Blue Dome (The Blue Dome Series) (23 page)

I quickly shifted my legs
so I could crawl back out through the lid, only to find that instead of striking
the solid floor of the sarcophagus, my foot was suddenly pawing empty air. I
glanced down and noticed something very strange. Not only was the sarcophagus
empty, but half the bottom of it was actually missing, so that instead of
creamy-grey stone there was just a yawning black void. As my feet, then my
knees, tipped over the edge I felt my toes touch something solid. It took me a
couple of seconds to register that I was now dangling part way down a
staircase.

“What the..?” I breathed
to myself.

The walls of my
sarcophagus were suddenly buffeted by the aftershock of another explosion and I
realised that I was now at the front of the queue for being turned into rubble.
Even if I moved at super-human speed, there was no way that I’d now be able
scramble out in time. My only option was to get to the bottom of the stairs as
fast as I could.

I scurried backwards on
my hands and knees until there was just enough space to stand up, and ran until
I hit a shallow puddle at the foot of the stairs. Water was trickling down the
walls and the place smelt of musty damp moss. As I peered down the long, dark
tunnel that stretched out in front of me, the only light was that of fireflies
clinging to the ceiling like tiny sequins.

Suddenly, a large chunk
of stone crashed down behind me, making me jump, and I turned to see a mound of
disintegrated crumbs decorating the stairs. Demarge had now destroyed the sarcophagus
I’d been hiding in and it wouldn’t be long until he’d worked out where I’d gone.
I turned and ran blindly into the darkness, neither knowing, nor caring, where
I was going.

***

Upstairs in the crypt, Demarge
studied the dust clouds swirling up from the fifth ruined sarcophagus. Usually
mortals were not this stubborn in the face of such obvious odds. There was
something not right about this at all. He caught a chunk of stone that was rolling
off the plinth and turned it in his palm, bringing it slowly to his lips. He closed
his eyes and breathed deeply.

“So, you decided to hide
here?”

A smile spread across
Demarge’s face as his eyes flickered open again. He jumped lithely into the
dark hole where the sarcophagus had been, landing soundlessly on the floor of
the tunnel below. As he rolled up his sleeve, a green snake peered at him with hooded
eyes.

“Track her Arius, she
can’t get far. I want to know exactly where she goes. In the meantime, I expect
I have some guests on their way.”

I had no idea how long
the tunnel was or exactly when I turned the first bend, but I did know that
every minute I could force Demarge to lose was another minute that Bede could
use to escape. My lungs were burning and my legs felt like lead, but I tried to
distract myself by imagining that each of my footsteps was a second on a clock
and that if I just kept putting one foot in front of the other the minutes
would eventually add up. The bottoms of my jeans were now soaked and I could
feel the denim, cold and clammy, sucking against my calves. I had hoped that
the tunnel would eventually lead to drier ground, but if anything it was
getting wetter. Large puddles shimmered like mini lakes in front of me,
isolating small, moist islands of concrete dotted in between. Ordinarily, I
would’ve tried island hopping to avoid the water, but not today. Not when I had
a psychotic megalomaniac on my tail.

As I rounded another bend
I began to think my eyes were playing tricks on me. In the distance, at the end
of the corridor, I could see what looked like a door. I blinked a couple of
times, but my eyes kept reporting the same information. Soft grey light
streamed through it, making criss-cross patterns on the floor. As I drew closer
I realised that the top half of the door was covered in an iron mesh. I grabbed
the handle and tried to wrench it open, but it wouldn’t budge. I swore, took a
deep breath, and tried again. This time the thing creaked. Slightly.
Third time
lucky
I thought as I threw my whole weight behind it.

The door flew open,
taking me with it. I stumbled awkwardly, just managing to catch myself before
plunging headfirst into thick coffee-coloured sludge. Unexpectedly, I could
hear the sound of water lapping gently against rock. As I looked up I could see
that I was now standing on the banks of the
Wiltsdown
River
, just below
the
Beare
Bridge
. The tunnel must have been built at
some stage as a secret escape route from the Cathedral. Luckily for me, it was
still working. I glanced around to see an overgrown path, leading back up the
hill. With the thought of Demarge’s eels still fresh in my mind, I ran towards
it, not stopping until I was over the bridge and navigating my way back to the
Old Town Square
. I glanced quickly over my
shoulder, relieved to see that no one was following me. My relief soon turned
to nausea though, as I realised that that could only mean one thing: Demarge
had decided to wait in the Cathedral for the others.

