PathFinder (34 page)

Oraton-Marr raised his hands and, holding his index fingers at eye level, he pointed them at the hovering sphere. Deep inside a dull orange light began to glow, brightening rapidly so that within no more than ten seconds the sphere looked like a miniature sun, shining an incandescent, dazzling white. Those close could feel waves of heat coming from it. The sorcerer stabbed his fingers downwards and the white-hot sphere dropped on to the ice with a great
hisssssss
and began to whizz around in a tight circle. Faster and faster it went, with the ice fizzing and sizzling as it turned into water. Soon all that could be seen was a stream of brilliant light, glimpsed within billows of rising steam.

From the balcony above came a desperate cry from Driffa.

“Stop! Please! Stop!” Her voice echoed desolately around the Chamber of the Orm and faded away. Nothing was going to stop now.

The top of the Orm Tube was now water, but ice was continuing to rise to the surface, sending small waves out across the lapis floor and washing over the feet of those in the cage. Dusty with blue scum, the water bubbled and frothed as the sphere heated its way down through the pillar of ice inside the Orm Tube. It took ten long minutes for the ice to melt, and when the last sliver had vanished in a hiss of steam, Oraton-Marr set the sphere free, sending it shooting up into the night sky to join the stars.

The sorcerer leaned over the balcony. He gazed eagerly down into the depths of the Orm Tube for a few moments, then turned his attention to the cage full of PathFinders below. He saw the people in it staring up at him, their faces white with fear, and he smiled.

“Let the diving begin!”

The Dive

Oskar was still looking
for a lock to pick. He had managed to creep behind the guards only to discover that the PathFinders’ cage had no door. It was open at the back and led straight to a roughly hewn tunnel, which was heavily guarded by the spiky guards he had seen in the Far. As he crouched in the shadows wondering what to do, Oraton-Marr’s order rang through the Chamber of the Orm. Oskar felt the bars shudder and heard a harsh clattering sound – he realised that the whole front section was being raised. In the darkness at the back of the cage, someone began to push his way forward.

The bars were up, the cage open at the front. Torches on either side flared alight, illuminating a huddle of frightened people looking down at the water, knowing that whatever was about to happen was not going to be good. A terrified silence descended.

Oraton-Marr leaned out over the balcony and addressed the PathFinders. “Before you is the last burrow made by the
Magykal
Great Orm. It was frozen by the
Enchantment
of some misguided people –” There was a scuffle behind him. Drone grabbed Driffa mid-lunge at Oraton-Marr and forced her into an arm lock.

“Please let her go,” Lucy begged the guard. “My mistress is distressed. I will make sure she does not do it again.”

Drone, who did not like what was going on any more than Lucy, nodded and released Driffa.

Oraton-Marr continued his address. “At the bottom of the Orm Tube lies the lapis Egg of the Great Orm. My
Magyk
has now released it from its
Frozen
imprisonment and soon it will be free to fulfil its destiny and become a beautiful Orm. But first it must be retrieved.”

Oraton-Marr looked down at the huddle of PathFinders. His voice acquired an edge of menace. “The Orm Tube is about fifty feet deep. One by one, you will dive down to the bottom. And do not fear, ha-ha –” he chuckled at what he thought was a good joke coming up – “do not fear that this will be difficult. It will be easy to reach the bottom, for you will each have a belt of lead around your waist. And you will each in turn have a chance to find the Egg of the Orm and bring it to the surface. Anyone who returns without the egg will be thrown back in until they have it. Or do not return at all. The choice is yours.”

At last Ferdie understood that what Torr had said was really true. She looked at Tod, horrified. “No one can go that deep and survive.
No one
.”

“Some can,” whispered Tod.

Ferdie stared at Tod as though she were mad. “No, they
can’t
,” she said.

Tod shook her head. “Some can,” she repeated. “But most can’t.”

“Send the first one in!” shouted Oraton-Marr.

The guard prodded Jonas Sarn forward but Rosie came too, clutching Jonas’s hand. The guard understood that Rosie wanted to jump with her husband, and he did not stop her. He would have wanted his wife to do the same, he thought – though he doubted she would. The guard fastened the weight belt around Jonas’s waist, muttering his apologies as he did so. Then he unclipped one of the light globes dangling from the cage and pressed it into Jonas’s unwilling free hand.

As Jonas and Rosie looked into each other’s eyes to say goodbye, a shout came from inside the cage. “Stop! I
will jump!
I
will get you what you want.”

Tod’s heart did a weird, happy-sad flip and she found she had forgotten how to breathe. She watched a tall figure step forward and she no longer knew if she was awake or dreaming. He was here. Alive. Her father.
Dan Moon.

Dan’s natural authority was such that the guard did not object when he unclipped Jonas’s weight belt and placed it around his own waist. As Jonas stood dumbstruck, Dan confidently took the light from his hand. And then, before Tod had a chance to call out, Dan Moon had launched himself into the water in a perfect dive.

Too late, Tod found her voice. “No!” Her shout cut through the sound of the neat splash. “No,
no
!”

“Who is that brat?” Oraton-Marr asked, peering into the dimness below.

“There’s a whole pack of them down there,” the Lady said grumpily. “I told you before. Like rats.”

“Dad!” screamed Tod. “Dad, Dad!” She pushed her way forward and people in front stepped aside to allow her through. Tod stood on the edge of the Orm Tube and stared down into its black depths: Dan Moon and his light were gone.

“Get rid of that brat,” snarled Oraton-Marr. “Shove it in too.” But there was no need. Copying her father’s graceful dive, Tod put her hands above her head and dived into the deep, dark blue.

