Chapter 6

The Time Tunnel Ends

‘How much further?’ sighed Phredde, her wings drooping. We’d been trudging through the dust for hours now.

I glanced at the wall. Sure enough, there was another message carved in the rock.

You’re nearly there. Signed, Fluffy, Queen of the Nile.

‘Nearly where?’ I muttered. ‘Who does that cat think she is?’

‘Queen of the Nile,’ said Phredde. She peered behind her. ‘My wings are getting dusty in here,’ she complained.

I looked back. At least the nothingness was a long way behind us now. Just for a moment I wondered what would have happened if all that emptiness caught up with us. Would we have faded into nothingness too?

I thrust the thought away. The emptiness hadn’t caught up with us. And Fluffy said we were nearly there, wherever ‘there’ was. Maybe our destination was just around the next corner, except there weren’t any corners in the tunnel, just …

‘Hey!’ yelled Phredde, zooming up above me and peering ahead.

‘What?’

‘I can see the end of the tunnel!’

‘Really? Great! What can you see?’

‘The end of the tunnel!’

‘Huh? You said that!’

‘But that’s all there is!’ cried Phredde. She sounded a bit nervous, suddenly. ‘Just this rock wall. Like whoever dug this tunnel just stopped digging!’

‘But … but the tunnel has to go somewhere! It can’t just stop!’

‘But it does!’ yelled Phredde.

Bruce jumped up as high as he could. ‘She’s right!’ he called. ‘I can’t see over it! It’s solid!’

‘It can’t be!’ I ran forward, then stopped as I came to the wall of rock. I gazed around frantically. Rock above us, rock on three sides and behind us the wall of emptiness getting closer and closer …

‘Quick, look for a message from Fluffy!’ I screamed.

‘There isn’t one!’ cried Bruce.

‘There has to be one! She’s left us messages all along the tunnel! She has to tell us what to do now!’ I peered back up the tunnel. The emptiness was getting closer …

‘Phredde, check the ceiling in case Fluffy left a message up there!’

‘How could a cat leave a message on a ceiling?’ objected Bruce.

‘How could a cat leave a magic tunnel for us to march down? Phredde, start checking!’

Phredde zoomed up. ‘Nothing here!’ she reported.

‘There has to be!’ I wailed.

Suddenly, the air seemed cold, as though the warmth was being sucked from our bones. I didn’t dare turn round now. I knew the emptiness would be right behind.

What would happen when it reached us, I thought desperately. Would we just slowly dissolve too?

‘PING! us out of here!’ I screamed.

‘We can’t!’ cried Phredde.

‘Why not?’

‘Because it’s a magic tunnel! You can’t magic someone else’s magic!’

‘But you said you could PING! us back!’

‘Yeah!’ yelled Bruce. ‘When we’re out of the magic tunnel we can PING! But not now!’

‘But …’ I gazed round frantically. ‘Start digging through the wall then!’

‘With what? That’s solid rock!’ shrieked Phredde.

‘We have to try!’ I beat on the rock with my fists. ‘We can’t just let the emptiness take us. We …’ I stopped. The rock wall shuddered under my hand.

Creak … It sounded like giant hinges that hadn’t been used for five thousand years. It was giant hinges that hadn’t been used for five thousand years, I realised suddenly.

Slowly, slowly, the great rock door began to open.

‘You only had to knock on the door!’ breathed Phredde, perching on my shoulder.

Bruce took my hand in his froggy paw. ‘Whatever’s out there,’ he said, ‘we’ll all face it together.’

I didn’t say anything in case my voice disappeared into a squeak.

The great rock door swung open.