenna took my hand. She did have an idea. ‘Maybe Demelza believes that it could be too small, wouldn’t have the power to make the tunnel take us all but might do it for just one person.’
‘Could be, or perhaps she wants to make up with Miss Tregarthur in case she’s the only one who can get this tunnel to work now.’
‘Why do away with Masterson?’ Jenna said. ‘He was part of Miss Tregarthur’s plan.’
‘Not a great plan.’ I thought of the pages from her book. ‘Can’t see building this bomb ever happening, too difficult.’
‘It did in the end,’ Jenna said. ‘The nuclear bomb was built. Anyway, maybe Miss Tregarthur doesn’t need the actual bomb, just radioactivity to bring this crystal back to life.’
No point in going over this, we had no explanation. Getting any more out of Demelza was a pain and even with violence I couldn’t trust what she said. ‘See what happens,’ I said, before we re-joined the other two and walked on again.
Soon we were high enough to see the balanced Hanging Stones and we made our way to stand in front of them. HG seemed to think it was magical, he couldn’t believe that the stones wouldn’t break apart. He tried over and over again, making small grunts and wails. I worried that HG wasn’t completely in touch with reality, but we were talking about time travel.
Jenna went and banged on the rocks, banged with the piece of crystal she had taken from Demelza, and nothing happened. We all took turns to do the same thing. Still nothing happened.
The drizzle turned to rain. We sheltered beneath the few overhanging rocks, ate some of the food Bettie had sold us – a potato pie – and we waited. It grew dark. We waited, hoping the tunnel might appear.
HG seemed to sink into himself, saying nothing and staring wildly at us. Perhaps it was our conversation, which had turned through all the weird things that had happened. As always we talked about the others who had been with us, some from the very start, some who had died and that stopped us talking altogether.
We slept, damp and restless. In the night I wondered about wolves but we heard nothing. As the light returned, mist started to rise up from the valley, a damp blanket that made me shiver.
Again Jenna went and hit the Hanging Stones with the piece of crystal. She smashed it down over and over again until her hands were raw and bleeding. Nothing happened.
Demelza joined her. ‘We’ll get it back for you,’ she shouted. Her voice echoed across the moor. Nothing came from the stones. If the tunnel did have any life of its own, I doubted it would believe anything Demelza offered.
A weak sun appeared, but strong enough to chase away some of the mist. I stood and stretched, looking out on the moor. A fantastic place, if a bit wet. Those huge stones standing on the top of each tor, frowning down at the world. Standing watch over centuries of change, from the time of the cavemen to modern life, over people like we once were, children at school going for a hike.
I almost laughed thinking how it had all started. But here we were, stuck in a time that was not our own. It wasn’t right, we had to get home somehow. Once, Jenna and I had the crazy idea of staying in a cave, trying to make a new life. It would never have worked. We just had to face all our problems at home. But how could we ever get there?
I joined the two girls and ran my hands over the rough stones. Their balance appeared so fragile. They didn’t look natural, looked as though they had been made to confuse anyone who tried to pull them apart. HG certainly was confused and hadn’t moved from our sheltering point. I started to go back to him.
‘Is that …’ Jen called out and knelt on the ground, ‘… another piece of her crystal?’ she said, standing up and holding something in her hand. ‘Does this mean the whole thing is breaking apart?’
As she stood, the piece she held glimmered in the light, giving off a stream of colours. Within seconds the colours dimmed.
‘It’s definitely part of her crystal,’ Demelza crowded in on Jenna for a better look. ‘She must have come here again. Used her iron bar and broken it again. Let me see.’ Demelza leant forward with her hand open.
Jenna closed her hand on the new piece of stone and turned away. Demelza’s face tightened in a grimace for a second.
I shuddered, remembering that awful sound coming from the tunnel when Miss Tregarthur had called it to obey her commands. To break the crystal would have been even more terrible, unless as Demelza had said, the thing had died – if a stone can die.
‘You said it didn’t work when she tried it last time – when she shot Zach,’ Jenna said, after taking a few steps away.
Demelza nodded. I wondered what she felt about Zach. They had spent so much time together, time trying to have us put to death, but what sort of relationship was it? Demelza was so changeable, not the faithful sort at all, happy to flirt with anyone, including me.
‘If she’s not here, it must have taken her,’ Demelza said.
‘Does that mean she could have travelled to the right time? To meet up with Marie Curie?’ I looked around to see if there were any other signs that she might have left, but we found nothing.
‘We know the tunnel must have a mind of its own,’ Jenna said to the stones as if talking to them. ‘When we said we would get the crystal and bring it back. I could feel … as though something was alive in the rock.’
‘We haven’t done it, not brought the whole crystal, have we?’ I put my arm around Jenna as her shoulders dropped, everything hopeless.
‘Miss Tregarthur must have made the tunnel work again,’ Demelza cried and swung herself up on to the top of the Hanging Stones. ‘Come on tunnel, show yourself, we are still after her, we’ll bring you the rest of your crystal.
’
‘Demelza, you think that’s really going to work? If the tunnel had a mind it knows what you did, it’s never going to trust you.’
Jenna was right, nothing happened. The stones across the moor carried on frowning at us, dark and threatening.
‘We have to get off the moor,’ I said, looking at the sky.
‘Demelza,’ Jenna stood right in front of her. ‘If Miss Tregarthur has managed to get the rest of the crystal to work again, we have to try to do the same with these pieces.’
Demelza said nothing.
‘That was your plan, wasn’t it?’ Jenna moved even closer. ‘You were going to get us killed, and after that you would try to use the crystal piece for yourself.’
Demelza looked as though that was exactly what she had had in mind.
‘You said Miss Tregarthur took you somewhere else. You have to take us there.’ Jenna made her words sound like a threat. ‘Right now.’ When Demelza didn’t respond she ended up on the ground in the mud with Jenna standing over her again. ‘Take us there.’
Demelza sneered and said nothing.
‘Leave her,’ I said. ‘Leave her and we’ll go back to the inn. See what a few more nights out here does, see if she’ll talk after that. She can’t do anything if she doesn’t have any of the crystal.’
Demelza’s head flicked from side to side. More rain was coming. More wind. The moor was a bleak place that day. It made Demelza start talking in her whinging voice: ‘I told you, we went somewhere.’
‘You didn’t actually tell us anything helpful,’ Jenna said. ‘Where exactly did you go? Last chance before we leave you here.’
‘To this cave, like I said,’ Demelza snivelled. ‘She said it was near her home.’
‘Miss T has a home?’ I said, not believing there was anything normal about her. ‘Thought she lived in hell.’
‘Not far wrong,’ Demelza went on. ‘She took us to this cave. It wasn’t her actual home. She said she couldn’t go to her actual home … didn’t explain. But we stayed in the cave. Odd place, wet and slimy.’
Tregarthur's Crystal: Book 4 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 10