The Circle Line (16 page)

When no-one appeared after a few minutes Sam pressed the button again. This time, from deep within the house, a thump could just be heard. After another couple of minutes the door swung open in a rush. A strange smell emanated from the doorway.

The man who had opened the door scowled at them, but when he saw Weewalk his expression softened. He ran a hand through his shock of white hair and pulled a pair of goggles away from his face, nestling them in his frizzy hair, leaving deep pink lines around his eyes.

‘Murian folk?’ he said excitedly.

Weewalk nodded and smiled and introduced them all in turn.

‘We need your help, Professor Keel. May we come in?’

‘Of course, of course. This way, please.’

The scientist ushered them into the fusty smelling house and led them along a corridor to a large bright room at the end of the hall which clearly functioned as some sort of laboratory. Sam had the impression that Professor Keel spent the vast majority of his time in this room. Where the hall had been dim and slightly unkempt, this room was full of light and piles of stuff lay everywhere. Papers, odd pieces of equipment and books covered every surface and much of the floor. Shelves around the sides of the room held oddly shaped contraptions. In the middle of the room a black box, the size of a shoebox, emitted a strange hum which seemed to dominate the air.

Professor Keel gestured to the room.

‘Welcome. Come in come in. Have a seat.’

As he mentioned seats he swung an arm around as if gesturing to some chairs which he couldn't quite locate amidst the debris and clutter of the laboratory. Sam couldn't locate the seats either and shifted nervously for a moment, anxious to be polite and obey the instruction but finding it an impossibility to do so. Eventually he settled for leaning against a table, deciding that was as close as he could get.

The man before them dashed around the room for a few moments, moving piles of papers and books as though needing to reassure himself that he had done something to improve the mess. All he did was move it around. Eventually, apparently satisfied, he stopped, or perhaps gave up, and turned to face them. He looked excitedly at Weewalk.

‘So, you are a kobold? A mine kobold? Yes, how very interesting. What brings you here?’

‘We need your help, Professor Keel. Jēran said that you might know of a way we can reach a place called Tongue's Scar. We are in something of a hurry.’

‘Tongue's Scar. Hmmmm.’ The scientist scratched at his head. ‘I can see why Jēran has sent you here. I have studied Mu for many years and have made many attempts to map the lines which you folk are so fond of using. But, I am afraid that I do not recall any mention of such a place. I will check my notes though. My memory is not what it once was.’

He stepped over to a shelf and brought down a large book. He thumbed through the pages.

Whilst he searched Weewalk looked around at the others nervously. If the scientist could not help then they were stuck. They had no idea how to begin to find the place.

Eventually Professor Keel turned to them with an unhappy look on his face.

‘I am afraid that I can find no reference to it. Do you have any more information?’

‘No,’ said Kya ‘I just know that we need to get there. The message I received had only the name of the place, nothing else on how to get there or where it is.’

‘Well, I'm sorry, my dear. But it seems that I cannot help.’ The scientist looked genuinely unhappy, like it was a personal failing.

‘It's not your fault, Professor.’ Kya said. ‘We'll find another way. Here, we collected your post from the road.’

‘What? Oh, thank you.’ Professor Keel took the bundle of papers glumly and flicked through them idly.

Weewalk turned to Kya ‘Is there really nothing else that you know? What can we do now?’

‘I just don't know.’ said Kya ‘We need to hurry, but we don't know where to hurry to.’

She looked so sad that Sam moved a step closer to comfort her, but couldn’t quite summon up the courage to say anything. They stood in silence, brooding.

‘Um.’ said Professor Keel. ‘Um. Excuse me.’

Weewalk looked over ‘Yes, Professor.’

‘Um. I have received a letter. Look.’

He passed a single sheet of paper to the kobold. Weewalk looked at it as the others crowded round. Sam could see it was a page torn from some kind of journal. He read it over the kobold's shoulder.

Entry 79

Strange. Today during my research I wandered away from my usual section of the library and came upon a book of philosophy called The Grandfather Paradox. It caught my eye as it was sticking some way out of the shelf. I opened it and a separate piece of paper fell out. On that page was a poem. A poem I remember well for it led us on the path to Montauk and Tongue's Scar. I copy it here:

Down in the dark, beneath the Deeps,

A line lies where the Cyclops sleeps,

A man-made line which full of power,

Will help you in your darkest hour.

That door will also lead to doom,

For beyond its gate; that dreaded room,

Yet do not falter, do not dismay,

To Tongue's Scar you will find your way.

Even as I write this I realise what this page before me means. I know what I am supposed to write. Do I have the power to change things now? I could leave a warning. Dare I write something different? But what if I'm wrong and altering events leads to a worse tragedy. This is torment. What should I do?

