The Curse of the Gloamglozer (27 page)

‘Maris,’ said Bungus, stepping forward to support her. He turned to Quint. ‘She went through far, far more with the glister than you did,’ he said. ‘Hanging on to life by a thread she was when I found her. It's amazing that she's still standing at all after such an attack. We must get her back to her father.’

Quint nodded.

‘It's going to be fine, little one,’ Bungus whispered to Maris. He pulled off his papery cape and wrapped it round Maris's shoulders. ‘We're going now. Lean against me and put one foot in front of the other.’ He set off once again, murmuring encouragingly as he went. ‘That's the way. You can do it.’ They soon came to the entrance of the tunnel. Bungus stopped and turned. ‘I shall go first,’ he said. ‘Maris, I want you to follow me. Quint, bring up the rear. And make sure that she doesn't stop,’ he added in a low whisper.

One after the other they climbed the scree slope, dropped to their hands and knees and entered the dark, narrow tunnel. Quint shuddered as he crawled into the
blackness. With Maris in front of him, the light from Bungus's lantern was all but invisible. Chewing anxiously into his lower lip, he inched his way along the tunnel.

It was cramped and claustrophobic, and when it narrowed and he had to squeeze through the unyielding rock that pressed in on all sides, his heart beat loudly. No-one who had been born and raised above ground would have felt comfortable in the confines of the stonecomb, but for Quint – used to flying across the vastness of the sky – being locked inside the terrible rock was torture.

He tried to block his unease, to return to the reason he and Maris had first entered the stonecomb and concentrate only on what he now knew he must do: find the laboratory – the Ancient Laboratory – and discover what lay behind its locked door. And his heart thumped all the more furiously as he wondered exactly what might be there, imprisoned inside that strange, ancient place…

‘
Unkkh!
’ His head slammed into something solid in front of him. He looked up, but could see nothing. His hands reached out to find a pair of feet and ankles directly in front of him. They were not moving.

‘Maris!’ he hissed. ‘Maris, you have to keep going.‘

There was no response.

‘Maris!’ he cried.

From farther along the tunnel he heard Bungus calling back to them. ‘What's going on? Come on, we're nearly there.’

‘Maris, don't give up now,’ Quint urged her. ‘You heard him. It's just a little further. Keep moving.’

‘C… can't …’ came the tremulous reply. ‘S-so weak…’

‘But you must!’ said Quint and, in his desperation to escape the terrible tunnel, he shoved her hard.

Maris moved a little – then stopped again.

‘Maris!’ Quint shouted. ‘For Sky's sake!’ He felt as if the walls were closing in all round him.

‘Grab hold of my belt,’ Bungus called from up ahead. ‘That's it. Now hang on tight and I'll pull you.’

In front of him, Quint felt Maris moving forwards. As she did so, Bungus's cape was tugged from her shoulders. Quint picked it up and squeezed hurriedly through the tunnel after her.

‘Just a little further,’ he could hear Bungus saying. ‘That's it. That's the way …’

Hand after hand, Quint struggled on. His grazed knees chafed against the rough rock beneath him. All at once, he heard Bungus cry out.

‘That's
it
!’ his voice echoed. ‘Well done, Mistress Maris!’

The next moment, Quint's own head popped out of the narrow opening and into the broader tunnel. Maris was sitting on the floor. Bungus was crouched down beside her, lamp raised, looking into her staring, unblinking eyes, one after the other, and whispering reassuringly.

‘The difficult bit's over now, Mistress Maris,’ he was telling her softly. ‘We'll have you out of here in no time.’

She was in good hands, Quint realized. Bungus would take care of her and ensure she got back safely to Sanctaphrax and her father. As for himself, it was not yet time to return to the professor – even though, as he looked round, his former resolve began to waver. The maze of tunnels stretched out dauntingly in all directions, he had no lamp to help him find his
way – and, worst of all, the blood-red glister was still out there somewhere. However, terrified as he was of a second encounter with the monstrous creature, his need to discover the laboratory was greater.

‘Be brave,’ he told himself. ‘We set out on a quest to discover the secret laboratory. I can't give up now.’ He squinted into the darkness. ‘Anyway, the glow from the walls should just be enough for me to find my way. And as for the rogue glister, it'll be weak at the moment. Bungus said so …’

He took a few steps along the tunnel. Good! The old librarian hadn't noticed him sneaking away. The light from his lamp disappeared but, as Quint's eyes grew accustomed to the deep dark glow of the rocks, he found he could see well enough – and there was bound to be a lamp in the laboratory when he found it. He hesitated.
If
he found it…

Quint was wondering whether he ought to return to Bungus and Maris after all when he saw something that made his heart jump. It was a small, black arrow chalked onto the wall just by his shoulder and pointing further along the corridor.

‘There's no mistaking that one,’ he murmured. ‘I'm back on track at last.’

His mind was made up. Without so much as a backward glance, Quint hurried off down the tunnel, the papery cape still clutched in his hand. A dozen strides further on, a second arrow confirmed he was still heading in the right direction.

‘I'll find that Ancient Laboratory,’ he told himself,
‘and discover its mysterious secret.’ He smiled to himself. ‘I'm going to make you proud of me, Maris!’

In the distance, he heard a low, crackly voice. It was Bungus.

