by James Erith
Isabella wasn’t convinced and rubbed her shoulder. ‘It’s huge, Archie, you said it yourself.’
Archie shrugged. ‘I’ve got nothing better to do, don’t know about you.’
Archie walked over to the mouth of the cave and stood in front of the round, grey bulk. ‘Well, come on – or do I have to do it on my own?’
Reluctantly, the others joined him.
Old Man Wood and Archie took up central positions with Isabella and Daisy on either flank.
Archie counted them in. ‘On the count of three. One, two … three!’
They heaved until their faces were puce, but the boulder didn’t budge.
They fell to the floor.
‘Anyone want to try again?’ Archie said. They shook their heads. Just as Isabella said, the attempt was hopeless.
Moments later, Daisy spoke up. ‘Oooh. I’ve got an idea,’ she said, and she ran the length of the cavern. ‘Back in a mo,’ she yelled behind her as she disappeared down the dark stairwell, her footsteps echoing behind her.
Archie stood up as though he understood what Daisy had been thinking. ‘Old Man Wood – where were you when you touched this “lucky stone”?’
‘Now then,’ the old man began. ‘I hadn’t got very far. First steps I reckon—’
‘That’s it!’ Archie cried. ‘We’re looking in the wrong place! The clue must be on the walls in the chamber, down there – not up here.’
And without hesitating he shot off down the stairwell after his twin sister.
FORTY-FIVE
THE PICTURES IN THE CAVE
When Archie appeared, Daisy was studying the paintings on the walls. Her lips moved as if she could read the story like a book, her eyes fixed in concentration as she scoured the simple artwork. Occasionally, she moved in to dust off the image or icon, then she’d step back and take in the whole scene. Archie was fascinated by her intensity, and followed her eyes which shone as though a bright red light had been switched on inside her head.
The first section of the mural began with a circular tree and ended with figures carrying gifts. Then, the mural divided into two and kept dividing as the story progressed around the walls.
Above, and running the length of the mural, was a storm, depicted by jagged lightning bolts and strong lines for heavy rain. This concluded with mountain peaks poking through water. Archie gulped.
Below this “storm mural” stood three figures in front of a setting sun and directly above them the rain lines were less dynamic. Archie instantly recognised this, for when the sun went down the night before, or so he’d been told by Isabella, the torrential rain that had sluiced from the sky abated to no more than a drizzle.
He moved on to the next mural which showed the same three characters holding a rectangular stone tablet encrusted with ornate carvings. It was not much bigger, he guessed, than a paperback book.
Here, the mural divided, as it did with each new tablet that had to be found. Three stone tablets in all, Archie thought, one for each of the three figures. And as far as he could make out, if any one of them died – and at any point – then they would end up in a place of skulls and withered trees: death would come to all.
Now that Archie studied it, it reminded him of levels on a computer game: win a level – move up a level. The difference in this game was that if one person lost a level, everyone died.
So, if these pictures were somehow connected to them and if one of them had died in the storm, then the rains would have continued on to destroy the planet until only the mountain tops were spared. A shiver ran up his spine.
He followed the mural to its conclusion where three figures basked in glorious sunlight, as if they had succeeded. Beyond the basking figures, and extending over much of the rocky vaulted ceiling, in the shape of a circle, was the outline of a vast tree showing both roots and branches. On its upper half, animals and birds and plants and fruit hung in and around the foliage. Below, beside the roots, swam creatures of the sea.
Archie recognised some – like the seahorse, whale, elephant and crocodile – but he had no idea what the double-headed snakes were or what the birds with forked tongues and huge sharp claws were called. In fact, most of the creatures seemed to belong to an alien or medieval make-believe fantasy world.
He turned his attention to Daisy who was captivated by this strange tree. She stared at it for some time, her mouth open, a frown creasing her forehead. Archie tried to work out what she was so struck by and looked harder until he noticed, just behind the tree, the faint outline of a cross-legged woman with a crown of leaves resting upon her head. In place of eyes were dark patches, as though they had been coloured in, and a cushion sat in her lap. Resting on the surface, in the shape of a heart, was a locket.