Ha! Without meaning to I realise I have written what I should have all along. It is settled then.

They looked at each other in utter amazement.

‘Professor, can I see the envelope?’ asked Weewalk. He turned it over carefully in his hands. It was blank apart from the Professor's name on the front. There was no stamp, no postmark and nothing else inside.

‘Weird.’ said Sam ‘What does it mean?’

‘I don't know but it is our best lead.’ said the kobold. ‘Montauk. Who would have thought we would need to go there!’

‘It could also be a trap.’ said Hadan ‘The problem with time travel is that someone might already know our movements and have sent Professor Keel this page knowing we would arrive here and follow the clue.’

‘I don't see what choice we have.’ said Weewalk ‘If we don't follow these directions then we have no chance. And we don't know how long we have to rescue Tarak. If they knew we would be here then why not just attack?’

‘But the Deeps.’ said Hadan, shaking his head, ‘There must be some other way.’

‘What?’ said Sam ‘What is the Deeps?’

Weewalk sighed ‘It's a network of caves and caverns. It's dangerous, there's no doubt about that. There are not many that could cross those paths, but I've done it, once. We kobold know how to move through the earth's heart. It's safe so long as one is quick and quiet. But this Cyclops. What threat that poses I do not know.’

‘And what about the wendigo?’ asked Hadan.

‘As I said,’ Weewalk replied, ‘quickly and quietly and we have nothing to fear.’

At that moment the black box that Sam had noticed earlier began to chatter. Sam peered at it curiously. It was about the size of a shoebox. Wires trailed from it along with a roll of paper that looked to Sam like the roll of paper you saw in tills in shops. Some kind of data was printed on it and more figures appeared as the machine worked. The Professor quickly moved to it and studied the figures. ‘Hmmm, interesting,’ he said, ‘Interesting.’

‘What is that Professor Keel?’ asked Sam.

‘This, young man, is a random event generator. It makes predictions. It has recently begun to predict something very troubling, but I need to do more research before I am ready to announce the results.’

The machine jittered again and the Professor remained hunched over it.

‘So,’ said Kya ‘We're going to the Deeps then.’

Chapter Thirteen

The next morning they used more conventional means for the first part of their journey to the entrance to the Deeps. Professor Keel took them in his battered car to a tumbled down and deserted ruin of a castle on the crest of a lonely hill. Weewalk spent a short time showing Sam and Professor Keel how to open the line that was there. Then the Professor bid them goodbye as they took the line to arrive in an alleyway in London. Weewalk then led them along city streets until they came to an area which Sam recognised from a school trip. He had been surprised that the entrance to somewhere as fearsome as that which they had discussed should lie beneath the streets of London but he was more surprised to hear that the relevant doorway was in a conventional newsagents. They stood nearby now. Weewalk pointed out that many people went missing each year on the streets nearby and besides, the Deeps themselves were not under their feet, merely the line that would take them to that place. They stood at the junction of two roads near an apparently disused Underground station. Dark red tiles fronted the building and black letters on cream gave the name ‘Aldwych.’ Weewalk gathered them against it; a concertina metal grill covered the entrance.

‘We go in here.’ he said, nodding to the station. ‘But we won't get in this way. There's another entrance around the corner, but it's guarded. We’ll have to get past the Old Witch.’

‘Did you say Aldwych, or Old Witch?’ asked Sam putting a slightly different inflection on the words.

‘Sharp.’ said Weewalk, ‘I kind of said both. The entrance is through a newsagent which sits next to the other door to the station. The newsagent is run by an old woman. She's been here a long, long time. She's not one of the Riven, and she has no powers, but she is one of their spies. A familiar if you will, like the old vampires used to have, and she guards this door for them. I think she's always wanted to have some of their power and has become bitter and twisted that she doesn't have it. She hates everyone and she's called the witch with irony. She's no witch, just an old lady. But we don’t want her to see us.’

‘Well, can we just wait until the shop closes?’ said Sam ‘And get in then?’

‘24 hour.’ said Hadan with a wry smile. ‘The old witch never sleeps. She might not have a presence, but nor is she entirely normal.’

Sam crept to the corner of the street and carefully looked around it and down the hill. He could see a small road sloping down towards the Thames and could just make out a little of the frontage of the newsagent, but not much because of the angle. As he watched two men approached from the opposite direction, walking towards him. They wore black suits, black ties, white shirts, long black trench coats and both had sunglasses on. They walked in step. Something about them immediately gave Sam the creeps. He moved back from the corner.

‘Two guys, walking up the hill. Take a look.’

