Era Mina
Present Day
It was a short drop to the rocky floor of the painted cavern where she and Matt had fought off Tanan’s scaly demon in the summer. Em felt a frisson of fear at the memory. She turned on her torch and held it up to light the vast chamber.
Vaughn set the triptych on the ground, wiped his hands on his jacket and whistled. ‘Look at this place,’ he said. ‘I can’t believe I’ve never discovered this cave before.’
‘The drawings are over there,’ Em said, pointing to massive etchings on the far wall of the cavern.
‘How long do you think they’ve been here?’ signed Zach, looking at the images in wonder.
‘Perhaps Albion and the early monks of Era Mina painted them,’ Sandie replied. ‘They look like they pre-date The Book of Beasts. Are you ready, Em?’
Em felt support from Zach’s mind to her own. She nodded.
‘Right,’ said Vaughn, ‘I’m going to tie us together so we don’t get separated, whatever happens.’
Em clasped her hands together to stop them from trembling as Vaughn looped the rope round their waists. If she got this right, she would see Matt again. If she failed…
You won’t fail.
How do you know, Zach?
I just know.
‘Good to go,’ Vaughn said, tightening the last knot. ‘All right, Em. This is up to you now.’
Sandie squeezed Em’s hand, boosting her confidence. Keeping her eyes averted from the wounded Matt in the left-hand panel, Em focused her mind on the painted cave mouth.
Em felt the ground beneath her feet tremble. The etched beasts on the cave walls began to synchronize their pulsing to the beat of her own heart. The hellhound’s four eyes snapped open, sending a shock wave bouncing round the walls of the chamber, and a low rumbling howl shook the ground, shooting up the wall in a wave of brilliant energy that burst suddenly from the snapping jaws of the beast, flashed across the cave, and hit the panel on the painting in an explosion of yellow light.
The hellhound thrashed from side to side as if it was trying to tear itself free. Em heard her mum gasp. She felt a tug on the rope at her waist.
In her imagination, Em took control of the light. The paint on her triptych lifted off the panel in ribbons that wrapped around her feet. The ribbons moved up her legs and surrounded her entire body in a cyclone of bright colours. The gyre widened, the brilliance of the colours wrapping round Em’s chest, squeezing the breath from her lungs. She squeezed Zach’s hand. He squeezed back.
Her feet lifted from the ground. Zach’s fingers were slipping from her grip. She felt herself falling.
Em’s ears began to pop. They were dropping fast. The colours were brighter, the surging air stronger the deeper they went. Em clung to the fact that the rope around her waist was taut. The four of them were still connected.
Zach, can you hear me?
Yes!
She could hear roaring now. The beasts were near. She was doing this for Matt. She was—
Em landed on something soft with a grunt. The others fell beside her, gasping in shock.
‘What a ride,’ Vaughn croaked. ‘Everyone OK?’
Sandie patted the ground curiously. ‘This is fur. Did we land on some kind of rug?’
Zach tapped urgently on Vaughn’s shoulder. His hands spelled five shaky letters.
‘BEAST.’
Everyone scrambled off the humped, furry back they had landed on and pressed themselves to the wall. The sleeping beast’s fur was tufted like a sheep, but its bulk was closer to that of an elephant. Em could see neither a head nor a tail.
‘What is that thing?’ she gasped.
‘No idea,’ said Vaughn.
‘Maybe a Heffalump,’ signed Zach.
Em couldn’t help herself. She giggled. ‘If this is a Heffalump, what does Piglet look like down here?’
‘Whatever it is,’ said Sandie breathlessly, ‘I don’t want to be here when it wakes up.’
Zach wrinkled his nose. ‘This place smells worse than a cow shed.’
Although it was dark, they didn’t need to light their torches. The walls looked like they were covered in glowing green foil. The chamber was as wide as a gymnasium, and when Em looked up she could see swirling ink blots of colour in the ceiling, as if she was looking at an expressionist’s canvas.
‘I think it’s some kind of antechamber,’ she said. Then she pointed to the other side of the cavern. ‘There’s a tunnel, look.’
Keeping their backs to the walls, the four of them followed Em to the tunnel’s shadowy entrance.