Blue Dome (The Blue Dome Series) (9 page)

I tried to distract
myself from the intoxicating scent by guessing how old the man was. It was
impossible to say. He could have been the same age as my English teacher, Mrs
Burlington, and yet there was something different about his face, something
timeless
.
It was as if he’d already seen everything there was to see, and done everything
there was to do, and there was nothing left that could ever shock him. He was,
by far, the most terrifying person I had ever seen in my life. He was also the
most beautiful.

“What do you want?” said
Min. The metal in her voice was palpable.

The man smiled, and
casually crossed his arms.

“You know exactly what I
want,” he said.

“You’ve got the wrong person.
She’s not the one you’re looking for,” said Min.

The man laughed
derisively. “Do I
look
like a fool? Just give me the girl, Min Isis.”

“Who’s he talking about?”
I whispered to Min. She replied with a sideways glance that made it clear now
was not the right time to ask.

“How did you find us?”
she asked him.

“Oh come on, you can’t be
serious? I saw the girl in the Square. Then all that clattering down the tunnel
and the, ‘let me fix your ankle’, routine. All very touching, just not very
sensible if you’re trying to slip by unnoticed. Now, before we have to waste
any more time, hand her over.”

“Never,” said Min,
shaking her head vehemently. “I’ll never give her to you.”

Who were they referring
to? I tried to catch Min’s eye again, but she was glaring fixedly at the man. The
description seemed to fit me, but that would be ridiculous. What could either
of them want with me? I didn’t even know them. Was this something to do with
Dad? Had he made this strange guy so angry that he now wanted to hold me
hostage?

I desperately wanted some
answers, but it seemed unlikely that I was going to get any from these two. I
needed to find Bede, and I needed to find my Dad, and I needed to do it right
away. Whatever drama was going on between Min and this man, I was pretty sure I
didn’t want to be involved. I began to edge slowly back towards the entrance of
the tunnel, relieved that my ankle was now good enough to run on. But before
I’d taken more than a couple of tiny steps the man gave a short, snorting laugh
and raised his right eyebrow.

“Stay where you are,” he
said. I was so shocked he’d even noticed me, that I stopped immediately in my
tracks.

“You’re not having her,”
said Min.

“And why’s that?” said
the man. He sounded as if he was merely humouring her.

“You know why,” she said.

“Well, it’s not as if you
exactly
have a
choice
, is it?” he said.

“You will have to get
through me first if you want the girl,” said Min, spreading her arms
protectively in front of me.

“Very well,” said the
man, shrugging as if slightly bored by the whole thing. “I’ve no idea why you
Aeons
always
have to make it so hard for yourselves, but if you want a
skirmish, I’m more than happy to oblige.”

I glanced at Min again,
begging her with my eyes to explain who this man was and what was going on.
Before she could respond, the man’s face hardened and a crackling stream of
painfully bright light burst from his fingers. In the split seconds it took for
my eyes to register the light, I realised that the man must be holding some sort
of new-fangled laser gun. This was serious. Min dodged the blast just in time,
while I was thrown to the floor. I went rolling across the smooth marble as
fast as a wheel on a moving car, before finally coming to an abrupt stop at the
entrance to the tunnel.

“Run Clare, run!” Min
screamed at me.

By the time I’d scrambled
to my feet, she was already preparing to face the man again. I stood my ground,
waiting to see if I could help. Min glanced over her shoulder at me.

“Go!” she screamed.

I began running back up the
tunnel as fast as I could. I was so frightened I didn’t stop to think about
what I’d just seen, let alone, try to make sense of it. I was several metres into
the tunnel before I turned and crouched in the darkness, watching to see what
would happen next. I figured the police would want the whole story.

“Tut, tut,” the man said shaking
his head. “That was a
very
silly thing to do Min-Isis. Now I’ll have to use
one of my scouts, and you know how much people hate them. You could have spared
Clare a great deal of anxiety but what can I do? You’ve forced my hand.”

He drew up his sleeve and
the thick coils of an iridescent green snake began to stir.

It looked up and gazed at
the man with lidless black eyes, its forked tongue quivering restlessly between
its lips. I shook my head in disbelief. I’d only seen a snake like that once in
my life before, and that was the green mamba in Wiltsdown Zoo. There could only
be one explanation – this had to be one of the snakes that Dad had been
importing. I felt a hard lump form in my throat as I realised that Bede must
have been telling the truth.