Weewalk and Hadan looked around the corner together, taking care not to be seen.

‘Riven.’ said Hadan, ‘They've gone into the shop.’

‘This might be a chance.’ said Weewalk. ‘This isn't just an entrance to the Deeps. Actually, people almost never go that way. This is also a general doorway into parts of the underground that the Riven use. There are sealed off parts that you can't get to from the public side. When men built the Underground network they tunnelled into all sorts of places that had long been forgotten. There's a way through here to the 'Old Gate East'. And there are key lines to Mu there. But if those Riven are heading into the underground then the witch will be distracted. She'll be fussing over them. We might have a chance to slip in.’

‘Or they might just be stopping for a packet of crisps and we'll bump into them coming out.’ said Kya glumly.

‘Let's go and see.’ said Hadan and stepped around the corner. The others hurried to catch him. They came to the shop front and tried to look in the window. This wasn't easy. Metal grills covered the windows and the glass was covered in posters advertising travelcards, cheap international calls and a series of cards on which people had displayed items for sale. One caught Sam's eye. It had a picture of a mangy crow with leathery wings and the words ‘Money for old ropen. Enquire within.’ He shared a look with Kya who had read it too and they both renewed their attempts to see in the window.

‘It looks empty.’ said Hadan. He walked to the door and began to push it open.

‘Wait!’ said Sam, and grabbed the handle, stopping the door from swinging any further.

He looked up at the top of the door. A small brass bell had been lifted by the door. Another inch and it would have slipped back, rung and alerted anyone inside the shop that the door was opening.

‘Wait a minute.’ whispered Sam. He reached out with his mind and took hold of the bell. He held the clanger away from the side of the bell as Hadan carefully pushed the door the rest of the way open. Once they were in and the door was closed again Sam slowly let the bell fall back into place. Satisfied that it would not sound he released the clanger and the bell remained silent.

They stood in a fairly grimy and sad looking little shop. There were a couple of aisles of shelves, but they were mainly bare. A few loaves of bread and some canned goods of the kind that no-one could ever really want were all that sat on display under the strip lighting. One wall had a fridge which was mostly empty with just a few cans of soft drinks and some milk on display. At the opposite end from the door there was a high counter. A selection of chocolate bars covered its front and cigarettes were stacked behind it. At one end a flap was raised which allowed one to walk behind the counter and to an open door, beyond which voices could be heard.

They crept along the shop and squatted in front of the counter to listen to what was being said. The voice of an elderly lady could be heard.

‘Yes, sirs. Very careful. No-one's been this way, no-one at all.’

A deep voice sounded.

‘Stop pawing me, you old hag’

‘Sorry, sirs, sorry. Just you are so powerful and magnificent’

‘Get away from me. Just make sure that no-one follows us through or Ferus will hear of it. We are travelling to the Old Gate on the King's direct orders.’

‘No sirs, I'm sorry. No-one will pass. Already burned me once Master Ferus has. I've no wish to see the fires of his eyes again.’

‘Then see to it that this door remains guarded.’

The sound of another door opening and closing reached Sam and the others, crouched by the confectionery. A moment later they heard the sounds of footsteps approaching from behind the counter, and then the creak of a stool as someone sat down very close to them. The four of them held their breath, pressed against the rows of chocolate bars. Sam looked to Hadan who was sneaking a bar into an inside pocket. Sam stared at him and he shrugged with a smile.

The old woman’s voice reached them from above as she began to mutter to herself.

‘Tell me what's what. I've been here longer than them. Knows it all I does. Don’t need them Riven to tell me what to do. Know full well they need to keep the King happy and ready those in the pit for his attention. Yes.’

Sam looked across to Kya. She had her eyes closed and he soon realised why. A sharp tap came from the window and as he looked between the cluttered notices Sam was just in time to see a stone which had been frozen in the air drop to the floor outside.

‘What?’ called the woman's voice behind them and Sam heard the legs of the stool rock against the floor as she stood up. ‘Who's there?’ she barked.

Another tap came from the window as Kya willed another stone to hit the glass.

The woman rushed past them down an aisle. She was so intent on looking at the window that she didn't notice them pressed against the high counter as she raced down the shop. Sam had a strobe-light vision of an old woman, hunched over with wispy grey hair and a pointed nose and chin. A witch without a tall hat. She went to the door, opened it and stepped out, the bell jingling as she did so.

‘You bloody kids!’ she called into the street shaking her fist. With no time to lose, and not believing their luck, they slipped behind the counter and into the back room, closing the door quietly behind them.

They paused a moment, holding their breath, but there was no call from the woman. Seconds later they heard the bell tinkle again and her voice drifted through the door.