Archie’s mind raced and his heartbeat quickened. Was this the Ancient Woman? Was this the haggard old woman they’d dreamt of, the same person he had repeatedly killed in his dreams? Was this the same woman he’d promised Cain he would look after?!
Archie rubbed his front hair spike. He noted how his follicles had hardened together like steel. So, if this was them, were these cave-images … their destiny?
Archie suddenly felt rather weak and insignificant. It made him think of his friend Kemp. Kemp, who had lost his mother when he was so very young, and he tried desperately to remember what Cain had said to them in the alleyway, but the whole thing had happened so fast. If only he could find Kemp, Kemp would remember and tell him – that’s if his friend was still alive.
Archie shut his eyes. Cain told them that they were the anointed ones, the Heirs of something-or-other and that everything hung on their staying alive till sunset. Wasn’t that the heart of it? So if the murals were correct, he, Archie de Lowe, a rather shambolic and disorganised twelve year old and his two nutty sisters had just saved the world. Wow.
But he didn’t feel like a superhero.
And then it dawned on him that perhaps the whole thing was in his head – his imagination – part of a very long, extended dream. A fantasy. Yeah, that was it. Not a bit of anything that had happened was REAL. It couldn’t be. Not even the paintings in front of him truly existed …
‘You done?’ Daisy said, waving her hands in front of his face. ‘Woo-hoo! Anyone there?’
‘Sorry, miles away,’ Archie replied, returning to earth.
‘Have you taken all of this in, absorbed as much as you can?’
Archie was a little confused. He looked around. ‘God. Er … yeah. Suppose so.’
‘Good,’ she said, rubbing her eyes. ‘As you are fully aware, my brain is completely rubbish, so from now on, I’m relying on you.’ Daisy ran her hands through her curls and noted Archie’s blank expression. ‘Want me to explain?’
‘Explain what?’ Archie looked confused.
‘What’s going to happen, numpty.’
Archie nodded.
‘Cool. Right, you see that little picture at the base of the stairwell.’ Daisy pointed at it.
‘Uh, right,’ Archie replied, squinting. ‘Yeah, didn’t see that.’
‘Well that shows us how we get out of here – stroke of luck Old Man Wood pushed the other one, hey?’
Archie stared at the wall. He couldn’t see anything. ‘Sure,’ he said dumbly.
Daisy eyed him. ‘You have no idea, do you?’
‘Nah. All looks like white-wash to me.’
Daisy sighed. ‘Please tell me you’ve noticed the cave entrance recently?’
Archie reddened. He turned and his eyes led him from the steaming, bubbling pool along the stream to the entrance.
Daisy couldn’t believe Archie was being such a moron. ‘Jeez, Archie. This cave – where we are right now – is underwater. There’s some kind of plastic film or glass barrier or weirdo trick holding the water back.’ She marched over to the entrance, put her hands on the strange glass film and smacked it with her fist. A hollow, thick ring like a church bell replied.
‘Yup, resin or glass or something,’ she said nonchalan
tly, as though this kind of thing happened every day.
Now that his eyes had adjusted, Archie could see right through the transparent barrier to the murky, swirling mass of water behind it. He felt sick. ‘How did it get there?’
Daisy shot him a look. ‘How the hell do I know?’
Archie’s voice creaked. ‘What’s it doing?’
‘Dur! Holding back the water! Come on, Archie! What do you think it’s doing?’ She hit it again, this time harder. A louder “dong” rang out.
‘Blimey, Daisy. Don’t do that.’
‘Why not? It won’t break.’
‘How do you know that? It might.’
Daisy ignored him. ‘Look, Winkle,’ she said, ‘when it breaks, we’re dead. Very, very, very dead.’
‘Just what I was thinking,’ Archie said.
‘But it’s not going to, quite yet.’ She paced back to the wall. ‘So these marks,’ she continued pointing to a very faint blur on the wall, ‘tell us there are two levers. One to widen the stairwell and the other to release the boulder—’
‘Of course,’ he said rubbing his chin, ‘just as I suspected.’
She moved in closer and pointed at them. ‘These marks … here.’
‘Yeah,’ said Archie moving in too high.
‘No,’ she said, ‘these two.’