“After her, my pet,” said
the man, gently lowering his arm.

The snake unravelled
itself and slunk elegantly to the floor, before gliding rapidly across the
cobbles in long “s”-shaped rivers of green. Min spun around just as the snake
was sliding past her. She clenched her fists, her fingers springing open to
release a volley of vivid blue sparks. There was a piercing scream as they hit
the snake’s tail. The smell of burning flesh wafted into the tunnel. By the time
the smoke had cleared though, the snake had fully recovered and was heading
towards the tunnel faster than before. That should have been my cue to leave,
but I still needed to know who Min-Isis and this guy really were. I made a quick
bargain with myself: listen for two more seconds, then scram.

“Min-Isis, really.” The
man spoke to her as if she were a child. “You know you can’t possibly compete
with me here. In the Slipworld, maybe, but not here. There really isn’t a
contest.”

“I don’t need to win,
Demarge,” said Min. “Look, the girl has already gone.”

“Not for long, she hasn’t,”
said the man. “She’ll be no match for Arius.”

Before Min could reply a
hailstorm of brilliant white sparks streaked across the room. This time I could
clearly see the man’s hand. There was no laser gun. I did a double take,
convinced my eyes were playing tricks on me. A couple of seconds later, I realised
that Min-Isis hadn’t been quick enough to miss the strike. A spine-chilling
howl flooded the room, as a million splinters spiralled up towards the ceiling in
a tornado of blue diamonds.

I hadn’t realised how
steep the tunnel was until I started to run back up it. My lungs wheezed and my
legs ached. It was much harder to see where I was going without a torch. I
thought about reaching for one, just as I’d seen Min do earlier, but I
remembered how heavy they were and figured it would probably just slow me down.
Instead, I gritted my teeth, ignored my groaning muscles, and forced my legs to
run even faster. My usual paranoia about stumbling over and twisting my ankle again
didn’t even enter my head. There wasn’t time. All I knew was that I had to get
to the end of the tunnel and escape.

I was still concentrating
on my plan when something shimmered past me. I tried to reassure myself that it
was just panic making me see things. It almost worked, until I saw something glinting
on the floor up ahead. I slowed down and peered through the darkness. A long, loud
hiss sent a chill down my spine. There was no mistaking what the object was. To
make things worse, a pair of boot heels was growing louder and louder behind me.

Fear churned in my
stomach as I turned to face the man. In the hazy yellowness of the tunnel, I
could pick out a human shape emerging from the shadows. He was carrying a torch,
illuminating the passage immediately ahead. I glanced back over my shoulder at
the large green mamba lying coiled on the floor in front of me. Its black eyes
were trained on my calves. The snake’s tongue flicked in and out of its mouth like
a mechanical clock, keeping time with my every breath. I was now completely
trapped between the reptile and the man that I’d heard Min call “Demarge”.

“So, you must be Clare?” The
sharply clipped syllables scarred the quietness of the tunnel. “Apologies for
such an unnecessarily dramatic introduction. Your friend could have made it
easier for you, but she chose not to. One should choose their friends wisely. Maybe
a lesson for next time?”

“What did you do to Min? I
saw you…”

I trailed off as I realised
I wasn’t exactly sure what I had seen. I mean, people shooting bolts of light
at one another? A woman suddenly disintegrating into a million tiny fragments? The
whole thing was completely and utterly crazy. The man simply smiled and tilted
his head, arching his right eyebrow at me quizzically.

“You saw me…what? I
didn’t quite catch what you were saying.”

I stared at him uncertainly.
There had to be a perfectly good explanation for what I’d seen, and I knew I’d
figure it out eventually, but right then it was probably better not to say
something that would make me look like a complete idiot.

“Who are you?” I said.

“Min-Isis didn’t tell
you? Well, well, she must have run out of time.”

I studied the man’s face,
trying to work out how I was supposed to respond to something so cryptic. “That’s
not really an answer” was weak, but it was the best I could come up with. I
tried to keep my voice as steady as possible to bluff the confidence I definitely
wasn’t feeling. Hearing the cracks in my voice, I knew I wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Right now it doesn’t
matter who I am,” said the man. “The main thing is that you are my guest.”

“Where’s Min? Is she
still here?” I asked.