‘Bloomin' kids. Wait till I catch one. Then they’ll be sorry. Yes, put them in the cellar I will. See if they can throw stones then.’ The voice got louder as she moved closer to the door and they quickly moved away from it, crossing what seemed to be a storeroom. Carefully they went through the door at the other end.

Once inside that room they found a narrow and steep circular staircase set in a hole in the floor. The hole, only a couple of metres across, had a brass rim. As they stood looking into down the steep stairs Sam noticed words etched into the brass. He had to walk in a circle to read them. They said

‘The forthcoming end of the world will be hastened by the construction of underground railways burrowing into infernal regions and thereby disturbing the Devil.’

Weewalk was the first to move. Kya and then Sam followed him into the narrow opening. Hadan brought up the rear. They moved quickly down the black wrought iron staircase and into the darkness below.

Behind them they did not hear the Old Witch mutter to herself, as she sat hunched over the counter of her shop.  She opened the drawer of her till with a clatter and selected a coin. She placed it in a certain slot and released it. It rolled away through a carefully concealed tube, down towards the caves below. It could not cross through a line but the alarm would be sounded. ‘That's it. In you go, into the Deeps. Jak will be along soon enough to make sure you stay there. If the wendigo don’t get you first.’ she cackled.

The stairs went down and down and down. Sam kept a good hold on the metal handrail, his hand warming as it ran over the smooth metal. It was dark, almost no light filtered down from above as they descended into that pit. He could not see below him into the blackness but the shaft was so narrow that, if there had been any light, he would have seen little but the top of Kya's head and shoulders. They descended for a long time. Little sound reached them apart from the intermittent rumbling of what Sam guessed were Underground trains passing nearby. It was like climbing down into the belly of a hungry giant. Then, as Sam's knees and thighs were starting to feel quite sore, Weewalk called softly up to them.

‘I'm at the bottom.’

Sam came out of the narrow rock tube to find Weewalk and Kya standing in a roughly hewn tunnel, a blank wall behind them and a long echoing passageway before them. Hadan arrived a moment later, pulling a lantern from his bag which he lit carefully. A deep but distant rumbling noise swirled down the passageway.

‘Now we're out of that staircase we can hear the trains better.’ said Weewalk. ‘I think we’re pretty far below them.’ He rubbed his thighs looking back up the stairs. ‘But perhaps the sound is amplified in some way.’

Belatedly Sam realised that the stairs must have been even more tiring for Weewalk with his shorter stumpy legs and he felt a twinge of guilt for thinking about how much his own legs ached.

They walked softly down the passageway, careful to make no noise. Weewalk had given them a stern warning about the need for silence. The line they needed was nearby but the Riven had come this way too. Then, once they arrived in the Deeps proper, they would be in the lair of a race of mysterious beings called wendigo. These horrors had cadaver like bodies with fiery eyes and could shift their shape into beast like forms. They had found a line into the tunnels and had made it their own kingdom in the darkness, rarely venturing above into the light.

There was little sound in the tunnel as they walked, the occasional plink of dripping water as it filtered through the rock, the scratch and rustle of rats or other small creatures and the ever present distant rumble of trains from far overhead. Hadan's lamp provided the only light. He led the march, Weewalk brought up the rear.

As they walked Kya came up alongside Sam. The passage was wide enough that they could just about walk side by side. She touched Sam's arm and then stopped as if adjusting her shoe. Sam stopped too and Weewalk edged between them. Once they were at the back Kya started walking along, tugging Sam's arm so that he was walking beside her again.

She whispered into his ear. ‘Thanks for doing this. Trying to save Tarak, I mean.’

Sam was immediately aware of her breath on his neck and the light touch of her fingers on his arm.

‘Oh.’ he said much too loudly. Weewalk turned and shot him a glance.

‘Sorry.’ hissed Sam sheepishly. Turning back to Kya he said ‘That's okay, I mean, I've got nowhere else to go and Weewalk and Hadan have, you know, really helped me. And I want to fight Ferus.’

Sam groaned inwardly. That had sounded so stupid. He closed his eyes in silent frustration and immediately caught his foot on a stone and stumbled. He opened his eyes again as Kya tightened her grip on his arm.

She gave a quiet chuckle. ‘You okay?’

‘Yeah,’ whispered Sam. ‘I'm fine. I mean, look Kya. Right now, even though we're walking through a dark tunnel towards a place full of evil mythological creatures that probably want to eat our skin or something, this, this just feels right. I feel like I'm supposed to be here. And I would never have learnt what I have if I hadn't got involved in all this. The things I can do. I can feel the power running through me. I feel good, great, and if I can make a difference and help some people then so much the better.’