Gills

The cold made Tod gasp
with shock. She coughed, spluttered and a sharp stab shot into her eyes – it was the pain of ice-cold water filling up the spaces behind her nose, awakening her gills. Tod coughed once more, she gulped again for air and took in yet more water. The back of her throat closed up and she spat the water out. Tod felt the water swirling into her sinuses, filling her head and making it heavy. She felt her face grow numb with the cold and instinctively closed her mouth and took a deep breath through her nose. The pain of the cold stayed but her head cleared; she felt water moving through; she breathed out, pushing the precious warmth away, and took another draught of icy water. It stung the back of her eyes, it made her jaw ache with the cold, but Tod did not care – she could breathe underwater.
She had gills!

Controlling her breath so she sank as quickly as possible, Tod pushed her way down the smooth sides of the rock, always looking down, hoping to see Dan’s light. But the weight belt had taken him down fast and Tod could see nothing below but blackness.

A sudden
clunk
came up through the water.
Something
had hit the bottom. Tod was sinking rapidly, and through the blackness she now saw a dim white glow far below, showing the dark shape of a figure lying on the bottom of the Orm Tube.

Tod landed in the light of the sphere and Dan Moon looked up. His face, bluish-white, stared as though he had seen a ghost. He reached out to Tod, his long white fingers like tendrils, hardly daring to touch her.

Dad!
mouthed Tod.
Dad!
And she threw her arms around him.

Suddenly, the PathFinder sign language made sense.
OK?
Dan signed.

OK
, Tod signed in return. And then,
What to do?

Even through the distortions of the water, Tod could see the anger in her father’s eyes.
Take egg up
, he signed.
Knock sorcerer off perch
.
Like coconut
.
With egg.

Where egg?
Tod signed.

Don pointed down and Tod saw beneath his foot a huge, oval shape.

Big
, signed Tod.
Heavy?

Dan nodded and then he smiled.
OK for two
, he signed.

And very good for hitting coconut
, Tod signed.

Dan laughed and Tod saw bubbles of air coming from his mouth like tiny silver fish. He joined his thumb and forefinger to make the PathFinder
OK
sign once more.

Tod grinned.
OK
, she signed.

Lapis Lazuli

No more than a few feet
below Tod and Dan lay the Heart of the Ways. As Dan let go of his weight belt and he and Tod struggled to grasp hold of the slippery, ice-cold egg, the torches in the Heart of the Ways sprung alight once more.

Like a bottlebrush coming out of a bottle, Benhira-Benhara Grula-Grula emerged from Way VI. Behind him came Marcia, Septimus and Simon. Milo – much to his disgust – had been left behind with his stash of weapons to guard Marcia’s Hub.

“Welcome to my home,” said the Grula-Grula. He stood tall and proud, his orange fur tinged with blue dust of the lapis, his pink eyes shining with joy at having guided such eminent Wizards through what all Grula-Grulas considered to be
their
Ancient Ways.

Marcia and Simon looked around in amazement, but Septimus remembered his manners. “We thank you for your guidance, O wise Grula,” he said.

Benhira-Benhara Grula-Grula bowed, and a sprinkling of blue fell lazily from his fur.

Marcia was awestruck. Lapis was a
Magykal
stone and the Castle was reputed to contain the largest amount of lapis lazuli in the world, but even she had never seen so much lapis in one place. It looked as though Driffa’s story of the Egg of the Orm was true. Marcia began to grow very concerned. If Oraton-Marr did indeed get the egg – and, of course, manage to hatch it – then he, too, could produce vast amounts of lapis lazuli. The Castle could soon find itself in thrall to a very powerful sorcerer indeed.

Septimus was equally stunned. “This is a powerful place,” he said, his voice echoing in the empty chamber as an icy drop of water landed on his hair and ran down the back of his neck. “Fair Grula, I pray you tell us,” Septimus said. “Where is the Egg of the Orm?”

The Grula-Grula began to hum a high-pitched tune, which he had a tendency to do when worried, then he raised a long, hairy arm and pointed to the dome of lapis above. “It is up there,” he said. “Wrapped in ice for its sleep.” A sudden deluge of water landed on the Grula-Grula, soaking his fur.

“Doesn’t look like it’s ice any more,” Marcia muttered.

Clutching a handful of Lucy’s ribbons, Simon cared nothing for the Egg of the Orm. All he could think of was his wife and son. “But where
are
they?” he muttered, looking around. “How do we get out of here?”

Grula-Grulas tended to be shortsighted and Benhira-Benhara was no exception. He screwed up his eyes and squinted at the round hole between Way I and Way XII, puzzled by the shine of metal across it. “Through there,” he said. “But now there are bars.”

Simon strode off across the smooth lapis floor, slippery with water, oblivious to the icy drips, which were falling fast now. At the barred exit he saw, just beyond the portcullis, the last of Lucy’s ribbons. “They’re here!” he shouted, shaking the bars impatiently. A trickle of stones fell from the roof.

“Leave it be, Simon,” Marcia said, hurrying after him. “There’s an easier way to get through bars than that. I’ll do a
Flux
.”

Simon gave the portcullis another angry pull and a serious shower of gravel and stone fell, covering them in blue grit. “I’ve got it!” he shouted. “It’s coming away.” But it was not the portcullis shifting; it was the stone above it. With the sound of rolling thunder, the roof of the passage collapsed, blocking their way out and covering Lucy’s ribbon with rock. Simon swung around, his eyes desperate. “I don’t care what I have to do,” he said in a low voice. “But I have to get to them. Now.”