The man shrugged
dismissively. “She’s probably around somewhere,” he said.

Now I was really
confused. “What do you mean?” I said. “Is she here or not? Can I see her?”

“Do you ever stop asking
questions?” the man replied, sighing heavily. “I’m surprised you don’t exhaust
everyone you meet with this kind of interrogation.” He met my glare with a
patronising smile. “Come,” he said, giving me a quick, perfunctory nod towards the
tunnel. “Unless, of course, you would prefer to be fang practice for Arius?”

I hesitated, turning back
to check on the whereabouts of the snake. It was still lying across the entire
width of the floor, its skin touching either side of the tunnel. I quickly
calculated my chances of managing to either jump over it, or somehow sidle
around it. The odds were slim to none. I grimaced, grit my teeth, and began
following the man.

“Arius,” the man called
in a sing-song voice, “make sure our friend doesn’t try to escape.”

We continued to walk back
down to the bottom of the tunnel in virtual silence, with only the scraping
sound of snake tail against stone to break the monotony. I had no interest in
making small talk with Demarge. Nor, it seemed, did he. It wasn’t long before
we were back in the Consus Room.

“This way.” The man jerked
his head towards the arches lining the far wall.

I paused to check whether
the snake was still behind me and was promptly greeted by a warning hiss. I
turned back and began trailing the man across the octagonal floor, my feet
skimming the slippery marble. I scanned the room for Min, but there was no sign
of her. If only I could have said the same for the snake. Its body shimmied
over the tiles in time with the sway of the long black coat in front of me.

Demarge stepped into the
mouth of an archway and turned towards me, his face ghostly in the dark frame.

“Come,” he said,
beckoning me with his finger.

I stood stock still. It
was frightening enough being this close to him in the daylight, let alone in
the darkness. He lowered his hand and raised his right eyebrow, as if curious
why I was hesitating. I could have sworn that, for the briefest of seconds, his
eyes seemed to soften. No sooner had I thought that, than his expression
reverted to its hard inscrutability.

“I mean
now
,” he
said, making me jump.

I stepped forward through
the archway into a tiny, dark antechamber, barely big enough for two people. Instantly,
I felt a chill on my face and hands. A perfume lingered in the air, as if
someone had just run through the room and left an imprint behind. It was the
same smell of sandalwood that I’d noticed earlier. I quickly shook the memory of
home from my mind, determined to keep my wits about me. It was difficult though.
I was standing so close to the man that we were almost touching. I stepped backwards,
only to be reminded by an angry hiss that there was still a snake behind me.

The man smiled,
presumably at my bumbling awkwardness, before stepping aside and ushering me
towards the top of a spiral staircase. From where I was standing, it looked as
if it had been made of silver thread, woven into a delicate cylinder that was
as fragile as the fine filigree jewellery my grandmother used to wear. I
glanced down, trying to find where the staircase led, but the sheer, spiralling
length of it made it impossible to see more than a few steps ahead. At some
point – maybe a hundred metres down or so, it was difficult to guess – the
silver simply disappeared into a purply-black haze, the colour of a storm-bruised
sky.

“After you,” said the man.
I looked at him as if he was insane.

“There’s no way that’ll
hold me,” I said.

“You’d be surprised.”

I frowned sceptically.
“Honestly, I think
you’d
be surprised how heavy I am,” I said.

“Clare, I could build a
tower block on these stairs if I wanted to. Now, please, after you.” The tone
of the man’s voice was clearly a command, rather than a polite invitation.

I glanced down nervously
at the first step, my eyes resting briefly on the snake’s shimmering green head.
Its tongue was quivering just millimetres from my ankle bone and I froze with
fear. The man seemed to read my mind.

“Do as I say and Arius
will leave you alone. I promise.”

“I guess I don’t need to
ask what happens if I don’t do what you say?” I said.

The man smiled, raised
his right eyebrow and, with his eyes, directed me onto the first step of the
stairwell. I took a deep breath and gripped the fine, wiry banister, placing
the ball of my foot gingerly on the silver plate and pressing down gently to
test its strength. I fully expected it to wobble sickeningly beneath me. To my
surprise though, the stair remained perfectly still. The man looked at me with
an irritating ‘I told you so’ gloat.

“Weird. I wonder what
it’s made of,” I muttered quietly to myself.