Archie shook his head. Was she playing with him?
‘Now the problem is,’ Daisy said, ‘there’s a bit of a problem.’
Archie nodded dumbly.
‘Well, you see these funny looking icons next to them?’
Archie bent down. ‘Actually, no, not really.’
Daisy tutted. ‘Well they seem to indicate that the moment the boulder lever is pushed the staircase begins to retract.’
‘Wow, cool.’
‘No, Archie. Not cool.’
Archie frowned. ‘Why not?’
‘Because when that happens, Winkle, the barrier breaks and water pours in.’
Archie grimaced. ‘OK. Yup, not so cool.’ He turned to the entrance. ‘So that glass thing—’
‘Collapses. The brain is stirring,’ Daisy said, rather triumphantly. ‘It’s all here on the walls – I can’t believe you’re so blind.’
Archie didn’t even attempt to counter her. Silence filled the cavern as they thought through their situation.
‘So, if you’re right,’ Archie said at length, ‘we’re dead, whatever we do.’
‘Yeah. Probably.’
‘Have you got a plan?’Archie stuttered.
‘What? Other than seeing what odds Isabella would give for survival? Nope. Look, that barrier is protecting a pretty big hole and as brain box kept on telling us, there’s one hell of a lot of water out there. The cave entrance is a few metres above the river and the water level is higher than the top of the cave, which means water must stretch for miles above the Vale of York. And water, as you know, always finds the easiest route—’
‘Hold on a minute,’ Archie said trying to catch up. ‘You really think water stretches across the valley?’
Daisy shot him a look as if his brain had a leak. ‘Well, yes, of course it does,’ she said. ‘So,’ and she pointed at the covered entrance, ‘when it goes—’
‘The pressure of water flooding in would be like firing a tsunami hosepipe up the stairs,’ Archie concluded.
‘Correct-a-mundo,’ Daisy said punching him lightly on the shoulder. ‘Now you’re getting the picture.’
They stared at each other.
‘And the longer we wait here,’ Archie whispered, ‘the higher the water rises and the greater the pressure.’ The magnitude of what they’d worked out was beginning to sink in.
‘Yeah, Winkle. Something like that.’
‘God almighty. Even deader,’ Archie said. ‘We need Isabella’s brains on this one. And, Daisy.’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘Please stop calling me Winkle.’
FORTY-SIX
ISABELLA’S CHALLENGE
Daisy headed up the two hundred and twenty-two steps of the stairwell with Archie in pursuit.
Isabella and Old Man Wood stood waiting for them and, the moment they heard them coming, leant over the stairwell firing questions.
The twins held their sides, doubled over, as they caught their breath.
‘So, there’s good news and bad news,’ Archie gasped. ‘Which do you want first?’
‘The good news.’
‘OK,’ Daisy said. ‘Give me a sec.’ She flexed and stretched out her legs. ‘Right, the good news is, I’ve found the lever to activate the boulder.’
Isabella clapped her hands. ‘Brilliant. And the bad news?’
‘We die if we activate it.’
‘Die? Really? That’s pretty drastic. Are you quite sure?’
Daisy raised an eyebrow.
Isabella examined her siblings. ‘You’re … you’re kidding, aren’t you? It’s another of your silly little jokes?’
Their serious expressions said otherwise.
‘But I never saw any of this,’ Isabella countered. ‘Why didn’t I see it?’
‘I did though, Bells,’ Daisy said. ‘Look, sis, I’m not really sure how these eyes work, but it’s scribbled on those walls, I promise. On my life.’
Isabella listened as Archie and Daisy explained. Then she repeated it, just to be sure. ‘So what you’re saying is that one of us has to press this lever and run like mad up two hundred and twenty two stairs while the whole thing starts closing in and falling apart and water starts crashing through the cave opening. And then, and only then, will the boulder open.’
‘Yup,’ Daisy said blankly. ‘And if we fail, it screws the world. Apparently.’
Isabella wrinkled her nose and played with her straight brown hair and then stamped her foot hard down on the ground. ‘This is ridiculous.’
‘Well, yes it is,’ Daisy agreed, ‘but the longer we wait, the greater the water pressure, the harder it gets. Anyone going to volunteer?’