I took a deep breath, exhaled
slowly, and tried to get a grip on myself. I had no idea where I was actually going.
It was pretty obvious that I wouldn’t be welcomed back into the Slipworld,
having basically done the complete opposite of what Min and Thomas had expressly
told me to do. Besides that, I was now miles from the entrance anyway. My best
bet was to find somewhere warm to sleep, then try to figure it out again in the
morning. I dug around in my pockets and pulled out a couple of notes. It wasn’t
much, but enough for a hostel at least.

The
Old Town Square
was virtually deserted as
I walked towards the far exit. There were just a few homeless people left, picking
over the rubbish bins for whatever food they could find. It was so cold I could
almost imagine my bones contracting inside my coat. I hugged my arms around me
and burrowed my neck into my coat but it didn’t really help. I was so focussed
on trying to squeeze as much warmth out of my coat as possible that it wasn’t
until too late that I noticed someone suddenly stepping out in front of me. Before
I knew it, I’d crashed into them, lost my balance, and found myself lying on
the cobblestones, sprawled on my back.

“What the…?” the person
shouted.

She was a girl, much
smaller and thinner than me, but slightly older. Her eyes had a hungry, haunted
look about them.

“You stupid idiot, why
don’t you look where you’re going!” she said. “You know, those things on the
front of your head, they’re called ‘eyes’.”

I was so taken aback that
my first instinct was to apologise. But as soon as I’d said the words, I realised
that I was actually quite angry myself.

“You know, you could take
your own advice. You didn’t even look before you stepped back,” I said.

“Yeah, well that’s
because I didn’t expect some maniac to just plough into me!”

“Yeah, well, sor-ry!” I
said, not bothering to disguise the defensiveness in my voice.

The girl paused to scowl
at me for a minute. “I really don’t have time for this,” she said, brushing
herself down. Unconsciously, I did the same thing, as she moved away and start
rifling through another rubbish bin. It made me realise just how hungry I was myself.
It also gave me an idea. I cleared my throat, hoping to catch her attention
again, but she completely ignored me. I figured I’d just have to go about it
the hard way.

“Errm…” I said. Still no
response. “I’ve got a bit of money, not much, but enough…”

The girl turned and
positively glared at me before I could finish what I was about to say.

“Oh right, so you’re
treating me like some sort of filthy beggar now are you?” She shook her head.
“Seriously, you’re too much.”

I looked at her, my mouth
gaping in disbelief. Then my anger came seeping back.

“You didn’t even let me
finish. I never said anything about begging, or being filthy. What I
was
going to say is that I’ve got no idea where I can get something to eat at this
time of night. If you wanted to show me, I could make it worth your while.” The
girl scowled, her jaw jutting out defiantly.

“I’m fine thanks.”

“Digging about in a bin?”

“Hey, I might be “digging
about in a bin” but I’m not asking anyone for anything. This is stuff people
don’t want. It may be a poor-man’s jumble sale, but it’s not begging. It’s also
not taking charity from some do-gooder who’s only in it to make themselves feel
better.”

“Fine, whatever,” I said.
The thought of getting into a big ethical discussion at that time of the night
was too much. “Look, I’m starving and I’m going to find somewhere to eat. If
you want to come it’s up to you.”

The girl looked me up and
down as suspiciously as if I was an undercover cop, trying to catch her out for
doing something dodgy.

“Yeah, all right,” she
said eventually, in a way that made it clear that she was doing me a favour.
“But try anything and I’ll have you.”

“Fine,” I said, trying
hard not to roll my eyes. Seriously, what did she think I was going to do? Whip
out my secret weapon of memorised poems from English class and unleash their
fury on her?

“I know a place down
there.” The girl nodded towards a narrow, dark alley that curled away from the
side of the Square. I glanced at it uncertainly.

“Umm, yeah,” I said, in a
tone that didn’t quite say “no”, but pretty close to it.

“What?” said the girl.

“Nothing,” I said
quickly. “It’s just, well, I was hoping for somewhere a bit…lighter?”

The girl shook her head,
her mouth set in a thin, determined line.

“Nup, no can do. I can’t
risk the cops seeing me.”

“Oh,” I said dumbly.
Great, so my new ‘friend’ was wanted by the police for something – homicide
maybe – and she now expected me to go down a dark alley with her? My face must
have given me away because she suddenly laughed.

“Hey, it’s not what you
think. Yes, the cops want to talk to me, but no, I haven’t done anything wrong.
Honestly.”

