Fever Quest: A Clean Historical Mystery set in England and India (The Isabella Rockwell Trilogy Book 2) (13 page)

“Come on.” She pulled Midge to his feet and Rat stood up
too, tail moving slowly back and forth. “Stone’s not going to stay unconscious
for long.” She looked up at the giant statue, whose stern gaze fell into the
hollow where they sat. “We’re running out of time.”

Cautiously they stood, immobile for a moment, as they
strained to hear voices or footsteps, but there was nothing.

“Where are they?” Isabella muttered to herself.

“Where are who?” Midge’s face was red and shiny.

“Rose and Livia. I left them here with Vritra. Didn’t you
see them?”

On the far side of the chamber Rose, supporting Livia,
came out from behind a pillar.

“Thank heavens. I thought you’d vanished. Where is
Vritra?”

“He is waiting for us above ground.”

Isabella grabbed Livia’s arm.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

The foursome stumbled towards the steps, but Isabella
stopped, her foot on the first one. Again she felt the prickle of warning. Was
it soldiers? It sounded as if a million pairs of boots were coming from far
away. But you couldn’t fit that many soldiers on the narrow stone stairway,
could you?

In an instant, the rumbling turned to a roaring.

“Iz! Get back!” Midge shouted.

She leapt back, pulling Livia with her. There was
a thunderous roar, the ground lurched beneath them, and then all went dark, the
torches extinguished as if Kali herself had blown them out.

It took Isabella several heartbeats to locate her
matches in her father’s satchel.

“What’s happening?” came Midge’s urgent whisper.

“I don’t know. Hold on a sec …” The match flared and
with shaking hands Isabella lit a candle which had rolled up against her feet.
Midge found a torch and lit it from a candle next to the statue of Kali which
had not been blown out by the blast. When he held the flame up, the four of
them gasped. Where once the steps had been there was now nothing but a pile of
red rock and a lazy circle of dust. The entire side of the chamber between had
fallen in, blocking their way out to the surface.

“We’re trapped.”

Rose’s clenched fists were held up to her mouth. Midge ran
to the pile of rocks and climbed, torch held aloft. Rat was just behind him,
sniffing the stones, then holding his head still, as if listening. Isabella was
shocked out of speech. She blinked and blinked again. The mountain of stones
was still there. She placed Livia gently on the ground with her back against
the statue of Kali.

“Can you hear anything?”

Midge was halfway up to the ceiling, his slippers sliding
on the dusty stones. He shook his head. Even Rat didn’t stay for long in any
position; there seemed to be no scent for him to pick up, no sound for him to
latch on to. There was nothing. Isabella turned away, tears warm on her dusty
cheek.

“Midge, come down.”

Livia was shaking her head.

“What terrible luck.”

Rose was swaying back and forth. She was sitting beside
Livia. Their hair was grey from the dust and they looked like a pair of old
ladies.

“It’s not luck.” Her glance shot upwards to where Kali’s
mountainous head disappeared into blackness. “It’s the curse.”

“It’s not the curse, Rose.” Midge had come and squatted
down next to them.

“How do you know?”

“Because I do.”

Rose was still munching on her knuckles. Her eyes looked
everywhere for a way out. Everywhere except at Isabella.

“Rose?”

Rose finally looked up at her and Isabella took a step
backward. She didn’t need a torch to see the hatred in Rose’s eyes, hatred
reserved only for her. It blazed out of Rose’s face, making Isabella’s own
cheeks scorch with shame.

“It’s all your fault,” Rose hissed. “Ever since we met you
on the boat I’ve known you were trouble. ‘Yes Livia, no Livia, three bags full
Livia.’ That’s all you ever said. You were like a talking parrot. God knows
what Princess Alix saw in you. Your boasting made me feel sick.” Rose was
ranting now, her whole body moving in great jerks as the venomous words spewed
forth. “‘I did this and I did that, and I can heal everyone with my ayah’s
special pouch.’” Here Rose spat on the floor. “That’s what I think of your
special pouch.”

Livia shoulders slumped forward and she put her head in
her hands.

The burning spread to Isabella’s neck and chest. Her lips
felt as if they were made of India rubber and her gaze narrowed until all she
could see was Rose’s stretched face through a haze of red.

“It was
you
who followed me, if I remember
correctly. It was
you
who was going to have to marry some pale-faced
civil servant and produce a litter of mousey children, most of whom would die.”

Midge gasped.