‘I'll carry Maris,’ he was saying. ‘And you, Quint, stay close behind. You hear?’ There was a pause. ‘Quint?
Quint
…?'

· CHAPTER FOURTEEN ·

UNWANTED VISITORS

M
aris breathed in deeply, filling her lungs with the early-morning Sanctaphrax air and feeling it course through her entire body. It was cool, fresh, invigorating. Her head cleared, her muscles flexed, and the fear-filled lethargy which had held her in its grip down in the stonecomb finally melted away. She turned to Bungus.

‘I‘m worried about Quint,’ she said.

‘Linius's apprentice?’ said Bungus.

Maris nodded. ‘How did we manage to lose him?’

‘I don't know,’ said Bungus. ‘One minute he was right behind us. The next minute he was gone.’ He paused. ‘He must have gone off to find the Ancient Laboratory.’

‘On his own,’ Maris said sadly.

Bungus took her hands in his own. ‘I'm sure your friend will be fine,’ he said. ‘He struck me as the type of lad who's well able to take care of himself.’

‘He is,’ said Maris. ‘But we were supposed to be checking out the laboratory together. I should be there with him now. Oh, I feel such a failure,’ she groaned, and looked up into
Bungus's dark brown eyes. ‘Will you take me back down into the stonecomb?’ she asked eagerly. ‘I feel so much better now. Will you, Bungus? Please…’

‘Let's get you back to your father before we plan our next move,’ said Bungus. He frowned thoughtfully. ‘It's high time Linius and I had a heart to heart. I need to find out precisely what he's been doing down in that laboratory.’

Just then, the bell at the top of the Great Hall chimed.

‘It's seven hours!’ Maris exclaimed. ‘I can hardly believe it. We were down in the stonecomb all night.’

‘All the more reason to make haste now,’ said Bungus. He released Maris's hands and raised the hood of his papery jerkin. ‘Come,’ he said, and scuttled off into the shadows of a side alley.

‘Where are you going?’ Maris called as she struggled to catch up. ‘It's
this
way.’

‘Not for me, it isn't,’ said Bungus. ‘I can't afford to be seen out on the main streets of Sanctaphrax.’

‘Why not?’ said Maris.

‘Because I'm an earth-scholar,’ Bungus replied irritably, ‘and earth-scholars have no place in the modern Sanctaphrax – apart from the halfwits who rant and rave on the Viaduct Steps. If anyone caught me up here, I'd be expelled at once and banished for ever to a life in the slums of Undertown. That's why I have to remain hidden in the Great Library by day. No-one visits the place any more, so no-one knows I am there.’

Maris glanced round to make sure that they were not being watched or followed. Thankfully, few were out and
about so early in the morning, and those there were paid them no attention.

‘But surely my father …’ Maris began.

‘
Ssshh!
’ Bungus hissed, darting into a dark alcove and pulling Maris in beside him. ‘Guards,’ he whispered.

The sound of heavy marching boots pounded through the air. Maris peeked out of the shadows to see a detachment of flat-head goblins passing the end of the alley.

‘So far as your father's concerned,’ Bungus continued in a low voice, ‘I left Sanctaphrax years ago. He probably assumed I was expelled from the floating city during the last wave of purges.’

‘But, as Most High Academe, he could have done something to help you,’ said Maris.

‘On the contrary,’ said Bungus. ‘If his association with an earth-scholar – and a librarian to boot – had ever come to
light, it would have created a huge scandal. His own position would have become untenable. Indeed, the sky-scholars would never have elected him Most High Academe in the first place if they had known of his youthful studies in the Great Library.’ He paused, and sighed. ‘Oh, Mistress Maris, I had such high hopes for your father. I dreamt that, with his broad education, he might see the wisdom of healing the schism between earth-studies and sky-scholarship.’

‘But he does,’ said Maris. ‘That's why he moved back to the Palace of Shadows. That's why…’

Bungus cut her short. ‘I may be isolated in the Great Library,’ he snapped, ‘but not much happens in Sanctaphrax which passes me by.’ He breathed out noisily. ‘I know he started off as Most High Academe with fine intentions. He was going to reform this and reinstate that … but what happened? He got side-tracked, didn't he? He got distracted.’

Maris glanced back up the alleyway. The sound of the boots had grown faint and faded away. But Bungus made no move to continue.

‘He's been so lost in this “great work” of his,’ he said, his face twisting with contempt, ‘that he's neglected everything else. His hopes, his dreams, his responsibilities…’

‘His daughter,’ Maris whispered softly.

‘And these days Sanctaphrax is far too treacherous a place for a Most High Academe to allow his attention to stray, even for a moment,’ he said. ‘There are many who would not hesitate to leap at the chance of taking his place.’

Just then, Maris heard the sound of voices. She looked
round to see a pair of sub-apprentices – raintasters, by the look of the fur trim on their robes – entering the alley behind them.

‘Someone's coming,’ she whispered urgently. ‘Let's go.’

Bungus nodded and readjusted his hood, then the pair of them scuttled on down the narrow passageway. When they reached the end, they checked furtively from side to side. Apart from some Undertowners, busy setting up stalls, there was no-one there. They scurried across the broad Central Avenue and disappeared into the shadows opposite.