I looked at her
curiously, my eyes scanning hers for lies. Normally, when someone says the word
“honestly” to me like that, warning bells start clanging in my head. It usually
means the complete opposite, like the time that Bede stole the car and told
Arlene that he
honestly
hadn’t. Yet, for some reason, I couldn’t help
but believe that the girl was telling the truth. There was something about the
way she looked at me, directly, unflinchingly. If she was lying then she was way
better at it than Bede.

“Okay,” I said.

The girl’s face relaxed.
“C’mon,” she said, walking towards the alley.

I began to follow,
glancing back at the safe, illuminated Square that was now disappearing behind
us.

“What’s your name,
anyway?” said the girl.

“Clare, and you?”

“Calix. So what’s up with
you, running around the city at this time of night?”

I paused, deciding how
much to tell her. Obviously the whole ‘Demarge situation’ was out of the
question, she’d just think I was crazy.

“I dunno. Same as you I
guess,” I said.

Calix stopped, turned to
me, and made a noise that was half laugh, half snort. The kind of noise that
someone makes when they don’t believe a word they’ve just been told.

“Hey, I don’t mean to be
rude and all that, but
you
? Homeless?” She stepped back and ran her eye up
and down me, before making the same “huh” sound again. It was starting to get
annoying.

“What, so you’re saying I
don’t
look
homeless?” I said.

“Err, yeah!” said Calix,
as if I was obviously an idiot. Now I was angry.

“So who’s making judgments
about who now?” I said. “You don’t know anything about me. If you did, you’d
know that my Dad’s just died, my brother’s gone missing, a whole bunch of crazy
stuff has just happened to me that I can’t even tell anyone about, and actually
I
am
homeless right now!”

As I heard myself say the
final few words out loud I felt the tears dam up against the rims of my eyes,
threatening to burst the banks. I bit the inside of my cheek as hard as I could
stand. Things might be pretty bad right now but no way was I going to let
myself cry in front of this stupid girl.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” she
said.

I shrugged and looked
away. Suddenly, I felt Calix’s hand on my arm.

“I mean it, I’m sorry,”
she said. I gulped, as the tears started roll down my cheeks. Calix rubbed my
arm for a couple of seconds while I tried to get myself under control again.

“Thanks,” I said weakly. Calix
smiled.

“C’mon, it’s just up here.”

I wiped my face on the
back of my sleeve and followed her down a series of side alleys that seemed to
get increasingly narrower and darker. Finally, we turned a corner and I could
see, down the far end of the alley, a shaft of creamy-yellow light reaching out
into the darkness. Shadowy figures huddled together, taking turns to approach
the light source. As we drew closer, I could see that there was a square hole
in the wall and a small shelf from where a dark-haired man with a red face was
serving kebabs.

“Got the money?” said
Calix. I fished around in my pockets and dug out a crumpled note.

“Is this enough?”

She nodded, grabbed the
note and began working her way through the crowd. I watched in amazement as she
pushed men twice her size out of the way. They were so surprised they didn’t
stop her. Within minutes Calix was back, shoving a meaty kebab and a fistful of
change into my palm.

“Sorry, didn’t know if
you were vegetarian or not,” she said. “I’m not, so I just took a chance.”

“Thanks,” I said.
Although I’m not a huge fan of meat, and anything even slightly bloody makes my
stomach churn, I was starving and the smell of cooked food smelt amazing,

We began walking away
from the kiosk, down the rest of the alley, until we eventually reached a small
park. In the centre was a large asphalt square, decorated with a dilapidated
set of swings and a few lengths of rusty iron piping from an old climbing
frame. Neither of us spoke much, we were both too busy wolfing down our food. Calix
slopped herself into a u-shaped seat and I took the swing next to her. We both
began rocking back and forth with our heels in the gravel.

“So…” Calix paused. “How
did your dad die?”

“Umm,” I said, the
question catching me off-guard. I faltered for a couple of seconds, trying to
work out exactly what to say.

“He was...”

Calix looked at me
expectantly.

“Umm...murdered,” I said,
the word still not sounding quite real to me. I glanced away as I felt the
tears begin to bank up in my eyes again. By the time I’d composed myself, Calix
was looking at me with a weird expression on her face.

“What?” I said.

“Look, this might sound
like a really crazy question, but you don’t happen to have a brother called
Bede do you? It’s just that, I met this guy the other day who...”

I didn’t let her finish.

“How on Earth do you know
about my brother?” I said. “Where did you meet him? How? Do you know if he’s
still there? Have…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Calix
suddenly cut in, clapping her hands theatrically over her ears. “Ease up, I’m
not good at ‘question by machine gun’.”

“Sorry,” I said, “but I’ve
just been worried sick about him. Just one more question, I promise I won’t ask
anything else, but is he okay?”