“’Ere. Iz …”

But now she had started, she couldn’t stop.

“So, by all means, if that is the life you would prefer,
please feel free to make your way back to it. I know you never liked me, but I
didn’t ask to be your friend. You sought me out. Yes, my head was turned – you
were all so glamorous. And you were older than me. I loved being with you all,
but don’t pretend you didn’t envy me. You followed me that night at the
Governor’s Residence. I was going to find Midge. You and Livia had no part in
my plans. Stone left me a note.”

“I didn’t know that,” croaked Livia. “No wonder you were
keen to leave.”

Isabella glared at Rose.

“I wish I’d left sooner.”

Livia got up and walked over to where Isabella stood at
the far edge of the light from the torch and placed a gentle hand on her arm.

“Please don’t say that. I’ve had such an adventure. I’ve
seen eagles and caves and mountains and pink sunrises. I may even see a diamond
one day. I’ve lived more in the last week than I had in my whole life before.
Rose can say what she likes, I don’t share her feelings.”

Livia’s kind words had a soothing effect on Isabella.

Livia’s tone dropped a bit more. “You know she’s not well.
She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”

“I think she knows exactly what she’s saying,” snapped
Isabella.

Rose’s eyes settled back on Isabella.

“How are you going to get us out of here, then?”

“Why is it always me who’s got to get everyone out of
trouble? Why don’t
you
come up with a plan, Rose?”

Rose’s eyes looked down at the ground, the angry light in
them going out. Her neck was so thin, Isabella could see its bones jutting from
under her short haircut. Rose wouldn’t last five minutes in India on her own, and she knew it.

Isabella stood up and lit a random selection of the votive
candles, which set the jewels in the wall winking and sparkling like stars in a
winter sky. The statue of Kali was more clearly visible, dusty and disapproving.
Without her third eye, the statue looked strangely vulnerable, like an old doll
whose eye had fallen off through too much loving. Isabella placed some more
candles in the centre of their little circle.

“We might as well eat these,” she said, lifting the bread
and water the guards had left as offerings to the goddess Kali.

“I’m not eating leftovers.” Rose’s voice trembled as if
she were losing control of it.

“Rose.” Livia’s voice was quiet but firm. “That’s enough.
Just eat. You don’t know when you’ll get another chance.” She turned back to
Isabella, who was feeding Rat some of her bread. He’d stopped sniffing around
and had curled up around Livia’s feet. “So what do you think?”

Isabella nodded towards the only other tunnel on the far
side of the chamber.

“That’s our way out.” She stuffed some bread into her
mouth and washed it down with a great gulp of water. She thought she’d never
tasted anything so good. The ladle of daal seemed a very long time ago. She had
the food from Vritra but instinct told her to save it.

“What happens down there?” asked Livia, her eyes on the
black hole lying like an open eye on the cave’s far side. A low, warm wind from
the tunnel lifted their hair. Isabella hated the way the mine seemed to change
form around them, as if it were alive and breathing.

“More mining tunnels … but yes, also our way out,”
added Midge, between mouthfuls.

“So we have to go that way?” asked Rose, her eyes dull and
face defeated.

Isabella nodded. “Yes.” She stood up. “We must make a
start. Stone will free himself soon and Stone’s men will clear the steps
eventually. It will be obvious which way we’ve gone. We should make the most of
our head start.”

Livia smiled at Isabella tiredly as Isabella took her arm
to pull her to standing, but Livia resisted.

“So can you tell me now what’s going on?”

Isabella squatted down next to her and brought out
Abhaya’s pouch, pushing the memory of what Rose had said from her mind. In the
warm candlelight she undid the leather laces and laid the pouch on the ground.

“I love that pouch. Take no notice of Rose, don’t let her
spoil it for you. It’s part of who you are. She’s just jealous. Maybe if she’d
had something of her own, something she was good at, she might not have turned
out so … so …”

“Badly?” offered Midge from his position at the opening of
tunnel four.

“It’s all right,” said Isabella. “I knew I shouldn’t have
brought you both. I’ve only myself to blame and now look at us – you’re ill and
she’s mad.”

Livia took a deep breath.

“Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.” Each word was laboured, her
chest pulling in the hollow of her throat. “I’ve had enough of this. We came of
our own free will. We’ll send Rose back to civilisation when we get out, but
I’m not going anywhere. This is the life
I’ve
chosen, not you or my
parents, but me. And I’m not going back to the old one. So stop taking the
blame for things that were out of your control. You’re getting boring.” A flash
of the old Livia who stopped carriages with her beauty.