Old Man Wood put his hand up. ‘I’ll do it.’
Daisy smiled sweetly at the old man. ‘No, you’re far too old, big, and much too slow. Sorry. Anyone else?’ she looked at the receding faces of the others.
Isabella cut in. ‘Daisy you’re nimble, quick … fit. It’s got to be you—’
‘Why don’t I do everything?’ Daisy replied, crossly. ‘Look, my legs are pretty stiff after yesterday’s match and I’ve just climbed up here for the third time. That’s six hundred and … er—’
‘Sixty-six.’
‘Yes, I knew that,’ Daisy fumed. ‘Why don’t you do it? You’re two years older for goodness’ sakes and you’ve only done it once.’
Isabella was running out of excuses. ‘Archie. Come on – this is just up your street.’
Archie shook his head. ‘I’m slower than Daisy and I’ve done it twice.’
Isabella smiled – her lips wavering. ‘Oh … oh, God! All right. As usual it’s going to have to be me.’ Her lips quivered and then she burst into tears. ‘I hate this,’ she sobbed. ‘I hate this kind of stupid thing. None of this makes any sense, it’s … it’s—’
Old Man Wood moved in and enveloped her with a big hug like a comfort blanket. ‘Now then, young Bells. I’m not sure we have a choice, do we? You’ve always been a strong runner so you’ll be just fine. I can feel it in my bones.’
This only made Isabella cry louder.
Archie couldn’t bear it. ‘Look, if you’re going to be such a wetty about it, I’ll do it!’
Isabella wiped her eyes. ‘No, I’m the eldest,’ she sobbed, trying to compose herself. ‘And you’re right, you’ve done it twice. It’s only proper that it’s me.’
Daisy smiled. ‘I don’t mean to be a spoil-sport,’ she said, ‘but the longer we wait—’
‘Yes, yes I know. You’ve already told me,’ Isabella said. ‘Oh, Daisy, you’re finally finding some brains!’ She gave her sister a big hug, took a deep breath and steadied herself.
‘Old Man Wood – you stay here with Archie. Daisy – you’d better come with me and show me how these lever things work. When I’ve got it, get back up the stairs. When you’re at the top, yell down. Everyone got that? I’ll depress the lever, yell, and run for it. OK?’
Daisy spoke gently. ‘No waiting, Bells, understand? When it goes, scream a warning then go as fast as you can, sis. And good luck, I know you can do it.’
Isabella smiled and turned to Archie. ‘Archie, if I don’t make it, please do something with that hair.’
Archie’s face was as white as snow and his hair rigid. ‘You’d better make it, sis,’ he said softly. ‘Go like the wind.’
Old Man Wood furrowed his brow. His eyes watered. ‘Good luck, young ’un,’ he said, folding her into him again. ‘Believe in yourself, little Bells, and you’ll be fine.’
Quietly, Isabella turned and began the long walk down the steep, winding stairs with Daisy following on behind.
AT THE BOTTOM of the stairs, Isabella and Daisy came out into the bubbling cave entrance. All they could hear was the water of the pool frothing, while steam floated to the ceiling. Otherwise, a nervous quiet hung about them. Isabella’s heart thumped.
She searched around and found that the twins were right, the cave mouth was being covered by a most peculiar screen and beyond it, murky water swirled about. Isabella would have loved to study this extraordinary material and scrape off a few cells so she could analyse how it worked, but she was interrupted by Daisy.
‘Right, Bells,’ Daisy said, taking a deep breath. ‘Here are the levers. That one,’ and she pointed to the top protrusion, ‘is the one Old Man Wood pressed with his foot. The bottom one – here – is the dude you need to push.’
Isabella nodded. She shook like a rattle.
Daisy noticed and reached out for her hand. ‘Then run, Bells. Run like you’ve got a seriously massive great monster after you. Got it?’ Isabella’s eyes were wide with fear. ‘Fast as you can,’ Daisy continued, ‘and don’t stop. Understand?’ She noted how pale her sister had turned. ‘Look, are you sure you can do this? I mean, I’ll do it … if you can’t.’