“Platinum, titanium and cobwebs,”
the man said, smiling at his own joke.

I looked at him, shocked.
How could he have possibly heard me, when I’d whispered so softly that even
I’d
barely heard it? As for knowing exactly what the staircase was made of, well,
wasn’t that a bit weird too? I mean, wasn’t he just some bad guy that Dad had
gotten himself mixed up with somehow? Then it struck me. The guy had to be some
sort of expert who knew mostly about snakes, but also about other sciencey
sorts of stuff as well, like metals for instance.

“Okay, I get it,” I said.
“You’re the scientist in the operation. That makes sense.”

 “Not really. I’m more
the architect,” he replied.

“Does that mean you plan
jobs and then get my dad involved?” I said.

The man looked bemused.

“Yes…and no,” he said. “Yes,
I plan. But no, my plans don’t necessarily involve your father.”

I waited for him to
elaborate but he was now nodding impatiently at the staircase. I took a further
step down and to my relief the structure still refused to flinch. The man
smiled smugly.

“Arius, come,” he said gently,
bending down and extending his arm to the reptile. The snake slithered towards the
man’s elbow and coiled itself around his arm in thick green bangles, resting
its head in the small crook of his wrist-bone. The man then stepped down after
me.

I inched my hand along
the banister, determined not to look down. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s
heights. To this day, I still have horrible memories of the time that Bede convinced
me it would be a good idea for us to climb the old tree outside our house. He’d
wanted to see how high we could get which, as it turned out, had been very high.
I’d been feeling pretty smug about it too, until it had come time to climb
down. I remember watching the ground wobble and swim beneath me. I’d felt
utterly paralysed, although Bede (of course) had been fine. After half an hour
of him standing at the bottom, trying to coax me down with handy tips such as,
“close your eyes Clare!”, he’d finally realised that help was needed. Eventually
the fire brigade had had to be called and Arlene was furious with us.

But that was when we were
kids
, I tried to tell myself.
I’m older now, so
maybe it’s not so bad
. Even so, I didn’t want to risk looking down, just in
case.

I was still concentrating
on looking straight ahead when I suddenly noticed something move quickly over
the top of my hand. I was so surprised that I gave an embarrassing girly squeal
and almost trod on the man behind me.

“What was that?” I said.

I glanced down at the
place my hand had been just seconds before, to see a long, fine insect leg
emerge from the silvery wires. It was soon followed by a small silver head, with
two tiny black pinpricks for eyes, and a bulbous silver body. I was now looking
at a large spider, almost the size of my hand.

“Whoa!” I said, quickly pulling
my hand away from the banister. Unlike snakes, I’m not normally frightened of
spiders, but this was definitely the biggest I’d ever seen. I bent down to get
a closer look, amazed at the way it was pulling sticky, silvery silk from the
tip of its abdomen and sticking it to the wiry webbing. It was then that I realised
the man hadn’t been joking at all. The staircase really was made partly from cobwebs.

“It’s so beautiful,” I said,
before I could stop myself.

The man gave me a snide
look. “Deadly too,” he said. “One bite, and you have three minutes and
thirty-seven seconds to live. Not
quite
so beautiful now, is it?”

I paused before answering
him. “I’m not sure it makes any difference,” I said. “Surely poisonous things
can still be beautiful?”

The man shot me a fleeting
glance that almost looked like a genuine smile. It was hard to tell.

“Just don’t touch it,” he
said.

We continued in silence. By
now it seemed like we’d been on the staircase for a long time – at least an
hour, maybe more. I was about to ask how much further it was when I was
distracted by the sound of eerie, high-pitched squeals. Squinting in the
darkness I could just make out the outlines of an animal swooping and diving in
the distance. At first I thought it was a bird, but the more looked I realised
that its shape was all wrong. As I watched, I saw more of the same creature
joining the first.

“What are they?” I said.

“Bats,” the man replied.

“So far underground?”

“Are you a bat expert now?”

I ignored his sarcasm. “What
do they live on?” I said.

“Blood,” said the man.

I could almost feel him smiling
behind my back. That was it, I was determined not to give him any more
opportunities to freak me out. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. We
soon rounded the last spiral and came face to face with a huge wooden door, heavily
fortified with thick iron straps and huge padlocks. I glanced questioningly at
the man.