Isabella smiled, too tired to argue.

“You were going to tell me what’s going on,” Livia
continued.

Isabella nodded.

“I will tell you, but first I have something to show you.”
Livia said nothing as Isabella brought out Midge’s diamond, wrapped in a scrap
of black felt. “You know you wanted to see a diamond?”

Despite her exhaustion, Livia’s eyes grew wide.

“Have you got one?”

The diamond sparkled in the candlelight as it lay,
strangely cool, in Isabella’s palm. She tipped it into Livia’s hand and Livia,
like Midge had moved it this way and that in front of the candle, enraptured by
the play of light through its centre.

“So this is what all the fuss is about.” Isabella nodded.
“What will you do with it?”

Isabella glanced at Midge, who was glaring at Rose as she
fussed over the knot in her shawl.

“Give it back.”

“To Stone?”

“No, not to Stone. I don’t know who to – Vritra, maybe. As
a holy man he might not be swayed by greed. He could use it to buy medicine.
Livia’s eyes were heavy and her upper lip showed a glistening of sweat.

“You said I’d see a diamond.” She dropped the diamond back
into Isabella’s palm. “You were right – again. Isabella.” Livia leaned forward
and gripped Isabella’s hand with a surprising show of strength. “Don’t let
anyone change how you see the world. It is a good way, I think, and you are a good
person. Don’t ever think you aren’t.”

“Thank you. You’re really kind.”

Livia got to her feet unaided.

“On your feet, Rockwell.”

Isabella smiled and stood up and helped Livia over to
where Midge and Rose stood. Behind her, Rat took a last look around the Chamber
of Kali until she called him, and then he bounded joyously ahead of their four
hurrying silhouettes and into tunnel four.

It could have been worse, Isabella thought. The
tunnel could have been unused and unlit, leaving them only two torches to rely
on for the journey in front of them.

“How far do you think this tunnel goes?” she asked Midge
in a low voice, trying to keep her footing on the shifting pebbles. The going
was difficult unless they kept to the tracks in the middle where the ground was
worn smooth by countless heavy cartloads. Above them, carbon glittered in the
rock, tiny eyes watching them in the darkness.

“I never went all the way to the end, but it only took a
few hours for the carts to come back empty.”

“Where is everyone now?”

“Working the seam on the other side. Stone moved everyone
yesterday. I think he didn’t want any workers near the prison in case you made
a fuss.”

“As if that would have made any difference.” She pulled
Livia’s arm tighter over her shoulder and looked at her face. “How are you
feeling?”

Livia’s face was determined.

“I’m fine.”

But Isabella could tell she was weak; her breathing was
laboured and her face pinched.

“Come on, you can do this. It won’t be for much longer.”

Rose was behind them, walking as if in a dream, and hadn’t
spoken since they left the Chamber of Kali.

“Do you think she’ll ever speak again?” asked Midge.

Isabella looked back at Rose. Her face was placid, but
there was no understanding in her eyes and her mouth was slack. Isabella
shrugged.

“Hope not.”

“Don’t you care?”

“I’m fed up with her, Midge. I just want to get out of
here.”

“And where will we go when we’re out?”

Isabella lifted her foot clear of a large rock and her
torch moved a bit in the darkness.

“I don’t know.”

“You do know.” Midge’s voice was sharp and Isabella looked
at him. “You’ve known for a while. I think it’s time you told me.”

She took a deep breath and looked up ahead, straining her
eyes for any sign of light.

“The package Al Hassan gave me.”

“What about it?”

“It’s medicine.” Midge nodded. “Medicine against malaria.”

Midge blew out his cheeks.

“Thought you didn’t do medicine any more.”

“How did you know that?”

“Well, normally you’d be rootling around in your pouch if
someone was ill. With Livia, you didn’t do nothing. ’S not like you, but I
didn’t like to ask.”

A very fat teardrop fell from Isabella’s nose to the
ground.

“I threw my remedies away.”

Midge gave a sharp intake of breath.

“Why did you do that?”

“I poisoned someone – I made a mistake and got them
muddled and someone nearly died.” More tears were coming, from where she didn’t
know. All she knew was that they were choking her, the noose of grief growing
tighter around her neck until she wondered how she was going to breathe.

Midge touched the hand which held Livia’s.

“Iz, that couldn’t have been your fault. It must have been
an accident.”

It was a moment before she could speak.

“Of course it was my fault. Who else’s would it be? I was
the one who made Eloise put the potion in Captain Lucas’s drink. Without me,
none of this would have happened.”

“They egged you on, though, those girls, turned your head
with all their flattery and attention. For all the good it’s done ’em.” He
threw another glance over his shoulder at Rose.

Isabella gulped and wiped her nose.

“Yeah. But I let them. And now Livia is ill and Rose is
mad, and it’s pretty much all my fault.” She gave a huge choking sigh and dug
around in her bag and took out the wrap of paper. The seeds lay in her hand and
Midge peered at them. “These were what I came back for.”

Midge’s eyebrows shot up.

“I thought you’d come back to get the girls.”

Isabella shook her head.

“No. Livia had already been moved because she was so ill.”

Midge studied the seeds, holding them close whilst keeping
one eye on the ground so he didn’t trip.

“What are they?”

“Seeds of the fever tree. Al Hassan also gave me so me
powder, which was the bark. It comes from the South Americas. It cures
malaria.”

Midge’s face was confused.

“This is all?” He stopped walking and turned and held his
torch up above Isabella’s face. The pattering of Rat’s paws stopped. Isabella
could hear a trickle of water from up ahead.

“Yes. What did you think it was?”

Midge shook his head. “I dunno. I thought it was the Eye
of Kali.”

“I wish it had been.”

“But … medicine?”

Isabella’s head hung down. “I know. It wasn’t what I was
expecting either.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes which were gritty and sore.
“He was a good man.”

Midge turned and walked away from her, and continued down
the tunnel.

“Does it work?” He asked over his shoulder.

Midge’s question hung in the hot, damp air. It was so
important a question Isabella felt as if she could see it. She looked at Livia.
The light had returned to her eyes and there was a tiny flush in her cheeks,
but not, thought Isabella, the flush of fever, more the colour of excitement.
Isabella had seen that flaming pinkness before on the faces of some of her
father’s soldiers before they rode out to battle – eyes fire-bright under their
metal helmets. Battle fever, wasn’t it called?

“Yes. It works.”

Midge looked at the seeds again. “So what do you have to
do with these – plant them?”

Isabella smiled despite herself.

“I could do. I hadn’t thought of that. No. There’s only
one woman who knows what to do with the seeds and how to make the powder.”

She felt rather than saw Midge’s shoulders sag as she drew
level with him, stumbling slightly on the gravel.

“Where is this woman?”

“Lucknow.”

“That’s a three-week journey from here.”

“Yes, it is.”

“So you are going to take these seeds all the way to Lucknow with the nastiest colonel in the British army after your hide.”

“After
your
hide,” she shot back.

There was a smile in his voice.

“What about Rose and Livia?”

Isabella turned to look at her and Rose smiled vacantly at
the mention of her name, as if she were at a garden party.

“What about them?”

“They’re going to really slow us down.”

Isabella’s heart was warmed by the “us”.

“I know. I did think about leaving them behind, but I’ve
changed my mind.”

“What changed it?”

“You did.”

Midge smiled a self-satisfied smile and Isabella let him.

He deserved it.

The tunnel seemed to stretch on endlessly in front of
them and Isabella felt as if she was walking in a stupor through the lightless
hours, until it dawned on her that Rat, instead of staying close to her, was scampering
further up ahead of them. A dim glow of grey appeared ahead of them and
Isabella broke into a run. The smell of grass replaced the smell of rock and
earth.

“Wait,” hissed Midge as she dashed past him. “There might
be guards.”

Isabella skidded to a stop and held herself back in the
shadows. Beyond the cave mouth, bushes slumbered in the moonlight and stars
showed clear above the impenetrable shape of the hills. All was still.

“Sorry,” said Midge in a quiet voice. “I thought there
might be someone waiting.”

“You’re right, there might have been. We’re best off out
of sight anyway.”

They walked on for a few more minutes. Rat sniffed
everything, delighted to be outside.

“Over there.” Far from the rutted road they were on,
Isabella could see a sheer wall of stone and she headed towards it in the hope
of finding somewhere to shelter. She was exhausted. They all were.

A giant betel shrub grew out horizontally from the stone
and reached down to the ground with bushy green fingers. The enclosed space
beneath was just big enough for the four of them. Isabella dragged Livia in
next to her and Midge shepherded Rose in after them. Isabella opened the bag
Vritra had given her. There were chapattis and naan and water and mango. Midge
groaned.

“It’s a feast.”

Though her mouth was full, Isabella’s lips lifted in a
smile. It was strange how things always seemed less awful on a belly full of
food.

“Where is Lucknow from here, then?”

Midge tossed some of his food to Rat, who ate it in one
mouthful. Isabella handed Rose a canteen of water, but Rose didn’t seem to know
what to do with it, so Isabella opened it for her and held it to her lips.

“Well done,” murmured Livia, who was already lying down,
having eaten only a little.

“It’s a pity you haven’t got your herbs any more, or else
you could have helped her.” Midge nodded towards Rose, who had stopped
drinking. Her hands lay still in her lap. “She’s giving me the creeps.”

Gently, Isabella took the canteen back, wiped it and gave
it to Midge.

“I don’t know if there was anything I had that could have
helped her. Her mind is broken, not her body.”

“Like Mrs Jolyon’s was?”

Isabella nodded. “Exactly.”

Midge rolled onto his back. “I wonder what happened to
her.”

“I don’t know. Nothing bad, I hope.”

Isabella turned to look at Midge, but he was already
asleep, his mouth open and his hair showing white in the moonlight that crept
through the leaves. She got up and laid Rose down on her side, putting her
father’s bag under Rose’s head. In a moment Rose’s eyes closed. Rat positioned
himself at a gap and though he put his head down, Isabella could see his eyes
were still open. Lying on her side, the ground was hard under her hip, but she
bunched her knees and moved her arm beneath her which made her more
comfortable.

She thought she must be hallucinating when she saw
Abhaya sitting at her workbench back in their home in Rawalpindi. Around her
were her pestle and mortar and her weighing scales. Small piles of brightly
coloured powder lay in front of her and it was winter, for the cobwebs on her
window were beaded with tiny droplets of moisture. Abhaya didn’t speak, but she
smiled as she took Isabella’s hand and held it tight. There was so much
Isabella wanted to say to her that she couldn’t get the words out. And that’s
how she woke to the sound of hoof beats, grasping one of her hands in the
other.

They slept all of that day, shaded from the sun, and
at dusk finished the rest of the food and water. Isabella had woken before the
others and she and Rat had watched the road. She estimated it was six o’clock
and the road was quiet. Every now and again she saw the flash of a cart or a
turban and she’d duck down closer to the ground, even though she knew they were
invisible.

“Soldiers?” Midge was on his belly and elbows next to her,
his face creased with sleep, but looking better, younger somehow, despite their
situation. Rat licked his face.

“Yes, but I don’t think they are looking for us. They’re
too casual.”

“How could they be looking for us? Stone is trapped in the
prison. Even if he gets out he won’t follow us by himself. It will take him and
his guards a day to get rid of that pile of stones so he can reach the
surface.”

“I know, but there’s only one road out of Golconda, which is the one we came in on, and then there’s this one. He’ll cover them both
eventually. We need to be able to travel so no one notices us. So even if we
were right under his nose, he wouldn’t know it was us.”

“Iz, if we don’t have the Eye of Kali, why don’t we just
tell him the truth?”

“About the seeds?” Midge nodded. “Because they’ll never
get to Mother Muckerjee. He won’t use them for good, he’ll just auction them
off to the highest bidder.”

“You don’t think he might give them to Vritra?”

Isabella shook her head. “Not when they are worth so much.
Anyway, it’s not the seeds he wants. It’s you. You’re his lucky charm and he is
not going to let you go easily.”

Isabella looked at Livia, who’d changed into a clean sari
and washed herself clean by spitting on her hanky. Her face had lost its
pinched, sharp look. Midge’s eyes followed her glance.

“She’s getting better, ain’t she?”

Isabella moved her head. She didn’t want to nod and jinx
the whole thing.

“Maybe.”

“Good,” said Midge with a satisfied huff. “I don’t fancy
riding all that way for something that don’t work.”

Rose sat quietly whilst Livia draped her sari back around
her.

The sky had darkened and ash-coloured clouds scudded in
front of the rising moon. Rat wriggled between the gap of the branches and
sniffed the air. His tail moved slowly back and forth.

“I think it’s time we went. Let’s get ahead.”

“Which way are we going to go?”

“If we take this road east, we will reach the sea. If we
go west, we will reach Golconda.”

“But that’s no good. Stone will be waiting for us.”